Can't Live Without

We all have our favorite products or items that we can't seem to live without, those products that no matter what we try - we keep coming back to.

I'm rounding out a few things that I use on the daily and don't see myself stopping any time soon.

one | Converse Shoreline Sneakers - I wear these sneakers constantly!  They are so versatile - they go awesome with jeans, skirts, sundresses - you name it, and are easy to slip on when I'm in a rush to get out of the door.  I will always own a pair of these shoes!

Converse Shoreline Sneakers

two | Concealer - I'm a mom, enough said ;) but in all seriousness, it is very rare that I leave the house without concealer on.  I've always had dark circles around my eyes and motherhood has amplified them.  I've tried many different brands, and was even on a Maybelline kick for a while, but I came back to my tried and true friend, MAC Studio Finish.  It provides me with the best coverage using not as much product.  It's a little thick, but when applied right after your moisturizer it goes on smoothly.

 

Studio Finish Concealer  

three | Bath and Body Works Candles - These are hands down the best candles for their price, they smell delicious and one candle makes my whole house smell good!  You can't say that about many candles.  I love many of their scents, but my signature scent, and the one you'll see lit the majority of the time here is the Eucalyptus Mint candle.  It's not too over-powering and it's a very clean smell, which I love!

four |  Mascara - One of the other few things you'll rarely see me leave the house with.  Even on days where putting makeup on isn't much of an option.  I have been LOVING the Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara.  I'll talk more about it in another post, but in the meantime, if you're on the lookout for a good mascara, pick this one up!

Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara 

five | Fresh flowers - If you have been around Kids and Cabernet for a while now, you know how much I love having fresh flowers at home, and more often than not you'll see them around my house.  I know some people think they are a waste of money, but I buy inexpensive ones at the grocery store and I think having them at home makes your house more homey, inviting and adds a touch of glam - all wins in my book!

six |  Another thing I can't live without is my homemade "febreeze spray".  I make a batch weekly and spray my furniture and rugs daily since we have a dog, I try to eliminate any odors I can!  It's so easy to make, all you need is some rubbing alcohol, an essential oil of your choice and water!

 

And of course there are the obvious things like: husband, kids, WINE, and my phone - but you already know all of that ;)

What are somethings you use on the daily that you cant live without?

Hosting A Dinner Party at Home | Easy Centerpiece Ideas

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was very busy, and ended with my husband's cousin's wedding on Sunday.  We had a great time, especially E who didn't get off of the dance floor the whole night!


One thing that we love to do is entertain at home.  Don't get me wrong, I love going out to eat, but there is something more relaxing about cooking up a nice meal and being at home.  I'm a firm believer in having candles lit and fresh flowers in the home, especially when people are coming over.  Lately I've been wanting to step it up a notch and also make the table we're going to eat at a little more "fancy".  I'm all about simplicity, so in my opinion a simply set and adorned table is best.

I've rounded out some of my favorite centerpieces.  Most of the things to create these centerpieces are things you probably have laying around your home.

 

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This picture was what I used as my inspiration picture for the table when we had family over this past weekend.  I thought it added a cute touch to the table and when the candles were lit it looked SO pretty.   I also made a wine bar for the dinner which worked out great.  Wine glasses, corkscrew,  cocktail napkins and of course a candle lit made the table look pretty and kept people out of the busy kitchen to refill their glasses.

Another one of my favorite centerpieces - that is easy to make is a simple flower arrangement with fruit pieces.  for this particular one, I used lemons and I thought it made the table look bright and happy!

Spray painting bottles is so much fun if you have a little extra time to do so.  They look elegant are are a fun spin on a traditional wine bottle.  They'd even be pretty spray painted with chalk paint! We spray painted bottles for our 10 year anniversary party and I loved the way they came out!  It's such an inexpensive way to dress up a table!

Speaking of wine bottles, I also love the look of candlesticks stuck in them with wax dripping down.  Simple, elegant and the candle light adds to the ambiance!

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Do you love to dress up your table when people come over too?  What are some things you've used?

Have a great day! xx

House Updates

Hello!  It's been a few days I know - I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was extremely low key, which was perfect.  It was so rainy here this weekend, so I had no desire to do anything too exciting.


