In Anticipation

Oh, good, a Canadian Tuxedo.

Friends, I can't wait for Saturday. Over here in Suzhou, Thanksgiving is just a Thursday, BUT, many of our friends here have spent time in the USA and were really looking forward to celebrating. Rob and I are going to try to cook a turkey in our puny oven and everyone is gathering at our place to spend time playing card games and eating a gluttonous amount of food. I just hope my dog isn't a butthole, squelches his beagle-y urges to devour anything not intended for him, and just lets us enjoy the day, rather than holding onto his collar in hopes of controlling his rotten behavior.

Who am I kidding- everyone will be on guard, he'll still manage to steal something, and then the cat will tag-team with him to swipe more goodies, pluck something delicious out of a bowl and knock it to the ground to share. My pets are jerks. Adorably naughty jerks.

Obnoxious

I made a big mistake wearing these amazingly absurd gold shoes. I've spent 97% of the summer season in either my Chacos or barefoot. Because I don't leave the house often enough and I have no shame walking the dog in my finest loungewear.

Anyway, I wore this a few weeks ago to lunch out with a very pregnant girlfriend (who has since had a tiny little boy!) and it was a lovely 1.5 km walk to the nearby restaurant street through the lakeside park near our place. However, I forgot that while the squishy foot bed is heaven, the shoe is enclosed. Like, a for-real shoe. Which made dime-sized blisters on both heels. Ouchy and Oops.

Also, how adorable is Violet in this obnoxious citron romper? I got so lucky that a shopaholic friend is having a boy for baby 2 and I got all of her daughter's hand-me-down goodness.

Flashback: Too-Small Tops

Oh, Kate, you shoulda stopped trying to wear your shorty shirts. You wore this when you still had 5 weeks until your due date. There was a decided lack of shirt stretch happening. Good try, lady. Next time, stick with rotating your small handful of maternity shirts and stop trying to sausage-encase yourself in your XS collection. It's not a good look.

Hope I learned my lesson- don't wear stuff optimistically, I just look like the Stay-puffed marshmallow man if it's too tight. Hehehe, it was a cute concept, but the fit didn't work in my favor. At all. 

Spring Neutrals

Spring is just my favorite. I love the sidewalks start getting hot during the days, the rains that feel a little bit warmer, bright green new growth, watching perennials pop out of the ground almost overnight. My favorite thing about moving to a new place is discovering new plants and the way they grow and change in springtime. Seeing what blooms.

So why, for the love of Pete, do I always wind up wearing nothin' but neutrals?

Oh, yeah, that's right- I keep trying to pass off all the non-colors I wear as "classic." And I like it.

Sweatshirts and Positive Attitudes

Thanks for the flipping a kid tips and resources, you guys! I've found a local expat who has a reputable seller in Shanghai for essential oils (German import) and will try Grace's rad peppermint trick in tandem with some inversions (as carefully as my bruised up tailbone will allow). We'll see how it goes- keep your fingers crossed for me please! My OB was awfully cavalier about the whole thing, saying not to worry about the position, don't force a spin, we can do a C-section, changing the baby's position could be dangerous... Um, a major surgery to remove said child from my person is also dangerous, just more convenient for a busy hospital's schedule rather than allowing my lady parts to do what they do while I'm screaming for hours. So, my very sweet bilingual friend, Yen-Ling, affectionately known for her firm and effective direct approach to communication as "Yelling" will likely be helping me translate a birth plan and joining me for a doctor's visit in the next few weeks to more firmly communicate that I WILL be supported by the hospital, to the best of their abilities, to have a normal labor and delivery, no scalpels allowed. In the meantime, send out lots of good vibes because this is the first time I felt like I was going to run into a culture clash that is going to be tricky to overcome. And I need to keep a good attitude!

