WIWW (What I Wore Wednesday)

It's time for another "What I Wore Wednesday"- linking up with The Pleated Poppy. Unfortunately, I didn't do so well with taking a picture every day. I'm still working on remembering to take pictures before late at night when there's no natural light and I look exhausted. All right, enough excuses.  I'll just have to supplement this post with some food pictures if that's ok. :)  All right....here goes:

pink ruffle top : tj maxx (sale! $2)

boyfriend sweater: AE (tj maxx as well)

leggings: too old to remember...conway(?)

bow ballet flats: liz claiborne (thrifted)

sunday's dress: tj maxx

nude wedge sandals: franco sarto (tj maxx)

i know i look exhausted. probably because i am. 

yellow tank: borrow(ing) from mom...

blue  top: marshalls

skinny jeans: f21

my new brown sandals! marshalls

grey top: f21

pink ruffle tank: old and don't remember

flare jeans: ann taylor loft

gold flats: nine west

Lindsey @ the pleated poppy was experimenting with ruffle tanks. so i put one ON TOP of a tee to switch things up...

my new gold flats i found at goodwill in NEW condition! $7.

on tuesday night, after a long day of teaching, i came home to find Karl slaving away in the kitchen. blood, sweat and tears paid off for these pan-seared chicken breasts with a lemon and chive sauce.

my delicious lunch today (i should eat like this more often!) a mixed salad with:

feta

dried cranberries

mushrooms

homemade dressing 

and (the best part)

toasted garlic pita. 

Random, Fantom Tuesday

I'm starting to learn that if I want to do a post with pictures in it, nighttime is the best to do it. (Since Karl is usually home, which means his laptop is home, which means I can use iPhoto...you get it...)

As usual, Tuesdays posts will be random. So are you ready for a smattering of picture and a whole lot of random? Put on your adventure hat and here we go!  (that was...awkward, weird, whatever. just scroll down)

Bought I couple red pears this week. Mostly because they're so pretty.

Can't get enough pears.

Made some salsa for the church picnic. Also these (hot chocolate) cookies.

Church picnic! 

The teens are hosting this "rice bowl" project. This little rice bowl is basically a piggy bank and you fill it with your pocket change for the next two weeks. The money collected in all the rice bowls gets donated to a children's orphanage overseas. love it.

Leaving the picnic (karl keeps his name tag on as long as possible) :)

Super-awesome vintage Leed's suitcase I picked up outside a big house on Prospect that had tons of stuff on the curb. 

Simple, tasty beans: 1 can (15.5oz) of beans, 2 garlic cloves, 1 serrano chile pepper, handful of cilantro, chicken broth. Dump it all in a pot and cook for 15 min. 

Macho-Nacho dinner night! 

I made this lemon-scented sweet bread today...mmmmmmm...It's a not the easiest recipe, but I love to try new things. Recipe found here. See some steps below:

The final product. Breakfast, anyone?

Happy Tuesday!

Monday's I'm Blessed

I'm not gonna lie. I'm actually sitting here thinking "what DO I have that I'm thankful for?". After reading Gretchen's post (from He Sows, She Sews) I feel like it would be so pithy of me to be thankful for little material things that aren't deep or emotionally moving. But you know what? That's how life is. If God gave us a death in the family or a miraculous healing every week, would we take as much pleasure in the little joys of life? Here are some things I'm thankful for this week:

A ( finally ) flourishing basil plant.

A friend who is generously going to lend me her extra sewing machine. (I.Am. SOOOOOOOOOOOO. exited about this!!)

An amazing husband who loves me very much and tells me so every day.

New contacts.

The fun church picnic this Sunday. (we won the almonds-in-a-spoon-in-your-mouth-relay!)

Coffee.(need I say more?)

Good health. (although I think it's fun to sleep all day and watch movies in bed and eat chicken noodle soup once in a while :)




What are you thankful for this week?

Awesome Autumn!

Ok, I know it's technically not autumn yet, but the weather has become just perfect to spend some time outside! We took advantage of that this weekend and went on a little walk (ok, so it was a couple miles and   I'm totally out of shape) down to the Center and had fun walking around....

The Center (well, part of it) the library is in the back center and in the middle is a kind of courtyard where they do all kinds of activities in the summer. Every Wednesday there's a little stage with a band playing music and people bring little picnics. 

Barnes and Noble- we almost always stop here when we're in the center

Nope, we're not at a friends house or really anyone's house. We're at Crate&Barrel and, yes, this is what we do when we're there.

