Inspiration Monday - I'm baaaack!

Hello everyone!  I'm back!  It's good to be back.  I have to give a round of applause/standing ovation to all my guest posters for last week - thanks so much Megan, Callie, Ally, Jess and Maca!  I hope you all enjoyed their posts and will check out their blogs too.  It was a nice break, even though I was home part of the week, I wasn't wearing much anything more exciting than jeans and a t-shirt!  But it really is good to be back, I've missed this and I've missed all of you! More on my vacation in a bit, but first, let's start off right here with this week's pick for Inspiration Monday - Elizabeth Olsen (god I feel old, I remember when her famous sisters were babies on Full House....)

This was pretty easy for me!  I was more than happy to pull out this dress that I love, I thrifted it last year and have worn it quite a bit on the blog, but it's been awhile.  I think of these colors as fall/winter colors.  And we're getting late into August here and getting close to fall, so it felt right.  I loved adding this denim vest to give this a whole new look!  I don't have booties yet - I had some light colored cowboy boots that I tried but they just didn't look right, so I stuck to sandals today.

So back to my vacation - it was lovely.  We spent four days in Itasca State Park with the Pants Monkey's family and the weather was perfect.  We were able to build a fire every night.  We went on a fun boat ride, we golfed a bit and on the last night we went down by the lake and watched the stars.  I even saw a few shooting stars.  I swear, Northern Minnesota is heaven.  If any of you ever come to visit MN I will insist on getting you out of the city for just a day or two, Minneapolis is great, don't get me wrong, but the Northwoods is what makes me heart Minnesota so much.  I love that I can escape there so easily!

After our return on Wednesday we still had a couple of days to enjoy.  Thursday we were pretty lazy, but we did go buy Mr. Monkey some new clothes.  He has lost some weight (on purpose, so proud of him!) and needed some things that would fit instead of hanging off his body!  Friday we brewed some beer.  Saturday we had bought a Living Social deal that allowed us to go on a bus ride to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin to tour the Leinenkugel brewery and go tubing down the Chippewa River.  It was a blast, we had no idea what to expect going in but we had a good time.  And then Sunday we totally vegged.  Now we're back to the grind!

It's tough to be back but it's another short week actually - we took this coming Friday off to go to the Minnesota State Fair!  I can't believe it's Fair time already.  Where did this summer go again?  I wish it would never end!

As always, please head over to two birds to check out the other Inspiration Monday looks!  And big congrats to Nora Bird on the birth of baby Ben!  Megan's rocking it solo over there for a bit, so make sure to show her some love!

Outfit rundown:

Dress - Axcess by Claiborne (thrifted)

Vest - Vintage, Mighty Swell

Sandals - Italian Shoe Company (DSW)

Necklace and two bracelets - S&D

Other bracelet - Bead for Life