high flyers

The first time we flew with z I wanted to be prepared. Flying cross country with a little one was something I wanted to be prepared for in case the worst happened. And guess what IT WAS SO SMOOTH! I think preparing for the flight both mentally and then being prepared made me less stressed and in turn the babe too. 

I really packed all of this! PLUS: bottles and a bottle warmer. And all of my clothing and stuff too! I really did and all in one suitcase. (It was 2 pounds under the weight limit too).

Here are my tips and tricks that worked for me:

1. I scoured flights looking for the best times for us following my little ones napping schedule and guess hat it worked. Also we flew directly to our destination rather than a larger airport a couple hours away. It did cost a bit more, but I knew after 5 hours there was no way my little one would sit still for another two hour drive to our destination.

2. I really fit all of this in one checked bag, plus all of my stuff. I really did! I will show you how later in the post. Luckily with my credit card I do get free checked bags, but even if I didn't I would definitely recommend trying to fit that into your budget. It's too much work to try to haul little ones and carry on bags and carry on diaper bags and, and, and... You get it. We have to have a lot of stuff when traveling with babies and toddlers anyway. 

3. You can check your stroller and car seat for FREE! Yes, you read that correctly. I did not gate check either item. I checked both when we checked the rest of our luggage and we didn't have any issues. I didn't have the energy to haul those heavy things with me.

TIPS for packing a lot into one bag:

Here is one of my tips, vacuum bags. Yes, these really work! I packed both my clothes and z's clothes this way and we were wrinkle free and fine when we got there. I just don't recommend doing this too far ahead and opening the right away when you get to your destination to avoid wrinkles. 

Another  thing I did was I took my life jacket and strapped it into the car seat. I turned to car seat upside down and packed all of my extra diapers in the empty space. I am not sure if that is frowned upon, but it worked well for us. 

We are gearing up to fly across country again this time we have a toddler, so what I'm saying is with me luck! I will let you know how it goes! ;) 

Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe.

Remember the good ole days when you unsubscribed from junk mail and it felt so good? (If you haven't yet unsubscribed click HERE. I believe there is a small fee of $1.) You can also do this one by one for free by contacting each company yourself.

And then you opted out of telemarketing calls. (Click HERE if you haven't and want to!)

And out of prescreened credit offers. (Click HERE, you have the option of opting out for 5 years or permanently.)

And then I took it one step further. I UNSUBSCRIBED from emails and it felt so good! I was a clicking and subscribing queen. Save 10%, get free shipping, whatever the enticing offer was I was in, sign me up. But then every morning I was greeted with 50, 60, or 70 emails! Ugh! Out of these emails about 4-5 were something I was interested in or from someone I knew. So I unsubscribed, from EVERYTHING (well almost everything). I still get emails from my bank, but I changed the settings to receive only important account related messages. I also still follow my airline miles account (how can I dream about vacationing if I don't see how many miles I have :0) I don't miss the emails at all. It is a relief to wake up to 5 emails in the morning and not to get offers from stores throughout the day.


Try it! Stop the junk mail, the calls, the credit offers, and the emails. It really does feel so good.

What small changes in your life have brought you the most peace?

plastic is not fantastic

I am embarrassed to post this, but here it goes....I have fallen off the wagon. I have stopped using my reuseable bags. Not on purpose, life just has been hectic lately.

See exhibit A. I also notice that I frequent Target WAY too often. :) 

According to Stanford University Americans use 100 million 100 billion plastic bags each year. Of the 100 billion bags less than 10% are recycled.

Why are we using so many plastic bags when it is so easy to reuse a bag you already own? 

I am trying to erradicate plastic from my life. Hold on. Just in cases such as this, when it isn't necessary. 

The Oprah show featured a family that had zero waste! What? 

click hereto see a video of the family featured on the today show in 2011:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E1n3Fb5FqyU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't think I would ever be as organized as the family featured on Oprah, but I can definitely do better. 

I think adding these Reusable Produce Bags from Gardner's Supply Company ($14.95 for 5 bags) will be my first step in getting back on track. Aren't they pretty great?!?

What changes have you made in your home? What tips do you have for me?

after Christmas SALES!

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas and then new year, there is that lull. The drag time between January and March. Here it's usually insanely cold, and dark. One of the best things about this time is the great sales. It is usually a slow time for retail sales so that means mark downs. 

