Love List: Fall Fashion

Oh man, I've got a shopping itch. I keep getting emails about all my favorite stores pulling out their fall lines and I am falling in love with them! Here's my current favs:

1. All of Baby Gap's fall line
It's no secret that Baby Gap is my favorite place to shop for Punkito. And I think I could literally buy one of everything in the store right now.

This whole outfit (and the topknot!) would be PERFECT on Miss Em

2. Big City Chic
We went in Janie and Jack last week looking for something very specific (a red sweater) and instead I couldn't stop drooling over this line. I'm a sucker for black and white and polka dots, but I'm loving the hot pink thrown in! My girl would rock these outfits so hard.

(Janie and Jack)

3. Riding Boots
I have wanted cute boots for a couple years and can never find the perfect pair! Hans bought me a fantastic-looking pair for Christmas last year but... they were over the knee. And I'm super short. And I couldn't walk in them. Sadly, I took them back and I have yet to find a pair that I truly love. I checked out DSW today and thought these were fairly good options. Any suggestions where else to check?

(Bare Traps, DSW)

(Steve Madden, DSW)

(Bandolino, DSW)

4. Fall Toms
Another not-so-secret obsession of mine. Zulily (do you use Zulily? It's so dangerous) had Toms on sale this week and I had such a hard time not going totally nuts. I did get Em these two darling pairs. The women's ones I wanted went too fast and I missed them. But I am totally in love with these two and I keep telling myself that I *need* the wool-lined ones for winter. You know how cold it gets here in steamy Austin ;)

(Nordstrom)

(Nordstrom)

5. Mustard color
I noticed that I keep gravitating toward this color. It makes me want to go to a Pumpkin Patch and go on a hayride and wear a scarf. Ya know, in 100 degree weather. Come on, fall, get here already!

(Downeast Basics)

(Loft)

What are your fall favorites?

Spiritual Thought: Do Not Fear

A good friend of mine came to visit yesterday. We haven't seen each other in a while and it was so nice to chat and catch up. She has a lot going on in her life right now and a few months ago, I remember talking to her and hearing such distress and worry. It was such a drastic difference when I saw her yesterday - peaceful, calm, happy.

After our talk, I saw her share something on Facebook about her mantra for the past few months:

I absolutely love that and it reminded me of a conference talk from Boyd K. Packer, "Do Not Fear."  He is speaking mostly about parenting in a "troubled world," but I feel his comments can extend to anything we worry about or fear. He says:

"Each of us came into mortality to receive a mortal body and to be tested. Life will not be free from challenges, some of them bitter and hard to bear. We may wish to be spared all the trials of life, but that would be contrary to the great plan of happiness, “for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” This testing is the source of our strength."

Often I spend too much time worrying over the "What If's." Gosh, especially since I've had a child. It's amazing and almost paralyzing the worry that comes over your child.

But Elder Packer has one simple line that I remind myself of often: "Fear is the opposite of faith."

We can trump fear, we can keep worry from getting the best of us, by having increased faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. Faith that he will sustain us. Faith that he has a plan and will guide us. Faith that this is but a mortal experience and we have hope of life eternal.

So press on, dear friends. Let your faith (and hope, and love!) be stronger than your fears.

(How perfect and gorgeous is this print from RuffledPaper on Etsy? I may have to get it as a reminder!)

Separation anxiety and sense of humor

Dude. My very independent child has all of a sudden hit a crazy separation anxiety phase. It's nuts! I can't leave the room without her having a small breakdown. Witness:

So that's happening. It's made this week feel really long.

On the flip side, she's been really cuddly and sweet, which I love! And funny. Gosh, she is a funny kid.

Any time I can't find her, she is reading this book my dad got her, Hiccupotamus. Obsessed!

She picked this up from her cousin Ryan. I don't know what it is but it is so, so funny. She keeps doing it to make us laugh and it keeps working.

Beating her own drum.

Recently discovered trains. Now everything goes "Choo choo!"

The best part of going to a birthday party is getting a balloon! She's never been so happy.

New trick: Making fishes faces!! While acting like a fish in the water.

