Clothes, the BIG Birthday, and Easter. Get Ready for Photo Overload!

Targeted Obsessions: Kids/ Girls Clothes/ Traditions

Dressing a little girl is super fun. We've already established that. But dressing a little girl around Easter time has gotten out. of. control.... or at least it has at my house. (Crossing my fingers the hubby doesn't read this post. Ha!) We've had a ridiculous amount of "trips to the park" in the past week or so because it's a great excuse to take the camera and snag a couple of adorable pictures of my kiddos (aka, Ell in her awesome clothes) looking serenely perfect while sitting in a beautiful field of blooming trees... or setting suns... or budding flowers... because that is REAL life! (I'm killing myself over here! hehehehe!) My Facebook friends are probably rolling their eyes at the amount of pictures I've posted lately. Believe me, I am too! But I can't stop. I'm blaming the warmer weather.

Obsessive, yes. Justified? Of course!

It's also Ridge's 5th birthday week! I'm so torn between being excited for him, reveling in the awesomeness that is my *almost* 5 year old... and crying in my pillow because, "Where have the past 5 years gone?!!!" And time with Ellington seems to be moving even faster! For real. I can't handle life at this speed! Ridge's favorite restaurant is Brixx (pizzeria), so I took him and his sister yesterday as a sort of "birthday week" kick-off. While sitting at Brixx and having ridiculously grown-up conversations as we waited for our food, Ridge decided he wanted to make a list of some fun things we could do throughout this upcoming week. (The kiddo is crazy lucky because his birthday seems to always fall in the middle of Spring Break- so he's out of school all next week... which leaves plenty of time for fun activities! I'm probably creating a monster...) Ridge's list made my heart smile. It includes:

• Meeting friends at a park (which we did today and will most likely do again)
• Baking a birthday cake
• Going to the movies 
• Getting ice cream with mom
• A trip to Barns & Noble (totally his idea- NO prompting from me!)

I was proud of the items on his list. They're simple and sweet. And totally doable. But first... Easter! 

We strive to raise our children to be as Christ-like as possible. We certainly fall short daily! But this is the first year that Ridge seems to "get" Easter. I know there are parts that are over his head, but the key components he gets. Even though we stress the Resurrection is the reason for Easter, we still do the fun things like hunt Easter Eggs. This year, we dyed eggs for the first time. Whoa. Stress! Dye + an *almost* 5 year old + crazy obsessive mom who has NO WHERE for messy egg dye = spreading out a towel in the middle of the kitchen floor to dye eggs. (FYI, teaching the concept of "dye" vs "die" was interesting... but he got it! Smart little bugger. It also helped that teaching vocabulary is a huge part of his mom's job!) But I totally stressed over nothing. Ridge was awesome with messy dye! The set up definitely helped. Had we sat at any table in our home, the rug underneath and the fabric chairs would have certainly suffered, but the towel on the floor was perfect. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, but gah... I'll remember it forever! I remember decorating Easter Eggs with my mom, so I know he'll remember dyeing Easter Eggs with his mom as well. 

Something else I remember is shopping for Easter dresses. My husband thinks this is crazy. It never occurred to me that "Easter dresses" isn't a thing everywhere. Must be southern? Ivan said he always grew up getting dressed up for Easter, yes... but he thinks my need to coordinate all family members church attire is a little much. Well... yeah... "obsessive visual tendencies" will certainly go overboard on Easter Sunday. Ivan has graciously let me coordinate our outfits since the year we got engaged. (Back then I think he was scared to tell me no. Ha!) And then when Ridge came along, it wasn't even a conversation. The only issue for Ivan is my desire for pictures. We are always running late to church- it doesn't matter how early we start the process, something happens and we wind up slipping into our pew just a few minutes late. Add in Easter baskets, pictures, and special clothing and you can see the dilemma! This year we're trying something new. We're going to all get dressed on Saturday afternoon and take pictures then. After, we'll go out for a nice family dinner. That way, Sunday morning can just be Easter baskets and church. (And then an amazing brunch and egg hunt with my wonderful neighborhood family.) 

Our 2016 Easter coordination

I hope our Saturday Easter pictures and dinner will become a tradition... kind of like church on Sundays, dyeing Easter eggs, coordinating Easter clothes, making birthday celebration lists, taking too many pictures, and Brixx for birthdays. Wow! It's SUCH a busy time of year for our little family but it is the most amazing feeling to get to experience it with my crew. Until next time...

