Good Riddance 2013

I have to be honest with you, this year was not the best of my life and I'm glad it's almost over.  It was extremely stressful work wise, my dad died and my grandmother also died almost a month to the day of my dad's death and was buried on my dad's birthday.  Yeah, this year sucked. 

But even with how awful this year has been, there's been many things to be thankful for.  I'm thankful for the time I spent with my dad and I'm glad he's no longer in pain, I'm thankful that my daughter is healthy and happy, I love my husband and he loves me, and I've realized just how important family is.  Blessings come with hardship.

Enough with the sappy, we're spending NYE with at my brother's.  We've done this every year for years and he wasn't sure if he was going to have a party this year (aforementioned sucky year), but I told him he better because we were coming over regardless.  Voila, a party is born.  My look today is my version of day to night with a smattering of dressing for my brother's very cold house.  It's not glamorous, but with a bunch of kids running around, it's best to be practical!

Here's to a better 2014!
Smiles!
Lori

Sun-Mon

Smiles!
Lori

Goodbye Xmas

I love decorating for Christmas and the earlier in the year the decorations go up, the better.  I've even been known to put up the tree on Halloween during treat-or-treating in between passing out candy to the little kiddos.  However, after the gifts are opened on Christmas day, I want the stuff down.  D.O.W.N.   It's over, time to move on. 

Pre-Kira, I would start taking the stuff down Christmas night.  The family doesn't let me get away with that anymore, but there was zero resistance to my taking stuff down this weekend.  Yesterday, my Christmas cow village came down to make way for my chicken display on the table in my foyer (I have this weird thing for barn yard animal collectibles...always have).  It's in the fifties outside, so I next went after the outdoor decorations.  Doing good, no one has stopped me yet.  Then Dave decided that since it's going to get cold again next week, maybe it's a good thing to get the tree down and back into the barn before the weather turns.  SCORE!!!! Now I've been given license to take everything down and I've been doing the happy dance all afternoon as I wrap up the ornaments and the rest of the Christmas trappings!!

I know some people wait until New Years or even the Epiphany to take the decorations down, but as an accountant, I've always gotten super busy at work right after the holidays and if the decorations don't come down before Christmas break ends, there's a good chance they'll be up until March.  That's my defense and I'm sticking to it!

Smiles!
Lori

Still Cold....Brrrrrrr

I try my best to not look like a soccer mom, but when it's freezing outside, all I want to wear are my big cozy sweaters.  The problem is, they are really difficult to make look stylish unless you wear cute little silk capris, or short little skirts with them.  Neither of those options fit into my "I'm cold, I want to be warm" mantra.  Plus, we're spending the day after Christmas picking up the mountain of tissue and wrapping paper spread across the house and trying to put the insane amount of stuff Kira got into some sort of order.  Those activities require comfy clothes.  So here you go....comfortable and not necessarily stylish!

Outfit Details:

Sweater and Oxford - J Crew

Turtleneck - Lands End

Jeans and Necklace - Loft

Shoes - Sperry

Smiles!!
Lori

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Smiles!
Lori

Thunderstorms on the First Day of Winter

Since Friday, we've gotten a ridiculous amount of rain and we're currently under a flood warning because our rivers have burst their banks.  Last night we even had severe thunderstorms roll through the area.  Weird first day of winter.   On the bright side, all the snow melted!  Yay!!!!

Outfit Details:

Striped shirt - Madewell

Hen shirt - J Crew

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Bass

Bracelet - Talbots

Necklace - Banana Republic

Smiles!
Lori

Red Checkers

Smiles!
Lori

Tartan Wonderland

Smiles!
Lori

Shepherd Wannabe

One of Kira's spelling words this week is shepherd.  She also has Rudolph, Grinch, Santa Claus and a variety of religious themed words.  Today's post is in honor of her spelling list.  GO SHEEP!

Smiles!
Lori

Cobalt Cat Eyes

I am still infatuated with my cobalt blazer. Today, I decided to pair it with a hot pink, checkered sweater and chambray. This color goes with everything!!!!

Smiles!
Lori

Somber

My family has had a rough go of it this past month.  We lost dad last month and last Friday, we lost my grandmother.  Today was her funeral and it was actually rougher to get through than my dad's.  The service was at the same church and same cemetery as my dad's and needless to say, I kind of lost it.  Right now, I'm just exhausted and I'm so tired of sadness.  Now we have to figure out how to move forward without the ones we've lost.  Enough sadness.

While the occasion was sad, I did get to see cousins who I haven't seen in a while and we had people fly in from as far as San Diego to attend.  We haven't all been together since my grandfather's funeral, so it was nice, even under sad circumstances, to see everyone again. It's fun to watch everyone's kids run around.  It just doesn't seem like that long ago that we were the kids running around.  Made me feel kind of old.

Hug your loved ones and count your blessings,
Lori

Got Behind

Smiles!
Lori