Friday, December 26, 2014


Before I get to the actual Christmas Day pictures, Santa came to visit the neighborhood to see the children and deliver presents.  H.G. was SO intrigued by the big truck with lots of lights and noise.  I love her expression.
 But once Santa arrived, she was quite apprehensive so Mommy came to the rescue.
 Wow!  A teddy bear (which I might add she has formed a special connection and hasn't slept without it since!)

 And now the Christmas morning pictures.  :-)

Happy Friday Y'all!


Thursday, December 25, 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!  






Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Spy It, Buy It! - Tory Burch Fulton Booties


By now, I should be all snug up in a bed in Kentucky, all cozied up in flannel pjs after driving through the night.  Hopefully granny and grandaddy are up for watching the girls for a few hours!
If not, we'll still be driving as we had stopped off for the night. 
Give us good vibes as the weather is not going to be anywhere close to favorable for this trip!

So Merry Christmas Eve!!

Yesterday I posted my OOTD.  Comfortable for travel while still be stylish when stopping off the road for meals.  Plus, I had to stop into the office briefly, so I didn't look to underdressed.

One of my favorite things to do is stalk fashion blogs.  Of course, I generally can't (or don't want) to spend the kind of money some of these bloggers do on their outfits, so I like to Spy It, Buy It and copy the looks and styles.  Fashion on A Dime I guess you'd say.  Yes, I like to splurge here and there but most of us have to be real as we can't afford to look like a runway with brand new Prada,Louis Vuitton or Tory Burch bag, shoes, outfit etc. every day of the week.

Here's what I wore yesterday and we'll concentrate on the booties. 
Target sweater (I just bought it but can't find online) Similar HERE
J. Crew Factory scarf (an early Christmas gift from Lolly, didn't she do well?) HERE
Ponte Black Leggings - White House Black Market HERE
Booties from Macy's (Style and Co. - Sold Out) - More below.
I adore the Tory Burch Fulton Booties.  But I just splurged on a pair of Tory boots that were "bad on sale" as I don't think I'd spend $550 on a pair of boots.  But anyways, here's the Fulton.  Normally $385.00, they are on sale for $269.50 HERE.  This is my Spy It.

Here are my Buy It choices.  Both from Macy's, the one on the right is the Bandolino Evora Booties for $79.99 and the one on the left is a Vince Camuto Ristin Bootie for $129.99 both currently on sale.

The ones I'm wearing (Style and Co. Charlee's Booties) are sold out, but you can get them in oak, grey or brown HERE.  Actually, the grey version looks exactly like the Tory Burch Fulton suede grey booties.

Merry Christmas Eve Y'all!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas Adventures

Last weekend we headed up to Orlando and stayed at the Gaylord Palms hotel.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a huge hotel in Orlando, not associated with Disney, that has wonderful Christmas festivities for the family.  There is an Alpine Village where they showcase a walk-through winter wonderland, so appropriately and simply named, ICE, as the entire village is made of ice.  

So we bundleded ourselves up, including H.G.  Underneath all of this she's also wearing a heavy coat, sweater and gloves.  We Florida people don't take too kindly to 9 degree weather!


There was a slide made of ice.  Lolly flew down it pretty fast.  Me?  I got stuck.  

After ICE but still inside the Alpine Village we stopped to see Santa Claus.  H.G. did really well, this time.  This picture was taken just after.  Love my silly girls!

It's always fun running into and hanging out with good friends.  Notice their necklaces?  Lilly bought a friendship necklace while visiting and decided to give the other half to Lolly!

 This picture was from Husband's office party.  Santa always visits and gives all the kids a present.  Thus, the obligatory one-year old screaming and read faced Santa picture that all parents have stocked away.

Lolly's 2nd grade teacher hosted a pizza, PJs and craft night for all her students.  WHAT fun this was (and exhausting for us volunteers!)  Lolly is making a gingerbread house pre-made by yours truly with ornamental icing and graham crackers.  They really turned out great and the kids had a blast!

