Winterizing Mint Green

I know it is January, I know it is cold, I know we are supposed to wear darker, more subdued color palettes in the winter, but darn it, I love color, I love pastels, and I adore mint green.  Color is my friend and suits my personality because I tend to be a little bit on the perky side.  How I dealt with my conflict today was to layer pastels over each other.    In my defense, the jacket is pure wool and is quite warm. The sweater and the shirt can be worn all year round.  I need to come up with some non-boot, winter footwear that looks good with socks because the ballet flats without socks are quite cold outside. 

We spent the afternoon together as a family and went to Scene 75 in Dayton, which is a huge indoor entertainment center.  We played 9 holes of mini-golf, went on some spinning bumper cars, Dave and Kira bounced on the bouncy slides, went mini bowling, and played lots of games.  I also rode the go-karts and was involved in a bit of a go-kart crash, that I didn't cause, but my car had no brakes and the crash took up the entire race lane, so I became involved in the crash.  Noone was hurt in the three car pile up.  The entertainment facility has a bunch more stuff to do and it's a lot of fun to go there, but we had to leave to go grocery shopping.  Responsibility gets in the way sometimes!

 

Smile!

Lori

Hello Sunshine

The sun was shining this morning, so I decided to take shots outside this morning.  Well, that sunshine is deceptive because it was chilly.  And windy.  I made it through a couple of shots before I thought, nuh uh, done with this and went back inside.  At least all of our snow has melted!!

 

You can't tell from the photos, but my oxford is really neon pink. I think I'll call it 80's neon because it really is.  I got it on super sale at J Crew and I love it. I'm a fan of loud, bright things. 

 

I'm struggling with my personal ban on internet shopping.  It's killing me and it's only been 19 days.  I think I may have to head to the store after Kira's soccer game this afternoon.  I hear Banana Republic calling.

Smiles!
Lori

Stripes Again

I love this jacket.  It's striped, it's colorful, it goes with lots of stuff and it's comfortable.  What else can you ask for?

Smiles!
Lori

Sticking Your Legs In Doesn't Count as Swimming

We are making Kira resume swimming lessons to work on her upper body strength.  She's a really good swimmer and is in the top swim level at our club, but she doesn't like to get her hair wet.  I appreciate that, however, swimming is an excellent way to build upper body strength and she needs more upper body strength for the parallel bars.  So, an executive mom order was declared and she resumes swimming lessons next week.   I am not the most popular person in the house right now. 

She's going to the gym all day on Monday because she has a day off from school and there's a holiday camp.  Her dad is making her swim as a condition for us to pay for her to go to the camp.  She's currently negotiating the swimming and her argument is, "At the last overnight, I stuck my legs in the pool, so technically, I have been in the pool recently."  No matter how you slice it, sticking your legs in the pool doesn't count as swimming.  Sorry kiddo....your hair is getting wet.  I'll be there to make sure she swims, too, and I have had to climb in the pool fully dressed before to deal with her in the pool.  Yes, I will dunk her if need be.  Tough love.

Smiles!
Lori

Dots and Stripes

While I was trolling through Banana Republic's website a while back, I came across an outfit that I absolutely loved which had a cross hatched white and black blouse, a cream and black striped skirt, an orange cardigan and a khaki trench coat.  I loved the look, but since I've banned unnecessary internet shopping for awhile, I wasn't going to easily be able to purchase the outfit.  So into my closet I went.  I pieced this outfit together using stuff I already owned.  I went with polka dots because I didn't have anything cross hatched. Honestly, I was quite pleased with the results.  I almost gave away this blazer over the summer because khaki washes me out, but I'm really glad I didn't.

For full disclosure, I went to Banana Republic on Saturday and I now own the cross hatched blouse and the cream and black striped skirt they had online.  In my defense, I  didn't exactly ban overall shopping and I didn't buy it on the internet.   Stripes are my downfall.

Smiles!
Lori

Kira's Favorite Mom

Kira helped with my blog title.  Could you tell??

I love this jacket from J Crew.  I saw it online and really really really wanted it, but I refused to pay full price because full price was just insane.  So, I stalked it. Finally, around Christmas, J Crew had a 30% off if you spent a certain amount sale and I made my move.  Not even 7 days later, the jacket went on sale.  GRRRRR.  I calculated out how much I'd save to rebuy and send it back, and decided the savings weren't worth the effort.  But I was irritated and continued to stalk the website.  THEN, the jacket went on sale for an additional 30% off.  I took action.  I rebought the jacket and then when it came in the mail, I sent back the original jacket (which I had yet to wear).  I saved $50 from my original purchase price, so that was definitely worth the effort. 

This is my attempt at pensive.  I think I failed because I look like I'm being told something I don't want to hear. 

Smiles!
Lori

Geometric

The Christmas tree is FINALLY down, so I tested out today's photos in our family room to see if the lighting is a little better.  So far, I'm pleased, but my backgrounds will be a little goofy because we truly live in our family room.  Kira's practice beam is behind me as are the numerous mats to keep her from killing herself.  She's a hula hoop wizard, so we've got an overabundance of hula hoops in the house as well.  What you see behind me isn't even all of them. We have more in the garage! I'd love to take the shots outside, but I'm taking my photos around 5:45 a.m. each morning and it's dark out there.  And cold.....so inside I stay.

I am really pleased with how today's outfit turned out.  I bought the skirt on sale back in November when Dave and Kira took me shopping for my birthday and sort of forgot I owned it.  Even though the skirt has a crazy pattern on it, the colors incorporate both navy and black, so it wound up being a reasonably conservative outfit.  I'm trying to incorporate more belts into my world to snazz up my outfits, but it isn't something that comes naturally to me.  Plus, I sort of have an hourglass shape, so to fit around my hips, my belts wind up being a lot larger than my waist, which makes it tricky to figure out what to do with belts that I actually purchased to wear with pants.  I tucked this one in to rope in the tail, but I found myself constantly tucking it in all day. I guess if this is the worst problem I have in life, I can consider myself blessed!!

 I was trying out a nonchalant pose.  I don't think I can pull it off.  I look like a dork.  Maybe I'll try pensive tomorrow!

 

Kira helped me test out the new picture spot last night!  Her outfit is from Children's Place (skirt) and Justice (shirt).

 

Smiles!

Lori