Other stuff happening- I'm off work and it feels sooo good. I spent Monday running errands, including picking up a bag full of loaner maternity pants in a bigger size for when my backside and belly inevitably get larger and larger. And errands that happen all the bleep way across town (50 or more minutes by public transit) become a whole lot more doable, as in they actually get accomplished, when one is freed from obligation to a daily desk job. Bonus? My beagle doesn't spend his whole days crated and naps his afternoons away from the comfort of a sofa. Oh, and we're both walking and exercising lots, yadda yadda yadda. Plus, I'm wearing a lot of boy clothes, sweatshirts, and adorably casual jeans. And that always helps.

Mild Weather and Walks

Suzhou is in the midst of a nice mild break in the weather, so my days at home with the animals have been quite pleasant and layers worn haven't been quite as thick. We're due to dip back down, though, so don't get too harumph-y about my bragging.

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but poor Miles escaped my parents' house while he was staying with them, tore greyhound-speed circles around on wet, muddy grass, and tore a ligament in his back right knee, followed, of course, by surgery. In October. And he's still kind of gimpy (no shock, it's a long healing time). So, a lot of the reason I'm so very glad to have this extensive time home (especially with nice weather) is so I can take him on multiple slow walks each day, in hopes that the muscle mass lost in resting and healing can be slowly rebuilt and get his little ligament stretched out so it doesn't hurt as much. I'm not totally sure it's working yet, there's lots of evenings where he's hobbling around on only three legs, but we're trying. And since it's the week of celebration for Chinese New Year, almost everyone who is from elsewhere in the country has departed and gone to spend time with family, so it's much more devoid of crazy Chinese neighbors who panic everytime they round the corner on the weaving walking paths to see me and my big bad beagle sniffing the ground and minding his own business. Seriously, one 14 year old girl screamed, "DOG!" and ran away from us. Miles was literally 3 feet off the sidewalk, sniffing a discarded skewer from someone's cart food snack.

But, on the flip side, a 5 year old boy was playing some sort of chase or hide and seek game with his dad one evening and was really enamored with this weird looking critter (most "China Dogs" as my sister called them look like this or this. Perfectly cute, but nothing I'd want to love on). Miles could tell this kid was into him and sat down like a gentleman and I told the kid he could come over. He touched the silky ears, patted his head, and squatted down to look Miles in the eye. He then popped up, yelled he wanted to tell his dad, and came running back to show off his new buddy.

Melt me right into a puddle.

Adios, Chambray. I mean "Zaijian"

This isn't the most lovely photo, it's not even decent. But, it's kind of funny how accurate it is of life lately. The proof?
1. Dusty, disgusting mirror
2. Rumpled, filthy rug
3. Beagle furiously sniffing out all of the dead bugs unearthed in the moving around of things
4. Boxes, mostly still empty, absolutely everywhere
5. Stepstool, used daily to fish something out of a high stack
6. Empty furnishings, sad stacked dvd storage behind me, piles emptied from my junk drawer in the bedroom
7. We won't talk about the nightmare happening on top of my dresser just behind that door with the belt haphazardly looped over a knob
8. Wet hair, unbrushed, because I don't feel like it
9. Oh, yeah, and a last hurrah for some of my more attractive clothing, because I'm saving all my good stuff until after the move

Also not up for discussion? The multitude of floor-scattered sorting projects. The plethora of hangers now sadly hanging derelict in my closet since everything good from wintertime is in a duffel. Remnants of my grand plan to get gone a bunch of stuff in a garage sale. We're also without a sofa, kind of. Our houndstooth couch found a new home with our neighbors and, after June 1, the sofa we're temporarily housing for our friends, purchased from another neighbor, is going away and we'll be seat-less for a month. Lots of Hulu watching in bed and only passed hors d'ouvres parties. Mashed up with a box obstacle course in our living room.

Transition is funny. Packing our lives up into four large suitcases and carefully planned boxes of winter coats and books to be shipped in the fall is a tricky thing.

