Hat Lady

I like hats, but I don't have very many, and I rarely wear the ones that I have.  I think this is because I wouldn't wear a hat to work, and the majority of my outfits are for work.  On this particular day, I went hatless to work, but took the afternoon off, put my hat on, and ran some errands.  And I think this hat might come in handy when I'm a brand new mom and can't wash my hair on a regular basis.  Or at least, that's what I hear will happen.  


Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Hat: JCF
Scarf: Charming Charlie
Tee: Gap
Jeans: Old Navy Maternity
Shoes: Gap

Green Week - Jeans

It seems like cobalt blue pretty much goes with everything.  I've really been loving it with green recently, so putting these jeans with this t-shirt was a no-brainer.  I wore this for a casual movie date with John, and thought my Chucks would be cute.  But then I took pictures and felt goofy.  Like I was trying too hard to look young.  Or maybe sneakers and skinny jeans just don't look right on me.  I don't know, but I swapped out the shoes for some pointy-toe flats and felt much better.  Here's the comparison:

Which do you prefer? 

Also, it's the last day of Green Week!  The linky will stay open for a couple days, so you still have time to jump in. Thanks to everyone who jumped in and extra special thanks to my lovely co-hosts - Heather and Ashley.

Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Tee, Jeans, Flats: Old Navy
Sneakers: Converse

Linky info is after the jump!  

Weekend Wrap-Up

For some reason, I don't get a day off for Presidents' Day!  I mean, government offices are all closed, so why do other companies stay open?  OUTRAGE!  Mostly kidding, although I wouldn't complain if my company added some more paid holidays to the calendar.  We are in that stretch after the holidays where we have to go to work every day for like 5 months straight.  Ridiculous.  Memorial Day needs to hurry up!

Anyway, at least we have weekends!  This weekend was pretty great (and low key).  Friday night, we just grilled steaks and had a nice dinner at home.  Saturday, we went to see The Monuments Men (Hint - it's not very good!).  Sunday was church, relaxing, and then a very fun hangout in the evening with church friends.  Pretty much any blank spaces in the weekend were spent sleeping, reading, blogging, or doing laundry.  Weekend of champions, I tell ya!

Oh, and this outfit is from mid-December.  It's another good example of wearing summer clothes in the winter!  Step 1 - add a cozy wool cardigan.  Step 2 - tights and boots.

Dress: Target
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Belt: Chinese Laundry
Tights: Old Navy
Boots: Wanted

Valentine's Week - Pink Dress

Well, I ran out of pink and red things that would look good together, and I'm saving the grand finale for tomorrow, so today is just a pink dress.  But it's very pink, so that has to count for something.

I just bought this dress in January, and this is the first time I've worn it.  It should probably be the last.  I really love the style, fit, and color - but it's just too short.  It seemed a reasonable length in the dressing room, but it must have shrunk on the drive home, because it's barely fingertip length now!  And the there's no seam allowance to let the hem out at all.  I've just been wanting a fit-and-flare shirt dress like this for so long, I think I was blinded to the flaws.  Oh well - at least it was only $6!  I should be able to make most of that back at the consignment shop, right??

Although, I do wonder if I could chop out the lining and add a few inches of solid pink.  Would that look pretty or stupid?  And please don't say "yes."

Dress: Gap
Sweater: Urban Outfitters
Belt: Limited
Boots: Steve Madden

Meant to Be

Once upon a time (about 2 years ago), I decided that I should buy some green skinny jeans.  It seemed like an easy enough task, but I could not find any that were the right color of green, that fit properly, and that were in my price range (like less than $20). 

Then on Black Friday (2013), I was shopping at Old Navy and saw these Sweetheart jeans in the perfect green color.  For some reason, I convinced myself that I shouldn't buy them, and instead bought 2 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of tights, a skirt, and a cardigan (all of which I really like).  But I left the jeans.  Why did I leave the jeans??

Anyway, I kept thinking about the jeans, but didn't have a chance to go back and figured they would be gone.  After Christmas, I had to return some duplicate items to Old Navy, so I hoped I would find the jeans still there.  Victory!  There was a big stack on the sale table.  $10!  But they had every size except mine.  I tried on a size up and a size down (because Old Navy sizes are never exact), but neither were quite right.  I asked the worker to run a search and the other store near me had my size!  So, I put them on hold and drive across town to get these jeans.  And then I was doing the 30X30, so I couldn't wear them.

