BDIB - Arm Party

Participating in the 'Arm Party' for  

Bloggers Do It Better (BDIB) 

event hosted by Pretty Shiny Sparkly blog!

All accessories from Forever 21 & Charlotte Russe.

This was in a post/outfit from May. The whole outfit:

 

To see others' Arm Party click HERE!

Today's outfit post to follow very shortly....

Sweet Rasberry

Today's outfit was inspired by the lovely Bee who you all know from the ridiculously popular blog 

Atlantic Pacific.

 And just as I was going to her website to get her link I just saw her last two outfits and were instantly inspired again. I have saved so many of her outfits as inspirations.

 I realize this is more of a spring/fall outfit then a summer one but I know the infusion center we were going today for my dad would be chilly so it was fine.

 I used my safari shirt with the zip up sleeves as my vest. I didn't have a top with lace trimmed sleeves like hers so did this lace front blouse and the lace was peeking out in the front. The red patent belt I thrifted was perfect...

 The ikat designed scarf with the red and orange tones went nicely. I rolled and rolled and tucked to get this effect...

 My chain link watch and bracelet sets...

The raspberry mules that gets everyone's attention when I wear them. Especially my little girl loves the 'raspberries' and was wearing them today, hence I had to look all over the living room to find them before the photo shoot.

While I had the shoes wanted to show the pedicure I got with flower over the tangerine colored polish. And my silver/navy nails are still OK so far...

Blouse - Victoria's Secret

Vest - Eddie Bauer

Jeans - Citizens

Belt - Thrifted

Scarf - Forever 21

Watch - Ed Hardy

Bracelets - Ruche.com

Earrings - from Turkey

Shoes - Anthropology

Today's Activities: Did housework this morning before taking the kids to my mother's then leaving for my dad's Dr and infusion appointment. Afterwards I ran more errands (kid free) and then went to the gym (kid free) for my body pump class where I met my friend. She was able to get her husband to pick up her kids as well before our class. It was nice to finish the class and leisurely walk out and chat for a while then in a hurry dress 4 children and lug and drive them home. My husband had dinner with my parents and picked up the kids and put them to bed early. We have a big train and zoo in another town adventure tomorrow. Will be getting up early and leaving the house before 8 AM!

Props to Bloggers

No outfit post today.
Using this opportunity to thank a recent blog award, show my recent nail art, outfit of my friend which I helped style and do the Monday Mingle...

1. BLOG AWARD

PinkMate from The Pink Mate Project blog has given me a 

'Sunshine Award' on July 20th.

 To see the award post click HERE!

I am to answer the following questions:

1. Favorite color:   Pink
2. Favorite animal: Dogs
3. Favorite number: don't really have one.
4. What perfume am I using right now? Juicy Couture (the first original scent)
5. Something you always wear with you and identifies you: The very thin double chain gold necklace which was my grandmother's. You probably see it in my close-up photos. I never take it off.
6. What’s your passion? Living life and enjoying the present.
7. Getting or giving presents? both.
8. What was the last eyeshadow you used? e.l.f.
9.  Favorite day of the week: Saturday (my husband is not working and we always do something as a family)
10.  Are your nails painted right now? Silver and dark dark navy blue. (see photos in this post)

And now some new(er) blogs I have started following that I would like to introduce to you and pass the award on...

With their very unique Edgy styles these two are worth visiting:

Baby Budget Blog

Affair with my closet

Great streetstyle:

Melina from Cupcakeolicious

 

Mommy Blogger from my very own city!:

Kate from Iris Inspired

Cool new International blogs I have found and started following:

From Turkey (my home country): Aysun of Aysstyle

From Norway: Karoline Kalvo

From Philippines: Ace Du Chua of Picturemelove

Cool Artistic photography:

Lenara Choudhury

 

2. Now onto my recent nail art project:

It has now become a tradition where my bf and I get together every other week or so to watch true blood and do our nails at the same time. Last night we tried something different.

Got the idea of this from Pretty Shiny Sparkly blog post called 'half moon nails'...

This is her nails:

Here is our attempts in following her directions:

 I applied the one of two metallic nail polish I already had at home...

This was the only stickers I could find that would help us do the job but they did not stick good...

I realized I covered too much of my nails with the stickers and this turned out more half and half then just the 'moon' part covered in metallic paint...

 These were my colors. The dark color is actually dark navy but looks black doesn't it?

And here is my friend's base color (purple metallic):

And dark green top coat:

 These were her colors:

At the end though she didn't like it and took it off and put a what she called 'happy' bright pink instead. 

We decided to try again when we buy the right stickers and possibly another metallic color.

3. My Friend's Outfit:

So remember when I mentioned my friend came over the other night with a black dress she bought for her 20th high school re-union and asked for some fashion advice as to how to accessorize. 
The good thing is we wear approximately the same shoe size, so I could give not just advice but also stuff from my own collections to barrow. I felt like I was running a department store having her try one pair of shoes after another. I knew right away that going black would be just too boring. She needed something that was going to pop and add interest. I was leaning towards bronze or purple or red. The purple heels were not really her style. The bronze ones felt too casual but the red ones look amazing.
We then added bunch of arm candy and finally a black and white clutch to add even more color and tie in her beautiful white MK watch to the mix.

Her photos do not have the best lighting but here is the end result:

 

Her Dress - White house black market

my Clutch - Guess

Arm Candy - some hers, some mine from Charlotte Russe and F21

Her watch - Michael Kors

my Red Stilettos - Stuart Weitzman

 

4. Monday Mingle

I am also participating in Monday Mingle, a fashion focused initiative that sprung from the minds of BonBon Rose Girls, Momtrends.com and Glammamom.com.
Each week they’ll take turns hosting the linky and invite you to link up with any fashion related post that you would love to get some exposure!

BonBon Rose Girls is the linky host this week, so head on over to check out fabulous fashion themed posts!

 

........Well that is it as far as fashion stuff goes........

 

Today's Activities: Hosted the Monday play date today at our house. It is nice cause we don't have to rush to get out of the house but we do have to rush to get everything ready. So I had to cook and have all the food and house ready. The host provides snacks for kids and grown up and lunch for everyone. I actually cooked a pasta dish with salami and mozzarella I had copied from Jenny's Spry on the Wall blog. 

The recipe can be found in this link.

 

For the kids I also cooked mini tiny individual pizza's from Trader Joe's. As usual kids played for a long time at first then we had swimming then lunch then some more play time. It all usually ends by 1:30 PM. And the exhausted kids go down for nap/rest. In the afternoon my dad came over so I could finally go get a much needed pedicure.

Here are some photos from the afternoon pool/BBQ gathering we had yesterday (Sunday)...

Yes we seem to be hosting quite often these days...

 Kids' Table

Adults (yes, I am wearing something so stupid but I had to rush to put on something after the pool and before getting dinner ready for the little and big crowd)...

 Our two litte ones sharing a Popsicle and playing together... (they are 2.5 months apart)...

~THE END~