entertaining

arlos under the sea 3rd birthday (at home)

06.30.20

you know i love to setup a cute party, so even though we’re stuck at home i didn’t let that stop me! i asked arlo way too many times what theme he wanted for his birthday this year, and i thought for sure he’d choose daniel tiger (which i was planning to be a fun creative challenge for me on how to keep it elevated looking) but to my surprise he chose under the sea because he looooves the soundtrack of little mermaid and sebastian. after confirming with him for like 8 days straight, we went with under the sea.

i must say, i was a little weirded out about making a party for nobody, but arlo loved it just being us. he got to have the big exciting moment of seeing our dining room transformed and eating all the sweets we baked, without having to feel overstimulated by a bunch of party guests.   Read More

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tips

how to deep clean your dish rags

06.22.20

this post is in partnership with 20 Mule Team Borax

being stuck at home for as long as we have now, my dish towels and cloth napkins have gotten GAHHH-rooose. from all the cooking and cleaning, i noticed within two weeks of quarantine how funky everything was smelling.and when i was posting on instagram complaining about it, i got soooo many messages saying you guys were having the same issues. i moved them into their own basket in the kitchen, so that they would stay separated from our clothes, i tried soaking in vinegar prior to washing in the machine. nothing really worked to get the mildewy stench out until i tried using Borax recently.

Borax is an all-natural laundry booster and multi-purpose cleaner that you can use in a ton of different ways, you can use to clean your kitchen, your laundry and all over your house. for the #boostwithborax challenge you may have seen that i took part in on instagram, i used Borax to make a laundry pre-soak for all my kitchen towels before i washed them. this works well for odor, but also tough stains (i also did all of arlos clothes that have been getting thrashed from the crafting we’ve done at home)  Read More

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diy / kid things / our house

our playroom mural

06.16.20

This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware
I received compensation and product, but all opinions and
content are my own

when we fixed up the playroom / the studio last year i was sooo happy with it, but the giant wall you see straight on when you enter the room always felt sort of challenging to me. i tried a few different pieces of art and eventually decided to just paint a cute simple canvas to hang– but overall it still felt … underwhelming to me. so finally i decided to add an easy mural to the wall to make it feel really special in here. my mom had a window with a teeny far away castle painted in my bedroom as a kid and i will never forget it. i used to stare at it every night before i went to bed. it’s those special things that mean so much to kids, so i really hope arlo always remembers this sun fondly (and while we’re at it maybe all of the projects i’ve done for him over the years lol)

i teamed up again with Ace Hardware, and i’ve always been so happy working with them– but this time they sent me a sample color from their 2020 color trends, vanilla chai by clark+kensington (N-W9), and it was actually so perfect for me so i just used that without hesitation! it’s the perfect peachy neutral that is basically my dream paint color (ps i used it in the parents bedroom of arlos dollhouse i’m working on too!)

painting a fun accent wall or mural can feel daunting, especially if you aren’t the most artistic, so it helps to come up with an easy design like this. i was brainstorming lots of challenging ideas and intricate murals, but am so glad i went with something simple. this only took me roughly two naps to complete and i barely needed help from gid whatsoever!

while we’re all stuck at home, a project like this is the perfect creative project. idk about you but if i have a creative outlet i’m working on, it always helps me get through things. i can’t remember the last day of quarantine i wasn’t working on something haha.

so before i get into how i painted the giant sun, here is a reminder of what the wall looked like before!

ok not to toot my own horn but WOW I REALLY LOVE IT!!!! lol. it just feels so happy in here now. it’s clearly hand painted but i sort of love that. Read More

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father's day / gift guide

fathers day gift guide

06.01.20

this post is in partnership with manscaped

fathers day is right around the corner and i’m keeping up with the content this year!! even if things where you are happen to open up by fathers day– i’m still focusing mostly on staying at home for this gift guide! and since shipping is taking so long these days i thought i’d share as early as i could. here are some things that i verified with gid he would love lol.  Read More

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kid things / recipes

super easy strawberry galette

05.28.20

arlo has been a liiittle less into baking lately, so i’ve been trying to come up with really quick recipes to keep him interested. i’ve never made a fruit pie before, so i’m v intimidated, but a galette seemed way easier — and if you make with store bought pie dough, then it literally takes 10 minutes!!

AND the best part of this recipe was that arlo was able to do almost every step on his own. i barely helped!! i’m so proud.

i always err on the side of easy so store bought dough is A-OK with me, but since this is sooo easy, i’m thinking next time i want to try making the dough and maybe trying a fruit pairing too.

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diy

how to do neutral tie dye

05.21.20

seems to be a quarantine rite of passage to tie-dye and you know i’m all about trying to stay cool lol. we’ve actually been tie dying for years (we even almost started a side biz selling tie dye swaddles when we first had arlo but never followed through lol). but we haven’t done in so long so i was really excited to see the results were still cool! it’s always so risky because unless you’re an expert, you’re basically just winging it and hoping it turns out not ugly. i love tie dye of all varieties but am loving how subtle and neutral these ones turned out. so i hope my instructions and video help if you want to try it out yourself!

and of course we had to take a family portrait in our matching tie dye…

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kid things

sesame street collage puppet craft

05.18.20

arlo definitely gets more excited about a craft when it’s themed around something he loves, so when i suggested we make elmo and grover he was immediately into it. this project was super easy and took up an entire pre-nap block of the day and he never got bored and left during it either!

definitely finding that the projects that require less setup prior to him getting involved are better for both of us.  Read More

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