D'oh

It was threatening rain this morning, so I opted to take my pictures when I got to work.  I'm glad I did and thankfully I made it in before it started downpouring.  It was dark as night out though I swear!  Makes you want to just go back to bed!

 Shirt - A. Byer, thrifted

Pants - Liz Lange, thrifted

Necklace and bracelet - S&D

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie, from cousin

Speaking of bed, I was so proud of myself because I had decided I would get up early and do a workout, turned my alarm on last night and got to sleep at a decent time.  Then this morning, Mr. Monkey's alarm is what woke me up - a good 15 minutes after my alarm was supposed to go off.  I looked over and my alarm was still set.  Now I'm confused.  I bet you're all thinking I set it for PM instead of AM.  Nope.  I hadn't changed it from the time I had it set for over the weekend when I wanted to get up by a specific time one day.  Oops!  Oh well, best laid plans.  The extra 15 minutes of sleep was kind of nice!

Inspiration Monday - Build an ark

Hey guys.  We had quite the storm over the weekend.  It was intense.  I'll share more about that in a moment, but first things first, it's Inspiration Monday with two birds (congrats again to Miss Megan on her wedding this past weekend!) and they chose this awesome casual look from Alessandra Ambrosio.

This was easy.  Comfy shorts, my current favorite peach top, sandals and a necklace.  Boom.  Simple and chic.  Mr. Monkey was kind enough to take my pictures yesterday.  Yesterday ended up being a rather nice day.  The rest of the weekend?  Totally different story.

Shirt - Mudd, Kohls

Shorts - Duo Maternity, consigment

Necklace and Earrings - S&D

Bracelet - Bead for Life

Sandals - Italian Shoe Company from cousin 

It all started Friday night.  We were over at our music director's house having a Friday night rehearsal.  Suddenly we all started getting government issued text messages that there was a Flash Flood warning in our area.  I looked outside and it was getting dark, but not raining.  I checked my Weather Center app and saw that there were severe storms approaching, but didn't think too much of it.  We get storms, it's not a big deal.  Well pretty soon the sky just opened up, I have never seen rain come sideways quite like it did.  You could see it was windy.  The lights started flickering and then the power went out.  So, rehearsal was pretty much called off at that point.  The Pants Monkey and I decided to head home when there was a brief lull.  We only live a few blocks away, so at least it wasn't far to go.  It was quite a drive though - lots of limbs and standing water in the road.

We got home and thankfully we had power.  Everything seemed more or less ok, but I was nervous because we have had water come in the basement before in these kinds of storms, sometimes it just takes awhile.  And sure enough, Saturday morning my fears were confirmed when I found water in the laundry room and a little bit on our main room carpet.  We need to grate the lawn away from our house in the backyard is what it boils down to.  At any rate, we spent the rest of the weekend dealing with that.  It's slowly getting better, but I think we're getting a new de-humidifier to speed up the process, the one we have seems to have failed!

Despite all of that, we salvaged a decent day yesterday.  The Pants Monkey brewed beer and we had dinner out on a patio.  I tell you though, I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend!

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

Weather yo-yo

Well we have been on quite the weather yo-yo lately.  From 90 last week to chilly 50's today with drizzle.  That's spring in Minnesota for you I guess!  Today was one of those days that you just didn't want to get out of bed.  It just felt too good, it was cool in the room, the blankets were warm and it was dark.  Why can't it be like that when I have a day off and can really sleep in?  

 Sweater - Mossimo, Target

Shirt - Michael Kors, from Lynne

Pants - No Boundaries, thrifted

Necklace - thrifted

Shoes - Kohls

So this outfit really looks better without the sweater, so I took a picture of that as well, but it's so darn cold that I need the sweater!  We can just pretend I look more like this second photo today.  It will be our little secret!

We are getting closer to our holiday weekend here in the US and I'm looking forward to a three day weekend.  The weather sounds like it might actually be getting nicer for the weekend too, so that would be really quite nice!  We're celebrating our wedding anniversary and we have a family picnic so you know, no rain would be a good thing!

It's raining coffee

It's a rainy day today, so I had to take indoor pictures for the first time in ages!  That's ok though, we have a cute photo bomber in the below photo.  Told you Taylor can be just as cute as Pippin!  Even if her eyes are glowing wild.

Man I am tired.  The storms started around 4:00 am and I could not sleep through them.  I have ear plugs, but I often don't hear my alarm if I use them, so I chose to just deal with it.  So since my boss is out at meetings today and there's no point in making a large pot of coffee, I decided to stop by a Starbucks this morning and just grab a plain coffee of the day.  I don't typically go to Starbucks because when I go out to a coffee shop I like to get a latte and I don't really care for the espresso drinks at Starbucks, I prefer Caribou Coffee for those.  My Caribou is not on the way to work though.  Starbucks is sort of on the way and I have found I actually like the plain coffee there, so I figured, ok, I'll go simple today.  Well, it was my lucky day, after they poured my coffee they said "our computers are down so this is on us today."  Free coffee!  I will not complain about that!  Might have to stop there more often.

I still feel like this dress should be forbidden or something, it is too comfy to actually be a dress!  I swear it's like wearing pj's to work.  And yet it looks plenty dressy enough.  Best dress ever?  I think so.