The Office

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

There's only one thing this face can mean...

It's done! We FINALLY finished the office! When I think back to when this whole process started, I realize that my poor husband has been in a make-shift office space since October! Poor guy! He says it was worth the wait because he loves it! At first glance, I think the office feels very beachy and light (which made me worry that it might trend more feminine- yikes!), but it has SO many pieces of "Ivan" in it that he thinks it's perfect. (Or maybe he's just super excited to have a desk that doesn't shake- the world will never know!) 

We started by determining what the room needed. For Ivan, he needed hidden storage, a sturdy desk, a rolling chair, and a filing cabinet. I needed a wide open space with a clean backdrop and the ability to switch my backdrops. We decided that lining the back wall with built-ins would work for Ivan's storage and the shelving could double as something to hold backdrop reels for me. We also wanted to keep the furniture to a minimum and make everything rollable so I could easily move it out for photo shoots. (FYI, just the office portion is done... we're still working on the in-home studio add-ons.) After that, we thought about the kind of budget that would work for us. Our goal was $2,500... which meant real built-ins were out. We're lucky to have an IKEA right here in Charlotte, so we started there. We found bookcases we loved, but continued looking around to make sure we couldn't find something better. We couldn't, so our first decision for the office/ studio was to purchase 3 Liatorp bookcases from IKEA. You can find the link here. We also bought the Liatorp desk and Ivan attached wheels to the bottom of it. The final "needed" item for Ivan was a rolling chair. I wanted something leather, affordable, and not cheap-looking or black. I found exactly what I wanted at Overstock.com. All of those items together pretty much ate our budget. After purchasing the furniture, there was $800 left. 

Since the room is going to function as a studio, I needed to keep with light, neutral walls- so we went with a skin-toned beige for paint. I also wanted the wall that's visible from the front door of our home to be some sort of awesome accent wall, but simple enough to be an unchangeable backdrop for photos. We went with a white-washed wood wall. (Say that sentence 3 times really fast!) It might be my favorite thing about the office. Ivan bought sheets of plywood from Lowes, had them ripped into boards, divided the boards into 2 to 3 sections per row on the wall, and nail-gunned them in. The thing that took us so long on the office was the actual white-washing. We were SO nervous we would mess up the wall! (Okay... Ivan was nervous. He wasn't about to let me touch his masterpiece! I'm definitely the "getter done" type- but that means no measuring, no taking-your-time to ensure perfection... Ivan is the opposite and wanted to make sure I didn't screw up his hard work.) When he finally built up the courage to wash the walls, it only took him about 3 hours total and 2 coats of wash. They were stunning! 

As soon as Ivan finished the walls, I left for HomeGoods! I threw out navy as an accent color idea to Ivan and he liked it, so "navy" was my inspiration as I shopped. My first stop was the rugs. When selecting decor, I always like to start with rugs. I found a couple that I really liked! (I'll stop here to note that if I hadn't found a rug, I probably would have stopped shopping right then and there- I knew I wanted a rug for the room and wouldn't have selected anything without knowing what the biggest visual piece was going to look like.) I took pictures of the rugs I liked and sent them to Ivan for him to pick his favorite. He picked my favorite (without knowing it was my favorite) . I've taught him well. 

I adore how vibrant the rug is!

Here's the terrible iPhone picture I sent Ivan when shopping...  the rug is 8x10, which at first was a slight concern since the room is only 10x10, but the rug looks perfect! And if it hadn't, HomeGood's has an excellent return policy.

Ellington is a big fan of the rug too...

...as is Kuma

After determining the rug, I went to look for a few items to hang on the wood wall. I wanted a small gallery section of interesting pieces. The first thing I found was a collection of knots matted on a navy background. Score! Ivan is obsessed with things like knots (he grew up going to sailing camp. awwww!) and it fit with my "navy" color scheme. There was also a turquoise "M" that looks great as a "W" (which was more for me than Ivan, but he thought it was cool even though he wasn't thrilled with the color. Everything can't be navy. Take what you can get, dude!) I found a nice fabric canvas wrap that worked with the color scheme and complimented the other items, as well as a silver clock hanging from a rope. I loved that the clock had a rope to "tie" together (see what I did there? hehe) the rustic with the refined and semi match the navy knot picture. 