That's all for now.  Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Weekend and Work OOTDs

Good morning Y'all!  We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend, really didn't do much of anything other than prepare the Chevy Suburban Sleigh for our Christmas trip north.  It was nice intentionally planning nothing as we were not stressed at all trying to squeeze everything in on time!

I'm busy working on several posts to last us through the beginning of the new year when we return.  In the meantime, here are a couple OOTDs to share.

Necklace - Bauble Bar (I think...I bought it last year and I'm not 100% sure).  It actually has three strands, I didn't realize until just now that one is hidden behind my shirt.
Sweater - The Limited
Skirt - Banana Republic
Bracelets - David Yurman
Boots - Tory Burch - on SALE HERE!!
Nope, no leggings.  It will be 82 degrees here by noon.  I canNOT wait to get north (y'all are thinking I'm crazy.  I really just want to wear my winter clothes without sweating).
Ashleigh, look.  I'm showing my face!

This weekend I wore a Lilly Pulitzer shirt (old) and Tory Burch shoes (also old).  The necklace I bought at Target years ago.  The shoes, I'm not quite sure what I was thinking at the time as I had nothing to match them.  But over the past couple of years, I've collected quite the collection of fuchsia and now I find myself wearing them quite a bit.  The jeans are Gap 1969.  

Steve insisted on getting in on the picture taking action.

Happy Monday Y'all!


Friday, December 19, 2014

Casual Work OOTD and Taylor Swift Hair

Good morning Y'all!  I am super excited about a nice weekend at home with nothing to do except pack for our Christmas trip, have a simple order-in pizza dinner and game night with some friends and church on Sunday.  Nothing else for this busy holiday season!  Yay!  Well, Santa is coming to see the girls on Sunday, but we don't have to leave our house for that.  

Here's my casual work OOTD.  Going for casual prep.  Keep in mind I've recently recycled my winter wardrobe (I mean, I wear winter clothes for 30 days a year, fifteen of those days being up north).  Most of the new things are wrapped in packages under the tree.  And, by noon the sweater will be shed because it will be 75 to 80 degrees out.    Anyways, Husband said he thought argyle is out of style.  Maybe it is for women as I couldn't find many similar styles so I just don't know.  Argyle is certainly in style for men!  That's not a problem.  I still like it. 
Plain white collared shirt (old) - similar HERE
Argyle sweater (old_ similar - HERE
Jeans - Gap HERE (not my favorite, JBrand and Dittos are my favorite) but I do like the fit of these Gap jeans.
Tory Burch Camilla Flats- similar HERE
Tory Burch York Tote HERE
Jewelry, Bauble Bar necklace (I think) and David Yurman bracelets

A couple days ago, I talked about how I desperately needed to get my hair fixed as it had been well over the 6 week mark (ehem....four months, oops).  And I have really been looking for another style to frame my long face.  My perfectly long and straight hair with no volume was making my face look very long and thin and I wasn't liking its look.  Lolly loves the video by Taylor Swift Shake It Off and I love Taylor's hair at the end of the video.  While I don't look like Taylor Swift (as bluntly pointed out by Lolly this morning), I do like the style. 

By the way.....I don't like selfies of my face unless it's a group shot with friends and family.  I just don't like how I look in them.  I took 45 pictures to get this one.  Still not happy but just look at my hair.  What do you think?  Taylor Swift-ish????

Happy Friday Y'all!


