dressed up in a peplum

believe it or not... sometimes I actually like to dress up for work. It's rare though. I sit in a cubicle all day long, I don't meet with clients and rarely attend meetings. So most mornings I open my closet with every intention of wearing something a little more "dressed up" only to end up reaching for a pair of worn out jeans and cardigan. I have noticed that I have so many cute tops that I "save" for some special occasion or "save" until the weather is right but I really need to start getting some use out of the stuff I buy. Take this top for example... I bought it almost 3 months ago for only $7, and only wore it one other time when we out for a karaoke night. So I decided to wear it to work.

top: Q // pants: h&m // shoes: payless

 

The first person I saw in the office asked if I had a date... I said "yeah! with work", and he laughed. But is it sign that my jeans and cardigan are sloppy... Nah, but it's definitely nice to look a little more presentable and have people notice.

BTW, can we all get together and tell my husband how ugly that wheel barrel and pile of rocks make my pictures look?! He doesn't believe me. I usually try to stand in a spot where I "think" I'm covering one of them but I always fail.

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boys and chores

So after a bit of an "almost" melt-down, I'm happy to say the days following have been completely the opposite. My husband and I had a talk about the chores that need to be done and decided to create a chore chart. I have a feeling nobody will follow it except for me, but I kind of don't care. It will relieve the stress in a sense that it's there and if I'm wondering who's turn it is to sweep, I can look at it and think "ok, it will get done tomorrow" and let it go (hopefully!).

On Saturday we visited my cousin so we can discuss some upcoming baby shower details (for her, not me). And after we did that and had some delicious mini hamburgers (seriously... make some mini burgers using the Hawaiian dinner rolls. You will not regret it), we decided to get our hair cut, long over due for both of us. It was nice to leave the kids playing, with our husbands for a bit.

By the time we got back to her house, my brother was there with his family so that I could take his boys for a few days... yes, we have a house full of boys right now. Babe is having a blast. And I'm loving it because he is not bugging me AT ALL, he is just spending every second playing with his cousins... I'll miss them when they leave.

summer 2012

 

I haven't had a chance to take pictures of them since they got here but they are camping out in the backyard tonight and I hope to sneak in on them in the morning.

 

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dirt and rocks

(this happened on Wednesday)

begin...

Today I came from a long stressful day of work. I pulled into the driveway to find that my husband and babe were gone. I thought to myself  "yay, some quite time". I got out of car and felt a gush of 98 degree heat (and no, not the cute Nick Lachey kind... lol... I had to). I walk inside the house and head straight to the bedroom to change only see my bed covered in dirt and rocks! My heart starts pounding and I'm furious that ... a) my husband would leave such a mess for me to see. b) my husband would even let babe near our bed with his shoes on and rocks in his hand. c) that babe would even think, for one second, that it's ok to make such a mess on my bed. I call my husband PISSED about the situation and he says he has no idea what I'm talking about. So I hang up the phone and close the door as I walk out of the room.

The second babe walks in the door I take him to the room and ask what happened. He is clearly guilty and will not look me in the eye or even speak. So I tell him he is not allowed in my room until he says sorry, which he takes as an invitation to whine and attempt a swing at me. I scoop him up and take him to a time out in his room. A few minutes later he says that their is dirt in his bed too and I realize he has dirt in his hair and in his t-shirt pocket, so I put him in the bath.

I continue to do my weekly Wed. cleaning but with hostility in every breath that I take. I ask my husband to pick up some random mess he made and to throw out some papers, and I go clean the bathroom. When I come out of the bathroom he is still in the same spot... and so is the mess I asked him to clean. After babe's bath he is bugging me to give him milk and feed him because he is hungry. I want to scream or tell my husband to do it, but instead I ask babe what he wants to eat and make it for him. I sit him at the table, clean the other bathroom and go to my room... only to be reminded of why I am SO mad in the first place... the rocks and dirt on the bed. So I put on my shoes, walk out of the room and tell my husband "I will be back".