So there's the very exciting story of how I finally got my green jeans.  And of course, they were the first thing I wanted to wear after the 30X30 was over!  I decided to borrow one of my favorite green skirt outfits, which was inspired by this pin.

Speaking of exciting things, I'm super pumped for next week, because I'm joining forces with 5 of my favorite ladies to host a week long red and pink Valentine's Day extravaganza.  That may be overstating a bit, but we will be wearing red and/or pink every day next week, and there will be a link up, so you can join in!  See, it's so exciting!        

Today I'm linking up with Heather for Pinned it & Did It AND with Jenn and Ginny for their new Style Swap (even though I can't find the original post for my pin). 

Sweater: Urban Outfitters
Top: H&M
Belt: Gap
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Steve Madden

Weekend Fun

So, Monday!  It was a pretty busy weekend (well, with a certain amount of laziness on Saturday!).  Here's the short version:

• Friday afternoon, I left work a little early and went to the outlet mall to do a little Christmas shopping.  I now have only 2 people left to shop for, and I know generally what I should buy them, so I'm feeling pretty good. 
• Friday evening, John's office had their annual Christmas party.  We had a great time and stayed out entirely too late.
• Saturday, I may have slept until noon.  It's hard to say.  Then I did pretty much nothing all day, except read.  I guess I did a little bit of laundry and cleaned the kitchen.  
• Saturday evening, we went to see the new Hobbit movie.   I liked it more than the first one.  It does deviate from the book quite a bit, but I thought the book was kind of boring, so I'm not going to complain too much.  Plus it's been about 5 years since I read the book, so I don't remember the details. 
• Sunday was church, lunch, gym, church, and then we went over to our friends' apartment.  They recently moved to a cool apartment downtown and I hadn't been there yet.  It was fun to see their place and get to hang out!

Anyway, it's going to be another busy week, and then next week is Christmas!  So excited!!!  I need to get serious about wrapping all these presents that are stacking up. 

Oh, and these pictures are from a few weeks ago - now our backyard is covered in snow.  

Dress: Gap
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Belt: Limited
Tights: Old Navy
Boots: Steve Madden

Literary Link-Up Day

Where my nerds at?  Oh, probably judging me for the atrocious grammar of that sentence!  Anyway, it's Literary Junkies time yet again.  Here are the questions and my answers for November:

What are you currently reading? Tell us about it!


I'm almost finished with Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore.  It's a difficult book to describe, but so far, I love it.  It's just bizarre and fun and it glows in the dark - which really confused me the first night that it was on my bedside table.  

How many books have you read this year? Do you set reading goals for yourself?


I've read 43 books this year.  I try to read 50 each year, so I'm right on track.  I love to read, but I tend to forget if I don't make it a priority.  I found that setting a goal helps me make time for reading.  

What do you think are the best and worst book-to-movie/TV show adaptations?

Hmm, there are so many bad ones!  I'd have to say Silver Linings Playbook was the worst.  They just changed so many of the critical elements of the book.  I don't know what the best is, but I thought the Harry Potter movies were a pretty good adaptation of the books.  There were some things that I would have done differently, but I felt the movies stayed true to the intention of the books.  

What is the first line of your favorite book?

I have no idea.  First, I would have to pick a favorite book, and that's pretty tricky.  I have 29 books on my "favorites" shelf on Goodreads, so I couldn't narrow it down to one favorite.   

What's your favorite quote from a book?

Again, I don't know.  So many books.  So many great quotes.  It's impossible to choose!

The Literary Junkies are chatting tonight about The Storyteller.  Next month, we are reading Safe Haven.  I have it checked out from the library, but haven't picked it up to read yet.  This will be my first Nicholas Sparks and I'm just not sure about it.  Romance is weird!  Give me books that glow in the dark instead!

I'm still passing things along.  Today it's my grandpa cardigan.

AND finally, since I don't have much flexibility to join in on Thursday, I'll be linking this navy leopard print dress up for Third Thursday Threads!    

Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Dress: Gap
Belt: Chinese Laundry
Necklace: Limited
Boots: Wanted

Foreshadowing

I may have hinted on Friday that I'd be wearing these white jeans again.  The Take One, Pass It On challenge is an excellent excuse to repeat my favorites without feeling guilty!

The weekend was nice, but always too short.  On Saturday, I finished season 3 of Downton Abbey.  I had heard that the ending was heartbreaking, but wow.  The Brits sure know how to destroy hopes and dreams!  Now I need to figure out how to watch season 4! 

