Spring Fashion Week- Wednesday!

Consider me inspired. By YOU!!




This dress is a new favorite of mine because it is easy and colorful! I bought it at a thrift store recently and it had a really long skirt on it, so, as I always do, I cut it shorter. Somehow I ended up cutting it much shorter than I wanted, though, and it was no longer a dress, but more like a long blouse. I was pretty bummed until I started playing with it and pairing it with shorts and skirts and leggings. Now, I think I like the short length more than if I had kept it longer! Hooray!

It's more versatile this way! Or something!



Here's a view of the pretty sleeves.



It has a super cute print: little black branches with turquoise berries and tiny white leaves on it. Me loves.

I never ever wore pink until just recently. I thought it washed me out too badly. But, I find myself loving it all of the sudden! So strange. Maybe I'm finally growing out of my tomboy stage. ahaha.

Blouse- vintage Lady Carol of New York, thrifted
Cardigan- Vintage thrifted
Gray Shorts- Charlotte Russe? I think?
Gray tights- thrifted
Gray Flats- Old Navy
Heart Necklace- Thrifted

What are you wearing this fine Wednesday, the last day of March?

Spring Fashion Week- Tuesday!

YOU ALL ARE AMAZING.

I am loving this so much, and have really enjoyed 'meeting' some of you for the first time!! This be fashionista central- woot woot!

Here's my outfit for Tuesday:


cheeeeeese!



(these trees are blooming everywhere and they are SO BEAUTIFUL, but we discovered today that they smell like rancid fish oil if you get too close to them. Yuuuuuck! My worst nightmare!!)


Yesterday was the first REALLY nice day of the year, and by the time 7:30PM rolled around, the boys and I had been to the park THREE separate times. haha. We just couldn't get enough of the sunshine!

Needless to say, after the first trip to the park, this vintage marigold skirt was exchanged for some comfy skinnies. You can't dangle from the monkey bars in a high-waisted skirt, so it had to go. ;)

Vintage Marigold Skirt- Thrifted
White Tank- I don't remember?
Red MJ Cardigan- Forever21
Brown Flats- Dolce Vita from Ross
Leopard Hair Bow- Forever21

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Post your links to your Tuesday looks below, and don't forget to wrangle your friends into joining in on the fun! It's never too late to join in... each time you post a look, you are entered into the end-o-the-week drawing!

Thanks to you all for making this such a fun and encouraging experience already! :)

Spring Fashion Week- Monday!

Aaaand, they're off!

I am so excited about our Spring Fashion Week!! I can't wait to see what outfits all you cutie patooties put together. This is going to be suuuper fun!

Here's my first outfit:



I wore this in California a few days ago and I loved it.

Cropped ruffle blouse- Express, thrifted.
Vintage skirt- thrifted
Robin's Egg blue Cardigan- thrifted
Grungy Grasshopper shoes- thrifted
Crazy Casino Vintage bow belt- thrifted
Hat- Forever21

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So, now, here's what you need to do if you'd like to join in!

Post a photo (or a few photos) of your MONDAY outfit on your blog with a link back to this blog. Then add your Monday link in the box below. Your link will show up along with all the other links of those who are participating! (hit refresh on your browser if it doesn't show up right away.)

Then, take a look around at the other links! Leave them comments! Be encouraging! Make new bloggy buddies! Have fun! Be happy!

At the end of the week, everyone who has participated will be entered to win the super fun giveaway prize! Each day that you post a look will be one entry for you. So, if you post all seven days, you'll have seven entries in the giveaway!

The prize? It's a....

ModCloth is not sponsoring this Fashion Week or this giveaway, it is just my favorite online store and I wanted to give one lucky reader a chance to have a little Springtime shopping spree! Soooo... get postin', ya'll!

Let the fabulousity begin!!

San Luis Obispo, California.

It was somewhat strange being back in San Luis Obispo again after all these years. We didn't have the kids with us, so it felt like a weird time warp... like time got crumpled up and folded back upon itself and we were carefree pre-twenty-somethings again, romping around in one of the most beautiful places in the world.



It was no time warp, though. All of our friends, who were once so carefree alongside us, are now parents. They have yummy little babies and have entered whole new seasons of their lives. It was almost too beautiful to look at. This little charmer here is Asher. He belongs to our dear friends Cameron & Anna Ingalls. They are all coming to visit us out in OKC in a couple of weeks, and I'm thinking I'm just going to take this little booger off of their hands for them. I know, I know... I am TOO kind.

We also got to see our bestie get married. It was breathtaking and awe-inspiring to watch. We love these two so much!



San Luis Obispo is like paradise. No, really. Everything in me was trying to figure out a way we could move back there to all the beauty. But, being able to stay at home with my kids is priority for this season in my life, and we couldn't afford the hefty pricetag that is attached to those rolling green hills without me working full-time. (Those hills aren't that pretty, no siree.)



Get this... they still have GLASS coke bottles on the left coast! It made my vintage-loving heart pound to see such a sight. Also, I bought this hat at Forever21 (they have the largest F21 in the nation in SLO) and then never once took it off. I'm pretty sure I've worn it every single day since I bought it. haha.


(photo by cameroningalls)



Chris looked dashing and handsome and relaxed while we were in California. And here I was- convinced he couldn't get any more handsome. I was wrong. California looks GOOD on this man. :)



It felt so natural being back in our old stomping grounds. We got to see a whole bunch of people that we love, and it did nothing but kindle our love for the place and the people we left behind.



