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.

Inspiration Monday - Fly by

Happy Monday everyone!  Did it feel like the weekend flew by to anyone else?  Seriously, it just went by too fast for my liking.  Not a lot of down time either, but I wouldn't say it was a bad weekend.  More on that in a moment, first up, we have Jessica Alba here for Inspiration Monday.

I was actually borderline on participating this week, then at the last minute pulled together an outfit I kind of like.  I don't have any light colored blazers yet, but I thought this denim one might work decently with my cream blouse.

Blazer - American Eagle, thrifted

Blouse - Decree, JCPenney

Pants - Star City, Herbergers

Necklace - S&D

Shoes - Mossimo, thrifted 

Back to the weekend - it was full of errand running, catching up with family and celebrating my mom's birthday.  I also did the closet purge - I now have five bags to add to my garage sale (sorry no pictures Secret Squirrel, got way too caught up in rearranging).  I also kind of did the transition to spring/summer items in my closet and packed away a ton of heavier winter clothing.  Because even though it is still not terribly spring like here in MN, I'm an optimist.

I even managed to grab one more item off my wish list when shopping for a last minute gift for my mom - found the black striped skirt I've been coveting! It was very inexpensive so I was excited about that.  I hope it's warm enough to style it very soon!

That is pretty much the news from here!  For more Inspiration Monday looks, visit two birds over here.

Imitation = flattery

I can't take credit for my outfit today.  I saw a similar styled look on Kelley from Threads N Buttons earlier this week and decided, I think I will try that on Friday.  That is one of the things I love about blogging and the blogging community - getting inspiration from so many of you!

Super happy it's Friday.  We had a really fun date night last night, we aren't going so far as to totally give up weekend date nights, but we've decided weeknight date nights are fun every now and then too!

Button shirt - Banana Republic, thrifted

Sweater - H&M, thrifted

Jeans - Old Navy

Necklace - S&D

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted 

Any fun weekend plans for any of you?  Tomorrow my mom is coming over and we're doing the annual spring closet dump.  I'm so thankful she helps me with this - I'd be lost on my own!  I'll be making piles for my upcoming garage sale and for a clothing swap I'll be participating in - both events are in May, but I get the feeling they'll be here before I know it.  And speaking of my mom, it's her birthday on Sunday, so we'll be going out to celebrate!  So, it should be a fairly decent weekend!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend as well!

Fish and chips and vinegar

I stand by my decision to have chosen bare legs yesterday, but I did end up a little chilly in the end!  So today I decided to go for a maxi skirt instead.  Not to mention, there's no sun today and it's supposed to cool off as the day goes on. I am still sans tights though!

Shirt - Vintage Lee, Hill Valley Boutique

Skirt - Old Navy

Necklace - S&D

Boots - Mossimo, Target 

Not much else exciting to share today.  It was fun sharing guilty pleasures with you all yesterday!  And I see I'm not alone in some of mine!

Tonight Mr. Monkey and I are having a rare weeknight date night.  There's a fish and chips place we love but it's so hard to get into on the weekends, so we decided to try on a weeknight.  Actually what we plan to do is pick up the fish and chips and then go across the street to one of the newer taprooms in town as they let you bring in your own food and enjoy our dinner with a couple of pints there.  It should be fun!

Guilty Pleasures

I am SO excited about the dress I am wearing today guys.  I bought this at the Tandem Vintage sale and fell in love right away - it's polka dots!  Freaking polka dots!  And here is the other thing I love, I had been eyeballing a very similarly inspired dress on Shabby Apple for quite some time - this one I got for less than I would have there and it's ACTUAL vintage.  And I could not help myself but add the knee highs and Mary Jane styled shoes today.  Maybe it's too twee, but I don't care.  It's the look I wanted to rock today and leads into my next subject a little bit.  Guilty pleasures.

Sweater - "A" brand from Herbergers

Dress - Tandem Vintage

Shoes - Payless (old)

Necklace - S&D 

I was watching a recent episode of Glee (yes I said Glee - that would be guilty pleasure number one right here) and they did a whole "guilty pleasures" theme.  I laughed with the Pants Monkey that Glee itself is a guilty pleasure, but then I started thinking about some of my other guilty pleasures and I thought, you know what, this would be kind of a fun blog post.  And then ironically, Lori blogged about this very subject yesterday as well - so I thought, all right, I'm going to do it!

