Sweet as a Peach Party

Hi!

I'm gearing up for what's known in our house as the event of the year. When you have two very special birthdays rolled into one party, the expectation is other level.

Rowen turns 2 in the end of July and just 10 days later, Reese will turn 4. To keep from having a complete and total mommy meltdown over my liddo babies getting way too big, I'm throwing myself into party planning mode.

As a former wedding planner, I have a very limited number of events to plan. Lucky for Matt (sorry, babe) we are go big or go home around here. And momma's not going home.

The idea of a small, simple gathering is not for me. Nothing wrong with those. At. All. Just not in my DNA.

Last year's theme was Reese and Rowen's Farmer's Market and it was a BLAST. For having such a little white house, we have a big ol yard! We had party music, a jumpy house (Reese's only request, bless her), and the most Americana menu I could come up with. The girls had so much fun and I loved the way it turned out. Win for all!

The picket fence leading into our back yard. We had bunting along the fence and the roof line.

For dessert, we we served my grandmother's banana pudding in little jars with wooden spoons tied with red and white twine

Fresh veggies and watermelon slices

This vintage wagon held the kettle corn we gave as favors

Loved how this old fashioned scale I found at Good Will worked with our theme

For supper, we served BBQ Chicken sliders, corn on the cob,  and fresh veggies and fruit. For the kiddos, we did hotdogs.

This year we are going with a Sweet as a Peach theme. Once again Reese's only request is a jumpy house for her and her cousins. Rowen on the other hand is a girl after my own heart. Her only request? Pink cupcakes. #justhereforthefoodyall

I know the days are coming when themes will go further into the Sofia the First direction, so I have to take full advantage of what little time I have left!

Here's some of my inspiration so far...

These are the invites we went with!

Thinking of doing something like these for favors. Maybe wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon.

Love the splash of turquoise

Leave it to me to get inspiration for my kids birthday party from a wedding. Old habits die hard, y'all.

Stay tuned to find out what direction we end up going in with all these pretty ideas!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love,

Laura

White Jeans

Hi, friends!

It's MONDAY! YAY!

Do I sound excited? Cuz I'm trying so so so hard to pretend that I am.

I do have a bachelorette viewing par-tay to look forward to tonight so there's that. But still. Mondays are just Mondays. You feel me?

Moving on.

This past week I wore my fav go-to white distressed denim. Do you have a pair of these in your closet? You neeeeeeeed them. The rule about when, where, and how you can wear white pants is gone! nobody can tell you not to wear these. You're FREE.

You can wear white jeans with a ton of the same tops you'd wear regular denim with but when you add this pop of white, you're whole look just gets so much brighter. This is especially great for Summer time.

I hear a lot of moms talk about the fear of wearing white ANYTHING because kids. But I think the key is just thinking through where you're wearing them and if a little one with guacamole covered fingers approaches for a hug, ask for a rain check. Tide To Go Pens also work wonders. I try to have one in my purse at all times.

Oh, and the myth about white making you appear larger is also not true. It died along side the "horizontal stripes add ten pounds" adage. Who came up with this stuff?

Get you a great pair of white jeans and plan to keep them around all year. After labor day, we call them Winter White. You're welcome.

Jeans I'm wearing are from Dress Up. They are limited in sizes online but you can also call and see if they have them in a store near you! I've linked them HERE 

My top is from Gap Factory Outlet but I linked a similar one HERE

My shoes are from Target and are linked HERE


Hope you have a good start to your week!

Thans so much for stopping by!!

Love,

Laura

What's a Lifestyle Blogger?

Hi, Friends!

I'm fairly new to this whole world of blogging and it was only a few months ago that my instagram was limited to pictures of my girls and on occasion, my food. But only if I wanted to make you reeeeeally jealous.

Since entering this world of style blogging I've had plenty of awkward encounters with well-meaning people who just don't get what I'm doing. So! I decided to do a quick explanation. This way, we are all on the same page. Sound good?

Here are just a few of the questions I've been asked recently and hopefully in answering these, you'll gain a bit of a better understanding into this world of style and fashion blogging and why I love it so much.

What's a Lifestyle Blogger

A blogger in general is someone who has a blog. Duh, right? When you start adding words in front of the title "Blogger" is when you start getting into the specifics of what they blog about. In this case, Lifestyle can actually look completely different for any given blogger because we all have different lifestyles. That's what makes this space so interesting and fun! On my blog, you'll read about personal style, home decor, being a mommy, and how-to's for living your everyday life well. That's my lifestyle. So in this space, that's what I write about. 

Why Do You Post Pictures of Yourself?

This is a fun one. I remember a few years ago someone telling me about a blogger they followed but how they just couldn't believe that she would post pictures of her outfit EVERY. DAY. Gasp. How could someone be so narcissistic? I myself thought you'd have to be either totally full of yourself or totally insecure to need to have a feed full of YOSELF. Flash forward to now and here's where I've landed. I follow some incredible women on instagram, most of whom I discovered on pinterest while standing in my closet frustrated by my lack of inspiration.

 I looked at what they wore and it helped me figure out what to wear. 

It's as simple as that. 

Then it got even better. Not only could I gain inspiration from these women, but I could also give a quick tap tap to their picture and voila! Links to everything they were wearing showed up in my email within minutes. This is the beauty of a style blogger. We do the work finding the sales, curating the looks, and presenting them in a way that is real and accessible. Then YOU, the consumer, are (hopefully) inspired and saved a boat load of time.

