Mother's Day is May 8th! That's just a little over two weeks away! With that in mind, I thought I'd share some gift ideas with you.
Jewelry
I'll start with the obvious. Pay attention to whether the mom you're shopping for wears silver or gold (or a combination of both) and make sure that you stick with that metal when shopping, unless she has specifically told you otherwise.
This is probably one of my favorite necklaces. If you purchase it, make sure to use her initials (First Last Middle).
These rings are incredibly unique and fun. They have single, double, and triple stack rings depending on the number of children. If there are more than three kids, you can put multiple names on one ring.
Charm bracelets are always fun, and it's the gift that keeps on giving, because you can continue buying charms. James Avery is having a charm event right now that is a pretty good deal: buy two charms and a charm bracelet and receive $49 off.
And just because I'm banking on Michael looking at this blog (or maybe my dad or mother-in-law will look and share this with him), I'll share a few that I'd like to add to my charm bracelet.
Perfume is a good gift if the mom you're shopping for wears perfume. If she has a signature scent, repurchasing that scent is a good idea (unless she has a full, or nearly full, bottle). Maybe there is a specific perfume she wants. It doesn't hurt to ask! If you'd rather surprise her, or buy something new, here are some of my favorites.
If you're going to purchase a new handbag, don't buy one from Target (unless she's specifically asked for one). Buy her something special that she wouldn't normally buy for herself. Here are some ideas.
Concert tickets, game tickets, show tickets, airline tickets, any tickets! Is there a Broadway show coming to your city? Better yet, fly her to NYC to see a show! Is there a concert that she'd like to see? Or maybe a sporting event....does she like baseball? Golf? Surprise her with a trip to the wine country in California! She deserves a vacation, and so do you! Be creative!
Appliances
I can't speak for every mother, but most women would prefer not to get an appliance as a gift. However, there are a few appliance gifts you can get away with giving (provided the mother you're shopping for actually enjoys cooking), so I'm sharing those. Since this isn't every woman's idea of a gift, please make sure you are POSITIVE she wants the appliance before you buy it! I have the mixer, but I still need a white Le Creuset Dutch Oven (hint, hint).
Mother's Day is about showing the mom(s) in your life how much she means to you. Buy her a card (and not just the first one you grab off the shelf ~ read it!) and something that she will love. Hopefully my list inspires you! Please post a comment and share what you buy her!
Well, I returned everything I purchased a few weeks ago from Loft except the lace shorts. :( The rompers were cute, but you could totally see my bra straps through the lace on the sleeveless one and the other one was too low-cut for my taste. The shirts were just too short - when I raised my arms you could see my stomach. I kept the linen pocket tees, both dresses and the sleeveless muscle tank from Gap, but returned the v-neck to Banana. I ended up ordering the black TOMS wedges and I love them!
I got some tops from Nordstrom to replace the ones I returned. I got this one is both the bright cobalt (a color!) and black, of course. I'm considering ordering the blue grass too. It's semi-sheer, so I don't think I'll be ordering the white, but haven't had an issue with the black or cobalt being too see-through.
I ordered the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and have been inspired to declutter and reorganize! I started with my closet, throwing out anything and everything that didn't fit the way I wanted. I may have gone a little crazy with it, but I decided to stop waiting to lose weight so things fit right again and just start fresh (well, not totally fresh, I still have plenty of clothes in my closet). I am still in the process of cleaning and organizing my closet, so once I'm done I may find I have a few holes that I need to fill in, but for now I'm done spending.
Last week Sephora had their Rouge sale, and I'm still searching for the perfect skincare products (something that brightens/illuminates my skin and makes me look younger), so I decided to use the discount to try out some new products!
I had originally planned on repurchasing the Murad Time Release Acne Cleanser, but I've been using the Sunday Riley Luna Night Oil at night and Good Genes in the morning for the past few weeks, so I decided to add the Ceramic Slip Clay Cleanser to my routine. So far I really like the combination. My skin had a minor freak out (read: two zits popped up that I'm sure were lurking beneath the surface of my skin) the first few days of using Luna, but it settled down quickly. My skintone is more even and balanced. If you decide to try the Luna Night Oil and Good Genes, Sephora has a duo that is a much better price than buying them separately.