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Work OOTD

At some friend's urging, I'll try to get back to some outfits of the day.  I'll also see if Husband can start taking decent pictures.  iphone pictures just don't do it and the lighting in my office is terrible for iphone pictures.
Ignore my hair....I have a hair appointment on Saturday, my ends are a mess!  
H and M jacket and pants.  Seriously, I get compliments every time I where this suit over all my others.  It fits me perfectly, the jacket being the perfect length (and without tailoring, a definite plus!).  HERE and HERE.
Tunic top - Ann Taylor Loft - HERE (on sale!)
Shoes (old) - Similar HERE
Tory Burch bag (last season) - Similar HERE
David Yurman bracelet

Bauble Bar necklace (old) -Similar HERE and HERE

And without the jacket.
That's the Work OOTD.  Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Friday, December 12, 2014

Steve - The Most Recent Escapade of Our Five Month Old Goldendoodle

Steve really needs to go to puppy school.  That is daddy's responsibility.  I take the two humans to school, he can handle the puppy.  In the meantime, here is what our sweet and curious Steve is up to these days.

Husband and I were watching our beloved Wildcats play basketball earlier this week.  Steve had snuggled up with daddy on the couch (which we really need to decide if he's allowed on the couch or not...another story for another day).  All of the sudden, Steve spots H.G.'s duck.  Steve loves this duck.  It has wind up wheels so it will zoom across the floor thereby making Steve think it's a fetching toy.  So, Steve loves it and will fight for it against the 14 month old human. 

Earlier in the day, I had set the duck in the middle of the coffee table away from Steve's grasp.  While laying on the couch, he sees the duck and jumps up from his cozy spot next to daddy to cautiously step onto the coffee table.  From where I'm sitting, I grab my phone as I know this is going to get really good.  Steve looks at me like "So....is this allowed or not?"

Since I didn't move, he assumes it's allowed and he moves in closer to sniff the duck.  "Yep, that's H'G's duck all right."

"Maybe daddy will let me bring it to the couch to chew on."

"Probably not, I better stay here and chew on it before he takes it away."

We then take the duck away.  
"You took away my duck.  And now I'm stuck and don't know how to get down."
He looks so guilty.

As Lolly would say "OH Steve!!"

Happy Friday Y'all!


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Thanksgiving - Better late than never!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in South Florida with my parents.  It was a gorgeous day, sunny and not chilly but not hot either.  We spent a good portion of the day outside playing while the turkey was in the oven and Husband and Grandpa Geezer put up Christmas lights on the house.

Husband nearly cried when he saw this picture.  Lolly is getting SO big.  She is an AMAZING big sister.  

How, how many one year old children do you know that cry when you're LEAVING the bounce house.  Not many.  Except this one.  She LOVED the bounce house and cried when it was time to leave, trying to claw her way back inside.  I took her out when the bigger kids started going wild.  H.G. would have held her own as she's a little bruiser underneath all of that southern bonnet goodness, but she doesn't understand crazy, wild big boys in a bounce house!
(This was the weekend prior to Thanksgiving at a birthday party....by the way).

As I said, my parents were in town for Thanksgiving.  We went out to dinner the night they arrived.  Poor dad didn't get the memo that he was supposed to wear pink.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Lolly and I packed some Thanksgiving meals for the local elderly and sheltered folks. I always jump at the chance to volunteer with Lolly (which there aren't many volunteer opportunities for children around here).  I feel that Lolly needs to learn just how blessed she really is and what better way to do that than to serve those less fortunate than us.  I think the sooner she learns this, the more appreciative she will be of the life she does have going forward and the more apt she'll be to continue to help others later on in life.  

I was very proud of her.  She was very stand offish at first and I thought it was going to be a lost effort.  I mean, it really took some time to even get her into the action (mostly her being shy).  But she finally jumped in to help me and then later, took on some bag packing of her own and with other volunteers without my intervention.  Proud mommy alert....right here!  

Last but not least, there is some confusion in our house as to what toys are puppy toys and what toys are toddler toys.  
Do not worry, full mouth and pacifier sanitizing took place immediately after.  

Though, we do have a puppy and a toddler, so who really knows?
Again, a puppy and a toddler.  WHAT WERE WE THINKING????


Happy Wednesday Y'all!