Fall 30x30 Challenge

 
If you’re anything like me, then you envy those fashion bloggers that always look so  fantastic with their amazingly put together outfits.  It’s one of the reasons I love Kelly from Modern Camelot, she’s a mom but girlfriend also has some amazing fashion sense.  She has one of these 30x30 challenges every so often and the past few times she’s hosted one of them I’ve thought about joining.  I finally decided to bite the bullet and participate in this fall challenge!  I need to break out of this yoga pants and snotty t-shirt clothing rut that I am in.   She’s co-hosting this fall challenge with Aubrey from Dreaming about Someday.

The general gist of this challenge is that you choose 30 pieces from your wardrobe and you can only put together outfits that include those pieces.   You can see more info on Kelly’s blog 30x30 challenge.

I was trying to keep in mind my day job when picking out my 30 clothing choices and shoes.  I’m a stay at home mom to two very busy toddlers, so I want to make sure that I look good, but that I can also chase my son down the aisles of Target when he starts ripping his clothes off and running away from me (sadly, that has happened more than once) as well as things that will work great for the events we have this month.   I’m just hoping to break out of my shell a little and become a little more fashion forward and put together.

Without further ado, here’s my picks for this fall challenge.

Tops:

{From L-R}:  Aztec open cardigan (Old Navy), Black and White Cardigan (Old Navy), Black Cardigan (American Eagle), Leopard Cardigan (Old Navy)

{From L-R}:  Dressy Tank (Target), Neon Yellow Tee (Target), Black and White Striped Tee (Old Navy), Pink-ish henley (H&M)

{From L-R}: Baseball Tee (Target), Zip up (Victoria’s Secret), Light Chambray Button up (Target)

Not shown; Black tee (Target), White Tee (Target), Black Tank (H&M), Cobalt and White striped open cardigan (J.Crew)

Pants:

{From L-R}:  Polka Dot skinnys (Target) , Black leggings (Target),  Dark Skinnys (Old Navy), Distressed ankle zip skinnys (Gap) Cobalt skinnys (J, Crew).  Not shown Black Skinny jeans (H&M)

Skirts:

Black Maxi (Loft)

Dresses:

{From L-R}: Cobalt shift type dress (H&M), Lace navy dress (Target), Purple Striped Tunic/Dress (Gap), Chambray Shirt Dress (J. Crew)

Shoes: (Yes, I know I’m missing a shoe or two, one of two toddler shoe thieves have hidden them!)

{From L-R}:  Cognac Riding Boots (Just Fab), Black ankle booties (Target), Camo slip-ons (Target), Gold Driving shoes (Steve Madden)

I didn’t include any jackets in here because, I live in Buffalo and the weather is unpredictable!

Just a Simple Haircut.

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It really is the little things in life that can make the biggest impact on you and your mental well being. 
I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the fact that winter here in Buffalo is so long or the lack of adult interaction that comes along with being a stay at home mom, but I’ve been in the biggest funk this winter.  I haven’t been able to shake it all winter and have been feeling very blah and have felt my self esteem drop.

This past week my wonderful mother-in-law has been staying with us and I decided to take advantage of the babysitter and went to get my first haircut in 6 months!  I decided to try a new to me place that I hear advertised all the time.  I went to Chez Ann Salon in the ‘Burbs.   It’s on Main Street in Williamsville in the Walker Centre.

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This inside is amazing and the staff was awesome.  They were able to fit me in on short notice. My hairstylist Ashley D. was amazing.  She gave me a quick little tour and brought me into one of their treatment rooms so that she could work on my unruly (and extremely bushy and overgrown) eyebrows.  For the first time in years, they actually looked amazing and match.  I usually just go to the ladies at the nail salon, and now I won’t be going anywhere else but Chez Ann.
Next she lead me to the shampoo area and talked to me about what I wanted to do with my hair.  I was so fed up with it and told her that I was contemplating chopping it all off to my chin.  Luckily she talked me down from the ledge and told me about what she would do to take some weight out and trim up the dead ends.   Then she had me lean back and gave me an awesome scalp massage before she started shampooing my hair and massaged some more while shampooing.  That is probably one of my favorite parts of getting my hair cut, I would love to have someone wash my hair everyday like that.
Next up came the hair cut.  She talked to me the whole time and it wasn’t awkward like most haircuts. Step by step she told me what she was doing to my hair and explained different things to me that could help me out everyday.
I was amazed when she finished and I saw the final product. My hair looked and felt so much healthier and lighter.  It made me wish that I had somewhere to go.  She did an amazing job.

