2017 Fall Favorites

Now that we’re almost done with October and it finally feels like fall here in Florida, I want to share all of my favorite things I’ve been eyeing. 

one | two | three | four | five | six | seven

I have a major crush on that ballet wrap sweater  (it’s perfect for nursing!) and that warm wooden essential oil diffuser would definitely be an upgrade to the plastic one I currently have sitting in the middle of the living room. And those agate coasters?! I’m not even sure I’d want to put a drink on them, they are so captivating with all those smokey blues.

Then of course, there’s the mid-century modern planter, also good for keeping babies from killing your succulents… because if they are within reach, babies will pluck your little succulent petals off one by one. RIP succulents, RIP.

Lastly, there’s the wooden bowl. When visiting Rhode Island I was able to bring back a wooden bowl my Grandfather had made back when he was still wood working. There’s something incredibly inviting about serving something in a wooden bowl. I’ve been craving all those fall earthy tones, and it doesn’t get more earthy than wood.

What are some of your favorite things this fall?

 

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Apple Picking in Rhode Island

Growing up I lived less than a mile from an apple orchard. In the autumn the air was thick with the smell of cider. I have a vivid memory of getting off the bus after school one late September afternoon where the wind whipped up the distinct smells of fresh apples and cinnamon, and also rotting leaves because it was always soggy in Rhode Island during the fall. But, I remember feeling so completely satisfied in that one moment.

Every year in elementary school we would tour a local apple farm. We picked apples and watched the cider being made. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise when I say I have some sweet memories of apple orchards and apple picking. So, when we vacationed in Rhode Island this past month I made sure to take Emerson apple picking. It was a cloudy, overcast day and misting just enough to see the tiny droplets of water. Yet, even with our finicky weather and the fact that the apple trees were pretty small this year, it didn’t stop Emmie from having a ball. But perhaps her favorite thing about apple picking wasn’t picking the apples at all, it was running up and down the rows of growing pumpkins at the farm with her Grand-dad.  Vera even got in on the action by sampling some dirt. With our apple picking adventure we’re once step closer to completing our fall bucket list.

Looking for things to do with a toddler in Rhode Island during the fall? Apple picking is a great toddler activity for your kids while visiting Rhode Island.

Looking for things to do with a toddler in Rhode Island during the fall? Apple picking is a great toddler activity for your kids while visiting Rhode Island.

Looking for things to do with a toddler in Rhode Island during the fall? Apple picking is a great toddler activity for your kids while visiting Rhode Island.

Looking for things to do with a toddler in Rhode Island during the fall? Apple picking is a great toddler activity for your kids while visiting Rhode Island.

Looking for things to do with a toddler in Rhode Island during the fall? Apple picking is a great toddler activity for your kids while visiting Rhode Island.

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Happy Wife, Happy Life

You know that saying, “Happy wife, happy life” well, that is very true around this house. On days where I don’t get out of the house everyone is a bit cranky in the evenings. If I’m not feeling well everyone is a little agitated because my patience wears thin early on. If I’ve had a great day, or am hopped up on caffeine, everyone is all smile… usually. I mean I do have a three year old and you know what they’re like. *insert eye roll here as 3 year old has a mega drama meltdown over the fact she wanted to go through the door first*

With that said here are a few things that are keeping me smiling recently:

1. All the Halloween things.
Maybe it’s the fact that Halloween revolves around one of my favorite things: dress up & costumes. I’m not into spooky, I’m not into scary, but boy, oh boy am I into dressing up and creating. Maybe this is where my intense love for Halloween comes from. I can remember as a girl painstakingly deciding what I wanted to be for Halloween and creating the perfect costume. Now, as a Mom, it’s even more fun since it combines my love of sewing & creating and of course, my two little love bugs. I’ve made all of Emmie’s Halloween costumes so far, but I’m not sure I will be creating a costume this year for her since she just wants to be Elsa – booooring. Hubby is trying to convince her to be a “spooky rat.” Hysterical. We’re leaning towards making Vera be a skunk just so that when she crawls around her big skunk tail will trail behind her.

