The Bitty One

I am pretty sure I established long ago that I am an insanely obsessive dog momma. Whatever. I'm not ashamed (ha!).

So I was wondering if everyone has nicknames for their pets or if it is just us? We call Layla by her name some of the time but also Bitty, Itty, Itter Bitter, Bitty Woo, Bitters ... I think that's all. We don't have as many names for Zoey. She mostly goes by her actual name or Big Dog. Is this normal?

I took these pictures yesterday at work because the bitty was snuggling me so good. Its all I am really good for to her. a bed to sleep on. I am totally ok with that though.

I did not, however, get any pictures of my actual outfit yesterday. It was cute too so I will piece it together for you ...

I wore this Joie fair isle sweater

Joie Johana Fair Isle Sweater

with this lace skirt from Modcloth

Similar Style Here

and these nude booties by Gianni Bini

Similar Style Here

Hope you all have an awesome weekend. We will be hanging out with friends and family enjoying some football 

Getting So Big

Top: Peppermint
Skirt: Pasametes
Jakcet: Joie
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell
Socks: Asos

It is pretending to be fall here in TX today. It does that periodically throughout October and November. It is just pretending though. Don't worry. It will be 80 again this weekend. Seriously. It really will.

  *sad face*

I am extra happy for an opportunity to wear fall clothes! Socks and a leather jacket? Yes please! I am sure I have said about a million times how much I love the cold and love to dress for cold weather. There are just so many more options with layering for fall/winter than there are for the sweltering heat of a TX summer. 

This "top" is actually a dress that I am wearing under a skirt. I wanted to wear this skirt with these socks and wedges but I couldn't decide on a top so then I was going to switch to this dress with the socks and wedges and somehow realized that I could do both. I think it works well :) ! 

RT and I both have the day off today and we are going to look at houses this afternoon ... but this morning we went to the christening of my sister's twin baby boys, Spencer and Tommy. Look how sweet they are!! They are getting so big. It freaks me out. 

It is really special to me to get to be such a big part of the lives of all of our nieces and nephews. I am such a lucky girl to have such a big close knit family. Just in my family ... including all spouses and children ... there are 46 of us and on RT's side there are 26!! 

Blessed beyond belief.

Happy Wednesday!

New Tab: Blogs I Love

Top: Andersen & Lauth
Tank: Mossimo
Skirt: Young Fabulous & Broke
Shoes: Steve Madden

This is what happens when RT is at work and I need to take pictures for the blog. I am stuck using a tripod ... which I am particularly terrible with ... and hoping the pictures come out OK. This is the best I could do (ha!).

This skirt is more than amazing. It has such cute detailing and shape and yet it is made of the softest fabric ever. I basically feel like I am wearing pajamas. Bliss. Paired with a shear sequined top and leopard flats and it is the best work outfit ever! I am comfortable beyond belief but still uber cute. 

You may or may not have noticed I love to read blogs. It is to link you to the other blogs I love to read. I spend a significant amount of time every single day sitting, staring at my computer reading what all of these people have to say and feeling inspired by them. I read blogs for all types of reasons. Some have amazing pictures. Some have phenomenal style. Some are funny. Some are touching. Some offer delicious recipes. Some are all of the above. 

I guess it's because I am a blogger, so I get it, but people are down right interesting and I love it.

So I wanted to share with you some of my favorites so that you can enjoy them too. 

They are in absolutely no order and I am a tiny bit embarrassed by how many there are but I can't weed out so too bad. (ha!)

eleven/eleven/eleven

Happy Veterans Day!

Thank you to all of the troops and their families! 

 

Sweater: ARO
Slip: Michael Stars
Tights: Capezio
Wedges: Mossimo

I have been noticing people all over facebook updating their status with something they are thankful for everyday until Thanksgiving. I like the idea of that. I think it helps keep you positive about where you are and what you have in your life. I am obviously 10 days late but I am going to try to remember to put something that I am thankful for every time I post between now and Thanksgiving. 

Today, I am thankful for date night with RT. We both have work schedules that are always changing and sometimes we get to a place where I feel like I haven't really spent time with my husband in a while. It stinks. That is where we are right now. So ... last night he took me out to a yummy dinner so that we could have some quality "us" time. 

I ate myself sick on some incredible food and we ended it with dessert that was to die for.

Bread pudding with candied pecans. I normally hate bread pudding. Bread (in my opinion) should not be soggy. For any reason. Honestly I don't even like white bread because it is soggy to me. But the bread pudding last night was one of the best things I have ever eaten.

We had homemade Dulce de Leche ice cream on the side of our dessert. 