That's about all I have for coherent thought today.  I'm going to drink some more of my free coffee and hopefully wake up some more.  Later today I may do my purse review, so keep an eye out for that!

Outfit rundown:

Dress - Merona, Target

Sweater - LEI, thrifted

Sandals - Merona, Target

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Bracelet - Bead for Life

Where's the ark?

Man, we are making up for a long drought here in MN!  It is pouring rain today and has been since last night.  Lovely.  I think I might need to build an ark in fact.  I'm praying we don't get water in our basement - it's been known to happen.  Eek.  Needless to say, I was forced indoors for pictures today.  

Chose pants again, when it's this wet outside I just don't feel like wearing a skirt or a dress!  I'm regretting that I still wore sandals just a wee bit, my feet definitely got wet!!  And as always with my indoor pictures, I wish you could see the details a bit better, like the shimmer that is in the fabric of my shirt.  It is slightly sparkly.  I tried to get a close up but it didn't work all that well.

Yes that is a Roomba by my feet.  Yes we own a Roomba.  We got it off of Woot awhile back and it does work out well with having cats as long as we're on top of running it every other day or so.  Lately it hasn't been working real nice though, so I've been avoiding using it and just been running the good old fashioned vacuum.  When we are good about using it though the floors really do stay nice and clean and there's much less cat fur around!  I told you guys that the Pants Monkey and I were giant nerds right?  All right, back to work I go, here's hoping I don't end up like this guy by the time this rain is done!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Express, thrifted

Necklace - b. (a resale shop)

Pants - Alfani, Macy's

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie

Inspiration Monday - Country Diva

I was super excited about this week's Inspiration Monday choice, because while I'm not really a country music fan, I adore Carrie Underwood. I love singing along to her music and I think she's a positive female role model for younger girls too. And, I had a couple of pieces to copy her sparkly and sassy outfit here, so that made it even better.

It was a rainy and yucky day on Saturday, but the Pants Monkey and I did get our golf lesson in before it started.  Then we decided to go out and have a little date night and in spite of the weather, I dressed up a little for him.  He bought me this shirt at the same time as the dress I've been wearing that he gave me for Valentine's Day but I had to wait until it got nice out to wear it.  And even though it was far from nice yesterday I just decided I wanted to pull it out.  It's a little more risque than normal Bethie wear, but I like it.

Mr. Monkey was also kind enough to snap these pictures before we went to dinner, during a brief rain hiatus.  I added the hat to the outfit both to protect my pretty head from the wet weather, but also as an ode to Carrie Underwood and the spirit of country music.

I'm also super impressed with how these pictures came out - he took them all on my iPhone!  I have to say, it has a decent little camera in it!

I added my sparkly LOFT sweater because I thought I'd freeze a bit in a halter top at the restaurant.  So, not as risque this way I guess.  You'll see this shirt again this summer I'm pretty sure, it's a great date night top and I know I'll love it when it's 90 degrees outside.

Sunday was more of the same weather wise, but the Pants Monkey set himself up a canopy and smoked us some meats.  And I'm sorry again, I have many vegetarian friends whom I respect and love, but I love me some meat and this was some outstanding meat.  I'm such a carnivore.  Mmm, meat. 

And now into the work week the weather of course has improved!  That's the way it always goes!!  Spring in Minnesota, you have to love it.

For more fun with Inspiration Monday, visit the two birds blog here.

Outfit rundown:

Halter top - VS (gift from Pants Monkey)

Sweater - LOFT (thrifted)

Jeans - Maurices

Shoes - DSW

Hat - Target

Necklace - Stella and Dot (create your own charm necklace)

Inspiration Monday - Let it rain?

It's Monday again.  And it's raining.  On March 12th.  It should be snowing.  I'm not complaining though, the weather this weekend was amazing and I hear it's only going to continue.  It's an early spring I guess!  Anyway, what makes a rainy Monday better?  Inspiration Monday!  Today's pick is Julianne Hough - who I know was in the new Footloose movie and even though I'm an 80's purist, I admit I'd like to see it.

Due to Daylights Savings time and the rain, I had to go with indoor pictures today.  Boo to that.  Anyway, I love her casual chic look but I chose to dress it up a bit for work today.  Also chose to skip the boots and scarf since it's quite warm outside, even with the rain.

Also having trouble with my photo editor today and could not get rid of the red eye to save my life.  I can't wait until it's lighter again in the morning so I can go back outside, but for now I'll have to make due with indoor pictures.  I do not like the whole Daylights Savings time thing, my sleep pattern will be messed up for the next week guaranteed.  I know I was awake until almost midnight last night and then I nearly slept through my alarm this morning.  Awesome. Thank goodness for coffee!

The unseasonable weather is making my shopping ban a bit more of a challenge, because I'm so tempted to go out and get new spring goodies since I could pretty much wear them now.  I'm holding strong though!  Just under a month left!  In the meantime I'll try to get creative with what I've got!  Is it springlike where you are?

For more fun with Inspiration Monday, visit two birds over here.

Outfit rundown:

T-shirt - Old Navy

Sweater - Aeropostale (old)

Pants - Old Navy

Shoes - Maurices

Bag - Lillian's Shoppes

Necklace - Stella and Dot

Earrings - Charming Charlie