"Owl" about me

We made it to Friday everyone!!  This week wasn't too bad all things considered, I thought it might drag more after a short week last week from the holiday!

Today I'm finally wearing my favorite birthday gift, this adorable owl sweater from my parents.  It felt like a Friday kind of sweater, so I saved it for today.

 Sweater - Kohls, gift

Jeans - Old Navy

Boots - Target

Jewelry - S&D, Cookie Lee

I had been experiencing some writers block this week, I blame being wiped out from all the birthday celebrating, but thankfully today I have a couple of excuses to talk about myself.  I was gifted the Sunshine Award from the lovely Dawn of Suitcase Vignettes and so I'll answer a couple of the questions she gave.  And then the awesome Katie of Butterfly Loves Snapdragons gifted me the Versatile Blogger award and the rules for that are, share seven facts about yourself.  So today is "owl" about me.  (See what I did there? I'm silly.)

So here are seven things about me I don't think I've shared before.  Maybe you'll learn something new.

1. I realize LMFAO is so yesterday now and we've all moved on to Gangham Style, but I still have a weakness for Party Rock Anthem and it is probably my biggest guilty pleasure song.  Normally I'm an "indie girl" but I can't help but love some pop music.

2. I have a super hard time swallowing pills, so I take them with yogurt.

3. I'm not afraid of ghosts, zombies or pretty much any horror movie, but if I watch anything about alien invasion I have nightmares for days.  The scariest movie I've ever seen is Signs.  *shudder*

4. I think it's no secret I have a love of beer and wine and other "spirits", but I am always responsible and am proud to say I've only been physically ill from drinking once in my life.

5. I love to play cribbage with the Pants Monkey, but I rarely ever beat him.  When I do it's a big deal.  I did about a week ago and I even took a picture on Instagram to mark the occasion, that's how big of a deal it is!  He's crazy good.

6. I had a belly button ring once.  I had to let it close up after a very unfortunate injury that I won't go into details on.  Let's just say it may have involved a clothes hanger when I was moving once.

7. I love to color.  I find it super relaxing.  I always bring crayons and coloring books when I go on vacation.  It's something I've done since I was little kid.  And I even stay in the lines!

 Jewelry close up

And now I'll pick a couple of Dawn's questions to answer. 

1. What is the funniest movie you've ever seen?  It is SO hard to pick one, as there are many funny movies out there.  I think I would probably say anything that Christopher Guest has done, especially Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind.  They're just my kind of humor, I can't get enough of them.

2. What would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Coffee.  Hands down.  I don't drink that much even, but I would not be a pretty girl without my cup in the morning!!

3. What was your most embarrassing moment? Getting sick during a dress rehearsal for a church show when I was about 13 or 14.  I didn't quite make it all the way to the bathroom and I didn't live it down for quite some time after that!

4. When did you last laugh until you cried and what was so funny?  The Pants Monkey is joining a homebrew club and he was messaging the other guys on FB trying to come up with a name and there were some "naughty" acronyms he was coming up with.  Yeah, sometimes we're like 12 year olds, can't help it.

5. Do you wanna bring sexy back? I had to answer this just because it made me laugh - and why do I need to bring it back?  I thought I already did!  He he.

Whew.  Ok, that's enough for today.  That was fun though!  Huge thanks to Dawn and Katie, you are both too sweet.  The rules for both of course say you're supposed to tag other bloggers, but I'm taking the easy way out again and saying I love you all so you can all chose to play along with the questions I answered if you'd like!  Have a great weekend!!

Photo difficulties

Well this hasn't happened in awhile, I had challenges getting good pictures of my outfit today.  These were the best I could manage before my boss came in for the day.  I think it's such a dark outfit it's just not photographing well.  I never claimed to be any sort of professional!  

 Pants and blouse - Banana Republic, hand me down and thrifted

Sweater - Charter Club

Shoes - Etienne Aigner, thrifted

Necklace - Butterfly Boutique

I was originally just going to wear the sweater and pants, but then decided at the last minute to add the blouse to have a little something extra.  I don't always do well with a button up shirt under a sweater, but this one is working ok for me, I think because it's short sleeved.  Less bulk under the sweater.

