Category: Tip Jar

Tip Jar Tuesday: DIY Christmas Cards

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It’s beginning to look like Christmas around here! As we speak we are getting hit with a winter storm so today, I am feeling those Christmas vibes! We were able to take some family Christmas photos this weekend and I will let you in on a little secret, every year I’ve done them myself. I know they aren’t the most amazing, but for free, I’m loving it!

I have a Sony a6000 camera – I purchased it after our honeymoon and was advised by the sales associate that it takes great quality pics, is very portable and acts as a DSLR camera. Now, would I love a DSLR camera, YES, but this was what I decided to purchase 5 years ago, so we are making it work!

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Holiday Gift Guides 2020: Teachers

Good morning and happy Monday! This Monday is going to feel rough after the nice and relaxing holiday weekend we had! Hope you had a restful weekend and wishing you a great week ahead!

Today, I am sharing my teachers gift guide. I’ve already got mine purchased and now I just need to wrap it! Will be nice to give back to Audrey’s teachers who do so so much!

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Tips For Holiday Shopping

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is TOMORROW! Time has flown! I need to get my house in check and have so many things to do around the house today – good thing it’s rainy and cold – I’m forced inside to tidy it up!

Today I wanted to share my holiday shopping “routine” so to speak. I noticed there are things I do every single year and I figured they would be worth sharing! Speaking of worth sharing, my holiday gift guides are out and I’m sharing a couple each week! You can check out the guides below:
Toddler Gift Guide
Ladies Gift Guide
Mens Gift Guide

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Holiday Gift Guides 2020: Toddler

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Today I’m sharing the first of many gift guides and it’s one that I happen to know a lot about because these are toys my kiddos use or are on our wish list! This list was made for both toddler girls and boys in mind. I hope you can get some really good ideas from this guide and it makes shopping for your child, niece, nephew or grandchild super easy! Age range for these items would be ages 2-6.

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Gift Guide Launch!

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Good morning and happy Monday! Can you believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner?! Oh my gosh then right after that, Christmas?! The end of this year seems to be flying by so to get ahead of the game and start tackling your Christmas shopping, I figured I would share some gift guides based on items I use, love, gift to others and actually want for myself and kiddos!

I’ll be posting a couple gift guides each week all the way up until mid-December, so be sure to stop back to my blog to check them out! I LOVE gift guides! First off, it eases the stress of holiday shopping and getting ideas from others is extremely helpful when you are stumped trying to figure out what to buy for someone. I hope my gift guides are helpful to you this holiday season!

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Motherhood Monday: Parenting Self Audits

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you had an amazing weekend – we definitely did as our weather was an absolute dream! We still have some nice weather on tap for us this week and we are definitely making the most of it.

I’m not going to lie, the past week has been rough. I’ve found myself angry, I’ve found myself consumed by everything that is going on in our country and also slightly terrified. I stepped away from watching ALL the news/media, which is sad this is what it comes to. I’m often left feeling upset that we are being controlled little by little and we will never know the total TRUTHS in anything going on. Journalist integrity is DEAD and that alone has put me in a dark place.

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Tip Jar Tuesday: Winterizing Home Checklist

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! My husband and I are starting to feel better which is good, the kids don’t QUIT – so that has been hard trying to juggle resting and playtime particularly when we’re trapped inside because the weather hasn’t been the greatest.

We did have a chance to get outside last week/weekend during some of the nicer days and finalize some of our home winterizing tasks. As I was working through my list, I thought, am I the only one with a winterizing checklist for the house? Are there things you button up every year and if so, how do you not forget about doing them? I would love to hear how you plan for the cold weather days ahead!

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World Sight Day 2020: Hope In Sight

Each year, World Sight Day is recognized on the second Thursday of October and the purpose is to raise awareness about blindness, vision impairments and a reminder of the importance of eye exams and screenings.

Today, I see it necessary to spread this awareness and encourage you to take eye health very seriously – in particular being that advocate for our children. This is something they need us for! As a parent, it is our obligation to make sure we are aware of the vision developmental milestones and are actively listening and advocating for our kids.

If you’ve been following along, our daughter was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia – along with esotropia, hyperopia (farsightedness) and strabismus – at the age of 5 months. She is now 5 years old and has had 2 eye alignment surgeries. I shared our diagnosis story last year and since publishing, have heard from many people sharing similar stories.

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October Coffee Stand Decor

Happy Tuesday! I was so shocked that it was time to already change out my September coffee stand decor! Today we are headed to a local orchard to enjoy the beautiful fall weather! In fact, it looks like it will be hanging around for a bit, which makes me SO happy!

As you know, and if you’ve been around here for a bit, I have so much fun changing up the decor on my coffee stand every month! Again, I like to inexpensively switch out this decor and subbing in seasonal vibes around a few standard pieces that are always there!! The Dollar Tree has AMAZING little items to help give you the vibe you are looking for!

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Fall Home Tour 2020

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Good morning and happy Wednesday! In honor of the second day of fall, I’m sharing a little home tour of how I decorate our house for fall! Hope you enjoy our little tour and feel inspired to get a start on your fall decorating as well!

Our first day of fall included a pumpkin patch, donuts and apple fritters from our local apple orchard, hot coffee, a playground!

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Tip Jar Tuesday: Learning to Dress My Body Type

It’s Tip Jar Tuesday and today, I’m sharing something so obvious, but something I have learned to perfect. I cannot tell you the countless dollars I’ve spent on clothing that did not fit me right (whether too big or too small), did not flatter my figure, patterns that were way too over the top and styles I tried to duplicate because a celebrity wore it so “I can try to pull that off”.

Believe it or not, I feel like it has taken until the past couple years to accept the fact that I am SHORT! I’m 5’2 and I recall times where clothes I would try on with my average and above average height girlfriends, just weren’t the same on me! I needed to stop thinking there were other factors to perhaps why the outfit did not look as good on me – it’s simply because I was smaller!

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Wild “One” & Unicorn Birthday Party Recap!

Yesterday we officially celebrated Audrey and Tommy’s birthdays! Audrey has been requesting a unicorn party – so we tried our best to make that happen! For Tommy, we did a Wild “One” theme and I honestly kept it VERY simple and super cost effective!

I know I have mentioned before that I have hoarder tendencies when it comes to party decorations. I throw any decor that is clean and able to be stored into bins in the basement for future use. When it’s party time, I shop those bins to find things/take inventory that could be used for the party before heading out to buy anything new!

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