52:21:Watch

Around our house...

We're learning about new animals!

Claire, Grandma, and I went to the zoo this week to check out some new animals!  Claire wasn't sure what to think about a lot of what we saw, but she loved the guinea pigs and elephants!  (strange combo, huh?)  She wouldn't pet a goat, told a penguin NO when it swam over to see her, but had plenty of fun running around and pointing at things, including the elephants.  They put on quite the show for us and played in the water, dirt, and came over to look at the crowd.  And she enjoyed that.

We will definitely have to go again soon!

Looking at butterflies!

Carousel ride with Puffin and Momma!

So... am I?

Can we take him home?

Penguin's house... very cold.

Dude.

Lookin' at stuffs.

I imagine this guy is trying very hard to ignore Claire.

 

The Womanly Art of Summer Fragrance

What's the trick to smelling good this summer?  Light fragrances that mirror the season.  During the warm months, I tend to shy away from heavy scents, musky smells, and anything "rich" or "warm" like vanilla or food type scents.  When I think summer, I think flowers.  Nothing smells more refreshing that a lovely waft of blooms on the breeze, so that's the way you should smell, too! 

My (new) all-time favorite is Annick Goutal's Petite Cherie.  With scents of peach, pear, grass, and a  hint of vanilla, I don't know how you smell spring any other way.  The fragrance is light, refreshing, and pairs perfectly with the season.  I swear it just smells like a pear with a little something extra.  And I love that. 

My secret shame is I love Jessica Simpson and her perfumes.  I have a few of hers, but I'm really loving her newest installment, I Fancy You.  It is Fuji apple, sandalwood, and lily of the valley.  I think it is a really subdued fragrance with great staying power.  It pairs well with other smells, if you're into mixing fragrances.  It's a great base. I could see spraying this on over a favorite lotion or even spraying it on with a body spray for a little different accent. I feel like it's a really neutral scent, so if I was going to go somewhere (like church) where I didn't want to have a strong, distinctive smell, and I just wanted someone to think "can't put my finger on it, but she smells amazing!" this is my perfume. 

An oldy but a goody... Marc Jacobs Daisy.  This is a few years old, so if you haven't smelled Daisy, you're missing out on one of the world's best perfumes.  I don't care for much else fragrance wise from Marc Jacobs, but this perfume is intoxicating.  It's described as violet, strawberry, and ruby red grapefruit.  It is a must smell, but once you smell it, you will be smitten. 

My final suggestion is if you don't want to get too invested in a fragrance, try Bath and Body Works.  There are a lot of wonderful, light, fruity scents that also work great.  Stay away from anything too musky (like Japanese Cherry Blossom--just not right for warm weather!).  They've got a great honeysuckle scent and most of the time, they're going to have a selection of the "in" scents for the season.  Trying those often helps put you in the right direction toward finding your favorite new summer fragrance! 

Do you match your smell to the season?  What's your must-have for summer?

52:20:Sniff

Around our house...

We've got some fragrant blooms!

Our lovely magnolia tree has bloomed!  It's my favorite thing to go out and smell because the flowers are so beautiful and smell just heavenly.  Claire thought they smelled good enough to eat, but she really does love to go smell flowers with me.  I had to teach her how to do this in an exaggerated manner (so she got the idea to sniff), so she does the same exaggerated sniff, plus the same delighted face after the sniff that I made.  It's so cute!  I can't wait until she can help a little more with our flowers (right now she helps put all the rocks back in there).  She's so cute!

52:19:wish

Around our house...

we were wishing we didn't get a black eye!

For Mother's Day, Claire got a serious ouchy!  She fell at Grandma and Grandpa's house and gave herself a black eye!  So when my mom came over later, she took Claire on a little nature walk through our yard and taught her how to blow on dandelions and make a wish.  What did she wish for?  Well, first it was that these were edible, but then she wished that her eye would heal up really fast.  And thankfully, that wish came true!  It's looking better already!

May Birchbox

For this month's Birchbox, I found some awesome new products!  What did I receive?  Will you want something from this list, too?