I love my Clinique Acne Solutions BB, but wanted to find something that was more brightening so I picked up the Erborian BB Creme. I'm not sure if it's necessarily brightening, but I love the finish it gives my skin!
I had been applying it with a foundation brush, but sometimes I feel like the brush is absorbing too much of the product, so I decided to pick up a Beautyblender. Unfortunately the Beautyblender sheers it out too much, so I'm back to using my foundation brush. The blender is still great for applying concealer, and on days when I want a little more coverage, I use it to apply foundation.
Last year I decided I needed a lighter fragrance for spring and summer, so I purchased the Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey Summer Eau de Toilette. It's fresh and fruity and I love it! In fact, I love it so much I bought the cologne for Michael! If you're looking for a new fragrance for you or your sweetie, check these out!
I've still got a little less than half the bottle left, but I decided to take advantage of the Sephora sale and try the Jour d'Hermes Gardenia. It's quickly becoming a new favorite!
As you know, I love my Kat Von D Tattoo Liner, but the brush has started to separate a little so I don't always get the smooth line. A vlogger I follow mentioned that she now has (or maybe has always had?) an ink liner, so I decided to pick up some during the sale. There was a trio of Trooper (black), Baudelaire (navy), and Hemingway (espresso) so I ordered that. The tattoo liner is easier in terms of application (it just glides across the lid), whereas with the ink liner you need to use short strokes, but the ink liner wins when it comes to creating the perfect wing!
This wasn't a new purchase, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite products again, so I thought I'd share. I am almost out of my makeup remover wipes, so I decided to start using my MakeUp Eraser again. All you do is get it wet and the makeup just wipes away. It's like magic! And bonus, you're helping out the environment because you're not using a new makeup wipe every day - you just throw it in the washer every week and it's as good as new!
When my sister-in-law and her husband bought a new house, I was thrilled to help them decorate! She wanted to go with navy and gray, so I put together a Pinterest board for inspiration. I loved the board, so I thought I'd go ahead and share it here in case you're looking for some inspiration!
My spending freeze is over, and I can honestly say that I haven't been tempted! I am, however, ready to add some cute new summer clothes to my wardrobe! Yes, the first day of Spring was last weekend and I'm already thinking about summer! There are great sales going on right now at some of my favorite stores, so it's definitely the right time to shop!
Loft was offering 40% off and free shipping, so I placed an order on Monday. I decided to hold off on buying too many new pairs of shorts until I lose a few more pounds, but I did pick up these lace shorts.
I'm debating about whether or not I should order these shoes. I love the red ones I posted a few weeks ago, but if I'm going to get a new pair of wedges, black seems more practical (especially after looking at everything I ordered - apparently black is my new favorite color ;).
I love online shopping, but it's hard to know how something will look on you without trying it on, so I'll update on items I keep/return once everything arrives!
My sister's 40th birthday was over Spring Break, so we decided to surprise our kids with a trip to Disney World to celebrate! I'm usually really bad about keeping gifts secret, but I somehow managed to keep the secret since last August! Of course, all of the secrets and hiding things I purchased for the trip also meant that I forgot about the Unofficial Guide to Disney World book that I purchased until the day we left, but it was worth it to see their faces!
I created a Scavenger Hunt for the morning of the trip to reveal the surprise. We were leaving on a 10:00 flight, but a news story from the day before (my brother was interviewed!) had us all a little worried about the lines we'd be facing at the airport so we decided to leave early. Okay, so not really that early considering most people plan on being at the airport two hours early, but when your husband travels all the time for work you think arriving at the airport anything more than an hour early is EARLY. We planned on leaving at 8:00. so Michael and I got up at 5:45 to shower and finish packing. We were finished by 6:30 and were more than a little excited to surprise the kids, so we woke them at 6:45. Sophia was more than a little annoyed when we came in singing, "It's Spring Break! Time to get our staycation started! Who's up for shadow puppets?" I probably should have prefaced this by saying that the kids were planning for a staycation, complete with shadow puppets, dying flowers, a trip to Dave & Buster's....exciting stuff! I say that in jest, but Carter was actually pretty disappointed when he thought we wouldn't be able to make shadow puppets. Silly boy! Anyhow, back to the story.
