Summer Highlights

With the summer closing out this weekend, here are some of my favorite moments from this summer.

 In June I went to Napa with my college sorority friends. It was such a fun trip! We stayed in the cutest house downtown Napa and hired a driver for 2 days of tours to boutique wineries. It was a blast catching up with everyone and I'm looking forward to the next trip!

On of the best summer purchases was this pool. It fits a full size raft, so I could layout during naptime. :)

Roman is getting pretty good at riding his balance bike.

 

We let Roman pick out this bed. He loves the house tent and requests that we knock on his door to wake him up in the morning.

 We went to Fort Myers with my family to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary. It was Roman's first time at the beach and he loved the whole trip! We stayed at the Pink Shell, which has a great family pool and activities each day for kids.

This was taken earlier in the summer. Roman is doing really well swimming now and prefers not to wear his puddle jumper. He especially likes doing cannon balls!

 We signed Roman up for a Ninja class and he loves it. It's basically obstacle courses, but he thinks it's pretty cool.

Friends Forever golf outing

We celebrated our friends Brandon and Maria's wedding in Chicago. Dan went to college and played baseball with Brandon. It was such a fun weekend and reunion with all his college friends.

Life Lately

It's been awhile since I've posted here. So many excuses I could make, but generally it comes down to time and motivation. Every now and then friends tell me they miss my blog always checking for new posts and it encourages me to continue. I started this blog 8 years ago as a hobby and a place to discuss sewing and fashion. Since then I've been married, changed jobs and had a child. In the last several years blogging has become an industry and a career for many. Bloggers are now fashion influencers with large audiences on social media platforms where they are able generate income. I never intended to make money off my blog, although sometimes I wish I would have gone that route. I would just like to share my personal interests in fashion, sewing, cooking and family. I hope to continue posting and hope that you will continue following. I truly appreciate the interest of those who follow me.

So what have I been up to? Working, Traveling, Shopping, Cooking, Wife(ing) and Mom(ing). The usual.

Working - I am fortunate enough to still be working in my office 3 days a week and from home with Roman 2 days. I still work in sales for a general service contractor producing tradeshows and events. I really enjoy what I do and the people I work with. I feel very lucky to be able to split my time and balance a work/life schedule.

Traveling - I have traveled quite a bit this year for both work and personal trips. I've been to Denver, NYC, Napa, San Antonio, Ft. Myers, and Chicago and will end the year with a couple more trips.

Ft.Myers beach family vacation

Exercise - You may remember last year I did the Faster Way to Fat loss, Post Here. That was an awesome program, but not sustainable for me. I did not enjoy the workouts and could not fast forever. I wanted to enjoy breakfast with my family. So this year I started a Beachbody program called Liift 4. The programs is a combination of weights and HIIT. I am currently in week 6 of 8 and am really enjoying it. The workouts are only 4 days a week and around 35 minutes each. This is what sold me because I can't really fit much else into my week. Admittedly, I miss cardio and still run and do the elliptical once or twice a week too.

Shopping -Some of my favorite summer purchases:

Abercrombie swimsuit. I have received so many compliments on this suit. It covers all the right places, but is still cute and trendy.

Free People maxi

TJ Maxx Jumpsuit. This might be my favorite purchase this summer. It cost me a whole $16.00 and I love it so much. I wear it to work, on dates, and just casually!

 

Reading- I'm not a huge reader, but I've read a couple books this summer. My favorite was "What Alice Forgot".  It's a light read with a happy ending.

Watching - Dan and I get into a lot of shows. We recently finished the first season of The Sinner. It's dark, but pretty good. We are currently watching Sharp Objects, which is also kind of dark. The final episode is this Sunday.

Listening - I started listening to Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert on a road trip and really liked Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Kristen Bell's episodes.

Cooking - My go-to summer favorites are BLT salad, Grilled Pizzas, and Fish Tacos.

So that's about it! I'll share more photos from the summer in a new post.

NYC for 34

This trip happened 2 months ago, but I didn't want to forget to post it. When I found out Dan would be traveling for work over my birthday, I asked him if I could meet up with him in NYC. It worked out perfectly for me to meet him for the weekend. On Friday, I flew in early and spent the day alone fabric shopping while Dan worked. I hit Mood Fabrics and B&J Fabrics. I really enjoyed looking at all the fabrics, but just couldn't find anything I wanted or had a vision of something to make.

