Ageless Style is a monthly style challenge and link up for women of all ages. Each month we pick a different theme and style an outfit based on that theme. This month's theme is: "Sumptuous Fabrics" and was picked by Leslie.
This month the ladies of Ageless Style and I are sharing our "Sumptuous Fabrics". The dictionary defines Sumptuous as "Extremely costly, rich, luxurious, or magnificent". Yeah, so not me. Although I have been known to spend over a hundred dollars on a good pair of jeans, (like the pair I'm wearing today), I'm more of a fashion budget kind of girl. Leslie described her "Sumptuous Fabrics" challenge as "featuring feminine fabrics: silks, satins, velvet, cashmere, soft sweaters, and lace; a girly girl look". The only thing I had on that list were "soft sweaters" but on the day of my photo shoot it was 40 degrees so I did not want to wear a sweater. I know most of you think 40 degrees is the perfect temperature for a sweater, but for this northern girl, that's too darn hot to wear a sweater.
SO, I opted for this blush pink blouse. Although it's not expensive, for it's a TJ Maxx find, it is pink which fits the girly-girl requirement and the flow of the fabric and fun blousy sleeves comes as close to "Sumptuous" as I have in my closet. 😀
Although I am a very feminine woman (no one would describe me as athletic or tom boyish), I don't really like to dress girly, so I downplayed this "girly" pink top with a new pair of wide leg jeans from Mavi. I think Mavi is my favorite new jean brand. I know they're expensive, but they are so worth it, and I don't get out much, so one new pair of jeans a year is all I need.
My very expensive or "sumptuous" blouse cost me a whopping $20 at TJMaxx. I've actually showed this blouse to you before in THIS POST where I styled it with a black skirt for Valentine's Day.
It was the sleeves that really drew me to this blouse. They are 3/4 sleeve length balloon style sleeve -- so fun!
For jewelry, I chose a beaded necklace and matching drop earrings that had the same colors of my jeans and top. I also wore a multi-strand beaded bracelet.
I included this crazy picture just so you could see the detail of the sleeves.
Because I don't like dressing too girly, I paired my girly top with wide leg jeans. These jeans are actually on sale right now, and you can find them HERE! They are high waisted, super comfy, with a raw hem. I really love the wide leg style. I'm not a fan of flares, but wide legs are fun. I styled the jeans with white booties to keep the lighter, girly girl going from head to toe.
And this photo I just included because Jackson photo bombed it. 😂. I know how some of you love seeing photos of Jackson.
Now be sure to check out what the other ladies are wearing this month. Hopefully they have more "Sumptuous Fabrics" in their closet then I do! And be sure to link up with below!
This week's travel post will be the last of my fall hiking adventures, then I won't have anything to share with you for a while until we do our Valentine's Day weekend getaway. 😞 We won't be going on any more trips until spring. But my fall travel post is a good one, for we went to a beautiful park in Minnesota that we had never been to before: Great River Bluff State Park.
Great River Bluffs State Park has six and one half miles of easy trails with scenic overlooks of the Mississippi River Valley. Unfortunately, we were a little short on time so we weren't able to do all the trails, but we did see the highlights. Now we just have a great excuse to go back!
King's Bluff
The first trail we took was King's Bluff. This is a 2.5 mile out and back trail that takes you through a forest to an overlook. Because this is a park where you drive to the top, then get out and hike, all the trails are very level. No mountain climbing involved!
When you get to the end of the trail, you have two views: this one of the Mississippi River, then just turn around and you will see the next view of the valley in the second photo.
You can just park your car and hike all the trails at once, but because we were short on time, we kept getting back in the car and driving to the next overlook. Our next stop was just a pull over along the road. The Mississippi River looked so breath taking through the dark canopy of the forest trees.
(Hill of Many Timbers Overlook)
I had read that the Hill of Many Timbers was the best view in the park, so I did not want to miss it. It is a very short trail from the campground, but you can't park there if you're not camping. There is a small parking lot near the East Overlook, but during busy times you may not be able to find a spot. It is only 0.6 miles out-and-back, and the forest views are worth the little hike!
But the view is what really makes the short hike worth it! Wow! Yes, I agreed with the reviews I had read, this was definitely the best view in the park!
It was super windy from the top of the overlook, even though it was not a windy day. My husband took this funny video for the grandchildren.
South Overlook
We only had time for one more little hike, so we jumped back into the car and drove to the South Overlook. The foliage was amazing on this trail.
This trail is the easiest trail in the park. It's just a short 0.7 miles from the parking lot to see both the North and South Overlooks. The trail actually forms a Y. You hike to an intersection, and then you can turn right to see the South Overlook or left to see the North Overlook. We only had time for one, and for whatever reason, we turned right.
At the end of the trail is a deck with an overlook.
Each overlook always has information on the view before you.
Once again, the trail was nice and level, I didn't even need my walking sticks!
You can even enjoy some views of the Mississippi on your return trip!
We really enjoyed hiking this little park in Minnesota. It's the perfect park for fall hiking, and I think it would make a great park for snowshoeing in winter since all the trails are so level. Maybe I will suggest that to the hubby, and we can go back this winter to hit the overlooks we missed the first visit.
This week's travel post will be short and sweet, as it was just a little stop at this beautiful park in Merrillan, Wisconsin after we finished our hike at Wildcat Mound which I showed you in last week's travel post. I thought about including these photos in last week's post, but I didn't want the post to get too long. I don't know about you, but I really dislike long blog posts. I get impatient with the length, and end up just scrolling fast through the post, and not get much out of it; so, I try to keep my blog posts as short as possible when I can.
As I said above, we were just driving home from our morning hike at Wildcat Mound, and we saw this pretty park and waterfall. Well, of course we had to stop and check it out and take some photos and videos.
I have never in my life seen such a pretty, natural looking waterfall that is actually a dam. And the icing on the cake is that the city took advantage of this beauty and made it a park. Usually dams are very industrialized, and have a lot of fencing around them for safety. This dam just took our breath away!
Of course all the fall colors, fountain grass, and fallen leaves added to the beauty of the dam.
The water falls into a gentle river that I can just imagine children wading in on warm summer days.
And now here are a couple of really short, dorky videos. I debated on whether I should even post them or not, but I really love the sound of the waterfall and how videos capture things photos cannot. So have a good chuckle as you watch!
Next week I'll be back with a fall trip to a state park in Minnesota!
