It Was All Yellow

In general, I try to avoid being too matchy matchy. I remember in 7th grade, I had the opposite philosophy--I would try to match my socks to my shirt every day, and I thought that was the coolest thing around. But these days, I find that colors that "go" are often more exciting. My exception to that is the color yellow. I would wear yellow from head to toe if I didn't think I'd look like a giant lemon.

Take today for instance. I knew I was going to wear a white shirt for Wear It Wednesday, but it took some restraint not to pair the yellow skirt and necklace I picked out with yellow socks and a yellow cami. I was already carrying my yellowish purse, too. But, yellow makes me happy, and everyone knows it's my favorite color, so rock it I will! In moderation.

It was raining, and I was running late as usual this morning, so we're back to the blue wall and terrible lighting.

Shirt and Skirt: New York & Company; Cami: Old Navy; Boots and Socks: Target; Necklace: Peace Republic Clothing

How do you like my new trench coat?  The last time I owned a trench coat was probably four years ago.  It was a khaki knee length one from Old Navy.  It didn't take long for a guy friend at work to call me Inspector Gadget, and the coat was retired.  What does he know?

I've been keeping an eye on this coat at New York & Company for awhile, waiting for it to go on sale.  I finally took the plunge when they had their Everything 50% Off sale last week.  Usually, I go for bright colored coats, so I'm happy to now own a classic, black jacket.  The only problem is, one of the buttons fell off when I took it off at work.  Looks like I'll be doing a bit of sewing tonight.

I must say, having challenges like this a couple times a week sure makes getting dressed easier. And next week is Everybody, Everywear already. Woohoo!

I'm excited for the return of our ANTM recap vlog tonight! So stay tuned for some giddy, wine-induced humor from Sabreen and me.

Also tomorrow, be sure to look for my first post as the Fashion Mom feature writer on Caffeine Coquette!

Inspiration...Tuesday?

Even though Inspiration Monday, hosted by Megan and Nora from Two Birds, kicked off yesterday, I thought it was way too windy to participate and decided to join in today instead.  Those two both have a great fashion sense, and they are queens of vintage. I'm always impressed by how they deliberately select ugly clothes from thrift stores and make them look chic and wearable.  Because of this,  I was looking forward to seeing what they would select for their first inspiration photo.

When I saw it, I was even more excited about participating because I knew I had a blue skirt that would work perfectly for this look.  I didn't know what top to wear since I didn't want to wear a graphic tee to work, so I stole Megan's idea of the striped shirt.  Here's my interpretation.



Striped shirt and Cardigan: Old Navy; Skirt: Express; Tights: Target; Shoes: ModCloth; Necklace: Maurices


Dela wanted to join in on the fun, too.

Here's a detail shot of my bib necklace from Maurices.

And finally, an outtake for ya.

Racing Sausage Sandwich

It's Opening Day today here in Brewer land, and a few people on my team are off enjoying a day of tailgating, beer drinking, and brat eating...oh, and I guess some baseball watching. I personally am not a baseball fan, but I like to catch about one game a year for the socializing and food-eating aspects.

For those of us stuck at work, the cafeteria provided us with a fun lunch option called Racing Sausage Sandwich. According to the description, it is comprised of slices of Polish, hot dog, bratwurst, Italian, and chorizo topped with cheese curds on a fresh bun.

If you are not from Wisconsin, you may be like, "Double-you Tee Eff is a racing sausage?" You can read all about them on the MLB site, but basically, it's five people dressed in sausage mascot uniforms, racing each other along one end of the baseball diamond. It's awesome--a sight to be seen.

Photo Source: MLB

At first I was going to skip this sandwich in favor of a healthier grilled chicken option.  A friend at work who is also doing WW looked it up and found that it's 20 points (I get 36 in a day).  However, I just couldn't not try it and tell people about it.  Plus, I figured it'd be a lot less awkward taking a picture of it if I actually bought it and took it to a table.  The sandwich, like the Racing Sausages, was definitely a sight to be seen.

I ended up only eating half of it and getting some fruit on the side to justify it.  The sausage part wasn't my favorite, but the hot dog was good, and the cheese curds on a sandwich idea was GENIUS!  The only thing they could've done to make it more Wisconsin is dip the thing in beer.  Hmm...

Go Brewers!

