Hair today, gone tomorrow

Mama got a haircut.  I feel so much better.  I'm happy to have stretched it out to five weeks again, but man, it was getting shaggy towards the end here.  I'm hoping to be able to get two more trims before baby comes, that's kind of crazy to think of.  For now I'm just enjoying short spiky hair again!

We're into that tricky part of Fall that the days warm up pretty nice but it's still a bit chilly when you leave for work in the morning.  A jean jacket seemed like the perfect option to keep me warm but not too warm!  And I managed to squeeze into my pink pencil skirt yet another time.  Each time I wear I think, this will be the last time I will wear this until after the baby - and then I surprise myself!

Jacket - White House, Black Market, consignment

Shirt - QT Maternity, consignment

Skirt - two birds vintage via b (a resale shop)

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Shoes - DSW 

And now I get to go spend an hour learning about a new phone system my work is getting.  Apparently the new phones will have the ability to see the caller on the other end - at least for the internal calls.  That concept kind of scares me a little bit!  Oh technology!

Power color

 I think pink is my power color.  I'm not talking baby pink, I mean this hot, bright magenta colored pink that my pencil skirt is here.  And maybe it's the pencil skirt itself - but I always feel very powerful, professional and put together whenever I wear it.  It gives me an air of confidence.  Or something.  I am so glad I have still been able to wear it while pregnant.  Again, let's give it up for elastic waistbands!

I tell you, I needed a powerful, confidence boosting type outfit for work yesterday!  It was my "Friday" and it was crazy hectic.  It helped make the time go faster though!  And my reward at the end of the day was my favorite burger and fries and root beer.

 Shirt - Style and Co, consignment

Sweater - Old Navy

Skirt - two birds vintage via b (resale)

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie, from cousin

Necklace - Maurices

Bracelet - Bead for Life

As of this posting, I'm likely in a car headed north for another short getaway.  It's our annual cabin weekend with our music group.  We often go in September and end up with lousy weather, so we moved it up a month and the weather sounds fantastic now.  I cannot wait to be out on a boat on the lake.  A beer in hand would be nice too, but I'll settle for a cold root beer, which has been my favorite lately!

And I had to do my weekly bump shot a couple of days early. Friday marks 23 weeks.  We're plugging along.  Still lots to be done, but getting closer every passing week!

Have a great weekend!

Administrative Professionals Day

So I'm pretty sure most of you know - I am an "administrative professional".  And apparently today is Administrative Professionals Day.  So you should celebrate me!  Ok, I kid.  But if you are lucky enough to have an admin, go tell them you appreciate what they do!  My boss never remembers this day, but that's ok. She tells me pretty often how much she appreciates me!

Anyway, I thought today would be a good day for my pink pencil skirt.  Cause it's got that sexy secretary vibe or something like that!

 Gingham shirt - JCPenney

Blazer - American Eagle, thrifted

Skirt - vintage, two birds

Tights - Target

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

Necklace - S&D

I have to admit, I have never been one who wants to be in charge, so I really do like having the kind of job that I do where I can stay behind the scenes.  And I'm pretty good at what I do I think.  I'm organized and I can multi-task.  Those are pretty much the biggest requirements to be an admin!  Oh yeah, and I can type like a crazy person.  Thank you Typing Class in high school!

Pencil skirts and snowstorms

Well, we here in MN are now under a Winter Storm Warning tonight through Thursday.  You know, the second week of April.  No big deal.  Seriously, it is this kind of weather that makes me question why I continue to live here sometimes!  Not much we can do about it though, so we're just going to go with it I guess!

So I already packed away most of my boots and didn't feel like digging them out this morning, so I went with my booties instead.  Maybe not as nice looking as taller boots would have been with this vintage pencil skirt, but you know what?  I'm comfortable and my feet are dry, so right now I don't care!  It's not snowing yet, but it is raining, so dry feet are important!

T-shirt - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Jacket - unknown, thrifted

Skirt - vintage, Hill Valley

Tights - Target

Boots - Payless

Necklace - S&D 

So those of you who are enjoying sunshine and 70's - will you please, pretty please, send some to me?  I am craving Vitamin D!!  Spring in Minnesota.  Gotta love it.

Light at the end of the tunnel

With spring within our grasp, I am feeling the need to wear more colors.  I feel like I've been pulling out a lot of grays and dark tones and I'm ready for warmer tones and brighter colors.  Today is only a small step in that direction as I still wore a lot of brown, but a pink sweater and white t-shirt help perk it up just a bit!

It's still quite cold out.  Last year at this time I was already wearing sandals and going out with bare legs.  It was in the 60's for highs!  St. Patrick's Day it was in the low 80's - I remember sitting out in the backyard with the Pants Monkey while he was smoking meats in his smoker for the first time and just basking in the warm sun - but also scratching my head and being puzzled by the weather!  It won't be like that this year.  We'll maybe get some 40's this weekend if we're lucky.  Yes I did just go on about the weather for an entire paragraph.  That's what we do in MN.

T-shirt - JCPenney

Sweater - Maurices

Skirt - Old Navy

Tights - Target

Shoes - Rampage, thrifted

Necklace - gift from a friend 

It's kind of my least favorite time of year in a way - the snow is melting and it looks dirty and ugly.  There are lots of puddles around so it's easy for your feet to get wet and your car is dirty all the time.  But, knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel does make it easier to deal with and fortunately, it only lasts a little while.

You know what else there is light at the end of the tunnel on?  My shopping ban!  Just another week and a half or so - because technically it ends with Palm Sunday and I planned to kind of cheat and break the ban that weekend anyway because of Amanda's vintage sale.  I can't miss out on her new shop's grand opening! If you're local, be sure to check it out, the details are here.

