Our Day In Pictures

This idea was inspired by a similar post on another blog. I cannot recall where I saw it though. If you come across this post and think I stole this idea from you, then consider this your credit. Shout out.

Tuesday was a semi-eventful day (i.e. we left the house), so I chose that day to take a photo every hour from 8 AM until 8 PM. You know, in case you were wondering what it is we do all day around here.

8AM //

Fuel.

9AM //

Car selfie #1.

10AM //

Consultation.

11AM //

Mommy time.

NOON //

Picking the kids up from my moms.

1PM //

Blog work.

2PM //

Car selfie #2.

3PM //

Pre-dinner snack.

4PM //

Emily thinks every bath is for her. This one wasn't, but she didn't care.

5PM //

Dinner prep. Best salad ever.

6PM //

Someone fell asleep mid-bite during dinner.

7PM //

Milk before bed.

8PM //

Kids are in bed and I'm watching Andy work on the accent wall in our room.

Notice it's navy blue.

WIWW // Gray Wedge Booties

I've been looking for a good pair of wedge booties. My normal style is to get into a trend a few months after it's been a trend. I think it's part of my commitment issues. I found a pair of awesome lace-up gray ones last weekend for $15. As I was checking out I spotted some brown fringe moccasin type wedges. Obviously those are next on my list.

I also jumped on the Naked Palette bandwagon. I bought Naked 2 Basics so that I could test out the brand. Love it, duh.

Top // Almost Famous

Jeans // Burlington

Shoes // Rue 21

Number Ring // Groopdealz

Cell Phone Wallet // Target

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My Favorite Things Under $10

Today's post is brought to you by the letter H: head colds and housework. As in, a head cold has infiltrated our home and is making it's rounds. So far it's hit me, Emily and Blair. Our house is a wreck from the weekend and I usually reserve Monday as my cleaning day. However, I'm just not feeling it today. Instead I'm watching Supernatural reruns and doing some online window shopping.

Wet N Wild Eye Shadow in Nutty // Loving this sparkly little gem. I wear it a few days a week and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites. You can get it for $1 in your local drugstore or Dollar General.

Navy Blue Stag Print // I love this Etsy shop. I have a couple of her prints and my newest purchase is the blue stag above. $5 for the download and then $2.50 for an 8x10 print at Walgreens.

Color Block Sweater Dress // I got the short sleeve version of this dress for Blair at Old Navy yesterday. It's $23 on their website, but I got it in my local store for $9.

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My Children Are Hoarders

It's not too often that people post about the messy side of their lives. You will most likely be seeing professional selfies with them looking away from the camera (i.e. the photo of me to the right) or closeups of nature or the perfect outfit that's been put together (guilty on all counts!). I will not be showing you any pictures of the ten loads of laundry waiting to be done, my unmade bed or my sink full of dishes. I will, however, gladly show you the mess that is the children's playroom.

We moved into our house a little over a month ago. It has a pretty little sun room that makes a perfect playroom. It's full of windows and natural light and even has a door that conveniently shuts the mess out of sight. I'll be honest... when we moved, we just dumped all of the toys in there and kind of let the kids do the unpacking.

I attempted cleaning and organizing the room one day. The toy boxes and tubs were all emptied into a big pile and I began to sort through it, making three smaller piles; one pile of things to keep, one pile of things to donate and one pile of things that just needed to be discarded. After about 20 minutes I began to realize something: my children are hoarders.

I don't know where they have learned the need to keep everything. My mother is a clean freak and I despise clutter. The only things I keep are ones of extreme sentimental value. So far I have found stacks of Alyssa's old artwork from first grade (she's in fourth now), old happy meal toys, broken crayons, parts from old toys that don't work but they just had to keep the part because it was their favorite part. What I love about all of this is that I can get rid of something that hasn't been touched in months and then two weeks after it's gone, they come asking where it is.

My kids are surely not the only ones who act this way. What do you do to discourage this behavior? They aren't doing anything wrong, but I'd like my kids growing up with the idea that less is more and they only need to keep the things they really love or really need. I guess the biggest hurdle to get past is teaching them to know the difference.

(As I wrote this post, my two year old stood behind my desk and dumped out a box of Rainbow Loom rubber bands and beads. She then proceeded to throw handfuls in the air and shout "Yay!" I just sipped my coffee and said "You mean FriYAY!")

