January’s Favorite Five

Hello and WHOA! We are half way through January?! I hope this month has been refreshing and life-giving for you as you’ve pressed “restart” on your routines and getting back into the swing of life post-holidays. Today I have a list of my favorite five items I am using in my life that I think you’ll love, too!

  1. Against All Grain, Meals Made Simple: I love Danielle Walker and have slowly added all of her cookbooks to my shelves. She has great allergy-friendly family meals for us to make that everybody loves, and this cookbook in particular is family-friendly and QUICK.
  2. Cusinart 15 pc. Knives Set: We’ve needed new knives for ages, but I haven’t wanted to spend $500 on a “good” set. I have kept coming back to this one though, because the amount of reviews is mind-blowing for the star rating it has earned! I bought them and LOVE them. I cut through a large carrot the other day and had forgotten this is what it is supposed to feel like cutting vegetables.
  3. Foam Activity Set: We bought this for Rory for Christmas and it’s the best thing we have for the boys to play with currently. It basically just stays in my living room right now because they play with it all day together. We build castles, we build ramps and drive our bikes off of it… it’s the best.
  4. Studio Mcgee x Threshold Artwork for Living Room: I have been so afraid to hang things on my walls out of fear there’s something else out there I would love more. Sorta like #fomo but for home decor? But I am starting to commit and hang things to fill the walls of my home! I found these two pieces from Target in the Studio Mcgee line and I love them. They added so much to my living space for such great prices!
  5. Matte Liquid Lipstick: Without fail, any time I wear this lip color, I will get asked what I have on. It’s so beautiful and it goes on easily + smudge-free! You can’t go wrong with any of the shades, but I own

Top 10 items from this year

This year I moved into a new home, so naturally a lot of my top items purchased by me/you are related to the home! It’s been so fun as I really step into my love for home design to define my personal style and hone in on what that is. Modern and Coastal Transitional is where I see I lean toward. When you hear coastal, it’s not seashells. It’s California “cool”. The neutral spaces with natural elements mixed with metals and some more industrious accents. Studio Mcgee is my main inspiration for all things design, and you can find a lot of their pieces in my home! The Target line with Studio McGee is the best thing that came in 2020 with our new home! 😉

As for the rest, my platform converse with my Madewell jeans are a consistent pairing. They just lay perfectly together! The popular back massager you’ve seen everybody post about … I can now assure you it’s worth the hype. I use my Always Pan daily, my quilted jacket from Target (comes in tons of looks and colors) feels lux for less, and my Chloe perfume has been my scent for 3 years now. I added their new Nomade scent to my line-up and I love it!

Shop all my favorites below from 2021!

Top Items:

Amazon’s Popular Back Massager | Always Pan | Sam Edelman Boot | Platform Converse | Madewell Vintage Straight Jean | Casa Luna Comforter and Sheets | Quilted Jacket from Target (Luxury look for less!) | Chloe perfume (My hands down favorite scent still three years later!) | Beaded Chandelier for Dining Room | Side Tables for Master Bedroom

5 Things for Fall

Last week we had our first real cold front and it got me giddy. I love cooler weather. I love the change of seasons. With it rolls in a new hope for what’s to come in the months ahead. New dreams, new perspectives, new adventures. With the official coming of fall, I have slowly been prepping my home and closet for the season and I wanted to share my top 5 favorite purchases so far!

  1. Mauve Hat (Also available in 3 other neutral colors): I love a good hat, and this one is just so pretty! If you have a smaller head, try wearing a headband underneath to keep it in place.
  2. Matte Liquid Lipstick: I own “Sell Out” and it’s the perfect deep toned pinky burgundy. I love it and it lasts for hours. ZERO smudge. It’s the perfect addition to a fall look.
  3. Pumpkins for the fireplace! I lined my mantle with an assortment of these and love it! Instantly adds a touch of the season without an overkill or feeling gimmicky.
  4. Chunky Neutral Yarn Throw: My besties saw this on my wishlist and included it in a gift basket for me after our loss. I love it so much, and I think it’s so beautiful. It can be added to the corner of literally ANY style of living room and look great. It’s a cozy autumn touch.
  5. Mary Jane Flats: These are very in this season, and I am so here for it. I love the prep fall trend for the season and low-key hope it never goes away. I love girly, chic style and there’s so much available this year! I have two very different price points below for you to shop!

My Table Top Books

Decorating the top of my dresser was a first endeavor for me as it’s my first true dresser I have ever owned in my adult life. [I know… haha]. I actually really didn’t even know how to decorate a dresser and had to sift through a ton of Pinterest photos before I felt confident. I ended up going with table top aka coffee table books as my focal points and I sifted through dozens before landing on what I did. I saved tons to my cart that I loved and then narrowed down the selections aesthetically and topically that I felt paired best together/matched our lives best.

