• loving where i live, now

    ok wow this is a long time coming, but i have some big news today. big news for our house anyway haha. i’ve decided that i’m going to fix up our house and make it my style, today.

    there was a big chain of events that went down that caused me to stop caring about our house — here’s how it went:

    1. after so many years of young adulthood and serial redecorating, i realized that i loved beige the most and if i decorated with more neutral pieces, i’d find myself craving redecorating less. i made our house very neutral and i felt at peace. and i was so proud of myself for keeping furniture for longer periods of time than i ever had before!
    2. the pandemic happened. we never left our house and i realized i wanted a new house. we started the process of house hunting and it was really hard, because the inventory was insanely limited and i didn’t want to settle for a house that didn’t have all the things we were looking for in our budget, when we were also perfectly comfortable in our existing house. (in retrospect was i too picky? perhaps, but i can’t think of a single house that we saw that i would have ended up being happy in)
    3. i had my first miscarriage and that began a long challenging journey that basically consumed everything in my entire life. i was in such a dark place and feels like i lost my passion for anything besides having a baby.
    4. then i decided i wanted to move again. i would save inspiration and ideas to secret dream house pinterest boards and have so much planned for my future home. why would i bother making changes to my house when we’re gonna move?! (i did add grass and do izzy’s nursery but still felt this way) my style has changed and evolved over the years and looking around my house… a lot of it isn’t even my taste anymore. i’m not even into boho!!!!
    5. interest rates skyrocketed and house prices never went down, and it became apparent we aren’t moving right now.
    6. i had an epiphany (and also my bff telling me) that i should just redecorate my house to my taste now and stop living in limbo. i should enjoy where i live NOW. my house used to be my thing! i shared it all the time and was more of a home account than anything else. i’ve let it become so unimportant to me and that makes me sad when i take a step back! BUT NOT ANYMORE.

    so suddenly i became OBSESSED with redoing the entire house. i have mood boards and pinterest boards and full shopping carts all over the internet, so i need to chill out a bit, but i’m going to make my house a place i want to be again. i am bored just looking at it at this point.

    i talked recently on instagram about feeling like i’m in a rut, with my creativity, my career, i guess all of it. i think that this will really help.

    first up, we’re gonna do the dining nook!

    … yes you heard me right. yes i just did the dining nook, but i’m going to do it better this time.

    and i should say, i’m not doing any major reno projects, this is mostly just changing out things to better suit my taste now.

    come back tomorrow and i’ll share the plan!!

    and ps, yes i still want to move. and i am still considering a big move, but i think right now this will bring me joy and i hope you too.

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    toys my 6 year old actually wants

    this post is in partnership with walmart

    arlo is now at the age where curating aesthetic toys is totally ancient history. all he wants now are all the cliche boy toys, no wood here. but i still get pretty excited when i find him a toy i know he’s gonna freak out about. and because i’ve probably gotta play with them too, they should at least be fun!

    walmart not only has so many good toys from all the major toy brands, but every single one of these toys was delivered SAME DAY to my house! i was actually not expecting it, so i had to find hiding places all over my house right away (iykyk). walmart is always super reliable for having the lowest prices, and i checked on some of these “hot toys” priced elsewhere and was super happy that i spent less.

    they also released a toy catalog from walmart this year!! arlo finds nothing more exciting than scouring through a toy catalog. but i found these all on my own (pretty much). here’s what i ended up getting for him for christmas and hanukkah this year (and i want you to know i used my own money on these!) :

    the jurassic park animatronic puppet— i mean i feel like this toy was designed for arlo specifically lol. plus he lovesss baby blue so i ended up getting that one.

    lego dreamzzz turtle van — we LOVE the lego dreamzzz sets, they are so weird and fun.

    teenage mutant ninja turtles mutant mayhem pizza fire delivery van — i mean, it’s a van that shoots pizza. of course he wants this thing.

    spider-man super web slinger role-play toy— this one is more of a gamble because he’s not as into spiderman as the other stuff, but he LOVES dressing up and role playing of all kinds, pretty sure he’s going to be obsessed with this.

    i have honestly NEVER felt this confident about his gifts, i guess this age is kind of cool because you really, really know your kids and what they’re gonna like at this point.


    i scoured walmart for more toy options for 5-7 year olds both boys and girls below (there are probably more boy toys because that’s my world right now, but i tried!)

