Brights

 Today's outfit is participating in the 'Brights' trend of the "Summer Trends" challenge presented by Megan Mae Daily and Casual Chic Kiki. 

The inspiration came from the following photo:

 You can see it was a rough inspiration of the orange, purple and pink combination...

 

I used my orange shorts, purple lace cami and the hot pink button up blouse as a jacket to re-create the combo... Each item is very old.

Wrapped around this super long wooden bead necklace as a bracelet for that tribal effect...

Aren't these cool earrings? ordered them from F21 for $4.80. They are gold with orange and navy bead and bright navy feathers!

Finally wearing those lizard print leather sandals with the straps they came with. Remember these are the ones I took to a shoe guy to get extra holes drilled but apparently not enough for the upper two straps. They were still very loose around my skinny calves. I managed to put them on and off by just un-doing the bottom two straps. But definitely not very kid friendly...

Shorts, camisole, sunglasses, earrings - Forever 21

Blouse - Express

Bracelet - from Turkey

Sandals - Victoria's Secret

Today's Activities: It was my turn this saturday morning to take my son while my husband took my daughter. As promised I took the camera and took photos of my son at his hip hop class. It has been a struggle to get this class going. The company will only hold it if they have at least 3 students. Finally they got one more person and I got my friend so that made three but the other two did not come today so it was just my son again today. Apparently for his age group the one on one works to his disadvantage. It is susspose to be a 55 minute class but he can't focus for that long just by himself. He still did good though. I love that they are doing physical strength training as part of the class. I decided now every morning him and I (and probably my daughter) too can workout together doing 10 reps of sit-up, push-ups and lunges. I obviously can benefit from this.
After naps my dad and SIL and nephew came over for a swim at our pool. Those photos have not been downloaded yet. Then we went to dinner at my mom and step-dad's house where my sister and her bf came too. Fun filled day.

Here is my son learning pop the knee move:

The laps around the room for warm-up:

Squats:

Sit-ups:

 

Push-ups:

The Cross-over:

 The hip-hop walk:

My future dancer:

The Greatest Show on Earth

 This was yesterday's outfit that I did not get a chance to post before I left for dinner.

The inspiration had come from the Ruche's lookbook:

 I truly love Ruche's website and merchandise. They are not cheap but have very soft and romantic items. I also enjoy browsing their look books for inspiration Ideas like this one...

 

I decided to use my maxi dress for the look. It is very soft cottan tank dress with a a-line flaring maxi skirt.

 The cardigan is actually from Ruche.com. I tried to find a similar one at F21 but nothing like this soft and long and thin.

I added the soft pastel floral scarf and my gladiator flat sandals...

The fedora is a nice touch since normally a straw fedora would be more appropriate but I like this...

I changed this belt afterwards with a woven dark brown one cause this one kept getting loose with every move.

The africal resin necklaces were all collected from Forever 21. They are so cool...

 

 Dress, Bracelets - Forever 21

Cardigan - Ruche.com

Belt - Thrifted

Hat - Target

Sandals - Victoria's Secret

Scarf - H&M

This outfit was also part of the "Summer Trends" challenge presented by Megan Mae Daily and Casual Chic Kiki, Friday's trend was 'Neutrals'... 

Friday's Activities: Our big event yesterday was going to the Circus. Ringling Brothers was in town. OK, I know there is A LOT of controversy around circus treatment of animals and I totally support the actions against it. Afteralll I have gone on a safari in Kenya and have a total appreciation of animals in the wild. It actually kills me to even see elephants in our world famous zoo's grand enclosures cause I have seen them walk miles and miles everday living in huge all female families. 

But, I also remember my grandparents taking me to the circus and how much I enjoyed the experience and want my children to have that. So there you have it...

I can't imagine how expansive it is to have this many tigers! They eat meat you know...

 This was an amazing act:

 

Cool Costumes:

Here are my kids with my friend and her kids:

No easy feat herding 4 little ones in crowded hallways of the arena. This was us during the break taking a lunch and bathroom break. You can see my friend holding one reaching for the boys and my daughter trailing behind...

The kids (making the oddest faces) and I:

So, we had a bit of an adventure. My friend came and after moving all the car seats and getting the kids in the car we drove to the arena and remembered in the parking lot that i forgot the tickets at home! Had to drive all the way back and there again. Then we park the car and walk to the gate again herding 4 now bored and full of energy kids and the lady tells my friend she can not bring her SLR camera (and yet my digital is fine)... So now she has to go back to the car to leave the camera. As soon as she leaves her older son bolts to inside the arena. I try to go after by putting down the little one who is crying 'mama' and he bolts outside after my friend. Thank goodness the ladies at the gate help stop the older one while I re-pickup the younger one. So, by the time we sit we are literally exhausted and it is just starting. Add to that about 4 bathroom and 2 food purchase breaks and you can see these are fun fun events but they leave us dead tired.

The kids took a while to settle down afterwards at home but they did nap and by the time they woke up late afternoon my husband was home and I left immediately after to meet my friends.

We went to my friend's older sister's house for dinner. She bought this house not long ago and has done a very nice job decorating it. Served us a delciious dinner at a beautifully set table. 

Then we played Polish Rummy until late at night!

 Our host:

FBFF: Labels

I was going to post today's outfit and the FBFF answers in the same post but I ran out of time to upload the photos so it is just going to be FBFF. The outfit post will be tomorrow morning....

