Auto Show Recap

To put myself in the right frame of mind to write this post today I thought listening to Cleveland's own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was the perfect choice.

We walked around the Cleveland Auto Show last night for just about 4 hours and saw everything they had (or at least everything that we wanted to see that they had). We were actually able to get into most of the vehicles and there really wasn't a huge crowd that we had to deal with....so overall it was a nice evening.

The following photos were taken from my phone, so please excuse the fact that they are a little blurry.

Here are photos I took of some of the vehicles I liked last night:

F

Ford Fusion

Ford Taurus SHO

Toyota Avalon

Hyundai Genesis

Cadillac XTS

Nissan Altima

Chevy Corvette

Chevy Camaro

Kia Optima

Lincoln MKZ

Dodge Challenger

Lexus LS F Sport

Now for the photos of the SUV's I was checking out....some are totally not realistic, but a girl can dream right? :)

Land Rover LR4

Toyota 4Runner

Lexus GX

Infiniti QX56

Mercedes Benz ML350

Cadillac SRX

Acura MDX

Nissan Armada

Nissan Murano

Chevy Equinox

Jeep Grand Cherokee



My picks for the best sedan would have to be the Cadillac XTS, Toyota Avalon, and Nissan Altima. All had beautiful interiors and exteriors! The only flaw I had with these or any of the sedans really, was that they made me feel cramped. The dash and center console were huge and the seats kind of wrapped around you...everything felt really small even in the very "boat like" vehicles. I am not a big person, so this came as quite a shock to me to feel this way.

I didn't look at many 2 door vehicles mainly because there wasn't too many there, and because they don't fit my lifestyle right now. But the Dodge Challenger and Chevy Camaro were really nice to look at :)

The truck category left me feeling just so-so for the night. While the exteriors of some of the Ford, Chevy, and GMC trucks were nice, their interiors were lacking. My 2004 vehicle has a better interior! I didn't see any changes at all in the Honda Ridgeline either. On the bright side, the Dodge & Toyota trucks gave me hope! The dashboards from each company were much nicer to look at and they felt pretty comfortable too :)

On to my main reason for going to the show...the SUV's! I love SUV's! I am by no means looking to get a new vehicle anytime soon, but one of those beauties could end up my future vehicle....literally! So many to choose from...Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Acura, Nissan, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, Land Rover, Jeep, VW...the list goes on and on. My favorites are the following:

Toyota 4Runner, Acura MDX, GMC Acadia, Chevy Equinox,
Nissan Murano, Land Rover LR4, Cadillac SRX

Now when I say favorites, I mean best overall value in my opinion. And by value, I mean the size fits my lifestyle, comfortable to drive, price is not extreme, and it looks good. If money were no object, my hands down pick would be the Land Rover LR4. Realistically, my pick is the Chevy Equinox. And if I am really dreaming, I would take the Mercedes Benz ML350, Cadillac SRX, and the Infiniti QX56! Yes, I said "and"...I will take them all if I am dreaming! :)

What are your favorites in each category?

You can learn more about any of the above vehicles I mentioned by visiting the Cleveland Auto Show site (http://clevelandautoshow.com/) or any of the vehicle companies below.

http://www.nissanusa.com/
http://www.landrover.com/gl/en/lr/marketsel?region=americas
http://www.ford.com/
http://www.chevrolet.com/
http://www.gmc.com/
http://www.infinitiusa.com/
http://www5.mercedes-benz.com/en/
http://www.cadillac.com/
http://www.acura.com/
http://www.toyota.com/
http://www.jeep.com/en/
http://www.vw.com/en.html
http://www.lexus.com/
http://www.dodge.com/en/
http://www.kia.com/

Until next time...

XoXo ~ V

Anything Goes Wednesday

Since I have a few different topic ideas in my head today, I figured I would just make it "Anything Goes Wednesday" and briefly write about each.

First of all, today is a very special day in my world. It is my wonderful mom's birthday! She is amazing! I mean, not just because she has me for a daughter (Ha ha!), but because she is probably the nicest and sweetest person I have ever met! I swear you could practically kill her and she still will smile at you and offer you something to eat or drink. So secretly do I wish some days I could be just like her? Absolutely! Well the cat is out of the bag if you are reading this mom :) Anyways....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best mom in the world!

