the giraffe life

Most of my maternity wardrobe One thing I've really struggled with this pregnancy is getting dressed! Sounds silly, right? It's tough to find blog posts about how much maternity clothing you'll actually need because it's so personal. What one person considers appropriate work attire or "enough" doesn't always match your situation. So I figured I'd throw my experience out there :)  Here's what I've bought and my thoughts!  Oh, and I linked to something similar when I could. Links are not  affiliate - these companies don't even know I exist!   Work Appropriate - 19 items for $298 1 pre-maternity cardigan 2  tank tops - $20 (worn with pre-maternity cardigan) 6 short sleeve  blouses - $70 (1 from a yard sale, 1 from a thrift shop, the others buy 3, get 1 free) 4 long sleeve shirts - $25 (1 from a yard sale, 1 from a thrift shop, 2 from Pink Blush end of season clearance) 1 formal dress  - $88 (worn with  pre-maternity  ...

Yoga doesn't really require any special gear - just comfy clothes and a mat. So I've been getting by just fine with track pants (the plastic-y, swoosh-y sounding kind) and tank tops. But as the weather warmed up, I switched to my workout capris and found my track pants had been holding me back. I can stretch further when my clothing is elastic and fitted. So I splurged on "real" yoga pants . (I also bought a plain black pair, but those don't make for a very exciting photo opportunity.) Oops - off-center photo - I put the camera on a ten second timer and hoped for the best. :) Splurged on anything lately?

Inspired by Kelsey , I thought I'd share something making me happy this week. picture credit: delias.com Jeans on Friday!  I got a new boss this past August and she decided that only being allowed to wear jeans on the last Friday of the month wasn't enough and changed the rule to every Friday. It's lovely! Fridays are already a pleasant day (everyone seems much more laid back on a Friday than a Monday) and this puts a smile on my face when I'm getting dressed. (Am I the only one who thinks it's much simpler to get dressed when you can wear jeans? Anything matches!) What's making you happy this week?

This'll be my last garden update for 2013! Can you believe we only have two months left in the year?  We had a few overnight frosts last week, so everything was looking cool when I took this photo around 6:30 in the morning. (Pretty soon it'll be time for  hot chocolate for breakfast !) Mr. G and I trimmed all the Black-Eyed Susan stems right before Halloween (they grow into the path and we didn't want any issues with trick-or-treaters) so they're resting in the garden now until the spring. Then we'll put some in the compost and some out in the woods house to decompose.  And the 30x30 update. Just to refresh your memory, this was a challenge I'd read about on RA's blog back in October, and I decided to join in. The basic premise is to pick 30 things to wear (clothing and shoes) for an entire month. You can read her thoughts for October  here . Here's what I decided to wear: This challenge turned out to be extremely difficult for me - and I...

Since it's already October 7th, I'm a little late for an October challenge, but oh well. RA is hosting a 30x30 challenge this month and I'm in the mood to participate! Basically, you choose any combination of 30 clothing items and shoes to wear for the entire month of October. Head over to her post for the exact rules.  RA excludes some things from her count, like workout gear, socks, and underclothes, so I did too. However, she counts some accessories toward her 30 (like belts and necklaces). I rarely wear any jewelry besides my wedding and engagement rings and haven't worn a belt in years, so I decided to skip those and just pick out clothing and shoes. And since we had a slight laundry snafu this weekend, I'll be choosing a few more tops this week after I catch up on laundry. (As far as Halloween goes, I'm still undecided about whether or not I'll dress up, so I'll make a decision later.) Ready to see what I'll be wearing? 1 work shirt ...

I just read a great post over at Economies of Kale . She went through all her clothing and tallied up exactly how much she has of each type (similar to this guy , but not as extreme). It has inspired me to do the same :) But first, here's some pictures of where I store my clothes. Almost all of my tops and sweaters are in this closet (the baskets up top are for sheets and out of season clothes): In the spare bedroom's closet, I hang all the clothes that are too tempting for my cats - anything with dangly bits or lace edging, and long dresses. I keep jeans, shorts, hoodies, and pajamas in my dresser drawers (my husband and I share a dresser); socks and underwear are kept in my nightstand.  On to the tallies: 73 Tops Tank tops: 9 Short sleeve shirts: 28 Long sleeve shirts: 13 (+1 jersey - I'll give you one guess as to  which team ) Sweaters: 17 (a popular Christmas gift) Hoodies: 5 34 Bottoms Jeans: 5 Capris: 2 Shorts: 5 (+1 skort that I should probably ...