Whoa

Skirt: H&M...Tank: Target...Cardigan: Target...Belt: Target...Shoes: Naturalizer...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

It's been a wild week, thank goodness the first three have gone seemingly quickly. After my bummer of a complaint post earlier this week, I'm glad to say I've received a little better communication and a better vision of what I can do to be most helpful, which means my days are filled with catching up on effectively doing things rather than cycling through tasks that I only understand halfway. It goes faster when you're in the middle of a "good busy" streak.

Speaking of time going faster, there's only a month before the Gala. And only three weeks until we travel to Tucson for Rob's dance show premier (he wrote a major work that's being choreographed by Art.if.Act Dance Company, they're SO good.). Only three months until I'm done with work. Four short months until we're moving our things, what little we're keeping, back to Ohio. Down to about 18 weeks before we're outta here. Wild to think about!

Check back tomorrow for my fancy-pants look to go to the Ballet! The RITE OF SPRING!

Minty Winter White

Pants: Gap Slim Cropped...Sweater: Target...Scarf: Target...Shoes: Cole Haan via DSW...Earrings: Target...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

It's Winter White link up day over at Work Clothes, I Suppose... and I'mma guessin' there's going to be a steady stream of cute stuff going on over there. Check it out! I'm so pumped!

We're doing a Secret Santa kind of exchange at work later today, which I'm really looking forward to. I filled up a really adorable citron/lime-outside-and-white-inside oversized cereal bowl with a little package of homemade cookies for my person. There's a lot of strange senses of humor floating around the office, though, so some odd things might show up.

Speaking of exchanges, we attended a holiday party at a neighbor's place last week and did a Yankee Swap/Nasty Christmas/White Elephant. My guy and I aaalmost ended up with the best gift I've ever seen for this type of game, but lost it at the last turn. It was a box filled with frozen vacuum sealed steaks and potatoes. How great is that?! So creative! What's the most awesome White Elephant gift you've seen? Strangest? Creepiest?

Don't forget to prepare yo'selves for tomorrow- we're donning our favorite Holiday themed look, our best Holiday Party look, our sparkliest snowflake imitation, out most pathetically cozy lounge look and linking them up for the Holiday Look link up. Right here. Tomorrow. Wahoo!

Buffalo Plaid

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Sweater: Target...Shoes: LeSportsac via DSW...Hat: Target Men's...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Welcome to my week of lead up to the Christmas Holiday! I jump started my moderate excitement with a little over a week to go by way of this silly Buffalo Plaid men's hat on Saturday. 3rd day hair makes a hat Saturday a simple choice, and this funny little number I picked up last year before our holiday trip home to Ohio was the perfect holiday tie in (not to mention the addition of gold shoes helped push it along). I even got motivated enough to put up our two tiny 3-footer trees. One using classy white tones with mini bulbs, icicles and my grandma's starched crochet snowflakes. The other with bright glitter mini bulbs and a blue glitter string art on top. We also put up the Peanuts nativity. Peanuts are a holiday "must" around this house.

BTW, did you catch wind that I'm going to do a Friday Holiday Look link up? I've never hosted a link up before, I didn't really pre-plan, it's just kind of my way to hold myself accountable to getting in the Holiday Spirit by way of fashion... and I know some of you all will join me, so why not get festive together?! (Speaking of fun link ups- Bri Marie at Work Clothes, I Suppose is hosting a Third Thursday  Thread Winter White themed link up this Thursday. And I can't wait!)