• Let's start with the bummer first: Arquiste L'etrog perfume, full size $165.  What did I expect?  For that much, liquid gold.  What did I find?  A heavy floral scent reminiscent of "old lady" perfume.  I hesitate to say that because I planned on offering this to whomever wants it, and don't want to classify them as an "old lady" but you know what I'm talking about.  This, to me, is NOT a spring/summer smell.  I prefer lighter fragrances and this did not match up.
• Dr. Jart’s Water Fuse Beauty Balm +SPF 25, full size $32.  I'm buying this.  This is your moisturizer, sunscreen, treatment serum, and foundation all in one.  This goes on beautifully matte, not at all oily (which is what I expected).  It has great coverage, especially for being just a light tint.  I was super impressed.  I've wanted an easy, light product for summer and this fits the bill.  I don't even have to follow up with powder on my t-zone.  Win, Win, WIN!
• Color Club Foil Collection nail polish in gold, full size $8.  I'm not a fan of metallic polishes, however, this gold is so amazingly pretty.  I dare you to put it up against your yellow gold jewelry and tell me it's not a prettier color!  I am saving this, however, for MU football season!  This will make awesome mani/pedis with great MU spirit!  I think it'd look really cool either as a base for a black french tip or use it as the french tip on any color--especially black since that's very Mizzou.  Beautiful color, but I really have no use for it except my MU games.
• Beautyblender Beautycleanser, full size $17.50.  A brush cleaner.  I was just thinking I probably should grow up a little and take care of my very expensive brushes and actually clean them.  But then I found out most people buy really expensive product to do that, so I figured I didn't need to clean them, after all.  Then I got this!  I cleaned all my brushes Sunday, and I really should have took before and after shots.  My foundation brush (Bareminerals) was the worst offender.  I used it initially just for powder, but I got into applying liquid foundation with a brush for a smoother finish, so I also used it with that.  I haven't used it in a long time, however, because I thought it was just too old and nasty.  Turns out it just needed a thorough cleaning.  Now its all soft and a totally different color!  This product goes a long way, so I have a lot left over.  Plus it has a great herbal smell that I really enjoy.  My brushes shine and are so soft.  Now I see why people spend all that money on the products to wash their brushes!
• Twistband Skinny Headband, 6 pack $20.  Okay, it claims to be no-slip (it's not).  It's also a thin stretchy material... I'm sure you could find something similar in a craft store and tie a knot in it.  I do like the color (mine is yellow) and it's fun to dress up my usual pony tail/bun, however, I have to clip it in, just like all those other fabric headbands.  It's no miracle product, and for $20, I'd just pick up something at the local store.
• Birchbox cards bonus: They sent an XOXO card I probably won't ever use.  Something I could print at home on cardstock... I'd rather buy Hallmark.  

Have you broke down and decided to try a Birchbox subscription yet?  Remember to tell them I sent you!  Every month I supply feedback on my box items and get points that add up to free money!  I'll be using my bonus to get $10 off my Dr. Jarts, and since it was in my box this month, FREE SHIPPING!

The Womanly Art of Purse Management

For my second installment of a "womanly art" I decided to take a page right out of my favorite blog's play book.  Kate @ The Small Things blog has been doing a series asking other bloggers what they keep in their purse and why.  In my fantasy world, Kate would ask me, but then I realized in horror--I could never let her know what a mess my purse is!

So unassuming... just a cute Coach purse, right?

After checking out the contents of several folks' purses, I got some great tips, so I decided to share the revolution that would be my purse makeover.  I remind you, what you are seeing here is graphic, so you may not want to zoom into these pictures ;)

Let's play "I Spy"... honorable mentions, Matt's watch and Claire's sock and a pair of broken ear buds

I sincerely do try to keep my purse clean.  I started using big gallon baggies to carry anything leak-able to save my expensive purses from lotion disasters or mysterious opening containers/lip gloss/whatevers.  Of course, it keeps my purse clean, but it looks like a hot mess.