 

Once I was done selecting the items for the small gallery wall, I went to find knickknacks for the faux built-ins. This is the main reason I'm SO anti real built-ins. To decorate them correctly, it costs a TON! You have to have larger items because small things get cluttered and look rinky-dinky. But they can't all be large. The items you pick need to work together, yet contrast well too. (Meaning, you need to mix soft with hard, masculine with feminine, light and dark... you get the picture.) I'm also anti built-ins because all of these decorative things need to be dusted and we've already discussed the fact that I don't clean. (My way around that in this room was getting bookcases with glass doors. I'll let you know how that works out.) Finally, I hate built-ins because once you have them, you're stuck with them. I like to re-decorate periodically and moving built-ins just can't happen... well... unless you use bookcases from IKEA that slightly resemble built-ins! Ha!

One of my thoughts to help save $$$ on the built-in decor was to use lots of baskets where I would store my photography items (blankets, newborn hats and head wraps, etc). I picked out baskets first. Next I found some random things that worked color-wise that I knew Ivan would like. I found some deer antlers, driftwood, and a crocodile skull (It's made of plaster, but my boys- especially Ridge- love it!) for my masculine/ hard/ nature items. My feminine items were a vase, picture frames, a glass candle jar, and a piece of coral. I chose a fan to give an industrial feel and a visual pop. I also used some things we already had- an award Ivan won from his company, a bull figurine my (bull-headed) husband had from high school, a sailboat from the original office... you get the picture. Along with things I bought to "look pretty," I threw in some items of sentiment. And if I must say so, the bookcases/ faux built-ins look fantastic! 

Getting the angles of everything in bookcases is difficult as well. To me, things look better when you have multiple items facing the same angles. Balancing color and textures is important too... all things that make decorating built-ins a challenge.

The baskets all follow the soft/ hard, masculine/ feminine compliments as well. And check out that crocodile skull! Isn't it cool?! Something I'm currently struggling with is what to do inside of the picture frames. I have so many beautiful pictures that would look great in them, but I feel that images would clutter the design. I might just leave the paper in the frames and write inspirational quotes on them. If I do decide to insert pictures, they will all be black and white. 

And there you have it, folks! The office portion of our renovation is complete! The final budget tally was just over $2,700 with the rug and decor... so I only went over about $200. That $200 was how much the white washed wooden wall cost and we didn't initially have that in our plans, so had we not done it, we would have actually been right on target! The room would have also been way boring, so I think the slight overage was completely worth it. Thank you for following this journey and to all the people who have been asking me if I've finished the office yet... here you go! 

Another plus about this rug... it'll hide all of the hair that this sweet girl leaves scattered about our house! Side note- Helga has already given this room a good cleaning, amazing robot that she is! If you aren't sure who I'm talking about, check out  this blog post to learn more!

And of course I'll use any excuse to take more pictures of my precious baby!

She's letting us know she approves of the office redo. It's wild to think she was barely 3 months old when we started this process! 

For all of you clothes obsessed mommies... this is a 2T Shrimp and Grits flutter top that looks amazing on Ell as a dress! And if we don't wind up saving it (because let's be real, it's white and she's a baby), it doesn't really matter because I found it at a consignment store for $9! Whoo hoo! I actually prefer how this flutter style looks on her compared to other brands. It's not as overwhelming on her tiny shoulders.

Bless it! 

Blogging away. Until next time...

Jesus and Dresses? Yes, Please!

Targeted Obsession: Boutique Clothing

This mommy is obsessed with children's clothes. We've already discussed that. (If you need a refresher or missed my "world of BST" intro, you can read it here.) I wasn't planning on doing a blog post today but I discovered a new (to me) clothing brand and am OBSESSED! (Are you surprised?)

You have to check out Robyn & Wren! The owner, Monica, explains her mission this way, "Each garment has a little bit of God's word sewn on it, reminding God's daughters that He created us to be children of strength and beauty with a divine purpose." I love supporting women of faith and having garments that contain visual pieces of God's word is awesome... but add that to the fact that the clothes are beautiful (AND made in the USA) and you have a trifecta of awesomeness!

We boutique mommies know that you find the brand name of boutique clothing proudly displayed in a strategic location on the outside of a garment. Instead of the brand name, Robyn & Wren gives us pieces of blessings...