I love you "Mommy Dearest"! :)

So anyone who truly knows me knows that I LOVE watching TV! I have a huge soft spot for teen/younger adult dramas. It started many, many years ago with the great Beverly Hills 90210. I never missed an episode in all 10 years that the show was on the air! I still watch reruns when I see it is on. Since that gem of a show ended back in 2000, I filled/fill the void with LOTS of others. Here is a brief list (in my opinion) of them:

10 Things I Hate About You, (the new) 90210, Dawson's Creek,

Friday Night Lights, Gossip Girl, Greek, Jane by Design,

Laguna Beach, One Tree Hill, Popular, The O.C.,

The Secret Circle, The Secret Life of the American Teenager,

Life Unexpected, Hart of Dixie

My favorite right now is Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family :) OMG do I love this show! It is fun, fashion-forward, young, and suspenseful! Of course I watched the most current episode last night and it did not disappoint. Anyways, I realize some would think this obsession I have with TV is not right and the fact that I watch teen dramas must mean I am avoiding growing up. I look at it like this...I am a 34 year old adult who likes to escape into the story lines of these teen dramas to shake off the "adult" stress of the day. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion! It could be worse...I could be obsessed with reality TV!

Super excited to head up to the Cleveland Auto Show (http://www.clevelandautoshow.com/Default.aspx) tonight with my husband! I guess you could even call it a "Date Night". It has been quite a few years since we have visited an auto show (Detroit or Cleveland) and we are really looking forward to it! We are a bit obsessed with vehicles. I mean, we don't drive anything special, but we love watching shows on cars (Top Gear especially), driving or riding in different vehicles, etc. We actually met working at a couple of car dealerships in Cleveland :)

Spoiler alert...

My post tomorrow will be about....you guessed it! The Cleveland Auto Show!

Until then...

XoXo ~ V

My Personal Style - The Journey To Find Me

Let me start off by saying I am not an expert in the personal style world. I am just trying to find my personal style again now that I am a mom. Throughout most of my life I would refer to my style as sporty/classic. Now, I would refer to it as boring, too old for my age, no WOW factor. This was brought on because of a job I had that didn't really allow you to be yourself. So many restrictions on what you could and couldn't wear. For 5 years I bought clothes that didn't express my personality at all! Plain shirts and pants, boring shoes, etc. Thankfully I no longer work at that job, but the love/hate relationship I developed for clothing has stayed with me since then (almost 10 years). It is time for a change!

I have been doing a lot of reading (books & blogs) on how to find your personal style, what is your personal style statement, etc. I think I have narrowed down what I want and what I think is realistic for my style statement...

Fun & Cute with Polish

Let's dig a little deeper and find out what that really means...

Fun - comfortable clothing that moves with whatever life has to offer (work, play dates, road trips, etc.)

Cute - colors, prints, etc. that speak to me, look good, and show off my personality (who am I kidding, I want clothing that makes me feel HOT! :)

Polish - outfits that look and feel pulled together without too much effort (crucial since I am a new mom)

My style statement will probably always be a work in progress in one way or another, so let's move on.

 
In my journey to find my personal style I have created a "My Style" board on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/leota6/my-style/) with items that I feel fit this statement.  I recently have been trying to go through my closet and see what items I already own, what I may want to purchase, etc. It is not even funny how many things I have in my closet that I never wear because I have been waiting for the right time, right shoes, right pants. I have way too many items that can only be worn one way as well! UGH!

After reading "Building a Remixable Wardrobe" on the Putting Me Together blog (http://www.puttingmetogether.com/p/building-remixable-wardrobe-series.html), I now ask myself the following questions before I buy any new tops:

Can I tuck it in, tie it, belt it and does it look good by itself?

Can I wear this casually, for work, and dressed up?



I have only purchased a couple of tops since reading the above blog post, and YEH! for me, they definitely fit the "rules" of a remixable wardrobe! Now I just need to move onto pants, skirts, dresses, etc.! AHHH! 

Once I gather enough "remixable" pieces I will post of few photos. Until next time.....

