Currently Loving

Actually, currently loving is about three and a half years "currently loving." It seems about right to finally write about these gems of children's footwear. 

I tried several sandals on my baby Sophie when she started walking. Some fell off every three steps. Some gave her blisters. Some fell apart. Some just broke after three uses. 

Then Saltwater Sandals came in the picture. A friend's daughter was wearing them and raved, and we got Sophie her first pair of Saltwaters. They never fell off. They became immersed in water, and molded to her feet and became more comfortable than ever. They would not fall apart regardless of hard use and long walks. We've never turned to another sandal since. 

Maggie and Sophie get one pair of sandals annually, and these are them. If I'm going to write about small style, these deserve a post for themselves, and there you have it. It's about time! My one and only first-hand recommendation for kiddo sandals. 

Regarding colors- the three pictured are our absolute top picks. Bright pink is the next runner up. We've never picked navy, but always, always considered them. They last forever and pass down incredibly. :) If sandals are what your child needs, these are the best! 

xo.

Dollhouse: 01

I have always loved dollhouses. I don't think I've met a little girl who doesn't, actually. We had a pretty one when we were kids, and that house got more love than any other toy in our life, except maybe my favorite teddy bear. Every day I would move furniture, and play make-believe with my little toys. 

My dad is a contractor... a very talented contractor who adores his grandchildren. A couple of Christmases ago, he spent who-knows-how-many hours making the most gorgeous dollhouse for my girls. I asked him to keep the inside bare so that I could make it beautiful WITH the girls, so we got hardwood floors and white walls. It's basically amazing. 

I realized the girls were a bit small to play with it gently for any extended period of time when they first got it... Maggie took a pen to the exterior and got in big trouble pretty quickly, so it was a hands-off thing for awhile. Lately they've been gravitating toward it more and more {and not in a destructive way anymore!}, so it's time to spruce up the interior and make it awesome. YES. I'm so excited. Today we got started. 

Wallpaper. I love white for walls in my home, but I love wallpaper for a dollhouse. It's easily mod-podged in there, and removes for a new paper so easily! I don't have a razor-blade even though I've told myself a million times how much I could really use one, so my edges are imperfectly done with a pair of scissors. No biggie! 

I folded creases into my paper {it's this one from Paper-Source}, cut along the creases and hoped for the best. I measured all three walls before mod-podging any in, and then with the window, I just used my finger to indent a tiny bit around the edges, then a scissor to cut more exactly once it was off the wall.

For furniture, we've had this starter set since we got the house, and I got some chair ornaments from CB2 {for like $1 each} at their after-Christmas sale that are the perfect modern dollhouse chairs- the white one in the corner being one of them. Hoping they have more this year and I'll scoop up extra. :)

We used a little candleholder from my shop {to which Maggie also added her artistic flavor with a pen, so it was a good one to keep!} as a plant holder, and we cut a tiny leaf from a fake plant to fill the planter. Sophie and I worked together to make an art piece for the wall with markers, then "framed" with a brown marker on a larger rectangle.

We're down bedding, lighting and floor coverings, but it'll come in time... kind of like my bedroom- one piece at a time, patience is a virtue and all that... 

Have I mentioned how fun little girls are? I mean, I totally transported myself back to 1987 for the morning and it was fun for all! SO, this is dollhouse post 01, and hopefully there will be numbers to follow while we work on it. Dollhouses make me feel like I can decorate as fancy as Emily Henderson but with the tiniest budget ever. I can totally see it being addicting. ;)

Ps. A million years ago I made a vine with the dollhouse in its bare state, and here it is! Pardon the terribly shaky videography, HA:

xoxo.

Summer Loving: Pescadero

Summer really just IS the best. There's no way around it. Kids have so many opportunities to get outside and get fresh air and have endless fun. 

Yesterday, we went in the tiny backyard to play a bit, and lo and behold! Our plum tree has plums! Our apple tree has apples! We did a pre-fruit-picking session, realized the fruit isn't ready to be picked, and were totally fine with that because... on the agenda today was berry picking... 

I woke and thought to myself, "we have no gingham! We have no cowboy boots!" and then I tried to be reasonable and say that going to the country does not equal a requirement to dress country. Maggie has overalls. Sophie got braids. Two thumbs up. We went country. 

In Pescadero. Which I now know is nearly 1.5 hours of driving each way {depending on traffic}. So be it! Brian didn't need the car, so we piled in, and on our way.

Sophie got some quality independence and picked berries with her best little friend. It's such a sweet thing to see tiny babies get bigger and adore one another genuinely still. They're looking like such school-kids these days, and I kind of love it and hate it all at once. Nostalgia, cry me a river and all that sort of motherly sappiness. They stayed a couple rows away and giggled about who-knows-what while they filled their buckets. Brought me right back to my childhood, let me tell you. Childhood is a dream.

Maggie isn't a berry picker, per say. I have a lot of pictures of her in the fields, and in 3/4 of them, she's eating unripe berries, and the other 1/4 she looks pretty grouchy. You can take the kid out of the city, but apparently she doesn't have to like it. Thankfully, the tractor WAS a hit, and telling her little cousins what to do was another big hit. The youngest has to share her knowledge somewhere. I can totally relate. I was the youngest in my family too. 