One of my goals for this year was to finish decorating the house.  We have been here almost 4 years  and everything is still not the way I envision.  I've also come to realize that I don't think a home is ever done being decorated.  There are always things to tweak, add and update.

Lately we seem to (finally) be updating a few things...

One of the perks of having an Ikea couch is the fact that you can change the slipcovers.  During our last trip, we found out that they were discontinuing our couch and the slipcovers were on clearance!  We bought this lighter gray color and love it.  It looks like we got a whole new couch for a fraction of a price!

J's Star Wars room is still coming along.  We recently added a decal to his wall and have bought some pictures to hang up.  There are other things I want to do, like buy curtains and/or a carpet that is striped or some sort of print so the room doesn't look too "Star Wars-ish".

This wall above this green cabinet is killing me - it's so tall, and I'm not quite sure what to do.  Should I put something big?  Do a gallery wall?  Add shelving?  AHH!  So clueless.  But I need to do something, because my kids have already asked who the kids in the frame are and if they are related to us.  I think having the frame with the pictures of the model kids in them have thrown the kids off, haha.

I ordered this pillow from Etsy and can't wait to get it.  I think the message is so sweet!  We're always together, so the message is very fitting.

Right now we are using the Ikea Liatorp sideboard as our tv console.   I recently got the idea to buy another tv console and push the Liatorp Sideboard into the kitchen and convert it into a coffee bar.  Now to just find the perfect console;  I'm on the Home Goods hunt!

Little by little things are coming along!  I'm excited for all of the little changes. 

Have a great day! xx



linking up with Jenn

DIY Odor Eliminator Spray

Sorry for the silence here this week - it's been hard with this being the first week of school and our schedules being thrown off, by next week everything should be back to normal.

Since getting a dog, the house gets more stinky.  She runs around outside, goes for walks and gets smelly, especially in this heat!  Although I almost always have a candle lit, that doesn't help with any smells on the couch or chairs.

I decided that I wanted some type of spray for my couches and pillows - but I didn't want to get any aresol cans and spray the fumes in the house, since they aren't good to inhale.  I came across this pin on Pinterest where you can make your own Febreeze spray and I new I had to make a bottle.  It's SO easy and smells SO good! All you need is water, rubbing alcohol or vodka (but let's me honest, the vodka at home is for cocktails) and some essential oils.

I got my bottle of oil at Wal-Mart and love the scent - white linen. It smells clean and it's not overpowering at all. Don't be alarmed when you first spray, the smell of rubbing alcohol is strong at first but quickly fades and then you're just left with a soft smell from the oil.  I sprayed this on different pieces of furniture and the next day it was still smelling like the spray, so it really works!

DIY Odor Eliminator Spray

Supplies -

• Small spray bottle
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 of rubbing alcohol (or vodka)
• 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil of your choice

Instructions:

• Pour rubbing alcohol into the spray bottle, then add in water 
• Add essential oil
• Lightly shake bottle

Spray and enjoy!

That's it! Easy, cheap, easy to remake and not harmful to inhale!  

This and That

Happy Tuesday!

I hope everyone had a fun weekend!  We did, we didn't have any plans since we were supposed to be out of town, but it ended up being a very fun weekend!

Friday started with an evening at one of my bestie's houses. Her husband grilled out and we had margaritas out of mason jars - perfection!

On Sunday we went to an anniversary dinner for some friends.  We had so much fun and it felt great getting out of the house without kids, gotta love some adult conversation!

Having Paris around has been fun and also challenging.  She's a great dog and knows all of her commands already, but it's like having 3 kids around!  Sometimes I second guess our decision to get a dog and then I catch moments like this that melt me.

I FINALLY bought E her quilt set.  I found an adorable one at Target that is a little girl in Paris (France, not the dog haha) and I think it goes adorable in her room!

Now we're moving on to buy one for J for his Star Wars room.  Sadly none of the Star Wars bedding we've found are really nice nice... except for Pottery Barn Kids (of course!) so we'll be saving to get him one of the ones from there.

How's that for a jumbled up post?!  Have a great day!

Laundry Room Makeover

A few months back we decided to give our laundry room a face lift.  It's a very tiny room upstairs so there wasn't tons we could do, but we were tired of the dreaded wire shelf that we knew one day would come toppling down since it held all of the detergents, cleaning products and other miscellaneous things. 

