About Me

I recently added an About Me page - there are some sweet pics of my wrinkled pups & my Mr. for your viewing pleasure.

Also, you can follow me on Instagram & Twitter, if you're into that sort of social media creeping.

Instagram: SweetBananie

Twitter: SweetBananie

Happy almost Thursday!

Derby Derby

I attended a friend's bridal shower this past Saturday that was Derby-themed. We all wore fancy sundresses and hats, and the bride had the cutest fascinator she'd ordered from Etsy. She's a friend of mine from my sorority (Zeta Tau Alpha) and invited a few other Zetas to the shower, and it was so great to catch up with them. It's tough to get everyone together now, especially since we're all spread out over the state & the country.When you go from living in the same house and seeing each other multiple times a day, to living in different cities with different work hours, throw significant others & family into the mix, it's tough to adjust & make time for everyone. It's so nice when there's an event like this that brings us together.

I know this outfit seems very Americana/4th of July-ish, and to that I say, I love America!

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Dress: Lilly Pulitzer (my sweet Mr. picked it out for my birthday)

Hat: Target

Flower clipped on hat: WalMart

Belt: thrifted via ARC

Shoes: ELLE via ARC

Clutch: gift from my brother & sis-in-law

Earrings & Bracelet: gift from my parents

We did it!

My Dad & I at the race expo the day before our half-marathon.

"running"

We did it! We ran 13.1 miles!

We started together, and we finished together (and ran the whole thing together, of course). Our time was 2:37:07, with an average pace of an 11:59 mile. We stopped twice - once for me to put on a blister band-aid, and the other to use the restroom and apply another blister band-aid. We slowed at the aid stations for water & Gatorade. Somewhere (maybe mile 9?) I asked if we could walk for about 100 yards. My dad said "Um, no!" and I'm so glad he did , because I can proudly say I ran the entire race!

We got on a bus to take us up to the start at about 5 AM, got to the start about 5:45, and started the race at 6:30. It was a mostly downhill course, with a few tiny uphill areas - we ran down a canyon and into town. There was a marathon, 10K & 5K, in addition to our half marathon. The first marathoner to finish passed us around mile 10 or 11, and finished 7 or 8 minutes before us - he wasn't even breathing hard! He made it look so easy! I can't believe he can run 26.2 miles in less time than it took me to do half that distance. My mom & my Mr. cheered us on and saw us around mile 9, and again at the finish. Then took us out to breakfast, then home for naps.

I took the day off work today and got a sports massage - so glad I did. My feet are torn up with blisters, and my legs are incredibly sore & stiff, but I'm so glad I completed the race and didn't walk! It was fun & exciting, but I'm glad it's over. I told my Dad we should talk in a week or so about doing another one eventually. We've thrown around ideas of doing a half marathon at all the major beaches/coasts/oceans - Key West being first on our list (the land of Jimmy Buffett - we're HUGE Parrotheads).

My apologies for the lack of Mr. Picks Monday this week - since I didn't go to work today, I didn't put on anything fancier than yoga pants. I hope you'll forgive me!

Minutes after we finished - FINISH line in the background.

Half-Marathoning

I didn't really wear these heels today. Cali didn't wear her heels, either.

THESE are the shoes I really did wear today.

It doesn't look like it, but these two nuggets love me. And getting their picture taken.

When this post goes live, I'll be running (possibly walking) my first half-marathon. I'm tingly just thinking about it. I've spent so much time thinking about it (lamenting my lack of training) that I'm ready for it to be done with. And ready to be eating a delicious brunch after it's all over. My dad is running it with me, and no joke, he can actually run circles around me while I'm running - I'm THAT slow. Anyway, it's happening Sunday morning, whether I'm ready or not, so, wish me luck!

Sweater: Target

Pants: Lauren Conrad via Goodwill

Shoes: Bongo

Necklace: my grandmother's

Dinner Date

These are my other polka dot pants, and a whole different look to go with them. And this oatmeal-y sweater thing is so warm. Perfect for doing a little pre-dinner shopping with one of my best friends (below).

