Sunday, January 24, 2010
Blog Moved
That's Claire's favorite song: an alternate to the usual row, row, row your boat. The boat goes underneath the stream, hence the ha, ha I fooled you part, cuz it's a submarine, yo.And by that I mean to tell you that I've been messing around with various blog hosts and think I want to go with Wordpress. It's cleaner, has better embedded comments and tracking...and it's new and fun to learn.
I've been here at Blogger for 5 years and it's been fun. But I want a new place to experiment and grow.
Please forgive me, readers, and change your readers to my new corner of the web.
Bird On A Line |
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wardrobe Wednesday: Confident Mamma
I put this wardrobe together by request for Lindsey, who said:"I'm not sure if you take requests, but I would love some wardrobe suggestions! I'm a new mom to a 3-month old and can't get out of my jeans and a long-sleeve tee routine. I've lost all the baby weight (hooray!) but now am in need of some help for an outfit (or two) to go out and about with the kid or just to meet friends in (something casual, yet not frumpy). I love your muted winter tones (though those shoes would leave me freezing and on the ground).
Help please?"
Lindsey - I hear ya. I was in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt for about a year after Claire was born (except for the days I had to go to work). How about this number? It is still casual and you can still wear a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath the gorgeous coat. I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty smashing in this number with basic accessories.
Items in this set:
Windsor Scoopneck, $98
Jacket and Diane-Mod Retro Indie Clothing & Vintage Clothes, $93
Women's Super Skinny Jean - Silver Grey, $30
Tecce, Ships 8/25, $159
Womens AE Medallion Belt - Dark Brown, $25
Windsor Scoopneck, $98
Jacket and Diane-Mod Retro Indie Clothing & Vintage Clothes, $93
Women's Super Skinny Jean - Silver Grey, $30
Tecce, Ships 8/25, $159
Womens AE Medallion Belt - Dark Brown, $25
Or, if you prefer, here's this outfit. It's still casual, yet put together and comes with a nursing top (if you're nursing).
Items in this set:
Old Navy Womens Red Mid-Rise Flared, $30
Nine West: Boots > Flats > Polen - slouchy suede
Women's Apparel | Banana Republic, $36
Versace Women's Purple Nappa Leather Satchel | Overstock.com, $1,700
Maternity Clothing: Shawl neck nursing top: Nursing Tops & Dresses..., $29
Old Navy Womens Red Mid-Rise Flared, $30
Nine West: Boots > Flats > Polen - slouchy suede
Women's Apparel | Banana Republic, $36
Versace Women's Purple Nappa Leather Satchel | Overstock.com, $1,700
Maternity Clothing: Shawl neck nursing top: Nursing Tops & Dresses..., $29
I know, I know. That purple handbag is a total pipe dream, but it's lovely!
Here are some affordable alternatives, plus a cute purple hat.
Items in this set:
Nine West: Shoes, Handbags and Apparel for Women, $40
Threads® Loose Knit Hat With Brim - Plum : Target, $15
Nine West: Handbags > Sandee Belted Hobo - Hobo Suede Handbag, $120
Nine West: Handbags > Rory Satchel - Satchel Handbag, $60
Bueno Washed Double Handle Shopper - Plum : Target, $24
Nine West: Shoes, Handbags and Apparel for Women, $40
Threads® Loose Knit Hat With Brim - Plum : Target, $15
Nine West: Handbags > Sandee Belted Hobo - Hobo Suede Handbag, $120
Nine West: Handbags > Rory Satchel - Satchel Handbag, $60
Bueno Washed Double Handle Shopper - Plum : Target, $24
That was fun! More requests anyone?
xo,
Victoria
Labels: fashion
|Friday, January 15, 2010
Hooping a Marathon
I just registered to hula hoop the half marathon in April! I'm so excited! I begin training this weekend. This is for breast cancer fund raising and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. Just think, this spring I'll be one of these women.Labels: hooping
|Thursday, January 14, 2010
Today I:
Discovered a new blog that makes me want to buy as much crappy old furniture at Salvation Army as possible and make it beautiful.Am wondering if you read my blog and don't comment. If so, it's Delurking Day, so drop me a line!
Am thinking it's almost time to release my new blog URL. Go ahead and take a peek. I'm not done yet, but I think it's fun and new - especially the category tabs on top. Feedback is welcome. (By the way, I decided not to keep my blog hidden from my family because I genuinely want them to know me. I'll just be a good girl and keep my venting about them private!)
