Interesting Facts About Me

I haven't been keeping up real well with the weekly prompts from the Let Your Blog Shine group I'm part of, but the prompt from last week caught my eye and felt kind of timely.  30 Interesting Facts About Me.  I don't know if I'll be able to come up with 30, but I'll do my best.  I thought this would be a good topic given that I've met some new people in the last few months here and have some newer readers - now you can get to know a little more about me.  Or you might be cringing at the idea of reading another list post and if that's the case, I seriously apologize.  I will do my best to keep it interesting!  Here we go!
30 20 Facts About Me:
1. Other than giving birth to my son, I have never been hospitalized for anything, I have never had stitches or broken any bones. 2. Last year I developed an allergy to avocado.  I actually don't miss guacamole too much, but I do miss avocado in sushi rolls! 3. My college degree is in communication studies, but I have a minor in music, vocal performance and I almost majored in music but gave up due to never having learned piano. 4. I worked for two years as a youth minister following my college graduation. 5. I had a part time job when I was a senior in college as a photographer/sales person at a Target portrait studio.  I was horrible at it and I still feel bad for any families that have photos I took of them! 6. When I was little I used to say I'd be a librarian when I grew up, followed by a nurse and then for years I thought I'd be a teacher. 7. My coffee habit didn't start until after I got married for the most part.  I started drinking lattes shortly before that, but regular coffee is still a newer thing to me. 8. I also have only truly liked beer for about seven years or so.  It wasn't until Nate started homebrewing that I started finding I actually liked it. 9. I have never read any of the Harry Potter books, I have still not managed to even finish the first one.  But I have seen all of the movies at this point.  I know.  Blasphemy. 10. I've been fortunate enough to go to Disney World four times in my life so far.  I look forward to going with Nate and Ollie someday, maybe by the time Ollie's around five years old. 11. I played the flute for nine years between high school and college.  I don't know I'd still remember how at this point though!  Nate played trombone in high school but then became a drummer.  Ollie will have lots to choose from if he wants to learn an instrument! 12. I graduated high school 15 years ago this year.   13. When I was a little girl I did not realize that pancakes and oatmeal were breakfast foods because we would frequently have them for dinners, especially on Fridays during Lent. 14. Also on the food front, I was a very picky eater when I was young, I had a lot of issues with textures. I didn't like things like salad even until I was in college - now it's one of my favorite things to eat! 15. I love the smell of chemical things - oil, gasoline, the smell of my dad's printing shop.  Yep. I'm a weirdo! 16. I have only traveled out of the United States to go to the Bahamas and Canada.  Someday I'd like to add to that list! 17. I am not a sporty person.  I did play soccer for two summers though when I was in middle school.  I was not very good, ha! 18. I am an introvert.  This is surprising to a lot of people because I can be very outgoing and I am comfortable speaking in front of people and such, but that's a common misconception.  You can be outgoing and even like being around people, but still be introverted.  I need my own time to re-energize. 19. I don't like actual cherries, but I love all the cherry flavored things - especially Jolly Ranchers.  Give me all the Cherry Jolly Ranchers! 20. I'm stopping at 20.  I don't think I'm interesting enough for 30 things!!
So there you go.  20 things about me - hopefully you learned something new!  Or maybe I just scared you all off because you're thinking, this girl is kind of weird.  But if you're still reading, then thank you!  Feel free to share something interesting about you that I might not know in the comments!

June Favorite Looks

If you follow me on Instagram (and if you aren't you should! @BethieTheBoo) you may have noticed that I have done a couple of style challenges this month.  I love following along with these, especially ones that are a little more general, because they help provide me inspiration to help with mixing my closet a little better.  One of the challenges I did was a Dress Week Challenge and the other was a cute one that was themed after Rolling Stones songs - Rad Moves Like Jagger.  I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the month today.

 Dress - Target, Sweater - Camy Couture

Sandals - Target, Necklace - Stella and Dot

 Shirt - Stitch Fix, Pants - Mossimo (Target)

Bag - Stitch Fix, Sandals - Marshalls, Necklace - Lia Sophia

 Shirt and bag - Stitch Fix, Skirt - Gap (thrifted), Necklace - Stella and Dot

Sandals - Target, Bracelet - Nine West (gift from MN Blogger Bash)

Dress and bag - Stitch Fix, Necklace - Stella and Dot, Sandals - Target
Lots of color this month, lots of skirts and dresses, and you can see I am pretty much still in love with this Urban Expressions bag from my April Stitch Fix.  I carry a different bag for a few days here or there and I keep coming back to this one!  I haven't had a crush this hard core on one of my clothing items in quite some time!  Which look is your favorite?

