Welcome to Volume 3 of my Countdown to Christmas blog posts! Can you believe we only have 5 more Mondays after this one until Christmas?! 😱 This time of year always flies by! So, I have decided to start my Christmas shopping a little earlier than normal this year because I always feel like I'm scrambling in December. The hardest people on my list to buy for each year are the MEN! Anyone else feel this way? Bill is super picky about things and prefers quality over quantity so he hardly ever shops for himself. I usually like to get him something nice every year but I struggle with what to get him. I think I've narrowed iit down to a few things. He travels for work and is in need of some new travel essentials like a toiletry bag, luggage tag (love that this one has a USB charging cable in it!), and new carry on luggage (I'm hoping he's not reading this!!).
I have rounded up my best finds for gift ideas for the guys on your list! Wether they love to grill, travel, or just relax at home, there is something for everyone!
Shop this gift guide:
Shop gifts for guys under $50:
I have also been searching around online for some holiday table top decor and I found some really pretty options from Walmart! I put together this little collage below with some of my favorites. We already have a buffalo check table runner, so I wanted to be able to incorporate that.
Shop holiday table top decor below:
Happy Shopping!!
Have you started your Christmas shopping or decorating yet?
Happy Monday and Happy November! I can not believe it's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping and decorating all ready! In the past, I have always 'respected the turkey', but for some reason this year I am ITCHING to get our tree up asap! Maybe it's because every year, the holiday season seems to fly by even faster... especially with little ones, I want to savor this magical and special time of year as long as possible! So, I am determined to get our tree up this week! We got rid of our old faux tree because it was shedding so bad, and got a new 7' faux flocked tree (use code: LOVELYLIFESTYLING' to save 10% off your order)! It's a beaut!! I can't wait to share!
On that note, I decided that every Monday I will be posting a round up of my gift guides (trying to get at least one done per week until Christmas), Christmas decor inspiration, sales or any other holiday related content I want to share. I thought this would make it easy for all of you to shop along with me! You can always reference all of my holiday gift guides on the Holiday Shop tab on the home page of my blog. I also have a page dedicated to Christmas jammies and Christmas decor, so make sure you are checking those pages weekly for updates!
This week I have a gift guide for the cozy girl on your list, a round up of vintage Christmas decor I found on Amazon, some toddler Christmas jammies and a boot sale! Lots of great options to start checking off your shopping and to do list!
Let's start with my first gift guide! These cozy gifts would be perfect for friends, moms, sisters, cousins, MIL, SIL, co-workers, teachers... the list goes on! I would love anything on this list!!
Shop this gift guide:
Next up, I put together this round up of toddler Christmas jammies from Target that are all under $20! We don't always wear matching jammies as a family, but you better believe I'm putting my boys in matching jammies as long as I can get away with it! I got the boys this matching set already and I'm sure I will end up getting a few more!
Next, I found a bunch of cute, vintage inspired Christmas decor on Amazon as I was shopping for some new holiday throw pillows and a tree collar for our new tree. All are prime shipping!
GOALS GOALS GOALS! That is what today's post is all about! To be honest, I didn't even want to make any New Year's resolutions because I never really seem to stick to them! But, I am a BIG fan of setting goals and making to do lists to help reach them! And sometimes when we write out our goals (no matter how big or small) and then make a list of what needs to be done to reach them, they don't seem so unattainable anymore.
So, here are my top goals for 2019 broken out into categories...
. . H E A L T H G O A L S . .
Optimal health has become my main priority in 2019. This encompasses not only physical health, but emotional and mental as well. I am a firm believer if you do not take care of yourself first, you will fail at caring for others around you. I really want to focus on creating healthy habits that start from the inside. Eating better, sleeping better, drinking more water, fitting in exercise... these are all tasks that I can easily fit into my day, it's just making them a priority.
So here are the actions I plan to take to make these goals achievable!
1. Drink more water: I'm really trying to be better about this! I have my yeti tumbler that I will be filling up at least 5 times a day!