And we had a great family date night this week. Uncle Joshy, too! We went to Amy's Ice Creams on South Congress to add to our mural project and then had some tasty ice cream. Emma doesn't like chocolate... what?! So that means she ate daddy's :) And ran around with her uncle. 

Love our little family.

Mama Monday: Busy Bags (and a giveaway!)

Good morning, mamas! Today I'm excited to share with you a project I've been working on for a while - Emma's busy bag.

Starting a few months ago at church, our very active little girl just didn't want to sit still during sacrament meeting. She'll throw a little fit to be taken out and it seemed like it was getting to the point where she did it on purpose because the hall was more fun. Not a habit we wanted to encourage.

So I scoured Pinterest and Mommy blogs looking for fun, quiet activities that she could play with in her seat to keep her occupied. I put all of them in a dedicated bag that we keep in the car for restaurants, car trips, doctor's offices - anywhere she needs to be entertained. It's working out great! She loves it. And so do I. Here's what we have going in our bag right now.

The great thing about this is that we can add and remove activities as she gets older. I have a Pinterest board just for busy bag activities, if you want to follow it and see what new activities we add.

From top left corner:

• Coloring book, crayons, and stickers
• Lacing cards - Pattern here. I used craft foam sheets and craft shoe laces. You could use yarn, but I find the plastic ends they have on the shoe laces make it easier to thread.
• Books and puzzles
• Button snake - Sew a button onto a ribbon. Cut several felt squares and add a button-size slit to the middle of all but one. Hot glue that last square to the end of the ribbon as an anchor.
• Finger puppets - Purchased from Amazon.
• Pipe cleaner toy - It's a Pringles can covered in scrapbook paper, with a sheet of contact paper to seal it. I used a hole punch to make the holes in the lid and added the hole reinforcements to make it clear for her where the holes are. Then just cut pipe cleaners to the size of the Pringles can.
• Pom pom push - Any small tupperware container works. Cut a small, round hole in the top and fill with pom poms.
• Brown Bear matching cards - I got the idea here. I don't think she has the file up anymore, so I just used our copy of Brown Bear and scanned the pages. I used contact paper to seal it and make it a little sturdier, but I think a laminator would have been nice if I had one.
• Velcro popsicle sticks - I found the colored ones at Hobby Lobby and then just attached round velcro pieces. Some sticks have two velcro pieces on the same side, others have them on opposite sides so that you can make different shapes when connecting them.
• Double-sided felt board - I covered a piece of cardboard with the stiff felt sheets (one grey, one light blue) and then cut out a bunch of different shapes from felt. There's food, a nature set with houses and trees and weather items, and just a few different shapes and colors for us to practice together.
• Random other small items, mostly from Target: foam blocks (Dollar Spot, #targetdoesitagain), toy car (ditto), Play-Doh, and stacking cups.

Her most favorite so far. She says "Boop!" as she pushes them through the hole. On a recent mall outing, we just set this on her stroller tray and she happily played for probably half an hour. As soon as she gets them all in, she holds out the container for you to take them out so she can start over. No joke, I had no less than five people stop me to ask about it and say what a great idea it is and how nice it is to see a kid play with something other than an iPhone while their parent shops (not that we haven't done that before!)

Tied for favorite: She does get a little frustrated with this one because the pipe cleaners bend and are harder to get in. I think I may have to periodically swap these out as they lose their stiffness.

Foam blocks saved my life at Jiffy Lube while we waited for my car to be inspected.

It's amazing how much fun a sticker can be. Just one will get us through 10 minutes of sacrament (or a trip to the grocery store!)

The bag itself is actually a Pinterest project, too. I really want to be a sewer, but I'm not. I can't seem to manage to sew a straight line. So trust me when I say this bag was super easy. I made three - one for  Em, one for her cousin Ryan, and one for our giveaway. I got the fabric from Joann's - they have so many cute patterns it's hard to pick. If you give it a try, I suggest altering the size from the instructions. I used dimensions given by another user in the comments. Make sure to adjust the straps if you want longer handles!

Bag tutorial from Poppyseed Fabrics

Since we love our busy bag so much, we have an extra to share with you! The giveaway bag is exactly the same size and fabric pattern as Emma's, with slightly shorter straps (I was testing something out :)). Included inside: a coloring book and crayons, stickers, lacing cards, pipe cleaner toy, pom pom push, Play-Doh, foam blocks, Brown Bear matching cards, and velcro sticks. Enter with Rafflecopter (below) and the winner will be announced one week from today. (Entries close Sunday, September 14 at 11:59 p.m.). Note: You can enter the "Share on social media" option daily, so feel free to spam your friends and get extra entries

Good luck, and thanks for entering!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Freebie Friday: Move Mountains

This will probably be the last Freebie Friday for several weeks while I work on some bigger projects for the fall. I've been seeing this in my head for a few weeks as another in my nursery art series and so far, it's my favorite. Hope you enjoy!

Download (8x10 jpg)

Download (8x10 jpg)

Love List: Punkito vids (and other things)

1. Can't Stop, Won't Stop Moving
This is a daily occurrence, the spinning. It's kind of her signature move. Hard to catch on video though - she tends to be very aware of the camera. So this is just a snippet. She totally breaks out the moves for this song, though. I love it.

2. Counting (with a surprise)
The other night driving home from Houston Hans and I were talking in the front seat and just kind of aware that Emma was babbling in the back seat, but not paying much attention to it. Until I looked back and saw her grabbing her face. And realized what she was doing. This is a little game she plays with my brother when he rides back there with her. He will hold his closed fist in front of her and as she lifts up his fingers, they will count "One... two... three... four..." and on five he will cover her face with his hand. I guess she decided she didn't need him to play, so she was counting her own fingers (though every number is "two") and then grabbing her own face. I was trying so hard not to laugh as I filmed this so she wouldn't realize we were watching her. Hilarious.

3. Harassing the puppy
One of her not-so-fun new habits. If you didn't know, we have two really annoying dachshunds. The fat one is so lazy that he just tolerates Emma rather than get up and move away from her. The little one hates kids. All kids. Actually, most people in general. His policy has always been "stay away from me, and I'll stay away from you." But lately she is just enamored with him. Or, ya know, wants to chase him around throwing oranges at him. Sorry to find a little amusement at your expense, buddy.

4. Tree time
This one's such a silly little thing, that is bringing so much joy. I don't know why, but for the longest time Hans has been convinced that our dining room really needed a tree. He just felt it was too bare and that was the solution. But man, good fake trees are hard to find! They're either pathetic looking or super expensive. My godmother offered us this one from her  house (they're moving!) and he looked like a kid on Christmas. Seriously. So I love it, because he loves it. And he wasn't wrong - it does look nice in the room.

5. Watch obsession
Another Love thanks to my godmother - she has kicked off an obsession with cheap Charming Charlie watches. She got matching ones (the pink one) for me, her, and her DIL and I just love it! I went back today and got another one. Pretty sure this is going to become a problem for me.

Spiritual Thought: Be Still

Today was insane. From the second I opened my eyes, it was go go go. Pilates. Grocery shopping. Rush to get little one lunch and down for a nap and take a shower before my work meeting. Meeting cut a little short because Punk won't sleep even after an hour and a half in her crib. Come home and rock her to sleep then cook dinner. Wake her from her nap early so we can make it to swim lessons. Come home and finish dinner to deliver to a family who just had a baby. Cram down my own dinner and then do bath, book, and bed. And now I'm sitting on the couch too tired to move.

But in the midst of all this, I keep thinking about a friend's post I saw on Facebook this morning. She had been challenged to share her favorite scripture and she chose Psalms 46:10:

"Be still, and know that I am God."

How appropriate for today. And let's be real, most days. Some days what we need most is to just take a little break and check in with our Father in Heaven. Thank him for the good. Ask for help with the bad. And just... listen.

It made me think of a talk from Pres. Uchtdorf ("Of Regrets and Resolutions") where he says:

"Isn’t it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a superior life. Is it?"

So tonight I am sitting here. Not thinking about my to-do list for just five minutes. Just trying to be still. And connect with Heavenly Father, just to check in. Let him know how I'm doing and see if he's got anything to tell me. And just be still. 

Image from Joyful Runner Girl