  • our spooky porch

    we went harder in the front yard than we have ever this year– because every year older that arlo becomes the more he wants our house to look like spooky houses we go visit haha.

    ghosts

    these diy glowing ghosts are living outside and totally setting the spooky vibe with their lit eyes.

    skeleton

    it’s sold out AGAIN at the moment, but keep checking– i’ll be sure to update on instagram when it’s back like i always do.

    bats

    these might not stay up outside, but so far they have. i’m assuming the sticky backing they came with works best on glass.

    fog machine

    this also totally sets the vibe. it’s annoying that you have to do it manually, but anything under $50 will be that way. ours comes with a remote that changes the color too.

    flickering lightbulb

    this is super effective, i can’t believe i’ve never gotten one of these before! i swapped out our normal bulb and replaced with this one and it looks like a spooky candle is lighting our porch.

    pumpkins

    i got a bunch of the beigey fairytale pumpkins from vons, but they also have them at trader joes. i linked to some faux ones below as well, we haven’t carved pumpkins yet this year!

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    halloween movies and shows to watch with kids

    got some requests to share some kid friendly halloween movies and shows so i asked my followers on instagram to share their faves, since we’ve mostly watched this one scary episode of little mermaid tv show all month long haha. so many good suggestions!

    also, i included photos of each one because arlo is super visual and it sometimes helped him to see pictures of what he was watching before he watched it to brace himself when he was little! haha.

    (updated 2023)

    Read More

  • the best things on sale for prime day

    there’s another prime day happening today and tomorrow, so i thought you should know about some of my favorite deals happening. 

    i love stocking up on essentials during sale events like these– so i’ll probably be grabbing puffs for izzy, a bottle of bioderma, non-sexy things like that. 

    there are also plenty of sexy sale finds like the frame tv, my gold flatware, the viral eufy hand vac and lots loooots more… here are a few roundups of things on sale but there is lots more to shop over on my storefront.

    prime day favorite home finds

    prime day favorite kid finds

    some of my favorite things on sale

    i’ll be adding to my storefront as i see new sales, so make sure to keep checking there!

    shop my storefront here

  • my fave things this month : september


    ok a little late this month, but i was very busy putting izzy’s birthday party together. here are things i used and loved the most in september.

    wide brim crochet hat

    i’d been looking for a wider brim hat for a while that wasn’t hundreds of dollars, and i found this one that’s made to order and you can customize how wide you want it! i’m very happy with it.

    zit stickas

    i’ve been breaking out a little more than usual this month and stealing these from gid. THEY ARE AMAZING. they’re zit stickers that have microdarts in the patch. i don’t love that the packaging feels wasteful and they’re super expensive per sticker, but these things really work on the giant honkers.

    my tiny crossbody woven bag

    i’ve been loving this little purse, because i can also just throw it into my gym or diaper bag so i don’t have to transfer my stuff back and forth all the time.

    dae hair oil

    i got this to use after showers before air drying my hair, and my hair already feels way more hydrated and shinier!!

    ribbed button front vest

    i am obsessed with this vest — it’s super comfortable, flattering and i feel like i can dress it up and down easily. it looks good with all my soft pants too which i can’t say for every top i own! it’s just so cute i highly recommend it!

    my phone strap

    this thing is so good compared to using all the popsockets and loops and all the things that hurt my fingers. it’s way more comfortable, i can hold my phone securely with it, i can use tripods and phone mounts and wireless chargers all without having to remove it. big fan!

    plaid quilted jacket

    very into this jacket i got recently, it’s lightweight and the perfect boxy cropped length for me (i sized down and got an XS)

    izzy’s play tent

    i got this for izzy’s bday party and both kids love playing in here so much.

    miami muse body spray skull

    ok so i still haven’t found THE scent, but i got this at the mall recently and, as a millennial, i am loving dousing myself like i used to– totally 1999 love spell vibes. it smells really good and it’s inexpensive! for now, i’m enjoying it.

