Solid

Well, we took the big plunge over the weekend and introduced Oliver to solid food.  We're making our own baby food and following the French recommendations for introducing babies to food.  So, it was suggested to start with green beans, so we did and well....the pictures tell the story.

What did you just put in my mouth?

NO.  I do not want this.  I do not like Green Eggs and Ham.  I do not like them, Sam I am.

Um, no daddy, it is not helping to have you hold me.  This stuff is WEIRD.

I know there are a lot of different methods, practices, what have you when it comes to baby food.  It boils down to whatever is working out best for parent and baby - so we'll keep trying.  He'll be getting a little bit of food every day at lunch, with something new introduced every four days or so.  Hopefully each day will get a little better!

After we tortured him a bit, he took a nap and then got up and sat outside with mommy and daddy and enjoyed some time in a big boy chair.  He's just growing up so fast I can't even stand it.  

My life is so rough.

I love my boy. 
How was your weekend?

ModCloth Uniquely Yours Challenge

ModCloth approached me to do one of their weekly Uniquely Yours style challenges and I jumped at the opportunity!  The challenge was to style their Coach Tour Dress in Navy Stripes with items that can be found in their online shop on Polyvore.  Here is what I came up with!

ModCloth Uniquely Yours Challenge by bethietheboo featuring a hair band headband

It was super fun to style this dress - I went for a classic, nautical feeling look that I thought would be fun for a dressier 4th of July event.  This would be a fun look for a wedding around the 4th of July or even a boat ride to watch fireworks!  Red accents are so fun to pair with navy and white!  Also - how adorable is this bag with the polka dots and bow?  I figured a little subtle pattern mixing of stripes and polka dots can be a ton of fun, so I also chose the red polka dot headband too, which also helps give this a fun retro feel!  Overall I think this would be a great summer outfit for anything, but I definitely had the 4th of July in mind when I styled it!  What do you think?  Did I do a good job?  Would you wear this look?  You can find this dress and many others (that are all too cute) over at ModCloth!

Thrift Style Thursday - Fabulous Floral

It's Thrift Style Thursday - and this week our theme is Fabulous Floral.  I actually had a little trouble with this one.  I used to own a ton of floral things and I am finding I don't actually have all that many floral pieces anymore!  I am such a girly girl about a lot of things - but I've never been that drawn to floral.  Anyway, I have a skirt and a dress that could have worked, but it's another rare chilly day so I instead opted for pants and this fun floral top I bought off an Instagram shop.

I decided to attempt outdoor photos for the first time in ages as well today.  I had some extra time when I dropped off Oliver this morning and my parents have a fantastic backyard, so I decided to take advantage of it!  It's one of my favorite places in the world - they finished it right in time for my senior prom, so of course we did photos back here with all of our friends.  We had our engagement party back here and several other parties with friends before I moved out when we got married.  I just love their patio so much!

Sweater - Style & Co (thrifted), Floral shirt - Court's Crazy Closet (Instagram shop)

Pants - Denzien (thrifted), Shoes - from cousin

I hope to use their patio for other outfit of the day photos when I have the chance!  Might as well take advantage of the time I spend there dropping off and picking up Ollie!
For other floral fun, check out the other Thrift Style Thursday gals at the links below!

Spoolish//Sandpaper Kisses//Sincerely Miss J//Confessions of a Refashonista//

Alligator Toe//Buttons&Birdcage//Snippets With Alex//Eclecticity//Being Zhenya//

Erika's Style Diary//Sistas from Cali//Rachel's Lookbook//

The Two Cent Chick//Lipstick And Yarn//Nuttier Than Nutella

Coffee Chat - College memories

Hi there!  Please grab your favorite beverage and sit down with me, it's time for our weekly coffee chat!

I cheated on my beloved Caribou today and grabbed a vanilla iced nirvana from Dunn Bros - I have to say, if I can't have Caribou, I will pick Dunn Bros any time.  The vanilla iced nirvana is sinfully good (cold pressed coffee with vanilla).  It was dangerous having Dunn Bros be so close to my clinic last summer when I was pregnant, I pretty much stopped in there after every appointment!  But enough about that.  How are you today?

I'm good, I had a great time at my ten year college reunion this last weekend.  I still can't believe it's been ten years.  I tell you though, stepping into the quad in the middle of my campus totally took me back - it was like returning home.  Things have changed, but many things are still the same and it was just so good to be there.

