Must-Reads Reunion Post: Spring Trends

Spring is one of the best seasons in my opinion, it’s the pre-season to summer, but it’s not outrageously hot yet. It’s also one of the best times to shop for your warm weather wardrobe, you’ll get the most wear out of your purchases, right at the start of the season. Also, sometimes it’s easier to purchase on a smaller budget scale a new trend to test out before biting the bullet on a more expensive version of the trend.

Two of my favorite trends for spring are trends that seem to be around every year- pastels and florals. I love these two trends! They’re fun, easy to wear, and so versatile. I think they’re great for any age and gender. Pastels and florals are available at every price point and simple to try out in a variety of ways. Sandals, shorts, tops, dresses, and accessories are all ways you can try out a new trend without fully having to commit to it.

Here are some of my favorite pieces I’ve seen for the trend:

Sunglasses // Kimono // Sandals // Lace Dress // Necklace // Mint Shorts // Floral Shorts

A while ago, I used to participate monthly must-read posts with several bloggers and today's post was a reunion one! We haven't posted together in some time now and it was great to to catch up and see where everyone is today. Below is some recent posts from these great gals and you can also check out their favorite spring trends too!

What are your favorite sprint trends?

• Alison*Elle - Alison has been embracing 2015 with a helpful reminder from this love wall.
• Beautygirl24 - Noelle discovers her favorite Express camisole comes in a Spring-worthy floral print. 
• Ella Pretty - Zeba was super-excited to get a full page feature in a Canadian magazine!
• Fifth & Bloor -  Mehreen is loving her extremely ripped jeans! She talks about how to style them here.
• Love, Lipstick & Pearls - Kristen just announced Baby #2 and shared some pregnancy updates.
• Schnelle Couture -  Danielle discusses her new hair care finds
• Sequins and Stilettos - Skylette channeled her inner Betty Draper with this dress for spring

Product Review: TRESemme Perfectly (un)Done Sea Salt Spray

Sea salt sprays always come up every summer to help achieve the perfect beach waves – a favorite look of mine that I hope never dies. I’ve always wanted to try different sea salt sprays, but have never bit the bullet after reading reviews. I know Bumble and Bumble have a really popular beach wave spray, but my stylist suggested that it would be too heavy for my fine hair so I skipped it altogether.

I typically wear loose waves on a daily basis, curling my hair using a 1 ¼ curling iron focusing on just the mid-shaft of my hair and leaving 1-2 inches out from curling at the ends. You can check out a video of how I do this here, but it’s a bit old and although I do curl it with the same technique, I style it a bit messier using my hands to break up the curls.

This spring I really wanted to add some texture to my hair without having to weigh it down. I thought about finding a good sea salt spray, and put it on my Spring Beauty List after seeing the TRESemme (un)Done Sea Salt Spray in store and on my next Target run I put it in my cart and didn’t look back. I’ve been using it weekly (not every day) and really like this product! It’s a great price point (under $10), smells great, dries quickly, isn’t sticky and doesn’t weigh my hair down.

Day One Curls

Day Two Curls

Here’s how I’ve been using it:
-If I let my hair air-dry, I spray it liberally over my hair after I’ve applied my leave-in conditioner and anti-frizz serum
-I love the extra texture it gives to air-dried hair and have noticed it helps to keep more volume in my hair if it hasn’t been blow dried with other products
-After I’ve curled my hair, I spray it all over before separating the curls with my hands and then again after for some extra texture

Some extra details:
-I haven’t used it on wet hair when I blow dry, I prefer to use other volume boosting products, so I can’t comment on how it works using it that way
-If I’ve gone a little overboard with spraying it for multiple days, I’ve found to have a bit too much texture on my hair by day 3

Overall I really like this product a lot and I hope they don’t discontinue it. The spray is infused with sea kelp extract that’s supposed to help create full-bodied waves. Like I wrote above, I think the texture really helps on air-dried hair to give some more volume and texture. Usually, when my hair is air-dried, I have a harder time getting volume on day 3-4 when compared to volume on the same days after it’s been blow-dried. This spray has been a win-win for me! Have you tried sea salt sprays? What did you like, how do you use it?