2. Essential oils.
I looove me some good smelling candles, but lately candles have been bothering my lungs. So I stopped burning them. But the house is pretty smelly with two kids and a dog. I finally bit the bullet and hopped on the essential oil train and I don’t regret it. I love creating combos to diffuse & I have been slightly obsessed about using it in everything that goes on my body – face-wash, body-scrub, lotion, lip scrub, shave cream, shampoo… my husband has declared it’s my weirdest hobby to date. I am inclined to agree with him, but that won’t stop the crazy. OIL EVERYTHING. Except food. I don’t ingest them since I’m on so many meds that I wouldn’t want to risk an unknown interaction. I use these and these.

3. Sewing.
I’ve been making time to sew a few things here and there. After a mega meltdown about wearing a nightgown for the one millionth time in a row I promised Emerson we would go pick out some fabric together for a new nightgown. She picked “spooky spider fabric” and I whipped up a new nightgown. I also made a pumpkin dress, a ghost dress and have a skirt for both Emmie and Vera in the works. It feels so good to have physical proof of my time rather than a vague mental list of all the things I’ve done all day.

4. Coloring with Emmie.
We’ve been doing a lot of coloring lately and Emerson always begs for you to color with her. If I’m feeling stressed out I will sit iwth her and color. It’s a great way for me to spend a few minutes to relax and reset if the day has been stressful, and Emerson enjoys doing an activity with me. She’s been getting really good at coloring in the lines. We’ve been coloring so much our fancy markers are already drying out less than 2 months of use.

5. New home decor.
This is a lame one, but I recently bought these two big black lanterns. I wanted some more substantial to decorate the mantle with. After thinking about exactly what I wanted I finally gathered the courage to spend 60 dollars on two big lanterns. I also splurged and got remote controlled led candles. Yes, you read that right, remote controlled. They are awesome! Real wax, lightly vanilla scented and turn on and off via remote. The day we set them up Emmie and I took turns like two giddy idiots turning them on and off with the remote. “Ooooh! Look they’re on again. Okay okay my turn!!…oooh now they’re off! This is so cool. You try!” And so on. I won’t tell you how long we spent doing that for fear of embarrassment.

 

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 6 Months

My darling Vera. You have been in winning your way into our hearts now for a whole 6 months. From your distinctive laugh to your incessant need to be moving, it’s safe to say you’ve wiggled your way deep into our hearts and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

At 6 months you:

| have started eating solid foods: baby led weaning style & baby purees |

| still scoot along army crawl style |

| rock back and forth up on your knees |

| can push yourself up into an almost sitting position |

| try to pull up on things, and voice your frustration loudly when you can’t get up |

| are still not a great sleeper, but I’ve accepted it’s just part of who you are |

| love to grab faces, hair and when you’re nursing you pinch the back of my arm |

| are still infatuated with Emmie, following her around, laughing at her, and watch her every move |

| make an “ah ah ah” sound most often |

| weigh 14.5 lbs |

| had a CT scan and did great |

| finally have a cup you’re willing to drink water from |

| don’t suck your thumb as much, so car rides are becoming rough again |

 

You are an explorer. You hate being confined, and you love to scoot your booty all around the house. You lead with your left arm, suck your left thumb, and prefer to sleep on your left side. You follow Emmie and Oliver around scooting after them. You let us know when you’re unhappy by crying LOUDLY. You enjoy some baby food such as butternut squash and you’ve tried real food like avocado slices, banana and bread. You finally drink water from a sippy cup but still pretty much refuse breast milk out of any container. You love being in the water and went in the gulf for the first time this past month. You also went swimming in a pool and enjoyed that just as much. You love being close to me and let only a few select people hold you without fussing. This drives your grandparents crazy! You have the bluest of blue eyes and your hair is still a mystery. Half of it’s blonde, and half of it is a light reddish brown.

You had your CT scan to check on your lung mass, and it went really well. You were such a trooper fasting, then going under anesthesia. You had a couple bruises from IV’s but other than that you would never know you had a procedure done. The best part was they couldn’t see any lung mass! You’ll get another scan, but this time an MRI, in 6 months and if that’s clear then you won’t need any surgery. To say that we’re thankful and relieved would be an understatement. We love you so much little girl.

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A Collection of Bold & Colorful Sofas

bold sofa, colorful sofa, colorful couches, purple sofa, pink sofa, green sofa, blue sofa, velvet sofas,

Can you believe these sofas can all be found on Overstock.com? Don’t ask me why, but I was browsing through Overstock’s sofa selection and stumbled upon that lavender chesterfield and suddenly it was like opening up Pandora’s box. All of these amazingly bold, colorful, luxurious sofas started to appear! While any of these sofas would be a stunning statement piece in your living room, my favorite would have to be the lavender chesterfield that started it all.  I had to promise Kyle that I wouldn’t start buying random couches without letting him know first. I feel like he’d probably veto the purple and pink sofas, but maybe, just maybe, I could convince him otherwise.

