Stop and smell the flowers...

and sometimes, stop and read the sidewalk...

Wordless Wednesday

Style Show Staycation: Part 2

getting ready, one curl at a time....
and we're off! How great is this?
Our outfits were hung in order in our own little section of the rack and first we'd get our "clothes" on. Then we'd have the hat girl pick our hat and the jewelery girl pick our jewelery. and then down the stairs to show off all of the finery.
Some outfits had a top to take off, just like in the old burlesque days!
This is good times, people!
I'll be anxious to see the pro photos from that night, but even these capture how truly beautiful everything was...
Look how proper I am in my button up sweater and hat and boots. Kind of like I'm going to church...
OK, maybe not church exactly...
and this was my favorite... This outfit is phenomenal and then paired with this amazing hat and the earrings was just perfect.
Have you ever seen panties that cute?
All clothes are from www.janesvanity.com and the hats are from the very charming Miss Dayna at http://www.pinkhammillinery.com/

Style Show Staycation: Part 1

Once upon a time last year, we were downtown for a celebration weekend and managed to find ourselves at a lingerie style show at the wine bar! Awesomely enough, I got to be a model this time! The timing worked out nicely as my mom was in town last weekend and John had to work, so we knew that we'd want to do something fun to reconnect and so we turned the style show weekend into another fun staycation downtown! We got up Saturday and had a nice jog and breakfast and then packed for the day. After what might have been the longest bus experience in the history of Tri-met, we made it downtown. We checked in early and shopped around, had a couple drinks and a pizza and hung out.
Before getting ready, we went down to the awesome hotel gym and got in a little pre-func exercise...

and did a couple laps in the pool. Oh hi, Portland.
The gym ruled...
I danced with the statue in the lobby....
and then we gussied up and headed to the style show! (that gets it's own post, stay tuned...)We had a super night and woke up the next morning to a delightfully warm and rainy day and walked around downtown and went out for breakfast before packing up and heading back home to SE for an easy, relaxing Sunday...
I love staycations. I'm already looking forward to the next one :)

Fashion Friday

Today's Fashion Friday is going to show outfits from a whirlwind weekend with Mom. We packed a lot into a short time and still managed to be cute! We are very good at shopping together and it only makes sense that when you spend all that time with clothes, that you look good! Here we are waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the bus on Friday to go meet John for happy hour after a day of shopping. I really like the burgundy shirt with all turquoise accessories. I was pleasantly surprised to do this look that I typically wear with black with a color instead. (I don't know why my belt buckle is always off center, sheesh.)
Steph is turquoise too, it's kind of our thing.
I don't really have Saturday outfit pictures, but pretty well documented the day so you can tell I wore orange (to match my beer, remember?) and Steph wore purple. John wore black and looked awesome strolling up in a snazzy jacket. Sunday was a casual day and we went to Bridgeport for lunch and the Waffle Window (oh dear, you MUST!) for dessert. John models the casual Carhart and flip flop look and Steph rocks sparkle jeans with a cute belt and a turquoise sweater.
I wore my new favorite jeans and a brown sweater with awesome brown wedges and a pair of earrings that I've been looking for forever. You can only see a peek of it here, but I also had my turquoise purse for a pop of color. The kitty lives on our street and was super friendly that day.
On Monday, back to work. I love this dress because I can wake up and throw it on and it's as comfy as sweats but I get a ton of compliments on it. and it matches my hair, which is a bonus.
I met up with Steph towards the end of the day. She's usually pretty easy to spot.
and then across the bridge to dance class wearing my standard short shorts, legwarmers, and team Vega sweatshirt.

Something Smart

In the olden days, before we digitized, my mom and I both took lots of pictures and we just made prints for each other of the ones the other wanted so we could put them in our albums. Then we got digital cameras and digital frames and didn't want to print everything. Then this started...