The Sad Truth

Pants: Zara...Blouse: Banana Republic Outlet...Cardigan: Target...Shoes: Circa Joan and David via DSW...Bag: Naturalizer...Necklace: Target...Bracelet: thrifted

100% honesty? I spent last evening missing my husband (who feels like he rocked his interview, by the way. We'll hear about decisions between the middle of the month and the middle of January) and watching movies on YouTube. Mostly Disney movies. Okay, just Dumbo. Twice. And I cried my eyes out watching Mrs. Jumbo waiting for, no, craving her baby as all the other mothers received their delivery from the storks. And a tear rolled down my face when he crashed into the pyramid of elephants and waved his sad little broken flag out of the flap in the fallen big top. And cried like a sap again when he goes to see her in confinement. Three themes emerge here: 1. I cry too much. 2. I need to be a mother. Yesterday. 3. Disney, in the early 40's, could illustrate more emotion and sorrow and in a faceless elephant trunk than most modern day actresses will emote over the entirety of their career. Pathetic.

Just keeping it real, y'all. P.S. I did not actually hang up and put away any clothing that's been sorted for three days now. Like I said, just keeping it real.

Zeppelins

Jeans: H&M...Sweater: F21...Shoes: Steve Madden...Clutch: grift from Katie...Bracelets: thrifted

First Holiday-ish season party! On Saturday, our friends hosted a ton of people for a night of eating Zeppelins. If you've never heard of them I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. I'll tell you about them in a minute. First up, please excuse the lousy cell phone photos of these awesome jeans (they have a double side seam and I bought them two sizes up so they wouldn't be skin tight) and absurdly awesome gold sweater. Grounded with cognac leather shoes and clutch, I think it was just the right balance for the holidays. Oh, and the sweater was oversized- this gets relevant in a minute.

Zeppelins. The simplified description is a Lithuanian potato dumpling. Imagine preparing for around 20 people. Peel around 70 pounds of potatoes. 70. Pounds. Juice the potatoes, setting aside the pulp. Pour out the potato juice once it's settled a little. Scoop the starch out of the bottom of the bowl and mix with the pulp. Now take a patty of the super starchy potato and put a ball of sausage inside, covering it completely with potato. You should have a potato-shaped potato dumpling. Boil for around 45 minutes.  Top with bacon and sour cream and stuff your face.

If you are able to make it through three Zeppelins, you're a beast. I made it through only one this year (they were oversized, for sure). If you get through four, you've tied the record. And if you over-do it, they'll sit like a starchy rock in your stomach. Just in case, I wore a forgiving top to disguise my potato-baby at the end of the meal. Aaaand, for fun, here's a song in Lithuanian about the Zeppelins.

Slammed

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Blouse: Target...Cardigan: Target...Shoes: via Buffalo Exchange...Earrings: Target

Well, our first gala meeting went well. It's a fun, upbeat group of women on the Host Committee and I'm looking forward to getting to know each of them better!

It's a packed week- my Monday and Tuesday were slammed after Thanksgiving break getting ready to present our preliminary information for the Gala (I went home at 9 on Monday, yuck!). We have a buddy who is finishing up his masters' degree and is back in town to finish his dissertation and get a recording of his big orchestral work (and we get to host him this week). And my Guy is headed out of town to interview on site for the positon he had the video interview for during that hellish week in October. You remember, that week just prior to his comprehensive exams, the dog barfed his guts out, I started transitioning into my new position... I can't tell you all any more, but send out some good vibes and a prayer for him. Getting a job (especially in music academia) right out of the program is really tough, but I'm hoping that out of the 7 total applications he sent out this season, something will bubble up to the surface.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy our friend's company (and his darling wife gets into town tomorrow evening!) and do a little linkin' up: Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday and Rolled Up Pretty's Whatever Wherever Wednesday!

Extended Celebrations

Skirt: Target...Tank: thrifted...Cardigan: Target...Blazer: Gap...Belt: Target...Shoes: Steve Madden via Ross...Bag: D&B via Buffalo Exchange...Earrings: Banana Republic...Necklace: Target

Oh, good gravy. These photos are a scaaaaary reminder to hit my gams with just a little self tanning foam. Days of bare legs and needing tights flip flop like crazy this time of year, perhaps I ought to remember that and prepare accordingly. Or not. And just skippidy-do out the door like my beached-whale skin-tone isn't even a little bit offensive. On a roll, Kate. On a roll.