  • printable halloween bucket list

    i’ve done many seasonal bucket lists but for some reason never a specific halloween one! well that obviously had to change.

    we always have SO many plans and activities and things we want to make every october, so this list is going to be much fuller once arlo gets to it, but here are a few things we put on every year.

    i changed it up and decided to design the bucket to list to look like a spooky tarot card, so i hope you like it!!! would love to see them in action.

    click here to download the printable

    as always, printables are for personal use only

    FOR best results, download the file and print from your finder versus from your browser window

  • diy glowing ghosts

    tomato cage ghosts are all the rage right now — but we came up with a fun spin to make their eyes lit up! it makes it extra spooooky especially at night. sorry i didn’t take a photo of said night but i’m sure you can take my word for it.


    we had these lights already because gid just got them for sticking in random stuff for halloween haha — they are small battery powered lantern lights that are perfect for this, because you can screw them to turn them on and off but the batteries actually last for so long.

    i also just used our actual sheets without cutting them up because a. i want to use them again and didn’t want to ruin my sheets or go buy something and b. actual ghosts always use full bed sheets duh.

    i’m hoping we can use these year after year and honestly the fact that they won’t have fabric on them means they probably will end up a lot less gross in our garage by next year.

    materials

    tomato cageS
    craft ball (ours are 7.6″ diameter)
    LED mini lantern lights
    white sheet

    directions

    01. plop your foam ball right on top of the tomato cage (upside down!)

    02. carve small holes into the face where you want to stick the eyes. stick the lights into the holes and screw them to turn them on!

    03. cover with some bedsheets and go startle someone!

  • autumn playlist

    there’s just something about cooking in autumn with music and a glass of wine right??? so i made a new playlist for that exact occasion. but you can totally listen to it whenever you want too, i suppose.

    listen to the playlist here

  • almost makes monthly 9/23

    listening to : my autumn playlist

    watching : only murders in the building s3 and based on a true story (true crime podcast related shows this month only? lol)

    eating : i made molly baz’s caesar salad this month and i am def gonna start making more often

    wearing : the most comfortable pull on pants in the world (size down)

    izzy’s first birthday is coming up next week and i’m finally weaning this weekend, officially. so i’ve been feeling very emotional about how fast this year went and how much she’s grown and all of it. she’s gotten extra sweet and cuddly with me since i started weaning and it’s been the best. my friend worded it as i’m at the end of this journey and i got a little weepy about looking at it like that.

    i guess i’m realizing this month was mostly about self care for me. after a disruptive summer with both kids home, i was able to finally do a lot of much needed doctor appointments and take care of myself. i ended up going to the dermatologist and spontaneously had a mole removed on my face that’s bothered me for years. i’m really proud of myself actually for making a decision that would be scary and painful, but maybe bring me some contentedness ultimately. (kind of like what moving could be …?)

    i’ve also been training with a girl twice a week and it’s been time consuming and hard, but it’s been nice to prioritize myself and i’m trying to get my body back to where i was pre-pregnancy. i’m not quite there but maybe soon?? i’ve even gotten a massage! work fell by the wayside but at least i saw every doctor haha.


    we celebrated our 9th anniversary this week, we finally went to motherwolf and it was so good! we’re going to continue this weekend, today i’m going to a hotel for a solo night and tomorrow gid will join me for a night. very very exciting!

    looking forward to having izzy’s party next weekend, then shifting gears and getting to focus on the holidays and the coziest season.

    happy october 🙂