Grandma's 81st B-day Party

Dress: Target
Shoes: BCBG
Earrings: Erin Gallagher Jewelry
Ring: Macy's

My husband's grandma turned 81 over the weekend and we got together 2 nights ago to celebrate. The evening was filled with great deserts, lots of talking and laughing, and of course a dance party! I am so blessed to have such wonderful in-laws!

I wore this black and white dress because it is breezy and there is no waist band! ;) Yes, that was actually a factor!
I paired it with these cute BCBG flats I got at the outlet store over the summer, which I think are going to be great for the holiday season.
I decided I wanted to put my hair up but wanted to try something more fun then the classic ponytail. I decided to fishtail the top half of my hair and make it look like a true ponytail. I love it! It was actually kind of hard to do that in the back of my head....now thinking back that might be why I decided to stop halfway down!
The outfit didn't needs tons of jewelry so I went with a pair of earrings and a ring.

I included a picture of the cake we ate this night. It was outstanding. My hubby's mom and sister are on this baking kick and keep coming up with new ideas (which are so yummy to try). This was a chocolate cake with chunks of chocolate pieces in it. The next layer was broken up peanut butter cups with cool whip on the top and chocolate shavings!!! UMmM.....delish!!! Even though my sister-in-law does not have a blog of her own, I have asked her to guest blog one of her yummy creations! She said yes guys!!! woo hoo! So we all have that to look forward to!

34 weeks

With a little over 5 weeks left I have now gained 33 pounds. It is officially starting to get ugly! ;) How I am feeling I mean. It's getting harder and harder to feel cute even when an effort is made. I'm actually quite proud I held up this long! When pregnant with my son I felt hideous around month 7.
I knew it was only a matter of time until it hit my face...and let me tell you, it's hit my face! (you would think with a baseball bat! haaa)
Here are some other fun facts about week 34:
I waddle EVERYWHERE, I get stuck on the ground when cleaning up my son's toys, I can't use regular public bathroom stalls due to the fact that the door hits my belly when I try to get out and I get stuck, my arms and legs cramp all the time, I have to wear a maternity belt due to pulled ligaments in my lower abdomen, my skin is SUPER dry, my ankles swell at the end of the day, I need naps daily (too bad my son does not take daily naps!), and my all time favorite, I peed my pants a few days ago when I sneezed! Yeah, that happened! For a second I thought my water broke and then I realized, NOPE, just peed my pants! haa Isn't pregnancy beautiful?!
I hope you all love my Yo Gabba Gabba stickers in the first picture. My son LOVES my belly and gives it kisses and stickers all the time.
Also, my outfit post will go up tomorrow for this dress....
Happy Wednesday!

Looking for Guest Bloggers

I am looking for 10-15 of my fellow blogger friends to guest blog on my page! I've got a little over 5 weeks left until my due date and I want to be prepared and keep my readers happy with no breaks in content!
Your welcome readers! ;)
I'll want to start collecting them asap! There are less and less days I feel great and might want to use 1 a week until my little lady is born.
Comment here or send me an email at lisafergus@yahoo.com. You can write about anything! Fashion, design, mommy stories, you decide! I'll give you all the details when you contact me!

Thanks in advance!! xo

This weeks "I want what she has!"

This weeks "I want what she has!" goes to Tiffany McKibben. I am in love with this top! Let's be honest, this entire outfit is beautiful, but I just feel like I need to own that top!! Who doesn't like picture frame detail?!
Okay, and maybe those shoes too!

Top: $58 Anthropologie
Shoes: $75 Macy's (2 years ago)

Great finds Tiffany. I just love this look!! To see more of her great style check out her blog Fashion Ammo!

September Giveaway!

Only 4 days left to enter these beautiful Erin Gallagher Jewerly earrings. Make sure you enter here!
Winner will be announced this Friday!
Good luck everyone! And thanks again for being such loyal readers!
xo

Neutral Mix Up

Bodkin / Wave Tank $168
Women's AE Boyfriend Blazer - American Eagle Outfitters $40
Shorts $113
cut-out peep toe bootie $34
ALEX MONROE Earrings $200
ADELE FADO Necklace $89

I love this look for fall. If I had the figure and owned these pieces, I would totally be wearing this outfit today! Don't get me wrong, I love all the pattern play and animal print going around this season, but what about neutrals? I am such a fan of mixing blacks, browns, navy, grays, greens, and metallic! I just can't get enough of the neutral mix ups! What do you think? Would you rock this look out?

