High Five for Friday

tee: old navy  dress: maybe forever 21

1.  This skirt is actually a dress.  A dress that I haven't worn for years because it seemed to dressy.  I'm proud of myself for figuring out how to wear it again.

2.  If tying your shirt ever goes out of style (which I can only imagine it will do someday) about one third of my outfit posts will turn from trendy to "What was I thinking"?
See here, here and here.
Let's just hope that's not for awhile.

3.  My birthday isn't too far away (November 2nd) and it is always nice to think of presents ahead of time.  And by nice, I guess I really mean fun. 

While I do own lots of jewelry, I own very few pieces of really nice, quality jewelry and I think I would like something like these beautiful diamond hoop earrings. 

4. One of my google search terms this week that led someone to my blog was "american eagle tiger tank top."  I should be embarrassed to bring that up again, but it made me feel like just maybe this tank top was still cool.   I guess it all depends on the person who was searching it though. 

5.   I have received many strange notes from parents, but this by far takes the cake. 

6. Bonus number: Make sure to check out Carly's giveaway from yesterday. 

($10 giftcard to Sephora and ad space!)

After being in a classroom that was 85 degrees today, with no hope of cooling off tomorrow, I am more than ready for a long weekend.

Happy almost Friday! 

Fall Accessories and a giveaway

I'm really excited to share with you one of my favorite blogging friends today!
Carly is a fellow teacher, who shares my love for clothes and I'm sure for Target too. But who doesn't?
I still need to learn a thing or two from her about beauty products.  I could use some serious help in that department.  Her husband is also in a band and I'm pretty sure he is becoming famous.  In that case then so will Carly, which is another reason to become friends with her. :)
She also has a sweet giveaway at the end too!

Today Carly is sharing some of her favorite fall accessories with you today.
My favorite fall accessory this year will most likely be my new fringe boots,
but now I want what Carly is sharing too!


Hello fabulous For Lauren & Lauren readers! I'm extra excited to be guest posting for Katie today, because she was my VERY first blog friend.  She wrote me the sweetest emails, and was so encouraging! 

I'm Carly....and I blog over at Lipgloss & Crayons.  I write about fashion obsessions, beauty products, teaching, and my life in the City of Angels.  

As much as I love summer......I'm READY for fall.....I'm crushing on fall accessories....a few in particular.  I've rounded up a few of my favorite fall accessories for you to enjoy.  The best part.....they're available at prices everyone can afford! 

1. Leopard Scarf // 2. Red Satchel // 3. Tortoiseshell Necklace // 4. Brown Riding Boots  

1. Leopard Scarf // 2. Red Satchel // 3. Tortoiseshell Necklace // 4. Brown Riding Boots

1. Leopard Scarf // 2. Red Satchel // 3. Tortoiseshell Necklace // 4. Brown Riding Boots

What fall accessories are you loving? Stop by Lipgloss & Crayons and tell me your favorites!

Thank you so much for your post Carly - I am impatiently waiting for Fall weather.   And I love all of them, but I'm pretty sure my cheap self will be after the ATM items.  I'm so excited because Carly is giving one of you a $10 gift card to Sephora AND a medium ad space on her blog.  Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Boys & Superheros

jeans: JCP (similar)  blazer: tjmaxx (similar) wedges: target (similar)

Last weekend Chris and I watched The Avengers.  

He had already seen it but was excited to watch it again. 

I have to say that it was pretty funny and I did enjoy it, 

but what I enjoyed way more was watching and hearing Chris enjoy it. 

Something about the flying, fighting and transforming into superheros made it appear that this was quite possibly one of the best movies he's seen.  

Here's just a few of his comments during the movie:

(and add is many spurts of serious laughter in between these)

They just killed that and it was nothing.

He's like a hundred times his size.

Look - He's just flying around killing all of them.

I love the hulk Katie!

I love all these guys so much. 

Look how angry he is. 

Watch! Watch! Look at that. 

And hulk smash.

Did you see that? You're missing this.

This part is really funny. Watch this. It's my favorite part.

Aren't you so happy Kate? 

Must be something about boys and superheros . . . .

p.s.  This is my first collage using three pictures.  Is three of me too many?

