The Cake by Hannah

A small town girl spreading kindness like buttercream frosting

Valentine’s Day Looks

EEEP! My favorite month (next to December, of course) is right around the corner. I love blush, I love pops of red, I love a bold lip, I love roses and peonies… basically, February was made for me. We celebrate our anniversary and Valentine’s Day this month, so I am always in search of a couple fun outfits for date nights. I rounded up some of my favorite items currently in my two favorite online boutiques. The last few months, I have bought most of my new pieces from one of these two shops! GASP, not from Nordstrom! They have really fun Valentine’s Day Collections, so I gathered my top finds for y’all to pick out your date night outfits, too.

Pink Lily

Pink and red all the way. I am all about just committing fully to a holiday. 😉 I love these cute looks for a cute and flirty date night!

Red Dress Boutique

Accessories

Shoes

I love these shoes and they’re so affordable! All are great options to pair with a cute look, whether fancier or casual.

Dresses

Tops and Bottoms

Thanksgiving Outfits

Can you believe it?! Next week is Halloween and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. If you like to plan ahead like I do, then you might already be looking for the perfect outfits for Thanksgiving or a more casual family Christmas photo shoot (remember, we are doing formal so I shared formal ideas last week here!)

Today I rounded up from my favorite online boutique, Pink Lily, tons of fun sweaters, skirts, and cardigans to make for the best cozy fall looks! Mix and match between them all for a look that fits you best.

Sweaters:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 

Bottoms:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 

I am SO into this mini skirt trend happening right now. I own #4, but I think #1 is going to have to happen STAT!

Dresses: 

1 | 2

I own this burgundy one and feel like a million bucks every time I wear it. It’s also INCREDIBLY flattering! 

Jackets/Cardigans/Sweatshirts 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

I own this leopard jacket and the state appliqué sweatshirt. I wear them both often and get so many compliments. You can wear that leopard jacket over a tee shirt with jeans, with a fun skirt, with leggings and a longer tee shirt or blouse… it’s not as scary as you think it is!! 

Formal Christmas Outfit Ideas

Hey, hey friends!! Can you believe it?!?! I don’t know about you, but our family Christmas photos are in two weeks and I can’t hardly stand it. I took a poll on IG and the vote was nearly unanimous… FORMAL for our photos this year. I am so freaking excited. The only gown I ever wore was my wedding dress and a sorority formal I went to in college. I didn’t wear a gown to my senior prom, which is SO SAD looking back. But, whatevs. I get to play dress-up now all I want hehe 😉 So we are doing formal with Cottonwood Road Photography in two weeks, and I had a few people ask to share outfit ideas. (I can’t wait to show you what we are cooking up with Dillard’s!!)

Last year’s photos are here on Pinterest and then you’ll also find our Christmas photo shoot from the year before, which doubled as our maternity! You can see pics from both. I hope this helps inspire and give directions or your own Christmas photos this year. I value good photos SO MUCH and am so thankful for every photo shoot we’ve ever done. Don’t get stressed out about what you’re wearing or anything like that. Have fun and maybe our links below will ease the stress of all that for you.

xoxo,

Han

Last year’s casual shoot is here!

Baby:

Her:

Him:

Chelcey Tate x The Cake Shop Special Fall Collection!

YOU GUYS! I am so freaking excited that it is FINALLY HERE. LAUNCH DAY HAS ARRIVED! Available October 8th, 7 PM CST. *insert high pitched squeals here!*

Chelcey and I have been working on this for months, and I can’t believe you guys finally get to see these and get them for yourselves. This is without a doubt my most anticipated collection to ever launch, which just makes me love all of you EVEN MORE. You have reminded me just how many of us found one another and bonded though squares on an app over Gilmore Girls and You’ve Got Mail. Like… there are so many of you.

I wanted to take a moment to introduce the amazingly talented Chelcey Tate of Chelcey Tate Designs who is the artist behind all these amazing designs you see in today’s launch. I literally gave phrases and she brought them all to life. Chelcey isn’t one to toot her own horn… So I will gladly toot it for her. She has featured pieces in Target *yes, like right now!*, designed the Valentine’s Day Krispy Kreme boxes a few years ago, AND did a fun one-off collection with former Bachelorette, Kaitlyn Bristowe. Legit… that is only the surface of all she has done. She is so talented and I am so thankful this crazy world of social media introduced us to one another a couple years ago. It’s an honor to have worked on this fun fall collection with a sweet, beautiful inside-out, fellow Gilmore Girls lover, and hard working self-employed mama. Every single sweatshirt you guys buy from this collection goes toward the both of us continuing our businesses, fueling our creativity, and -above all else- being a mommy first and foremost to our babies.