On a happier note, I'm venturing to the new outlet mall after work today, hoping that the crazy weekend crowds will be gone.  My friend Brooke (you may remember her from Halloween) and I made plans to check it out (which is good, because I probably would have gone on Saturday and never found a parking spot!).  I've been scoping out the J.Crew Factory website in preparation. I'm hoping to try on these shoes and buy them if they are as wonderful as they seem.  Expectations are high, so I will probably be disappointed!  (see what I did there?  Lowering my own expectations with pessimism is one of my top skills!)

Cardigan:Urban Outfitters
Shirt: J.Crew factory
Jeans: Limited
Shoes: Old navy

Turbulence

Another day, another ridiculously named color.  Turbulence = gray.  But we can't just say gray, because FASHION!   

I'm linking up with Marissa and Heidi again today.  Go check out the other gray, I mean turbulence outfits. 

Sweater: Urban Outfitters
Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Limited
Boots: Wanted

Vivacious

It's an exciting week for 2 reasons (well, maybe more, but 2 that I know of):

1. My birthday is on Thursday.  I'm kind of obnoxiously enthusiastic about birthdays (particularly my own), but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.  
2. Marissa and Heidi are hosting another Pantone-Inspired challenge this week.  I participated in the spring, and met some of my very favorite bloggers, so I'm excited to see who I find this time!  

So, today's color is vivacious, which is basically just a bright purplish pink, so I figure this skirt qualifies.  I want to know who gets paid to come up with these color names, and then I want that job!  

Also, this sweater and boots combo will be back tomorrow, because they are TURBULENCE-colored.  

Tee&Skirt: Gap

Sweater: Urban Outfitters

Boots: Wanted

Necklace: Phoenix gift shop

Bad Drivers

I'm jumping back into Blog Every Day in May for today's topic: Rant about something. 

I try to keep it pretty positive around here, but since it's part of the challenge, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to complain.  I've created a very crude drawing below to show you what I mean.  When I leave work, I turn right onto a road that has a median separating the southbound lane from the northbound lane.  Right where I turn out, there's an opening in the median (so I could turn left, if needed).  Pretend I'm the red line.  There are people who work in an office to the north (they are the yellow line) who think it is appropriate to turn south (into the northbound lane) and then cross over into the southbound lane at the gap in the median.  THIS IS NOT OKAY!      

I understand it's annoying that you can't turn left, but just take a right and flip a U-turn at the next opening.  You can't drive the wrong way, even if it's just really quick.  Every few weeks, I almost run into one of these people, because they come from the wrong direction/lane.  I'm not looking there when I go to turn right!  I always honk at them, and they sometimes flip me off (because I'm the jerk in this situation??).

I have a few (or maybe several) other traffic-related topics to rant about, but I'm sure no one wants to read that!

Shirt: Old Navy
Skirt: Sunny Leigh via Macy's
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Target
Purse: thrifted

Green Skirt Remix

Random thoughts for you on this Friday:

• I thought the colors in this outfit were so pretty together, so I am copycatting!   
• My broken boot is fixed!  When I picked it up from the repair shop a couple weeks ago, it was about 70 degrees outside.  I joked that my boots were fixed just in time for warmer weather.  Be careful what you joke about, because it might snow in mid-April! 
• Meet my new lace tee from H&M.  I've had this on my list for a few months, so I'm excited to wear it with everything I own!
• I got this skirt on clearance at Target just before Christmas.  It was $8.  And then I found out the emerald is the "color of the year," which I really don't understand how one color gets that honor, but I am so ready for wearing green!  I've already worn it several times, so thought it deserved a remix post.  Here are 5 other ways I've worn it! 

1/2/3/4/5

I'm also linking up with AJ for her weekly remix!  Go check it out!


Top: H&M
Belt: Gap
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Skirt: Target
Boots: Guess via TJ Maxx

Swapping Buttons

Take One, Pass It On Item:  gray tights from last Thursday

Here's the deal - I started blogging before I knew anything about blogging.  Almost a year and a half later, and I still don't know all the tricks of the trade.  In December, I realized I should really have a blog button, so I did some Google searches to find instructions and realized it was super easy.  Why did it take me a whole year to do that?  I have no idea.

