My Hookerish Shoes

Remember when I told you I was doing this? The list came out on April 4th, and we had 10 days to get everything bought and ready to go. Let me tell you, I had so much fun shopping with Mr. to find everything. Best Anniversary gift EVER! Alison sent that oh so exciting email on Sunday at 5pm and I admit I was super excited and went online at 5pm to see what the first outfit would be. Getting dressed at 4:30am has never been so exciting!

Here is my "haul", minus a few things that I haven't been able to find yet. Who knew finding a neutral flat would be so hard? I'm waiting on my leopard flats in the mail, keeping fingers crossed it goes better than the neutral ones I ordered that didn't work out, boo! 

Oops forgot to add in my chambray shirt, can you believe I didn't own one? I am finally a proud owner, but I guess not proud enough to remember it was on the list was I hurriedly pulled everything out of my closet to take this picture.

 I know you can't wait, so here are the first two outfits!

 

Day 1:

The first day included our leopard flats, but since mine haven't come yet I decided to go with my neutral wedges. I do have some leopard heels, but with this outfit it made everything look "hookerish", seriously, it was like who wears those kinds of shoes with that outfit? (see those hookerish shoes in my next outfit, though)

I added a belt and statement necklace in green to try and pull everything together.

Day 2:

I try not to wear jeans to work during the week, so instead of the skinny jeans I decided to go with some slacks, and you know what? I discovered I don't own a pair of black slacks...how crazy is that?! So I had to pair the button up and cardi with my gray pants, while not my favorite, I think it worked.
I sort of felt like a librarian all day, pull my hair in a bun, give me some glasses and there ya go.

Here are those hookerish shoes

I know you want a mega close up of them too.

So far I'm having a ton of fun with this challenge. It gets me excited to get up and get dressed in the morning, and its making me think about pairing things together outside of the box, so Thank you Alison for helping me and my styling challenged self! I'm meeting a ton of great ladies and can't wait to see what the next 19 outfits you have in store for us!

A few of the ladies doing the challenge decided to do a little link party to share with each other how we're styling our new wardrobe, so click on the links below and give them some love!

Deena @ Shoes to Shiraz

Jordan @ Just Jordan 

Shaunacey @ Confessions of a Frumpy Mummy
Katie @ The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life
Beth @ Fast Life Slow Life
Vanessa @ X-tremely V
Anne-Michelle @May We Be Allergy Free

Teresa @ Two Babies and Me

Sarah @ Foxy's Domestic Side 

Carrie @ A Lovely Little Wardrobe
Carly @ Faith Family and Frugality

Mr. takes all of my outfit posts. It's sometimes interesting to see what pictures he takes after he hands the camera back, this is one of them. If you know Mr. he loves taking pictures of my rear, seriously, so many times I'll be going through vacation pictures and see that he's taken a picture of my backside...weirdo or maybe he's just a man who loves his wife's rear...

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy and Tucker Up

 

Marriage is a Lifetime - Lesson 7, Part 1

It's been a while since I did one of these. But I thought today would be a good day to do another one. In case you're new here, I've been doing a marriage series about what makes our marriage work. You can find other posts here.



Today I'm going to talk about the hush, hush topic of finances. I think one of the best things that happened to us can be summed up in two words: DAVE RAMSEY. Seriously, have you heard of the guy? He has his own radio show, and the thing about Dave (yep we're on a first name basis) is his story and how he can really relate to everyone. He was he was a millionaire, yep millionaire by the age of 26, but lost all of it. While he and his wife crawled back from the depths of despair and rock bottom they discovered a system that worked for them and then committed themselves to helping others.

Back when I was about 7 months pregnant with Baby Fox, Mr. comes to me and says, hey do you want to take a financial class? I said sure, thinking a one day class, nope it turned out to a an actual class that lasted 13 weeks! He got me with the technicality of what a class is, but I think it was one of the best things we've ever done together.

Backing up a bit, from the time we got married, we saved, saved, saved, everything that we didn't spend went into savings. Savings for what you ask? A house of course. We lived in a condo Mr. bought when he was 22. From the time we got married, we saved, we saved everything. Don't get me wrong, we were young professionals with no real responsibilities other then ourselves, we spent a great deal, but we were also able to save a lot too.