You get to select which tag is added to your outfit, which I adore. (But be warned, if you don't select then your garment will come without a tag.) Currently, there are dresses, rompers, and personalize hair clips for sale on the website with a price range of $12- $52. Don't be afraid of the price tags though, there's a BST page on Facebook that has even more goodies. Sizes range from 3m to 6y (and soon all the way up to size 12!) and as soon as my PayPal funds are replenished, one of the precious 18m rompers will be mine! (Or Ellington's... ha!)

Adorable, right?! Now for a confession. I'm full of irrational fears. They've actually become a joke within my inner circle. I worry about everything all. the. time. I'm not alone though... I'm just a mom! We all worry... I just do it about weird stuff. I have to remind myself DAILY of God's promise from Matthew 6: 

26"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

… SOOOO... how perfect is a clothing brand whose name reminds me of that promise? ADORE! Okay... that was my unplanned post of the day! Happy Friday and may your weekend be full of unexpected blessings!

Grape Game!

Targeted Obsession: Son/ Soccer Mom Perfection

Remember a while back when I said the verdict was still out on whether Ridge was going to sign up for baseball or soccer (or possibly both)? Well... we stuck with soccer. And it's going great! Our crazy boy still loves to pretend he's a super hero on the field and gets in trouble at least once per game for "playing bumper cars," but his focus and participation have improved ten fold! Another "high five" to those veteran moms who said it gets better every season! They were right!

One of the reasons we chose to stay with soccer was the team. Ridge has some wonderful teammates! Ivan enjoys coaching and along with his awesome assistant coach, has really done an amazing job with this group of kids. (Which to me, is incredibly sexy! It's crazy how what's attractive to you changes as you get older! One of the biggest turn ons is watching my husband being an amazing dad... but I digress...)

After a scorching hot game during our first season, Ivan saw some kids walking around eating orange slices. He proceeded to tell me that one of his favorite memories from playing soccer as a kid was the cold orange slices the moms would have for them after their games. Well geez Iv... thanks for the heads up! I totally didn't realize I was supposed to be doing snacks!!! When I asked if he thought I should organize snacks, he looked at me like I was crazy (didn't he just say he loved after-soccer snacks?) and we headed to brunch. (Brunch after soccer is our family tradition... which sounds much nicer than saying there's no way we can get up, dressed, and to the field on time for a 9:30 game AND eat breakfast.)

Enter season two. I was no longer pregnant, no longer working, and determined to be the quintessential soccer mom. So I created a Sign-Up Genius (online sign-up forum) for after game snacks! **insert congratulatory pat on the back** The other moms thought it was a great idea- and a few even mentioned how much they loved the cold oranges from when they were little. (My thought here was, "Really?" 1- I didn't even know our generation played soccer that much growing up and 2- if cold oranges are so good, why have I never had one?) I signed up for the first week and I bet you can't guess what I brought?! Cold oranges! (They really are good!)

But get this... none of the kids ate them! What?! So the following week, a different mom brought a ziplock bag with a variety of goodies- for each kid! I guess the thought was if you didn't like one thing, you might like something else? Anyway, from that point on, our snacks spiraled out of control. And I can poke fun because I was (and still am) a part of that spiral! Ha!

My next time to bring the snack was the week prior to Halloween. It was going to be the first really cold game and I was trying to think of something the kids would like that paired well with cold weather. Are you thinking hot chocolate? Because that's what I thought. I didn't want to make hot chocolate for 8 kids plus adults AND figure out how to transport and serve it... so I called Dunkin' Donuts. Genius! And that would have been more than enough... but we soccer moms are out of control, remember? So I then began to wonder what snack would go well with hot chocolate. Did you say marshmallows? I love the way you think! Annnndddd guess what?! Around Halloween, Peeps puts out ghost shaped marshmallows! I packaged them in plastic wrap and wrote "Boo-tiful Game" on the outside. I was enamored with my after-soccer snack!

The picture is of the left-overs because I didn't actually go to the game. Ridge was SICK! Ivan went to coach and another team mom took over distributing the snack. (Thanks, Erin!) And by-the-way, if you're impressed with my snack, you should have seen what one mom did the next week, which just happened to be Halloween. My poor little ghost are pitiful in comparison.