So, in addition to my Glee watching and wearing of knee high socks, here are a few other guilty pleasures:

1.  I love cherry flavored Jolly Ranchers more than any of the other flavors.  To the point that I dig through the bulk Jolly Rancher bin at the grocery store and dig out a bags worth of just cherry ones.  The clerks never question it!
2. I am an indie girl when it comes to music, but I can't help but love me some pop music - LMFAO, Rhianna, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, even Nicki Minaj - I like to listen to them when I work out, they are much more motivating than Arcade Fire is, just saying.
3. You all know I'm way into craft beer and I would say my other drink choices really are usually quite "man-like" as I also love a good glass of scotch and I go towards drier, less sweet wines - but every now and then I really want a hard apple cider, a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy or a Mike's Hard Black Cherry Lemonade.
4. Reality Shows.  Yeah, I know a lot of you are guilty of this too, but I get sucked in to some really silly ones like Amish Mafia (I  still don't believe this show was real) and that stupid Splashed show on ABC.
5. Hooded sweatshirts.  I love getting all dressed up for work every day, but some days I can't wait to get home and put on my nice cuddly hoodie.

Well there.  I feel better now!  What are some of your guilty pleasures?

Black and White and Red All Over

Well I have to say, even though it's chilly, at least the sun is out!  I hear some warmer weather is coming as soon as tomorrow though, so there is hope for spring!

I realized this cute little jacket hasn't really seen much love on the blog yet even though I have actually worn it a few times. I picked it up at the two birds garage sale in December, it reminded me of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers era.  And I haven't worn my red pants in awhile, so I thought I'd pull them out.  I love that they are jeans and I can get away with wearing them to work in the middle of the week!

Jacket - F21 via two birds garage sale

Shirt - Gap, thrifted

Pants - Old Navy

Necklace/Earrings - Camy Couture

Shoes - SO, Kohls 

I found this necklace while shopping in Stillwater with some friends, we popped in a cute little boutique called Camy Couture and they were having a mega winter clearance.  This necklace wasn't one of the clearanced items, but I thought it closely resembled the white bubble necklace on my wish list, so it came home with me.  I felt it was a bonus that it had earrings with it too!

And speaking of Camy Couture, I found out late yesterday I won a giveaway from Jasmine's Cute N Comfy blog and the prize is three surprise items from Camy Couture - what a coincidence!  I'm excited to see what she sends me.  The timing could not be better - The Pants Monkey and I just learned of some major plumbing work we're going to have to have done very soon that will be spendy - so I may be curbing the shopping again.  Sigh.  I don't know that I'm necessarily putting myself back on the ban, but I am going to have to really stick to a budget.  Long story short, finding out I won the giveaway really helped a rather crappy day yesterday.  And so did some homemade tacos and margaritas.....

Inspiration Monday - Spring's April Fools Joke

Well my friends, I'm back to the daily grind and back to a normal routine.  It's April - how did that happen so fast?  It's anything but April-like outside today here in good ole Minnesota, kind of an April Fools Joke from Spring I guess!  I did my best to make this springy Inspiration Monday outfit from Allessandra Ambrosio (your guess is as good as mine) work even in the chilly weather.

I couldn't go bare legs today, it's barely going to hit freezing today, so I had to do tights. I'm so ready for bare legs though!  Never ending winter.  Sigh.  Anyway, I did pull out a summery dress and just added a sweater and I like the result.

Dress - two birds garage sale (I think it's vintage)

Sweater - Polo Ralph Lauren, thrifted

Tights and Boots - Target

Necklace - Charming Charlie

Color makes me so happy.  I especially love these colors - oranges, peaches, purples and teal.  They are all just fun.  I think I'm just going to have to really cheer spring along this year.  Come on spring.  You can do it.

In reality this is how spring in Minnesota is though.  Two steps forward and one step back.  And people wonder why we talk about the weather so much - it's because it is ever changing!  Hopefully spring is coming faster to the rest of you!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits visit two birds over here.