2. Workout at least 3x per week: We recently joined our local community rec center and I plan to take full advantage of their equipment, group fitness classes and child care! They also have a great indoor pool with a shallow area where we can take the boys! Taking the boys swimming on a Saturday morning is definitely counted as a workout!
3. Eat cleaner: I noticed last year when I was eating 'cleaner' that I not only lost a lot of bloat, but I also felt better physically. I have tried a few different diets and through trial and error, I have realized that some dairy, gluten and high amounts of sugar have a negative effect on my body. High amounts of these ingredients lead to stomach issues, feeling sluggish and leave me feeling hungry. I am going to do my best to cut out these ingredients in my diet as much as possible.
4. Watch my daily macros: I learned about macros from my friend Abby last year and it really opened my eyes to the way I was fueling (or not fueling) my body everyday. By tracking my macros I am able to see how much fat, carbs and protein I am consuming. When I first started tracking my macros, I realized that I was eating way too many fats and carbs and I wasn't eating enough lean protein through out the day to give me energy. So, by tweaking my diet and adding more lean proteins and cutting back on fat, I became so much more energized throughout the day!
5. Track my calories in the MyFitnessPal app: I started using this app after I had Camden 4 years ago to help me track my daily calories to lose the baby weight. Fast forward to this past year and I started using it again to not only track calories, but it also tracks my macros for me. You can set a goal as to how much weight you want to lose and it will give you an estimation of how many calories you should be eating everyday, You can also adjust you daily macro goals so this app does that for me as well!
. . B L O G G O A L S . .
So many blog goals this year! I really want to start building this little blog of mine! I've been doing this as a part time hobby for over 5 years now and I'm ready to really put in the time and effort to make it successful! What is a 'successful' blog? Well, I'm sure it's different for every blogger, but for me it means to turn it into a profitable business. I want to pitch to and work with more brands that I love, I want to share more with my readers, I want to push myself out of my comfort zone!
So, in order to be more productive in the new year, I really need to buckle down on my time management and planning ahead with the blog content.
1. Post 2x per week: I'm not off to a great start here yet! I average about 1 blog post per week, so hoping that my new schedule will help me complete at least 2 blog posts per week.
2. Plan content/photos one week in advance. This is the hardest part of blogging and posting on social media for me. Trying to get enough content to post everyday on IG is tough! I don't have an instagram husband (he's just so busy with work during the week) and I am not really ready to pay a photographer to take my photos. SO, you may be seeing a lot more mirror selfies! But, I do plan on scheduling a photo session at least once a month to have professional photos ready to post.
3. Pitch to 1 new brand per month: Pitching to brands is something that is so foreign and scary to me. I've always just let brands come to me. I've collaborated with some awesome companies and have received some great products, but I want to do more in the upcoming year. I know that having sponsored posts and collaborations with companies and brands is the true way to make this blog a business, but I will only collaborate with brands and companies I truly love!
4. Increase my instagram followers to 10k: This will be a big milestone! Since I share my daily outfit inspiration, beauty products, lifestyle items and basically everything over on my instagram feed and stories, it would be so much easier for your all to shop if I had the swipe up feature! In order to have the swipe up feature in instagram stories, you have to have over 10k followers. So that is my goal!
5. Communicate more with my followers and readers! I really want to create a community atmosphere with my blog and social media accounts! Sometimes it feels like I'm talking to myself lol! But, I love hearing your feedback in comments, DMs and even a simple 'like' of my photos! I'd love to get to know you all more, so please feel free to reach out to me anytime!
. . H O M E G O A L S . .
SO. MANY. HOME. GOALS. I have so many projects in my head that I want to complete in our house this year, but I'm really trying to be realistic. Bill and I are all about getting finances in order first before completing any big house projects. Our house was not very aesthetically pleasing when we first moved in almost 2 years ago. We basically painted the entire house and completed a major project that was a little tricky.