Also, I didn't do it today, but I have had some requests for more detailed shots of some of my jewelry, so I'll try to do that a little more often in the future.

And, that is about all I have today.  We had another night of birthday celebrations last night with my in-laws and I'm quite wiped out today!  It's both a blessing and a little bit of a curse to have so many birthdays so close together!

One headlight

It's been ages since I've pulled out these shorts, so I decided to do so today.  They're wool based, so they are pretty much for winter wear.  I did pull them out once this summer though and wore them with a semi-dressy t-shirt one day and kind of liked the look.  I'm excited to finally be wearing this statement piece I got at the last Stella and Dot party I went to.  It was way clearanced that day and I've been wanting something like this for awhile.  I've had it for the last month but I hadn't found the right thing to wear it with until today.

 Sweater, t-shirt and shorts - Old Navy

Tights - Target

Shoes - DSW

Necklace and earrings - Stella and Dot

Moving on, we now have storytime.  The Pants Monkey and I are kind of lazy sometimes about things.  I can admit it.  And sometimes when something needs to be fixed or replaced on say one of our cars, we kind of limp along for a bit before taking care of it.  About two weeks ago, we were driving my car home from picking up some dinner.  It was dark out and I'm not a fan of driving in the dark, so Mr. Monkey was driving.  He was really close behind a car in front of us while we were at a stoplight and I'm like "what are you doing?  Be careful!" He says, "I think you have a burned out headlight, I'm trying to see in the reflection of the car in front of us."  When we got home we checked and sure enough, the passenger side light is out.  For the most part, I drive during the day, so we figured he could replace it for me a little later.

Welcome to later.  Today was kind of dark and cloudy as I was driving into work.  Now, it has been a little dark when I've been driving home at night too, but I haven't had anyone flashing lights at me or anything so I hadn't been too worried about it.  This morning however, after I parked and started towards my building, I hear an angry lady behind me yell "You have a burned out headlight on your car!"  I was running late, but I turned around and politely said "Thank you!" and kept going.  She then screamed "Well you might want to fix it!"  Yes lady, I do want to fix it.  I don't intend on endangering others forever.  I texted the Pants Monkey and he said he'd take care of it this weekend.  It's a good thing too, because I'm really tired of having the song "One Headlight" by the Wallflowers stuck in my head!

Seeing red

So far this week I seem to be following a color scheme. I'm sharing yesterday's outfit and today's outfit and they're both kind of in similar color families.  They feel somewhat festive in a way, so perhaps I have Christmas on the brain!

I wore this skirt and new shirt and pin yesterday.  And it was silly, yesterday was likely the coldest day of the whole week.  I'm silly.  Oh well.  I wanted to wear the shirt and pin as they were birthday gifts and I thought the skirt dressed it up a little bit for work.

 Shirt - Eddie Bauer, gift

Skirt - American Living, thrifted

Boots - Payless

flower pin - gift

Bag - Nine West

Today I'm trying out another outfit inspired by an outfit I saw on Pinterest.  I realized I had almost everything to do it, not to mention, it was a way to dress up my colored skinny jeans.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Shirt - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Jacket - Mossimo, thrifted

Pants - Old Navy

Shoes - Etienne Aigner, thrifted

Necklace - Stella and Dot 

The Pants Monkey has rejoined me in the land of the working people again, he is no longer on vacation.  It was nice not having to be as quiet this morning as I was getting ready for work! My boss came back to work yesterday too.  Everything is pretty much back to normal.  And normal isn't all bad!

Inspiration Monday - A great weekend

Whew.  What a weekend!  It was a great, unexpected long weekend.  It was really a gift to have Friday off at the last minute!  We had a wonderful weekend full of family and celebrating.  And now it's back to the grind.  As always, Inspiration Monday takes the sting off of Monday a little bit, although I'm sharing two of my weekend outfits today.  Our model this week is Mary Kate Olson - making me feel my age 31 status very strong today as I still think of her as little Michelle on Full House.  But anyway, her totally laid back outfit was pretty much my uniform the entire holiday weekend.