I felt like such a mom today....

Some of you may remember my son's best friend Lamby from a previous post.
Since the theme of our house this week is surgery, I decided it was time for lamby to have some work done. In the past few months my son has been through a lot....which means his best friend is also going through a lot. When we ditched the passy he began to chew on the eyes. As you can see we cut those out a few months back and now he has black stitches where eyes once were. After the eyes went, he started chewing his face. Yes, the poor lamb gets his face chewed DAILY! As you can imagine, this begins to smell after a while. Lamby gets washed every week and bleached every two weeks.
You would think this would help. And it does for a day of two, but then the smell comes back. My solution? Let's cut his head open!
Here's what Lamby looked like with the old clumpy stuffing inside.

I made a "L" shaped cut in the back of the head and pulled out all of the nasty old stuffing.


I found this great stuffing at Micheal's. It is way softer then the original stuffing and best yet, it's not clumpy!

and TA DA! The new and improved Lamby!!



I don't for a second think I am handy with a needle. When it comes to home improvement projects I'll sooner higher someone then do it myself. When it comes to my babies, I will do whatever is needed. If their best friend needs a surgery, I'm there with my mini sewing kit (I think designed for button repair) and a smile. I hope this helps us get a few more years out of our little friend!

Housewarming party

Top: Target
Jeans: Target
Shoes: Kohls
Earrings: Erin Gallagher Jewelry
Necklace: Stella & Dot

I was headed to my sisters housewarming party this day and needed a cute and causal outfit for the occasion. I went with this mustard top because I was feeling blah and how can you feel blah in yellow?! It definitely did the trick! I paired it with a dark jean and a brown sandal. I decided to go with gold jewelry because I thought it played off the yellow nicely.


Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. My son had his surgery and he did great! I have a new found respect for all mothers that have children that need surgery. It was hands down one of the hardest days of my life. Now we're dealing with around the clock meds and gross things I won't even tell you about. (your welcome!)
The next 24 hours will be the worst I hear, then 2 weeks of around the house recovery followed by 2 more weeks until full recovery. I've slept about 7 hours in the past 3 days and I'm very much looking forward to Friday when we can space the meds out more then every 3 hours! Until then everyone send me caffeine thoughts! Since it's not okay for pregnant women to be chugging coffee all day long (which is really what I need at this point) maybe caffeine thoughts will help?! haaa It's worth a try right? ;)

Tales of Motherhood

I like to think of my 28 month old as a big boy. He chooses his own outfit in the morning, puts his dirty clothes in the hamper, takes out and puts his own milk away in the fridge, wipes down the table after meals, cleans up toys when he's done playing (of course we sing the clean up song!), and if I ask him to grab a diaper or my bottled water up from across the room, he will bring it to me. He's my little helper! I just don't think of him as a baby or someone who needs to be hoovered over constantly. Over the weekend he decided to play the "I'm not taking a nap for 3 days" game and his behavior was so different. On Saturday, after trying to get him to nap for almost 2 hours, I walked downstairs to get the mail and grab some water for us both. As I'm pouring the water into his cup I hear a noise. Now as most mommies know, we know all sounds. I can tell the difference between toys and activities just because I've been home with him since day 1. In this instance I didn't know the sound. Then I realized it was water! Now I'm a big girl these days, but man did I haul ass up those stairs! As I rounded the corner to the bathroom I see my son with one elbow deep in the toilet and the other is splashing water at me! NNNNOOOOOOOOOO! He was in long sleeves so that was nasty. Next was pulling the matchbox cars out. Fun! And then there was the laughing and telling me "Ut oh" as I clean up the floor. You try not to laugh and still be stern while doing this!
He hasn't been interested in the toilet since 12 months so this was so weird!
Also due to the lack of naps we had the regular spats of cry laughing (you know when they can't decide how they feel), and the extra pretend falling and needing kisses for fake owies.
Needless to say the alarm went off early today and a nap will be mandatory! I want my little gentleman back! ;)

This weeks "I want what she has!"

This weeks "I want what she has!" goes to Julie McSweeney. How amazing is this jacket?! I want one NOW! Or at least as soon as I have a waistline again! ;)

Jacket: $118 White House/Black Market

I love all the pockets, the detail with the zippers, and the snaps on the shoulder. This jacket would be great to be worn as part of an outfit (just like Julie wore it) or over any outfit in the spring or fall! It really is a great neutral color good for all seasons! Sadly I could not find this style online, but I'm sure you will be able to find it in most stores. Great find Julie!!