Once they were both somewhat awake, we started the scavenger hunt (linked above). They had so much fun with it and didn't catch on until the very end (I think they were both half asleep during the majority of it!). Here is a video of the end of the scavenger hunt (it lasted awhile). And yes, that is me saying, "Read the clue! Read the clue!" ;-)
Once they realized that we were going on a trip, they were so excited! Unfortunately, since we woke them up so early we had a lot of time to kill. I turned on the Peanuts movie and waited for their next surprise to arrive. Finally, at 7:45 there was a knock on the door. I played it off that it was the neighbor boy coming to play and sent them to answer the door.
Again, it took them all awhile to figure things out ~ Sophia and Carter were expecting their friend to be at the door, and the twins thought we were just taking them to the airport. Too many surprises for one day! Once everyone had settled down, we Ubered to the airport. The lines weren't nearly as scary as they were in the news story so we made it through security pretty quickly and went to Fridays for breakfast.
The flight was pretty fast and the kids were all great! My only complaint, and for us it really isn't a complaint because we had assigned seats when we arrived at the airport, is that the airline oversold the flight (for Spring Break, really?) so there were several people that didn't end up with seats.
Because we were staying at a Disney resort and had signed up for Disney Magical Express, we were able to bypass baggage claim and head straight for the bus (they send you luggage tags to stick on your bags that have your name and resort on them. Disney picks them up at the airport and delivers them to your hotel room). It felt a little weird leaving the airport without our luggage, but just a few hours later it was delivered straight to our room at the Port Orleans - Riverside. Magical! ;-)
Disney Springs
The first day was spent swimming in the pool at the hotel, and that night we took a water taxi from the resort to Disney Springs (if you've been to Disneyland, this is their version of Downtown Disney). It was wall-to-wall people! There were pockets where you had some room to spread out, but it was definitely nerve-racking walking around with four kids and tens of thousands of people. Actually, I don't really know how many people were there, but I do know that there were 50,000+ people at the Magic Kingdom the next day, so it wouldn't surprise me if the numbers at Disney Springs were that high. We went into the Christmas store before heading to dinner at Portobello (good Italian food). I'm so glad we decided to make reservations because they told the lady that checked in ahead of me that it was a two hour wait, and shortly thereafter they stopped taking walk-ins. Unless you're dying to eat at one of the restaurants I'd skip Disney Springs.
Dining Plan
We signed up for the dining plan, so booked reservations for many of our meals ahead of time. I'd definitely recommend the dining plan if you are planning on eating at any of the restaurants. You do have to pay the tip, which usually ends up being about the same amount a family of four would pay for a normal dinner out, but it's worth it. You get plenty of food, and if you're doing a character meal, there is plenty of entertainment. Just make sure to check on the number of meals you get charged for at each restaurant - my brother and his family ate at Le Cellier Steakhouse in Epcot and were charged two table service meals per person.
Most of the Quick Service restaurants don't take reservations, but Be Our Guest does (at least for breakfast, which is when we went). Even though it's considered a QSR, you get a ton of food. I had eggs florentine in a puff pastry shell with ham and roasted tomatoes (so good!) and they brought us an assortment of pastries to share. The other days we used our QSR meals for breakfast at the hotel.
For character meals, we had lunch at Crystal Palace one day and Akershus the next. Both were really good. Crystal Palace was a buffet lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Akershus is a sit down (buffet for appetizers) lunch with the Princesses. I had the Bassert Biff (braised beef) - so yummy! I'm not sure if this usually happens, but there were five princesses at our lunch. We got to meet Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White!
For dinners we ate at Portobello in Disney Springs the first night, Biergarten in Epcot the next, and Boatwright's at our hotel the third.
