Slightly boring

My outfit feels a little uninspired today.  I didn't sleep great and woke up just feeling all around blah.  You know that feeling?  So anyway, it's cold outside so I dressed more on practicality than on looks I guess!

You know what makes days like today better though?  Coffee.  Lots and lots of coffee.  Well ok, not lots and lots, but definitely some.  It has helped me feel a bit more human anyway.  

I added my little owl necklace to try and perk this outfit up a bit.  I think it helps a little!

I'm looking forward to hunkering down with my Pants Monkey tonight and watching a bunch of our favorite shows and just pretty much being hermits.  It's winter, that's allowed!

Rundown:
T-shirt - Old Navy
Sweater - Charter Club, Macy's
Pants - Style and Co., Macy's
Necklace - F21
Shoes - Sonoma, Kohls

Inspiration Monday - Going Green

Yay, I have actually heard of this week's Inspiration Monday actress!!  I'm not an old lady after all!  This week is Emma Stone, star of The Help, Easy A, and Superbad to name a few.  I haven't seen The Help yet but it's on my list now that I have read the book.

Her outfit was a pretty easy one for me to emulate.  I knew as soon as I saw her green blazer that I'd be wearing my green blazer.  I'm glad too, I don't think I have worn this since October.  Once I had established the blazer, the rest of this outfit just fell into place.

I had a little hair trim this weekend, it had only been four weeks since my last one, but sometimes it just grows faster than others.  I also don't think the person who did it the last time took enough off.  This time I feel like it was about right though, so hopefully this will last awhile!

The weekend was good overall, we had a nice time at the roller derby even though the team we support lost by a couple of points.  It was a really close match all in all which makes for a lot of excitement!  

I baked homemade cupcakes yesterday too.  First time I have done so.  I always use a box.  It was fun to experiment - they are far from perfect, but I think I will get there with some practice!  

On we go into the week.  We're going to be getting some of the coldest air of winter this week.  That means you'll be seeing a lot of sweaters on me I think!  

For more Inspiration Monday posts or to add your own, visit the lovely ladies of the Two Birds blog!

Rundown:

Cream shirt - Old Navy (Christmas gift from parents)

Blazer - Calvin Klein Jeans thrifted via Unique Thrift Store

Pants - Alfani via Macy's

Shoes - Mossimo thrifted from Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Two Birds vintage

Earrings - Butterfly Boutique

Black Boots

Happy Friday!  I'm not terribly excited with how my pictures turned out today, but I was a little rushed this morning, so I did the best I could!  Honestly I just don't feel like they do the sweater justice - this is another goodie from b. (a resale shop) and it's so soft and comfy and awesome. What you can't see in the picture is while it appears to be plain black and white, it actually has flecks of color throughout the yarn.  Oh well, we work with what we got sometimes!

I have been on the fence about these boots all year so far.  I don't think I've worn them until today.  And I'm not totally sold on how they look with this outfit, but I'm giving it a try.  I have not found a pair of black boots I've liked more than these and I know these are at least...gosh, 7 or 8 years old at this point.  I'm not joking!  I had them before I got married and I've been married almost six years.  The perk of them is they are made of a nylon fabric that actually washes well in the washing machine.  I have washed them a couple of times and hung them to dry and they still fit and look decent.  Anyway, I have always wanted something a little different than these, but just haven't found a good replacement yet, so these stay in my closet year after year!

In hindsight, my gray boots would have added a bit more color contrast and lightened up the bottom half of my outfit, but I'll just go with these as is for today!  Enough self analyzing.  Anyone have any fun weekend plans?  We're going to the roller derby, we have two roller derby leagues here in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Roller Girls and the North Star Roller Girls.  We're headed to the North Star event.  A friend of a friend is on one of the teams and we've been going to watch the bouts for about two years now.  It's fun, cheap entertainment and we have a good time.  I'm looking forward to it because we've actually already missed the first two bouts this year!

Have a great weekend!!

Rundown:
Sweater - b. (a resale shop)
Jeans - Maurices
Boots - Target from years ago
Necklace - Vintage Pearl (gift from a friend)
Earrings - Charming Charlie

History lesson

How adorable is this sweater?  It's one of the Two Birds finds I found at b.(a resale shop).  I love it!  It reminds me of something I wore when I was like five, but I don't care, I think it's so cute.  And it got cold overnight, so a warm cuddly sweater was a necessity today!

The other thing that makes me love this sweater?  The tag says "Daytons"  Now THAT is what I call vintage.  If you're not familiar with it, because I think it was mostly a MN/midwest thing, Daytons was the first department store in Minneapolis and the first anchor at most of our indoor malls back in the 60's.  The Daytons Corporation started Target stores, as a "cheaper alternative" somewhere in the 70's I think.  Target eventually branched off on it's own and Daytons sold their stores first to Marshall Fields in the late 90's and then Marshall Fields sold off to Macy's in 2005. I think I have most of that right anyway.  It's on Wikipedia I'm sure if you're curious. History lesson over. I have so many memories of Daytons from when I was young so this is just cool to have in my closet, that's what I know for sure!

The pants I have on I know I wear a lot, but what I have yet to really capture in a picture for you is the fact that the colored lines in these pants change in the light - so they look gold, green, blue or pink depending on the light.  So they go with everything.  No joke.

I think this last picture above you can kind of see the light shimmering over the colors of the lines a bit.  I didn't have as much time this morning so I just did the best that I could anyway!  

Tomorrow is finally Friday.  Has this week seemed long to anyone else?  Man alive.