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The problem:

The problem with save everything is that we didn't really do anything. For example I would want some new furniture or drapes for the condo, and we couldn't buy anything too expensive because we were in the process of saving. Okay, not a big deal, I could handle that, but then we bought the house.

And we had no furniture, we went from a small condo to a relatively large house, we had enough furniture for maybe 2 rooms. We were always in save mode, but why, we had our house now...now what were we saving for?

We would get in little arguments about me wanting to spend some of our savings and him wanting to keep saving. Enter Dave Ramsey, seriously I don't want to be bold and say it saved our marriage, but he certainly helped to alleviate a lot of potential fights in our future.

The Solution 
Part 1 - Financial Peace University

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Meet Dave, he calls his class Financial Peace University. He breaks it down into 7 "Baby Steps". There is a ton of stuff out on the web on this in depth, I don't know of any personally so I would feel uncomfortable suggesting one, but they're out there and there are a lot of them. Back to the baby Steps. For now I'm going to break them down:

Step 1: Emergency Fund - $1000

This is the first and most important step to do. Save $1000, you read that correctly, $1000. This will give you some breathing room, your car breaks down and it's $800? Look there, you have $1000 in your emergency fund, you can now get your car fixed and not have your budget go down the toilet because of the huge hit.

Step 2: Pay off all debt using debt snowball

Put all of your debt in front of you, what is the smallest? What is the largest? Put them in order of smallest to largest, and that's how you're going to pay them off.  If two of them have the same amount, do the one with the higher interest rate. Dave's philosophy is to have small wins to keep you pumped and on track. So even if that $20,000 credit card has a higher interest rate then your $500 credit card, pay off the $500 one and check that off the list of one less thing you're in debt for.

Snowballing: What is it?

I'll use an example, because that's just easier. Say you have 3 credit cards and this is how they break down as follows:

Credit Card #1 (CC#1): $500 @ $50/min. monthly payment
Credit Card #2 (CC#2): $1,500 @ $100/min. monthly payment
Credit Card #3 (CC#3): $5,000 @ $200/min. montly payment

So you've done your budget and you see that you have $50 extra in your budget to put towards your credit card debt. So this is what you're going to do. Pay the minimum on CC#2 and CC#3, then put that extra $50 towards CC#1, so you'll be paying $100 towards CC#1. In roughly 5-6 months you'll have paid off the debt on CC#1, yay win, one less thing in debt, then you'll take that $100 and "snowball" it towards CC#2, so now you'll pay $200 for CC#2, pay that off in another 6-7 months, then "snowball" the $200 towards CC#3, so you'll be paying $400 towards CC#3, pay that off in a year or so. So in two years with just $50 extra dollars you'll have paid off your debt.

Step 3: 3-6 months of savings

After you've paid off your debt start saving for 3-6 months of living expenses. Decide how much you need to live each month, and then save that for however many months you think it will take you to find a new job or get back on your feet. Save it, just having it gives you peace of mind, knowing that you have that in case something happens and someone loses a job or can't work.

Step 4: Invest 15% of pre-tax money to Roth IRA or pre-tax retirement

This is self explanatory right?

Step 5: College fund for kids

You're debt free, saving towards retirement, now lets take care of the kids and their education. Unless you have smarty pants and they're going to get a scholarship.

Step 6:  Pay off home early

Pay off your house. I mean just think, you enter retirement (hopefully well before that), with no mortgage, how much more financial peace do you need than that?

Step 7: Build wealth and give!

Now you can afford to put away money for future generations, give money to all of those causes you've been wanting to help but couldn't because of other financial obligations. You now have all the power to do what you want.

I think that's enough info for one session don't you? Next time I'll talk about how we incorporated into our lives.

Until then, do you have a budget?

If you don't, start keeping track of what you spend, every single dollar coming in and going out, for the next month or two, having real data is the best way to start budgeting.

Shopping and Eating

We had such a great weekend! Get ready for a ton of pictures.