We've been friends since the 5th grade, and grew up down the street from each other. She came to visit for the evening, so we did a wee bit of shopping downtown, had a delicious dinner, then spent the rest of the night catching up. I stayed up way too late and paid for it today, but it was so worth it to see one of my best friends.

Here's us dancing at my wedding. Don't you love her hat?

She's also the first friend I've told about this here blogging adventure. She's worked retail for 5+ years, and I love to bounce outfit ideas off of her. Even though we've got such different styles, she's full of great ideas & advice, and encourages me to take risks (she even helped me go through my closet a few weeks ago - only a really good friend would do that). She took my outfit pictures tonight and gushed over my outfit. She's pretty excited about me blogging, which in turn makes ME really excited. 

That being said, here's to becoming a better blogger, with the support of one of my best friends :)

Shirt: Gap
Sweater: Eddie Bauer
Pants: Ann Taylor Loft
Boots: Rackroom Shoes
Watch: gift from my brother & sis-in-law
Bracelets: pink - from a friend; bangle - thrift store

A Tweed Jacket

see the snow behind me? Snow. On May Day. Belize it.

This jacket is the other item I "bought" on my shopping fast. A whopping 93 cents, AND I used store credit. Big spender here!

In other news, it snowed. On the first of May. I was worried I wouldn't be able to wear my new jacket until next fall, but never fear, Colorado weather fritzed and snowed just so I could wear my new purchase! Not really. 

I just hope with all this late snow that there are no fires this summer. The ones last summer were pretty terrible, and seemed to burn forever. I drove past the fire crews staging area on my way to work every day for 6 long weeks.

Enough about fire - it's still snowing here!

Have a great rest of the week - I'm having the hardest time squeezing in some last minute running before Sunday...oy.

Shirt: Maurice's

Jacket: Express via Trends

Pants: Joe Fresh via ARC

Boots: Rackroom Shoes

Scarf: gift

Watch: gift from my brother & sis-in-law

April Outfit Recap

Here's a collage of the oufits I posted in April, for all you visual learners out there. Obviously I got dressed the other 14 days of the month, but these were the ones worth sharing on the days that also I put some effort into my hair & makeup (get more sleep or do my hair & makeup? it's a debate I have every. single. day).

My goal in doing this is to see what I do & don't like, see what is worth remixing, and see what needs to go. And also to evaluate my posing skills & choice of landscapes - I kid. But really, I do need to take some photos not by our apartment...Goal #1: take pictures somewhere other than by our apartment. 

I feel like I'm back in school and writing an analysis paper on the pros & cons of what I wore, how to fix it/make it better/make a profit (I was a business major), what I would change, and what I learned in summary. Maybe I should throw in a profit & loss statement, or some currency conversations for good measure. Just kidding - don't get me started on currency conversions. That's a story for another day when we have absolutely nothing to talk about, and you have a serious question about international finance...

Observations:

- Annie likes to wear brown boots.

- She likes to wear bright colors, purple & pink (not necessarily together).

- Scarves are pretty great.

- Annie likes to smirk.

- Apparently, she also loves to wear maxi skirts.

- She is into skinnies, even though her Mr. is not.

- She likes to dress in layers.

From the above observations, I have come up with these goals for our participant:

1. Take pictures somewhere other than by your apartment

2. Incorporate different hemlines & silhouettes by wearing more dresses, skirts, maybe even shorts?!

3. Continue to mix textures

4. Print mix more!

In conclusion, we can confidently say that Annie is coming out of her wardrobe shell, and is getting away from being matchy-matchy & boring. She still has some work to do, but she is making progress, and we estimate that with the implementation of the four goals stated above, next month's report will receive even higher scores. She should also get herself out of bed in the morning to work out, and then make herself look nice, because she knows she should.