We got to have a Mini Thanksgiving with friends last night... And boy-o-boy was it amazing! Regina The Talented prepared the whole meal, including mini birds... Quail! She even put adorably oversized paper covers over their little leggies, I nearly fell over laughing when she showed me the package over the weekend. I love when the Thanksgiving season lasts for just about as long as the Christmas season. It's my favorite!

I Owe Ya

Skirt: Beijing tailor...Sweater: F21...Belt: Target...Shoes: Nine West via Buffalo Exchange...Bag: D&B via Buffalo Exchange...Necklace: Target

Pshtt, no white after Labor Day. A bunch of hooey.

So, it's been a week since the Gala and I haven't posted any photos. Um, that's because it was waaaay too busy night-of to take any. Seriously, I got dressed in the handicapped stall while guests were already in the lobby checking in and dumped my crummy yoga pants and make up bag under the nearest auction table. I also asked the nearest gay man to check my 2 minute updo and pin any stray hairs, slathered on some red lipstick and globbed on some black eyeliner. It's a darn good thing my costume was black on black with an enormous quilted circle skirt. People tend to notice less about how terrible your hair looks when your skirt is its own solar system. Anyway, I do owe you guys- I'll recreate the look this weekend (I was too busy doing laundry, vacuuming hamster-sized dust bunnies out of corners and getting many naps in this weekend... it was my first full days off in over three weeks...) Theme parties are always so much fun! Can't wait to show you.

Scattered

Skirt: Target...Tee: H&M...Belt: thrifted...Shoes: Steve Madden...Scarf: via TJ Maxx...Shades: Coach via TJ Maxx...Bag: D&B via Buffalo Exchange...Bracelet: Target...Earrings: Banana Republic

Well, I'm "out there" to a bunch of longtime and current friends. After my birthday post, my husband linked it to facebook, and now I'm out there. Oh well.

My husband has actually been gone since Wednesday afternoon- one of his pieces was selected and played as a part of a pretty major New Music festival annually hosted by our undergrad university. His performance was yesterday (and it went reeeally well- the perfomers played it with a lot of energy, he said), He's helping to perform in a really large ensamble piece that will take place outside, there are more concerts scattered through the weekend. And he gets to pack in some significant family time, too! Not the least of which is doing breakfast with our godson and our dear friends tomorrow morning. Little (ha!) Quinn is ONE today! He missed being my Guys's birthday buddy by only 1 1/2 hours. I got to spend a bunch of time with our friends when I went home in July for my grandparents' birthday bash. He was huge then, I can only imagine how big and silly he is now! As a proud godmother, I have to say this kiddo is exceedingly cute.

I'm pretty scattered today, but the moral of the story is that my Guy had an awesome birthday- excellent performance of his piece, the Tiger trounced the Yankees, which sends them into the World Series, he gets to hang out with his best girlfriend from college tonight, gets a homemade breakfast with our friends Saturday, and gets a little taste of fall (it still isn't really here in Houston).

Happy Friday, you all!

That Darn Cat

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Tank: Target...Cardigan: Target...Blazer: Express (very old)....Shoes: Kenneth Cole Reaction...Necklace: Target...Shades: via TJ Maxx

I love houndstooth.  I would own a lot more of it, but you kind of notice when it gets worn, so perhaps a scarf, a cardigan and an 8' 0" sofa in my living room is plenty to satiate my need for houndstooth. Although that may not really be a great argument, since polka dots are pretty noticeable  too, and I have 5 pieces that I can remember off the top of my head.