Friday we had some friends over and we went in the spa. This is probably the first time in a REALLY long time that I had a bathing suite on, while we do have a pool I can probably count on both hands how many times I've been in. It has to be super hot for me to go in the pool. Actually I think I've been in the pool more times while pregnant then not pregnant.

Baby Fox got some snuggle time in with Mini Fox, actually he sat down next to her and said Mommy take our picture

Saturday they had an Easter event at the park near our house

Baby took flat Stanley down the bounce house slide

Baby Fox got his arm painted, he finally wanted to do it, he's always said no, he got a rainbow

Then Mr. took me shopping for The List.

I promise he was more excited than this, he just wasn't ready for the picture when I snapped it, and there were people waiting to get a cart. I was trying to get the Target sign in the back, but my arms aren't long enough.

Mr. outside the dressing room, and my finger....

It was a pretty awesome day full of shopping, lunch and more shopping, we got most of the stuff on the list and then a lot of extra stuff too, best day! Should have taken a picture of my haul. It was pretty impressive.

Sunday we went to a birthday party, how cute is this cake and smash cake?

Singing Happy Birthday

Waiting for his balloon train

This guy was crazy talented, Baby Fox wanted Thomas the Train...

When we got back we made a ton of food, I made Veggie Surprise, then Baby Fox helped me make some Split Pea Soup, he LOVES helping to cook especially when the food processor is involved.

I also made Mini Fox her first food, besides oatmeal (which we get boxed), to say she loved it would be an understatement. 

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Heather
Also linking up with Carly and Molly

The World Through Baby Fox's Lens - People

Yet another installment of

My Sister

Not sure who's birthday it was...hmm...

My "Mom Uniform" lately, as much as I hate to admit it, as soon as I get home I change into my "uniform" Nursing tank top and shorts or pants depending on the weather.

This is the son of one of the first ladies I met when I moved out here.

Our Nanny

Baby Sister

Linking up with Nicole

My New Go To Outfit

I've jumped on the jean jacket trend. I've fully embraced it and I'm going with it. It's my new go to, finish an outfit by adding a jean jacket. This dress would be so plain without the jean jacket. I do think that I want to get a cropped jean jacket though, that would probably have looked a little better with this outfit.

Yesterday was super hot, 94°, I wore it to work, but once I got home I immediately changed into shorts and a tank top (my not at work, I'm finally home outfit).

Some Random Stuff:

• I hate when I'm an emotional wreck, like you know your being totally unreasonable but you're crying anyway, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow, and hope that everyone in your path understands and still loves you. Luckily Mr. knew and just stayed out of my way till he left for choir practice. When he got home I was back to my normal happy self.

• We introduced Mini Fox to some food last week, specifically oatmeal. She likes chewing on the spoon, but each night she gets a little better and eats a few more spoonfuls. Hey we'll take it, the last two nights she's slept for 8 hours, when I woke her up to feed her when I left for work. yay!

 

•  Last night Baby Fox wanted to hold Mini Fox, Mr. tells me that Baby Fox put Mini Fox on his chest just like this so she could watch tv with him. Love that they love each other and just want to be near each other all the time.

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy and Tucker Up

My First Fix - Stitch Fix That Is

I was so excited about my first Stitch Fix*, a service that you pay a $20 styling fee, fill out a questionnaire and then they send you 5 pieces of clothing/accessories for you to try.  I've had several friends order from them and love everything they got, so I decided to go for it.  I ordered it last month and then had to wait 4 weeks before I was going to get my fix...insert twiddling thumbs and bouncing up and down with excitement.

I told them I wanted it to show up on Monday April 7th, knowing that I was going to be out of town the weekend prior and wouldn't really have time to go through the box and get it back to them in three days. So, we're just about to leave, I'm getting together last minute things for our trip, and in walks Baby Fox with a delivery for me! What?! I thought I said Monday, it's Friday and I don't have time to go through the box right now, we were literally minutes from walking out the door. So that excitement that I felt, had to be rushed and then put on hold because I wasn't going to be able to open it till at least Sunday!

