#71 - Babysit Kayla for a weekend

Back when I added this to my list, my thought was "It will be great.  I can take Kayla for a weekend so Melissa and Justin can be back to a one kid family for a night."

Well, this past weekend was Melissa and Justin's 4 year anniversary and months ago they had asked me if I would be willing to babysit both of the kids so they could go out of town for the weekend.

Knowing that I would most likely be overwhelmed with both kids and my own furry baby, I solicited my mom to help me.

And BOY was I right.  For the most part, they were really easy kids.  The difficultly mainly came at night when I was up lying on the floor of Kayla's room because she wouldn't release the death grip she had on my hand and then Brody woke up crying.

I honestly don't know how you single parents or parents who have to be single parents occasionally.

So even though my list said babysit Kayla, I'm counting it because we had a 1:1 kid/adult ratio. :)

They were good kids and I managed to snap a couple photos while eating dinner (sorry they are blurry) to send to Justin so they would stop texting me.  :)

Kayla loves to watch videos on the ipad.  Gigi was trying to find some good ones for her.

Warning - boring post ahead

You guys - work sucks right now.  My meeting planner just gave me her two weeks notice last week so now I am doing double duty.  When we have our biggest meeting coming up in a month, an incentives trip we are coordinating travel for (at the same time as the meeting), and then three meetings in the first three months of 2014.  Yeah, I'm feeling stressed.

So posting may be lighter than I intended for it to be.  Sorry.

Here's an outfit post to make you feel better.  :)  The weather has been cool at night but then gets into the 70s during the day - so fun to try to plan for!

*skirt & sweater - Jcrew (old), shoes - Nine West (old), necklace - a cute boutique shop in Milwaukee

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

My mom is the best mom ever and bought me The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Limited Edition set.   

The set includes a blue ray version of the movie with a 3D option, a book of the timeline of the development of the movie, a wizard of oz notebook, three pins of the 3 things her friends ask for, a globe (see below) and a thumbdrive of the red shoes.

So awesome.

Also, when I took out the globe I realized that he had a little button.  I pushed it and that's what happens...  As you can tell from the video, I was pretty excited.

Hit or Miss

Okay, I know this is two days of outfit posts in a row, but it's my blog and I do what I want to. :)

I am giving this outfit a shot today.  I'm not sure if I like it or not - I think it might be a miss.  But I committed and I am giving it a full day.

Also... crazy hair today... crazy hair.

On a completely unrelated note, the world's best ice cream place, Jeni's, is finally open in Chicago.  It is so exciting AND it is only a block away from where I play volleyball on Thursdays.  I celebrated the start of league with ice cream for dinner.  And it was delicious.

The flavors I had were salty caramel (my favorite), whiskey pecan and sweet corn and blackberry.  I know that last one sounds not so great - but it was delicious.

Dusting off an old favorite

I think I bought this dress the first year I started working.  Its BCBG and at the time buying a dress for over $100 was making a big investment.  I did it because its a classic wrap dress that I figured wouldn't go out of style anytime soon.

I was so smart back then. :)

It's been a while since I've worn this and it's a great fall transition dress - especially when it's going to be almost 80 and it's October.

*dress - BCBG (old), shoes - Target, necklace - old

Project DIY

Through no fewer than 3 blogs a month ago, I heard about M&J Trimmings Project DIY monthly subscription box.

I know there are tons of monthly subscription boxes out there - I used to have birchbox myself.  (Which was nice, but I wasn't using enough of it to keep getting it)

So the premise of Project DIY, each month you will receive all the supplies needed for 3-4 accessories.  The website also provides step-by-step instructions on how to make them all.

So when the box arrived just after I got back from vacation, I couldn't wait to open it.  Even if I couldn't really work on the pieces until after I got back from NYC. 

Here is a photo of the box.  It has a welcome card explaining the "theme" and then three little envelope boxes for each of the pieces.

I opened one of the boxes to see what was inside.  As you can see, it includes all the equipment and really nicely written supply list, measuring place and info on the piece.  The best part, Project DIY also has an option for you to by a toolkit with your first box if you don't have any jewelry making tools.  I had previously purchased a pack of tools at Michael's so I didn't buy that part.

 On Sunday, I was clearing off my dining room table and was finally able to start working on it.  Here is the finished necklace - a fringe necklace with equestrian details (the theme for this month).

Here is the wrap bracelet, the second piece.  I don't have a picture of it on because the glue was drying.

The last piece for this month was a tassel key chain.  I don't have any pictures of it because the tassels were all drying so it's not finished yet.

At $30 a month, it is triple what I was spending for Birchbox, but I like that I am actually getting some jewelry each month for $30.  That makes the price a little better.  You also have the option to "pause" your subscription if you need to take a month or so off, for whatever reason.

So far I like it, so we'll see what the next couple of months hold before I make a real decision.

A little reminder

Today is a day that reminded me how much better I feel mentally and emotionally when I make an effort to get dressed for work.  Not defaulting to jeans or something a bit more casual.  Doing my hair and makeup.  It makes a difference.  I need to remember this feeling for the rest of fall/winter.

Plus, I really missed you pencil skirts.  I am not exactly sure why I didn't wear you much during the summer - too hot maybe?  But I'm glad you are back in my regular rotation.

*sweater - Gap Mens, skirt - Jcrew (old), shoes - Nine west (old), necklace - jcrew knock off

Also, I forgot to tell you about my no-chip manicure experience.  I did a lot of research before I went on vacation, because I wanted something easy for my nails that I wouldn't have to worry about while I was gone for two weeks.  So after all my research and finding a location near me, I got my first no-chip the Saturday before we left.  The salon I picked had over 50 colors to choose from (which was refreshing from what I read in my research).  I picked a shimmery grey/green color.  It lasted a legitimate two weeks without chipping (just the typical grow out) and it wasn't until Monday of last week that I started to pick at looser parts.  So it was time to make an appointment to go in and get it properly removed (the one important piece for me).  In my craziness of coming home and leaving right away last week, I decided that if I was going to make an appointment to go get it removed, maybe I'll just get one more manicure for another two weeks and then I have more flexibility on scheduling a time to get it removed.  This time I picked a really deep hunter green color that really looks more like black in the dark and dark teal in the daylight.  I like it (see pic).

No-chip is definitely easy to deal with and the place I found took care to remove it properly so I didn't see any damage to my nails (I was checking).  I can see using this for special occasions or reasons (like vacation) that I would not want to deal with it for a few weeks, but I won't be doing it regularly.  Aside from the expense, I do like to change out my nail polish more frequently.