I’m putting a new definition to Treat Yo Self! With these designer dupes, you could treat yourself to almost every single one for less than the price of one authentic item! Now that’s a treat!! But what is a dupe? A Dupe means something made to look similar to the real deal. It is not branded with the logo, it isn’t illegal! A dupe is a great item to buy to test out before you splurge on the real deal!

Shop my favorite designers dupes below! All items are linked below in order they appear in photos!

Read more

Hi Guys! With the Holidays upon us, last minute shopping for ourselves is not something we want to do! Malls are crowded and online boutiques are past Christmas delivery! So where do we find a last minute holiday outfit? Why, Amazon of course! Amazon shopping can be a little tricky. Sizing is crazy, reviews mixed and images sketchy, but sometimes you strike gold. I have sorted and sifted though thousands of items and found a few little numbers that have amazing 4 and 5 star reviews, have a variety of holiday colors and BONUS, will arrive before Christmas! What else could you ask for? Linked below are options that would work for a casual gathering or accessorize them for a dressier approach! To shop each item, simply click the picture. Happy Shopping!

 

  

 

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

If there’s anything you’ll learn about me here on this blog, it’s that I do nothing in life “Simple”. I always have to go all out and that’s exactly what I did when I created my little girl’s kitchen last Christmas. I always see parents asking around the holidays “What’s the best play kitchen” and “How can I make my play kitchen look fancier”. Well, I’m here to let you in on all my DIY secrets and where I snag my decor. I will have all items I used, their price and where to buy them linked below to make things easier on you! You’re welcome 🙂

The kitchen I started with is the KidKraft White Vintage Kitchen. It comes in white, pink, red and blue but I went with white to keep things aesthetically pleasing. Warning- this thing is a pain in the butt to put together. So grab your tool box and a big glass of wine and get to work way before Christmas eve. Otherwise Santa might lose a few more hours of sleep! I think all together it took me and my husband about 4 hours and lots of expletives to construct. **You don’t have to use this kitchen. You can use these steps below for any play kitchen makeover. Simply deconstruct your kitchen and follow the steps.**

Before you get to work though, you’re going to want to pull out all of the silver pieces (if yours is the white version, yours will be silver. not sure on other colors) and put them aside. You need be spray painting these! I used Devine Color by Velspar found at target in the Radiant Metals collection. Get 2 cans because you’ll need it! Lay out each piece and spray. Let each one dry completely and then rotate and continue spraying until each side is covered. You’ll want to do this twice to get them full covered. Once these are done and dry, sit them aside for construction.

The next thing I did was take contact paper and place it on the Counter top to give it the appearance of Marble! You can find it on Amazon for about $6.00. Simply follow the directions included and go for it! It has no drying time and is ready in seconds!

Final step, The “Back Splash”. You’re not going to believe me, but this is simply a piece of  White foam board! I bought a foam board from walmart for about $2, a black sharpie and a ruler and that’s all you need! You’ll want to mark off 6 inch long by 3 inch wide Rectangles. To do this, start on the top of your board and measure 3 inches down, then 6 inches over. Make a mark. Then 6 inches over from there. Then once you have the first row, Measure 3 inches from the edge of the board and 3 inches from the top line and make another mark. This gives the “Subway Tile” appearance. Complete the entire board (Takes maybe 5 minutes) and you’re done!

Now, Construct your beast! Once you have fully constructed the kitchen, secure your backsplash with finishing nails or gorilla glue! Chances are it will pop off occasionally but it’s easy to re-attach!

Voila! You have a beautiful Pinterest worthy kitchen! Visit my Shop My Instagram page to find out how I decorate my kitchen and where I find all my awesome goodies!