The cat's been a real jerk lately. Not really mean spirited intentionally, but exceedingly nosy, helping herself to whatever snack is on the side table, rifling through Target bags, chewing on my hair, starting out a playtime batting adorably at my hand under a blanket but diving violently into grabbing my arm/ biting the bejeezies out of my wrist and stab-kicking with her back claws. The spazzed out and overzealous playtime is actually okay, she's fast-approaching 10 years old, so seeing her wound up is a good thing. But, really? You needed to lick a hole into the center of my cheese slice while I was trying to get the dog to eat a pill? You needed to submerge your whole paw into my icewater after I saw you playing in the toilet? You needed to swipe that magnificently orange cheeto from my stash and claim it for yourself? Jerk.

But then she makes up for it by seeking me out at night, snuggling and doing adorable things like this:

Dressed Up Casual

Jeans: Gap Perfect Boot...Tee: H&M...Cardigan: thrifted...Shoes: Target...Necklace: Target...Bracelet: thrifted...Bag: D&B via  Buffalo Exchange...Shades: via TJ Maxx

Just a little something for the style side of the blog... I wore this for Saturday morning, changed back into PJ's and then put it on again for the evening. Classy.

The weekend was a funny juxtaposition between napping and doing something during which we needed to be "on." Saturday morning, early, we accompanied a guest composer to the music school to breakfast and took him and his wife to a Houston institution- The Breakfast Klub. They're known for chicken and waffles and phenomenal people watching... and it sure didn't disappoint. We had a lovely morning with them and enjoyed soaking the the experience. We napped our way through the afternoon because my Guy is home and unoccupied, so why not? We also watched our way through the latest season of How I Met Your Mother. Saturday night, we were able to attend a get-together hosted by one of my Guy's professors. Chatting with some of the newer doctoral candidates and getting to know them better was a blast, plus I got to eat food deliciously prepared by my Guy's Bromance... Geez Louise, he's an awesome chef.

Sunday was a nice lazy morning (we decided to bring our neighbor's doggies over for a sleep over their last night before our neighbor came home. There's something wonderful about seeing Miles snuggle in next to his new friends for a Sunday morning nap. We also had our first photoshoot with our super talented neighbor- I am so excited to see how they all turned out. She treated it as a simple "couple photoshoot" rather than an engagement shoot and rather than anything witha theme. We did some lounging on our sofa, played cards, listened to music together, got crawled on my animals... I hope we have a few good ones- we never did engagement photos or real wedding pictures, so I'm beyond thrilled to have some killer photos of the two of us!

How was your weekend? Were you up to anything legen-waitforit-dary My naps were pretty epic, just sayin'.

Leopard and Oxblood... And Stupid Computers

Skirt: Target...Sweater: F21...Shoes: J Jill via Buffalo Exchange...Bag: D&B via Buffalo Exchange...Shades: Gap via TJ Maxx...Bracelets: thrifted and Target...Pearls: Beijing pearl vendor

Animal print link-up! Lots of link-ups. Check out Marionberry Style's Trend of the Month Challenge, A Little Bit of Lacquer's Work It Wednesday, Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday, Pretty Shiny Sparkly's Oxblood Challenge and Rolled Up Pretty's Whatever Wherever Wednesday.

I'm choosing excitement and positivity this week... we found out last Friday that Boss Lady's contact book problem that we thought resolved itself is not, in fact, resolved. It's back and meaner than ever- not syncing with Apple's crappy new iCloud system, the search function quits working all of a sudden, the display panel gets stuck on one contact and won't display anyone else until you restart the computer... There's maybe one, maybe ten, maybe seventy corrupt contact cards gumming up the works and no way to know which. The Apple Engineer recommended solution: create a new admin user, make a pdf of the contact list and notes and RETYPE, MANUALLY, EACH ONE OF THE 3045 CONTACTS. Why do Boss Lady's computers hate me? Right, because there's a PC from 2005 and an iMac from 2008... and she insists "they're not that old, they shouldn't be having problems..." Um, they are old. And in computer years, I'm pretty sure they're octogenarians. They have every inconvenient right to have problems.

Grin and bear it. And get it done asquicklyaspossible. Darn that need for accuracy.