Chic Red Pants

Told you I would be wearing a different oufit tonight. So here it is.

The inspiration came from the following chictopia post:

I think hers are leggings but these new capri red jeans I bought also worked. I just opened up their cuffs so they ended right where the ankle cuff boots started...

These are the only grey shoes I own but they totally worked fine...You know how I am against matching but no other purse looked with this outfit besides the matching grey patent tote...

Wore a striped tunic under for interest even though you see very little of it. This scarf is big and rich and adds great accent. I have it paired with quite a few outfits.

The navy blue and silver cuff is a present from India from my Husband's work trip. The solid silver cuff is from Mexico and the ring is from thread show... 

I actually carried out this antique 3 legged stool out so I can pose sitting! The kids had bunch of questions as to why I was taking furniture outside...

The navy blazer is thick and soft suede like. On loan from my mom. Has a matching vest too.  Just ignored the gold buttons and decided to pick the silver from the scarf in accessories and purse instead.

Navy Blazer -Mom's

Striped tunic and red pants - Forever 21

Scarf - H&M

Boots - From Turkey

Bracelet - from India

Cuff - from Mexico

Ring - Thread Show

(wow a lot of international pieces in this outfit I realize now!)

TONIGHT's ACTIVITIES: Drove to my husband's work to pick him up and then he dropped me off on the way at the restaurant I was meeting my mommy friend's and took the kids home. I was again at the end of patience by the time I got out. I realized I think I am so exhausted this week cause the preschool is on spring break and other than monday I did not have much adult interaction during the day and it is showing. I realize now I need some sort of adult conversation to survive. As much as I love my kids and can't help but smile when my daughter asks for the 7th time 'where we are going' in Turkish in her kid accent I am about to loose it. Glad I at least had two outings this week at night to make up for lack of adults during the day...

We had a very nice dinner followed by stroll and coffee with the two girlfriends. Conversation flowed easily and we laughed so much which is exactly what I needed...

I know you just can't get enough of my backyard remodel but since you follow my activities everyday, I have to keep reminding you that the yard project is taking a huge chunk of our lives right now. So must share...

Here is the accent tile we picked for our spa wall. This will be surrounded by solid blue tiles... 

These are the tiles picked for the 'water line' area of the pool. I guess at some point I need to take photos of the similar tiled areas all around my house so you can understand why we picked these mediterranean influnced look... 

Here are the tiles laid partially. They haven't been grouted yet and they have tape on them so not as shiny as they would be once done.... 

I will do full photos tomrrow when tile work and the coping is totally finished.

Kate Middleton Fashion and International Blogs

Lili from Relatable Style blog is hosting a 'Kate Middleton Fashion Week'.

To find out more about the event click here.

This was a pretty basic outfit. I could have dug deeper in my suits and find a more similar blazer but I didn't have the time. I also could have worn my high heel brown boots but again this had to be super quick this morning. 

I am meeting a few mommies for dinner tonight and will change into something more dressy so another oufit post will follow tonight or tomorrow!

Nazy Blazer and skinny Jeans - Forever 21

Grey top - Gap

Boots - Newport News 

To see how Lili and others styled this inspiration and to see what tomorrow's inspiration outfit is click HERE!

Today's Activities:
Ok, it is brutal to have to get out of the house by 8:20 AM. We are still down to 1 car and have to drop off my husband to work so I can have the car. I felt so out of it rushing to get out before even having coffee.
No way was I doing the mall thing again today so we drove back to our neighborhood to spend the morning in the indoor play area. Good thing cause the weather is drizzly today. Of course mis calculated the time and had to wait outside for 20 minutes for them to open. The kids made the most of it by running on the grass/sidewalk and capturing poor rolly polly's despite my pleads to be gentel.
Can't wait to get home by nap time to check the tile progress around the pool. Now that the disgusting demo phase is over everyday we see some cool stuff going in. And I finalized the landscaping contract and secured the crew to start on Monday. They will just have to figure out working around the concrete guys for a while.
Now the only thing left to finalize is the pool heater bid. I am so tired of making min. 5 calls a day on this project.

Tiffany from Breakfast with Tiffany tagged me in her post, 10 Things I Love! If you haven't been to her blog, go check her out!! She is such a sweet and fashionable mommy blogger..