2, 3, 4 // 52

One of my goals for 2015 was to be in more pictures with my little girls. I much prefer taking pictures with a camera, but with three kids that isn't always convenient. So a lot of these photos will probably be coming from my iPhone. If you're wondering where my oldest daughter is, she goes to school in Atlanta and is only home on weekends and school holidays. It's a bit more difficult to get pictures with her. (Plus she hates the camera.)

Week 1

You can see our week one photo here.

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Beauty Tips & Makeup Picks From Your Favorite Bloggers

 

When I was in high school, my beauty regimen consisted of eye shadow, mascara and lip gloss. As a matter of fact, I only had one type of eye shadow: shiny white. It was the "in" thing. Yikes! After high school I discovered foundation and eye liner, but I've pretty much been a makeup minimalist my whole life.

Thanks to Pinterest (of course), I have recently found myself a little bit obsessed with discovering and trying new products and looks. For some reason it's been impossible for me to figure out the smokey eye look, but I have become pretty good at contouring and highlighting (which I just found out about a few weeks ago - I haven't just been living under a rock, I am the rock).

In order to enlighten myself, I've sought out some advice from a few of my favorite bloggers. They'll be sharing products they can't live without and their number one beauty secrets. I know I'll benefit from their advice and I bet you will as well.

Samantha // The Samantha Show

ADVICE: I recently visited the MAC counter and got ALL new makeup. It was quite pricey but I was absolutely obsessed with everything. I learned that you should always do your eyes first. I've always done my eyes last but this makes sense; none of the excess that falls gets all over the foundation, powder, etc you've already put on. I'm still trying to remind myself to do this each morning... I've been doing it the other way my whole life!

PRODUCT: My favorite product... that's a tough one.. but I would say my new Studio Fix Fluid (foundation). I've never been an all-over the face make-up person but I absolutely love this product. It's light and looks airbrushed. But for real, anything MAC... can't go wrong.

Lindsey // Pillow Thought

ADVICE: Shading in my eyebrows is one step you will never catch me missing! It's a crucial part of my morning routine when I am putting on my make up! (You can watch a tutorial on eyebrow shading by Lindsey here.)

PRODUCT: Smashbox's Brow Tech

Kristan // Stitched Vintage

ADVICE: My most important beauty tip is MOISTURIZE!!! Not only by putting a moisturizer on your face but by getting enough water daily. When you're dehydrated, water is pulled from your tissues, leaving your skin dryer, with less elasticity and giving your eyes that sunken look.

PRODUCT: I'm not a big wearer of makeup. Don't get me wrong... I have TONS of it, but the only thing that ever gets used is my mascara. After trying dozens of mascara from high end to cheap versions, my go to brand is Maybelline The Rocket Volum Express. It works wonders.

Kelly // Kelly + The Mister

ADVICE: Ok, so my most important tip regarding beauty and makeup is less is more. Pick an area of your face you really want to accent, whether it be your eyes, lips, cheekbones, etc. + focus on that. Make whichever area you choose pop + leave the other areas looking a lot more neutral + natural. My favorite area to focus on are my eyes, so I will use a light, shimmery eyeshadow (which makes you look less tired -- bonus for a mama like me!), put some black eyeliner on my top lid, + layer on the mascara - black on the top lashes + a neutral brown on the bottom to not weigh my eyes down.

PRODUCT: My very favorite makeup product has to be Younique 3D Fiber Lash Mascara.

Audra // The Kurtz Corner

ADVICE: I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know a ton about makeup either, ha! Growing up I used pretty much all Mary Kay products, which are amazing, but because my mom sold the product that's all that I knew. I had no reason to venture out and try new things! Now that I'm older, I like to try new things every so often. One product that I adore is my Naked 2 Palette! The colors fit my personality so well, I love a good smokey eye! The color is long lasting and must have for me! 

PRODUCT: Another beauty product that I love is the Redken Diamond Oil Deep Facets which is an intensive conditioning treatment for your hair. I basically ruined my hair post pregnancy thinking it would be a good idea to go back blonde, my natural hair color...I was so wrong. Going from black to blonde and then back to black destroyed my hair, but the Redken Diamond Oil Deep Facets has definitely been a Godsend on my way back to healthy hair!

Thank you so much to these awesome ladies for helping me out. Be sure to pay their blogs a visit and if you like this post, I would love if you could pin it using the image above! And if anyone out there has some more advice for me, feel free to leave it in a comment.

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Friday // Favorite Things

I'm doing a little mash-up of Friday Favorites and the Friday Things posts I've read this morning (links are at the bottom of the post). I really love photography and while I do not consider myself any kind of advanced photographer, I do think I have some pretty natural talent (toot toot). So does Andy, apparently. The other day he made the comment that he had always considered me a professional photographer. He wasn't trying to score any points, but that casual comment really meant a lot to me.