So, here's my house goal list for the year:
1. Have our kitchen cabinets painted white and change out hardware: This is something I knew I wanted to do as soon as we moved in. However, we kept going back and forth if we wanted to wait to just do a complete kitchen reno because I don't really love our counter tops and backsplash, but I can live with them. And I think if our cabinets were painted, they might look a little better. So, instead of waiting another 5 years or so to do a complete reno, we decided we can just have our cabinets (professionally) painted white and change out the hardware for a quick update. I think that will totally change the feel of our house and make it feel so much more light and bright!
2. Redecorate the dining room: I want to paint our dining room, change out our light fixture, and add a new rug. Possibly get new chairs for our table as well.
3. Update and decorate the downstairs half bath: The little half bath on our first floor needs some help. I want to paint and change out the mirror and possibly the sink. Also, adding some decor pieces.
4. Update Bennett's room into a 'big boy' room: This will be the year we give Bennett a proper bedroom! His room has 3 grey walls and one red accent wall that I've been meaning to paint since we moved in and it hasn't happened! This will be the year we transition Bennett from his crib to a big boy bed, so I will decorate his rooms and we will get him a new bed.
5. Organize the playroom! This one is something I need to do desperately! Not a huge project, but just really organizing and purging toys and craft supplies.
6. Purging and Organizing everything! I really want to start organizing every room in our house! Starting with our pantry and kitchen and moving to a different room every month!
Lots of personal goals as well. Time management is going to be my main priority this year! Having 2 little ones that aren't really in school yet (they go to daycare 3 days a week while I work and my parents help out some during the week as well!) makes being a working mama tough! I want to be home with them, but I also want to work and have something for myself! Time blocking my day our will help keep me on task while the kiddos are out of the house.
1. Work on time management. I have created a color coded spreadsheet with my daily to do list in excel. This is something I reference daily to make sure I am on task. I also write my to do list in my daily planner! I LOVE this planner and have been using it for years now because it makes my life so much easier! Every day has its own page and is broken down by time slots and there's also a daily to do list I can jot down.
2. Be more present when I'm with my family/the boys: This is really something I need to work on! Being in this blogging/social media world makes you feel like you have to be 'on' all the time and have your phone attached to your eyeballs. This is SO bad! I have decided that when I'm home with the boys, that I have to give them my full attention and put my phone DOWN! Starting with the week days, I plan on putting my phone away from the hours of 5pm - 8pm (or bedtime). Then on the weekends really trying to put my phone away while we are having family time. I'm also thinking about doing 'social media free Sundays' I've heard of others doing this and it sounds perfect!
3. Take time for myself: I want to make sure I'm scheduling some me time throughout the week. Wether that's to get my nails done, solo shopping trip, or a girls' night out!
4. Read more. Trying to read one book per month! Recommendations welcome!
5. Give back to the community. This is one that I'm hoping to brainstorm about with my family. I really want to do some sort of volunteer work this year and get our family involved.
I have so many more goals in my head, but I also don't want to overwhelm myself! I think setting realistic goals with action items helps to make them more achievable.
I want to personally thank you all that follow my blog and social media! With out you all, this little blog of mine would not be possible!
I realize that this is the last day of February! But, wanted these 'currently' posts to be a monthly thing, so might as well post it today! February has been kind of a 'blah' month for me personally. I took a little break from instagram over the weekend and it felt so good! I think I may try to disconnect from social media each weekend, even for just a day, to make sure I'm focusing on family time and just to recharge my batteries so to speak. If I've seemed a little distant from instagram and the blog recently, it's just because a few things have happened to make me reevaluate some things in my life. Nothing big or life changing! Just some family members' health concerns and some personal stuff that put some things in perspective for me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the blogging community and I think there are so many positive aspects of social media and instagram in particular. But, for some reason, recently I've felt a little 'icky' about instagram, so I decided to take a little break. But, I still love connecting with my followers/readers that way so I am continuing to just do what I enjoy! Hope that all makes sense lol!