Foodie Friday

Today I thought I'd make you all jealous and share some of the awesome food we've been enjoying as of late because CSA season has started in our house and that means tons of fresh veggies and awesomeness!  Here are a few favorites of the last couple of weeks!

Nate made us an Ecuadorian style meal for date night this week.  He marinated a pork chop in some spices.  Then he took some of the vitamin greens, kale and spinach that we received from our CSA and turned that into a pureed green sauce mixed up with garlic scapes, onion and jalapeno.  He also added in some turnip that also was in our CSA.  On the side he gave us a little bit of rice with a fried egg on top, because most Ecuadorian meals include an egg and we are getting fresh eggs with our CSA this year too.  This meal was AMAZING.  

Next up is a meal so simple it was actually made by yours truly!  I can't take credit for the idea, the recipe came from our CSA's blog.  But it seriously so simple.  We are getting a cheese share with the CSA this year and one of the cheeses was a soft cheese called Quark - it's a similar texture to a cream cheese and is even sweet like one.  They suggested putting the quark on a baguette and then topping with a slice of radish (also in our CSA box).  My in-laws tried the recipe and said they used Wheat Thins instead of bread, so we decided to do that too.  So there you have it - a little cheese spread on the cracker, top it with a radish slice and garnish with just a little salt and pepper.  OMG.  To die for. I realize you may not have access to quark - cream cheese would probably be a fine substitute or even a soft goat cheese spread would probably be tasty too!  We added a little leftover fried steak for some extra protein, but I seriously could have been satisfied with these little cracker treats all on their own!

And last up pizza.  I know I talk about how we make our own pizza here on the blog a lot.  This last one however was extra awesome, because we topped it with our own homegrown basil and Nate actually grilled it!  It came out with the crispest, most delicious crust ever!  We're having another one for dinner tonight and I can't wait!  Until we make it to one of the pizza farms, doing it up at home will definitely work for now!

So there you have it!  Did I make you hungry?  Or jealous?  What are some of your favorite foods in the summer?  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thrift Style Thursday - Sunshine On My Shoulder

Today's Thrift Style Thursday theme was chosen by yours truly - inspired by the official Summer Solstice last weekend I chose a theme of "Sunshine" - any sunny, bright look that channels summer days! I originally thought I'd go for more of an orange hued look for today, but then I saw this shirt in my drawer and I was like, oh this is the one.  If there was every a sunnier feeling shirt, I wouldn't know!

Also today is one of those awesome days where the stars aligned and every item I'm wearing was either thrifted or gifted!  My wardrobe is more and more thrifted things these days, but it's still not often that every last thing I'm wearing is completely thrifted! Well ok, my Fitbit was clearly not thrifted, but it's also not all that fashionable, so we won't count that!

Shirt - Gap (thrifted), Skirt - Merona (garage sale)

Shoes - via Instagram shop, Bag - Stella and Dot (from friend)

Necklace - Mode (free from event) 

I just love how all of this came together today, it just might be my favorite Thrift Style Thursday look of late!  I might be biased because it was my theme though!  But seriously, the yellows and gold are just all playing so nice together.  I was even going to carry my favorite Stitch Fix bag (which wouldn't have been thrifted) to bring in some orange tones, but my favorite Stella and Dot bag tends to look either gold or silver and today it looks more gold and I think matches pretty well!

But someone else at our house decided to participate and wear some orange today, so I decided to take his picture too! #ToddlerStyle

And guess what?  His whole outfit is thrifted too.  This entire outfit came from Once Upon a Child, courtesy of Grandma.  He's still quite the ham when the camera comes out, he knows how to say "Cheese" now.  Love my cutie.

Both of my look and Ollie's look just make me smile and feel happy and that's what I think today's theme should be all about!  Be sure to check out the other thrifty ladies at their blogs listed below and also check out the Thrift Style Thursday Facebook page to see looks from some of our newer members too!