Photo Source: NFLJerseys-Online

Thank Goodness for Daycare and Wine

Photo Source: Cedar Creek Winery

Wowwww, I think everyone in the household was relieved that it was a daycare day today. Yesterday was rough. It must've been the weather because I heard at least one other baby wasn't very happy yesterday either.

We did our taxes in the morning, which put Nate in a bad mood right off the bat.  Luckily, during that Bridget was very well-behaved and intently watched Princess and the Frog on Netflix.  For the rest of the day, though, she alternated eating, rubbing her eyes, and screaming, but not really sleeping at all.  I think she had two twenty minute naps all day.  Nate and I took turns taking care of her; but by the end of the night, Nate was at his breaking point.  Not only did he have to deal with taxes and his screaming kid, but work had been calling him all day to deal with stupid stuff.  He was in awe of my patience with Bridget by the end of the night, but honestly, I couldn't have done it without him relieving me every so often.

Compared to yesterday, Friday and Saturday were a breeze. After work Friday, I met up with a couple of my friends from college for some shopping. Although we didn't have many purchases, it was fun and relaxing just hanging out, window shopping, and chatting.

Saturday, I started off the day cleaning the house since Nate was having friends over starting at nine o'clock for a nerdy gaming day. After that, I got Bridget and myself ready to head off to a friend's baby shower. It wasn't until I got to Target to buy a gift that I realized the baby shower was at noon, and it was already 11:30, and the location was at least a half hour away. Needless to say, I was late for that.

It was fun to see my friend's pregnant belly, and it was also fun to see all the other babies at the shower. There were three babies at our table alone and one toddler also in attendance. The food was excellent, and I definitely ate too much of it. When I was finished, I noticed I dropped some chocolate from one of the desserts on my lap, and it ended up all over one of Bridget's pant legs. Whoops. She ended up spending most of the shower pantless.

I'm finding with Weight Watchers that I tend to waste all my points early in the day. Which isn't really that bad of a thing because better to eat a lot of junk in the morning than after eight o'clock at night. On both Saturday and Sunday, I had pretty much no points left by dinner time. Saturday, I had fruit and a pickle for dinner; and Sunday, I had a half a cup of pasta. That's it. Seems to be working out OK, though, because I've lost 11.5 pounds since I started back up on January 31. (It should be noted also that I took a two-week hiatus in the middle of February when Nate's family was over.) It's kind of neat, but I still have such a long way to go.

When Nate's buddies were over, I was bummed I couldn't drink with them even though I wasn't actually hanging out with them. I tells ya, alcohol really does rake in the points. Sunday, I indulged in one glass of wine since it was such a rough day, but that was all I could afford with my lack of points. That one glass sure did help, though! We only had either really fruity and sweet Maine wine (from Bartlett Maine Estate Winery, where they know Nate by name) or strawberry Wisconsin wine (from Cedar Creek Winery) in the house, so I went with the local stuff. The dessert wine from Maine is way too sweet and syrupy for my taste.

Anyway, after a bit of sleep and an extremely delicious and satisfying cinnamon dolce latte from Starbucks, I'm optimistic and energized for the week.  My mom wants to visit tomorrow night, so I'm hoping Nate and I can get away for a dinner date.  Then Wednesday, Sabreen and I are planning to get together for some ANTM watching and vlogging.  The rest of the week and weekend, I have nothing planned, and I'm looking forward to some relaxing if the baby lets us!

Baby's New Shoes

Bridget's got her new shoes on (from H&M) and is ready to take on the day!  On the docket: shopping for a baby shower gift, going to said baby shower, then watching DVRed girly shows with mama the rest of the night.

Oh em gee, I Got an Award!

Thank you so much to the adorable Candace of Lovely Little Rants and Peace Republic Clothing (where I got my super cute yellow flower necklace) for including me in her picks for the Versatile Blogger Award!

Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who gave you back the award and link back to them in your post.
• Tell us seven things about yourself
• Award fifteen recently discovered new bloggers
• Contact these bloggers and let them know they've received their award (:

Here are my seven fun-ish facts:

1. I've been to well over a hundred concerts (over forty of which were Hanson shows...).  They cover a wide range of musicians, though, like Green Day, Weezer, Chicago, Amy Grant, Newsboys, tons of boy bands, Maroon 5, etc.
2. Those root things that grow out of potatoes FREAK ME OUT.  I actually had to make my husband throw out a bag of potatoes today.
3. I pronounce LOL as loll and LMAO as Lemayo, and I had people convinced that I was going to adopt two children and name them as such.
4. My first major celebrity crush was JTT (who's with me?).
5. My favorite punctuation marks are parentheses (can't you tell?), and my favorite parts of speech are prepositions.  Until, by, into, after, from, across, against, with, toward, on...  Actually, it probably should be conjunctions.  I feel like I use them kind of excessively sometimes.
6. I love to drive by myself and sing at the top of my lungs, but I also get road rage really easily.
7. My favorite thing maybe ever is cookie dough.

Fifteen I would like to recognize would be:

(I tried to pick people who haven't gotten the award before, but if you have, here's another one!)

PsychoBabble - Gotta support a BFF! Plus I enjoy her blog although she doesn't have as much time to post these days.
cookie cutter home - Another BFF and soon-to-be homeowner with lots of interior design genius.
Ten Little Fingers, Ten Tiny Toes - A friend with lots of good mommy insight.
Shout it out, so everybody can hear - My daily fix of Hanson, Harry Potter, and Glee images.
The Visions of a Tall Bald Guy's Fan - A Hanson fan with a lot of style and humor.
Styles Without Reservations - I'm starting to think this girl and I are kindred spirits. We both had blue and yellow weddings, and we're both working on novels...sort of. (Remind me ask her what hers is about.)
Distinct.Style - I just love this girl's style, and she has great refashioning tips.
Matchless Vision - Wisconsin girl with great style!
VTPete - Random funny stuff.
Restless Cookie - This girl is gorgeous and has great style.
Plus Size Momma - Her son is the same age as my daughter!
Peanut Butter Hand Print - A cute fashion blogging mom of two.
Geek in Heels - Hilarious, smart, geeky, and her daughter is ADORABLE.
Maison - Super cute.
Kinzie Says - Another stunning girl with great style.

The Following Thing

TGIF!!!  I couldn't think of a picture for today, and I didn't take any this morning, so here's one of my dog because A. She's cute, and B. She's a herding dog, so she likes to follow people around.

1. Guest posts are a good way to gain new exposure.  What do you think is the appropriate way to go about securing a guest spot?  I've only done one guest post, and I came upon the opportunity because the blogger put out the word that she was looking for people to do guest posts while she was on vacation.  I sent her an email saying what I'd plan on writing about, and that was about it.
2. Leaving comments is essential to growing your blog. But how can you leave a comment without coming across as ‘Follow Me. Follow Me!’?  When I first joined IFB, I got a little caught up in the "hey, check out my blog if you want" type of thing because it seemed like that's what others were doing, but now I just leave my link with my name when I comment.  They'll click if they want to; and if they like my content, then they'll follow, too.  I also think it's important to be sincere and relevant to the content of the post.
3. We’ve all gotten a mass email at one time or another asking for blog exposure, a link exchange, etc… But the mass emails don’t work.  How do you make your email stand out from the crowd?  Funny, I did just get one of these the other day.  I personally don't like blog hops for the sake of blog hops.  I like when there's a project behind it, like the FBFF questions, 30 for 30, or Paper Doll Project, stuff like that.  It's fun to see how the other linked bloggers answered the questions or completed the project.  So to more directly answer the question, make your link exchange more interactive.
4. In interacting with other bloggers where do you draw the line between seeking support and begging for exposure? I can't think of a time when I've asked for support, but I have gotten a little spammy promoting a post before.  I'm not really sure how others market themselves actually, so it'll be really interesting to read everybody else's answers.  I'm in awe of new blogs that have 100+ followers already. 
5. What’s one rule of engagement error you made and how have you remedied that?  Following someone simply to get them to follow back?  And then expecting others to do the same?  Following other people's blogs is a good way to encourage people to follow back, but if the content doesn't interest me, there's not much point of having it in my Google Reader if I'm not actually going to read it.  As much as I'd like to have hundreds of readers, I'd also like my readers to enjoy my content.  I recently un-followed a blog that pretty much every other post was an ad for something.  I don't know if all these things are sponsors or what, but it definitely does not make for good content.  If I wanted to see commercials, I'd watch TV.