I met up with three of my close friends.  We were in the sorority together.  What are you looking at me like that for?  Yes I was in a sorority.  I know I don't strike you as the type, I'm not a party girl - but we weren't a party sorority.  It was a social/service sorority.  We did a lot of community service projects and a lot of sisterhood building events.  It wasn't all about partying and drinking and frat boys.  Besides, I was with Nate then and I didn't need the parties or the boys.  The service and sisterhood aspect was much more important to me!  Anyway, I love these girls and I love that we have stayed connected over the years even though two of them no longer live in town.

There were many events going on for the reunion on Saturday.  We went to a session on "Why We Eat" that was simply fascinating.  If that professor had been there when I was a student I would have changed my major to food and nutrition sciences just so I could take his classes!  He was a great speaker!  And ironically, right after that session, we had the President's Lunch.  It was a fancy three course meal complete with tea, coffee and wine.  While we ate, the President filled us in on the state of our college.  I have always adored her - she's a nun, but she has to be one of the most liberal, progressive nuns I have ever met.  It was fun to hear her talk about the place I love so much.  And then in the afternoon, my class put on a "Becoming a Beerista" event - learning how to pair beer with cheese.  It just only made sense that my class would be the ones to put on that event, let me tell you!  And there was a lot of beer consumed by yours truly because everyone kept giving me the ones they didn't like since they knew I liked beer!

We closed out the day with mass and it ended up kind of long because the classes celebrating 25 and 50 years were getting a special pin.  It was during that ceremony that my mind began to wander a bit and started playing games with me.  You know how those mind games can be - they are really no good.  But I was thinking about how about three years ago, I had an opportunity to take a job at my college.  It's actually always been a dream/goal/wish of mine to return to this place I love so much in a professional matter.  An opportunity presented itself and I decided to persue it.  At the time however, I couldn't see the bigger picture.  See, it would have been a pay cut and it would have also been a cut in hours for part of the year.  I wouldn't have worked during the month of January when the students are off for January Term.  I also would have worked part time to minimal time in the summer.  At that time I was like "there is no way I can make that work, I have to work full time!"  But now I'm like....what if I had gone for it?  I'd be in the perfect setting for more time with Oliver....sigh.  If I'd only known then what I know now.  At that time I could have supplemented my income with a part time job or something on the off times.  Obviously we can't see into the future, but I just can't help but feel a little sad that I didn't think more hard about that at the time.  So that was a bit of a downer note to end my reunion on unfortunately.  But the entire time I spent there was a ton of fun and it was so nice catching up with my friends!

So that's what's new with me, what's new with you?  Feel free to link up below if you'd like to share your own coffee chat post on your blog - I'll leave the link open through Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Influenster TLC VoxBox

So it's been quite some time since I've gotten an Influenster VoxBox.  I was super excited to be chosen to review the TLC VoxBox - geared specifically to moms!  This box is full of what I would consider to be some pretty awesome things - I thought I'd share a little bit about my box and what I think of the different items inside!

First off, here is the box - cute little purple box full of goodies!  All of these goodies were provided by Influenster for testing purposes.  There are quite a few things here!

The first item is a Shell Fuel Rewards card.  It is a loyalty program that you can use at Shell gas stations to save money on gas.  This is awesome for a mom like me who is always on the go, especially in the summer - and I find my new car goes through gas a lot faster than my old one, so saving money is a great thing!  The downside?  We have Shell stations in MN, but none of them are terribly close to my house.  I am still going to activate the card, if I'm out and about and need to fill up and I can find a Shell station, I will definitely use this!

The next thing I'm super excited about - how could you not be excited about free gelato??  I've been wanting to try the Breyers gelato, but I have also been trying to keep less sweets in the house - but seeing as I can get one of these FOR FREE - I plan on stopping for some on the way home tonight.  I will report back as to what I think!

Ok, so Oliver isn't terribly mobile yet so he's not likely to injure himself - hopefully anyway - but this next item looks really cool to me.  Neosporin To Go in a handy little bottle!  The best part about this?  You spray it on!  You don't have to squeeze anything out of a tube or touch the cut/burn/bug bite.  I could see this being useful for adults too, not just kids!  I love that it will fit in the diaper bag or my purse or even a pocket.

I grew up using Ivory soap - because I think my mom grew up using Ivory soap - but I haven't used it in a number of years now.  The cool thing about Ivory is it is free of dyes and perfumes, so it's great for delicate skin on babies or even sensitive skin on mom!  And also?  It floats!  So if you drop it in the bathwater, you don't have to dig at the bottom of your tub for it, it floats in the top of the water!

