Favorite Looks of 2013

Well, I might not be getting dressed much these days in favor of ease for staying in and cuddling and nursing Baby Boo, but I still thought it would be fun to do a "favorite outfits" recap of 2013.  I didn't spend the entire year in maternity clothes either, so there's some of both regular and maternity style in my recap.  Here are the outfits I felt were highlights for me this year beginning in January and going through late November.

(The above pic was taken mere days after I knew I was pregnant, FYI)

(Here comes the bump - and my willingness to embrace it after this point) 

 (I am so keeping this dress even if it is maternity, love it)

What is fun about doing this recap too is watching me grow throughout the year.  Maybe by the end of 2014 we'll have a similar effect of a shrinking Bethie instead!  

Back to 2013, as I look over the pictures, a huge theme for me this year was color - lots and lots of color!  Also a trend in colder weather - boots.  Throw in some fun animal print as well as my continued love of "dresses as skirts" along with mixing vintage and new together and I think you can pretty easily describe my style for the year - both maternity and non!

I'm excited for getting back into regular clothes again, but for now, I'm just going to keep enjoying my time with my little guy, cause I know it's going to go by in the blink of an eye!  Yoga pants and hoodies are fine for now!

Labor Day

This is my last maternity outfit.  Fun story - I am in early labor in these pictures, I just didn't know it quite yet!  I actually made it through half a work day the day he was born before realizing something was up.

Looking at these pics though I can tell I am not feeling 100% right.  My boss could tell I was off that day too and was not surprised I delivered that night!  I didn't even put on jewelry - rare for me as you all know!

Top - Mix It, thrifted

Sweater - swap

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Shoes - Clothes Mentor

At any rate I am glad I have an outfit picture from my final day of being pregnant.  I still can't believe he is here.  I wasn't even due until today!  Hope all is well with all of you - I have been reading your blogs when I can even if I can't easily comment right now!  I miss all of you!

Guest post - Maternity wear as regular wear

Here is the first of some awesome guest posts I have lined up for you guys and it's a very timely subject - Aya of Couturgatory is here with some thoughts on maternity clothes as regular clothes - something I'm thinking about quite a bit now that baby is here, there are a number of items I kind of want to keep wearing because I ended up really like them!  Anyway, Aya is awesome, so I'll turn it over to her!

Hello everyone! I'll be taking the place of your regularly scheduled Bethie the Boo today. My name is Aya, and I thought an in-theme post, as we celebrate the arrival of Baby the Boo, would be styling maternity wear when you are not pregnant.

  I am not nor have I ever been pregnant, but I have a few maternity wear pieces, and I really dig them. Maternity fashion has come a long way, and I love that ladies no longer have to spend pregnant months with nothing pretty to wear.

  Maternity wear is of course made with stretchy fabrics, so they easily fit my broad shoulders, they're designed to drape beautifully over the ever-changing size of a pregnancy, and they're soft.

  I find the ruching often present on the sides of maternity garments to be flattering to the waist, whether you are convex or concave

  Here are some photos of maternity clothes I've styled on my blog:

 

  This is a Liz Lange) for Target maternity dress. That's not a typo, there is a close parenthesis printed on the inside. Fashion people! The asymmetrical draping gives it a Greek goddess feel. To give it a little shape, I added an Audra Jean harness on top.

  Maternity dresses and shirts look great over leggings. I used pinstripe jodhpurs to add some pattern and visual interest. Low heels are a practical footwear choice if one happens to be a new mother. During pregnancy, a women's body releases hormones that looses the connective tissue holding her joints together. Due to this and the increased weight, her feet may widen, and low heels with good arch support can help keep the foot's shape.

 

  This is a Gap maternity shirt. Again, its material is as soft as a sweater, but light and stretchy. It has ruching that lengthens the front slightly in contrast to the sides, which lengthens the torso and is flattering to the waistline. It's a great underlayer under vests, and goes equally well over skinny jeans and skirts. I consider it one of the more versatile layering shirts I own. Oh, and did I mention it's warm? Great for fall. :D

  Thank you for having me over, Bethie's friends! I, like you, am looking forward to her return, and in the meantime, stay tuned for all of the other awesome guest posts that will be shown here.