Would you ever purchase a lavender or pink sofa?

Pink Sofa living room, pink sofa in a living room, pink couch in a living room. Velvet sofa inspiration

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 5 months

Monthly photos of newborn, baby collage of monthly photos

 

At 5 Months old you:

|| roll over like a pro ||

|| scoot around army style ||

|| can sit by yourself for about 10 seconds ||

|| love playing in your baby saucer ||

|| are very loud & talk all the time ||

|| hate being contained in your baby-proofed area||

|| have zero schedule at night ||

|| went in the ocean for the first time and loved it ||

|| love when Emmie makes you silly sounds in the car — you calm right down ||

|| have sucked on an apple core, corn of the cob & green beans ||

|| try to grab anyone’s food if you’re close enough ||

|| imitate a hoover vacuum by eating everything off the floor ||

|| weigh about 12-13 lbs ||

|| wear 6-9 month and 9-12 month clothes ||

This past month (or really month and a half since I’m a little late) your personality has begun to blossom. You are a wild child for sure! You hate being confined to your baby-proofed play area and would much rather zoom across the house to find every speck of dust, wrappers, old stickers and dried leaves to chomp. You are in love with Emerson. You continue to watch her completely enraptured in whatever she may be doing. Emmie has also taken a fancy to “playing” with you. She’ll set up fake food picnics and feed you off the plastic spoons, which you’re more than happy to chomp on. She loves playing “sleepover” with you in your crib and you’re always so content when she’s playing with you, even if she does boop you on the head a little too hard every once in a while.

You are quite serious when we’re eating. You are a baby on a mission when we break out the food. You try your darnedest to get a grab of anyone’s food if you’re close enough. You once shoved your face smack into my BBQ chicken sandwich at Chic-fil-a. You’ve tried your first real food of banana and you loved it. You sucked on it at first, and then as soon as you realized how good it tasted you tried to shove the whole piece in your mouth.

You continue to want nothing to do with bottles, much to my dismay, and you are a pretty rotten sleeper. You’ll wake up anywhere from once a night to every hour! I really think your sleep is so wacky because you keep crushing milestones. You started to crawl, army style, about 3 days after turning 5 months old! Then, you learned to sit up. Now, you’re working on propping yourself up on your knees when you crawl. All before 6 months! Not to mention all the new noises, blowing bubbles, and growing you’re doing. Slow down little lady! I have a feeling you are going to be the child who will get into everything in a blink of an eye. Regardless of the trouble you scoot yourself into I could still eat you up, I love you so.

My Vera Charlotte, my little wild one.

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Summer Style with Warby Parker

Stylish Glasses to take you from summer to fall. Buying glasses at home has never been easier! This is a sahm life hack worth sharing.

When Emerson had broken my only pair of glasses, I decided I needed some new eyewear asap. But, as a stay at home mom, I rarely have time to shower daily, never mind go to the eye doctor and spend my precious time placing frame after frame on my face to find my favorite pair of glasses. What’s a mom to do? Enter the wonderful world of buying glasses online! Thank goodness for the internet. During nap time I was able to purchase a bunch of new frames with my prescription and have them sent directly to my doorstep. Warby Parker eyewear takes the experience one step further. They send you 5 frames to try to, for free, to make sure you love them before purchasing! As a very visual person, this is fantastic. Not only am I saving time, I now get to choose bolder frames that I would be too timid to choose knowing if I hated them I’d be stuck with them. Take a peek at some of the glasses I tried from Warby Parker. I would have never gone for the bold Tilley, or the classic Upshaw, since I always figured they wouldn’t look great on me. But you know what, I ended up loving them! What type of glasses do you gravitate towards?

Warby Parker glasses, warby parker review, the best place to buy glasses online

Warby Parker glasses, warby parker review, the best place to buy glasses online

Warby Parker glasses, warby parker review, the best place to buy glasses online

Warby Parker glasses, warby parker review, the best place to buy glasses online

Warby Parker glasses, warby parker review, the best place to buy glasses online

 

If you’re in the market for new glasses make sure you head over to Warby Parker and take a look around. They offer both men and women’s frames. Summer’s not over yet, so make sure you’re protecting your eyes and pick up a pair of sunglasses!