I’ve always wondered what it is about the holidays that make most people much more friendly and happy. It could be a number of things from the holiday parties, the gift exchanges or maybe just visiting with family and friends. People all over the world seem to have a more upbeat spirit during the season. But for some people, the holidays are a time of confusion and depression. Children specifically. There are millions of children all across our nation that do not experience the joy of Christmas the way most of us would. They don’t wake up to presents left from Santa, they don’t have family members gathering to cook Christmas dinner, they might not have anyone read to them the true story of Christmas. Those children go through the holiday season as if it were just another day of the year. They feel confused at school, upset when they get home and silently wish the days away.

Growing up, Christmas was such an amazing time in our lives. Myself and my two younger brothers somehow got along so much better during the holiday season. I’m pretty sure it was the constant threat of no gifts from Santa, but whatever it was, it worked. Everyone was excited to begin our holiday family traditions. We would decorate our Christmas tree, bake cookies, write letters to Santa and just enjoy one another. We would also make our Christmas wish list. If you’re my age, you probably remember those awesome toy catalogs you would get from stores all over. We would all sit around this huge catalog and make our wish lists. Although exaggerated and probably a bit greedy, somehow my parents always made it happen. And it wasn’t because we were well off, actually quite the opposite.

My parents were your average people raising three young kids. My mom stayed home with us for the earlier years of our lives and my dad worked in law enforcement. If you know anything about law enforcement, those men and women are over worked and under paid. So around the holidays, my dad would always pick up extra shifts working odd and end jobs to make extra money. He always did this to make sure all of us had exactly what we wanted under our tree. Looking back, I still don’t know how they pulled off some of the stuff they did. We never even knew that he struggled to make ends meet around the holidays. All because he wanted us to be happy as kids. Selfless is the first word that comes to mind when I think of how my parents raised us. But we were also raised to be respectful. We respected the fact that our parents worked so hard to make Christmas happen and we were thankful.

I remember the first year my parents were ever able to help another family at Christmas. I was about 10 years old and my mom and dad worked with my aunt and uncle and picked a family in our community to buy Christmas for. A single mom who worked a few jobs here and there and had 3 kids at home. The youngest was a girl, same age as I was. I remember being so excited to shop for this little girl because my mom had explained to me that we would be her “Santa” like my mom and dad were our “Santa”. So the gifts piled up and we spent hours wrapping them with beautiful ribbons and paper. When the time came to drop them off, i was shocked. We didn’t pull up to a drive way leading to a house. We pulled off the side of a dirt road to a path that led to what looked like a shack. A single wide trailer that didn’t look safe for living. The siding brown and cracked, windows broken and covered with cloth, the front porch hardly standing. Inside the floors were falling through, Dirt covered the floors still visible and not a single working appliance. This family had nothing. No presents to be seen 5 days before Christmas, no tree and no stockings. The mother was so grateful for our gifts and expressed how excited her children would be to finally get a Christmas celebration. Their first Christmas with gifts? Remember, the youngest was 5. She had been 5 years without a Christmas. The older siblings even longer. Let that sink in for a minute.

Not all children are as fortunate as myself and my brothers were growing up and that Christmas we were able to bring joy to kids that had nothing. My parents made it clear to us that children all over the world are without on christmas for various reasons. Children raised by single parents working multiple jobs just to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. When the holidays roll around, there isn’t extra money to be spent. They wake up on Christmas morning to nothing. The year we were able to help others, my parents taught us that Christmas meant more than receiving gifts, it meant giving back to those who need help. A selfless act of love.

Another thing I remember from my childhood was being so excited to go back to school to show my friends all my new things and ask them what they got for Christmas. We would laugh and share stories about how we all caught our dads dressing up as Santa to try and make us believe just a little more. Then, you notice them. The children who were without. Those children sit silently in their desks those first few days back and pray no one asks them about their Christmas. They pray no one notices them not wearing any new clothes or bringing in new toys to school. They pray they don’t have to open up about how they received nothing for Christmas.