Enter season three. I was late creating the Sign-Up Genius this time. **insert frustrated slap to the head** I honestly didn't know if any of the kids ate their snacks. (We don't hang around after.) My family still heads for brunch post-game, so I thought it might not be necessary. When I brought this up to the other moms, I found out that the rest of the crew really looked forward to the snacks. Oops. 

This past weekend was my round of snack-bringing and I was stumped as to what to do. Enter Pinterest. A long time ago I pinned "Sourpatch Grapes." See recipe here. I'd never tried them and always wanted to, so I did my own rendition of the recipe. I used red grapes (because they were on sale- whoo hoo!) and strawberry gelatin. They were crazy easy to make. The linked recipe says to roll the grapes in the gelatin, but I just washed a ton of grapes, put a pack of dry gelatin in the bottom of a bowl, put the wet grapes in, covered with a lid, and shook the bowl like crazy. Shaking is easier than rolling, and I'm all about easy. It worked great! I even came up with another cute slogan...

I refrigerated the grapes overnight, kept in a cooler during the game, and they were a hit! Or at least, I'm going to tell myself they were. We never hang around after... remember? At least grapes go with brunch... even if they are sugar-covered! I do believe I'll be making these again though- especially this summer. I might even freeze them. We shall see. Until then, remember- shaking is always easier, order out for hot chocolate, and another mom will always one-up you. Just give them a high-five and keep on rolling (or shaking... you pick.)    

*****Edited to add DON'T serve red gelatin covered grapes with white jerseys!!!! We have white jerseys. Oh the things you don't think about... until you do!*****

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

Targeted Obsession/ Boutique Clothing

Well Dressed Wolf

It's 8:50 on a Thursday night and the alarm on my phone goes off. At first, I'm thrown, but then I get excited remembering what that alarm means... It's time to cart Well Dressed Wolf! Okay... rewind to early October when I had no idea what that meant.

A sweet friend of mine who always dresses her daughter so perfectly texted me a picture of a dress, saying that Ellington needed it. She was right. Ell did need it. And that friends, was my first hit of the drug known to underground mommies all over Facebook as BST.

BST stands for Buy/ Sell/ Trade. There is an amazing world of boutique clothing pages hidden within Facebook (I say hidden because the pages are private and your membership has to be approved... and can just as easily be withdrawn!) dedicated just to buying, selling, and trading particular brands of children's (mainly girls) clothing. This is how it works...

Boutiques set release days and times for limited quantities of one or a few items of their clothing line. At that time, mommies all over flock to their computers, refreshing every few seconds to see when the new items will load. It then becomes a competition to see who can click, type, and "copy/ paste" into check-out screens the fastest. The best brands sell out within seconds! Yes. I said SECONDS! It's crazy, but genius!

Prices on these items vary, but you can typically find things anywhere between $34-$68 on average. When I began the BST world, $68 (before tax and shipping) sounded pretty steep. Let's face it, I'm a girl who loves a bargain and mid $70s isn't a bargain on a dress that a baby will grow out of in a few months! But the more I became acquainted with this mystical world, the more I realized that most items were re-selling on the BST pages for just as much, if not more (to WAY more) than what was initially paid! I was astounded... and then the "bargain shopper" in me started chomping at the bit! I wanted to see if I could buy something and sell it for a profit. I could. I DID! And it was addictive. I've since come down from my high and realized that what goes-around-comes-around (even in the BST world) and I've stopped trying to cart simply to see if I can sell it for a profit.

The cool thing about BST is all transactions are completed through PayPal. Therefore, once you put up your initial investment, when you begin selling (and things DO sell!) you begin a continuous cycle with that investment. That is, you begin the cycle IF you're disciplined enough to not add extra funds to your PayPal account. Currently, mommas that have been around the BST world longer than I have are complaining about the BST market, saying it's in a decline. Maybe I've gotten lucky with my carting, but I've been able to at least get my money back off of every boutique item I've bought and attempted to sell.

But for me, making my money back isn't the best thing about the BST world. And it's not the fact that my mailbox is super exciting either. Amazingly enough, it's not even the wonderful pictures I get take of my baby in all of her beautiful clothes (although, that's a VERY close second)... The best part is the relationships I've built with mommies all over the world. The BST boards aren't just for buying/ selling/ or trading; they're for sharing successes, stresses, prayer requests, and praises as well. Moms "pay it forward" all the time. They look out for each other. And as we help and support one another, our daughters are looking damn cute!