Anyway, for the past 3-ish months, I have done some button swaps, and sponsored a few blogs to get a feel for things.  Here's my question:  Do you actually think button swaps or ads on a sidebar do any good?  In my experience, I have gotten almost zero traffic from the blogs that just have my button on their sidebar.  For the  blogs I actually paid to sponsor, I did see traffic, but I think that was more from their "Meet the Sponsor" type posts, giveaways, and twitter shout-outs.  The one blog I paid to sponsor who didn't do those extra things pretty much sent me no traffic.

I have considered the possibility that my button is lame and doesn't catch the attention of potential clickers.  So I am curious what you all think about button swaps:  Do you think they bring new readers your way?

I'm still trying to decide how to proceed with the whole sponsoring/swapping buttons deal.  I'm not trying to make money off this blog, but it is fun to have more readers.  Instead of a button swap, I have been wondering about the idea of swapping posts with other bloggers, where we would just guest post for each other on a given day.  Other bloggers, would you be interested in something like that?  Readers, what do you think of guest posts?  Do you see it as a way to meet someone new, or do you just scroll past it?

Shirt: Gap
Sweater: Urban Outfitters
Skirt: Sunny Leigh via Macy's
Tights: Target
Boots: Wanted via Piperlime

Baby, It's COLD Outside

Are you excited for some typical style blogger weather talk?  Well, after a few glorious days of balmy temperatures (like 40 degrees), winter has returned with a vengeance.  It snowed a few inches on Tuesday evening, and I may have overreacted by wearing my serious snow boots.  I looked especially cool after work when I changed into my workout clothes, but had to wear the boots until I got to class, because they don't want wet tennis shoes on the floor.  Then class was canceled (I seriously have the worst luck at fitness classes!).

I sort of felt like a grandpa in my chambray top and gray cardigan, even though I've never seen a grandpa in red skinny jeans.  To amp up the femininity, I wore the super cute flower necklace that Brooke gave me for Christmas.  You can kind of see it in the third picture.

Anyway, when I woke up Thursday morning, weather.com told me that it "Feels like -8" outside and I was very tempted to stay in bed.  Then Thursday evening, it was worse.

I really hope we get back into a more reasonable range of temperatures!  Otherwise, you can expect to see a rotation of skinny jeans and boots pretty much every day.

Any brilliant tips for getting dressed when it's bitterly cold outside?

Shirt: J.Crew Factory
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Tamarack

Grammar Police

We've established that I'm sort of a nerd sometimes, and there are certain grammatical errors that just drive me crazy.  I will refrain from turning this into a blog where I only rant about grammar, but sometimes I just have to say something.  Please bear with me while I preach for a minute (or just skip to the end where I tell you where I bought my clothes).

"I's" is never correct.    

I've seen this all over the place, so if you are a recent offender, do not take it personally.  For example, if I was talking about the house that my husband and I own, it would NOT be correct to say "John and I's house."  Ever.  Like EVER!  (See, I can channel Taylor Swift when I'm grammar ranting).  

I think this is a problem because little kids tend to say "Me" all the time when they should say I.  Like "Me and Susie are going to play outside!" and our parents all drilled into us "Susie and I!"  This does not mean that every time you say "someone and" it should be "I".  

I remember my dad teaching me to take the "Susie and" part out of the sentence, and then I would know the appropriate option to use.  "Me is going to play outside" or "I am going to play outside"?  It's pretty obvious there.  

I pretty frequently hear people say things like "Do you want to have dinner with Susie and I?" and I cringe every time.  Again, would you say "Do you want to have dinner with I?"  Of course not.  

Compound possessives get even more confusing for people, especially when "I" is one of the subjects.  If the 2 subjects each have their own item, they each get their own apostrophe (John's and Andi's birthdays).  If the 2 subjects are sharing one item, they can share the apostrophe (John and Andi's house).  I like this example - think of the apostrophe as a hair dryer.  

Once you change one of the subjects into a personal pronoun, the other subject needs to have the apostrophe, or the sentence can get confusing.  If I say "John and my house is painted brown" it kind of sounds like John is painted brown and my house is painted brown.  I have to say "John's and my house" and then everything is right in the world.  

I think this is one reason coupled up people just say "we" and "our" all the time.  It might be annoying, but can we all agree it is less annoying than "I's"?  

Now please don't point out all of my grammatical errors.  I've probably got quotations on the wrong side of punctuation all over this post.

Since this was pretty random, I'm linking up with Shanna!

Scarf, Black Sweater, Jeans: Gap    

Cardigan: Urban Outfitters

Boots: Wanted via Piperlime