Biergarten was part of the kids' final surprise - their other cousins were at Disney World too, and we were having dinner together!
For snacks, we got a Dole Whip at Aloha Isle (refreshing), Mickey ice cream bars, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, and a huge pulled pork slider (there was a stand in America at Epcot - definitely worth getting if you see it).
Magic Bands and FastPass+
We loved having the magic bands! It was so nice not having to worry about carrying a room key, credit cards, cash, park tickets, etc. The magic bands eliminated the fighting between Sophia and Carter over who would open the hotel room door ~ one of them would open the door, go inside, and then the other one would open the door and go in. We were able to connect the magic bands to a credit card, so whenever we needed to pay for something we scanned a band and entered the pin. So nice!
The FastPass+ system is great ~ if you're staying at one of the parks, you are able to choose three fast passes per day ahead of time. I was disappointed that they had to be at the same park, because there were a few of the parks that only had one ride/attraction that we needed fast passes for, but you couldn't mix parks. The fast passes allowed us to jump some pretty long lines (I think the longest we waited for a ride was 20 minutes with the fast pass, without it would have been over an hour). Unfortunately, after almost every ride the kids would say, "Let's do it again!" and we'd have to tell them no because the wait was too long. There is an option to sign up for additional fast passes after the first three are used/expire, but we didn't have much luck with it. There was plenty of other stuff to do while there, but it was just a bummer that we didn't get to ride more rides.
Universal Studios
We spent three nights at the Port Orleans - Riverside, and then we transferred over to the Loew's Royal Pacific. We were disappointed when we checked in to receive a room key and individual express passes for each of us. The magic bands are so streamlined! We purchased lanyards in the hotel gift shop to hold all of our stuff and moved on.
If you're staying at a Universal resort, you get to enter one of the parks an hour early. The only thing that's open is the Harry Potter section, but it was totally worth it because we got the kids their wands (we did the interactive wands at $47 a piece ~ expensive, but worth it to get to do magic at the parks) and we had breakfast before the rest of the park opened.
The express pass I mentioned in the first paragraph is so much better than the Disney FastPass+! In fairness to Disney, they have too many resorts to allow all of their hotel guests unlimited fast passes ~ the lines for non-Disney guests would end up being the short ones! The express pass allowed us to jump the line on EVERY ride as many times as we wanted. Hotel guests get them included with their stay, but you can also purchase one at the park for $90 or more per person/day! I think the longest we ever waited for a ride was 25 minutes, and that was only because the ride malfunctioned and they closed it briefly. If you're planning on going, stay at one of the hotels ~ you can walk to the park in less than ten minutes and the express pass is totally worth it ~ when the kids would say, "Let's ride it again!" we just jumped back in line!
Overall it was a great trip! We loved both Disney World and Universal Studios, and can't wait to go back! I know that I left a lot of information out, so if you have any specific questions post them below.
Spring is here! I got my first pedicure of the season a few weeks ago and I'm ready for sandal season! For now I'll have to stick to the sandals I already own, but I thought I'd share some of my favorite options with you!
Most days during the summer I just throw on a pair of flip flops and go. I mean, you really can't go wrong with a basic pair of flip flops. For years it was my Reef Butter flip flops, which had a thicker sole, but they had to go and ruin them with the Butter 2 and Butter 3, and now there is a Butter Cushion....they're just not the same. I purchased similar ones to these last summer (I actually got the Ginger, but they seem to be a little harder to find and the Glitz look almost identical). Just a basic black flip flop, but a much better construction than the $7 ones you can get at Old Navy.
I tend to wear more neutral colored clothes, so sometimes it's fun to add fun colored shoes. I love my Toms Desert Wedges, so I'm thinking I may need to try these! Aren't they fun?
On days when I want to be a little dressier, but would rather be in flats I wear my Sam Edelman Gigi sandals. Right now I have them in black and leopard, and will soon be adding the saddle brown to my closet.
If you have read my recent blog posts, you know that I won't be buying anything new before April, but it's fun to "window shop," and I love having the chance to shop for you! I've linked some other fun options below! What are your go-to sandals during the summer?