The last few months of 2014 I became pretty burnt out on my camera. I was photographing a lot of families and the parents just seemed to be getting more and more unpleasant to deal with. But these last few weeks I've just been using it for little things around me and of course my own precious little ones and it's been refreshing.

What has NOT been refreshing is my two year old and my six month old who seem to have some sort of competition going on. They never nap at the same time and as soon as one goes to sleep the other cries and wakes them up... #momprobz.

This Week // I Learned:

+ Jalapenos indeed get spicier the longer they sit in your fridge.

(I'm really sorry to my pregnant friend who came over for a spicy spaghetti lunch.)

+ Starting over with a brand new blog is hard.

+ Keeping your house clean with a two year old should be a paying job. Really.

+ I have an unintentional obsession with the color navy blue.

This Week // The Kids:

+ Emily is not ready to be potty trained. We tried slowly with pull ups and we tried big girl panties. No dice.

+ Blair is not quite six months and has started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. What?

This Week // I Wrote:

+ My first Save in Style post.

+ Pinterest Recipes That Don't Suck: Side Dish Edition

LINK, LINK, LINK

Pinterest Recipes That Don't Suck // Side Dishes

Some of you may remember me from a blog I had previously. It was called "Not Your Average Amy" and I had a series called "Pinterest Recipes That Don't Suck." A lot of friends have told me that  this series was their favorite part of my blog, so I thought I would bring it back.

Pinterest is where I get 95% of my dinner plans from. It's hard to know what is "really the best meal ever!" (since that's what they all claim to be) until you try it yourself. Or you can let my family be your guinea pigs and try it for you. Andy will eat anything but my nine year old can be extremely picky, while I would say I'm somewhere in between the two.

I've been on the hunt for some side dishes to mix things up lately, instead of the same ol' mashed potatoes or canned green beans. Here's a few that we've tried recently and loved.

Photo Credit: Kraft

Creamy Broccoli Bacon Bake - Creamy and delicious. You can never go wrong with cheesy broccoli or anything with bacon in it.

Photo Credit: Housewife in Training

Cucumber & Strawberry Poppyseed Salad - AH-mazing. This salad is so, so good. Andy and I sat at the table and ate the entire bowl. Make this ASAP.

Photo Credit: Maza Cooking Journals

Grilled Eggplant - Apparently, this is really popular on Pinterest. I only came across it a week ago and I had an eggplant sitting in the fridge that was just about to go bad. Honestly, this was the first time I had ever cooked or eaten eggplant. I didn't grill it either. Just cooked it in a pan with olive oil and then baked it. Super yummy.

I'd love to have you following my Pinterest boards to see more tasty things that I pin. If you'd like me to follow you back just leave a comment with a link to your Pinterest boards.

Save in Style # 1 // Boots, Boots, Boots

Some of you may recall reading an earlier post where I mentioned I am a new stay at home mom. I've had some sort of job for the majority of the last thirteen years. I'm used to having my own income and not relying on someone else to pay for what I need and for anything I might want, so this has been a major adjustment for me. I've also always been really horrible at budgeting and saving money. Now I've just been kind of willingly tossed into this role that is the opposite of how I've spent my last twenty-nine years. It's been quite a change and I'm still sorting it out. Or I should say, WE are sorting it out.

Part of sorting it out is not buying things that we don't need... Unless it's a really, really good deal. My boyfriend, Andy, would probably disagree with that. However, I say as long as the rent's paid and food is on the table, what's a measly $27 on three pairs of boots.

Now you're thinking, who can get three pairs of boots for $27? Well my friends, I did. I was browsing around Amazon, looking for a pair of short lace-up boots. In my search, I stumbled upon the Breckelle's brand of boots. They have stacks on stacks on stacks of pairs of shoes. Some of them even start at six dollars! You have to take your time and sort through all of their different sizes and colors, but I ended up finding the three pairs of boots in the first image above for $8.99 each, plus free shipping using my Amazon Prime membership.

Like I said, you have to sort through the colors and sizes. Only certain sizes and styles can be purchased at the lower prices. I had to go a half of a size up from my normal size to get the cheaper shoe, but it ended up fitting exactly the same as my regular size.

Scoot on over to Amazon and see if you can find a good deal on something in your size. I'd love to know if you do!

This post is not an ad or endorsement for or sponsored by any store or brand mentioned.

I am simply sharing a good deal in hopes of helping you find something you'll love at a great price.

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