bybmg: August 2014

Happy Friday!  Anyone else thrilled for the three day weekend ahead?!  I AM!!!  Here are some highlights from this past week

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We had quite the eventful Saturday!  My parents were coming to visit to help us paint the house/garage.  We'd had a terrible storm the night before and woke up to at least two feet of water in our basement.  Our basement is truly an old cellar, so we don't have anything down there, but the heater/ac unit is there, so that's what I was most concerned about.  My dad and Russ got the water pumped out, Praise the Lord!  Mom, Russ, the boys, and I went to the town festival parade while my dad supervised the basement drainage. It was such a blessing that my parents were already on their way when we discovered the water. 

Also, we did have time to work on the garage and it is a few brushstrokes from being finished!  Then, on to painting the house this weekend!

Have any of these pieces in your wardrobe? I'm thrilled to share that I am a contributor to Liberating Working Moms!  I'll be blogging over there at least once a month. Today I'm over there sharing my first post: 3 Ways to Stretch Your Working Mom Wardrobe.  I hope you'll hop over and check it out!

Hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday.  I'm excited to be here with you again sharing what I wore this past week.  If you're gloomy and looking for a ray of sunshine, head on over to my Instagram account.  There just MIGHT be a giveaway happening!

 
 Gray & Black with a mess of pattern!

Cardigan: Old Navy
Tank: Old Navy
Necklace: Banana Republic Outlet
Skirt: by me using my tutorial
Flats: Target


July's Darby Smart was a fun one.  We truly only have one clock in our house that is not digital, so it was fun making this one. I'm not sure if I'll stick it in our bedroom or find another fun place to put it. This month, I decided to mix it up a little and use something outside of the subscription box to add to the project.

Welcome to the 49th week of Turn It Up Tuesday!

Last week's link up was great with so many awesome posts!  Thanks for everyone that linked up!

The Emmys are here! Are you watching it? To celebrate the Emmys, we are going a bit glamorous this week! Do you have any Emmy or celebrity posts? Share it here! How about funny and entertaining posts? Share them here! But, please don't feel limited - share anything you'd like!
Thanks so much to everyone that joins us each week and makes this blog hop the best that it could be!


As you may know, Turn It Up Tuesdays is all about being happy, excited, energetic...and having fun! Link up your favorite posts (old or new) and meet some awesome bloggers in return! Link up your funny stories, DIY posts, recipes, mommy moments -- anything at all, as long as it is family-friendly. We want to laugh, be entertained, be inspired, and have a good time!


Today I have a fun, quick, little tutorial for you.  This idea just kind of popped into my head when I was feeling creative, tried to sew, and broke 2 sewing machine needles in a row. I think God was saying, step AWAY from the sewing machine, so I did.  

I was so excited to get an email from Influenster letting me know I was in for another Vox Box! This is my fourth Vox Box from them since I've been a member. Influenster connects with companies whose items they include in the boxes.  I get the items for free in exchange for reviewing them.


First full week of school is in the books!  Yay! I hope you had a fantastic week!  Here are some highlights of mine!

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If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw this, but I made a joke last year that if I got a nickel for every pencil left in my classroom, I would be rich!  So, this year, I'm keeping track.  Gotta have a little fun! (The count is now almost 20.)
Thinking about . . . all thing things on my to-do list!  I have some fun things I got from Influenster and BzzAgent that I need to dig into and share about, but that takes time and good lighting for photos which usually only happens on the weekends now that school's in session, and weekends are pretty short!

Reading . . .  I read lots and lots of blogs!  I've been lacking in the actual reading books department, but I hope to get better at that.  One great thing is that on Tuesdays for advisory/homeroom, we read, so I'll be for sure joining my kiddos in digging into a good book then.  I'm part way into One Thousand Gifts, so I hope to finish it soon. I also won a copy of Chasing Hope, so that will be my next read.

Loving . . . nights at home with my boys.  Going back to work is definitely a kick in the rear, but it's good for us. I cherish the time we have in the evenings.

Thankful for . . . great friends. I had a great phone call to catch up with a high school friend last week.  It'd been so long.  We also are beginning the process of painting our house, and we have a friend who came over and helped with that.  I'm also just grateful I have some good girlfriends who I can walk though life with.  I'm so blessed.

Planning . . . blog posts and lessons.  At the end of summer vacation I was able to get ahead of the game a little in blogging, but now I have some current things I want to share about so I'm pushing some of the pre-blogged stuff back a bit. 