Teachers, I pray for you this holiday season as you welcome your students back. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it is to watch a student sit silently and struggle watching others discuss their Christmas traditions while they have none. I know you want to do everything you can to help those students and you wish you could do more.

Children don’t understand why things are the way they are. They don’t understand why their parents have to work 3 jobs while their friends parents work one and spend the weekends at home with them playing baseball in the backyard. They don’t understand why Santa doesn’t bring them the toys on their wishlist like every other child in their classroom. No child should go through this season and be without Christmas.

There are so many ways we can help this season. While out doing your shopping, grab an extra toy and drop it off at at toys for tots location. Your 3 year old won’t miss out on the one toy you donated from their Christmas pile. Reach out to your church and ask if there are members who need help with their Christmas dinner. Ask around and I can assure you, we all can help. We all know someone who needs a little help this season. After all, it’s the season of giving right? Volunteer at your local soup kitchen, pass out copies of the Christmas story- and I don’t mean the Mickey Mouse Version. There are so many things we can do that involve nothing but giving a little bit of our time up to help others.

If for some reason you can’t give, there are still things you can do. Make sure your children aren’t boasting about their massive piles of toys on social media. And when you send them back to school, make sure they aren’t picking fun at the kids who didn’t get anything at Christmas. Sure, your children are excited and happy. And they are thankful and want to share with the world. But it’s so hard to watch another child’s face fill with tears when they have to watch all their friends enjoy the gifts they never get. So just talk with them and explain to them that they are blessed and that some kids are not. Your kids might even feel like they want to take something to school and give to another friend who didn’t get anything. If this happens, pat yourself on the back because you are doing a stand up job as a parent.

So while we all continue the joyful hustle and bustle of the holidays, please remember those that are less fortunate than yourselves. If we all pitched in to help in even the simplest of ways, Christmas can be a brighter time in every child’s life.

I see you, Momma. I see you and I relate to you. You want nothing more than to spend every hour of the day cuddling that sweet baby girl you just brought home from the hospital. Nothing more than to sit and smell that sweet newborn smell and drift off to sleep with her. But you look around your house and you see a mess. Dishes are piling up, laundry is overflowing and your floors could use a good mopping.

Hold your baby.

Your dishes can wait. The floors can go a few extra days without being mopped. Wear something you wouldn’t normally throw on if it means letting the laundry wait an extra day or two.

Hold your baby. Hold her and rock her to sleep. Hold her while you’re on the phone with your mom who just wants to check in. Hold her even after your mom tells you “You’re going to spoil that baby”. Hold her because you aren’t going to spoil her, but you are going to spoil yourself.

It’s true what they say, babies don’t keep. One minute you’re singing her a sweet lullaby while she drifts off to sleep and the next you’re listening to her obnoxious music as she sits behind the wheel of your car.

So just hold her a little longer.

Hold your baby when she first wakes up in the morning. Those moments are the sweetest. Remember the way she smiles when she first opens her eyes and sees your face. You are the happiest part of her day, and in that moment nothing else matters.

Hold your baby after her bath time. Snuggle her up in a fluffy warm blanket and smell her hair. Remember the way her soft baby hairs feel on your face as you lean down for a kiss. Her baby hairs won’t be baby hairs forever.

Hold your baby and rock her to sleep. Sing to her and watch her drift to sleep in your arms. Rock her a little longer momma, she feels safe here. Remember the way her tiny little chest rises and falls as she dreams sweet little dreams. She won’t always want you to rock her to sleep.

Hold her at 3 am when she wakes up hungry. I know you’re tired, momma. She knows it too and she’s sorry. Let her nurse a little longer, she just wants to be close to you and feel your warmth. Her little tummy might be full, but she just wants you to hold her.

Hold your baby. Because one day she will grow up. One day she will be too big for you to hold. One day you will long for these days when she fits perfectly in your arms. You will look around and wonder where time has gone. It goes by so fast. Take in every moment.

So hold her just a little longer. Your dishes can wait.