Sitting on a bench outside B&N. We are tired from walking all the way down there. Which is why we look a little drugged.

A little side trip to Trader Joe's. Love THAT PLACE. Notice how I put the mushrooms and lettuce in a prominent place and hid the sweet cereal bars and brownie mix? (yeah, I didn't plan that) We really do try to eat pretty healthy! p.s. We just read in Consumer Reports that out of 16 brands of box brownie mixes, this one from TJ's blew the rest out of the water. I'll let you know what we think of them!

Also this weekend I found a coffee table!!! I had been looking for one for a couple months, but was just surprised at the poor craftsmanship and high price tags. Even at C&B they were wobbly and not made out of all wood. Well I picked this one up second-had for............$10!! It's solid wood and not factory made. 

I'm thinking about sanding it down and re-painting it to match the rest of our furniture. (shhh, don't tell Karl)

This weekend I also hit up the library sale and picked up some awesome books. Like this vintage fairytale book will awesome illustrations. (I have an addiction to cool kid's books)

Also I got this James Herriot Children's collection. It has all the stories that don't have the words "twisted uterus" and "bloody afterbirth" in them.

This one is a cool kid's book with all the illustrations by Velazquez.

And lastly, this book about a Norwegian ski race. Gotta start the Norwegian collection sometime....

Can't wait to show you what I picked up this Sunday outside a fancy house...

So glad you dropped by to visit! I'd love to have you join my blog by commenting, following or doing both!

Blast From The Past

Ever come across one of these? This just makes me smile.

I never had sisters, but these cousins made up for it. 

Love it.

Happy weekend, y'all.

Thursday's Randomosities

Happy Thursday everyone! Can you believe tomorrow is Friday? (I think I  say this too much, but time really does fly!)

I've finally gotten into some kind of routine with my practicing which is good. 

I didn't practice today which is bad. 

I remembered to take a pict. for WIWW today which is good.

There was major flooding on the campus where my husband goes to school/teaches/works which is bad. 

We got a buy 1 get 1 free at Coldstone Creamery tonight which is, yup you guessed it, goooood.

My basil plant is an absolute diva, which is bad (nobody likes a diva).

I got an amazing back massage from my bff which is good.

There are still a lot of dirty dishes in my sink. bad.

Spell check says "no guesses found" for   randomosities. funny.

I found a super-quick yummy recipe for dinner: pocket chicken pot pies.

you make the filling (with chicken, veggies, cream cheese, butter, salt, pepper) and wrap it in croissants and brush it with and egg wash.  

Homemade salsa with garden tomaatoes. (and serrano peppers. and garlic. and cilantro. and salt.) 

Don't ask me why I'm holding a hot pepper with no gloves. Or why I'm making that face. But you should know that next time I will wear gloves.

Finished 2 projects this week. This is one of them.

Hubs-made pasta aglio e olio with homemade breadcrumbs. We love our food processor.

Our date to Coldstone Creamery. Speaking of which, I feel really relaxed for all the sugar I just had. 

This is good.

Happy Weekend!

WIWW (What I Wore Wednesday)

Today I'm linking up with Lindsey at the  The Pleated Poppy for  WIWW or "What I Wore Wednesday." This is my first post and I'm so excited! If you've taken a look at some other blogs like "From the Island to Aloha" or "Funky Vintage Lovely" or "The Pretty Bee" they have all got their husbands trained into taking good pictures for them. Most of mine have been self portraits, so no laughing, ok?  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of what I wore every day this week and probably a good thing since I've become best friends with my yoga pants and tevas.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post it's to help us (really anyone who wants) get out of our sweatpants and tank tops. I think I really need this accountability because lately I've definitely been choosing comfort- being comfortable with looking like a slob. (eeeks!) So here goes folks:

(Ok, so you can't see most of it, but I've got to start somewhere right?)

Shirt: Target

Necklace: vintage from church bazaar 

Skinny Jeans: F21

Tank: Dee Dee

Green Tank: Guess (thrifted)

Boyfriend Sweater: AE (T.J. Maxx)

Necklace: church bazaar

Skinny Jeans:  Route 66

Earrings: so old I can't remember

  Boyfriend Sweater: AE (tj maxx)

Grey top: tj maxx ($1!)

Jeans: Route 66

Rubbahs: Laila Rowe (perhaps only people who've been to the Gallery in Baltimore will know this)

See! I even did my short, annoying hair! I've been looking for ideas on pintrest and decided to try this one until I get it right.  (Does it make me look too young?)

That's all for this week!