Tuesday, September 25, 2012

For the Love of Pants

So, everyday the CEO of the company I work for writes a blog post for the employees to give words of encouragement and inspiration, which is pretty awesome.

Today she wrote about how we all need to have a little bit of silliness in our lives to counteract all of the stresses we have.

So, I'm about to go a little silly on you.

Let's talk about pants.

I've always been a pants girl. They get overlooked far too often in my opinion. It seems like people are generally very concerned about their shirts and I'm the kind of girl that finds a shirt she likes, buys it in every color, and calls it good. Also, basically all of my shirts are either gray, blue, or yellow and they are mostly solid colors, but sometimes they have stripes. My shirts are pretty boring.

But, my pants are great. I put a lot of thought into buying pants. I'm that girl that can go into the dressing room at the store with ten pairs of pants and end up not buying any. Just ask my mom how much she likes to go shopping for pants with me. "Not very much at all", is what she'll tell you.

I used to be what you might call a pants snob. In elementary school I owned Jncos. I'm not proud of it, but it was it is. In high school I had Buckle jeans and the like. I know buying $80 jeans seems silly, but they fit me like a glove, which is a big deal because that hardly ever happens to me with jeans. But, don't worry, I went to college and got wiser and realized that spending that much on pants is probably not the best idea. Also, I couldn't afford them, so that phase of my life came to an abrupt halt. So, just know, that if you see me walking about in a pair of really expensive jeans they were even given to me as a gift or I got them at a yard sale. Seriously though, I've gotten two really awesome pairs of jeans at yard sales this summer. Thanks Mom!

I'm also ridiculously attached to my pants. When one of my favorite pairs gets ruined I get a lot more sad about it than I ought to and sometimes I even go into denial about it for a little while. Sometimes I see pictures of myself in my favorite pants of the past and I have to reminisce for a little bit...

I'm obsessed with pants. You get it.

So, obviously, this new fad of colorful pants has had me all sorts of goo-goo eyed. But, I decided I was going to be frugal and that I didn't need them. Because, let's face it, I have accumulated quite a lot of pants over the years that I absolutely adore and I definitely don't need anymore.

And then there was Target.
One day one of my dearest of friends Vienna and I wound up at Target. Because, when I'm with Vienna it's law that we end up at Cafe Rio or Target. Sometimes we end up at both and those are really good days. Anyway, this particular night we were going to do a craft night and, naturally, we ended up at Target instead. And there they were. Pink cord skinnies. By the way, I've recently decided to branch out of my blue, gray, and yellow self and like pink too. Which is a big deal because I haven't like pink since I was like eight. But, now I'm off topic again. So. The pink skinnies. I shouldn't have done it, but I took them to the dressing room, along with some non-cord bright pink skinnies. But, what would you know, neither of them fit. But, now the idea was in my head. I had, for a moment, held some colorful pants and thought of them as mine.
After that they were in my head and they just wouldn't get out.

But, I decided that if I were going to have colorful jeans I would get them in some sort of non-expensive way. Not that the Target jeans were expensive at all, but I wanted cheaper. So, I researched dying my own pants and do you know what I found? They wanted me to take one of my existing pants and BLEACH them before dying them.

I mean, can you even imagine?!

First of all, and this is the crazy truth, I don't have any jeans that I don't love, so it would be hard to choose the pants to dye. Secondly, I cannot bleach my pants. I just can't do it. It would ruin them and they would probably tear after wearing them like three times and then I wouldn't have my beloved pants or colorful pants. lose/lose.
One suggestion I read was to buy pants from a thrift store that were already white, but then you'd have to buy the pants and the dye and you'd have to figure out where to dye them at (because surely is not happening in my bathtub), so it would be a lot of hassle and probably wouldn't be that much cheaper than the Target jeans.
So, whatever, I don't need colorful jeans, I told myself.