Wearing... these zella crop leggings, these nikes and an over sized tee shirt! Just came home from the gym! I'm trying to just throw on my workout clothes in the morning so I'm more motivated to work out! I've also been loving this $17 fleece pullover! I love that some of you have purchased it and are loving it too!
Watching... Well, since Bill and I finished Stranger Things (oh my goodness!) this month already, I have been focusing on more light hearted comedies lol! I'm not going to lie... Stranger Things freaked me out a bit! But, I loved the characters! We started watching the first episode of Shameless and we just weren't really into it? Does it get better?? And I'm still probably the only female that is not watching the Bachelor... I've heard I'm not missing much!
Listening to... 'Filthy' by JT is still on my main playlist and I'm loving his newer song with Chris Stapleton 'Say Something'. Also, loved his half time performance!! Besides music, I just started getting into podcasts (I know, I'm a little late on the game), so send me your recs for your favorite ones to listen to!
Reading... I got this morning devotional from Bill for my birthday and I've been enjoying reading it every morning while the coffee brews and before the babes wake up. It just sets the tone for the rest of my day! I highly recommend it!
Eating... Lots of Trader Joe's frozen meals because I've just been so lazy about cooking! Did you guys catch my Trader Joe's Haul on IG stories earlier this month? If you haven't (and you're interested in seeing what I get when I go there), I actually saved it to my highlights on my profile. Also, the crockpot has been a savior recently. I'm planning on having this meal for dinner tonight!
Enjoying... some nicer weather (after it rained for what feels like forever!) we've been having! We have even made a few trips to the park with the boys. Makes me so excited for spring!
Loving... These custom designed silhouettes of the boys! My brother designed and printed them and gave them to me as a Christmas gift! I finally found a good spot for them on the hallway wall leading into our bedroom. I found the floating frames from Amazon of course!
Wishing... I could take part in this awesome Shopbop sale going on right now! If you have any designer pieces on your wishlist, now's the time to snag them! I've just been on a little shopping freeze lately... whaaa whaaaaaaa.
Looking forward to... Spring time and warmer weather! Getting excited for Easter, spring decorating around the house, etc! There's already some adorable spring and Easter decor out at Target, of course! How cute is this wreathe and this throw pillow for Easter?!
Did you guys know that h&m carried home decor items? I knew they started offering home decor online a while ago, but until recently I hadn't really thought to check it out. I've been wanting to buy some little home decor accents to spruce up our home, so I decided to see what they had the other night. They actually have a lot of cute, trendy and affordable home decor items! I've rounded up some of my favorite pieces from their site below.
I've been searching for little home decor accents to spruce up our living area for spring and I am in love with all the fun pillow covers h&m offers! In a house full of boys, it may be difficult for me to convince my husband that we need these pink velvet pillows for our couch, but I'm just loving all the blush and pink accents that are on trend right now. The pink pillows paired with these black and white patterned ones would be so fun! Also... give me ALLLL the cozy throw blankets, please. Like how cute and cozy is this cable knit one with the pom poms?!
I'm also on the hunt for more stylish and functional storage in our house and I'm loving all their woven baskets and I love these gold metal baskets for pantry organization!
Shop some more of my favorite h&m decor items below (click on the image to shop):
Well, hello! Long time no chat! Sorry for the lack of postings, we've been a bit busy over here! As you know if you've been following along here or on my instastories, we had our house painted last week and I'm in LOOOOOOVE with our new color (which is Sherwin Williams 'China Doll')! I have a few before, during and after photos below, but I feel like my iphone photos do not do the color justice! We also had some shadow boxes filled in which you can see in the before photos and how the contractors filled them in and sanded them in the 'during' photos. They did a really great job, but you can tell slightly in the sunlight a few lines of where they dry walled them in, but only if you really are looking for it. All in all, I am very happy with the outcome and it makes me SO excited to start decorating!! Especially since the holiday season is upon us!
Now, I'm on the search for a new big round tufted ottoman, a few new side tables and we are hoping to find a nice large entertainment piece with built in looking shelving on either side. Eventually, I'd love to add brick or stone above the fireplace all the way up the wall.... *sigh* in time...