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4th of July Weekend

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That last picture is both of us trying to convince the 3 year old tornado to just come back and take a few more pictures. She had other plans. Ah, well, life with a toddler is always interesting. We had a very relaxing long weekend. We actually opted to not see fireworks this year as Emmie has been pretty sensitive to loud sounds lately…i.e. every time I try to vacuum she runs with her hands over her ears and burrows into the blankets on her bed. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends! Now back into full-swing for this short week!

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How to get perfect brows all day long: a DIY eyebrow putty

Ever wonder how people get flawless eyebrows that seem to last all day long? It’s really simple! Eyebrow putty, eyebrow gel or  eyebrow wax is a quick way to achieve fierce brows that last all day long. For a customized brow color with an impeccable look try this simple DIY eyebrow putty.

Achieving flawless eyebrows just got easier with this DIY eyebrow putty. Create your perfect shade of brow gel in this simple DIY.  | eyebrow gel | brow liner | DIY brow liner | DIY brow gel | Easy DIY for eyebrows | flawless eyebrows| how to get perfect brows | overthedeepend.com

I recently dyed my hair red, and while the hair color was fairly natural, my eyebrow color made it glaringly obvious that my hair was dyed. Now, using this DIY, I simply create a red brow putty using a matte red shadow from my Naked Matte Palette. Combining the matte shadow with some hair putty tames my brows all day long. The color is spot on with my hair, and completely changes the look from dyed to natural again. It’s the easiest way to get amazing brows that last all day long.

 

Achieving flawless eyebrows just got easier with this DIY eyebrow putty. Create your perfect shade of brow gel in this simple DIY. | eyebrow gel | brow liner | DIY brow liner | DIY brow gel | Easy DIY for eyebrows | flawless eyebrows| how to get perfect brows | overthedeepend.com

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Emerson Claire Turns 3

Yearly milestone college, yearly milestone pictures, 3 years old picture ideas. | overthedeepend.com|

My Dearest Emmie,

You turned three this past weekend! To say you are excited is an understatement. You’ve made leaps and bounds since your last birthday, in all aspects of life. Not only have you grown about 7 inches (and finally gained some weight!) but you now actually like talking! You’re clever and smart. You love ice cream and frozen lemonade pops. You love playing make-believe with your dollies & enjoy watching your Dad play computer games. You are the manners police and call us out by saying, “No eating and talking Mom!” or, “You need to say ‘excuse me’ after you burp, Dad.” Touché, little one, touché.

You are strong as ever and can jump for hours with your Dad on the trampoline. You love helping in the kitchen, and having tea-parties.  You’ve slowly started questioning everything. “Because why?” you’ll say. You still call Oliver your best bud, and have no trouble bossing him around. You’re very matter-of-fact and highly opinionated when it comes time to get dressed. You enjoy wearing nothing but princess dresses these days. You’ll let me do your hair only if you can watch a video & usually you request one “Elsa braid.” Since your hair is so fine your braid usually only lasts a few minutes (or half an hour on a good day) before your hair is all in your face again.

You are still silly as ever too. Your dance moves never fail to make us laugh. And your sudden need to exclaim how much you love us could make anyone’s heart explode from sweetness. But don’t be fooled by all these sweet tales. You’re as sassy as sassy comes. You’re still quite the negotiator and pretty defiant at this age too. You love simply stating, “No. I choose nothing,” when presented with a set of options. You will do something naughty and then quickly cover with, “Oh! I’m really sorry!” as you know it lets you off the hook. You know each and every one of my buttons to push, and just how to get me riled. You also looooooove to use your whining voice. You could be perfectly happy but out of your mouth comes a sentence in full blast whining.

Sometimes when you’re a tornado of all your fiercest attributes it’s hard for me to remember that you are still so small in a world that is so big. You are still learning so so much. I need to remind myself that although you now speak like a perfectly capable person, you are still a tiny girl needing guidance in a confusing place. You are trying your best to process emotions so big your little body can hardly handle them. On those days bedtime is our saving grace, and I know we can both do better tomorrow. Yet, no matter  how our day played out Emerson Claire, you are my favorite 3-year-old and I love you to smithereens. I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for you. Happy birthday my darling, happy birthday.

Love,
Mom

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