We were recently visiting relatives and within close proximity to Nordstrom so naturally I had to make a stop there happen. I was glad we were able to fit it in Nordstrom was having a sale (and I do love a sale!). I had a limited amount of time, but I was able to scoop up quite a few things for Z from Peek and Mini Boden.

Plus a few more items that are now sold out! 

What are your favorite online shops?

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas around here. It is so much fun with our little one running around! We have been talking a lot about establishing family traditions for Z. This made me think of the idea of labeling her gifts with a Z. She loves to read and one of her favorite books is an abc book. She always waits patiently for us to get to the letter Z because we always list all of the z things on the page and shout her name with some tickles. So I decided to label her gifts with the letter Z. It was super simple to do. I picked up some card stock weight paper at Hobby Lobby, googled a letter z, printed it out, traced and cut. Really that was it and the result (if I do say so myself) was so much cuter than a gift tag!

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

scared straight {instyler}

Have you tried the instyler products? I have to admit I am pretty skeptical about hair products and tools, but I have to admit after trying the Max 2-Way Rotating Iron I am hooked! (And that is coming from someone who is too lazy to even blow dry on most days!)

I love how easy the Instyler Max 2-Way Rotating Iron is to use! I don't feel like it is as harsh on my hair as a flat iron and man does my hair have a glossy SHINE when I am done!

See exhibit A:

I had to cut, cut, cut several people out of the pic, but you get the idea. P.S. i was able to have about a hot 5 minutes to use the Max 2-Way Rotating Iron before i was off chasing this little one around the house!

Thank you to Vocalpoint for sponsoring this post by providing me with free products in exchange for an honest review.

cyber Monday {aka the only Monday to look forward to}

DEALS, DEALS, DEALS:

1. Anthropologie: 20% off sale and FREE SHIPPING ( no minimum purchase!)

2. JCREW: 30% off regular prices, 40% off sale! and FREE SHIPPING! 

3. Target: buy one get one 60% off on clothing, shoes, and accessories and FREE SHIPPING!

4. asos 30% off everything!

5. GAP 40% off your purchase and FREE SHIPPING with a $50 purchase!

6. Piperlime 30% off regular priced items and 40% off sale and FREE SHIPPING!

7. Gymboree 50% off and FREE SHIPPING!

8. Hanna Andersson 15% off and FREE SHIPPING!

9. Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids FREE SHIPPING! with the close FREESHIP

10. Zara up to 50% off and FREE SHIPPING on orders over $50.

Happy Cyber Monday!

birthday party for under (ish) 100 dollars

Z turned 1. It was hard on this momma. I truly cannot believe how fast this year went. 

We decided that we didn't want to go overboard for her birthday. We invited Z's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to celebrate. Q's sister's family and q's brother's family both live on the west coast and were not in attendance, but everyone else made it. My brothers both travel for work but made it a point to be here for her party which is so great of them. el for work but made it a point to be here for her party which is so great of them. 

When we talked about Z's birthday Q and I wanted to do something a little smaller and more reminiscent of our birthday parties as kids. And I did it for under(ish) 100 dollars. I say under(ish) because it's not quite, if you throw in Uncle Sam's cut :). 

Here's the breakdown:

cakes: 42.00

food: 30.00 (this is a little off because we had some of the ingredients at home and my mom provided the salads)

plates, etc: 2.27 (we used left over disposable cutlery from another party and only purchased enough paper plates for the kids)

decorations: 20.18

TOTAL: $94.45 !!!!

Here are my tips and tricks for throwing a birthday party (or really any party) on a budget.

I started a board specifically for Z's first birthday. Over a few months I pinned, pinned, pinned and pinned some more! About a month before her birthday I spent some time narrowing my ideas and deleting pins to narrow my scope. Let me say that this process helped a lot!

When we talked about Z's birthday Q and I wanted to do something a little smaller and more reminiscent of our birthday parties as kids. And I did it for under(ish) 100 dollars. I say under(ish) because it's not quite, if you throw in Uncle Sam's cut :). 

Here's the breakdown:

cakes: 42.00

food: 30.00 (this is a little off because we had some of the ingredients at home and my mom provided the salads)

plates, etc: 2.27 (we used left over disposable cutlery from another party and only purchased enough paper plates for the kids)

decorations: 20.18

TOTAL: $94.45 !!!!