Am grateful for my job. In a crappy economy where people are losing jobs, are being put on furlough, or can't find jobs (like Huz) I just got a 15% raise. Of course it means I'll have more responsibility and be more busy, but I can handle it. It comes at a good time since we've been without Huz's stipend for 6 months and daycare costs keep going up.
Am wearing my sexy vintage cowgirl boots and have decided that they are too cute to waste by just taking them off right after work and going to the gym. So I'm going to celebrate my raise with a co-worker friend by throwing back a $3 happy hour margarita instead. |
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wardrobe Wednesday
Here's a little number I put together. Let's call it Muted Tones Winter Wardrobe.
Items in this set:
Dotted Chiffon Blouse, $128
Hearthside Wedges, $98
Crocheted Cowlneck - Anthropologie.com, $60
Women’s Earrings: drop earrings, hoop earrings, stud earnings, silver..., $42
Hair Accessories - Jewelry & Accessories - Anthropologie.com, $32
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Dotted Chiffon Blouse, $128
Hearthside Wedges, $98
Crocheted Cowlneck - Anthropologie.com, $60
Women’s Earrings: drop earrings, hoop earrings, stud earnings, silver..., $42
Hair Accessories - Jewelry & Accessories - Anthropologie.com, $32
Monday, January 11, 2010
I Forgot!
Sorry, all. I had good intentions of sharing our holiday card with you a few weeks ago. I guess you can consider this a Happy New Year card!I took these pictures on a lovely fall afternoon in our back yard. I love my little family.
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Saturday, January 9, 2010
A Snowy Saturday
Oh, hello. If you've just been looking in my windows you would have seen me dancing crazily with Claire while listening to Dean Martin's "Let It Snow." Why? Because it's ACTUALLY snowing! I can still see my grass underneath the very thin blanket of white, but the stuff is actually falling from the sky and has been all day! I'm so very proud of Nashville right now.Claire Bear and I enjoyed a nice snack together - homemade microwave popcorn. It's so easy and so much more economical than buying microwave popcorn at the store. She ate an entire banana and is now eating lunch (fish sticks, of course). Girlfriend is obviously in the middle of growth spurt because her appetite is up and I swear every time I look at her she looks like an older little girl.
Here she is now:
Here are some recent Claireisms before I forget about them.
"Row, row, row, dream...ha, ha achoo...sumeen!" = Row, row row your boat, underneath the stream. Ha, ha I fooled you, I'm a submarine.
When praying with her at bedtime, she pipes in "fada day" which means thank you for the day.
When she went out with Huz and his family she put on her Nana's bifocals and inexplicably started to howl like a wolf. I guess she's seen some vision impaired timber wolves in her time.
"Goo-mawning!" = the way she greeted us every time she got out of her bed while staying at my mom's. I hated the freedom she abused while being in a big girl bed, but hearing this was almost worth it.
"Mommy made it!" = What she says when she wears her knit hat I made her.
"Santa....Presents!" = This kid catches on fast.
"Uh huh." = Her new word for yes. As in, she says it all the time.
"Leeves!" = Please push my sleeves up so I can eat.
When pulling into the Denver International Airport she looked at the architecture, which as you probably know is supposed to mimic the Rocky Mountains, and she immediately said "happy to you!" which means she thought it looked like a birthday cake with candles.
"Make-up, me! = When I put my make-up on in the morning, Claire insists on putting some on too, so I hand her an old make-up brush for her to brush all over her face.
"Luhyu!" or "Luhyu too!" = The most endearing thing EVER!
"Ah cooking!" = I'm cooking! Especially in her kitchen that Santa got her.
There's so much more: her budding sense of humor, how she runs around the house like a crazy person, how she reaches out and tickles us, how she runs full steam into your leg and clings to it for life, how she plays with the nets of her new Elefun game making them bank robber masks instead of instruments to catch falling butterflies, how she loves playing with other children.
Claire, you crack me up, you make me smile, and you drive me crazy. All things a 2 year old is supposed to do and I would have it no other way!