This first outfit was what I wore on Friday - which was good because late in the day on Thanksgiving it got cold and we got snow.  So this cozy flannel was just the ticket.  I'm not sure how I feel about these skinny jeans anymore - they appear to be stretching out oddly and aren't as...skinny anymore.  It's quite odd.  At any rate, I was more than comfortable for a day of decorating my house for Christmas!

Flannel shirt - two birds vintage via b. (a resale shop)

Jeans - Maurices

Necklace - F21

Boots - Target

As you saw in my birthday post yesterday, I dressed up a bit more for my day of fun on Saturday, but yesterday I was back into something cozy for being lazy around the house and finishing up the Christmas decorating.  In the evening we had dinner with my parents for my birthday and also a little bit of cake.  It was a nice day!

Sweater - two birds vintage

Jeans - Gap, thrifted

Necklace - swap w/CC

Shoes - Steve Madden, thrifted

I received a couple of nice new goodies from my parents for my birthday that I'm sure you'll see here soon.  Overall it was a great Thanksgiving and birthday weekend!  Even though it was great, I am ready for a little downtime though before we jump into the Christmas season.  It's going to come fast though I think!

For more Inspiration Monday outfits, pop on over to two birds over here.

30-Fun

It's my birthday! I am 31 (30-fun) today!  It's been a nice long weekend of celebrating - maybe a bit too much celebrating, not too much time for relaxing, but I've enjoyed every minute.  Yesterday Mr. Monkey and I spent the whole day together celebrating (his birthday is Monday!) and we had a blast.  This is what I wore to our fancy dinner out.

Shirt - thrifted

Blazer - Calvin Klein, thrifted

Skirt - LOFT

Leggings - Target

Shoes - Mossimo, Target

Purse - won in giveaway

Before our nice dinner out we visited our Science Museum and saw the Tornado Alley Omnitheater show.  It was just a nice day of being together!  Today we're having dinner with my parents and celebrating with them.  Later this week we'll celebrate with Mr. Monkey's family as his dad also has a birthday this week.  The fun doesn't stop in this house!!

Post Thanksgiving Coma

Anyone out there getting Black Friday deals this morning? Not this girl!  As you know, I was originally supposed to work today, but was given the day off last minute.  So instead, I'm lounging at home, drinking my coffee, and blogging my outfit from yesterday as I come out of my post Thanksgiving coma. 

T-shirt - Mossimo, Target

Sweater - Seven, thrifted

Jeans - LOFT, thrifted

Bracelets - S&D

Necklace - gift

Shoes - Minnetonka Moccasins

The day started out very warm here in MN and I knew it would also be warm inside of the Pants Monkey's grandmother's house, so I thought layers would be the way to go, especially knowing that it was going to get cold later in the day.  I only regret not wearing my skinny jeans that would have expanded as I filled myself up with food!  We had so much food - turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, stuffing, salad, cheesy potatoes, rolls, it was insane!

After dinner we decided to take a walk, so I took a cue from Megan Bird and took my wine with me, because I hadn't quite finished it yet.  But we hadn't realized the weather had turned!  So we got about two blocks from the house and had to turn around because it was sleeting/snowing. 

After we had thawed out a bit we enjoyed pie for dessert - an apple one I brought and a pecan one my sister in law brought.  Oh man.  SO good.  I was in quite a fog heading home, but thankfully we live just up the block so it was a short walk in the cold to get home and then we crashed with a movie.

Today I am going to decorate my house for the holidays since I've been given the gift of time.  And the rest of the weekend we're celebrating birthdays!  My birthday is on Sunday and I'm deeming this the year of 30-fun, since I'm turning 31.  Yep, I'm cheesy like that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my bloggy friends! I am thankful for ALL of you! I am taking today off to be with my family, but here is a fun picture I stole from a friend's FB page this morning.

Back to your regularly scheduled Bethie tomorrow.  Enjoy your day!!

Bring it on

Twas the day before Thanksgiving and I have to work.  The Pants Monkey is asleep, all snug in our bed, with visions of a lazy day dancing in his head.  And I am jealous!