Fancy layers

Today I have on the last of my Christmas gift goodies.  And a skirt!  Because the mercury is going above freezing and I'm taking a queue from Secret Squirrel and banning pants.  I have been wearing so many pants lately and I have many wonderful pairs, but I also have fun skirts and dresses for winter, they need to see some light!

 Sweater - Merona, Target

Blouse - Decree, JCPenney

Tights - Target

Skirt - Old Navy

Boots - Target (old)

I had intentions of also showing you the coat I bought after Christmas on my thrifting adventure, but I was super short on time this morning.  You may have seen it in my Instagram feed at the right - I'm standing/hugging a monkey statue.  I wore it the day I went to the zoo and was joking about wanting to hug the real monkeys but that the zoo is mean and won't let you do that.  So then my Pants Monkey said "if you go hug that statue I'll take your picture."  And I couldn't resist the opportunity.  I love how the picture turned out....except I committed a bit of a fashion sin - I had been walking around the whole day with the tag still attached to my coat!  Classy.  I took it off immediately upon that discovery.

I get to take some field trips out of my office this week, which was a big motivator for choosing the boots today, I think this outfit would look cute with heels too.  But, I have to go count Document Destruction bins in our clinic sites, so I needed something more sturdy.  Don't you wish you had my job?  So glamorous!

Pencil me in

I was super eager to get my fall clothes out this year, so I pretty much dug everything out of storage back in early September.  One thing was missing though.  My favorite brown corduroy pencil skirt.  I finally just assumed I must I have decided for some reason I no longer loved it and donated it somewhere or something.  Then the other night, I was cleaning up in my laundry room and noticed a plastic bin on one of the storage shelves - full of more winter clothes I must not have had room for in other spots.  Guess what was inside?

I was so happy to find it and several other items of clothing I hadn't even realized were missing!  It's either a sign I have too many clothes or I'm turning into my grandmother and stashing items away places and totally forgetting about them until much later.  Anyway, I love this skirt, I am in love with pencil skirts right now and sadly do not have that many in my closet.  I'd like to add a couple of more.  It's a classic style and I'm just so happy it's popular this year.

Been seeing a lot of boots round the blog-o-sphere these last couple of weeks and hadn't really bothered pulling my own out yet, but today felt like a good day for them.  Chilly and wet outside.  So it was time.

Finished out the outfit with a Stella and Dot necklace and a Megan Mae buttonflower because it has been awhile since I've worn one!  Sometimes it's the little touches that can really perk up an outfit!

Sweater - Old Navy

Skirt - Old Navy

Boots - Target

Necklace - S&D

Buttonflower - Megan Mae

All the ruffles

Apparently when I was getting dressed this morning I felt like wearing all the ruffles.  There are ruffles on my shirt and ruffles on my bag.  And I hope you're not sick of my pink vintage pencil skirt yet because guess what, it's back!

I honestly cannot believe I haven't worn this top and this skirt together yet.  The pink in the shirt matches the skirt so perfectly.  Then again, this is the first time I've pulled out this shirt at all yet this summer.  I realized I probably should one of these days, especially when the massive heat might be breaking for a bit after today - yay!  But PS, I'm not done styling this skirt.  Not even close!

There are lots of pictures of my bag today.  I never got around to doing a separate post on it yesterday, I was so wiped yesterday, all day long.  So, instead I thought I'd share a bit about the bag today. This is the Estelle bag from Jenna Lou Designs.  I have to say, I haven't had a crush on something I bought this hard in a very long time.  And I know I have a purse addiction and I talk about them quite a bit, but seriously this one?  It's quite possibly perfect.  First of all, it's super feminine with the ruffles, which you know I love.  Secondly, it can be used two or even three different ways.  As a handbag, a shoulder bag or a crossbody bag.  And all three ways are super comfortable!

It's a great size, not too big, not too small.  The color goes with everything.  It's got nice soft leather at the top and bottom.  And it's soooo lightweight, even weighted down with all my stuff.  And my neck and shoulders have been bad as of late, so this is a very good thing.

It zips closed and look at the inside - not a light inside like I tend to like, but not super dark either.  And lots of pockets.  Plenty of room for my wallet, phone, Gussy pouch, etc.

So, there you have it.  I love this bag.  Hands down.  I didn't look too much at the other items in Jenna's booth at the craft sale the other day because I zeroed in on this guy and when the Pants Monkey said he didn't mind if I bought it, I pretty much bought it and that was that.  But I looked at her website and she makes lots of fun items - cute little clutches and wallets and it looks like she even does custom orders.  She does some larger messenger bags too.  Overall a very fun handmade shop and I'm pretty sure I'll order from her again or seek her out at more local events as I'm really loving supporting the handmade businesses like this!

I'm phasing out some of my other bags and hope to consign some of them soon.  My tastes are changing and evolving and there's nothing wrong with that, but I still have to stick to my one in, one out policy if I buy something new!  I also don't count this bag as a "summer" thing as far as my summer shopping ban goes, because I think this guy can be used year round!  Or maybe I'm just making excuses!  Oh well, going to stop babbling, this post is long enough!

Disclaimer - I link because I love, I receive nothing for the links in this post, I wanted to share because I enjoy this product.  All opinions are mine and mine alone.

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Banana Republic, thrifted

Skirt - two birds vintage

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie

Necklace - Stella and Dot

Bracelet - Stella and Dot wrap with Megan Mae buttonflower

Earrings - F21

Bag - Jenna Lou Designs