Here are a few before and after photos:
As you can see here is the lovely mustard yellow paint color with the shadow boxes we wanted to fill in....
This was during the drywalling process...
And here it is after paint!
I mean.... a thousand times better, right? We also got a new ceiling fan installed which I'm obsessed with. How lame is it that I'm obsessed with a ceiling fan?
We are hoping to have our new white faux wood blinds installed next week. We've been living without the window treatments for over a week! I feel like that will really help fill in a lot of the space. And can you just picture a beautiful big Christmas tree in that corner??!! I can't wait!
Well, there you have it! That is what has been consuming my life for the past 2 weeks! I'm glad that process is over and now on to the fun part of finding furniture and decorating!
It's been a while since I published a home decor post. It's not that I don't love home decor or decorating (in fact I LOVE it!), it's just that it hasn't been a top priority in our lives for the past few years. I kind of felt like our last house in Illinois wasn't permanent so I never felt like truly decorating or making it feel more like our home. Now that we've been 'settled' in our new home here in Ohio, I feel like we are just about ready to really start making it our own.
We have some construction work scheduled to be done in our main living area/great room that will hopefully be completed by the end of October at the latest. Then, we will finally be able to paint over the ugly mustard yellow paint color that is all over the main floor (sorry if mustard yellow walls is your jam... it's just not mine!). However, we were able to paint a handful of rooms in our house including the kitchen, master bedroom/bathroom, Camden's room and the boys' shared bathroom upstairs a month after we moved in. This past weekend we (ok, Bill) painted our front door black and we replaced the hardware which was brass to brushed nickel. It's so rewarding to see the outcome of such a small project! I am so excited to finish some other home projects on our to do list in the near future!
Since I wasn't really motivated to decorate in our mustard yellow room, I decided to go all out in our dining room and front porch/door for fall. I went to At Home and Target for my decorations and found a lot of cute, neutral fall decor. It's not that I don't love all the warm tones of fall, it's just that I'm not a yellow/orange/brown type of person. Does that make sense? I've always gravitated towards neutral or cool tones when decorating, so fall decor has been a challenge in the past. But, I'm loving the neutral fall decor trend right now! I'm a sucker for a white pumpkin and when I saw little white ceramic pumpkins in the Target dollar spot, you know I bought every. single. one! Target is currently killing it with the neutral fall decor! I have this pillow and a set of these pillows on my wish list.
I love the black, white/cream and grey hues with touches of gold mixed in for some warmth. If I had my way and an endless bank account, I'd be buying all of the above items in the collage. In fact, I think I need a set of buffalo check pillows for fall! I don't care if my walls are still yellow for another month! I'm hoping to share some glimpses of my fall decor on the blog and on instgram over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
Do you love the neutral fall decor look? Or do you stick with the traditional fall colors?
We are officially in our new home in Columbus! Wow, was that a whirlwind... Word to the wise: avoid moving with 2 little ones... it is somewhat of a nightmare! But, we are lucky that Bill and I both have great families that were able to help with the move and transition. I honestly don't know what we would have done without their help!
I absolutely love our new house! What won us over is the floor plan (hello bonus room/playroom on the second floor) and the location. We live in a great area of town (Dublin) with great schools and I love that there are little parks and bike/walking paths all over. Our house is actually right across the street from a little park with a playground! So, the convenience factor was a selling point for sure!
Of course, there are a lot of aesthetic things I'd like to change about the house. First of all, the paint colors are pretty bad... We're talking brown/yellow in the main family area and bright red in the kitchen. Our bedroom is a brown/tan color that really just makes our bedroom seem like a dark cave! Just not my taste at all. Oh, and Camden's room is a bright pinkish red color! So, the first priority will be painting, but we wanted to move in and get settled first before we started updating the house.
There are other little projects that will be fun to tackle over time and it will also be fun to post before and after photos here once they are finished. For now, I will leave you with some inspirational photos of what I'd like our house to look like once it's complete!