Oh well, at least I look cute!  Even if these purples don't totally match up, I felt like they still kind of work together somewhat.  I'm kind of excited I'm managing to extend the life of this maxi skirt a bit beyond summer.

Sweater - Daisy Fuentes, from Lynne

T-shirt - Herbergers

Skirt - Old Navy

Necklace - S&D with MMD buttonflower

Earrings - swap w/CC

Barrette - C. Jane Create

Boots - Payless 

I also realized I'm wearing a lot of gifted items today - all through this wonderful blogging community.  That makes me smile.  You are all wonderful people and I am so thankful for each and every one of you!!

I have to be honest, up until about yesterday I was feeling a little blase about the upcoming holidays and that it was all happening so fast, too fast, but today I am giddy.  I am so excited for Thanksgiving and then for mine and Mr. Monkey's birthdays this weekend.  And I'm starting to get excited for Christmas.  It will be a crazy time, but I'm ready to embrace it!  Bring it on!!

I'll probably post my Thanksgiving outfit and I'll be here on Friday too, gotta pass the time that day somehow!  But if you won't be around the blogosphere for awhile, I wish a very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  Be safe if you are traveling!  EDITED TO ADD  - Breaking News, I just found out I have the day off on Friday now!!  I won't be doing any shopping but you can believe I'm very happy to now have a FOUR DAY WEEKEND!!!

Thanksgiving week...or Easter??

This is such an odd week.  Not only is the schedule all goofy for work and what not, but the weather outside is just not right for this time of the year.  I'm not complaining, but it's very strange that I may not even need a jacket when I go to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday!

This morning it was a little cooler out, so I decided to wear pants instead of a skirt today.  And this is a combo I meant to try out last winter and never did, so today was a good excuse to do so.

Floral shirt - Decree, JCPenney

T-shirt - Old Navy

Pants - Squeeze (handed down from Megan Bird)

Necklace - Bead for Life

Shoes - Mudd 

Hopefully it doesn't make me look too much like an Easter egg!  With this weather I guess I could just use that as my excuse - you mean it's not the week before Easter?  It's warm enough!

I think the warm weather will be a good thing on Thanksgiving day though - I can go for a walk after dinner to walk off all the food!!  I think it will be much needed, our family has a private Facebook group and I saw the menu of what all will be at our dinner and holy cow, no one is going hungry!!

Inspiration Monday - Must be the boots

Happy Monday friends!  For most of you here in the US it's probably a short week due to Thanksgiving.  It's sort of a short week for me, I still get all of Thanksgiving Day off, but thanks to working in health care that stops for nothing, I do have to work at least part of the day on Black Friday this year.  It's mostly due to my boss still being out on her leave, she just wants me here part of the day in case any of the clinics have facility related problems.  If all is calm by lunchtime though I'm free to go home for the rest of my day.  Could be worse I suppose!  

Anyway, taking the sting off of Monday, is Inspiration Monday and today's pick is Jenna Dewan-Tatum, aka Mrs. Sexiest Man Alive (she's married to Channing Tatum, whom People just picked as this year's sexiest man).  

I really want a sweater like hers - it looks like a blanket, yet it's stylish! I sadly do not have such a sweater, so I kind of went after the stripes and boots instead for my casual look this last Friday.

T-shirt - Maurices

Sweater - Jones New York (from cousin)

Jeans - Old Navy

Boots - Target

Sunglasses - Lillian's

Bag - Coach via Ebay

Jewelry - S&D 

So we sometimes practice with our music group on Friday nights, so we were over at our director's house and it was an early practice because my director had a work event, so I figured I'd treat MY sexiest man alive, aka the Pants Monkey, to a date at one of our local taprooms after practice.  I figured my work outfit would transition well to a date outfit.  I can't tell you how many of the other members of the group commented on my outfit.  "Looks like Beth is dressed for what she's doing afterward tonight."  I'm like, I did wear this to work all day too!  I think it had something to do with the boots.  I received more compliments on these boots on Friday and it's silly - I have had these boots for the better part of eight years I bet!