 

travel outfit

After fabric shopping, I had extra time to kill so I went to the Museum at FIT. It was really neat and I enjoyed seeing it. It said no cameras, but I snuck a few pictures.

I'm obsessed with  Milk Bar birthday truffles and I went there twice over the entire weekend. I love them so much that Dan even ordered me a box for mothers day! I just found out they have a cook book and hope to get that soon too.

We stayed at 11 Howard in Soho. It was a nice hotel and had a great location. On Saturday, Dan and I shopped around Soho and had Prince St. Pizza.

This is the only picture we took together all weekend.

 

We spent Saturday evening and Sunday in Brooklyn. We met up with our good friends Cory and Erica for dinner in Brooklyn at Emily. 

 

Much like the majority of our trips we ate, drank and shopped through the weekend. It was a fun little getaway!

BOGO Target Shoes

Target has a Buy One, Get One 50% off deal going on right now and so many good shoes to choose from! This deal is for all, but  here are some of my favorite women's shoes.

I already own the ankle rain boots and really love being able to pull them on and off easier than higher ones. They also look exactly like a more expensive J.Crew pair. I also have the silver mules, but in black. I wear them to work quite often. I have the espadrilles and black slides in my cart right now. I'm considering the gold flats because my grandma had a pair exactly like that years ago. :) I also really love the perforated ankle boots and espadrille loafers.  Happy Shopping!

Denver Trip 2018

Every year my family gathers in Denver for my grandmother's birthday at the end of February. This year I decided to take Roman and plan a skiing day with my sister. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away in January. We decided to make the trip anyway since I have cousins and aunts and uncles that live in Denver.

Roman started a new school 2 weeks before the trip, so I was pretty sure the new germs would cause him to get sick and sure enough he was throwing up the night before the trip. I crossed my fingers for a 24 hour bug and kept our plans. It ended up being a 4 day GI bug, that put a little damper on our trip. Roman did really well flying despite being sick and felt well enough to still have a little fun in Denver.

My cousin Kevin took my sister Meagan and I skiing in Copper Mountain. We both love skiing, even though we are both beginners. After the first run we both got a little sick from the altitude and the cold. It was 10 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like -6. Thankfully, Kevin had backup gear for us. After lunch, a couple shots and the sun coming out we felt much better and had a great afternoon! Turns out I'm a worse skier than I thought. No falls, but I need some practice.

I didn't take very many pictures during the trip since Roman was sick, but I always like to document  our vacations on my blog and refer to them later for the memories!

 Meagan and I got matching ski pants from Amazon. We wanted to look cute together, but honestly we were freezing!

My niece Rye and her matching new doll.

The only picture we took of the whole crew before we all left.

Friday Favorites

It's so hard not to browse and inevitably buy spring clothes in the middle of winter. I have to use restraint every year around this time when all the bright spring clothes are released. I try to limit purchases that I can't wear for another few months, but it's still fun to look! Here are my current favorites.

I'm really obsessed with bold stripes right now, as you can probably tell from my last few posts. I'm in love with this dress from Express and it comes in a romper too! Dying over these Forever 21 pants as well. Round bags are all the rage again this year. I have a wicker one from last year, but would like to have a leather one too! Check out these cute ankle rain boots with the bow! They come in several colors.

 

Colorful Striped dress, Gingham slides - Express

Pom Pom round tote, striped dress, rain boots with bow, and yellow ruffle dress - Nordstrom

Faux Leather round bag - Nine West/Macy's

Trench dress- Target

Colorful clutch - Red Dress Boutique

Colorful striped pants - Forever 21

 

 

 

Bold Stripes and Bright Colors

Bold stripes and bright colors are my favorite. I try to wear neutrals, but I always come back to bright colors. Here are some new arrivals that I really like.

ASOS - Blue and white stripe maxi, green paper bag pants, yellow sweater
H&M - White dress with black stripes, black and white paper bag pants, red jumpsuit
J.Crew - Green ruffle dress, blue and gold ring, color block clutch
Sole Society - striped pumps