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Of course I panicked because I wasn't sure with it being Friday what day I needed to get the stuff back in the mail, so I quickly emailed them and said, hey I wanted this on Monday and you sent it 3 days early, I'm not sure when I'm suppose to return it. They sent a response back saying that I should have thought about when I really wanted my box and that I should really only take three days to return my stuff, never mentioning my original question of when I need to return it. They did say that they would put something in my account saying that I might be a little late to return my package. First I didn't appreciate that fact that they said it was my fault, and then they didn't answer my question. They did however respond pretty quickly.

We get home Sunday, put the kids down for their naps and then I anxiously open my box!

Oh so pretty, so exciting.

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The pieces were definitely interesting, but I wasn't totally sure about them. With my 5 pieces of clothing/accessories came a style card, which was great to help me figure out what would look good with what they sent to me.

My first response, I don't think I like any of it, I showed Mr. each piece and his first reaction was the same. Uh oh..

The first piece was this top. Here is what the style card showed:

I thought it was just too boxy, and a didn't really do anything for my figure, but I wasn't totally hating it, but Mr. didn't like it at all and at $58 I didn't think it was worth it. I think if it fit a little better, I would have kept it.

Next up was the this top:

I paired it with this skirt and my Jessica Simpson polka dot shoes. Hey not too bad, Mr. said he even thought it as okay, and didn't totally hate it as much as he did when it was untucked. The problem with this shirt, is that I tried it with jeans tucked and untucked and neither one looked very good on me. I think the sleeves or lack there-of looks a bit too big. Again not $58 worth for me to keep it. I think if the sleeves were a bit shorter and fit my shoulders better, I would have kept it.

My accessory that they sent to me were some earrings. Not my style, but they were fun but not for me or $38. I don't wear earrings much, at work I wear headphones most of the day to block out office noise, and any earrings hurt my ears with the headphones.

They sent me another skirt, this one, I just didn't like AT ALL, but I tried it on, and tried to style it. Here's the style card:

I thought what they picked to go with it looked great, I had neither one of those pieces or those colors. The best I could do was this orangey top. The skirt had an elastic waist and didn't really have any form to it. It hung to me in all the wrong places and just made me look chubby, IMO, it was $58, this one was a hell no! I hated everything about it.

  

So far I'm striking out, insert super sad face

 

I still had one more skirt to go, and it was cute. Here's the style card:

I couldn't even take a picture of this because 1) I really had NOTHING that would go with it and 2) it didn't really fit, was too tight and looked like it was plastered onto my body. It said it was A-line, but it was more of a pencil skirt, IMO. This piece was also $58.

My final thoughts

The Good:

• I think that the principle of Stitch Fix is really good, you get something in the mail, you get to try things on that you might necessarily try on yourself and there is a prepaid envelope to send everything back in. Super easy for the on the go lady.
• The stylist tried to get my out of my comfort box, but just didn't pick pieces that will look good on me. 
• They asked for your height, which I thought would work to my benefit, but turns out they don't seem to use that information at all.

The Not So Good:

• I said in my styling profile that I liked tops to be fitted, and neither top that they sent me was fitted.
• I lost $20 styling fee, I wanted to like just one thing to keep something, but I just didn't want to force it.
• I don't think I like elastic waist skirts, both of these skirts were elastic waisted.

What they Can Improve:

• I wish that they had petite sizing, I think if I had that, things, especially the tops would have fit way better and I probably would have kept them.
• On the questionnaire, they ask how you like the bottom half of your body to be fitted, well in pants I like fitted, skirts I like to be loose or A-line, which wasn't an option.
• It would be nice if they had a choice for you to pick like you want them to put a whole outfit together for you, like one skirt/pants and 2-3 different tops and an accessory, or 2 bottoms, 2 tops and an accessory that all can coordinate together.

Bottom Line: 

With all that said would I try it again? Probably not, I don't want to take the risk of losing another $20. I would rather go shopping myself and spend $20 on something I know I'm going to like. If I get one of the sales people to help me, then I have my stylist right there, no need to pay $20 for something I'm not going to like/keep.

But never say never, so we'll see, but for now I'm probably not going to sign up for another fix for a while. Maybe if I have a special cocktail occasion to go to, I will, but not for work/casual clothes.

*Stitch Fix has no idea who I am and did not ask my nor pay me to write this review, although if they'd like to give me a free try, I'd be more then willing to try again :)