Thanksgiving Bump Wear

So this is what I wore on Thanksgiving.  I am so not kidding when I say I kind of want to keep a pair of maternity pants with the big stretchy band for future Thanksgiving dinners - so roomy and comfy!  The only baby in my belly next year will be a food baby, he he.

We had such good food though.  The Pants Monkey smoked a turkey to bring over to his family's celebration.  We felt kind of bad, his dad made a regular turkey as well, but everyone kept raving about our turkey.  In addition to turkey, there was also mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, salad, green bean casserole, broccoli and rolls.  SO. MUCH. FOOD.  And three kinds of pie for dessert.  All delicious.

Brown sweater - Old Navy Maternity

Orange sweater - Zashi, from cousin

Jeans - Indigo Blue, thrifted

Necklace - S&D

Bag - Merona, Target

Socks - Gold Toe, gift

Shoes - DSW

This sweater is my favorite maternity sweater too.  It's long enough that even as the bump has pushed out more it still looks decent.  And it's soft and comfy.  I just might hold onto it for after as well.  Some of my maternity clothes I will not be keeping, but some of them haven't been too bad!

Inspiration Monday - One day at a time

Hey all!  I'm still here!  No baby yet.  I get the feeling I'll be more or less kissing my due date with this guy, but you never know - we're getting snow this week and sometimes barometric pressure is helpful.   For now, since I have no baby, I still work.  And I love that I could easily dress for today's Inspiration Monday with two birds - simple, classy outfit from Olivia Palmero here.

So my take was really quite simple and is pretty much my uniform all the time now - leggings, maternity sweater, and flats.  But hey, at least they are fun flats, you can't beat red shoes right?

Did all of you here in the US have a nice Thanksgiving weekend?  We sure did.  It was a relaxing four days. We had dinner with the Pants Monkey's extended family on Thursday and went to another get together with his family on Friday as well.  He had an aunt in town who lives out in Maine, so when she comes for holidays we squeeze in as much time as possible with her.  Earlier on Friday I had an entire day to myself, so I chose to stream movies off of Amazon - they added some good ones from the 90's, such as The Birdcage.  I hadn't seen it in forever, so that was a treat.

Sweater - Oh Baby via consignment

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Shoes and Necklace - Clothes Mentor 

The rest of the weekend we just took our time and unpacked some more baby things, watched movies, ate out, did all those things we won't be able to do as easily in a couple of weeks!  We're just going one day at a time and I'm ok with that concept!  At least working is a good distraction if nothing else!  And so is Cyber Monday - I'm going to try to get some Christmas shopping done today!  You have to love the internet!

I hate to beg - but if anyone still wants to send me guest posts I'd still love to have them!  Please and thank you!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits, head on over to two birds over here.

Friday Fun

Yay it's FRIDAY!  And there was great rejoicing throughout the land!  I'm so excited for this weekend.  Not only are we going to see Catching Fire for our early birthday celebration, but I'm also getting a manicure and pedicure with Miss Lori.  And the Pants Monkey and I are having a good friend take maternity pictures for us so we can have some nice looking ones for the memories!  I know I've photographed myself just about every day during this pregnancy, which has been fun, but it will be nice to have a professional do it for me instead!

Speaking of taking pictures every day, it's getting harder to creatively dress this bump you guys.  You may see more posts like my book review yesterday here and there as we get closer to the end.  I hope you enjoyed that post though as it was a bit out of the norm for around here.

 Yesterday I continued a tradition with another good friend of mine of going to stand in line at Target for a local radio station's release of a CD.  They compile live performances from various artists throughout the year and then release the CD with proceeds going to charity every November.  This year was the 25th anniversary - we've been going more or less for the last ten years.  We've managed to collect a couple of earlier years via Ebay as well, but otherwise I have years 15-25 which is pretty awesome!  They're rather unique recordings from a lot of pretty cool people, so it's fun to collect them.  This year may have been the last sadly, so I'm glad we were able to get our hands on one!

