Chenille: A Fabric I'm So Happy To See Return Again!

 Trends come and go.  Some trends we hope to never see again, and others we don't want to give up.  Chenille sweaters were one of those trends for me.  I love the look and feel of chenille.  It's so soft, cozy, and warm.  When it was really "in" I purchased every chenille blanket I could find and put one in every room of the house.  I owned several chenille sweaters as well.  But, like all good things, chenille eventually came to an end.  So my chenille blankets were switched out to fleece or fur, and my sweaters back to normal yarns.  But now, chenille is back!  And I for one am loving the return of this beautiful yarn!

 You've probably been seeing these gorgeous gold cardigans everywhere in Blog Land.  I was SO excited when I was walking through my local JCPenney and spotted this Arizona Long Sleeve Chenille Cardigan in the Junior Department.  It was a steal for $24.99!

Is this color gorgeous or what?  JCP calls it Ochre Gold but most bloggers refer to it as Marigold.

 I just love the length and the iridescent quality to the yarn.  And yes, it's as soft and warm as it looks!

I wore a old sleeveless black tank underneath the sweater, skinny jeans, black booties, and I carried a burgundy bag.

My new tortoise shell bracelet I picked up on clearance for around $3.00 at JCP went perfectly with my new gold chenille sweater.

I also wore a black/rust scarf as it was cold this day.

Underneath the scarf I wore a three strand stone and old necklace in case I got cold and removed the scarf.  But it was so cold, I never did.

Here is the look without the scarf.  I think it looks much better with the scarf, don't you?

I wore a high heeled bootie by Liz Claiborne (old).

It's important to note that these type of sweaters can make you look heavy and frumpy.  I find it's best to keep what I wear underneath body skimming, and to also add a shoe with a bit of a heel.

Here are some other cute chenille cardigans I found on Pinterest.

I love this color-block one.

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There were quite a few marigold sweaters on Pinterest just like mine (I told you it was popular).  Here are some other ways to style it:

With a dress:

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With a all-black base and blanket scarf:

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Isn't this pink chenille cardigan so pretty?

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Here's another marigold sweater worn with a cute white camisole and short blue skirt:

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And finally here is a olive green one worn with skinny jeans and black booties.  I think the hat and choker are the perfect added touch!

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So what about you?  Are you as happy as I am to see this fabric back again?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have a Great Day! Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

St. Joe State Park

This is a continuation of a series of posts of my Missouri Vacation which I took the first week of September.  To start at the beginning go HERE.  The rest of the posts, in consecutive order are HERE , HERE, HERE, and HERE.

On Day 3 of our Missouri vacation we went to three different tourist attractions:  Elephant Rock State Park, the Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site, and St. Joe State Park.  St. Joe was very close to our hotel so we decided to just pop in to check it out before retiring for the evening;  so our visit was short and sweet!

St. Joe State Park has something for everyone.  There are hiking, biking, and equestrian trails,   a large lake with a sandy beach for both boaters and swimmers, campgrounds, a designated area for all terrain vehicles, and even a 25 acre Missouri Mines State Historic Site. 

This park is huge!  It encompasses 8,238 acres, with a 2,000 acre off road vehicle riding area located on the old St. Joe Mine Tailing Dumps.  We spent a little bit of time watching the ATV's drive.  I didn't take any pictures of my own, but here is one from Wikipedia.

The sandy beach was large and gorgeous.  Since it was early fall, there was only one family here when we were there.  They did go into the water, but I heard them scream how cold it was!

As I stated earlier, we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend in this park.  It was basically a drive through to check it out.  It is loaded with trails though!  There are eight trails varying in length from 0.5 miles to 10 miles.    Three of the trails you can horseback ride on, and all of them are for hikers and bikers.  There is only one handicapped trail and that is the Paved Bicycle Trail.

We had already hiked quite enough this day, so we were looking more for a nice, scenic evening stroll.   We decided to go on the Lake View Trail.  It is partially paved, and it follows the length of the lake for a short distance before it veers into the woods and becomes an earthen path.

The lake views along this trail are very beautiful and the paved, level path makes for a comfortable walk.  The elderly, handicapped, or young families with strollers could take this trail to the end of the path.  You would just have to turn around and walk the same way back as the pavement does end when the lake views end.  

It was so quiet and peaceful when we there.  We saw someone out on a kayak on the lake.  It was the perfect trail for a nice, evening stroll.

My husband thought this dead tree stump in the lake water was interesting.  It was at about this point that we left the paved portion of the trail behind and our pretty lake views, and headed into the woods.

Here is an example of the forest, earthen path we followed.  It was very level, and easy to hike.  No strenuous hills involved!

Thankfully, it wasn't that long because we already had a long day of hiking and we were ready to get some supper and recuperate for the next day.

We did find this cute bridge!

After our little hike, we called it a day for tomorrow we were going to our favorite Missouri park of them all:  Ha Ha Tonka State Park.  I know, what a name right?  

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE.

Z-Fold Wedding Card and Wedding Etiquette Issues

Did you ever have a year where you were constantly invited to weddings?  This year, it was ridiculous how many weddings we were invited to.   We ended up not going to any of them because they were either too far away or they gave us such short notice we couldn't make arrangements in time.  Speaking of which, does no one understand wedding etiquette anymore or am I so old-school I'm not with the times?  Here's some issues I've encountered in the past year.  You let me know if I'm old-school or if this was in the bride/groom's error.

1) Not receiving a thank you card for a substantial cash gift.  I did get a FB text message that  simply said "Thanks".

2) Receiving a "Save The Date" less than one month before the wedding.

3)  Having the wedding invitation simply be a photocopied response card and no formal wedding invitation at all.  Perhaps they forgot to include the wedding invitation in the envelope?

4) Putting the grooms name ahead of the brides name on a formal wedding invitation.  (That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen).

Those are just some of the strange wedding issues I've experienced the past year.  Anyone got some of their own they'd like to share?  This could be fun!

Anyway, onto my card.  This is a card I made for the wedding of my husband's cousin.  It was on the East Coast so we didn't go.

This card has a unique Z- fold.  I got the instructions to make this card HERE.  I have to admit, I didn't quite understand the instructions on how to construct the sentiment portion of the card, so I created my own.  I just placed my sentiment panel on the bride portion of the card and I added some brads.

Karalyn used dies to create her bride and groom, but I used stickers!

Even though my supplies are different than the original card, the essence is very much the same.  I stamped a script in white ink onto the blue card stock.  My sentiments are from Inkadinkado.

It is hard to write a message inside this type of card, and also to insert a check.  I didn't know the couple well so I just wrote "Congratulations" and our name and it was hidden by the bride and groom stickers.  I put the check in the back of the card (so hopefully they saw it there.  I don't know, I haven't received a "Thank You" card yet.).

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!