Dreaming . . . of what the next two years will bring: Masters degrees for the hubs and me, a smidge bigger house, possibly a vacation with just our family, and Lord willing, another kiddo sometime in the future.

Praying . . . that we stay organized and sane as we begin classes this fall.

http://amamacollective.com/category/currently/
Here we are again for another What I Wore Wednesday.  I will confess that I've not taken all of my outfit photos on the day of wearing. Honestly, my favorite photo place (the light yellow wall in our sun room) is too dark in the mornings. We have to be out of the house a little after 7 am. I've been taking a lot of my outfit shots on the weekend. The great thing is, I dedicate just an hour to outfit planning and taking photos and I save a lot of time in the morning because I already know what I'm going to wear!  


This is my first day of school outfit.  Our school colors are purple and yellow, so I tried to wear a little purple.

Necklace: Lia Sophia
Top: thrifted
Belt: old
Skirt: LuLaRoe Madison
Shoes: old



This month's Ipsy bag was much better than last months.  I was so unhappy with last month's bag that I didn't even blog about it.  I knew I should give it another chance though, since June's bag was so great.  As usual, there were five items in the bag along with the zipper pouch.  The zipper pouch got a little crumpled in shipping, so I'm not a huge fan of it, but the color and pattern are cute. Here's what I got!


Welcome to the 48th week of Turn It Up Tuesday!

Last week's post were just great!  So many that were featured were ones that I loved!  

Thanks so much to everyone that joins us each week and makes this blog hop the best that it could be!


As you may know, Turn It Up Tuesdays is all about being happy, excited, energetic...and having fun! Link up your favorite posts (old or new) and meet some awesome bloggers in return! Link up your funny stories, DIY posts, recipes, mommy moments -- anything at all, as long as it is family-friendly. We want to laugh, be entertained, be inspired, and have a good time!
Lessons in Fashion:
a sporadic series where I share little tips with you that help make my wardrobe stretch.   

Today's Lesson: 
Sequins are not just for going out!



When I purchased this sequin top at a thrift shop, I honestly had no idea how much I would love it.  I just bought it because it was cute, cheap, and I didn't have anything like it.  When I chose it as one of my pieces in the Summer Remix Challenge, I had to be creative.  Today I'm going to share three ways I styled my sequin top, though there are many more ways.

Phew!  We made it through the first full week back to work!  I can say that I'm excited that our mornings have been flowing pretty well so far.  Hopefully that continues. The boys were at the same place until Wednesday when Henry started preschool, so now we have two drop offs which means we really have to get out of the house on time.  Here are the best parts of my week!

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Last weekend was a nearby town's sweet corn festival.  We hadn't seen a parade yet this summer, so I was excited we got the chance to see this one. Both boys were entertained the entire hour plus of the parade and we came home with way too much candy. My friend, whose family attended the parade with us, and I  both noted that we truly hope our kiddos are in the marching band some day because bands are our favorite parts of parades.  I secretly hope Henry is in the drum line... But, of course I'll let him choose his own path...


Summer is over for me, and so is the prime time I have to go thrift shopping.  I have some amazing steals to share with you today.  Don't be too jealous! 


If you ever have a chance to go to Omaha like we did a few weeks ago, make sure you take a little time to stop in the Old Market area.  You'll find Reserve 99.  It's a Goodwill store where everything is 99 cents!

I'm back to work,which means you'll be seeing less casual and more dress up on the blog every week. It's been fun to play around in my closet and find things to wear every day that just seemed too much for summer vacation.  Hope you're having a great week!


 

Top: LuLaRoe Irma
Necklace: Our World Boutique
Jeans: thrifted Gap
Shoes: Sperry




On Friday,  I guest posted over at The Mommyhood Project!  Go check out how I made this fun necklace display.  


Welcome to the 47th week of Turn It Up Tuesday!

There were some AWESOME posts last week!  I can't wait to see all of this week's!  I'm back to school this week, so I'm looking forward to seeing all of your ideas!

This week's topic is "Back to School". Share your back-to-school posts here (and your non-back to school posts - no one is excluded) this week! Each of the hosts and guest hosts will be selecting 2 posts this week! That means you'll have double the chances to be Featured and win Best of the Best!
Thanks so much to everyone that joins us each week and makes this blog hop the best that it could be!