Summer Bucket List 2015

It feels like it's already been summer for months already in one way, but the true summer solstice just happened over the weekend and we still have lots of summer ahead of us!  I love that so far this summer, aside from our vacation, we have been just taking things as they come and being a bit more spontaneous.  That is pretty much the plan for the rest of the summer, but I do have a short list of things I hope to do this summer.  So maybe instead of a bucket list thing, it's a pocket list thing. (I know one friend will understand that statement!)  
-Visit at least one, possibly two pizza farms.  I've been seeing a lot about these for the last couple of years and there's a great list of suggestions on the Twin Cities Moms Blog too of farms in both MN and WI.  There are two of them we're looking at visiting, one of them even makes their own wine - sign me up!  It'll be a little drive for them, but they sound like they'll be worth it!
-Speaking of wine, visiting one of our wineries.  We didn't actually get to the winery we enjoy up near Itasca, but there are plenty of others around the area we love.  And almost all of them have dogs running around, so it's kind of a win/win trip for our family - mom and dad get wine, Ollie gets to play with a puppy!
-Try out a splash pad with Oliver.  I didn't try taking him to one last year because he wasn't even crawling yet, but this year with how much he loves water and loves to run around I have a feeling he will love a splash pad on a warm day!
- Go to the beach.  We have this man made beach I adore, the water is actually chlorinated, but there is still sand.  Again, we tried this a couple of times with Ollie last summer, but the days we tried to go were not super warm and being that he wasn't that mobile, he just didn't enjoy it.  I think this year he will love it and not just for the swimming.  I am pretty sure he is going to love the sand.
-Check out one of our local flea markets.  Nate and I got really into going to flea markets last summer.  He was on a quest for old Nintendo games and flea markets proved to be good places to look for those, but we also found a bunch of great stuff for Ollie.  They're pretty much a giant garage sale, but they're fun to wander around and "treasure" hunt.
-Hit up more taprooms.  We haven't been doing that as much, but now that it's nice out and we're finding more and more taprooms have food trucks/patios/family friendly atmospheres, that they're not bad places to go and bring Ollie with.  
-Have a date night at the new Betty Danger's Country Club.  So we have this pretty famous tiki bar here in Minneapolis called Psycho Suzi's.  It's a pretty fun place right on the Mississippi River, but they used to have this other location.  It's been sitting vacant, but the owner has now opened up a new restaurant in the old space called Betty Danger's Country Club.  Apparently the food is Tex Mex style and the highlight of the place is this giant ferris wheel that you can buy a 20 minute ride for and you get drinks and snacks to enjoy.  I would like to go there once just to do it!
-Go on more family picnics.  We discovered how much we enjoy having a picnic outside while we were in Itasca.  Ollie has a booster seat we can strap to the bench of a picnic table.  We have a lot of great parks in our area and we're getting more into biking, so I think it would be great to go biking and then have a picnic!
-Visit the Rooftop Park at the Children's Museum.  We've been going there a lot over the winter months but haven't been over there much now that it's been nice out, but I know they have a great outdoor exhibit that we should really check out, especially since we have the membership!
-Speaking of memberships, we have one for the Science Museum too and they also have an outdoor exhibit called The Big Backyard.  We've never checked that out in all the years we've had memberships there, so this year is the year I think we need to do it.
-Go on a boat ride.  Given the fact that Ollie kind of hated the boat up in Itasca this might have to be a date night activity, but I would love to do a boat ride.  Nate and I did a few boat rides together a couple of summers ago and I have been missing that.  There's something about going on a boat as the sun goes down and getting that fresh air.
-Go to the State Fair in August.  This one is pretty much a given, we haven't missed a Fair yet, so I know we'll be able to make that work!
-Check out the Lego sculptures at the Landscape Arboretum.  I have heard mixed reviews on this - some positive and some negative, but I still would like to go down and check it out.  
And of course, eating outside as much as we can, both out and at home, having bonfires when the weather holds, walking to the park, playing loads of disc golf and just soaking up as much as we can of the beautiful weather days!   I won't be disappointed if we don't hit all of these things, but they definitely give me a starting point for any day we're like "what should we do today?"  What's on your summer bucket list?