Labels: Parenting
|Thursday, January 7, 2010
Hogwarts School of Weather Prediction
Huz is already sick of hearing me whine this morning, so I'll whine to you. Tennessee has got to be the most annoying state when it comes to "inclement weather" (a term I never heard until moving here). For days now we've been receiving emails from Vanderbilt and warnings from weather.com about how horrible it was going to be come Thursday. Oh, the terror! They predicted cold weather and, get this, 2-4 inches of snow! Oh my gawd! SNOW! Cue end of the earth sounds - gnashing of teeth and screaming. Last night on the news they were already closing schools in preparation for this god awful storm that was to hit the poor, innocent villages of TN at around 3a.m.Guess what? I woke up, looked out the window, and saw green grass. Not a fleck of white to be seen.
And so, I have to ask: did Tennessee weather(wo)men go to Hogwarts School of Weather Prediction or are they all just high on meth?
I mean, really!
[Update: Okay, so it finally did snow a bit last night. I'd call it more of a dusting than a snowstorm, but that's just me. The streets are icy, though, so I'll give Nashville that much. Amazing how empty the parking lot was at work this morning! It has been cold, don't get me wrong; it's still only 15 degrees right now. We have a heat pump at our house which, as many times as Huz has explained it I still don't understand, doesn't heat the house very well. So we finally decided to get the chimney swept since we haven't used our fireplace since we moved into the house! The guy apparently took a look a few minutes ago, saw the creosote falling off on it's own and determined it pretty filthy. Glad we're getting it professionally taken care of before lighting up tonight!] |
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wardrobe Lust
Does this outfit totally look like something I would wear? Yes, yes it does. |Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Blog Ideas
So I'm really thinking about this new blog idea. It's a fresh start; a way to reinvent and renew. What kind of things do you all like to read when you go online? I'm thinking of trying my hand at having a daily photo, some fashion stuff (like the fun wardrobe I put together last night), food photos and recipe sharing, stuff like that. Help me decide what it is I'm good at doing and help me reinvent a new site. |Monday, January 4, 2010
Virtual Wardrobe
I happened on a few fun style blogs last night and was really impressed with the Cheap Chic posts on this site.So I decided to try my hand at putting together a virtual wardrobe that I'd love to wear.
What do you think?
I'll make one for you too if you want!
Items in this set:
Mod Retro Indie Clothing & Vintage Clothes, $48
Old Navy Womens Wool-Blend Tab-Waist Coats, $50
Charissa, Boutique 9, Ships 9/1, $300
Too Hot To Cross Top Zip Clutch, $30
Nine West: Accessories > After Dark Bracelet - Bangle bracelet, $38
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Mod Retro Indie Clothing & Vintage Clothes, $48
Old Navy Womens Wool-Blend Tab-Waist Coats, $50
Charissa, Boutique 9, Ships 9/1, $300
Too Hot To Cross Top Zip Clutch, $30
Nine West: Accessories > After Dark Bracelet - Bangle bracelet, $38
The Fate of My Blog
It's a new year and frustrations abound.I started this blog to share my photos in college.
This blog became my personal diary - a space to be completely myself and to grow out of the confines of conservative Christianity into the person I decided to be.
My family now reads this blog and I've been told by 2 of them that this is "their only link" to me and my daughter.
I offended family members with my 5 lines about Christmas vacation (even though I was very conservative with what I said and I could have vented about a lot more).
So, not only am I obligated to continue this blog as the only link to my life and my daughter's life (even though there is no reciprocal link to their life, thoughts or feelings), but now I am not allowed to say what I think here. I'm not allowed to use this space as my personal blog anymore, even though that's why I started it.
Tell me. How exactly is that fair?
I'm considering deleting this blog and starting afresh with a new URL that I don't share with anyone I know.
Happy flipping new year. |
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Cooking and Freezing Mission (Mostly) Accomplished
Well, kids?3 hours after going to the local grocery store (Kroger, which I hate, especially on Sundays because they have NO FOOD on the shelves) I am finished making 16 mini chicken pot pies and I have 8 turkey burger patties in the freezer for Claire. I diced the carrots and broccoli really small hoping that she'll actually eat them and not pick them out (but who are we kidding? she'll totally pick them out) and made little "C" shaped vents for her name on the crust. Awww! :)
I'm going to skip the third recipe for now because I'm hungry and ready to take a break. I'm reading The Magician's Assistant right now that a friend from my ex-book club loaned me, so I think putting my feet up and reading it whilst the kid naps is in order.
Yay me! I love accomplishing little goals.