And even MORE mysteries hide in the bag... I had no idea I carried around all this stuff!

I tend to pick up odds and ends from mostly Claire these days. However I notice I keep a lot of useless receipts, some mystery cold medicine (that was all used, by the way), GermX, and make up.

I organized my trash and treasures and came up with some surprising finds.  I have a ton of lip potions that I rarely use, but justify keeping them in my purse "just in case."  I usually just use the chap stick. 

Bareminerals something or other, my lip balm from Birchbox, Covergirl from the Taylor Swift campaign, Clique, Unknown but it has like a gold sheen to it, and the one that got thrown away... from bottom to top.

So I threw away the trash and put the items that don't belong in my purse where they actually go.  I couldn't justify getting rid of all my lipsticks and chapsticks, except for one because it was really old and practically empty.  I also realize now writing this that my usual lotion that I keep in my ziplock was NOT in there.  So now I have no idea where that went, but obviously keeping stuff in the baggy didn't do the trick to KEEP it in there. 

The minimalist.  I never thought I'd see the day!

What did I do?  I grabbed this cute little make-up bag (don't you love free gifts?)  I put my leakables in there to keep them safe (now I have to go find another lotion and stick it in, too.  This is bothering me!)

I carry a big wallet/checkbook for stuff I don't use often.  I keep my insurance card in there plus those stamp/punch cards from stores. I also put a capped pen in there--handy for storage but also nice because I always have a pen.  I have to have my sunglasses, gum, and germ X at hand.  I also keep my keys on a smaller wallet that contains my ID, credit card, and other cards that I use frequently.  I like to do this because if I'm in a hurry I can ditch the purse and just take the little wallet with keys and take off.  Not that I do a lot of taking off these days, but it's also nice to have when I have the baby's bag, too, because I can just throw that inside instead of carrying my purse plus her diaper bag. 

So easy to find stuff now!  And although my phone isn't in this shot, it looks so cute in there!  And I'm never shuffling to the bottom to find it under piles of junk!

I really like the new look of the inside of my purse!  I justified the bag before because it'd just be easier to swap out purses, but after seeing all that mess, there's no way that was an "easy" plan.  I waited to blog this for a few days after I cleaned, just to see if I could keep it up and if I realized by downsizing all the trash if I'd actually needed anything in that pile.  Turns out I didn't, and I love having a clean and organized purse!

My germ X and gum fit neatly in the side pockets, since my phone in it's giant otterbox does NOT fit in them!

So tell me, what do you carry in your purses?  What are other great organization tools?  I encourage everyone to go over to The Small Things and see if you can come up with some great ideas, too! 

A happy purse!

So what do you think?  Are you going to join in with the womanly art of managing your purse?

Claire at 18 Months

How the time has flown!  Claire is now a year and a half old!  I'm still amazed how much she's changed and grown.  I still think about my little baby I brought home from the hospital, and I can't hardly believe that this bouncing ball of energy is what she turned into!

Claire talks up a storm.  She is constantly learning new words.  She's had a resurgence in reading (for a while the books just got thrown).  And now when I read, she repeats the names of the animals or identifies characters.  She asks what things are and tries the new word out--that's how we learned "flower" and she can identify them every time.  She knows a bunch of body parts (most importantly her "lady bits" which she'll just point out at the most hilarious times).  She loves to sing, even though she doesn't really know the words, we can start to identify the "lyrics" based on the tune.  She sings the ABC song with me a lot, and honestly, half the letters sound just about right!

 

She goes through eating phases. I definitely have one picky toddler.  She really likes breakfast cereal bars (like Nutrigrain).  She also likes Cheerios, ravioli, chicken nuggets, popcorn shrimp, bananas, and peanut butter sandwiches.  And cheesesticks, goldfish crackers, and cookies.  But we try to limit the cookies.  She used to really like french fries, but those have stopped being something she gobbled down.  We honestly have trouble finding food she'll eat.  We try to share our dinners with her, but very often we're scrambling to make something from our above list because she suddenly doesn't like pasta or chicken or soup.  She even stopped eating yogurt!  The doctor said she'd be fine--in fact Claire being picky is just one way she's becoming her own unique person.  Of course that comes from a person who isn't stuck trying to figure out what to FEED her, but whatever.

