Things I Love RIGHT Now

1. The Tuscan from Spinelli's Market. Currently munching on the turkey, pear, pesto, arugula, goat cheese, French bread goodness. I also love Spinelli's in general.

2. My $3 jean jacket from Goodwill. I feel so stylish and so thrifty all at once. It's come in very handy this spring.

3. The used Burley bike trailer we bought from a neighbor. We've already put countless miles on it.

4. Our push lawn mower. I love that it gives me a workout and I'm not using any power sources (other than my own) to operate it.

5. The sock bun. What a great idea - and so easy to execute!

Day 24 of Style Me May - New 'Do

8. The never-ending supply of fresh lettuce and other greens from our jardin de printemps.

9. And last, but certainly not least, I love the current phases my kids are in. Lila says te-te-tur when she sees helicopters and says "bye bye" to them. Benny adds extra letters to specific words: He calls the Blazer the "Blazered" and The Arcade Fire "L'Arcade Fire," as though it's French. I love going on bike rides with Benny. He talks to me nonstop and tells me about things he never thinks to tell me any other time of the day. Lila is so excited to come home at the end of the day, telling her caretakers, "This is MY mommy!"

Preppy Pearls

Preppy top

Preppy bottom

Pearls

Confession time, again. I haven't been very good about following the Style Me May Challenge. I am now working from home, so I am taking full advantage of the "do not get ready" aspect of the situation. However, I did find something "preppy." It was hard, but tying a sweater around my neck seemed to do the trick. Please note: I only wore my sweater like that for the pictures.

Oddly enough, yesterday's challenge was pearls. I own one pearl. Not a strand or a bracelet, but one solitary pearl on a chain. I wore it on my wedding day. It was quite serendipitous that yesterday was my anniversary. I've worn this pearl for (nearly) every anniversary since. It is quite timeless.

Several people have asked what we did for our anniversary. We considered getting a babysitter and going out for dinner. Then we considered taking the kids out to dinner. We settled on Taco Tuesday at our house. Then we watched some friends' kids for an hour or so and put our kids to bed. After cleaning up the house, we sat down outside and enjoyed a delicious bottle of wine and some chocolate cupcakes. Then we talked about our life together: our kids, our house, our professional lives. And we came to the conclusion that the past eight years, while not without challenges, have been pretty damn good. It was the perfect celebration of our relationship.

Rejuvenation

It's my last day on contract with one organization. I have a week off and then Struckman Consulting starts at another organization. Know what I'm doing to celebrate? Wearing jeans to the office. And grabbing some drinks with some old work friends tonight. It's just what I need.

You know what else is good to rejuvenate one's soul? A "Classic White (T-)Shirt." It's a good thing I just broke my cardinal "no shopping at Target" rule because there was not a white shirt to be found in my closet - other than the sassy V-neck I just bought. I will be able to wear it exactly three times before I am too disgusted by the yellow pit stains. New white T-shirt motto: Rejuvenating for exactly three wears.

May 10 - Classic White Shirt

Doctored Photos

Last Friday, I managed to "style" myself in a "Always Get Complimented" outfit, which is feat in itself since I rarely wear more than a T-shirt and shorts on Fridays with the kids. When my parents visited India they brought me back this great shirt. I don't always get complimented on it, but I did on Friday. Yes!

May 4 - Always Gets Complimented

I powered through Saturday as best I could with a stomach flu. We even participated in the Park Hill Family Bike Ride, a great monthly local event. Benny and Lila had fun. We rode over to some friends' for a BBQ in the evening. I couldn't really eat or drink, but the kids played so hard they went to bed without any argument. I missed out on the "Put a Scarf on It" portion of Style Me May. Scarves don't do well with the yaks.

We all woke up early Sunday morning, so we headed to one of our new favorite breakfast joints, Jelly, and had a great breakfast. I did not "Layer Jewelry." And it's a good thing because my jewelry is far from layerable. I would have ended up with two rings on one finger or something hideous like that.

Got started on Monday again...

May 7 - Around the World

A bracelet from a dear friend in China

May 9 - Used to Scare You (scarf and jean jacket ...

... with a business skirt and black pumps - EEK!)

P.S. Know how to cure bad photos? Put a weird ass filter on them a la Instagram and voila! they look artsy fartsy.

Lipstick on a Pig

Remember the campaign of 2008? Barack Obama used that reference about Sarah Palin. I can remember it vaguely.

Today's Style Me May challenge was "Fresh Lipstick." For someone who doesn't wear lipstick, this challenge has been just that, challenging. I can't remember the last time I bought lipstick, much less wore it. I did dig out an old bottle of lipstick from my purse - I think I won it last year at some point. I slapped it on my smackers and left the house with lipstick on.

Although you can't really see the lipstick, I did want to share my outfit for today. It's one of my favorites! I'll do a recap of all the outfits so far on Friday-ish!

May 8 - New Lipstick Color

Jazz Hands

Green fingers. I don't know what's more jazzy than that. Except maybe orange fingers - and I can do that too, thanks to Benny's fingernail polish collection. Yup, the only nail polish we have in the house is Benny's: green, orange and blue. He's a very fashion-forward type of fella.

Day 2 of Style Me May in the bag!

Bright, Happy Color

Day 1 of the May Style Experiment: Done. I'm not a bright, happy clothes kind of person, so I picked out the brightest, most colorful thing in my closet and then drabbed it up with some black. Clearly I need to work at this...

May 2 - Bright, Happy Color

Sock bun!

I apologize for the crappy photo quality. I'm working with an iPod with no flash. Hence the grainy photos and the creepy eye! The sock bun is super fun though!

May Style Experiment

Let me be the first to say it: "I am not a style icon." I know, I know, you're surprised. "Why, Sara," you say, "all those khaki shorts and T-shirts are so becoming on you." Well, thank you for noticing. Since about high school my wardrobe has consisted of cotton, cotton, cotton by way of sweatshirts, T-shirts and jeans. Only recently have I decided to experiment a bit. Some days I'm successful. Other days,  not so much.

My biggest problem, I've come to realize, is that I don't really like to shop. Oh, and kids. I know there are some stylin' moms out there, but I have a hard time getting dressed up knowing that I'll likely be playing in sand, running around, getting food thrown at me, etc., at any given moment on any given day. It has helped to follow several ladies who have approachable and seemingly affordable style. Lately I've been digging on Kendi Everyday, A Pretty Penny, To Be Worn, and What Would a Nerd Wear? (sadly the latter blog is no longer).

I found out about a "challenge" on a style blog today that seems manageable given my constraints. I'd like to wear more of my clothes in my closet, look more fashionable, all the while not really shopping for any new stuff (aside from Target, of course).

So, I'll be participating in "Style Me May" from Bow Ties and Bettys. I won't be following the Instagram part because I don't have an account and don't really feel the need to get one. However, I'll try to post the outfits on this space from time to time. Wish me luck!