A Fun Fall Outfit

I found this dress at Maurices last Christmas on sale.  It is a Fall dress but I knew it would still be in style this Fall and the Purple color is very trendy right now.  I love buying clothing out of season because it is so cheap.  The tights also came from Maurices.  I love the design.

 Sorry these pictures turned out a little dark.  It makes the dress look black but it really isn't.

 I can wear it with heals like these or throw on a pair of black boots.  Either way looks great.

A close up showing the detail of the dress.  Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Fall weather.  I went Rock Hunting for some Wonderstone the other day and there were no bugs out.  Yay!  You can catch a glimpse of my adventures over on my Facebook page or my Twitter page.  You can also find me on Instagram and Pinterest.

Time to Pull out the Fall Clothes

It snowed here for the first time today.  So that got me in the mood to pull out the sweaters and Fall colors.  I wore this outfit to church last week.  It's hard to tell from the pic but the teal green in the skirt matches my new chevron bracelets perfectly.  I bought the skirt probably a decade ago at Gen X clothing.  The sweater came from Body Central's website. And the bracelets are from Sexy Modest's website.  The shoes are from Chadwick's website.  I threw a denim jacket on top and I was all bundled up for the freezing cold temps inside the church building.  Someone turned the AC on...woops.  That's why I dress in layers for just such occasions. 

Fun at the Davis County Fair

 Our get away for the summer was all the way up to Davis County for the fair they have every year.  I guess technically it was a stay-cation since we didn't stay the night anywhere.  This was my niece's first time to the fair and she had a ball.  We saw jumping dogs competing to see how far they could jump into a swimming pool.

 My niece and her mom and dad got to ride on a real life elephant.  This was the highlight of the evening.  I have never seen this done at other fairs I've been to.  It was $8 per person.

 Of course, they also had pony rides and a petting zoo that my niece liked too.  And the requisite animal and art exhibits.

 If you are into demolition derbies or even if you're not, the sound of cars crashing into each other provided some extra excitement.  There were also tons of rides, food vendors, and games for the little kids and the big kids.

 Afterward we walked across the street to Station Park.  It is a relatively new outdoor shopping mall in Farmington, Utah.  It is a beautiful place to just hang out, shop, eat, etc.  They also have a fun playground for kids that my niece loved playing on.

 They have lights up year round.

And they have a beautiful lighted fountain that has dancing water.  It was fun to hang out on the comfy couches they have for viewing this little attraction.  I felt like I was back in San Diego.  I just discovered on their website that they also have an outdoor winter skating rink so the fun doesn't have to stop in the Winter.  I love discovering new gems in my neighborhood.  I highly recommend this one!

Easy Chicken & Rice Dish

 As some of you may be aware, I have never liked cooking.  I am starting to get the hang of it though so I thought this recipe would be a fun one to share since it has the word "Easy" in it...I thought maybe even I could handle it.  Everything is done in the Crock Pot so no big messes to clean up afterward.

 Here is what you will need.

 This is what the finished sauce looks like.

 And the chicken breast covered with sauce on rice.

And here is the recipe:

Easy Chicken & Rice Dish
by Debbie Blair

1 pkg cream cheese
2 pkgs Zesty Italian Seasoning (in salad dressing aisle)
3  boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup

Mix all but chicken in crock pot then put chicken on top and cook on low for about 3 to 4 hours.  Serve on rice.


That's it! Easy Peasy. It is really quite tasty too.

Another one of my earring design creations

I saw a little bit different version of these earrings online the other day and it reminded me that I hadn't posted these.  I made these about a year ago with supplies from Hobby Lobby.  I used some large circle links from a circle bracelet that I had on hand to add to these tear drop pendents.  I found the circle bracelet at Hobby Lobby too.

I won an iPad mini!

 About 4 years ago I started taking weekly music surveys for a local Utah radio station called 97.1 ZHT. They have a music director program and I am obsessed with music so I just wanted to take the surveys to hear my favorite songs. Well, this week I won an iPad mini since they usually incentivize the surveys with a prize.  My dad and brother (software engineers/computer programmers) are not Apple people so this is a new learning curve for me.  They think I've gone to the dark side.  But I'm totally excited to start using this baby.  Here is a link to the music director program if you want to try your luck at it too.

Pioneer Day in Utah

 Yesterday was Pioneer Day in Utah.  Basically we celebrate the first settlers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley.  They went through a lot to get here, tame, and settle the "wilderness".  It is a state holiday so our family had a little get together over at my parents house.  I got to see my cute niece.  I used to be her nanny but now her mom has quit work and gets to stay home with her all day.  I like to show my niece my mom's roses and grapes.  Then we got to swing on the swings.  We had grilled hamburgers, a yummy veggie tray, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

 Then the fireworks began.  We just watch all of the ones our neighbors do.  The picture below is from earlier in the month around the 4th of July.  Tooele High School always has a concert with fireworks after and I have a perfect vantage point from my deck.  Fireworks are so much fun to watch.

Maurice's Dark Jeans #2

 Well I think I have had a long enough vacation from blogging.  It's those darn summer months when all I want to do is play outside.  I'm finally getting around to my second pair of dark jeans from Maurices.

  These are Silver jeans.  They are in the $50 - $80 range.  They aren't cheap but they fit like a glove.

 I absolutely love the design on the pockets too.

And me trying to do my best at modeling and photographing all at the same time.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Summer months and getting some play time in too.

Sunday Spring Outfit

 Today's outfit is a little more dressy since I was headed to church.  I love my yellow sandals from Aerosoles.  They are suede and so soft.

 I found them on sale and my brother got them for me for my birthday last year.  He wasn't excited about giving me this kind of gift, but I told him these shoes were what I really wanted more than anything else.  He gave in and I love them.  Got to love baby bros too.

 This long skirt is from a store in St. George, Utah called Urban Wear.  I mentioned it in this blog post.

 I paired it with a classic white shirt and pink sweater since it has been quite chilly for May.

I love pink and yellow together.  Mixing bright colors is the "it" thing right now.  Get creative with all of the fun colors available in stores. 

Maurice's Dark Jeans # 1

 I talked about my new dark jeans a while ago.  I'm just now getting around to the blog post.  Thanks for waiting.  This is one of two pairs I got from Maurices for Christmas.  I will feature the other pair in a separate blog post.

 I found them online because I hate going into the store and having to go through piles of jeans or to fall in love with a pair but they have run out of my size.  Because I am relatively short (5' 5") I bought these in short.  That's another thing I like about Maurices.  They have so many different inseams and sizes.  They have options for very tall girls and they even go shorter than these for those girls shorter than me (my sister Liz is 5' 2" and got an extra short pair).  Here is a handy link to the perfect pair of jeans tool on Maurices website.

 I of course fell in love with the back pocket scroll design.  Yep, those little circles are diamonds.  I love a little bling to add sparkle.

 The front button has a larger diamond on it with a few other small diamonds to accentuate the front pockets.

They are not tight at all.  I can actually breathe when I wear them.  Sorry skinny jeans, these are my new favorites.