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Beach Outfits: Thanksgiving Break 2023
I will say I am guilty of packing cute outfits to the beach knowing that I will take a daily picture for a blog post. These are outfits I wore on our trip this past week, but some of them were only worn for half a day depending on our activity. When at the beach itself, I usually wear a bathing suit with my denim shorts over them or my cover up. Then when I return to the condo and we go on a little outing, I will change into an outfit that reflects what I like to wear on the daily. This was my traveling outfit: I only added…
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Fall Shopping: Mustard Dress
After almost 2 months of refraining from buying clothes, I spent a week at the beginning of the month visiting 2 stores. I made a couple trips to TJmaxx (and only bought a sweatshirt) and several stops into Cato’s Fashion. I used to shop there often, but haven’t really much in the past few years, but it is always on my radar if I want to look for an article of clothing in a particular color. I was actually looking for things in burgundy or tan, but Cato’s often has some great things on clearance. I ended up going into the store 3 times in a 2 week span. The…
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Atlanta Botanical Gardens in the Fall
Last month, we stopped by the botanical gardens after church to take advantage of our yearly pass one more time. It was before the scarecrow exhibit, but the pumpkins were out. It was a beautiful day and I took blog pictures for our Ageless Style link up (see my post here). There is less in bloom in the fall so I end up taking pictures of the cool lilypads. We took our time to find all of the frogs in the little pond. The large lily pads are so cool. For the first time I paid attention to the different stages of opening: very cool! Of course, I didn’t take…
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Shop my Closet, Fall 2023 Edition
Every once in a while, I stumble upon an outfit shopped in my closet that I absolutely love! Today, I am sharing 5 such outfits I wore this past month. After 7 and 1/2 week of a shopping fast, I have purchased a few things in the past few weeks: I had some spending cash burning a hole in my pocket and found some fun pieces to add. However, these outfits I am sharing today are combining things that I have had for at least a few months to more than 6 years. Outfit details: thrifted sweater Target white jeans hand me down booties gifted snakeskin purse heirloom clock pendant…
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Layer it Up with the Ageless Style Link Up
It was my turn to choose a theme for our monthly style link up and I chose a versatile theme that would work to matter where you lived in the US as layers can be as heavy as a park or as light as a cotton button down shirt. For myself, I chose a piece I haven’t shared on the blog yet, a long sleeveless vest I found on clearance this summer at TJMaxx. I was drawn to this vest for two reasons: the neutral tan color and the uniqueness of the vest. I did not have anything similar in my closet, it could provide warmth on a cold…
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Arenal Observatory Lodge and Trails, Costa Rica
The second planned outing in the region was a hike at Arenal National Park but after discussing choices with the resort’s concierge and looking at reviews, we decided to head to Arenal Observatory Lodge and Trails. The price was better for our family of 6, at $15 per person for a day pass instead of $25 (and they let our youngest in for free) and there were more trails and viewpoints. We were welcome on the road to the lodge by a coati which was very exciting since we had not seen one until then. We saw him (or a friend) when we left too. We paid our fee at…
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Fall Outfit with Clara SunWoo Liquid Leather Pants
A few weeks ago, I took about 20 minutes out of a busy day to drive down the street with my oldest to take some pictures in the cotton fields. The fields were ready to be picked so I wanted to take advantage before this pretty sight disappeared. Thankfully, I had the idea for this post planned out, so it was just a matter of throwing this outfit on for some pictures. The idea started with wanting to style my liquid leather pants with neutrals. You can read more about them and see more styling inspiration in this post. I absolutely love how easy these pants are to pull on…
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Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridge, Costa Rica
One of the places I wanted to visit in the La Fortuna area was this park with hanging bridges. We did not visit the waterfall that is well known (La Fortuna Waterfall) as I wasn’t sure how busy it would be and I wanted to feel more like a local than a tourist. That is one of the reason we did not eat in town but at the resort and the roadside sodas. We had wonderful weather for this outing and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I always worry about how the children will react to walking for a couple of hours but the hanging bridges and wildlife kept it interesting.…
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The Many Faces of Arenal Volcano
When choosing a place for us to stay near Arenal Volcano, it was very difficult to make a decision: all resorts have incredible views of the volcano and most had great reviews. I ended up choosing this particular resort, Arenal Spring Resort and Spa because of the pictures of the pools. This vacation was definitely not a budget friendly vacation (accomodations and food sure added up) but we were able to save some money only having to purchase one plane ticket (+ taxes for the other 5) thanks to Delta Sky Miles. Picture perfect: I told my family this picture is like a postcard: what a great spot to put…
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Dress with a Western Kick
I am still in love with this thrifted dress and continue to reach for it on Sundays. I wanted to wear it with my cowboy boots a few weeks ago and wanted to add a couple of different details from prior wears. It’s amazing how freeing it is to weed through your closet and donate items you do not love because then you want to wear all of your things. I have found that the case with my current dress selection, most of which have been thrifted. I have worn this dress without a belt (it has a true waist with tassel ties) and with belts. On this day, I…