Baby 2 Bumpdate: Week 22

Good morning!! Today is the first of my Baby 2 Bumpdates, thank you all so much for your comments and feedback from our announcement! I'm not sure if I'm going to keep with the same format as my previous bumpdates, I might just do weekly posts that highlight major changes and feelings and not a questionnaire of the basics. I'm very lucky that my pregnancies are easy and I feel great every day, I'm so thankful for that! If you have any questions or suggestion on what you would like to see, please let me know!

 21 Weeks 5 Days
Dress (non-maternity)

How far along? 22 weeks today, reviewing week 21 in today's post.

Total weight gain: 4 pounds, same as with Ellie at this time!

Stretch marks?: Nope, I do have those silvery marks from my pregnancy with Ellie that a lot of women get, but nothing serious. They do seem to be more prominent now that my belly is large and stretching.

Maternity clothes: One thing I've said since Ellie's pregnancy is that I want to get more maternity clothes from the start because I felt like I had nothing to wear at the end of my previous pregnancy. So far I've bought three maternity shirts, jean shorts, and a pair of black slacks.

Belly Button in or out?: In, just flattening out.

Sleep: I've been sleeping so much better this pregnancy! I attribute it to our new bed and better support. I've had a few nights of insomnia, but I'm not tired all day or groggy in the morning. This past week I did have some leg cramps one night that woke me up, but they thankfully went away quickly.

Best moment this week: I love that everyone knows! It's great to talk about it openly and get asked about it from clients at work and out in public. It was great seeing my family on Easter and talking about the baby and Ellie with them since it's the first I've seen them since the announcement. 

Worst moment this week: The leg cramps! I've also had a little bit of sciatic nerve botherings, mostly my right side and it's not as bad as it was earlier in my pregnancy, but still annoying.

Have you told family and friends: Yes!

Miss Anything? Being able to wear whatever I want and rare meat.

22 Weeks 6 Days

Kimono // Maternity Jeans 

Movement: Yes, but she's not moving as much as Ellie did at this time. She's active in the morning, after lunch, and at night. It's smaller movements, they feel like she's shifting into a different position. 

Food cravings: This week, carbonation and sweets. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: I gag almost every time I brush my teeth. That happened with Ellie too, but I remember it being mostly at the beginning.

Have you started to show yet: Yep, it's totally obvious.

Gender: Team pink!!

Symptoms: Leg cramps, sciatic nerve pain, bleeding bums. .

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy! No big mood changes.

Looking forward to: Seeing her and how she's different from Ellie. Matt and his sisters are all nearly identical (even with different eye/hair colors) and I love to think about how she will look. In the sonogram you can see she has my nose (so does Ellie), but I wonder what color eyes and hair, if she'll have big cheeks, if she'll be as long as Ellie, etc.

Until next week ladies! Again, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for future bumpdates!

Are any of you pregnant and have a blog that you're sharing bumpdates? Leave your site below so I can check it out!

Our Easter Holiday

I've said this in previous posts, but Easter is one of my favorite holidays! Now that Ellie is a bit older, I couldn't wait to celebrate it with her. I've been buying Easter treats for her basket for a few weeks, see what was in it here. A week or so ago we also bought her a 4-in-1 Radio Flyer Tricycle. All week long, Matt and I were so excited about the her new tricycle and talked about how much fun it’s going to be for her and our family walks. I knew she was going to love it so much and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. We’ve been talking about getting this for her since just after Christmas and thought it would be a great Easter gift (we already have birthday plans/gifts for her next month).

On Saturday night, Matt started putting it together and there was no hardware with it! We couldn’t put it together! We were so bummed out and upset, but then we remember that Target had it on sale so I called around and a store nearby had it in stock still and was holding it for me at their customer service desk. I am so happy we were able to get one in time for her! I know we could have given it to her any day and she would have loved it just as much, but I wanted to give it to her on Easter and make the moment a little bit more magical with the holiday. Target for the win!

 

We put together her basket and bike and then left an empty basket next to her bedroom door and a trail of eggs leading her to her goodies. It was so cute in the morning! She opened each egg individually to eat the treat inside before moving on to the next one (thank goodness each one only had one jellybean!) and then started to keep each jelly bean in her hand and put the empty egg in her basket.

