Sunshine Day

For some reason I have that silly song in my head that the Brady Bunch kids sang. It makes a good post title though since we've had some gorgeous weather for the past few days. On Friday afternoon I took my little dog Jefferson for a walk around the neighborhood. I grabbed my small camera on the way out the door. I'm glad I did because I got some great pictures along the way. Jefferson was having so much fun playing in the fallen leaves and sniffing trees and posts along the way that it was hard to capture him in the pictures but I got a few with him.

This first pictures is kind of cool with the sun behind me. I thought of Bonnie's beautiful outdoors pictures when I saw this shot. Mine isn't as good as her pictures, but I like it anyway. It will remind me of this lovely day and how much I enjoy just being outside with my little buddy. :-)

Cardigan: Target
Blouse: Anthropologie
Tank: ??
Jeans: Target
Shoes: Steinmart

My outfit reminds me of something I saw my mom wear in an old picture of her as a teenager. There's kind of a retro vibe with the skinnier pants rolled up at the bottom, flats, and blouse. This was not really planned but I like how this outfit came together!







Did everyone have a good weekend? We spent lots of time outdoors and visited some nice parks in the area. I'll post some more pictures of our weekend adventures tomorrow. :-)

The Forgotten Garden

Last night I finished a book that was SO good and I just had to tell everyone about it! It's called The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (click on the title and it will link you to the Amazon page which includes an interview with the author).



I can't give many details about the story because that would spoil the mystery but I will say that in general what drew me to this book was the wonderful way that three different threads of the story were brought together, spanning three generations of women in a family and the unraveling of the mystery of one woman's past. The writing was beautifully done and the descriptions of the English estate and grounds where most of the action takes place were entrancing. It was the characters, more than anything, that kept me reading though. I just had to know what happened to them and learn their secrets. Sometimes it can be distracting when a book goes back and forth to different time periods but in this book the three stories were so intertwined that it worked really well and each thread was equally compelling.

You MUST read this book! If you think you're too busy to read, just take it in small chunks like I did. I'll warn you, this is a long book but it's such a worthwhile read.

If you like Morton's writing, you should also check out her first novel, The House at Riverton. It looks like she's working on another one, The Distant Hours, which is set to be released this month!

Shall We Dance?

This has been a super busy week so far and I just now have a spare moment to post about the fun night I had at the local dinner theater this past weekend. An old friend of mine (plus her husband and parents) met up with me, my husband, and my parents on Saturday evening for a great performance of The King and I. We have a lovely dinner theater in town called the Alahambra and this was actually the first time I had ever been there. It was almost closed down last year but a local businessman bought and renovated it. It's really nice now and the food was excellent. They have a new chef and they coordinate the meal with the theme of the play. Since our play was set in Siam (which is now Thailand), our meal was Thai-inspired and it was delicious!

Here's what I wore:

Travessia Dress (Anthro)
Cardigan (Belk)
Snakebite Belt (Anthro)
Pessinus Garden Necklace (Anthro)
Lilac Knit Tights (Forever 21)
Grey Suede Wedges (Target)

I picked up these great wedges at Target after seeing them on Kathryn from In Pursuit of Pretty Things. Check out how cute they are with her outfits here and here. They are surprisingly comfortable and I highly recommend them. Check your local Target because I found several left at the one near me even though the website was telling me there weren't any left in my size at the store. Size up because they run small!

We snapped a few pictures outside before the performance since the fountain and garden area in front of the theater was so pretty.





Here's me and my sweetie! He was a good sport about going to the theater even though he doesn't really like musicals. He knows how much I love them! My favorite song from the play is "Shall We Dance" (hence the title of my post). We even took a little spin around the kitchen (our "ballroom") when we got home. ;-)



If you haven't seen the 1956 classic movie version, check out Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner singing "Shall We Dance" in this YouTube clip:



Also, fun fact: The guy who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies also played Anna's son in the 1999 version starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat.

Fall Returns?

Yesterday the weather finally cooled off again here in north Florida. We don't have the lovely fall weather that other parts of the country are experiencing right now, but I'll take what I can get. ;-) Dropping over 15 degrees actually feels chilly to us Floridians! So, I pulled out my Old Navy boots and a cardigan for my outfit yesterday that I wore to the library to do some writing.

Dress: LOFT
Belt: Anthropologie
Cardigan: LOFT
Boots: Old Navy
Necklace: Anthropologie

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend and enjoying some fall weather! :-)

Q & A and an OOTD!

I've shared some of my outfit misses in the past and this is another one to add to that archive. Just keeping it real! ;-) I snapped this picture before I dashed out the door to go teach my classes (that's my textbook in my hand). I didn't look at the picture until I got home so I didn't realize that my outfit wasn't really very flattering.