I grew up in a family of six girls and we had a revolving door in each of our closets (depending of course upon mood and availability). We were constantly stealing ideas from each other. That's what we do, ladies. That's what this space is all about. I don't do this because I want to see pictures of myself. Believe me, that part is terrifying. I do this because I want to inspire other moms to switch their stretchy pants and tanks for distressed denim and an off the shoulder top. Feeling good in your skin is incredible. If I can help another lady friend to do that, mission accomplished!

Is It Just a Hobby?

I think every blogger has a different level of involvement but most of us are using this platform as an opportunity to monetize our blog and instagram. So if you see I've linked an entire outfit, it's not just because I want you to be able to find it easier. It's also because the company selling the clothing offers commission to the one sending traffic to their site. This isn't a big secret and the idea behind this thought process has been around forever. Every time you walk into a store, they have pictures of models all over the wall showing what the clothes look like on. They also have people there to help you find what you're looking for. And if you were to bring a personal shopper with you, they would be compensated by the store for bringing you in. It's the exact same model only it's a whole lot easier for you! I would so much rather see a "real life" girl wearing something than a cranky weirdly posed model. I also would want to hear her take on how it fits. Should I size up or down? Am I gonna need special undies to wear with it?  When a stylist reviews an item, they are trying to take the guess work out for you.

Many of these women are supporting their families through their little blogs. I was inspired to get started in this space when my husband was in the hospital and I started wondering if he would be able to go back to work again. I wanted to be able to help support my family without having to sacrifice personal passions and time spent with my babies. 

So, No, it's not a hobby. It's a JOB! It takes time and planning to make this come together. But it is also an incredible creative outlet and I enjoy every minute of it!

Who Takes Your Pictures?

If you see me in an every day, I-phone picture then either my instagram husband or my three year old is taking my picture. Sometimes I can get my sister to take an OOTD for me if we are hanging out. But I am just not brave enough to ask ANYONE else to take an outfit picture for me. Unless I'm in the mood for an awkward stare and a whole slew of personal embarrassment! Just to be clear, I'm pretty much never in the mood for that.

If I have certain styles I want to really showcase, I meet up with my SUPER talented photographer friend, Kels, to shoot those looks. The idea is to have more of those and less of the i-phone but you know, some days I can barely get the I-phone pic in! #momlife or really just #life 

I hope that clears up just a smidgen of the confusion surrounding this whole world of life and style blogging. Sometimes women in this arena can get a bad rap but I'm here to tell you that I've met some of the kindest, most encouraging, and uplifting women in this community. It's a rising tide where many of us are striving to use the platform we've been given to build each other up and point each other to Christ. It's an incredibly positive environment because you just can't be sad in a pare of GREAT wedges. It's just not possible. 

I'd encourage you to find a few style bloggers and follow along on their journey. My instagram feed these days is better than a magazine due to the incredible women I follow!

Thanks for reading, friends! Have a great Weekend!

Love,

Laura

On Being Awesome

I love three year olds.

When I give Reese a compliment, which happens quite often, (words of affirmation love language, anyone?) she never has any doubt about what I tell her.

The other day I said "Reese, you're so awesome."

Her response?

"Yes! I AM awesome."

I think I probably believed I was awesome at some point but it seems like the further away you get from three years old, the more convincing it takes to really think this about yourself.

In our culture, we celebrate self-deprecation by calling it words like "real" and "authentic". Showing your true self involves airing your dirty laundry and we applaud as we watch others scrounge around in the depths, mostly because we feel better about our own dirt if we see other people's dirt.

I have no problem being real.

What I do have a problem with is having the expectation that your real must look like mine in order for it to actually be real. Are you still with me? That was a mouth full!

I ran across a blog the other day making fun of lifestyle bloggers and their pretty white kitchens and fresh flowers peaking out of their designer bags in the passenger seat of their cars. She went on to talk about her disastrous car and dingy kitchen and how they actually lived there so that's why it looked like that. It just made my heart heavy y'all.

That post didn't come from a place of confidence in enjoying her crazy and messy living spaces. It came from a place of insecurity. Rather than celebrating, admiring, and lifting up, she chose to criticize, call out, and condemn.

Let's not be that. We are called to more.

Let's not only believe that we are awesome... let's commit to finding and applauding the awesome in each other.

Here's the thing: It is a compliment to your Creator to believe He did a marvelous job on you. He believes you are awesome because He made you and He doesn't make anything not awesome.

Loving and celebrating who you are and where you are is a discipline that's well worth the effort. It involves not allowing bullying inside your own mind. The Bible calls this renewal and we are advised to do it over and over again all day every day.

It also involves having people in your life who not only believe you are awesome but tell you that you are. It took me waaaaaaaay too many years to learn that if a person in my life was not lifting me up, it was completely ok for me to create distance.

I want to be more like my Reese in a million different ways. But I know it's only a matter of time before the voices in my baby's mind begin to try to convince her that she's worthless. My prayer is that she will do what you and I should do....

Command the voices surrounding you and the voices in your mind to listen to the Father as He says,

You.

Are.

Awesome.

Grab onto that truth and take it with you today!

Happy Wednesday, sweet friend! And I really do think you're awesome :)

Laura

Fringe Off The Shoulder Top

Hey y'all!

I love this off the shoulder top. I was worried it was going to be too sheer but it's just easy breezy and the perfect addition to my already growing collection of OTS goodness. I would say it runs a wee bit small so if you're in between sizes, size UP one.


Link is here!

Thanks for stopping by, friend!

Laura