Anyway, we did go have a nice date at our taproom and I was laughing with Mr. Monkey about the comments and he said "well, they don't normally see you dressed up all that much."  I suppose he is right, we wear a uniform to our masses and often to practices I go in a sweatshirt and jeans!  They don't get the stylish Bethie very often!

For more Inspiration outfits head on over to the two birds blog here and while you are there, make sure you wish a happy birthday to Nora Bird too!

Not so gray

Well happy Friday one and all!  Today marks the end of the Fall Color challenge with a color I have way too much of in my closet - gray. I'm sharing an outfit from last weekend that actually has more color than just gray because it was way too fun so I just had to share it.  It features a recent thrift store find that I could not resist when I saw it.

Scotty dogs on a sweater!!  How can you not love that??  The tiny sparkle in the picture above toward the bottom of the sweater?  It's a charm on the dog's collar!  I pulled this on with my new gray leggings and then decided I needed to cover my booty a bit more so I added a little skirt before going out to breakfast and a movie with the Pants Monkey.  Sorry the photo quality is so poor, I should never pose near that lamp, but I was short on time and didn't have my tripod at home, so I did what I could while I waited for Mr. Monkey to get ready.

Pink shirt - F21

Sweater - thrifted

Skirt - thrifted

Leggings and boots - Target

Necklace - Maurices

 I could have gone all monotone grays for today, but a little pink mixed in never hurt anybody!  Thanks to Megan Mae and Keely for hosting the challenge this week!  Check out Keely's blog next week for a wrap up of all the bloggers and their favorite outfits!

And happy weekend to you all!

Colonel Mustard in the Office with a week old outfit

Did you see what I did there with my title?  I attempted to play off of the board game "Clue" a little bit.  Anyway, if you haven't guessed, today's color for the Fall Color Challenge is mustard.  And I was silly and wore my most prominent mustard colored item of clothing a week (well a week and some change) ago on Election Day - see the "I voted" sticker?  But I knew I'd want to have a Thursday outfit planned ahead anyway, so I just saved this one for this week!  Sneaky huh?

Sweater - St. John's Bay, JCPenney

Denim shirt - Talbots, thrifted

Pants - No Boundaries, thrifted

Shoes - Mossimo, Target, thrifted

Necklace - S&D 

Speaking of sneaky, "Clue" is one of my all time favorite board games.  I used to play it with my mom and well, when there's two people, it's pretty easy to figure out "whodunnit" pretty easily.  I didn't have siblings though and my dad was often working on things in the garage or around the house when we'd play games.

In my adult years, my in-laws and I have discovered that it is really fun playing family board games like "Clue" or "Life" when alcohol is involved.  And loud.  Very loud.  But mostly fun.

What is your favorite board game, either now or from childhood?

Bad days and fresh starts

If you have been following my blog awhile, you know I fell in love with orange tones earlier this year, so today's Fall Color Challenge choice of pumpkin had me very excited!  Again, I don't know that what I picked is super "pumpkin" like, this is a richer toned orange hue, but hopefully it's close enough!  I think it definitely screams "FALL"!

Yesterday was one of those trying kind of days.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say it's emotionally draining to have a disagreement with someone you love.  So I was a bump on the couch when Mr. Monkey got home last night, already in my PJ's in fact.  He was aware of my bad day and comes in the door, looks at me and says "you're not wearing enough clothes."  I'm like "for what?"  He said "well we can't go get you that burger you've been craving if you're wearing that."  So I put something more than pajamas on and he took me down to our favorite dive bar/grill, ordered us a half pitcher of beer while we waited for our burgers to cook and then we brought them home with us where we drank another beer and watched some TV.  It was just what I needed yesterday night.  I love that he just knows the right thing to do, no questions asked.  Yes I'm sappy and yes I'm bragging, but I'm just saying, the Pants Monkey rules.

Thermal shirt - Mossimo, Target

Sweater - Zashi, handed down from cousin

Skirt - East 5th Avenue, JCPenney

Shoes - DSW

Purse - Vintage Coach, via Rewind

Tights - Target

Necklaces - Stella and Dot, Charming Charlie

Headband - C. Jane Create

Today I'm embracing the sunny day outside and moving on.  It's a new day and a fresh start!  I'm focusing on the positive and the good things.  It's a fitting way to be with Thanksgiving just over a week away (holy cow!).  As Willy Wonka says "good, then, on we go!"

