In your Easter bonnet

Hello peeps! Happy Easter! I hope you are having a wonderful day either hunting eggs, attending church, eating ham or just relaxing on a Sunday! I hadn't intended to blog today, but  I wanted to share my Easter dress with you all.

I bought it about three years ago for my anniversary with the Pants Monkey - and I realized today I don't remember where I bought it!  Gasp!  Oh well.  I received many compliments on it at church this morning.

I also have fun new shoes from my cousin too.  Yes, we also wear the same size shoe.  These bad boys are very fun - but not the most comfortable thing ever.  My feet were ready for a break after church was over!  I'm dressing down for dinner at my parents!

See what I mean - they are pretty awesome shoes though right?  As my grandmother would say "sometimes we have to suffer to be beautiful."

 

The necklace was a Christmas gift from my in-laws.  It's nice and simple, which is good sometimes! I wear a lot of statement jewelry, but sometimes I like something not so flashy.

Oh there's this one other thing about today.....

I CAN SHOP AGAIN!  WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!

Outfit rundown:

Dress - not sure (old)

Sweater - Liz Claiborne

Shoes - Anne Klein (from cousin)

Necklace - Patina (gift from in-laws)

Bracelet - Stella and Dot

40 days and 40 nights

I went for a rather subdued look for casual Friday today because it is Good Friday and in the Christian faith it's a reflective kind of day.  I promise though, I'm not here to shove my religion down anyone's throat as I want all to feel comfortable and welcome here.  Anyway, it didn't feel right to wear flashy colors today and this shirt will look nice when I go to Good Friday service later tonight.

Now Easter Sunday on the other hand - I have a fun outfit planned with a colorful dress because that is a day of celebration in the church.  And it's going to be chilly here in MN on Sunday, but I am still wearing my dress no matter what!  That's why we have nylons right?  I need to paint my little toes before then too because even if I wear nylons, I may break out sandals for the first time this year.

Easter Sunday also marks something pretty huge and significant for me - my 40 day shopping ban will be OVER!!  Now if that isn't a cause for celebration, I don't know what is!  Honestly I don't plan to go crazy, I've mentioned before I might look into a monthly budget to try to help me not go overboard.  Because I still need a new laptop and that is going to take priority.  Just another paycheck and I *think* I might finally be able to order it!  Fingers crossed! (going for a Macbook Air - them bad boys are SPENDY).

Tomorrow my mom is helping me reorganize my closet (and pull out things I don't wear anymore) - figured that is the first step before actually being able to go shopping again right?  If we find enough things worth selling off, I might take a load over to Clothes Mentor or maybe I'll save some pieces for a swap (hint hint MN girls).  At any rate I'm looking forward to making sense of my closet again - after the bag of goodies from my cousin it's just gotten to be a bit of a mess!  And isn't my mom nice to help me with this task on her BIRTHDAY of all days?  She's the best!

And then back to Easter, we'll be with my parents for a nice quiet dinner as the Pants Monkey's parents will be out of town.  We'll celebrate with his family next Sunday, which is Russian Easter (his grandfather was Russian Orthodox).  Double the ham for me!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Easter if you celebrate - whether it's in a faith filled manner or in a bunnies and eggs type manner!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Christopher and Banks (from cousin)

Jeans - Old Navy

Bracelet and earrings - Charming Charlie

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Sunshine on my shoulder

It is such a beautiful spring morning outside.  Seriously could not be prettier, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and it's starting to get green outside!  Makes me think of a wedding - and speaking of weddings, I'm guesting over at the blog Live A Lot while Cristi is on her honeymoon and I'm talking about my wedding!  So head on over here to check it out!

So I got this pink top when I took my mom out for retail therapy a couple of weeks ago.  And no, I didn't break my ban because I didn't buy it.  For my cheering up efforts and the fact that I drove, my mom bought it for me as a little treat.  We picked it up at JCPenney's - anyone been in there since they've changed to the "one fair price" concept?  I admit, I do like the idea.  And I'm a bargain shopper if there ever was one, but there is something to be said for the simplicity of this concept.  I like they way they are displaying things now too, it feels cleaner and less cluttered, at least at the JCPenney I most often visit.

Took a shot without the sweater so you could see more of the shirt, it came with a cami attached to it but we  detached it so I can use it with other things too if I wish.  Sadly, as nice as it is with the sun, it is chilly outside, so I promptly put the sweater back on after this picture!  Brr!!

Outfit rundown:

Pink shirt - Heart Break, JCPenney

Sweater - Old Navy

Pants - Lee

Shoes - DSW

Necklace - Stella and Dot

Vintage with an edge

I have been wanting to give today's outfit a try for awhile now.  It's an attempt to start pulling this dress towards summer.  I guess I'd call it "vintage with an edge" since I added the boots.  I think I like how it turned out.  I still have other ideas for this dress too, it's such a fun piece.