Rundown:

Sweater - Two Birds vintage Daytons

Pants - Star City via Herbergers

Shoes - Thrifted via Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Premier Jewelry

Bright and bold and other B words

I discovered a new store this weekend.  Well, new to me.  And I am not the one who discovered it, so let's say I checked it out for the first time.  I know you're all going "Wait Bethie, aren't you on a shopping ban?" Well, I had the tiniest amount of Christmas money left, so I chose to treat myself just a little before locking my wallet away for a little while.  I headed to b. a resale shop - which is currently home to some of the Two Birds Vintage Boutique items.  They've been raving about this shop on their blog and since I'm lucky enough to live in the same area as them, I decided to check it out.  I was not disappointed!

I picked up this blouse, it's not a Two Birds item, but it's still a lovely blouse.  This store is just packed with great consignment finds both current and vintage.  And when I say packed, I mean packed, it's not a huge space, but they certainly have a ton of goods!  They are featuring Two Birds for the month of January and they have two full racks of their goodies as well!  I managed to snag a couple of those as well!

I love red, I don't own a ton of it, but it's a good color and fun to work with. It's bright and bold and different from a lot of other things in my closet.  This blouse is cheering me up on a rather gray day outside.  We're in transition today, the unseasonable warm weather is going away and we're in for a bit of a freeze unfortunately.  It might snow later even.  Welcome back to winter.

The pattern on the blouse also reminds me a bit of one of my dad's ties.  It might be because of the fact that it's sort of a silk blend in the fabric of the blouse too.  At any rate, I love it, it wasn't expensive at all.  I am sure I'll be back to b. a resale shop sometime after I am not banning myself from shopping anymore!  Especially because they have a frequent buyer program!  For now I'm going to enjoy the few things I bought myself!  If you live near Minneapolis, you should check this shop out!

Rundown:
Blouse - b. a resale shop
Pants - Ann Taylor thrifted via Clothes Mentor
Shoes - Maurices
Necklace - Charming Charlie

It's Black, It's White, It's Love for you and me

All right I'll admit it.  I'm a closet (or maybe not so closeted) Michael Jackson fan.  Old school Michael Jackson that is.  Pretty much up through the Dangerous album, before the kids and the scandals and all that jazz.  His early music had a nice positive message, is upbeat and fun and I like to dance to it.  Phew.  I feel better getting that off my chest.  So anyway, today is Everybody Everywear Black and White.  So I have had Michael's "Black and White" stuck in my head all morning!

What I think is too cute, is before Christmas we were watching Glee and for their "Sectionals" episode this year they did a little Jackson family tribute.  And I mentioned to the Pants Monkey that I am actually a fan of Michael Jackson music and Jackson 5 music and such and he smiled and told me he wouldn't like disown me or something.  Nothing more was said.  Low and behold though, guess what one of my Christmas presents from him was?  The Essential Michael Jackson CD - and it's perfect, it starts with the Jackson 5's greatest hits and then has pretty much all the good stuff up through the early 90's.  I thought that was pretty cute.

I have been trying to remember to participate in Everybody, Everywear for several months now!  I'm so excited I finally am doing it today!  And I knew as soon as the theme was announced as Black and White that I'd be wearing this awesome Two Birds dress again!  I think I like the way I have it styled today better than the first day I wore it.  Something about adding the belt is helping with the overall shape.

Speaking of the belt - believe it or not, it was the Pants Monkey's!  I have been stealing it from him off and on for a few years now and he more or less has said I can have it.  Isn't that sweet?  It is a bit long, but it works ok for me!

Rundown:

Shirt - Gap

Dress - Vintage, Two Birds Boutique

Tights - Target

Shoes - DSW

Necklace - Thrifted

Purse - Vintage Coach via Rewind NE Mpls

Earrings - Premier Jewelry

Belt - stolen from the Pants Monkey

Blue skies, smiling at me

Well it's Monday again.  And shock - I'm not linking up with Inspiration Monday this week.  I know, I know, ever since I discovered the two birds blog I have been playing along every week, but I couldn't pull together a look I liked enough for today.  They chose a cute picture of an actress I've actually heard of too!  Oh well, there's always next week!

I also didn't have any blog worthy outfits over the weekend either.  Did a lot of running around with errands and also our music group had two masses at church this weekend as well (we have a uniform) so I didn't photograph anything.  

I am excited about my outfit today though.  As soon as I received this shirt for Christmas I knew I'd be wearing it with this skirt at some point.  While it does cover up some really cute buttons that this skirt has, the color combo just works so well together, so I don't mind.

I do not know why I accidentally keep cutting off the top of my head in my pictures lately.  I think it's my subliminal way of stating that I feel it's time for another haircut.  I just had it trimmed not long before Christmas, but I don't feel like the woman took enough off and it's getting to that shaggy point that is the only frustrating part about having a pixie style.  I love the pixie cut, but when it grows out, it's noticeable and difficult to work with!  Might have to remedy the situation this week.

Back to my outfit, I am making it my goal to purchase at least one pair of colored tights.  I go for so many muted, neutral colors, but how cute would this outfit be with bright blue tights or even a totally contrasting color like yellow??  I need to break out of my shell a bit on tights!  I am kind of going on a "no buy" again but I think I can afford a couple of pairs of tights.  With how nice it's been outside I've had no excuses to not wear skirts this winter, but I need to shake things up a bit!

Have a great Monday!

Rundown:

Shirt - Decree, JCPenney (gift from parents)

Skirt - LOFT, thrifted via Clothes Mentor

Tights - Target

Shoes - Payless (years ago)

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique