wonderfully made: February 2016

Monday, February 29, 2016

weekend recap | shop, shop, shop!

Well that went fast!

It was a good weekend spent hanging around town and heading to one of my very favorite consignment sales! 


We were lazy on Saturday morning and after Mark took a walk with Beau and played a bit, we headed out to a local nursery to look at some trees. 




We ended up deciding to just get some medicine for a tree that is diseased (hopefully that works) and I got to pet this sweet kitty!


After a nice nap, I headed out to dinner with friends before we headed to the first BIG consignment sale of the Spring - Divine Consign. I'm going to do a separate post about consignment sales because they are SUCH a big part of mommyhood, but check out my haul!!!



It was a great sale and it was fun seeing a few mom-to-be friends enjoy it too. Check back later this week for more tips about shopping consignment. 

Beau is fitting into size 3 and 4 shoes (since his left foot is a lot bigger than the other) and while it's a little sad, I'm also over. the. moon. because he can finally wear these converse!!! Horrible picture - but here he is sporting his chucks at church right before he fell asleep on Mark's shoulder. :)


Mark's one request from the consignment sale was a door jumper and it was one of the first things I found! It is in perfect condition and Beau had a blast jumping on Sunday afternoon! We will have to make a few modifications for this tall boy, but he was such a cutie bouncing around in his new toy!





Happy Monday!
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Thursday, February 25, 2016

Spring it on!


I'm full force ahead into Spring and I'm not looking back at the last month of winter we have left (which Texas never had...). I did some refreshing and I'm LOVING it! I'm obsessed with Spring and Easter decor at the moment...




I bought this garland thinking I would use it as a table runner/centerpiece thing, but it didn't work out the way I hoped. I looked up at my welcome sign in my kitchen and I knew it would be the perfect addition! 






The garland has lots of coordinating decor that I had to quickly walk away from before I got sucked in....




I also combined a bunny banner with some St. Patrick's Day puffs (both found in the $3 spot at Target) for a little festiveness on our media cabinet. 







Like I said, I'm a sucker for a banner and there are SO many fun Easter and Spring banners out there right now. These two are from Target:



There are always lots of fun banners in the Dollar Spot, so if you have time to go into your store, check that out! 

Beau says "Oh no, she found the Dollar Spot again...better get comfortable."


If you're a banner person like me, check out this smorgasbord of choices:



And since floral pretty much defines Spring, I found these other pretty things I'm drooling over!



Any other banner addicts out there? It's almost time for that Spring cleaning so you might as well go ahead and decorate for Spring!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Spring's top 10 to-do items

Let's face it: Texas skipped winter this year. Personally, I'm fine with that. We are fully into 60 and 70 degree temperatures and Spring (and Summer! my favorite!) is just around the corner. Here's a list of 10 things I want and need to do this Spring:

......

1. paint! I never got around to touching up the paint from when we moved into our home three years ago. I want the ceilings to be whiter and I need to patch some nail holes and paint over those as well. 

2. visit the tulip fields in Pilot Point. I just found out about this and it looks like a great day trip! The prices for the tulips are a little high but it would be a great adventure and a few tulips would be a fun souvenir.


3. plant! Every Spring, I get all excited about planting things outdoors. Mark and I have a weekend of working in the yard and it looks good for about a week. 1 out of 52 weeks is about all we've got. However, I planted some sweet potato vine in a couple of pots in our yard last year and they seemed to do really well, so I think I'm going all out on sweet potato vine this year!

4. visit downtown Grapevine for an afternoon. I don't know how I've never explored downtown Grapevine. I have family in the city and I'm there quite a bit, but I've never meandered down Main Street. This would be the perfect activity for a sunny day!


5. go on a Home Tour put on by one of the historic neighborhoods around here. I can't believe I've never done a Home Tour...especially with my design background! I LOVE looking at houses so this is totally up my alley. I'm definitely doing this!


6. update our blinds. I've been wanting to switch out some blinds for bamboo shades and I think I may talk Mark into doing that. I love the updated look and the cost isn't much - plus, we don't have many windows to update anyway! 


7. get involved in a Meetup group. I've had SO many people ask me if I have a group of moms around me and everyone has suggested getting involved with a Meetup group of stay at home moms. Beau is getting to the age where he is aware of his surroundings and I am totally open to meeting new people, so I'm challenging myself to get out there and meet some more moms!

8. visit the Dallas Farmers Market. Mark and I went a couple of years ago and it was GREAT. I loved being out in the fresh air and seeing all of the pretty veggies! Since we'll be starting Beau on solids soon, I'd love to pick out some fruit and veggies for him at the Market, and then we could even head over to Pecan Lodge like I've been wanting to!


9. get a library membership. I've been meaning to do this but haven't gotten to it yet. We live about a mile away from a HUGE branch of our public library. It looks so cool and I know there is a ton inside just waiting for Beau and I to explore. We need to get a membership and see what's in store!

10. take photos in the bluebonnets! I've wanted to do this over the last few years but of course, never found the time. Now I have a cute little photo prop so this is a MUST in Texas! 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

"Markitect"

I touched on this last week but I wanted to dedicate a full post to singing my husband's praises! Mark has officially become an Architect after logging thousands of hours under mentors and passing 7 exams since graduating with his Master's degree(s) in 2010. I was super proud of him and he deserved a celebration so that's just what we did!


Mark is the kind of person that never thinks he deserves any praise but his accomplishments totally called for it. I threw together a little get-together last weekend just to show him how proud our families are of him and give him a pat on the back! It was super simple (no Pinterest party here) and we just ate pizza, played soccer, and chatted for a couple of hours. It was the definition of low-key!





We had a fun group of family members that came to show their support and that group included LOTS of kids. Luckily, it was a great day in February - about 75 degrees outside but cloudy so we didn't sweat in the sun. The kids were outside 100% of the time and made great use out of our (not so pretty) yard. The boys found the few balls that Beau has already accumulated and a rowdy game of soccer/football was had! The rest of us just watched and laughed or caught up on each other's lives.









Mark's dad brought over his portfolio from college and it was fun thumbing through everything. This model was the highlight of the day and everyone oohed and ahhed, much to Mark's embarrassment, I think!


It was so nice having family there to show their support of Mark and I really hope he took it to heart. We are so proud of him! Everyone left full and tired so I called the party a success. I'm just so proud of my husband, my Architect!


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Thursday, February 18, 2016

no-spend February | checking in

Beau is currently chilling out in my room in his mamaroo; snoozing to Mozart on Pandora on my phone because he is refined and sophisticated like that (or maybe because classical music helps him calm down and sleep and his toys that play music never stay on long enough). So yeah. I'm phone-less but I have a break to blog, so I can deal.


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I want to check in with y'all about how my no-spend February is going. I got lots of great feedback and accountability partners when I posted about my goals because apparently a lot of us were on the same wavelength! We are over halfway into the month and I, for one, want to finish it out strong so I need to check in here to let you all know how I'm doing.

For starters, shame on me for planning a no-spend month during a month that holds my birthday and Valentine's day. On top of that, we are buying Mark a new car (any day now...) and I'm throwing him a party because he is FINALLY an Architect (more on that later)! Needless to say, it's been tough.

Going out to eat: We bombed this one pretty early. To be fair, Mark was never a part of the no-spend month because he does really well all the time on saving his pennies. We started off the month going to dinner with my family for my birthday and we also had a major Groupon bombing that weekend, so we ended up spending $60 that weekend on restaurants. Oops. You live, you learn, and it was my birthday! I'll give us a D in this category. I'm hoping we can resist through the rest of the month and even everything out.

Going out to eat (solo): I did really well with this in the beginning but I've slipped just a little. I do have some cash on hand as well as some gift cards, so I've fudged a bit. However, I've done well with making myself eat at home and resisting the urge to grab lunch on the go, so I'm happy with that! I'll give myself a B+ here. 

Shopping for myself: With the exception of gift cards (which in my mind were an exception in the beginning but I forgot to mention them!), I've done SO well here! I totally get an A for not buying things for myself.

Shopping for Beau: I did mention I had an exception for consignment sales at the end of the month. I cheated here, too. There was a sale I didn't know about that took place this week so I popped in and picked out a couple of things for him. Also, he is growing out of some of our favorite Gap leggings that he wears all the time. I successfully hit "X" in my browser after I was about to buy them online (on sale, duh) but once I couldn't find them at the consignment sale, I ended up picking up two pairs at Gap Factory. I figured they would be cheaper or the same price that I'll find at the end of the month and since there was no guarantee I would even find them through consignment (and he needs them!), I gave myself a pass. I can't say I'm super proud of it, though. I'll give myself a C. 

groceries: I'm living on the EDGE with groceries. We have plenty of food in our fridge/freezer/pantry and I've had fun actually cooking this month. I'm just about up to my $200 limit, though. We will eat ourselves way into March, I think, so that's good! I'll give myself an A here. 

home improvement: Another A here! I bought some paint, some painting accessories, and a few odds and ends here for just about $30, which was my limit. The paint let me check off something on my to-do list that has been haunting me for THREE years, so I'll call that a win!

gas: It has been hard to keep up with it this month, but I think I've spent $60 on gas this month. I'm driving more because we've only had one car for the last two weeks. It's going to be a close call, but I hope I can stay within my $80 limit! I'll say A- for now...

...

On the bright side, I did our taxes and we are getting a nice little chunk back! Things were up in the air this year with my resignation and my Etsy profits so I wasn't sure how that would affect our taxes. Luckily it worked out well! I also made our first extra payment to the principal on our mortgage, so that felt good! 

...

I'm planning to carry out a no-spend March lite for a couple of reasons:
1- of course, I don't need to spend much more than I do anyway and it's a great habit to get into.
2- we always pay with our credit cards and pay them off the next month, so we essentially are paying for last month's expenses. I won't really feel the benefit of no-spend February until March, so I want to experience that.

So that's how it is going! It has been fun to challenge myself and look at life a bit differently. I definitely feel more content staying at home and I'm getting into a good habit. Check in below in the comments if you're in the middle of a no-spend month too! We need all of the encouragement we can to make it to the end of the month!


Tuesday, February 16, 2016

drop box

Just dropping in today to share some photos of what we've been up to lately! Happy Tuesday, friends!

.................
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We played on the floor...

...and played on the bed.


We got organized here...

...and even here!


We took naps...

...and slept in.

We said goodbye to Mark's car...





...and hello to waiting on him during test drives!


We celebrated a birthday...

...and spent time with family...

...and made this chocolate chip bread (that I wasn't allowed to eat).




We got crafty and made bibs...


...and modeled them!




Some of us played in the nude...

...while others watched. 



We visited friends at work...

...and showed off just a little bit!



We enjoyed a theme...

...and the game!



We were ourselves...

...but we didn't take ourselves too seriously.

We took selfies!




We soaked in time with Daddy at church...

...and spent Valentine's night with him in our jammies at Fuzzy's.

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We are having some GOOD times over here! Thanks for following along!