Sometimes I literally want to cry because of my life. It's rare, but it happens. I think to myself.. Why am I the one that has to work ALL day and have to come home to clean. Why am I the one that has to put up with deadline's and annoying co-workers and have to come home to babe's demands and whining. My life is a constant "one thing after another. no time to breathe" ... or cry... which is why I left. I just needed time to catch my breathe and just be by myself. So I went to target (which was surprisingly empty) and tried on clothes I had no intention of buying.

When I went home an hour and a half later, dinner was ready, the dishes were done and my husband was just starting to clean the mess of dirt and rocks.

... end.

Have you ever seen the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when Debra wants alone time, and Raymond spies on her crying?! It's actually super hilarious, if you have 23 minutes I highly recommend it "here".

lace and polka dots

As much as I love the items I picked at h&m last week... including this top and shorts... can we all agree that the best part of this outfit post is my nails?!

I'm SO in love with this color and have my SIL to thank for it. It's called Skylark and it's by Sinful Colors. She had bought it for herself but realized it was similar to a color she already had so she passed it on to me!

Do you have a nail color you are obsessing over right now?

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random

This past weekend we celebrated my grandma's 75th birthday Luau style. It's always great when our family gets together because there are so many of us. I usually feel like I talked to no one the whole time because I spend a few minutes talking to each person and then the rest of the time taking pictures.

I made these Pineapple Cupcakes for the party. I followed the recipe to a tee and they were so good (in my opinion) that  I can't wait to make them again.

Have I told you how much of a load has been lifted off my shoulders since we took a bunch of stuff to goodwill?! Our garage was getting way out of hand. We tried a yard sale a while ago and made a whole $26! So I woke up last Saturday and decided "that's it. I haven't touched any of this stuff in over a year, get rid of it". And then the next day I saw a cute dress and thought "hey, I have an old dress I can refashion to look like that... oh wait, no I don't ... dammit!"

a few favorites

*This week I am super weak for h&m. They are having an extra 50% off already reduced items. Shoes and Clutch $3.50 each, Dress $5, Skull top and Mini Skirt $2 each, Lace top and Jean polka dot shorts $7.50 each. SCORE!

*On Wed. Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess started a 30 day self portrait challenge. I'm worried about overloading my Instagram (@ssotelo98) with pictures of myself but so far it's fun.

*I finally found the perfect 10k for me (one of the things I was hoping to accomplish in 2013). I haven't actually registered yet but once I do I will definitely be posting about it.

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meet my husband ... round 1 & 2

I saw this super cute linkup hosted by Mal Smiles and was excited to ask my husband a few questions for the boys behind the blog. I missed the first round but wanted to ask the questions anyway.

round 1:

1. Does your wife use your real name or a nickname on her blog?
Does "Husband" count?!

 

2. If you had a blog, what would the title be?

Life of a stay at home dad

 

3. Do you ever feel ignored by her because of the blog?

Ignored? sometimes (btw, he "assumes" when I am on the computer, I'm on my blog. That is SO false)

 

4. How has her blog changed or evolved throughout your relationship?

got scared when she said she was going to blog everyday in May.

 

5. What is your favorite post on her blog?

the one's about me.

round 2:

1. What celebrity would play you in a movie about your life?
Jay Hernandez (from crazy beautiful/ Nashville... anyone?!)

2. What is your dream car?
BMW 7 series

3. Do you have any tattoos? What, where, why?
No.

4. Boxers or briefs?
they are boxer briefs

5. List 3 random facts about yourself...*I try to DIY everything. And it's DIM for "Do It Myself". (have you seen our bathroom?! he's pretty handy)
*I went to 3 high school's in 3 completely different areas.
*it's very difficult for me to gain weight with or without exercise. (oh, thanks for rubbing that in my face after I'm sweating from cardio and crunches)

Thanks for answering questions for my blog "husband"! 