I am loving spring!  I am not loving the inevitable thing that comes with spring - allergies.  Dealing with some lovely itchy watery eyes today.  So much fun!  It doesn't help that construction has started at my work too, so there is dust in the air everywhere.  Guess I'd better stock up on some eye drops!

What I do love about spring though is that the Pants Monkey and I are back to running.  We're not professionals by any stretch of the imagination and in fact, we're just doing the Couch to 5K program right now - easing back into it!  It feels good so far though, I find it's one of the best forms of exercise for keeping in shape! Legs of steel here I come!  Ha ha ha.....

Outfit rundown:

Shirt and dress - two birds vintage

Necklace - Vintage Pearl (gift from friend)

Earrings - Butterfly Boutique

Knee high socks - American Living, JCPenney

Boots - Target (old)

The "K"

I should call today's outfit "The K" in honor of my cousin.  Because the top is from the first bag of clothes I received back this fall, and the skirt is from the bag I received this spring.  I have no idea if she ever wore these items together, but I sure like the look!

It rained overnight and was still rather cloudy, so we're back inside for pictures today.  I realize looking at these that we have a lot of clutter in our kitchen.  Anyone else have that problem?  I think it's something about kitchens.

Speaking of clutter, now that it's April I am in total spring cleaning mode.  I found some organizational tips from Pinterest and I want (and really also need) to go through my closets and clean out my clothes and just overall reorganize.  It needs to be done at least twice a year so it's just time.  And I hope with these organizational ideas that maybe, just maybe they won't get so messed up until the next time I need to clean them out!  We'll see.  My goal is to do this over the weekend.

This second picture was goofy ole me showing that this skirt is a little bit saucy, with the slit up the middle.  Oh so scandalous!!  Have a great day everyone!

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - Coldwater Creek (from cousin)

Cami - Mossimo, Target

Skirt - Briggs New York (from cousin)

Shoes - Payless (old)

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique

Bracelet - Bead for Life

Inspiration Monday - Back to life, back to reality

Hello friends!  I'm back from a lovely weekend away with my Pants Monkey.  More about that in a minute.  First up, here is this week's Inspiration Monday model - Louise Roe....um, who is she?  She's pretty enough.  I love her fun printed skirt and shoes.

I went for a slightly different look - same silhouette, but different color scheme and a much tamer skirt and shoes unfortunately as I didn't have fun shoes like that or even a super fun printed skirt.  I still like the result of my outfit though!  The Pants Monkey even said "well you look all sorts of cute today!"

So speaking of the Pants Monkey, as I said, we just got back from a little weekend getaway.  We had bought a Groupon type deal for a bed and breakfast in Duluth, MN - one of my favorite places in the world - and finally had the chance to use it this last weekend.  It was so nice and very relaxing!  The owners of the B&B were very friendly, the other couples that were staying as well were also nice and the breakfasts were super yummy.  We had a chance on Saturday to go to one of my favorite state parks and wander even though it was a bit chilly outside (in fact, to all you Twin Cities girls, I found snow!).  We stopped and got some amazing smoked fish and cheese and a bottle of wine for an afternoon snack and then later had dinner at our favorite brewpub up there.  We also played a lot of backgammon and I finally beat him in one game!  He usually beats me!

So now I'm playing catch up.  I haven't had a chance to read others thoughts on the remixing concept from Friday's FBFF topic so I hope to do some of that today and catch up with the rest of you as well.  It was a wonderful and much needed weekend, but as the song says now it's "back to life, back to reality."

For other Inspiration Monday looks or to play along yourself, head on over to the two birds blog here.

Outfit rundown:

Shirt - F21

Skirt - INC Concepts (thrifted)

Shoes - Rampage, DSW

Necklace - Maurices

Earrings - Charming Charlie

Springy Sunday

These photos are actually from a couple of weeks ago, on a day we had a really nice warm Sunday.  It was actually the day of the "40 Day Service" we had to go to for the Pants Monkey's grandfather, and while it was another "somberish" type event, I still wore a cute outfit because well, that's what I do.  And we had some time to kill between the service and lunch with his family, so I had the Pants Monkey take a few pictures of me because sometimes it's nice to not have to set up the tripod and run!  I just remembered I never shared them, so I thought I would today.

It wasn't super sunny at this point, but it was still kind of bright, so I was squinting quite a bit.  And now you get a rare look at my deck and huge backyard!

I was actually quite comfortable for the whole day.  It got very warm over at the P. Monkey's grandmother's house with all the people in there for the potluck lunch, so I was able to simply slip my sweater off and still be plenty comfy!

I think this last one is my favorite.  A nice natural smile and stance.  I should make him take my pictures all of the time.  But then he'd be late for work in the mornings.  Oh well.  I love my tripod too.  I should give him a name maybe.  Trevor the Tripod?  I know, I'm goofy.

Outfit rundown:

Sweater - LOFT (thrifted via Clothes Mentor)

Shirt - Shlomo (thrifted via Clothes Mentor)

Skirt - Old Navy

Shoes - DSW

Necklace and Earrings - Stella and Dot