 

Claire is very inquisitive and demanding.  She wants to know and she wants to know NOW!  At the doctor's office they had those round paper lanterns above the cabinets in the exam room.  Well, when the doctor was in trying to examine Claire, she saw them and immediately demanded to know if they were balloons or balls.  She recently learned what a balloon was (and she loves balloons!) and she knows the difference, but admittedly it was hard for her to figure it out.  I asked her what she thought they were.  She made her "deep thinking" face, looked at me, and then looked back, pointed, and yelled "BALL!"  The doctor loved it.  It was just one example of many of how Claire amazes us!

 

She loves going on walks and asks to go on them all the time.  She can ask for water, cookies, and asks to eat when she's hungry.  She also informed us this weekend she had to go potty.  I was so excited because I thought for just one second that Claire had woken up potty trained and it was just that easy.  However, after twenty or so minutes sitting on the potty and reading, it became obvious she didn't have to go.  But, later on I did ask her if she needed to go poop, and although she told me no very quickly, she ran around the couch, crouched down, and well... did her thing.  I had to laugh.  At least she was wearing a diaper!  We are going to start more seriously working on this over the summer when I can spend more time on it.  I am excited though that she seems very interested!

 

Claire talks all the time!  She has whole conversations with us.  Of course, we can't understand a word she says, but it's very cute.  She takes that into her pretend play and will talk with her toys, as well.  Sometimes we hear her when she wakes up yelling at her puppy and telling him no ("NO puppy, NO!!").  She's in love with the word no.  This kid will tell you no to everything, even if it's awesome like, "Hey Claire, you want a cookie?" she will immediately reply "no."  I think we made the mistake of laughing too much when she would do that early on, so now that's always how she responds.  Whoops.

Clearly we are in love with our little girl.  She makes us so happy!  I cannot wait until this summer when we can go have adventures and really hang out.  I think it's so fun to watch her change and grow and her personality is just so cute, you can't hardly ever be angry with her.  I can't believe she's going to be two in just six months!  Where has the time gone?

See you in six months!

52:18:Pick

Around our house...

Our flowers are blooming!

Claire has learned the word "flower" and now has a lot of reasons to use it!  My huge project last summer was to take over a big section of front yard for a flower bed (and one would say looking at the weeds in this picture, I need to make a summer plan to get out there once and a while and take care of it!).  These are my lovely salvia plants that have bloomed.  I'm expecting the yuccas and day lilies to bloom next, along with the live forevers and butterfly bush.  Lucky Claire is obsessed with flowers, she will have her hands full!

Claire started picking dandelions months ago, but has also picked (torn up) PaPa's tulips and the babysitter's roses.  At least she picks and appreciates--whatever she pulls off she immediately holds up to take a good sniff before giving it to me.  Maybe by next summer I can teach her the word "weed" and she can get out with me help!  What flowers are blooming in your yards?

52:17:Flip-flop

Around our house...

We wear cute shoes!

I am behind.  I am aware.  But I sincerely do have ideas for pictures (and have been taking pictures) and I just get behind.  I'm starting to do more "creative" editing using Photoshop--I hope you can appreciate some of the color saturation in this photo.  I sometimes just use preset-actions, but as of late I've been going rogue.

Claire and I have matching flip-flops!  Nothing screams summer to me the way a fresh pair of flip flops thwacking away does!  As Claire's feet (slowly) grow, it gets easier for her to wear shoes like these.  I'm hoping by the time summer is in swing, she'll be a flip-flop pro.  She's got two more pairs just waiting!

What does she think of them now?  Well, as long as they don't fall off, she likes them!  And she even knows which pair is mine, and which pair is hers (wonder how she figured that out?)  Come on, summer, we're ready!