This dress always gives me trouble but I keep giving it another chance. It needs to be belted but I inadvertently created a maternity look by putting it higher than usual. And I'm not pregnant so that's a problem. This dress is a tad too long so I was trying to remedy that by tucking some of it under my belt to shorten it but the dress has an empire waist so that's why I belted it so high.

I think I'll get the dress hemmed to solve the length problem and only wear it with a belt at my natural waist over a cardigan. We're having a little heat wave today -- seriously it feels like July again! I had to dig out my sandals from the back of my closet.

Dress: LOFT
Belt: Anthro
Cardigan: LOFT
Sandals: Target
Bracelet: vintage

Now for the Q&A:
I randomly picked three more of the questions that I got from readers to answer today:

1. Mandy asked: if you could personify yourself as an animal, which animal would you choose and why?

The first thing that came to mind was a cat. I'm very independent and like to have a lot of alone time. I can also be warm and cuddly at times too. I think a cat best captures that duality of my personality.

2. Debbie Deb asked: is there a fashion trend that you used to wear growing up that makes you cringe when you think about it today? if not, is there a trend today that you'd like to see disappear?

I was a kid in the 80's so you can imagine some of the crazy things I wore back then. My sister was a teenager and I loved to copy her style. I remember wearing my jeans "tight-rolled" (some people called it "pegged"). I also had this outfit that I loved which consisted of black leggings with lace at the bottom with my sister's over-sized purple sweatshirt. I think I had a crazy-big bow that I wore with it too. Yeah, I thought I was stylish at the time. I'd cringe now if I found any pictures of those outfits! :-)

3. Tricia asked: What are you most afraid of?
I'm a big scaredy cat but at the top of the list of things I'm afraid of are:
--heights: mostly open-heights -- I had a scary experience at the top of a jungle gym as a kid
--spiders: eeeeeek!!
--getting in a car accident: If I could live somewhere that had good public transportation, I'd never drive again! I got into an accident about 8 years ago and totaled the car but somehow managed to walk away unhurt. I still have nightmares about my car spinning in slow motion across three lanes though.

Travel Tuesday: Chicago (& My New Anthro Goodies)

Our day of sight-seeing started off a little rainy but ended up being beautiful! It's a good thing I packed my trench coat. We walked around inside Navy Pier while it rained and then hopped on a trolley for a tour.



It was still sprinkling when we got to the Sears Tower so we headed inside. Here's a picture I snapped while we were up there. You can see the Hancock Building in the distance.



I'm a little afraid of heights but I scurried out on the glass observation area for a quick picture. What a view!



By the time we came back outside the weather was clearing off. I got this picture of the Sears Tower from the top of the double-decker bus we rode after lunch.



One of my favorite places we visited was Millennium Park. It's such a beautiful spot nestled between all of those tall buildings.



In the park is "The Bean" which is a sculpture with a highly-polished surface that reflects the cityscape. It was very unusual!





We ended the day by going to a performance of The Lion King. It was such an amazing show! The costumes and settings are stunning and I just loved the music. I highly recommend seeing this play if it tours anywhere near you!



And here's the outfit my mom got me when we visited the new Anthropologie store. I knew I wanted the Pilcro Cohort Cords after seeing how adorable they looked on Tricia in this post. My mom picked out the Shine-Through Button-up from the sale rack to match the pants and they look great together! Check out Jan's posts here and here for some other great outfits featuring that shirt. I know I'll be stealing those ideas for future outfits! :-) I also got the purple Time In, Time Out belt. It matched the Southward Stop Dress that I was wearing so I ended up putting it on and wearing it for the rest of that day.

My Lucky Day!

My mom and I are in Chicago today and tomorrow to meet up with my sister and her friend for a girls weekend (and belated birthday celebration for my sister who I don't get to see very often since she lives far away from me). Since we got here several hours before my sister, Mom and I decided to check out the grand opening of the Anthro that just moved over to the big store that used to house American Girl Place. How lucky is it that we happened to be here the same day it was opening?! If we'd been here last week we wouldn't have been able to see it.

The new store is amazing! And huge! Kim from Anthroholic posted some pictures of the beautiful interior -- check them out here.

Here I am in front of the sign (debuting my new Southward Stop dress!!):



Snapping an OOTD photo in one of the full length mirrors:


Several people in the store stopped me to ask how I liked the Berry-Stitched Boots and I told them how comfortable they've been for walking around a lot. Highly recommend!

All the sales people were so nice and handled the huge crowd of shoppers really well. They even put out some refreshments for us! Here's my mom getting a snack. ;-)



Here was my favorite part of the store -- the SHOE section, of course!



It was so fun to be able to check out this new store! My mom even got me a few things as a special treat. ;-) I'll take some pictures of them when I get home. We're having a wonderful trip so far and it's been so great to see my sister again. We had pizza at Giordano's tonight. Yum! It will be a very quick trip but we have a full day of fun sight-seeing planned for tomorrow and we're going to see The Lion King.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll post again when I get back home. :-)