Living on Cloud Nine: May 2023

WHAT I WORE IN CHICAGO

This was a quick thrown together post as I only got pictures of three of my 6 outfits during our latest trip to Chicago for our anniversary with Stella Mae.

This first outfit is what festive Memorial Day, summer, and fourth of July dreams are made of with This TOP!!! The trim on the ruffles is a red and white gingham, and the top itself is a darling tiny, blue, and white stripe! It is cotton and oh so comfortable and looks great with white jeans!

OH that Skyline!!

Espadrilles HERE

And let's take a minute to talk about my FABULOUS pouch handbag from my beloved Teddy Blake. It is aptly called the "STELLA" and is my 2nd one. Besides this gorgeous light blue, I also have it in brown and LOVE! It can also be worn as a crossbody and is the perfect size!! It’s so chic and the pouch is so convenient. As always, the HIGHEST Quality!

Made In Italy

Vitello leather

Smooth calf leather with matching trim

Microfiber interior

USE CODE: TBANDREAN30 for $30 off a bag on their website.

Look at this colorful CUTE TOP! It was nice and light weight, so super cool, and I love the vibrant colors, it worked, especially well at the Mexican restaurant we went to, lol.

I do want to note that while I love the fashions from this particular online boutique, I probably will not be ordering from them anymore as their program has not worked well and been unfair many many Influencers and I know. I have been in a few DM threads discussing this very thing. Boo. In fact, I never received my commissions. BUT This top is fabulous, and I would get it again just from another retailer.

Top HERE // Yellow Earrings HERE // Necklace Set HERE // Bracelet HERE

This DRESS is phenomenal all the way around, and when I say all the way around, I mean look at the back of this!

It is so good, and I did not even have to wear a bra with this dress! It was perfectly fit and secured, the best material, very high-quality, and it just screams chic summer! GET IT HERE!

Gold Bracelet stack I've talked about HERE // Necklace Set HERE // Sandals HERE // Bag HERE

And I LOVE the designer: Karina Grimaldi

More on our Chicago trip in Friday Favorites this week.

Have a Beautiful and Summery day.

LINKING-UP with Style on the Daily // Metamorphosis Monday // Thursday Fashion Files //

Love your Creativity // Hello Monday // Inspire Me Tuesday

xoxo

FRIDAY FAVORITES...IT'S TWIN GIRLS

Let’s kickoff this Memorial Day weekend, which is truly the official kick off for sweet Summer! The weather this week in Indiana has been spot on Perfection! THIS WEEK has been a sweet favorite! A non-favorite…the skin biopsy I had last week came back as another Basel-cell cancer. I’ll have Mohs surgery on June 6th to remove it. But onto sweeter things…

1. GENDER REVEAL:

TWIN GIRLS!!!

Truly one of the most exciting days ever! I’ve dreamt of this day most of my life! Our boy is going to be a daddy to 2 sweet twin girls! Over the Moon! Isn’t our “Lo” the cutest mama to be! I get to go, along with her mama, a dear friend of mine, to an ultrasound next week and I can’t wait.

With 1st time Great Grandma Giga.

The Grandparents to be and we're good friends!

I made a charcuterie with some blue and pink treats on it.

I had 4 gift bags ready to go for whatever the outcome was with onesies in them that said “I'm Proof My My daddy can't resist nurses"

After the reveal to told Pop Nine to go get the “pink bags” lol.

Onesies HERE // Bags HERE

A Fav pic of the day

2. What I've Been Wearing

Pink and Americana

Wore this to reveal.

Wishful thinking with this pink top! How cute it is! Get it HERE

Flip Flops HERE

A little Americana of course.

American Girl Tee, a favorite of mine!

Earrings HERE // Bandanna HERE // Shorts HERE

3. Spanx

My new favorite shorts: the Spanx sunshine collection! These shorts are pull on with a lil stretch and water wicking. And of course, so cute paired with an Air Essentials Crew Sweatshirt. As always USE CODE: CLOUDNINEXSPANX for free shipping and 10% off!

4. NATURE

Baby Chipmunk Chronicles

Oh, you lil baby Chippy! So precious! Had to rescue this baby chipmunk off our pool cover. His body was only about 2 1/2” long.

I was so worried about him and hen the next morning found him dead. Buried him in a flower garden area dedicated to Mr. Nine’s mom.

BUT that night I found another one, even smaller. No wildlife shelters were open. I gave him water but when I went to check on him the next morning, thought he too was dead and as preparing to bury him until he started moving.

I kept him warm and fed him diluted electrolyte water and he was perking up. His lil paw on the towel...my heart!

After much research and your help on Instagram to call my vet for advice, I found a lady 12 minutes from me that takes I wildlife and nurses them to health, I rushed him there (here he is on my lap in the car)

and she was going to put him on a heating pad. Stay tuned for updates. Quite the week. Looked for more as mama probably died and they were on their own, only a couple weeks old the lady said. So happy I saved one.

5. Misc. Fun

POST OF THE WEEK

Monday ~ Hire the Photographer...Paris Photo Shoot

Hasn't shared the one below yet..

working on photo wall with our pics.

MEMES

No memes this week just this sweet reminder.

where you'll find the Anni Couple and Stella Mae!

Our Anniversary is Monday.

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL LONG WEEKEND!!!