What mom doesn't need tissues in her purse?  I don't care if it's cold season or allergy season or you're going to a sad movie or whatever - tissues are a necessity!  These Puffs also have added lotion, so they might not be great for dabbing at sad eyes - but they'll feel great on a chapped nose that's tired of being blown from running (seriously is pollen season over yet?).  These will be quite useful!

And finally we have this Anew Reversalist Express Wrinkle Smoother from Avon.  While I would like to stay in denial that I'm getting older - the truth is I'm getting older.  I don't feel I have super wrinkled skin yet, but this stuff promises to smooth out forehead wrinkles, crows feet, etc.  Basically, it will smooth out your skin for a nice line free look.  Again, I haven't tried it out yet, but I will, I figure it has to help with some of my skin imperfections, be it from age or just uneven skin!  It seems pretty simple to use, just pat it on after your moisturizer.

So there you have it!  These are all very useful items for a busy mom like me!  I can't wait to try them all out - especially the gelato, yum!  Thank you Influenster!

A new beginning

Hello everyone!  Over the weekend here I quietly launched my updated blog.  I think the changes I've made will much more closely align with what I set out to change about my blog this year when I talked about simplifying things at the beginning of January.
First of all - I've simplified the name.  I wanted something short and simple and reflective of me. I kept trying to think of something cutesy - which is what I went for when I changed the name at the beginning of the year - but the more I thought about it the more I just wanted something short and easy.  I've really built my brand of "Bethie the Boo" and wanted that to still be part of it.  I also wanted it to be something that opened me up more to a multitude of blog topics.  My webmaster (the hubby) said why don't you just call it "Life with Bethie the Boo?"  Huh, it's so basic it just might work!  I think we're on to something here!
My awesome webmaster hubby also helped me clean up the look and layout of the entire blog - it's fresh, simple and easier to look at I think.  I'm working at improving pictures - whether for outfit posts or pictures of Oliver or other things I come across as well.
The header with my new name has a few items that represent myself and my family - the cat for the cats, the music note for me, the baby is for Ollie and the monkey is for my hubby - and in a bit of a jump the shark move, I am ready to stop calling him the Pants Monkey and instead reveal his actual name.  I asked his approval and he said it was fine - and given that he's done so much work to help me on the blog I think it's just time, not to mention, many of you already know it if you're friends with me in real life or on Facebook (or if you saw our giveaway video a couple of years ago when he spilled the beans there).  So ladies and gentlemen - my hubby's name is Nate.  I hope to more properly introduce you at some point here.  It is going to be much easier to no longer type out all of the words "The Pants Monkey" or even "Mr. Monkey."  And if I just totally rocked your world, I apologize!
So now you're wondering, what else does this mean for my blog?  Again, when I set out to simplify and streamline my blog at the beginning of the year, I intended to do more than just outfit of the day posts.  While I was still home on maternity leave with Oliver, that was easy to do.  Once I went back to work I found myself back into the habit of daily outfit posts - and that's not to say that it was a bad thing to do that - but I am finding as of late sometimes I stress out a great deal about what I'm going to wear each day because it has to be "blog worthy."  I also find that since Ollie has been born, I don't always have as much time to take nice quality outfit photos - most days they're pretty much rushed pictures I take as soon as I get to work.  That's not what I want this blog to be.  I do want to still share some outfit posts, but that is not going to be the main content of my blog anymore.  I started doing outfit of the day posts to learn to remix my closet and become more creative in my work outfits - I think I've succeeded at that and I don't need to record it every day.  That's not to say I won't still share some outfits though!  I'm going to shoot for a couple of outfit posts each week - I'll still be doing Thrift Style Thursday and other challenges I find fun.  
So what else am I going to blog about?  A little bit of everything really - I'll be continuing my new weekly Coffee Chat and adding a link up in case anyone wants to join me for those.  I'll be sharing about my life as Oliver's mama and Nate's wife.  I'll be talking about our adventures in our hometown.  It will be a lot of the things I had been writing about - just not always interspersed in an outfit post.
I know I met a lot of you because of this being more of a fashion/outfit of the day blog.  I hope we can continue to be friends, I will definitely still be reading your blogs because you all inspire me and give me ideas and have helped me become more fashionable and even if I'm not always blogging an outfit it doesn't mean I don't still enjoy all things fashion and beauty related!
Overall I'm excited about these changes - I feel like I'm finally moving in the direction I was trying to get into at the beginning of the year.  I'm back on track with my goal for the year of simply to "Simplify."  On we go.