Striped shirt - Swap

Sweater - thrifted

Jeans - Indigo Blue Maternity, thrifted

Boots - Target

Scarf - World Market

And of course I have to do my Friday bump shot.  37 weeks guys.  That's technically term, but as I said earlier this week, I'm happy to let him bake another couple of weeks!  Too much going on in the next week for sure, but anytime after December 1st is fair game I think!  I just keep going one day at a time otherwise, it's all you can really do at this point.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The number game

Hello everyone!  We've made it to Hump Day!  We're halfway to that coveted weekend!  And next week is a short one with the Thanksgiving holiday!  We've got this!

So it's really interesting to me the foods that will spike my blood sugars and the ones that don't.  I have to check my blood sugar an hour after every meal for the Gestational Diabetes.  It's all about balancing your carbs - not necessarily the sugar.  And you have to eat SOME carbs.  So, here's an example of how funny I think this is - yesterday for lunch I had a spinach salad with some chicken, a small yogurt and a breadstick.  My number was in range, but on the high side of normal.  For dinner, we had nachos with cheese and meat and well, taco chips of course.  Chips you would think would really be something that would spike me - nope.  My after dinner number was on the low side of normal!  Potatoes and rice spike me.  Pasta does not. With bread it kind of depends.  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  It's just all big old game, but at least I'm still winning!

Shirt - QT Maternity, consignment

Sweater - swap

Pants - Liz Lange, Target

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

Necklace - Stella and Dot 

I told Mr. Monkey I don't know that I want to test at all on Thanksgiving Day - not only is it going to be a carb heavy meal, we're going to be eating at odd times that day too!  We'll see.  The end of this wackiness is in sight at least!

Pinned and It and Did It - Maternity Style Help

Hello everyone!  I'm hooking up with Heather's Pinned it and Did It link up today.  I needed some inspiration, it's getting harder to find good ideas for outfits lately, so I spent some time on Pinterest yesterday looking for some ideas and I found several!  Here's what I chose for today.

I loved this outfit because it totally meets my criteria of comfy and also somewhat stylish!  I was excited that I had the necessary items to make this outfit work for me!  Leggings, boots, oversized sweater?  Check, check and check!  Not to mention I haven't worn this striped shirt I got at the swap yet and also, it's been ages since I've worn my favorite H&M sweater.  This is is seriously one of my favorite thrifted items of all time!

I have to say, Pinterest has been a life saver for me during this pregnancy.  I love searching outfit ideas on Pinterest even when I'm not pregnant, but I have been happy to find lots of maternity style there while I have been pregnant!  I highly recommend searching there if you ever find yourself pregnant and struggling with outfit ideas too!  I created a maternity style board separate from my regular style board too.  Feel free to follow me if you don't already!  Link is on the right!

Striped shirt - Swap

Sweater - H&M, thrifted

Leggings - Simply Vera, Kohls

Boots - Target 

Necklace - gift from friend 

In other news, Mr. Monkey had a physical this morning.  He wanted to get a flu shot before the baby comes and figured it wouldn't hurt to get all checked out too.  It's almost a little strange having him be the one to go to the doctor for once!  I've definitely had my share of appointments lately!  And at least this time was much less eventful than the last time he had a physical.  In the early days of my blog I told the story of what happened - found in this post.  I'm very thankful that nothing like that happened today!

For more Pinned and Did It inspirations head over to Heather's blog!

One month to go

I love everything about my outfit today.  It's comfy, everything fits.  It's cozy, it's keeping me warm.  And I still can't get enough mint, so I'm happy to have minty colored items that actually fit.  Oh AND I'm rocking some heels today.  Yep, you heard it.  My due date is one month from today and I am rocking heels.  And they're not even that uncomfortable!

 Mint shirt - Liz Lange, consignment

Sweater - swap

Pants - Liz Lange, consignment

Necklace - S&D

Shoes - Eitenne Aigner, thrifted

It's crazy to believe in one month (or more...or less...eek!) we will have our little guy here.  There is still much to be done, but I think we'll be ready.  I have had waves of panic, but also waves of calm.  I just ride each of them as they come!  The Pants Monkey said it best the other night "If he came tomorrow, we'd be ready.  If he goes past his due date, we'll still never be ready."  And he's right.  So, I'm just going to enjoy this last month as much as I can, because while it's hard to believe at some points, I may miss this time when it's over!