 

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keeping it simple

One of my favorite dresses I own is also one of the most simplest dresses I own.

dress: h&m // jewelry: XXI (close-up below) // shoes: payless shoes

 

The fun thing about a super simple dress, especially in this color, is that I can accessorize with literally ANYTHING I want. I picked up a few (yeah, that's a few) things from forever 21 last month, my favorite is the set of bracelets, can you believe that whole set was about $6! LOVE forever 21!

What is your go to accessory for a simple outfit?

 

linking up with the pleated poppy and style elixir

 

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babe lately

Lately babe has been saying the funniest, most random things. I can't even remember half the stuff he says but here are a few.

1. my husband walked into the room holding scissors and babe says "are you going to cut me?"

2. while eating breakfast babe says "mom, I want pink bread", my husband imitates him and says "mom, I want pink bread". Babe says "oh, you do too?! We should get some!".

3. while in the middle of doing my hair babe walks in the room and says "whoa, mom, what's wrong with your hair?! what happened to it?"

and something cute he did recently: tried to Wikipedia his own name on the Ipad.

 

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a few favorites

I know I have been a little MIA from my blog but I have been focusing so much on work lately that I just don't feel like doing anything else. I'm pretty excited to share a few favorite things from this week though...

*like this ruffled jersey knit maxi from forever 21.

My mission this weekend is to find it in store.

*I watched Despicable Me and I can't get enough of this line (the first 4 seconds of the clip). 

I NEED to see the second one soon.

*this week I learned that babe is a hustler... in the game Othello.

 

*I feel like I'm cheating on this next favorite (because I've been obsessing over it for weeks)
but "I don't care, I love it"

(btw, I just found out my husband hates that line)

The Neighbourhood "Baby Came Home"  ... love this song!

 

*and finally... my hard work has paid off. I finally got a decent raise (which hasn't happened in a while because of that little thing called economy?!) and a bonus.

I have been crossing my fingers that I haven't been overworking myself and taking on extra responsibility for no reason. I know that everyone appreciates what I do, but after a while the words are just words and I believe I deserve more than that.

I mean that's why most of us work right... which of course is so sad but so true.

Which reminds me of The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony, 

it drives my mind crazy when he says "your a slave to money than you die". 

 

think about that for a second, and then enjoy your weekend to the absolute fullest.

 

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adventures in: wildlife & candy apple slices

With the long 4 day weekend behind me, I'm starting off Monday pretty well. The hardest part about adjusting is waking up before 6:00am again. This weekend I did a lot of shopping, a lot of crafting, movie watching and cooking. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you don't have work on the mind.

One adventure we took was to a cute little Wild life Learning Center. It's so small we walked the whole thing in 15 minutes. But babe got to pet a lizard, talk to parrots, see the cutest monkey and tell the alligator that he had and alligator on his shirt.

My other "adventure"... making candy apple slices! I was SO excited about this, because they are slices so it should be that much easier right... ummm... NO. So when I cook or bake I usually have a really bad habit of not being prepared, I always have to reach for a spoon in the middle of something or I forgot an ingredient that just so happens to be ALL the way in the back of the cupboard, stuff like that. But this time I had everything ready to go.

 

It started out as a breeze, got the apples washed, sliced and sticked. But then it came to the caramel and it went downhill from there. I started at 3 minutes, stirred at 2 minutes, then turned my back for, seriously, no more than 5 to 10 seconds and it was bubbling all over the place! So there I was working with a messy, hot bowl. After the apples were coated with caramel, I put them in the freezer while I melted the white chocolate, maybe 10 minutes. And when I tried to pull the slices off the wax paper, it was stuck! So about 25% of the caramel ended up being stuck on the stupid paper. The chocolate went a lot smother, which is crazy because I usually hate working with chocolate melt's, but that is nothing compared to working with caramel. After dipping each slice it chocolate, I sprinkled graham cracker crumbs and blue sprinkles.