I think maybe. 

Oh and if you haven't entered Amanda's August giveaway you should!
I'm giving away a large ad space!

pleated poppy    rolled up pretty

All Glory

denim shirt: old navy   skirt: old navy (similiar)   necklace: ebay

I don't think there has been a recent Sunday when there wasn't a worship song that brought tears to my eyes, as they seem to be exactly what I need to hear.
Lately this worship song has been playing over and over in my mind. 

Let your kingdom come, and your will be done

Here on earth as it is in heaven.

And to your renown hear our hearts cry out

singing holy is the Lord.

All glory,

All honor, 

are yours alone forever.

What does giving God all the glory look like?

I have a pretty easy time giving glory to God when good things come. 

When I got my teaching job, when I feel extra blessed by my family, when I think about how much I love my house or how much my marriage has grown this last year. 

But to give God the glory when things don't go the way I want? 

Now that is something I struggle to do, 

but have been learning this year. 

My biggest prayer as we go through another round of fertility treatments is that whatever the outcome is,
 I give the glory to God.  

No doubt that if I get pregnant that will come easily.
The thought of giving glory to God if I'm not pregnant honestly scares me.
Mostly because I have a hard time picturing what that will look like. 

But I I do feel confident that even if I'm not pregnant, although as devastated as I'll be,

 I will be able to give glory to God. 

All glory, 

All honor, 

are yours alone forever. 

call me blessed   on your heart Tuesday

DIY Statement Necklace

dress: kohls (similiar)  shoes: target/Goodwill (similar)  necklace: DIY

I've currently been in love with bigger, chunkier necklaces, especially after getting my bubble necklace this summer.  I've seen lots of statement necklaces that I'd love to buy, but won't spend $30 on one, so I found a few tutorials online, combined them and made my own. 

It's definitely not as great as the $30 ones, but for about $7 I'll take it! 

 supplies: tear drop beads, round beads, nail polish, chain, rings, and a clasp 

(I bought the gold but it ended up being too thick to string through the circle beads, 

so I used a thinner silver chain I already had.)

 Here's what the teardrop beads look like closer up.  I used 5 altogether. 

 Paint only one side of your teardrops with your nail polish,.

Then paint all around the circle beads, and be prepared to have your fingers covered in it! 

I did two coats of nail polish and then a clear coat after. 

(Except for on the circles - I quit after one coat.)

Cut your chain to the desired length. 

Use one of your rings to go through the tear drop and then attach it to the middle of your chain. 

I use pliers to close the ring. 

Add two beads on each side and then two more tear drops. 

I did two more sets of circles and one more set of teardrops.

Finally add your clasp and ring at the back of your necklace.  

Ideally I'd want another row of the teardrop beads, and maybe someday I'll add it. 

But my red fingers were done for the day. 

Sunday Funday  C.R.A.F.T.

Craft-O-Maniac  YOLO Mondays
Monday Mingle  5 days 5 ways
marionberry style

High Five for Friday

tank: maurices (similiar)  skirt: target (similar)  wedges: gap  necklace: NY&Co. ($7)

1.  Outfit confession #1: Thankfully I took this picture this morning because today it was 95 degrees and my school does not have air conditioning.  Which means my hair didn't look anything like this by the end of the day. 

2.  Outfit confession #2: My feet also did not look like this by the end of the day.
Instead they were wearing flats, as I clearly can't handle wearing heels for 8 hours. 

3.  Speaking of 95 degree weather, or actually the opposite of it.
 I am beyond ready for Fall.  All I want to do it wear my new fringe boots.

I also wouldn't mind owning these boots

blow fish boots

Or this polka dot sweater.  I'm thinking I'll use some of my Old Navy rewards money for it.

old navy polka dot sweater

4. A week or so ago I made some chocolate chip zuchinni bread and it was delicious. 

And the fact that there is a vegetable in the name just made it feel beyond healthy.

Recipe here. 

We can just forgot about the fact that there is cocoa and chocolate chips in it. 

And that I ate at least one whole loaf in a few days. 

5. Last weekend I got to celebrate my friend Jess at her bachlorette party.  

Everybody wore a different color wig - It was so much fun!