Wine a little, you'll feel better

The color for today for the Fall Color Challenge is wine.  I kind of cheated a little bit on this one, I think the true wine color I'm wearing is my long sleeved t-shirt, but I had this outfit in mind for this day all last week as I was thinking about it.  This sweater is another one of my Goodwill finds.  So between my pink, purple and wine colors, I'm just varying shades of wine.  I'm Merlot and White Zinfandel and Pink Moscato all rolled into one.

Long sleeve shirt - Mossimo, Target

Sweater - thrifted Target stock

Skirt - two birds vintage via b. (a resale shop)

Boots - Target, old

Necklace - S&D 

It's no secret that the Pants Monkey and I are beer people, but we do love a good bottle of wine too.  Especially in the fall and winter months.  I love wine with a good steak.  I love wine with Italian food, especially a good Chianti, yum!  Lately one of our favorite meals has been to take some good cheeses, some crackers, and a little meat or bread and then having a good sharp Chardonnay.  I never used to like Chardonnay but have found lately I like a drier wine.
 

Speaking of good wine and cheese, last week I had the chance to meet up again with lovely Maca from the Spanglish Life and we had wine and a fantastic cheese plate!  We didn't take a picture this time, we were too busy enjoying our conversation!  I was so full of cheese when we were done, but it really was delicious!  I can't wait until the next time her and I meet up!

Finally, I got a close up of my boots today because it's Everybody Everywear today and the theme is boots! I have had these boots a million years.  They're a bit beat up and loved, but I think it adds to their charm.  They are crazy comfortable and they keep me plenty warm on these cold days!  And every girl needs a good pair of tall brown boots right?

Two for one

Happy Monday friends!  I'm going to do my best to combine two challenges in one post today, instead of separating into two outfit posts.  So, this is a picture heavy post, I'll try to keep it less wordy.

First up, two birds' Inspiration Monday.  We have Elizabeth Hurley today.  Has she been in anything recently?  I am embarrassed to admit I don't think I've seen her in anything since the original Austin Powers!

Anyway, her chic travel look here made for a great casual Friday outfit for me this past Friday.  I did not choose to wear a scarf and chose boots instead of heels, otherwise I think I nailed her look pretty well.

 Blazer - Bill Blass, thrifted

T-shirt - Express, thrifted

Jeans - LOFT, thrifted

Boots - Target

Necklace - S&D

Bag - Coach, consignment

It was somewhat warm on Friday, so I barely needed a jacket since I had on the blazer.  I had high hopes that maybe Mr. Monkey and I would hit up a taproom or something in the evening, but then he ended up having to work late, so this outfit was abandoned on Friday night in favor of p.j's fairly early on!  Anyway, be sure to head over to two birds for more Inspiration Monday outfits.

Now onto the Fall Color Challenge day one!  Today's color is teal.  I used to have more teal in my closet and it's a color I've always loved on me - but I ended up getting rid of a bunch of stuff I had in the last couple of years because they had worn out or didn't fit anymore.  So when I saw teal on the list I panicked a little and then did what any good fashion blogger does - ignored my shopping ban and went to the Goodwill!  I found this Target Stock sweater and my problem was solved!

I added my fun necklace from CC and then also discovered that my current cell phone cover is a shade of teal as well - so I threw that in for fun too!

 Sweater - thrifted Target stock

T-shirt - Decree, JCPenney

Necklace - via swap with CC

Pants - Tangents, Maurices

Shoes - Xhiliaration, Target

I'm so happy to have teal back in my closet again!  I'll have to find some more, because it really is a color I love!  Head on over to Megan Mae's blog to find the master list of participants in the Fall Color Challenge - it's always a great way to find new blogs, I have always had a great time with these challenges!  At the end of the challenge, watch Keely's blog for a wrap up!

Phew.  Told you it would be a long, full post!  If you made it this far - thank you!  And if you're new to my blog, welcome!  I hope you will stay awhile!