The best hot wings EVER!

When I was at my friends Labor Day BBQ last week, I was served the best wings I had ever had. Yes, the best EVER. Now, I am pregnant and I do have food dreams, but the other people at the party seemed very impressed too, so I'm sticking with telling you they are the best EVER! ;)
Here are some pictures I took of them being grilled at the party:


I quickly asked for the recipe and an email with directions was sent to me the next day. Here is how these wings were made:
Place wings in a large bowl, coat evenly with olive oil and sprinkle a little salt on it. Place on the top rack of the grill (indirect heat) over medium-low heat. Now begins the saucing/flipping process. You will be flipping every 20 minutes, saucing a couple minutes before. All in all, you will sauce each side 3 times and cook for a grand total of 2 ½ hours. So, after you put them on, wait 15 minutes, sauce, wait 5 minutes, flip. Repeat. Wait 15 minutes, sauce, wait 5 minutes, flip. Do this 6 total times (2 hours of the total cook time), 3 sauce applications on each side. Cook for an additional 30 minutes (2.5 hours total). Remove from heat, turn off grill, serve with ranch, blue cheese or whatever sauce you prefer and enjoy! J

I hope this makes sense. It’s super easy, just long. Good luck!

Okay, so it's a long process, but it is so worth it!!! Plus my hubby loves wings and he missed the party so I felt like he had to have some! I was online ordering pea pod (yes I usually use pea pod to carry my heavy stuff like bottled water, soda, milk, cat litter, etc.) and I came across some chicken on sale. Perfect! The packs of wings (8 per pack) were only $2.67. Woo hoo! But then I decided that my favorite part when we go for wings are the mini drumsticks. They had a package of drumsticks (16 per pack) for $4! So I got that too. Now I do realize that this is a lot of food for 2 people, but I'm a big fan of cooking big and then freezing the leftovers for the following week on the days I don't feel like cooking.
When the order arrived I realized DUH, the drumsticks were full size! Okay, now this is really a lot of chicken. To make matters worse I soon realized that our grill doesn't have an upper rack. Awww nuts! Now what? Well, I'll improvise. I tweaked the recipe a bit and the result was just as delicious but not as crispy. I can tell you that my hubby made lots of mmmmmm noises during dinner and it made me feel good. Mission accomplished! ;)
Here are some pictures of my journey:





Here is how I made these wings/legs:
I followed the same recipe as the above wings recipe, but I changed the cooking times. After I placed the wings on the grill (low heat), I closed the lid and let it grill for 15 minutes, sauced them, and flipped them over. I then closed the lid again and let them grill for 15 minutes, sauced them, and flipped them over. Now every 5 minutes I would sauce and flip for the remaining 20 minutes. Total grill time was 1 hour.
They were so good!!! I had to leave a few of them on for an additional rotation to get as crispy as others. I'm sure all grills are different, but like me you can improvise!
Hope lots of you try these. They are divine!

Knitty Bitties

A couple of weeks ago my friend Lindsay from H.L.S.D. posted a picture on her twitter account of a purchase she made. Even on such a small picture I could tell she had made a great find! I immediately went to the Knitty Bitties website and found a few items I wanted for myself! I got the small wallet witch is perfect for those days I don't want to carry all of my credit cards around and the happy little list taker. Not only are these items super cute, but at the low prices I paid I was surprised at how high the quality is!! I already use the list taker everyday!! We all know I'm crazy busy with things going on and this is the perfect item to keep me organized and on task!
I also found that Knitty Bitties has a blog! You can follow it here!

Small Wallet: $8
Happy little list taker: $20

My nephew's Bris

Don't I have beautiful sisters?!



Dress: Pea in the Pod
Shoes: Payless
Earrings: Erin Gallagher Jewelry
Ring: Tiffany & CO

This was the second Bris I had ever been to. After the ceremony, it's food, family, and fun! Everyone usually gets quite dressed up for this occasion, so I had to pick out something nice to wear.
I decided to wear this maxi dress because it can be dressy and it's long enough that I could wear flats and not feel silly. (Yes, I feel silly in flats when I go out! I guess I just miss my heels!!)
I paired it with some of my favorite jewelry, my EG earrings and my thin chain ring.
This was also a good outfit for chasing my toddler around in. It was very comfortable and even when he decided to do his usual lifting up of mommy's dress game, I was not flashing anyone! Got to love 2 year old boys!! ;)

September Giveaway!

