Camouflage

If you need me, I'll just be over here, pretending you can't see my baby belly behind my extra large scarf.

It just felt like a good day to hide, I guess...

Dress; Motherhood Maternity

Cardigan: Gap (outlet)

Scarf: Cost Plus World Market (from Jess in her last scarf swap)

Shoes: Nine West

Belt: Land's End

Optimism Is a Good Thing

Unfortunately, the purple top on this dress just does not photograph well, at all. And that's too bad because honestly? That pretty purple top is the only reason I bought this dress in the first place. But you know what IS nice about this picture?
A black skirt, a blurry iPhone camera, and a slimming mirror.

If you need me, I'll be over here ignoring EVERY OTHER MIRROR in my life that is trying to tell me that I look much, much bigger than this. Welcome to my happy place, friends :)

Dress: Motherhood Maternity

Cardigan: Banana Republic

Belt: Land's End

Shoes: Target

Where does the time go?

Can y'all believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving? ALREADY?!?!

I swear, it seems like just yesterday I was celebrating New Year's Eve. Time really does fly when you're having fun, I guess...

Here's to a fantastic holiday weekend for everyone, filled with family, food, fun, and maybe a great shopping deal or two :)

T-Shirt: J Crew

Sweater: Macy's

Jeans: Gap

Boots: Bear Trap (from DSW)

Scarf: Land's End


Don't forget, eShakti is offering $20 off of any order through the end of the year, when you use the promotional code NOTAHOBBY0811.

The discount code is not case sensitive. Only one gift certificate can be used per order. The code can be used any number of times until the validity period. This discount code is not applicable on our Overstock category. This cannot be combined with any other offer / discount that may be active during this period.


Also, you can find my post about the skirt the company sent me to review here.

Weekend Slip-up

So, this weekend was my first real weekend since I started my shopping detox, and while it wasn't a complete success, it was better than it could have been.

See, it was sale weekend at the outlet mall. And my sister-in-law asked me if I'd be interested in going up with her. And my mother-in-law wanted to go, too. And my father-in-law wanted to hang out with Brigid at the outlet mall playground.

It was a family event all around!

I went. And I shopped. But after hitting a couple of stores, I realized that I just wasn't in a shopping kind of mood. In fact, I was actually disappointed in myself for giving in so easily. So, I ended up getting out of there for about $40, and that included a couple of Christmas presents and a dress for my sister's wedding in March (because the wedding is on a beach, and I have a feeling that beach wedding dresses are going to be in short supply come March...).

I guess you could say I'm a work in progress, anyway...

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It's Inspiration Monday over at Two Birds, and today's inspiration is Kelly Ripa:

For the second week in a row, I loved the inspiration outfit so much, I pretty much copied it piece for piece. Except for the scarf, that is. The scarf just felt like too much,with the ruffles on the shirt, so I scrapped it in favor of a simple necklace. 

Not a bad look for a Monday...

Tank Top: Gap (outlet)

Blazer: The Limited

Jeans: Gap

Shoes: Steve Madden (from Macy's)

Scarf: Land's End


Don't forget, eShakti is offering $20 off of any order through the end of the year, when you use the promotional code NOTAHOBBY0811.

The discount code is not case sensitive. Only one gift certificate can be used per order. The code can be used any number of times until the validity period. This discount code is not applicable on our Overstock category. This cannot be combined with any other offer / discount that may be active during this period.


Also, you can find my post about the skirt the company sent me to review here.

Who is ready for Christmas?

I love Halloween. I swear, I do.

I love costumes and candy and I'm starting to recognize the fun in creepy decorations. I love It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and I love that Brigid is now old enough to curl up on the couch next to me so that we can watch it together. I love that we were able to take her trick-or-treating this year, and she was old enough to understand that chocolate is AWESOME!

And I definitely love that while she's old enough to appreciate the holiday, she is still young enough for me to eat all of that awesome chocolate she collected, all in the name of being a responsible parent.

Toddlers only need so much candy, after all. Helping her eat it is the least I can do, right?

But Christmas...well, it will always be number one in my heart. Christmas music starts November 1st, and runs through January 1st. Christmas decorations go up as soon as I can get the Halloween decorations down. And Christmast shopping is basically a year-round event in my life.

So, I get very, very excited when Style Lush posts the annual Holiday Gift Guide, because anything that offers a collection of amazing gifts at under $25 each is kind of perfect, in my book. If you're looking for gift ideas for anyone in your life, you can probably find something awesome on this list. Just at first glance, I see about 8 things, at least, that I want to send my husband the link for...

(And item #3 on the Style Lush list? The scarf? I can TOTALLY vouch for how amazing it is, as you can see below...

I absolutely plan to ask for it in green this year!)

T-shirt: Gap

Scarf: Land's End

Jeans: MICHAEL Michael Kors

Shoes: Cole Haan

Hey, Google Search? We need to talk...

Every so often, I like to check my blog stats to see what various search topics might have pulled in one of my posts over the last month. Usually, the search topics involve various brands, specific designs, or miscellaneous color combinations. But there's usually one or two searches that provide a good laugh.

This month? Peed jeans. PEED JEANS!!!

Now, first of all, I am sorry for whoever did whatever they did that led them to feel it was necessary to google peed jeans. That had to be something not so pleasant, you know? But what did I ever write about that would lead that kind of search to my blog? Peed jeans? Really?

I may need to rethink my content after that one.

(Also, I definitely don't recommend you run that google search on your own. There are some...odd people out there, to say the least.)

Sweater: Gap

Cardigan: J Crew

Skirt: Target

Belt: Land's End

Boots: DSW

This and That

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so expect to see a lot of pink over here in the next few weeks, as I am joining Melissa from A Working Mom's Closet in her second year of the Breast Cancer Awearness challenge:

It seems like very few people haven't been affected by this disease in some way, whether personally or through a family member or friend, so head over to Mel's site to learn more about the challenge and to read some of these personal stories.

Also, it's Inspiration Monday over at Two Birds!

Today's inspiration is...

Casual and comfortable? I'm in!

(Also, because I have a little trouble with the color in my pictures, I imagine I'm going to be spending a lot of time over the next month explaining that something is actually pink, not purple. Case in point? Today's purse. It's pink, I promise...)

Top: Old Navy

Jeans: Levi's (TJ Maxx)

Purse: Kate Spade

Bracelet: Land's End

Shoes: Target

Can we make Wednesday the new Friday?

My Google Reader is veering dangerously close to a ridiculously high number of unread posts again, since I'm about a week behind on all of the blogs that I follow, but I haven't had any free time at work to catch-up (I usually try to read some on my lunch break, but that break has been about 15 minutes between meetings here lately.) and my evenings have been full of paper spiders (Don't even ask...I'm in the process of going beyond overboard on a TWO-YEAR OLD'S birthday party.Yes, I know she won't remember, but I can't help myself.) and foam pumpkins.

All of that to say that I miss reading all of your posts, but I haven't resigned myself to the 'mark all as read' button, yet, so when you get 18 comments from me in one day, you'll know why...

Happy Wednesday!

Sweater: Banana Republic (outlet)

Skirt: Target

Shoes: Nine West

Belt: Land's End