Since Ya'll asked!

Ok, so I'm only posting this because several of you expressed interest. This is not meant to be a braggy-sort of post in any way so no hate mail or negative comments please!

I was spoiled rotten by my family and friends this year. I think they all know that gifts are my love language! :) All the images are from my pinterest boards.

From husband:

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My necklace from Tiffanys, watch, the tory burch selma boots I picked up earlier on sale, a pair of much-coveted-by-me TB revas in patent burgundy & a giftcard to the spa!

Some of the selection from the family:

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Source: williams-sonoma.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

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Covers for my kitchen aid mixer bowls, a new glass mixing bowl for the mixer, a beater-scraper blade for the mixer, cookbooks and vintage golden books to add to my stash.

I am debating spending the birthday money on some Apple products or clothes from Jcrew. Tough decision but my plan is to see what I reach for first! :)

What a Party!

I think the older I get the more fun I have celebrating my birthday. When I was younger, it followed a set routine. Family dinner, cake and presents & party with friends that also included cake & presents. Sleepovers were big once I got a bit older but we never did anything too extravagant. My parent's never rented a place or had party entertainers or "themes" other than matching hats/plates/napkins/silverware in our chosen obsession of the moment. Barbie was quite the popular choice as I recall! :)

This year, I really didn't want one of those crazy run around birthday's that leave you more exhausted. Not to mention, my birthday was on a Monday & I was undecided if I should take the day off. In the end I chose to go into work since I expected a low key day.

Party celebrations kicked off Friday afternoon at work when the office took me out to lunch. They continued all day Saturday when my husband took me apple picking at our local favorite orchard. We also picked up a bunch of mums, more gourds and mini pumpkins for the house and Chick-fil-a for lunch!

Saturday afternoon he was reffing a hockey game so I went along and relaxed at the rink catching up on some magazines until he was done. Afterwords he took me out to Hobby Lobby & Michaels to do some more shopping and so I could grab some supplies for some crafts I was working on.

We met friends for dinner at Bertuccis and then when out bowling late into the night with a whole bunch of friends from our small group. We wrapped up around 11:30pm and then went out for "dessert" which turned into drinks and hot pretzels and sour cream chive potato wedges at Buffalo Wild Wings. We didn't get home until after 1:30! Way too late for this old couple.

Sunday we slept in until close to noon and then drove out with my family to spend time with my grandparents. My grandfather cooked about 8 pounds of spaghetti and his famous home-made meatballs & garlic bread and we brought the salad and our family traditional decadent cherry chocolate cake.

My grandfather and I share a birthday so we always make a point to going out and celebrating together with him. Ravens played that day so the afternoon consisted of gorging on pasta, watching football and working on crafts. It was sort of like nursing a hangover. :)

Sunday night was a birthday celebration at home with my family. Homemade pizza and more cake totally hit the spot. I think I put on like 5 pounds over the weekend from all the eating but it was all so good!

Monday morning Husband woke me up with a little blue box...it was pretty much the best way to wake up on a Monday. And Tiffany & Co retweeted my tweet that morning which made it even more fun as birthday congratulations started pouring in from random strangers! :)


Husband had a hockey game that night but is still recovering from his knee injury so we went out and watched the team play after he surprised me with the rest of my birthday presents. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous way to celebrate a milestone birthday!

Materialistic Frivolousness

Birthday Recap coming soon! Still recovering from it all. ;)

In the meantime, a post I wrote last week that never posted for some odd reason.

Oh fall, how you slay my budget every year. All the gorgeous deep jewel tones that are out right now are so irresistible. Navy & Burgundy, in particular, my favorite colors are proving to be big this season.

As my closet and collections of clothes have grown, I find myself being more drawn to shoes, purses and accessories. The luxurious leathers, gleaming metals & stones...all so pretty.

Here are just a few of my favorites that I've been eyeing or picked up recently:

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Source: rebeccaminkoff.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

Source: rebeccaminkoff.com via Jen | Life Accounts on Pinterest

The top two shoes are divine. The color is perfection and both were on sale too! I've been trying to pare down my wishlists and I'm curious, if you built your own perfect capsule wardrobe, what would you include?