Here it is you guys, the giveaway item for September is a pair of Meg earrings from Erin Gallagher Jewelry.

You can see them on Erin's website here!

How do you get entered to win these you ask? It's easy!! Just do 2 things for me.
1). Follow my blog! If you haven't done so already click on the follow button to the right side of the page just below the "about me" section. It's super easy and only takes a minute to enter your email address!
(Unfortunately following me on Bloglovin, Twitter, and Facebook does not automatically enter you, but it does give you updates when I make new posts!)
2). Leave me a comment under this post that includes your email address! It's the followers that come back often and leave me comments that I want these to go to!!

Good luck everyone! A winner will be announced on September 30th!

Labor Day/Birthday BBQ

Dress: Target
Earrings: Erin Gallagher Jewelry
Necklace: Erin Gallagher Jewelry
Shoes: Payless

On Monday myself and my little man went to my friend Lindsay's house. (Sadly my hubby had to work.) It was her man's B-day and they were having an all day BBQ party. (That's him in the last picture!)
We had a great time with all of our friends and boy was the food delicious! I actually had the best wings EVER there and they are sending me the recipe later today. I will be making them tomorrow and blogging about how to make them next week!!!

I decided to wear this grey dress because it's so comfortable. It's not a maternity dress, which is why it gives me ZERO shape, but it was perfect for a casual hangout with great friends! I paired it with these amazing earrings I've been dying to wear! I also wore the same designer around my neck. After taking that picture of the necklace I can see I need a little silver polish on the jump rings!!! It could also be oxidized again. I'll get on that! ;) Hey, it's over 2 years old.....it's bound to need a little maintenance! I wear it tons! (I think I smell another blog post!)

ps. Check out my friend Lindsay's blog here!

Latest Obsession: Photo Finish

Photo Finish- Targeted pore and line primer $32 Ulta

I am in love! This stuff is amazing! I am 31 years old and I'm not going to lie and say I have no wrinkles. I do! I have lines on my forehead and I'm starting to see lines around my eyes. I'm going to assume this is pretty normal (DUH!) and since I'm not one to freak out and go get a face lift I decided to find a product that would help make it look less obvious when makeup is applied. I always hated it when my lines looked worse after makeup had settled into them!

Here's what the product says about itself:

Precision pore perfection and fine line camouflage. Exclusive developed to target problem areas like the nose, forehead, crow's feet and around the mouth, the primer creates a flawless canvas for makeup application.
The advanced mattifying formula actually helps slow the development of wrinkles via Smashbox's Qusome delivery system, complete with anti-wrinkle peptides. It also features Chinese mushroom extract for moisture and anti-oxidation as well as silicone elastomer to reduce shine on skin and effectively control sebum. As Photo Finish Targeted Pore and Line Primer effectively fills pores and lines, Light Transformation Technology bends light to create a blurring effect, further erasing the appearance of imperfections.

Run out and get this one ladies! You will never wear makeup again without it! Seriously!

This weeks "I want what she has!"

This weeks "I want what she has!" goes to Lynda Fergus. These shoes are beautiful!

Shoes: $30 TJ Maxx

I love the color, I love the style, I even love the color nail polish she is wearing! They looked super amazing with her strait leg jeans and the maroon top she was rocking this night! What can I say, my mother-in-law has great style! Nice find Mafer!

Lucky Boys Confusion at House of Blues Chicago

Dress: Pea in the Pod
Shoes: Payless
Bangles: H&M
Earrings: H&M

I had so much fun this weekend at my husband's rock show. For those of you who don't know him, he is the drummer in this band.
The place was packed, we saw lots of great friends, and I somehow stayed out until 11:30pm! ;) Hey, it was an all ages show and we got there at 6:00pm. That's a long time for me to be my normal social butterfly self! My ankles were definitely swallow by the end of the night.
It was a bit hard during the first few songs to get my baby to stop knocking the wind out of me though. Not sure if the drums and base sound scared her or if she was dancing, but it left me in some pain. Luckily about 4 songs in she fell back asleep and I got some relief! Lets just say, that's the last time I attempt a rock show in this pregnancy!

I wore this amazing dress I found at Pea in the Pod. They are having a great sale right now on all summer items so it was very discounted! LOVE THAT! I decided to pair it with these bangles and earrings to give it a teal color pop. I felt pretty and that's all that matters in the end!