Introducing the Chelcey Tate x The Cake Shop Fall Collection

New York in the Fall Sweatshirt, featured on a stunning shade of caramel, $40.

If you know… you know. If you don’t, what’s wrong with you? Only kind of kidding… This is straight from my favorite movie of all time. EVER. You’ve Got Mail! It’s true, if I knew where you lived, I, too, would send you a bouquet of sharpened pencils. But in the mean time, I can give you this sweatshirt instead. 😉

Stars Hollow Sweatshirt on a vintage blue Comfort Colors Sweatshirt, $48.

Raise your hand if you’ve been around here since The Cake Shop launched its FIRST collection almost 3 years ago! We launched with a tribute to the reboot of our favorite show of all time, and now we have a new tribute to our favorite town from our favorite show of all time! It’s true, I really would rather be in Stars Hollow.

Lorelai Gilmore Jumbo Coffee Sweatshirt, $45

“It’s a jumbo coffee morning. I need coffee in an I.V.” We couldn’t agree more, Lor. In fact we agree so much that we’ve created a whole sweatshirt with a nod to our favorite TV gal who had her priorities right all the time…

1. COFFEE 2. COFFEE 3. COFFEE.

Spread Kindness Dusty Rose Sweatshirt, $40

It just wouldn’t be a special collab if we didn’t do an exclusive design of our life’s motto, now would it? Find The Cake’s mantra on a gorgeous shade of dusty rose with a charcoal lettering. It’s soft, the perfect thickness, and will make the world a little bit sweeter because YOU are in it. I don’t believe buying a tee or sweatshirt will change the world. But I definitely believe YOU can. This is your friendly reminder to everybody you come in contact with that kindness is a piece o’ cake to spread thick, generously, and without reserve.

 

3 Things That Changed Our Budget & Created Margin

Heya babes! Today I am sharing about that dreaded “B Word”… Budget. WHOA WHOA, what word did you think I meant!? Ok, just kidding. BUT, for real. How many of us hate the word “budget?” I used to hate talking about the budget, money, or anything of the sort because I just didn’t want to know. This was, of course, no help to my husband who was trying to keep us on track.

For 2019, the word that Paul felt on his heart for our family was “margin.” We felt this was for our time, family, and money. I am sharing today 3 things we use that has brought margin for our family’s finances with the hopes it will do the same for you.

  1. I took over the budget. We decided to do this for a couple reasons- one of them being to make me feel the weight of our money. And now that I have… I ain’t going to lie… I freaking love it. Like, neither of us want to go back to Paul doing it. It’s become a GAME to me. I love running our budget. I love knowing how much value even $5 spent here and there is, and how quickly it adds up and cuts into our margin. I literally look at my budget spreadsheet every.single.day. I legit asked Paul today as I left the house, “Hey babe, can you make sure lights are off when you leave? The electricity bill was high last month.” LOL. WHO AM I?! I encourage you, if you don’t know your family’s budget or are like how I used to be (“I just don’t wanna know”), then I would seriously consider running your budget even just a one month commitment with your spouse. This will help you both!
  2. Twine App. Paul started using Twine as our external savings account. We found it way too easy to “steal” from our savings when it was in our bank account. If we really wanted to establish margin, we needed to remove that savings account from our grasp altogether. We send money over every month and it is accruing interest like a true Savings Account. It helps you set goals, too! It’s so great.
  3. Robin Hood/Stocks. You guys, this one has been a game changer for us. Like, life-changing. As part of his mission to create margin for our family, Paul began educating himself on stocks. We have some big goals to pay off everything but our mortgage as quickly as possible (cars, school, etc.), and this has been HUGE for us. We are talking a side income for our family FROM STOCKS. Robin Hood helps manage your stock investments easily and is linked to your bank. We have a healthy number in there we keep for daily investments, and Paul sends the surplus he’s made that week to our bank. He has really figured out a system that’s almost fool-proof. However, we don’t budget this profit into our monthly budget just in case there’s a low week or month. I assess what we made and allocate the earnings accordingly toward debt. As of now, Robin Hood is our debt payer and it’s been such a blessing!

Whether you do these exact steps, or you figure out something else that works for you, I hope you know you CAN create margin with your budget. It takes getting everybody (yes YOU!) on board with unified goals. You can do this, y’all!! You can spend and save wisely, and steward your money well. We are cheering you on!

|| Get in Touch ||

thecakebyhannah@gmail.com

LET’S GET SOCIAL

|| Don’t Forget ||

Eat cake, be merry & kind
your info