Happy Birthday to Me!

You'll have to excuse my lack of a blog post today because today is...

My Birthday!!!

Husband and I have been celebrating all weekend and he has been spoiling me rotten! Birthday recaps coming soon. ;)

It's that time of year...

*There has been a great deal of sadness and scamming taking place on the internet that has really been weighing me down. You couple this with an overwhelming amount of cattiness and "mean girl" esq behavior and the internet has just been a real jolly place to be. Today's post is not meant to make light of or ignore everything that has been going, I just prefer to process it all internally for now. My prayers and condolences go out to those affected by it all though.*

In some sense it is hard to believe that Fall is officially here. We have been experiencing fall weather for close to a month now but everyone around here has been grumbling anytime they see boots, sweaters and jeans. No longer!

I haven't had time to haul out the boxes of fall clothes yet so I've been trying to keep my shopping limited to items I had already identified as "holes" in my wardrobe last year or retailers with lenient return policies and excellent sales. Plus my birthday is right around the corner so I need to leave room for other people's presents! ;) Still a little retail therapy and window shopping for pretty things always lift my spirits when they're down and fall style tops the list.

I made several polyvores of some of my favorite fall trends. Colored denim, silk blouses, tees in stripes and jewel tones, pencil & maxi skirts, dresses in jewel tones, tunics, leather jackets and BOOTS!

Fall Jackets by ourlifeaccounts featuring motorcycle jackets

Silk Blouses & Button-downs by ourlifeaccounts featuring a sleeveless blouse

Fall Tunics by ourlifeaccounts featuring crew neck tops

Fall Tees by ourlifeaccounts featuring jersey tees

Denim for the Fall by ourlifeaccounts featuring slim jeans

Fall Skirts by ourlifeaccounts featuring long skirts

Fall Dresses by ourlifeaccounts featuring a silk dress

Fall Boots by ourlifeaccounts featuring leather boots

Fall Flats & Pumps by ourlifeaccounts featuring emerald shoes

Fall Accessories by ourlifeaccounts featuring nylon tote bags

The above items are from quite the variety of places...Nordies, Jcrew, Madewell, LEC, Forever21, Victoria Secret, Anthropologie, Joyfolie, Tory Burch, Rebecca Minkoff, Zappos & Endless to name a few. :D

Jcrew has upped the ante this fall with their offerings and sales. So far the discounts include a 20% off coupon for my entire purchase, 30% off sale items and up to 30% off sweaters. Now could they just offer another promo for shoes/boots or knits?

Meanwhile, Anthropologie hasn't been doing it much for me lately, I purchased several of their "late summer" items when they hit first & second cut that I think will carry over nicely into fall but my sale wishlist is smaller than I can ever remember it being.

I have a few packages of fall items that should be arriving today so I will be sure to update you on any standout pieces. What are your go-to stores for fall clothes? Anyone picked up anything fabulous that they can't wait to break out as the temperature dips?

Catch-up

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last had a chance to blog.

The short of it? My husband sustained a knee injury during his hockey championship game last Monday night and the remainder of the week was spent shuttling him to and from work, myself to and from work and all the other extra running around that seems to come with such injuries.

Add in my mom & sisters birthdays and the need for birthday dinners to be made for the whole fam and it just got busier. I've been going round the clock.

On top of all of that, it was "close" week at work and we have had auditors to deal with, all of which means extra long hours. Combined it just creates the perfect storm.

And is it any surprise I'm sick now and feeling lousy? Realistically I should always just block out the first couple of weeks of school starting back up to being sick because the kids bring home such an influx of germs I always end up with something.

Still, its a disappointment. Between Hub's injury and now being sick, it has been far too long since I've worked out and I'm feeling it. Last night I even dreamt about going running. Who am I?

In other news, we started the produce market back up this week so my Sunday-Wednesday mornings and evenings just got a whole lot busier. So much for sitting back and relaxing right?

The months seem to just continue to fly by and time just picks up its pace. I keep telling myself that soon I'll have a chance to stop and catch my breath but that moment has yet to come. I probably should stop waiting for that moment but still I will try for optimism and hope the moment comes soon. At least so I can have some more time to write here.