I feel like I've spent the last couple of days trying to shake San Luis Obispo back out of the forefront of my mind. I was very sad to leave and have been somewhat mopey ever since we landed back in windy Oklahoma again. I miss my friends. I want to smoosh my worlds together so we can all be one big happy family. A lot of our friend groups in CA have become really splintered and separated over the years due to some really hard church stuff from a few years back. I SO long to see them come back together again and put the past behind them. The whole time I was there, I just kept hearing the word "Restoration" over and over again in my mind. I wish I could be there to see when it happens. (Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will. And soon!!) All it will take is some open and honest dialoging, me thinks.

(That, and maybe a little booze to loosen everyone up a bit.)

haha.

Oh, California! We love you so!! I wish we were next door neighbors...

Joel & Morgan... Hitched!

It was the bestest day ever!!!!

We had such a great time out in California. I will post more about our trip soon, but I just had to share these pictures of our dearest friend's special day. It was so so beautiful!

My New Living Room.

The Old Room: Holy BROWN, Batman!

Thanks to Craigslist, I have a new living room! We took the old hugemongo chairs out (as seen above) and purchased a matching pair of smaller, vinatge chairs (for $40!) to replace them. Those old recliners were waaaaay too big for this room.

Then, oh then! I found two antique corner hutches for suuuper cheap. It was the score of the century.

After that, we hung up some old toile curtains that I have had for awhile that I found at the Goodwill, set up our old record player, and voila! We have a whole new living room!







Now we just need to find a rug (possibly a cool oriental one?) and get my grandma's old coffee table down from the attic, and we'll be all set.

What kind of a rug do you think would look good in this room?
I need your wonderful opinions/ideas...

I've been wanting to get more of a vintage-y feel in here for a long time, so I'm super excited!

I love my new living room. I felt like we had been slowly drowning in brown. It feels like it is so much more "us" now.

Craigslist RULES. :)

PS. Tomorrow we will be in CALIFORNIA! Super mega ultra Squeal !!!

Faces Towards the Sun.

After an eternal week of the stomach flu that gave us all a swift roundhouse kick to the gut (excepting for Ezra, he somehow escaped unscathed) we are finally on the mend! This little boy right here... my sweet munchkin Myer... is not quite so plump anymore. He lost a lot of weight after not being able to eat much or keep food down for seven days. SAD. But today he was back to his old self.

The mom in me is wanting to cram bread and potatoes down his throat to beef him up again, but my empathetic stomach knows better.

We've all been nibbling for days. The only thing that sounds good most of the time is toast or cereal. I can't wait to be really hungry again.

Things on the horizon:

-MoMar is coming to watch the boys for a few days
-We're flying to CA on Friday
-Our dearest friend Joel is getting MARRIED!!
-aaaand... SPRING is coming! And I'm actually excited!

Yippeee!

Best & Worst.

The Best:


sunsets.



legwarmers.



spring florals.



cutie patootie owls.



little audiences.




The Worst:


Seeing this little boy be so sick.

(this pic was taken a few days ago after I gave him a bite of my peanut butter cookie without thinking. Apparently, he's allergic.)

Currently, he's got some sort of stomach virus.

boooooo!!!!!!

The Unlocked Jail.

I remember thinking, after I wrote out Chris & I's story a couple of years ago, that it didn't have a proper ending. Of course, part of that feeling came from the fact that- you know- we were still going and whatnot, but I remember thinking, "I wish this story had more closure to it."

I had poured out the past and the pain and the heartache, and then when it came to the end, it felt like our story said something along the lines of: don't have sex before you're married because it's not worth it and THE END.

I knew there was another chapter yet to be written, yet to be lived. And it wasn't until I wrote it all out that I realized there was something lacking.

So, for a couple of years I have been processing and asking God to write a new chapter in our lives. A chapter full of hope and healing and RESTORATION and closure. And just recently, I felt like God began to reveal that the new chapter was on it's way.

But there was another chapter that had to come before it.

One that might be called 'Unforgiveness'.

I have been holding on to unforgiveness over our past. Of course I couldn't let my husband into the deepest places of my heart! I was still on some deep down level MAD at him! Even though he has apologized sincerely to me hundreds of times for the years before we were married.

Unforgiveness is a sin. I have been sinning against the Lord and my husband. Even if Chris had never ever apologized, it would still be my responsibility to forgive him. God commands us to forgive one another. To drop it and let it go. To forgive because we've been forgiven. To move forward knowing that God is sufficient to heal our pain and turn it into GOOD without us squeezing restitution out of the people we think have wronged us.

Satan loves unforgiveness. I imagine, for him, it is not unlike watching a person pine away inside a prison cell even though the key is clutched tightly in their hand.

I still can't talk about the early years of Chris and I's relationship without feeling burning anger and sharp pain. And that's a HUGE RED FLAG that I have unforgiveness in my heart. Because when we allow God to come and truly heal our broken places, He takes the pain out of them, and fills them with His peace and comfort and love. He takes away the sting.

The past, for me, still stings.

I've been standing here- waiting Chris to repair the past. I have been playing the part of a victim... expecting him to somehow repay me for harm that we both mutually entered into. I could have and should have said NO. But I didn't. And I've been asking Chris to settle the debt... withholding huge parts of my heart from him until I felt justified.

I feel like such a hypocrite! Such a goob! But there is now no condemnation in God, and it is good for me to know where to go from here. It's like I've finally looked down and seen the shiny key clutched in my fist and all I need to do now is let myself out the front door.

Forgiving someone is an act of trust. I trust that God knows the deep places of my heart and sees the pain that has nestled down in there. I trust that He will use that pain and turn it into good things...a deeper understanding of Him and His character or a comfort that I can extend to others in similar places. I trust that I can let the defensive weapons of pain and anger go and become vulnerable and soft again.

I trust that He is good.

And so, in view of His mercy, I'm choosing to finally

let.

it.

drop.

Weapons of Fluff Destruction.

{Alternatively titled: "Maybe uncluttered playrooms aren't so bad after all?"}