"Will you take one with my camera too"

So every time we took a picture, we had to take 2. and every time we had someone take a picture of both of us, we had to have them take 2... It was silly. So now when we get together we each take our cameras and take pictures of whatever we want. If someone takes one of both of us, we hand them one camera, say thank you, and send them on their way. Then on the last night we are together, I take both of our cards and dump them on my computer so I have them all and then put my pics on her card so she has them when she goes home! It takes 5 minutes and then we can each delete any we don't want. genius. I just got around to going through some of them and here is the addendum to our visit. Saturday shopping on Hawthorne, lunch at Bridgeport...
I like that I coordinated my shirt with my beer.
Then downtown to the wine bar where we saw Jen...
John met us there after a Saturday morning in the office.
After a a couple glasses of wine, Steph and I went on one last shoe shopping stop and John went up to see about scoring a table in the bar at City Grill. Not only did he, but he got the best seat in the house! Hooray John!
Looking over the beautiful, foggy city....
Steph and John with their girlie drinks....
The city in the dark...
Complete birthday success!

Photo Contest - Winner!

Hey guys, check it out, I won the photo contest! It's not the $50 I'm so excited about, but that I am totally going to have the bragging rights to having the best summer vacation photo! and since it's a winner, I'll probably use it for the Christmas card this year too, so I'll cross "decide what photo to use for Xmas card" off the to-do list!

my life rules.

http://www.oregonlive.com/photo-contest/index.ssf/2010/09/meet_your_2010_summer_vacation.html

Steph's birthday!

My mom was in town this weekend to celebrate her birthday! We had a great time do what we seem to do best: shopping and drinking and snacking our way around town.
John had to work for a big part of the weekend, but he did get to spend Saturday night (her actual birthday) with us and we had a super fun evening and an awesome dinner. We headed home and got off the bus to a huge downpour and had to run in the water faucet-like rain all the way to the house.
We went to our favorite little haunts and had a great time.
Here's to being 67!

Calling all friends!

Hey Team Blog Readers!

Randomly and awesomely, I ended up in the finals for the Best Summer Vacation photo! These are bragging rights I would very much like to have! I am in second place right now and need your vote! Voting ends tomorrow morning!
http://www.oregonlive.com/photo-contest/index.ssf/2010/09/vote_for_your_favorite_2010_su.html

UPDATE: I WON!

Fashion Friday

This little one-side-ruffled top is awesome because I can rock it with tights as a dress or scrunch it up and wear it as a shirt! It's super soft and I loved the feel of it with the tights and booties all day. I also had an opened button up shirt I wore over it in the office for added coverage and to combat the inevitable office chills.
I scored the adorable little lace up booties at goodwill one day. I'm more of a boots or shoes kind of gal, so the booties are a new look to work through for me. but I dig 'em, at least with this look. Also, I just love gray and black together. I topped it off with go-to big silver earrings and a metal hair flower! oh, and matching purse, cause that's just how I roll :)

It's Britney, Bitch!

Old Britney, but good :)

Wordless Wednesday

WARRIOR DASH!

John and I, along with the bravest of our co-workers, signed up for the Warrior Dash. It was going to be a three mile run mixed with various obstacles and would involve us getting wet and muddy at the very least. We knew this about the event: we should wear costumes and we were a little nervous. Here is part of our group before the race. Note that JJ and were the first of our team to arrive in awesome costumes.
Finding our Warrior spirit....
Our motley crew....
And we're off! up through the woods and down into the (COLD!) water, where we had to climb over rolling logs. Then up and over the hay bales....
Around the corner and through the woods (and cargo net and bungies..)
ready to tackle the car pile!
more obstacles, more hills, up and ready to run through the FIRE!
and..JUMP! John says in some countries, this would mean we were married! Does this mean this was our second wedding?
off to the tire obstacle...
and then crawl under the barbed wire through the mud..
and slide into the finish line!
VICTORY!
Warrior John:
Warrior Shan:
after a little cleanup in the river, a victory beer!
Warrior Dash 2011, count us in!