And then there was Old Navy.
I wandered into Old Navy one find Saturday because I was in search of some boots for the coming cold months, as Nash, my mom's puppy, ate my brown ones last year; and you need brown or tan boots to wear with your brownish things and black or gray ones to wear with your black and grayish things, you know what I mean? So, anyway. I needed some boots. But, I walked in and there they were again. Colorful pants all over the place. And then I saw it. The sign overhead that said the pants were on sale. For $19! You guys, these pants are usually about $35! But, I didn't need them. So, I proceeded to the boots, which also happened to on sale, so that was awesome. And then I saw them... peachy-pink skinny cords! They were the perfect color. They had my size, but I've never really had much luck with Old Navy pants, so I figured they wouldn't fit anyway, so I might as well try them on to get this silly obsession out of my head.
But of course, they fit perfectly.
In my defense, I'm actually pretty good and not giving in to impulse buying.
But, pink pants aren't going to be in style forever, so it's kind of one of those carpe diem kind of things, you know?


And I cannot lie, while I love all of my pants, these are my new favorites. I haven't felt this way about pants since I bought my first pair of Buckle jeans.

And when I wear them I feel like a million bucks and like I can conquer anything that comes my way. Because that's what a great pair of pants does for you. 

We all deserve to feel that way sometimes. 


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A Most Delightful Summer

I figured I should probably fill you in on how my Summer went, since we're now into the middle of September and all.

You guys, my summer was lovely. It was filled with pretty much every delightful thing that a Summer should be filled with. Except maybe a trip to the beach...but we did make lots of trips to lakes, so that sort of counts.

Seriously though. We went boating, fishing, camping (I even went to girl's camp!), to the local fair, had BBQ's, fresh fruits and veggies, baby showers, a Lagoon trip, attending weddings, we saw Wicked, friends came into town, lots of eating outside and hanging out with family and friends late into the evening because it was still light outside...
And there was probably even more awesomeness than that and I can't even think of it all. It was one of those perfect types of Summers.

And, there's really no better way to describe it all than with some loverly pictures. So, are you ready for this photo bomb?


We made a really cheesy 4th of July Cake.



Here we are on the 4th of July, hanging out at City Creek.


Coolest fountains ever, right?!




 Jayson's best friend got Married this summer. It was a lovely wedding all around and we're super excited for them. They're absolutely perfect for each other.


And, of course, the decorating of the car...



Here's my nephew Jayden playing with trucks at the property. I do believe this was right before he put bacon in his mouth, decided he didn't want it, dropped it on the ground, decided he did want it and tried to put it in his mouth, and his mom took it from him. She did really great at not freaking out about the gross bacon in her hand. You're a good sport Jen. Anyway.


Jayson thinks he looks really manly in this picture, so I had to post it. Also, I just want to point out that my family (ok, mostly my dad) has been into archery since before the Hunger Games even existed.


Hummingbird!


Marni came with us and she did some bow and arrow shooting too. Because she's cool like that. Marni, come back to visit please? Marni visiting was definately a big role in the fact that my summer was one of the best ever. She was here for a whole month and it was fabulous.


My dad and Jayson just happen to be standing in the living room of my dad's cabin. It's going to take a few years to finish, but we're all pretty stoked about it!


Here are some photos from that shower I told you about months ago that Kelli and I threw for Kelly. The decorations were all Kelli. Aren't the just the best?!






I'm all sorts of in love with the above picture of my sister in law and my nephew, who totally looks like a Hollister model..




Above is my oldest nephew and his mama! This was his very first time skiing on his own!












You can't see it that well, but Nash caught a fish. Well, really Todd caught the fish and when he tried to put it back in the water Nash snatched it up. That dog is all sorts of crazy business.



And, one time I french braided my mom's hair.



Fires were banned at Bear Lake for almost the whole summer, so we improvised...




I took this mid-sentence and it still cracks me up every time I see it.


Again with the smoosh face.



I can't get enough of this picture! This is my littlest nephew, Henry, and isn't he just the cutest?!




These are some pictures of Sue's bridal shower that Vienna, various others, and I threw (well, mostly Vienna threw and I helped out here and there). I think it turned out rather lovely. I love the peachy-pink and gray.




And this, my friends, is the best picture of my mom and me ever taken.




Summer was so so so very good to us. It will be a tough act to follow for sure.

That being said, bring on the soup, sweaters, scarves, crispy leaves, and pumpkin treats!!!

Fall is my very favorite.