XoXo ~ V

Photographers I Love

In honor of picture day, I figured I would share some of our special moments over the last few years through photos. I also wanted to highlight a couple of very talented photographers that I have had the pleasure to work with. They both have documented very important times in our lives :)

In October of 2011 we had maternity photos taken by the wonderful (and my old HS friend) Pam Pyles of Pieces of You Photography (http://piecesofyouphotography.blogspot.com/). We chose to have these pictures done at Mohican State Park (http://mohicanstatepark.org/). What a great decision! The day was beautiful and there were so many spots to chose from. Here are few samples from that day:

Over the next year we would take our own photos of X documenting each time he was a month older, the 3/6/9 month marks, holidays, etc. (I will share those in a future post). WOW! We have a lot of pictures, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

It was time for his 1st birthday (December 2012) so I really wanted something a little different to show how much X has grown over the year. We met the super sweet Christy Rice of Christy Rice Photography (http://www.christyricephotography.com/)  at Franklin Park Conservatory (http://www.fpconservatory.org/Home). The place was perfect for winter/holiday photos! Here are some from that session:

Both of these ladies are located in the Columbus, Ohio area and do fabulous work! To see more of their work or to schedule a session with Pam or Christy, please click on the links above.

Below are a couple of X from when he was just born for comparison purposes :)

Thanks for stopping by!

XoXo ~ V

Picture Day

So today is picture day at "school" for X :) It is crazy to think he is only a year old and this will be his second set of school pictures! I must admit, I LOVE getting pictures of him! His little smile just makes my day and melts my heart. Here is what he wore to school today (please pay no attention to the mess of toys behind him):

XoXo ~ V

Blogs, blogs, and more blogs!

I have become a little obsessed (ok A LOT obsessed) with blogs over the last few months. Every time I find one I like, I then want to know what other blogs they like and so on. My "Favorites List" on my laptop has become so long that I had to create a folder just for the blogs I enjoy reading!

So I decided I would feature the blogs that inspired me to start writing my own! Who knows, maybe this will become a weekly thing that I do.

Today I want to feature a few blogs that always keep me wanting more and more!

1. The Small Things Blog  http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/

I found this blog awhile ago through Pinterest by simply pinning a photo of a hair tutorial. Honestly, this is my FAVORITE blog! Kate is amazing! I can't wait to see what her new post will be. Between the hair tutorials, fashion picks, etc. I just can't get enough! Then the best post so far came along --- "Blogging Part 1 - Starting a blog". It was like she read my mind! I know I sound crazy right now...oh well! Check out Kate @ The Small Things Blog by clicking the link above. You won't regret it!

2. Putting Me Together http://www.puttingmetogether.com/

This blog is right up my alley right now since I just so happen to be trying to figure out my own personal style (this will be discussed further in a future post). Audrey is great at remixing pieces from your closet to create new outfits. For the most part I have very similar items, so it makes it really easy to try it out. My favorite thing is she shops at lower cost stores! Again, right up my alley!

3. J's everyday Fashion http://www.jseverydayfashion.com/

Yes, another fashion blog.....but I swear it is good! Everyday there is a new outfit post that has been inspired from a photo J has found. She explains where all items she is wearing are from or where you can get a similar item.

My favorite part of these blogs are that the authors are the ones in the pictures or videos...no models! They are relatable people, and for me that is huge!

So the weekly blog feature might just be a good idea after all. I have so many more wonderful blogs I would love to share!

Until next time....Have a great weekend!

XoXo ~ V

Let's do this!

So who am I and why do I feel I deserve to have a blog?

Here is a little bit about me...

You can call me V
I am 34 years old
Born and raised in northern Ohio
Married to a wonderful, but goofy man
Newer mommy to (in my opinion) the greatest little guy in the world
Die hard Cleveland Browns fan
Love all music, but my faves are country, rock, hair bands, and boy bands
Enjoy working out
LOVE watching TV! Horrible obsession with teen dramas

As for why I feel I deserve to have a blog....honestly, I just wanted one and it is free!

I am not going to write about how you should live your life, that you should like everything I do, etc. I am just here to post about me, what I like or dislike, my not so graceful journey of handling motherhood, figuring out my personal style, sports, food....the list can go on and on really!

So there it is! My first official blog post!

I look forward to many more posts in the future.

XoXo ~ V