 Hosted by Katy from Modly Chic, today's  

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (FBFF) theme is about 

'Labeling'.

1. As a someone who writes/blogs about fashion, have you placed yourself into some sort of blogging category?
At first I thought the label was simply fashion blogger. But now I realize there are sub categories within that. Since I post my own outfits and write about my own daily life I am a personal style blogger. I am also a mommy and that is a huge part of my blog so I am a 'Personal Style Blogger Mommy'.

2. What keeps you from or encourages you to label yourself as a certain kind of blogger?
I don't really care about the label. This is what I like to blog about so it suits me. Occasionally I will do a home decorating post or put a recipee or talk about something else but I don't stress that it is out of my 'label' in any way. There are no 'blog label police' out there that is going to fine me! :)

3. When picking blogs to read and follow are you drawn to ones that indicate a certain group or way of  thinking/being?
Yes. I am almost always drawn to personal style blogs a lot more than fashion blogs. I guess I am a very open and outgoing person so I like to know about the person I am following and relate to them in some sort of way. Personal style blogs post photos of themselves and tend to talk about themselves and I am drawn to that.

4. Do you think there are benefits in labeling yourself or others?
I think for people that prefer one type of blog over the other it helps them identify blogs they are interested in. Also if you were to start going after sponsors it is nice to be able to identify your blog clearly by a label.

5. Agree or Disagree - We're all just people; we don't need all the labels.
Agree. In life people wear many hats and you might know only one aspect of that person not realizing all the other things they are if you judge based on one label. This kind of goes to the whole thread we had in FBFF about coming out to friends and family about your blog. A lot of people blog in secret cause they feel they will be judged and labeled as superficial. I would hope my friends and family know the whole me and know loving fashion and doing outfit bloggging is just one part of me and something I enjoy but there is so much more.

To see how others answered these same questions please click HERE!

Eclectic Maxi Skirt

Today's outfit is going to be once again a double challange outfit.

1. The "Summer Trends" challenge presented by Megan Mae Daily and Casual Chic Kiki. Today's trend is 'eclectic' I realize this is not that eclectic but it is going to have to do cause I really wanted to wear the outfit.

 

2. Also part of the Bloggers Do It Better event presented by Pretty Shiny Sparkly...This time around it was 'Maxi Skirt'...








I bought this dress 2 years ago after giving birth to my daughter for our trip to Turkey. I wore it almost everyday during summer in Turkey. It was just one of those super comfy dresses that also worked perfectly for breastfeeding. Wore it so much that my step dad got so tired of it and teased me all the time. This morning when they stopped at the park to see the kids he saw it and asked if I was going to wear it all the time again?

And the outfit was inspired by this lovely Chictopia Post:

 When I saw this I immediately remembered my super old and worn a lot blue maxi dress and that I could wear it as a skirt with these unexpected colors and knot the skirt!

 I love this idea of knotting the skirt. It actually makes it easier to walk in and shows off these super chunky wedges!

 I realize adding a spagetthi strap silk top over a halter cut dress did not work quite well but I did the best I could cause I really liked the pastel pin, with bright blue and safari green combo!

 Added chunky pearls to give the effect of the inspiration photo.

 

The chunky wedges!

So for the water side park preschool class I had to de-wedge and de-pearl!

 I kind of like this look too especially with the bone colored sunglasses...

Left just this soft pearly bib necklace though...

These ballet slipper soft peep toe sandals are from H&M. They are so cute.

By the way I was going to wear this top as a vest since the sleeves zip off but it was too chilly in the morning so left them on... This is the shirt from my safari collection. You know when we went on a real safari to Africa (Kenya) back in 2004. I love that I get to wear them to normal life.

Shirt Jacket - Eddie Bauer

Silk Camisole - Express

Dress, bracelet, sunglasses - Forever 21

Wedges - Marshall's

Flats - H&M

Bib necklace - Charlotte Russe

Pearls - gifts from husband

Belt - Betsey Johnson from TJ Maxx

 To see other bloggers in their Maxi Skirt outfits at BDIB please click HERE!

Today's Activities: Preschool park class today at a park very close to our house right by our house. It was super chilly and windy almost all morning so it was easy keeping the kids on the park/grass side. Then the last hour it got sunny and the kid discovered the bay across the boardwalk! Of course most of us were so not prepared for them to get wet so we had to make to by stripping them in their underwear using jackets as towels afterwards to dry them off and share sunblock to spray the parts we didn't think would be exposed. Not our best desired scenario but it makes us happy to see the kids enjoy each other and summer play.

 

My son  with some of his favorite buddies...

Running in his whitey undies!

Having a blast!

I was happy my daughter was busy playing with bubbles by the class and never saw this. It would have been really though with her in this scenario...

During naps I cooked dinner. I have been cutting and collecting easy and healthy recipes from all sorts of magazines. But never used them. The other day I totally organized my cook book shelves and got all these summer past recipes together so I can cook them in the upcoming weeks. Today's recipe looked great. Made with white beans, broccoli, pasta and feta. To make it a complete meal I added cut up turkey too.

This one was from Glamour's October 2009 issue!

We had plans to exercise with my friend tonight but she realized she had a hair cut appointment so probably will be going to the indoor play area and coming back home for dinner...