More Organization

Yesterday I mentioned that I have been working on a whole bunch of projects. Nearly all of them are still in progress but before I start posting pics of fall decor projects, I thought I'd post some of the home organization projects I've been working so far.

One of my biggest projects has been going through all the magazines that have accumulated over the last few many years and getting rid of them all. I re-read through them, rip out anything I want to save, file the saved tearouts in binders (recipes, workouts & fav articles) and toss the rest. This is my stack of paper recycling so far:



I would say I am about 1/2-2/3rds of the way through. Still need to tackled the last few real simple and all the good housekeeping, smart money and money magazines.

Another project that I've been working on is better jewelry organization. I'm not quite finished the project yet but I thought I would share what I've done so far.



It's not a very good picture because I snapped a quick shot this morning with my cell phone and the weather is so nasty and dark outside it's screwing with the lighting. But you can at least get an idea, I'll post better photos with the updated home tour. The frame is from hobby lobby and I used wire screen and felt pads we already had. Total cost of the project was $10. I am undecided about whether I will drill hooks into the bottom of the frame or just install them in a row below. For now, it's nice to have some of my earrings out in the open. Studs and heavier earrings will stay in my jewelry boxes for now (as well as more expensive styles I don't want to have to worry about).

So far I really like it! It's nice to see more of my jewelry out in the open!

One Last Summer Hurrah

Long weekends are the best. It really needs to become the new norm, I could totally get my work week done in less time if it meant having 3-4 day weekends.

Hubs and I ducked out early Friday for a rather impromptu weekend down at the beach house for a few days. The beach was gorgeous! Mid 70s with a slight breeze, we walked for a couple of hours and didn't even realize how long we'd been gone, it was so pretty. Of course we had to indulge in our traditional pizza, french fries, popcorn and ice cream (over the course of the weekend, not all at the same time!). I'm sure the 8-10 miles we walked Saturday alone helped burn some of those calories though! :)

Breakfast out on the deck while enjoying the water views was a glorious way to start each day. So peaceful and relaxing. And really, what better way to end the nights then curled up in blankets and mounds of pillows watching favorite movies. :)

It was a lot of fun and I have a feeling our beach trips will continue throughout the fall and winter seasons. It's always nice to get away.

Before we left for the beach, we kicked off the weekend with a bit of labor day sale shopping. I was delighted to find some lanterns clearanced at Pottery barn for a fraction of their original outrageous price of $39 a lantern. A bit of spray paint and they'll fit in perfect with my fall decor. I'll post pictures once I spray them down with another coat.

Williams-Sonoma had 15% off tabletop items so I was happy to bring this little set home with me.

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I love the double handles and the fact they can go in the oven.

Tory Burch and Madewell both had amazing sales on boots so I was happy to indulge and order the selmas and archive boots.

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Would you believe, I ordered the boots Thursday and they arrived Friday? I was so impressed! Now I just need to figure out my favorite colors!

Lastly Hubs and I made two trips to the local craft stores stocking up on some items for projects I've been working on and some new fall decor. I am soooo looking forward to Fall. I have been de-cluttering the house like crazy in preparation for holiday decor and getting all cozy for the cooler months.

Anybody else excited to decorate for fall? :)

Dreamt a Dream

Last night I had one of those dreams...

One of those dreams that shakes you to your core and leaves you emotional and confused when you first wake up.

I dreamt we found out we were pregnant. Of peeing on a stick and having it come back positive.

When the stick went positive, it automatically notified the OBGYN office and sent a letter to our house that was opened by my mother (yeah this was the part that should have triggered it was a dream). We were in absolute disbelief, so sure it was a dream. But then in the dream, we woke up from a dream and it was still true! Someone from the OBGYN's office called and left me a voicemail to schedule an appointment and her voice was so joyful and you could hear how excited and happy she was for us (this DEFINITELY should have been an obvious sign as they are always grumpy).

It was just one of those dreams that has so many layers you start actually believing that just maybe it's possible. Sigh.

Anyway. It was a nice for a little while to believe it was true. Back to reality now.