It is important to always order sides :)

This is RT's "oh wow this is so yummy" face.

My husband is funny.

Oh ... I almost forgot to add that I ate water buffalo for dinner. Yep that's right. I am an adventurous eater. ha! My dinner was a take on an italian wedding soup. It was a vegetable broth based soup with onion, celery, carrot, and herbs with fresh goat cheese ravioli and bufala (water buffalo) meatballs. Mmmm Mmmm Delish!

Happy weekend!

Follow

This photo has exactly nothing to do with this post.
But ... no pictures really do and I like it so I am adding it.
Random!

Let me start by saying ... Yes I have changed the layout of the blog AGAIN. But the problem is that, with the dynamic views, all of my links on the right side of the blog disappeared. I like the dynamic views better but my sidebar has to be there. I'll explain ...

Last week I told you guys about Casey who writes the blog Casey Leigh. She is a really great blogger and I enjoy reading her posts and what she has to say. Yesterday, she wrote a blog geared toward other bloggers and how to get their blogs out there for others to see. This was super helpful for me because that is something I have trouble with. I have some people who read and I appreciate that so much but my blog isn't really growing. So I plan to work on that. I have been writing this blog for almost a year and I would really like to build it up.

Anyway, that really isn't my point for this post in particular. In Casey's post advice. she also talked about how and why to follow a blog. Click the link to read her post but I can tell you what it means to me and how to follow my blog.

A lot of people read blogs regularly but do not formally "follow". This is fine because obviously you are reading the blog but there is no way for me to know you are interested in what I am blabbing about unless you follow. You do not have to have a blog to follow. It is just a nice way to let me know you are out there and supporting what I am doing here. I started the blog for me. It is an outlet for me to be creative and share who I am and what I am all about but it has no purpose without you readers :).

All you do to become a follower is find the "Follow Me" section on the right side bar of the blog.

Click on "Join this site" and fill in the necessary information. You can choose to follow publicly or privately. All this means is that if you are a public follower your name and profile picture will show up under the "Follow Me" gadget.

Comments are nice too. If you have thoughts, questions, etc. about a post. Comment or email and let me know. I love the feedback :)

Jumping Beans

*crazy dog eyes*

Shirt: Patterson J. Kincaid
Skirt: Michael Stars
Boots: Nine West
Necklace: Anthropologie

You know how a lot of times when you want something to happen right now, it doesn't? That happened to me while taking these pictures.
Usually when I get home and let the dogs out of their kennels Zoey goes completely berzerk. She jumps and jumps and jumps. I swear the dog could jump over my head if she wanted to. She can jump up and lick my face without even trying.
So I have this brilliant idea that it will be fun to take pictures for the blog of Zoey's insane reaction ... and she didn't really do it. Not to the extent that she normally does. She was excited and circled around me and stuff but she only jumped a couple of times. The one time that I want her to jump up and I am not going to reprimand her about it and she doesn't do it.
Good girl for not jumping but the photos weren't what I thought they would be. Oh well.
Happy Wednesday!

Down by the Bay

Dress: Vintage
Jakcet: Ella Moss
Boots: Frye
Tights: Spanx

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago (notice the Halloween spiders and bats on the wall) and I just haven't gotten around to posting them until now. I found this completely amazing dress while in Round Top with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and friend Jacque. It is so 70s and I honestly could not be more in love. I paired it with all grey to make it the obvious focal point. 

This was a new hair style for me and I thought it was pretty fun. I have gotten into Pinterest (it's an addiction) and I saw a how to on this hair do. I put my hair up in a high pony ... Got a clean sock and tucked the toe into the top to make a loop ... put the sock around the pony at the ends ... turned it down over and over until the sock with my hair around it met the base on the pony ... fluffed it around to make sure the sock wasn't showing anywhere ... pinned any fly aways ... and voila! Cute right?!

This past weekend I went down to Galveston with a couple of my girlfriends, Bridget and Katie. Bridget is from Houston and one of her mom's friend's has a bay house in Galveston. So we packed up and went for the weekend with her mom and two of her mom's friends. It was so much fun. The weather was perfect, mid seventies and sunny. We basically just hung out and relaxed. This was the view from the balcony off our bedroom. Perfection!

There was a bike rally going on while we were there and on Saturday we ventured down to the strand and this is what we found.

It was insanity. There were thousands of bikes and even more people standing around everywhere. We went to a couple of antique stores and out to lunch before deciding the crowds were just too much and we went back to the house. It was pretty interesting to see all the different bikes and all the people that come to bike rallies. Who knew??