As you may know, Turn It Up Tuesdays is all about being happy, excited, energetic...and having fun! Link up your favorite posts and meet some awesome bloggers in return! Link up your funny stories, DIY posts, recipes, mommy moments -- anything at all, as long as it is family-friendly. We want to laugh, be entertained, be inspired, and have a good time!

Today I'm guest posting over at Chasin' Mason. I'm bringing back a little vintage post about things I'm learning about raising a superhero. 

If you're new here from Chasin' Mason, WELCOME!  Follow me on Bloglovin' or Instagram. I can't wait to meet you!

I have to admit that the perk of summer vacation is a pretty great perk being a teacher. We truly live up our "endless weekend" as I call it, but now, we're getting back into the groove.  Today is my third day of work and we have the first day of school on Wednesday.  Henry's starting full-on preschool this year. Russ and I have open house tonight and won't be home until 8pm.  To say we're busy is an understatement.  But, one thing I can't be too busy to forget is that I am a Light of the Lord to each and every student who walks into my room. 

Yay! It's Friday! I started back to work yesterday, so the Fridays are going to start being a celebration again. All summer, every day felt like the weekend. This week, I wanted to soak up the last couple days of summer with my boys, and we sure did.

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Last Friday while Henry was at climbing camp, Russ and I did some yard work.  Wesley was a trooper and road on my back for a good hour or more. We took down a bush and took out some cinder blocks from the back yard.

 Last month's Darby Smart box was fun, as always. It actually got lost in a sorting facility somewhere, but they have great customer service.  I sent them an email that my box hadn't arrived yet, and they sent another one out with a new tracking number right away. 

There were two projects in this month's box: a headband and a cuff. Directions for how to make each are here. The only supplies I had to have beyond what was in the box was scissors.

I feel like I've learned some tips and tricks through my style journey in the past few years, so I'm going to give a new series a whirl.

Lessons in Fashion:
a sporadic series where I share little tips with you that help make my wardrobe stretch.  



Today's Lesson: 
Statement necklaces make a statement. 
(That's why they're called statement necklaces, right?!) 

Adding a cute statement necklace and a change of shoes makes a casual outfit completely different. Today I'm sharing two examples!

Hello friends! Are you ready for some Back to School Inspiration? Good, because I have teamed up with 11 other bloggers. Each of us are sharing a super fun "Back to School" themed idea today.




One thing I really appreciated as an elementary teacher was when parents would take interest in my interests and give gifts knowing it would be something I would like. We all know how great it feels to be appreciated. Last year, I surveyed our daycare provider, asking her what her favorite things were.  I didn't show up with something every week, but I did every so often. It also gave me a guide as I shopped for holidays.

I love linking up with Turn It Up Tuesday.  I'll be guest hosting for August and September!  

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Welcome to the 46th week of Turn It Up Tuesday!

Thanks so much to everyone that joins us each week and makes this blog hop the best that it could be!
Welcome our August team...


As you may know, Turn It Up Tuesdays is all about being happy, excited, energetic...and having fun! Link up your favorite posts and meet some awesome bloggers in return! Link up your funny stories, DIY posts, recipes, mommy moments -- anything at all, as long as it is family-friendly. We want to laugh, be entertained, be inspired, and have a good time!

This is the last week of the Summer Remix Challenge with Greater Than Rubies. If you're new here or forgot, here are the 30 pieces I chose to remix and outfits 1-7 are here, 8-13 are here, 14-20 are here, and 21-28 here.  I'm using the Rhonna Designs app for the cute numbers on each picture. 

I tried to make these last two outfits utilize a couple pieces I'd only worn once, the skirt in 29 and the maxi dress in 30. I really could think of many more outfits still, and some I will be sharing some with you in the coming weeks with a new series I'm going to start. I've learned a lot about remixing, accessories, and more in this challenge, so I want to share it with you.


Tee - Locally Grown Clothing
Skirt - LuLaRoe
Bracelets - Beads for Life and DIY by me



Supper? Dinner? What do you call it? I'm one of the strange ones that really doesn't use dinner in my meal vocabulary. I call it lunch and supper. Maybe I'm strange? Maybe it's an Iowa thing? I digress...  ANYWAY, we went to the Valley Junction Farmer's Market.  We love this market because it's in the evening, the set up is great, and it has amazing food!

So many great things were available.  We had our meals planned out for the next couple nights, so I didn't buy an produce, but these flowers were sure tempting!

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