Linking up with Friday Favorites // Metamorphosis Monday

xoxo

GOING ON A TRIP? HIRE THE PHOTOGRAPHER!

We almost canceled! That’s right, here we were in Paris, a once, in a lifetime, kind of thing, and although I had booked one of the best photographers in the city, the morning we woke up for the photo shoot let’s just say; I was not feeling it! Ready for a story...here we go...

It was a sunrise photo shoot at 7:30 AM, but there was no sunrise. It was one of the worst weather days in the history of the city of Paris for April 1st! That’s right, we’re talking 39°F WITHOUT the windchill and then those wind gusts of 30 to 40 miles an hour, and I was wearing a sleeveless gown. I was so excited to wear the beautiful piece from Anthropologie but the darn rain made the bottom all wet And that’s only the half of it.

What many of you don’t know about our trip was that I was sick with a nasty virus most of the time! This ended up being a day that if I had been home, I would’ve been laid up in bed, and that takes a lot for me to do that. I pushed through this nasty virus, and you couldn’t tell it by most of my photos from our trip, but I was miserable! I had such a bad cough that despite taking a bag of 70 cough drops along with us, I had to buy more cough drops on the trip. I basically lived with a cough drop in my mouth and figured I went through 112 cough drops, that’s right friends. It’s the only thing I could do to keep from coughing nonstop.

But back to the photo shoot, I knew we had to do it I just knew it! And let me just tell you the Paris Photographer makes it as pleasurable as they can! Our dear photographer, Alex brought along his lovely assistant wife, and they were the absolute dearest! She kept wrapping my coat around me so I could have breaks in between pictures. We did some of myself and some with my precious Mr. Nine. Alex literally took about 800 photos. I knew a lot of it would not be good, not because of his amazing talent, but because of that nasty weather, my hair was a wreck, and I looked very worn out from the sickness!

But, alas, he captured some beautiful moments, and I am forever grateful! Had it been a beautiful weather day, I loved Alex so much that I would’ve wanted additional outfits and additional locations, lol! I guess that just means, that we must go back! Check out his Instagram HERE

What I’m saying to you is book the photographer! Even if you decide not to book a professional one, take the pictures. Yes, we have our memories but Memories fade. And you can always look back at the pictures and the wonderful moments they captured in another city, another country, another continent. We would not hesitate to book the Paris Photographer again and maybe someday will take the family back and do just that.

The next few are some of my favorites.

Let me know some of your favorites.

and Happy New Week!!

LINKING-UP with Style on the Daily // Metamorphosis Monday // Thursday Fashion Files //

Love your Creativity // Hello Monday // Inspire Me Tuesday

xoxo

FRIDAY FAVORITES...I LOVE YOU MAY!

I certainly am loving this beautiful month of May! All my flowers are coming to life. The weather has been glorious. The pool is finally in balance after a couple of mishaps, and life is good! AND Big day tomorrow, see below.

1. Mother's Day

We had a lovely Mother’s Day brunch with mom and our sweet boy and celebrated the mom to be. Guess what? Tomorrow, we find out the gender of those sweet babies. Our son from Baltimore could not come home but the other one, who resides in Cincinnati surprised me. And didn’t mama look cute in her polka dot pink top! It was a good day.

Our Grands are in the above belly, lol

2. The Farm Rio Dress

I was so excited to wear my new Farm Rio Dress! This one was a no-brainer, and I absolutely loved it. The bodice is tight enough that as a 34B, I did not need to wear a bra which I loved! It’s called sweet jungle red, and I’m crazy about it! IT's SOOOO GOOD! Sandals HERE.

3. The Knox Rose Dress

This DRESS was only about a 10th of the cost from the Farm Rio one, and I loved it so much I grabbed it in two colors. But I ultimately took it to an Instagram poll and along with you all, decided to keep the magenta one. BUT I love the blush one as well, with the Pockets and flowy comfort. This is going to be a summer staple! Pretty Gold Sandals HERE.

oh AND the Bangles

I wore these with this dress. These Bangle Bracelets from Walmart are not only incredible, but they are only 6 bucks! That’s right they look like the designer ones that are going for well over $100. Even if they tarnish at the end of the summer, I think I will have gotten my six bucks worth, they are perfect, they have a little bit of stretch and would make a great gift as well!

4. The Loft

Holy moly I’ve been finding lots at The LOFT, which doesn’t always happen. Lots of cute tops, especially I went in the other day without anticipation of train anything on and only took two pairs of shorts in the dressing room, but I sure did find some cute tops!

Long Sleeve Top HERE // Pink Shorts HERE// Chambray Top HERE

// Orange Shorts HERE // White Tee HERE // Ruffle Top HERE

Black Top HERE // Shorts HERE // Sandals HERE

Teal Top HERE // White Shorts HERE // Sandals Sandals

5. Misc. Fun

POSTS OF THE WEEK

Monday ~ Chicwish Review 2023

And I had a sponsored post on Tuesday about

2023 Swimsuit Trends

STELLA MAE

Our kids had told us about an ice cream place close to their house called Dari Fair where they have 100+ flavors of soft serve and the BEST pup cups with PB on top so of course we had to take Stella. She LOVED it! We did too. I had Cinnamon and yes, a Pumpkin in May, lol. The kiddie cups make it the perfect size to try more than one flavor!