 

The end result "looks" delicious right! They were ok... something went wrong! I put them in the fridge after this picture and when I ate one, 2 hours later, I noticed some of the caramel had settled at the bottom of the plate! They still look pretty and taste good, but during the whole process I lost half my caramel.

Does anybody have any tips for working with caramel?

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4th

Back in the day, as a young child, 4th of July was my absolute favorite holiday. Every year we would spend the entire day at a relatives house swimming in the pool and bbq-ing. As night time approached the entire block would set lawn chairs in the street and we would watch fireworks for what seemed like ... forever. There is nothing more amazing  than big sparkles and colors that light up the night sky... ok, that's probably not true (have you seen a star filled sky in the middle of the desert? pretty amazing).

As I got older, and we were further away from family, the day didn't seem as special... until night time approached and all we could see in the sky were the fireworks. 

When I was 14 I remember being at home with my parents and a friend of theirs while my brother was gone for the day with his friend. I was bored, but SO looking forward to that night. At some point my dad went to the store. While he was gone the phone rang, I answered it and the person on the other end said " Hi I'm at the market and there is a guy here getting arrested and asked me to call this number". I freaked out because for one tiny second I thought "my brother", but then I knew it had to be my dad. My mom and I rush over there but they already had him handcuffed, in the car and wouldn't let us just take him home. We had to go home and "wait" for a phone call.

I don't know what time it was but I do know it was past dark and we didn't see any fireworks that night except for the one's in the distance as we drove to and from the police station to get my dad. After that year, 4th of July was ruined for me. I honestly don't remember a single year after that one as anything too exciting (as in good exciting, not the getting arrested exciting)... until now.

I ALMOST skipped this year of firework watching because of what a hassle it is just to drive somewhere, find parking (a mile away) and squeeze into a spot between hundreds, probably thousands, of people.... but I didn't, I sucked it up and I'm so glad I did. Because that hassle was SO worth the 15 minutes of seeing this little face light up with happiness.

4th of July may not be the same as it was when I was growing up, but I'm ok with that... because now with babe in my life, it's a whole new other feeling of happiness the holiday will bring each year.

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errand wear / work wear

running errands:
I love when the most simplest pieces make the cutest outfits. Merrick is a huge inspiration when it comes to putting together outfits like this. I actually got the idea for this outfit from her... a striped jersey pencil skirt and a lose fitting tee. I love how comfy this is and so easy to run around in.

tee: Victorias Secret // necklace: XXi // Skirt: h&m // sandals: love culture

I picked up this tee just over a week ago at the V.S. semi-annual sale for $7! It's such a pretty bright neon mint color (so neon that you can't tell it's pretty sheer and I was wearing the cutest geometric bandeau underneath), with a full lace back.

work:
This little floral dress has been one of my favorites for YEARS. It's so perfect for summer, a little flowy, a little sheer, lightweight, paired with wedges and a sparkly gold belt... perfect.

dress: super old from XXI // belt: XXI // wedges: so old, I don't remember

What is your perfect errand outfit?

 

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weekend : traffic, concert tix's & the beach!

I have been loving my weekends that have no plans. My husband on the other hand said he feels lost when we don't have anything planned for the weekend, I was like "I love it because it means we can literally wake up and do ANYTHING our hearts desire".

This past Saturday as I ate breakfast my husband was browsing some up-coming concerts and saw one he was interested in. He was like "if we drive to the box office in Hollywood before 2:00pm we can avoid the $9(per ticket) fee online"... so we got dressed, headed to Hollywood and headed right back in suckie traffic. It was over 100 degrees this weekend so besides going out to lunch, we spent the rest of the day inside.

On Sunday we headed to the beach... again in traffic! By the time we got there AND found parking (almost 2 hours after leaving the house) we were anxious to get settled and relax. 

I took a TON of pictures of my husband and babe out in the water and a few of babe playing in the sand but other than that I pretty much just tried to enjoy being there. Babe had a BLAST and we are definitely looking forward to many beach trips this summer.

Hope you all had an amazing weekend!

 

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