We wanted more storage and essentially thought we would get a stackable washer and dryer to really optimize our space and maybe add some long cabinets to the side to use as a hamper or storage.  We went to the store and purchased a stackable only to hate it when it came in because it stuck too far out and was just too massive for the room!

After we took down the wire shelf

We decided to work with what we originally had, take down the wire shelf and add cabinets to the top.  I decided that I wanted the room to be a navy blue.  Our whole house is so neutral that I thought it would be fun to have a pop of color some where.  So my husband painted the room and we ordered cabinets from Ikea, which he had up in less than a day!  The man is handy... I'll keep him ;).

I LOVE the way it came out!  We have so much extra space, and all of the cleaning products are neatly stored, nothing is half falling over like it was with the wire shelves.  Of course new cabinets meant that I had to go to Home Goods to shop and get baskets and a few trinkets.  I also framed my laundry schedule which comes in handy.  I figure if I do laundry everyday, the room might as well look pretty, right?

Here are a few pictures, it's virtually impossible to take pictures of the room because 1- it's TINY and 2 - there is NO natural light that comes in at all, so this was the best I could get.

Have a great day!

Laundry Made Easy

I don't know about you, but I never felt like I could keep up with the laundry in the house.  Every time I did laundry I felt overwhelmed and like it would take up most of my day, especially the kids' clothes.  I would let two weeks pass sometimes before I washed their clothes, until basically they barely had anything left to wear and then I would be stuck with huge amounts to fold.  And if you've ever folded kids clothes you know what I mean - the basket never empties because their clothes are so little!  It was bad, and I was guilty of not wanting to fold them and most likely living out of a basket until I finally folded them.  Another thing -  my husband used to do his own laundry, which I know - sounds great, but he would wait until the last minute to wash, and his clothes would be piled HIGH in the laundry room - ugh!

I decided that we needed to make a change with our laundry habits and quick!  So I made a schedule and have stuck with it.  The schedule is that I wash, fold and put away one load of laundry per day.  This has made me happy, especially when I walk into the laundry room and don't see mountains of clothes.

How do you handle the laundry in your house?  Do you use a schedule too?  I swear it has been the best time saver!


PS - Don't forget to enter the $125 Amazon gift card giveaway and the Kate Spade giveaway!

#CoffeeMyWay

When Jessica from Wayfair contacted me to write a post for the #coffeemyway campaign, it was an automatic yes!  While I'm not the biggest coffee drinker in the world, I look forward to that one magical cup in the morning.  I actually start looking forward to that first sip the night before!  There's something so soothing and comforting about a cup of coffee in the mornings.  That cup is what gets me ready and awake to tackle the day.

The way my coffee is prepared each day differs.  It depends whether my husband is home or not.  If he's home, he usually grinds the coffee beans with his burr grinder and brews the coffee in his beloved Bunn coffeemaker.  He's a HUGE coffee lover and drinks around three cups a day, so I let him take the lead in brewing the mornings that he's home.

If he is at work, I turn on my trusty Keurig and brew a breakfast blend - in my favorite mug of course!  I take my coffee light (with half & half) and no sugar.  I'm not into sweet coffee, unless it's iced coffee - so this is my favorite way to drink it.

After fixing my coffee I give the kids some fruit or their breakfast and then sit in my quiet dining room and write my post for the day.  I love this time of the day so much!  It's so relaxing to sit and type while I drink my coffee.  It helps me start the day off right - with a little quiet and "me time", which is so important when you're a stay-at-home mom.

What's your morning ritual like?  Do you sit and enjoy your coffee quietly or do you drink it during the hustle and bustle of the morning?

House Updates

We've made quite a few updates since my last goals post.  I'm pretty content with the few things that we have done so far, a house is definitely a work in progress!  Like I said, 2015 is going to be the year of finishing decorating.


Master Bedroom

We gave our old queen set to my sister and got a king sized bed because the kids always come into our bed at some point at night, and we were having a hard time all fitting.  Also, our previous set was 10 years old and our taste has changed, not to mention whenever my husband went to work in the morning and got ready, our old pulls on the furniture would make TONS of noise - annoying!  We got this set from City Furniture and are loving it! 