When she reached her Easter basket and bike downstairs her eyes absolutely lit up and she ran over to the bike! We had to put her in it right away and take a few spins around our first floor. She keeps saying “wheeeee” every time we round the coffee table in our formal living room. After a few laps around the downstairs, she settled in on the basket and took everything out one by one. She was obsessed with all her Frozen stuff and opened her other Easter eggs to find different treats and $2 bills.

After we were done opening her gifts, we had fresh squeezed OJ and started getting ready for the day. We packed everything into our car and headed to Matt’s parents house for some bagels and strawberry cream cheese breakfasts and more Easter activities. Once everyone arrived (we got there super early), we had an Easter egg hunt and Ellie did so much better! She still wanted to open each egg, but soon learned it was better to dump it in her basket and then check out the goods later. She is the youngest of the cousins (for the time being) and has so much fun with them! They teach her so much and she just has a ball playing with them. I’m so happy that she has cousins that she can grow up close with- something I had and always enjoyed.

Then we headed to spend some of the holiday with my side of the family, we’re really lucky that both sides of our families lives near each other. It makes it easy to split holidays if we need to. There we ate and ate and then ate some more. It was the first time seeing some of my family since our Baby #2  announcement and it was fun to catch up with everyone. We hid so many eggs, the kids were finding them still hours later! The egg hunt was so much fun and Ellie really understood it by then, she was looking around and not wanting to go to the easy ones on the lawn that were for her (she’s the youngest on my side too).

I made these sweet coconut macaroon nests for the kiddos and they were a big hit! They're so easy to make too! Just 14 ounces of coconut, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 4 egg whites then mix and place into muffin pans for about 30 minutes and they're done! They were so easy and everyone enjoyed them so much, I think I may make them for my sister's bridal shower, but dip them in chocolate!

Overall, we had a great day! It was so much fun to see both sides of our families and share all the magic of Easter with Eleanor. When I was watching her look for eggs, I kept thinking about how next year I’ll have another little one that may or may not be crawling by then and how they’ll be in matching dresses, then the years after that they’ll both be searching and comparing their finds together. It really made my heart so full knowing that Ellie will have a sibling to share her childhood with and that our little family is growing.

I hope all of you had a great Easter holiday!

Ellie's Easter Basket + Ideas

Easter has long been one of my favorite holidays. It’s a simple holiday, warm, includes great food, and everyone busts out their pastels. It’s kind of like the unofficial start of spring (although, it technical happened last week). There’s not a lot of build up to the holiday like there is for Christmas, it isn’t too commercialized, and it’s a holiday that doesn’t break the bank to celebrate. I’ve already started on Ellie’s basket, but there’s still some items I’m looking to add in the next week or so. 

I really, really tried not to spoil Ellie rotten this Easter, it's so hard not to buy everything and give it to her. I love shopping for kids and get so excited to see the look on their faces when they see something they love. Here is what I have so far for her basket:

Swimsuit // Sandals 

 

Pajamas

Shirt // Placemat

Coloring Books/Bambi/Bracelets all from the Target $1 Spot

Crayons // CD (from Target, can't find online) // Dr Seuss Book

Here are some great ideas to fill your little one’s basket:

Coloring books

Crayons

Markers

Stickers

Fubbles

Swimsuit

Cover up

Sandals

Sunglasses

Pajamas

Hats

Bows

Necklace/Bracelet

Fairy Wings

Nail Polish

Play Doh

Matt and I are candy fiends and always have a bag or two of candy around for us to enjoy. This is not a trait I want to pass down to Ellie, we really strive to have her eat better than we do and the longer I can push off sweets and sugar for her the better. Here are some ideas I’ve thought of to fill her Easter eggs with, although some of them can still have sugar, I figured it’s better than actual candy. I may also fill her eggs with small trinkets or stickers as well.

Candy Alternatives:

Cheerios

Sugar Free Jelly Beans

Dried Fruit

Yogurt Covered Raisins

Fruit Pouches

Yogurt Melts

What's one of your favorite Easter traditions? What do you like to put in your kids baskets?