If you don’t know this about me, I love Lucille Ball and grew up watching I Love Lucy. I had I Love Lucy memorabilia and have definitely seen every episode more times than anybody out there, I am certain. I even wrote my Texas college entry essay about how Lucy was the impactful person in my life, and I guess it worked because I got into every Texas school I applied to. I had my AP English teacher in the back of my head when I received my prompt saying “Whatever you do, if you get “Write about somebody who impacted your life”… don’t do your mom or dad or a grandparent.” So, I chose Lucy. Putting her as a focal point on my dresser just made sense. The others I chose aesthetically more than anything, although I love Liz Marie Galvan and have followed her for years! Blush and natural tones were the main lure to all the ones I went with! I would look at my options in the cart side by side, making sure everything went well together.

A Summer Soiree at Home

My 29th birthday party was intentionally a tiny gathering with the girls who truly carried me through the last year. It was the most difficult year, full of heartache and disappointments, and yet I actually somehow had one of my favorite years even still. It was 100% because of the women I call my best friends. I don’t take it lightly that I am blessed with a genuine group of women who seriously love each other equally. We fight for one another, love our differences, and not only embrace these differences but actively learn about them to better our friendships. If there’s a personality test, we’ve all done it [most likely together] and discussed it for hours, later using it as as a tool in our toolbox for things that arise between us as we ARE all so different.

To celebrate the girls who made what should have been an awful year not only bearable but a blast, I honored THEM with a special dinner. I told them to wear a dress that makes them feel like a goddess in the blush/cream or floral aesthetic and to come ready for a secret garden inspired soiree. Originally envisioned as a dinner party under the stars, Texas decided to be unbearably hot after weeks of unseasonably cool temperatures, so I moved it inside. We all looked too beautiful to die of heat stroke 😉 I knew I wanted good food, a table that seated us all comfortably, a lot of flowers, and a variety of our favorite bottles of wine. We had Etta James ringing in the background all night long and it felt like we lived in a different time for just a night.

I wrote a toast to each girl, celebrating the thing they taught me through the year of heartache that I truly see in them. None of it was blowing smoke or needing to come up with something to live up to the rest… it’s incredible who God has surrounded me with. They all are the most beautiful women, inside-out. Writing a toast to each of them was so easy. I wept my way around the table, cheers-ing a toast to each as we all nodded and cried in agreement. These women walked a similar path this year in some respects, all of us have a bond over a life change we didn’t ask for but knew had to happen. But, we also have women who lost another baby and then got pregnant with a rainbow. We have women who lost friends and family. We have women who have struggled with deep anxiety because of autoimmune diseases but confidently champion others regardless of what’s happening behind closed doors. We have women who are infectious about what they love, inherently making everybody love it, too. We have women who are so selfless they make sure everybody else is having a great time even if they need help themselves. We have women who can literally talk to anybody, anywhere and connect with them as though they’ve been lifelong friends, and it always somehow ends with a conversation about God. We have women who teach us that confrontation isn’t a bad thing and is actually a great tool to resolve peace in our lives.

I could go on and on, and sadly there were a few of the people in my life who couldn’t make it this night. But dang, I am so lucky. This goes down in the books as my favorite birthday party ever. It was so special, intimate, and just felt like me. Paul stood in the kitchen as we all were about to eat and he said, “wow, this is so you.” It felt magical!

For my secret garden soiree, I used the following vendors:

The Styled Affair: Farmhouse table and table setting (8-10 seats)

Unrefined Bakery: Raspberry Lemon Cake with Sprinkles added on top

Caterer: Paul Morrison (hehe) But honestly… Y’all. Traeger has changed our life. My husband cooked our entire spread of salmon, chicken, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, and grilled pineapple. And it was THE best. The girls said it was arguably the best chicken they’ve ever had. IF you’ve ever considered buying a Traeger… do it. I mean it. Do it. (We have our Traeger Grill Shop, here!)

Costco: 4 bouquets of roses – wholesale price and BEAUTIFUL! I have used Costco florist for multiple big events in my life and they never disappoint!

Dress: Vici Dolls *I bought small with the hopes it wouldn’t be too big (usually an XS in dresses) and it fit GREAT!*

Paper Goods:

I made each girl take a photo with my new camera because they’re just so lovely. I wanted them to leave with a photo of themselves they loved! I mean… can you EVEN with how beautiful they all are?

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