The point of this post, is that this little hair cut left me motivated and feeling so much better about myself.  I woke up the next morning and was ready to do something, anything.  I feel like a million dollars and all it took was a little hair cut.  Now if only Punxsutawney Phil wasn’t such a little liar, and spring would show up already.  It better be gone by my birthday!

Livi’s 8 months old!

I would really like to know where all this time has been flying off to!  Our littlest is already 8 months old.  This is totally cliché, but it really does feel like yesterday that I held her for the first time.

Here’s some of the stuff she’s been up to this past month when she was 7 months old. She started sitting up consistently (or no longer afraid of being knocked over by her brother) and started crawling around more.  It’s cray what a matter of a few days can do.


She’s started sleeping more at night and only wakes up during the night one or two nights a week, which is awesome for the hubs, because he has night baby duty.

We try and feed her baby food, but she gags and most of them give her a rash, so we’ve been waiting to try and give her more “adult” food.  I’ve just been a nervous nelly.  At this age with Jordan, he was eating puffs and yogurt bites like it was his last meal. Olivia has gotten them a few times, but since Jordan’s choking fiasco a few months ago, I’ve been scared to give her them.

It’s amazing how much personality she has.  She is already quite the little diva and we’re in for it when she become a teenager. She is certainly not afraid to tell you what she’s thinking or wants. 

She is very much a daddy’s girl.  Seeing the way that her face lights up when he comes home from work and the way that she jumps and kicks her feet and claps for him melts my heart.  It’s just amazing how much love she has for him.  She is also loving her big brother and smiles so big for him.  I’d say her greatest love though is any animal, whether it’s Wickett (our giant dog cat) or her furry cousin Marley. She loves animals so much.

She brings so much love and joy to everyone she sees. She has some rough days, but most days she is so happy and bubbly.  Especially when strangers in the store tell her how beautiful she is!

December Goals.

I'm going to start monthly goals that I want to set for myself. Now let's just hope I can complete some :)


1.) Start working out and get through the first month of Insanity. - I planned on starting today, I haven't gotten a chance to start yet though. Olivia has been a grumpy gills all day and hasn't let me put her down.

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I love Kenna Shell. She's awesome and this will be me in the next year!

2.) Keep up on the Mountain of Laundry that's living in my basement

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3.) Start going back to church

4.) Eat dinner at the table, as a family, saying Grace.

Sprucing Up.

It's no secret to anyone that knows me, but  I love Target! I'm probably mildly obsessed.

A couple weeks ago while checking out the clearance aisles while on a Mom-cation (The hour I get to myself sans children which doesn't happen nearly enough), I found the cutest shower curtain and at only $5.98, I bought it.

We made a rookie mistake when moving into our new house. We wanted everything done fast, so we just bought anything that we liked instead of making sure it was something we loved.  Since then I've been working on slowly trying to spruce up our house and make it more homey.

Here's what our bathroom shower curtain looked like before.

It was just blah against the yellow walls and it didn't add much visual interest. 

Here's the shower curtain that I found for a steal at Tarjay.

I'm loving teal lately and have been trying to bring more of it into our home. Our master bedroom is a teal-y color and our son's room is a grassy green, so this shower curtain looks so much better with the rest of the house than the old one!

Here's the afters. 

Amazing that something so small can make such a large impact in a small space.

Liv's 4 months old!

Hard to believe that our littlest peanut is already 4 months old!

These first 4 months have NOT been easy.  She's a very high needs baby, but no matter how frustrated we may get, her little giggles and smiles totally make up for it.

She's still so tiny for her age.  She is still in 3 month clothes and they are still a little baggy on her.  She also wears some 6 month clothes but they are still pretty big on her. The only reason I put them on her is because it's getting chilly here in Buffalo and she needs the warm clothes.

She is probably at my favorite baby stage. She has so much personality already and is very talkative (with a very healthy set of lungs on her). She's also still immobile, which is why I like this stage.

She isn't sleeping through the night and seems to be going through a major growth spurt, as well as trying to pop out her first tooth.  Breastfeeding is still going awesome, although there are some days where I wish she was formula fed so that someone else could feed her and get that bonding time (as she is very much a mama's girl)

She rolled for the first time yesterday! It was awesome.  I was starting to wonder if she would roll anytime soon (her brother rolled @ 3 months) because we don't really put her on the floor or her big brother would "wrestle" with her.

In the next month we're hoping that her constant need for being held will dwindle a little and that she'll learn to sleep in her own bed. We wouldn't mind if she didn't sleep through the night, we'd just like our bed back.