We're loving the new set and how bright and airy the room feels!


The Playroom

We decided to clean out our "junk room" and make it into a playroom for the kids.  We were both tired of seeing so many toys downstairs and figured that even if the kids brought the toys downstairs, at least everything would have a place come cleanup time.  I didn't purchase anything for the room, just used what we already had to create a room for them to play in -- and some of their cute artwork helped.  There's still some tweaking that needs to be done, but the kids are loving their space.

It feels great having everything put away at night and being able to have the downstairs toy free!


Big Girl's Room

Not much has been done here - I bought some new art work, a mirror (comes today) and a burlap banner that needs to all be hung up.

Big Boy Room

Last week I went a little nuts and on a whim I packed up every baby item in J's room, and brought it to the consignment shop.  I so want to make him a big boy's room - he keeps asking for Star Wars, and where I normally don't decorate with characters, I realize that men never grow out of the Star Wars stage, so the force may be with me I can most likely get away with decorating with Star Wars and him not grow out of it for a while.

The Entrance

I bought a new print to hang and also some succulents in a frame to brighten up the entryway.  We also bought a Fishtail Palm for more pops of color.  I love seeing touches of green as we walk in!

One of our other projects happening in the next few weeks is putting a stackable washer and dryer in our laundry room to open up space and add some shelves, which will be great because all of our baskets will have a home, and there will be more room for detergents and possibly some room to add some of our towels.  Our linen closet is downstairs so it can be a pain when we need an extra towel.

Our gallery wall is almost finished too! I only need one more picture to hang, once it's finished I'll be sure to share.

I also gave into the 70% Rugs USA sale and ordered this baby for the family room - I'm in love and think that the yellow will bring a nice pop of color to the room!

What do you think of the updates?  Are you making any big/small changes to your house this year?



Linking up with Natalie and Annie for Thoughts on Thursday

Cozy Nights In

I'm all about curling up on the couch at the end of the day (or on a cold day) and creating a cozy atmosphere, it's my way to unwind after a full day with the kids.

Parachute Home's  Bedding reminds me just of those days/nights where I just want to cozy up and relax.  They have the most beautiful bedding, throws and scented candles.  Their Venice set looks so comfortable and the epitome of cozy!  If you've never gone on their site you should go look at their great selection.

Relax by kidsandcabernet featuring a tea cup & saucer

My favorite way to cozy up is to put on my pj's, light a candle - Marshmallow Fireside is one of my favorites from Bath and Body Works, especially this time of year.   I usually will either have a glass of wine or a cup of tea,  put one of my favorite movies on - you know, the ones that you can recite the lines as you watch it?  And cuddle with a blanket - that is, if it's cool outside.  I love nights like this, and there's an added plus if it's cold outside and we have the windows opened!

How do you spend a cozy day (or night)?

Gray and White Master Bedroom

Good Morning!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  Ours was pretty good.  We tackled cleaning out the garage.  It's about 80% done, and I'm pretty excited about parking my car inside once it's finished.  Our garage has always been too messy for me to park my car inside.  So this will be a nice change, especially when I have sleeping kids in the car.

Last week we finally got our master bedroom furniture.  It's an all white set which I wanted.  We went back and forth on whether to get the furniture from Ikea (we were considering the Hemnes set and alternating pieces between the gray wood and white finish).  We decided against it because the quality isn't as good, you have to build it ALL yourself (insert lazy here), and we can buy a set from a furniture store for only a little bit more with financing when they had a sale.

The walls in our room are gray and we get a lot of natural light in the room.  I want to keep with the original plan of decorating the room, gray and white with little pops of color here and there...

 

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I want the room to be very soft and cozy looking - a place where we feel instantly relaxed when we walk in.

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I love these curtains!

Now, the challenge is achieveing these looks.  For some reason decorating bedrooms does not come easy to me.  Any suggestions?  Where do you all start?

I bought these lamps at Marshalls a couple of days ago because I thought they were different and I liked the charcoal stripes.  I just don't know if I jumped into buying something too soon,  I like them - but I also didn't shop around all that much.

 

Ok girls, spill all of your decorating advise!  

Have a great Tuesday!