i am OBSESSED with lamps these days! once you start putting them all over your house, you realize your life is better and you need them everywhere. just me??? it has become a favorite cozy ritual to go around the house and turn on all the lamps when the sun starts going down and now we will almost NEVER have to turn on the overhead lights either! lamp o’clock!!!
in izzys room, i added this cute little lamp with a dimmer (EVERYTHING MUST BE DIMMABLE). before that i got a floor lamp for our living room and a teeny little pleated guy in the kitchen. now i’m thinking our bedroom probably needs a floor lamp too?? lol.
it’s a real slippery slope but if you want to incorporate some lamps into your own home, i found some good ones! table lamps, floor lamps, wall lamps, why ever stop finding cute lamps?!
all of these posts i need to write but i never end up finishing them! i’m still working on the big registry post but in the meantime, here are things i couldn’t have survived without postpartum.
i tried to keep it as simple and concise as i could, there were things i may have used that i didn’t include but i think these were the most important! i included a couple that i used with arlo but not as much with izzy, because they were very different babies!
silverette cups
these are going to be my #1 recommendation always. if you are nursing, i swear by these things. you won’t need any creams, any products, the silver in these do all the healing so quickly you’ll need and once your nipples toughen up you can stop using them.
they’re weird to wear and look ridiculous, but they work. i brought them to the hospital with me and wore them from day 1, and never had bleeding / cracking / anything. i did have some pain when they weren’t on, so i’d just make sure to wear them as often as i could and soon i was able to stop.
WORTH EVERY PENNY! (and pretty sure you gotta get the legit expensive silver ones for them to actually work)
arlo has finally gotten to the age where i just don’t think i can handle hosting his birthday parties at home! i think most people start going out much sooner than us, but i’ve loved having home parties so i can go all out on the themes, i just can’t do it anymore if we’re going to have to invite school friends and such! luckily izzy is still a baby so there will be plenty of home parties still lolllll …
anyway along with my intense researching, i also asked instagram for some suggestions of places to host parties and was kindly offered many, so i thought i should share them all with you in case you’re looking too!
better late than never! the oscars are this weekend and i wanted to make sure those of you who use my ballot every year wouldn’t be disappointed and have to use some like 12% less cuter ballot yuck!!
i’m behind on oscar movies every year, but this year especially!! i’ve seen ONE best picture nominee lol. and yes it was everything everywhere all at once. who knows, maybe i’ll watch triangle of sadness this week so that i’ve seen two.
izzy has since moved into her own room (and is sleeping way better now), so this whole setup is now just a distant nostalgic memory now, but it was really helpful to have our room setup all cozy for those foggy days versus having to constantly go to her room for things.
those first few weeks/months are exhausting, so having everything nearby and easily accessibly was really nice. i set most of this up prior to her arrival and it was really helpful, so i hope it will be for you too!
happy valentines day! i’ve always liked being extra on valentines but since having arlo its much more intense. i dress us both in pink and make everything heart shaped and hey right now we don’t have much going on so it’s pretty exciting.
we made this simple strawberry cake twice in the last two weeks, it’s so quick and easy and reaaaally good!! arlo is way more into fruity desserts versus chocolate, so when i asked him what he wanted to bake for valentines day he said lets make strawberry cake again lol.
this cake is so simple but i was asked a lot to reshare the recipe, so figured i’d put it here for a permanent residence. if you have a jar of jam, you can make this today!
strawberry jam cake
we love to make this simple strawberry cake for valentines day! basically all you need is a box of cake mix and jar of jam.
prepare the boxed cake mix and then add 1 cup of strawberry jam.
you could obviously also make a white cake from scratch and just add the jam!
for the frosting
in a mixer, cream 1 cup of room temperature butter with the remaining cup of jam. cream for about 2 minutes – and then gradually add the confectioners sugar, continue to mix. use less or more sugar depending on the consistency and taste you’re happy with.
Notes
we used sprinkles this time, but we also love to use freeze dried strawberries to decorate too. you could also try adding some to your cake mix as well!*recipe actually calls for 18oz but these cake mix companies have cheapened out of course and made cake mixes now 15oz standard
i did some printable bags like these years ago, and thought it was a cute simple project that would be fun to update! so i designed this sweet bag that i personally think would make someones day, especially filled with a treat.Read More
thought it would be fun to round up a bunch of cute classroom valentines you can buy or make with your kids– some are super ambitious, but most are easy enough to do with toddlers! Read More
a couple months before arlo was born, we renovated this bathroom. then a couple months before izzy was born — i fixed it up again! my nesting phase has a real issue with this room lol.
i was trying to go simple, fast and cheap when i renovated because we had very little time before arlos arrival, so i chose a super inexpensive floor tile and after a while i realized i’ve never really been in love with it. i even considered painting a pattern onto it but decided to just keep it as is because it’s nice enough.