These took a little time but the price was extremely low! I spent about $5.10 including a few other dot garlands that were hanging about the house. There are several tutorials on Pinterest including this one here. These were pretty easy to make, just time consuming. 

Z's high chair. Again the idea came from Pinterest. I used a piece of burlap meant for scrapbooking and leftover felt from her party hat to add the 1 on the front. Most of the ribbon is leftovers from other projects but again this cost about $3.00.

I made this part hat for about $2.50! I purchased fleece sheets from Hobby Lobby, 1 sheet of firm felt and elastic for the strap under her chin. I was a fleece/felt novice, but it turned out to be one of the easiest projects. 

BALLOONS!!! I get most of my balloons at the Dollar Tree. Balloons are just $1 as opposed to $5 at the local grocery store.

This was where I splurged. Z's "Betty" cake (all kitty cats are Betty right now). And it was 100% worth it. We purchased our cakes from The Cake Lady and she never disappoints. 

Z's smash cake, because we couldn't leave out her dog Annie.

I forgot about the present table and so that morning I quickly whipped up a skirt for the table with some streamers.

When you are looking for party decorations don't forget to shop the "dollar" stores. There are so many very inexpensive options for very little money at these stores. 

Why I didn't want to spend too much on a cute hat. It was on her head a hot 2 seconds!

Here are a couple of links to felt tutorials that will help you to whip up a hat in no time for very little money. here (a template to print for roses), here (flowers and a tutorial how to make a flower headband) 

Here is the link to my Pinterest page and the board that I pinned to is "Say it's your first birthday"

thanks

lady walker

We have a walker at our house! I didn't expect my little Z to walk so soon (10 months!) but she's up and moving! Another bonus to having a little walker is all the cute dresses and skirts that have been on hiatus because of crawling can come back into rotation! And I think this one fits that bill! It's from gap.com and oh so shimmery and cute! 

{image via gap}

{image via gap}

{image via gap}

weekend warrior {just kidding, i spray painted some chairs}

Q and I tackled the garage the other day. When we moved into our current home I was 7 months pregnant. So with a moving company and lots of help, we put the house together. But the garage didn't see much love.

With the garage looking so good, I couldn't avoid these rusty folding chairs any longer. 

We have had these folding chairs that we bought on an auction  for years. But they were looking pretty tough so I picked up a can of spray paint and gave the chairs a quick spray. 

the BEFORE picture

I used a steel brush to smooth out the rusty areas.

mid process

final product! I used the seat again because the seats were in very good shape and I hate to create unnecessary waste. :)  

There are tons of cute redo ideas for folding chairs on Pinterest. We mainly use these chairs in the garage. Specifically Q uses them for his {insert robot/computer voice} fantasy football league draft. So I love theses next two ideas but, I don't think that Q and his buddies would be that impressed! A couple of cute examples: here  & here.

What is your latest DIY?

happy halloween!

The day after! Z is still recovering! {must be nice to be a baby with her own king sized bed :0)}

Z had a great 1st Halloween! She was a monkey! {see exhibit A}

Can you guess my costume? 

Earlier in the week we carved pumpkins. 

And on Halloween we took Z trick or treating with friends, aka around the block. Z loved it!

I just loved her costume. It's from Chasing Fireflies available here.

zip it

so happy

check it out

Anthropologie is having a sale! {enough said} 25% off sale with the code EXTRAEXTRA! Sadly, I wasn't able to combine it with my birthday coupon, but I did pick up a few things including this top I have been coveting since I saw it in July! 

{image via anthropologie}

wisdom for wednesday

monday monday | let's online shop

Good morning Monday! I will be searching for toothpicks to help keep my eyes open today {teething baby}. Hopefully your Monday is less sleepy feeling. Check out these online deals for mom and babe.


for mom, momma, mum, mutter:

1. JCREW 40% off final sale with the code: SOSWEET
2. GAP $45 off $100!!! with the code: MONDAY
3. MADEWELL free shipping on all orders and free monogramming on leather


for bebe:

1. Naartjie is closing! :( big discounts at stores and online and free shipping when you spend $100
2. The Children's Place free shipping plus 20% off everything

happy fall y'all | pumpkin patch

It's October! Our warm summer days are getting shorter and shorter, reminding us that winter is right around the corner. Q and I decided to take advantage of one of the last warm days by taking Z to the pumpkin patch. She thought it was amazing! Just look at that little face!

word

just keep climbing