1. My Family from core to immediate to extended circle. I love my family and couldn't survive without their love and support.
2. My mommy friends - who understand everything I am going through and make me feel normal when I struggle and feel overwhelmed.
3. My 'Girls' - who keep reminding me I am still the same girl underneath who loves to have fun. 
4. The indoor play area - who allows my kids to play at their heart's contend while I can actually catch up on emails and blogs.
5. Me time. I need that to survive.
6. Shopping. Even if I don't buy I love checking out stores for new styles and ideas.
7. Tulle and lace and how they make me feel all girly and ballerina like.
8. Super short shorts or mini skirts and platform heels and the way they make me feel 6 feet tall and legs for miles.
9. Playing dress up and coming up with cool outfits.
10. Having a clean and organized house where I am caught up with all our personal finances and bills and all the emails in  my inbox as well as my photo albums and sharing.

If you've been tagged, here are the ORIGINAL rules:
- state who tagged you in your post
- state 10 things you love
- tag 10 other bloggers and let them know with a lovely comment...

MY RULES:
- You can follow the original above rules if you like... OR
- Pls just mention you have been mentioned in my post and mention my blog url.
But even that only if you want to. I mention blogs cause I like them and nothing else.

I decided to focus on these new International blogs I have discovered.
Some write in both languages, some just in English and some in their own only but you can still enjoy the photos. Very excited about the Turkish ones cause I get to see my home country in the background.
Don't you love following international blogs. They give you such great exposure to a different world and culture. I love it. Even the ones that only write in their own langauge that I do not understand. I enjoy the photos and the scenery.

1. Deniz from Deniz Saatcioglu  (TURKISH)
2. Martina from Fashion's Cult
3. Freesia Blog
4. Just One More (amazing drawings)
5. Mellow Mayoness (the one who introduced me to yesstlyle)
6. Miss. Eggplant's Chronicles
7. Ace Du-Chua from Picture Me Love
8. Watching the Waves
9. Wear a Smile (TURKISH)
10. Alev (TURKISH)

Burgandy not red

The debut of one of the yesstyle dresses. This was the one I thought it was more red and came out more of a maroon burgandy color. I am making the most of the unexpected color.

Added the blush cardi which goes nicely with this color and added the pink beret solely cause I am having a bad hair day and did not have time to deal or wash the hair this morning.

Since the dress is quite mini on me I added leggings instead of tights so I can be purely comfortable today with the kids. The flat boots are OK I guess. I just didn't have any other ideas for shoes in the rush. I have on these very delicate earings on which forgot to take a photo of and my pink/gold heart cuff watch.

Dress - yesstyle.com

Cardi & Beret - Forever 21

Boots - Juicy Couture

Watch - Betsey Johnson

Today's Activities: Had to leave the house by 8:30 AM this morning so we can drop off my car at the repair shop then get into my hubby's car and drop him off his work. We had the electrician come at 7 AM and finished his work before we left. Since we had driven to that area decided to make today's activity hanging at the mall by my husband's work. Of course no mall opens at 9:15 AM so we hung out at the outdoor play area in the mall. Ran into a mommy friend by chance and had the kids play together until the mall opened.

There are so many places I love shopping for kids' clothes. Love Target and Children's place the best. Especially for girl clothes. I always browse TJ Maxx and Nordstrom rack too for brand name clothes. Hurley and Guess are my faves for boys. But I have discovered last season that Sears has a few brands for boys that make the cooles and hippest clothes. They are brands like 'Scorce', Rocketes' (sp?) and Dickies. The designs are very cool usually music, rock'n'roll, skull and skateboard type designs. the shorts are long bermuda style instead of the short shorts oskosh or Target makes. Hence, we did a big batch shopping for him for some summer shorts and tees etc... His size stuff is right next to the toy isles so I was able to have the kids check out the toys while I put outfits together.

We then did hit Children's place and I did buy him an Easter outfit. Hit outfit colors this year will be white, tan and black. Got him white jeans, a black linen shirt with rolled up sleeves, an argyle white/tan/black vest and a khaki linen blazer jacket. To dress it all down I might have him wear black flip flops underneath. We have to see. Of course this outfit will probably not match my daughter's. She has a couple brand new dresses bought my family so I was just going to have hear wear one of those.  Have no idea what I am wearing yet either. We'll probably all be in different colors. Oh well.

Afternoon was psycho crazy. We stayed home and my husband was working late and getting a ride so alone with the kids I accomplished a crazy list of chores, pruned all the front flowers, watered them, cleaned and filled the now fixed fountain during which the kids got completely soaked so had to strip them down and do an early bath. Put away all the clothes we bought, do 3 loads of laundry (was supposed to be 2 but got distracted and started a load half full apparently). Then had to cook dinner, feed and clean up, shower myself then get them ready for bed, stories read and down. I am beyond exhaustion at this point!

Here is our pool after it is totally demo'd:

By this afternoon the new coping was in progress: 

Oh and here is one of the trees before (left) and after (right) it has been pruned. We plan to put a play structure under this tree so wanted all the lower branches cut...