We have hardwood floors all through out the first floor and we desperately need an area rug for the family area and to go under our grey sectional. I'm leaning towards a nice big Moroccan style shag rug like this one or this one.
We have 2 story ceilings in our main family area with a fireplace as the main focal point which I love! Some day I'd like to add some white cross beams to the ceiling to add some dimension and possible brick or stone the fireplace to the ceiling (like the image below).
Of course, I'm sticking to all neutral tones when it comes to paint colors. Since our kitchen has more warm tones in it (for now, would like to update it at some point) I'll probably go with a more warm toned white or cream color like the 'aesthetic white' color below by Sherwin Williams.
So, as you can see, we have our work cut out for us! I think just simply painting will make it seem like a whole new house! I can't wait to share with you some before and after photos!
We had a cozy little weekend at home the past few days. We managed to at least put up our Christmas tree and decorate the mantel. We decorated everything at night on Saturday after the babes were in bed. This was actually our first year putting up an artificial tree. We decided it was for the best with a toddler, newborn and dog in the house! I do miss that fresh pine smell though... I might have to buy some pine scented spray!
Camden was so excited to wake up to the Christmas tree! He kept pointing at different ornaments and shouting what they were (shapes, colors, etc). His favorites are the snowflakes, balls (naturally), his Dory ornament that his Grandmother gifted him for his birthday and a plush penguin ornament I got for him last year. I actually let him take the penguin and Dory on and off the tree, so he isn't tempted to take any others off. I made sure to keep the plastic/soft ornaments towards the bottom just to be safe!
Here are a few of my favorite ornaments:
baby's first Christmas for Bennett from his Grandma Rumple...
Camden's Baby's first Christmas ornament...
An ornament gifted to us after our wedding. I love this one!
Another baby's first Christmas ornament of Camden...
I also enjoyed decorating our mantel for the first time! I absolutely love having a real mantel with a fireplace. Perfect place for our stockings and the little stocking advent calendar I found at Target this year!
And right on queue, it started snowing Sunday morning! We really got into the Christmas spirit with the snow gently falling outside.
It was the perfect weekend to stay in doors, decorate, bake cookies and stay in our PJs. The boys both are getting over a cough/cold (yes AGAIN!) so we are waiting until they feel better to take them to see Santa. Hopefully next weekend!
If you take a look at my recent Pins on the main page of my Pinterest Profile, you may notice that I'm mostly pinning meal and recipe ideas (aka pregnancy cravings...). I've decided to slow down on the pinning and look back to try to actually make some of these things. I've got a bad habit of just pinning things that look tasty!
Besides that, you'll find random baby things, toddler meal ideas, organizational pins, home decor inspiration with some fashion finds mixed in. Here's a look at what I've been pinning lately:
1. I totally plan on preparing some freezer meals this time around. It was on my to do list when I was pregnant with Cam, but I never got around to making any! Luckily, we had a lot of friends and family that brought us meals last time, but this time we don't have too many friends and family close so I want to be prepared!
3. I'm really trying to get my life and home organized before baby 2's arrival (nesting much?). I am putting together a 'Life Binder' that will hold everything I need to feel more organized (I plan on posting about it when I'm finished!). I have found a few free printables that I will include in the binder and will update weekly. House chores always seem to be the last priority these days and I want to get back on track with scheduling weekly chores. Hopefully this one helps!
5. I've been trying to find some decor to go above our mantel and I love the idea of hanging a big wood pallet clock like the photo above and adding some other decor elements around it. We really need to soften up our family room because it just feels like a big grey box right now!
6. I'm in the midst of nursery decorating and I love the neutral tones of the one above. I actually decided to add some navy accents and natural wood accents to the nursery as well. We have the same dresser as the photo above in the nursery right now and I love the decor they have hanging above the changing area.
If you have a Pinterest account, leave your profile name in the comments so I can follow! I'm linking up with Natalie and Annie for Thoughts for Thursday!