Can't wait to celebrate at her wedding on Saturday!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

High 5 for Friday   Friday Favorites
just because

Exhausted

top: h&m (years old - similar - $15)  skirt: old navy (similar)  bracelet: francesca's

You would think based off how tired I am that I have never worked a full day in my life. 

So all I have for you today is a total outfit copy.

Oh, Sydney from the daybook. 

If only I could have your perfect top bun too . . .

. . . and if I thought I could do well my first day of school wearing heels like that.

Overall, the first day of school was a success. 

While I'm sure I'll have a few challenges this year, I will currently revel in the fact that I heard 

"Wow. This is the best class ever."

and

"Mrs. Vale is the nicest teacher I've had so far." 

and say that we started the year off on a good foot! 

(I shouldn't even tell you that I had to look up how to spell revel, as I wrote reveal the first time.  

Good thing I only teach third grade.)

Happy day before Friday!

See? Now I look forward to the weekends again too. 

You win some, you lose some.

 shirt: jcpenney  (similar)   shorts: loft (similar)  wedges: kohls (similar)

I've share multiple DIY projects that I've done on this blog.
I've yet to share a project failure, so I figured it was time.

I saw this post for these lace shorts and wanted to try.  I bought myself a white pair of shorts at Good Will for $4.  From then on everything went completely wrong.

I didn't buy enough lace and had to go back to Walmart.
I cut my shorts too short.
My shorts have pockets on the front and back which makes it incredibly difficult.
I ended up spending over $12 on the lace and didn't even finish.
Let's not even talk about the amount of time I spent on them.
I could go on and on.

Being the stubborn (and cheap) person that I am I didn't want to give up on this project and went back to it many times.  But I think it is time to let it go!

Especially when I tried on these shorts at JcPenney and they were only $10.

and WAY cuter than mine. 

But I didn't even buy them.  In my mind I already spend $16 on my failure pair of lace shorts, I couldn't add to it.  

So let's just chalk that project up to a lose!

Thankfully there are many "wins" with this outfit to hopefully make up for it:

 these $7 scalloped shorts

these $9 wedges

and this $5 bird shirt

Which makes this entire outfit $21.  So I really just need to let the lace shorts go.
But I just may be picking off the lace I added to save it for another project as you read this.

Let's hope that's not true.

Back to School

grey tee: old navy  skirt: target (similar)   leopard flats: target   necklace: kohls $4 clearance (similar)

Sadly, my summer has ended and this week is back to school.
Which means the occasionally tired eye, too early outfit post like this one.

Which also means there may be more of these:

To help me prepare for being back in school:

I'm doing my best to focus on the things I'm looking forward to like:
a normal routine, eight year old hugs,
looking forward to weekends, wearing work clothes,
 funny stories and doing a job I know I'm meant to have.


I'll be focusing on things like make me happy, like these new bracelets I got from Karly from the arm party swap that I know I will wear often:

(Thank you Karly - I LOVE them!)

I will be channeling my nephew's excitement for going to visit me while working in my classroom:



I will also be practicing this face, to show off just a few times at the beginning of the year so my students know I mean business.

You probably wouldn't mess with me if I looked like this right?

Happy back to school for all you teachers out there!

Arm Party Link-Up  Much Love Illy

Risk Taker

shirt: target ($3 pajamas section)  skirt: tjmaxx (similar)  headband: made myself  bracelets: target

The words risk taker, spontaneous and adventurous are words that are far from my personality vocabulary.  

I desire routine, consistency and predictability. 

I prefer things to stay the same, so much that even changing my hair color drastically is a big step.
 And I was extremely proud of myself for dying my hair dark. 

After this post, someone left me a comment that made me incredibly happy,
telling me that I had the hippie look going on. 

Dream. Come. True.

I've always wanted to rock a headband like a hippie but am too much of a wuss to try something out of my comfort zone.  Well here it is. 

Gosh.  Who knows what's next?

Maybe I'll even attempt pattern mixing. 

And apparently I think this is what hippies do.

Peace Out Friends!

Sunday Funday  Monday Meet Up
YOLO Monday   Steppin' Out