All said, it was a good day. It's been a good week. It's a great summer. I think maybe the best on the books, but that's probably too bold to say since we're in our first official week of summer. Maybe it's because my kiddos are at such good ages? They're still young enough to be in awe and sweet about all these activities, but not so young where they're 100% needy when we're out and about. 

I heart summertime. 

xo.

EVERYTHING ON SALE

SHOP ACCESSORIES | SHOP HOME | SHOP TOYS

I love the beautiful U.S.A. so I'm having a sale to celebrate the 4th of July! Use the codes above to redeem in my shop until the 4th!

Happy Shopping!! :) xoxo.

SHOP ACCESSORIES | SHOP HOME | SHOP TOYS

Currently Loving: ScoreBig

Father's Day is always a tricky one for me. I want my husband to get some quality time being showered with love by his girls, but I want him to get to do something he REALLY enjoys as a gift. He's not so much of a "hey, here's a sweater for a special day" kind of guy; he's an experience kind of guy. He loves nothing more in the summer than a great game of baseball. 

I love baseball. I love the Giants... but Brian LOVES baseball {capital letters for serious emphasis}. The Phillies first, unfortunately, and then the Giants. If anyone asks him to a baseball game, he does his best to get there.

The week before Father's Day I was working on finding tickets on the every-so-shady Craigslist {I have such a love/hate with Craigslist!!} for him, unsuccessfully, when lo and behold! ScoreBig reached out to me about testing their services. 

Why yes. I would LOVE an alternate option to paying premium prices on the Giants site or paying Craigslist, aka "did I get scammed," price {there's clearly history with me buying baseball tickets on the good ol' CL, but I won't elaborate}. 

SO- ScoreBig, what can you do for me? 

Here's what they do. They provide the list of events. They provide tickets available for said events. They provide a spot for you to BID on your tickets. Yes, you choose your price. In this case, I decided the budget for two tickets was around $125. It tells me my with a color thermometer what my likelihood of getting - say 4 star tickets- is with the price I entered. It shows the ballpark and what seats are included based on the star rating. In my case, GREEN to go meant I could bid and likely score tickets.

I went with it. Four star seats... within one minute I knew if I had them. I scored, got my seat numbers right then and there, emailed them to my adored husband, who happily printed them and had fantastic time on the Friday of his Father's Day weekend... and still got to spend all of Sunday being showered with affection and cards by his little fans. 

Moral of the story? I'm using ScoreBig for Giants tickets forevaaaaa. I've already recommended it "in real life" to my friends, and now I'm telling you. They have tickets for concerts, sports, theater... you name it! It's not Father's Day anymore, but summer has just begun and there is plenty of baseball {or whatever suits your fancy} to be played and watched. Go get 'em.

xoxo.

*I was not compensated for this post. Tickets were provided for review. All opinions are my own, and we REALLY love ScoreBig.

Hills and Throwbacks

We had high hopes of going to the ZOO today... then I got sick again! Thankfully this time it's a cold and not a flu, but it still isn't going to be okay to spread germs on our friends' kiddos. I generally don't mention to my kids what are fun plans are in advance, but this time I did, and Sophie is super bummed to be missing the zoo. So am I, for that matter! I love giraffes and peacocks and sunshine. 

There's always next week! Thankfully we spent all day yesterday out and about, and the girls are kind of wiped out today anyway.

This is a picture of one of the hills we climbed yesterday. These SF hills don't mess around. In honor of the fact that it's Throwback Thursday, here's a little story for ya... When Sophie was born, we lived swallowed in a spot with big hills similar to this. We had thought of everything we could possibly need for a registry, gotten everything I thought I would need, and thought it'd be a cakewalk to do life. But those hills, oh those hills! Every single place I needed to go - stores, coffee shops, restaurants, banks, etc. were up or down those hills. When I registered, I looked for pretty strollers with great reviews. I didn't think to look for lightweight! The stroller I had must have weighed 25 lbs with the carseat inside {Sophie turned 6 months and I got my first umbrella stroller and never once looked back}. One particular day, I needed to find a place to get fingerprints for my part-time job at the time, and I found myself on a hill very much like the one above... halfway up the side with the stairs and realizing that I had trees blocking the squares of sidewalk to the side of the stairs... I had to maneuver the BEAST of a stroller around the trees and up the stairs slooowwwly and was nearly in tears by the time I got to the top {as a reference, the photo above was taken about 2/3 of the way up this particular block... these are not short hills}.

OH the lessons you learn after having a firstborn. I would love to have given my 26 year old self some serious SF mothering lessons starting with A. The bus systems that take you nearly everywhere you want to be. B. The fact that all sidewalks with smooth surface beside stairs are deceiving... there will always be planter boxes or trees in your way but not until halfway up. Take the smooth side! C. Ever heard of a good Ergo? I could have had things SO.MUCH.EASIER. had I only known any of those three things. 

Anyway, every time I walk up stairs on a sidewalk {which is often}, I remember those days of early motherhood fondly. 

Happy Throwback Thursday. xoxo