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Cook and Freeze and Mother Guilt
I've decided to skip church this morning (heathen, I know). Instead, I'm staying home and making three freezable meals for my vegan + meat toddler (she's allergic to egg and dairy, in case you forgot). This means we eat separately, which means time to cook is at a premium around here.This also coincides nicely with my resolution to help cook more at home. Poor Huz has been doing the majority of the cooking for 2 years now. Sorry, babe!
I've decided to try these recipes out (modifying them to be egg- and dairy-free, of course): chicken pot pies, sausage and bean casserole, and turkey burgers. That should last a few weeks and then I'll cook and freeze again.
I woke up rather depressed - mostly, I think, because last night we babysat for some friends and when the 3 month old screamed and cried for 45 minutes I felt unnerved and inept. Huz was a natural with her, however, and held and rocked her the entire time. I guess I felt unmotherly and frustrated that I felt I should be a natural. Talk about sexism! Why do we expect our gender to dictate our feelings and responses to the world? Just because I'm a woman (and a mother) doesn't mean that I'm ready for another (and I'm not entirely sure I'm even a good mother - my 2 year old drives me nuts sometimes!). I think that's what's bothering me the most - I don't know if I want another child and that makes me sad and guilty - I feel like I'd let Huz down, not to mention the grandparents, as well as Claire who could use the companionship. I feel guilty that I don't think I can do another baby and toddler. This shit is tough! How on earth do you do it again!?
At least I'm trying. I'm going to make my child some nutritious food today. That's good mothering, right? Right? |
Friday, January 1, 2010
I Survived Christmas 2009
Hello friends. Long time no write to you! I have made a few New Year's resolutions, namely quitting Twitter so that I can refocus again on my blog and not leave you all waiting around for nothing. I have also decided to get better at menu planning and helping Huz cook, which probably means I'll neglect my other blog less too. (But I'm not promising on that one.)So, Christmas. How was yours? I have mixed feelings about mine. Suffice to say there was family drama when I wanted none. [Content deleted due to feeling badly for hurting family members.] Also, Claire was not sleeping well the entire time and we're still trying to get her back on schedule without sobbing for us to stay sitting in her room as she falls asleep - some habits die hard.
The best part of the vacation was actually our vacation from our vacation. Huz and I went off by ourselves (sans kid - thank you, mother!) for 2 nights and 3 days to Vail, Colorado to celebrate our 15th anniversary. During that time we forgot that we live on one income and one student loan and just had fun. I'm trying not to regret it now, after balancing the checking account, but, really, it was worth it.
Getting an ear infection a few days before our Vail vacation, Huz was advised not to go skiing, so I convinced him to have a spa day with me instead. He actually agreed! We enjoyed our first ever couple's massage, ate lunch together in bathrobes and slippers in the 'sanctuary' room (complete with lounging chairs, soothing music and a huge stone fireplace in the center of the room), then we went for a soak in the jacuzzi and steam room before ending our 4 hours of spa bliss in the mountains. Beats skiing any day if you ask me!
We also enjoyed two very nice meals at fancy restaurants: Kelly Liken and Larkspur. I wore my new holiday dress (in indigo, over one shoulder) to the first place and had Huz practically worshiping me the entire night, which felt great, even though I was freezing. We enjoyed our bed and breakfast very much - from the architecture in our room (exposed beams, stone fireplace and stone jacuzzi) to the cool hostesses who we really liked. We'll definitely be back someday.
We're glad to be home for some sense of normalcy, as traveling is always hard, especially with a small child. I will go back again next year, of course, but I hope to go with some more realistic expectations. I love my family, but we don't always get along. Isn't that just how it is? It all makes me wonder about having a second child. I really have been thinking about it lately, not only because people start to pressure you at this point ("when are you going to get me a grandson?!") but mostly because I want Claire to have a companion. There's no guarantee that if she has a sibling that they'll even get along (i.e. me and mine), but maybe they'll be best friends. And certainly they won't ever be without family after Huz and I pass away. I just don't know how to come to the decision with so many other variables (Huz getting a job, my ability to keep sanity with more than one, finances, housing, etc. etc.).
One thing I know: I'm grateful for my family, even if they drive me crazy, and I'm especially grateful for my family of friends and my immediate family. Huz and Claire? I don't know what I'd do without you.
Happy New Year everyone! |
