When my 5 year old was a baby, my husband and I were diligent about the sleep program that we can chosen before she was born. She spent 11 days in the NICU and came home with her own little baby schedule that the hospital had created for her. There were definitely some hard nights but once we got her trained, she was an awesome sleeper. Flash forward to present day. My 9 month old has been a completely different experience! She has been a hard baby to train. It doesn’t help that we moved when she was almost 5 months old and have spent the last 4 months in limbo as we travel back and forth to go visit dad until we move again. I would get so discouraged when I would read articles that would claim that a 6 month old should be sleeping mostly through the night and my 6 month old was waking up every 2-3 hours! I was at my breaking point and I needed to find a better way.
Makeup Brush Cleaning Techniques and Homemade Cleaner
Let’s face it, cleaning makeup brushes isn’t the most enjoyable activity to do. Because of that, often times it gets put off and we are left with dirty brushes that cause uneven makeup application and breakouts on our skin. It is so important to clean your makeup brushes! I used totally dread cleaning them, but I have learned a few tricks to making the process a little faster and more enjoyable. I want to share my top two makeup brush cleaning techniques and my top secret homemade brush cleaner!
You can watch my video where I demo both of my preferred methods and scroll down for links to everything you need to wash your makeup brushes and beauty blenders! [Read more…]
Whole30 Meal Planning Tips
Whole30 is intense. There is really no other way of describing it other than the fact that it is really intense! The cravings were really hard for me to get through and there is no way that I could have completed a successful Whole30 without the meal planning that we did. I know it is beyond cliche to say, but the phrase “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” is so true! If you have no snacks in the house besides the stuff you ate before Whole30, when a craving comes there won’t be anything else to grab except those chips in the back of the pantry! Here are a few tips that totally saved our behinds when it came to Whole30 meal planning.
How to take care of little girl curly hair VIDEO
This post contains affiliate links, but is in no other way sponsored.
Little girl curly hair can be a major source of frustration for parents who haven’t had much experience with curly hair. We filmed a video full of little girl curly hair tips a while back but since Harper’s hair has changed a lot in terms of texture since then, we decided it was time for a sequel to or original video!
The reason we decided it was time for a new video was because the first time, Harper’s hair was much more fine and we weren’t really needing to use many hair products in it. Her hair is out of the baby/toddler phase and is definitely little girl hair now. [Read more…]
Life Hack: Hair Elastic Removal Trick
You know those things that you see people do and think, “Why didn’t I think to do that?”. You are about to think that when I share this hair elastic removal trick. I am obsessed with life hacks and this was one of those things that I saw and seriously couldn’t think of any reason why I hadn’t thought to do it sooner. I am obsessed with this tip! It is not only amazing because I now do it every single day, but it only cost me 97 cents to have everything I needed to do it!
If you have a little girl in your life, you know the struggle of trying to get hair elastics out of their hair. The struggle is REAL! Watch the quick video below to learn exactly how to get those elastics out like it is no big deal at all! [Read more…]
How to Style Straight Across Bangs: YouTube Monday
It is Monday again! That means it is time for another video!
I get asked ALL of the time how to style straight across bangs. I get asked at the salon when I am cutting bangs, my friends with bangs ask me, and people thinking about cutting bangs ask me. For a long time, I thought it would be a silly video to do because it is so simple. After asking a few people their thoughts on the matter, I realized that it may be best to just go ahead and film it!
Easy Toddler Braided Hairstyle
I love finding easy hairstyles that are easy to do on my daughter. Toddler hairstyles are fun to try out and this braided updo has been absolutely perfect. This toddler braided hairstyle keeps the hair out of her face, it is fast to do, and she gets complimented on it all day long!
Longer Lasting Lipstick Trick
You guys are going to be kind of mad at me after you hear about this secret I have been keeping from you. I will just apologize in advance that I haven’t shared this sooner. I have a super easy trick to keep my lipstick on longer! I was sick and tired of having my lipstick come right off time and time again and was SO excited when I learned about this longer lasting lipstick trick!
How to Install a Kitchen Sink and Faucet
Big news! I am giving my kitchen a makeover! I got my living room all taken care of and it is time to move onto the next room… the kitchen! The first thing I tackled was the sink. Okay, I didn’t literally tackle the sink, but I knew that I needed to get a new sink in my kitchen if I ever wanted to like my kitchen. I learned a lot about installing a kitchen sink and I can’t wait to share what I learned with you! Not only did I get a new kitchen sink installed, I got a gorgeous kitchen faucet too! Now for the big part…
How to install a kitchen sink and faucet! First of all, you need to admit you have a problem. A problem sink and faucet that is! Check out my nasty sink before. I absolutely hated having a white sink. Everything I put in the sink would stain it! The faucet was equally bad. Every spot of water and every little fingerprint would show up on the shiny faucet! I hated it!
I showed this before photo to my friends at Moen and am sure they almost died when they saw it. I was interested in getting a new faucet, but they insisted on the sink as well. I am sure glad they did because I can’t imagine my kitchen without the gorgeous sink and faucet together now! The sink I chose was the 2000 Series stainless steel double bowl sink. I don’t have to worry about it staining anymore! The faucet I chose was the Moen Walden Pullout Kitchen Faucet that is available exclusively at The Home Depot. It is spot resistant, has a pull out feature at the end of the faucet that turns it into a handheld wand to spray. It is awesome! It also comes with a soap pump that I have loved! I didn’t realize how much clutter gets added to the kitchen cabinet with hand soap sitting out.
After you find the kitchen sink and faucet you want, you need to find an awesome helper to help you with your kitchen sink journey. My dad was my main helper. I can’t even tell you how much he did! Literally all of it. He is amazing. You will need to take apart the plumbing from under your old sink and set it aside. Make sure you turn your water off before you do this! It is also really helpful if you take a picture of your plumbing before you take it apart so that you can look at how it was when you go to put it back together again.
Cut away the old caulk from your previous sink and lift it up while someone underneath the sink pushes up on it to get it disconnected from your counter tops. Get the sink out of the hole and get it out of the way.
Put your new kitchen sink in and if it fits, you are in luck! If it doesn’t fit, cut away part of your counter tops with the appropriate saw for the job.
Put the sink in and follow the directions to put the faucet in where it goes. Moen provides great step by step instructions to install the faucet. It was much more simple than I expected. All we had to do was install the base to the sink, feed the spray wand through the base, and attach it to the plumbing. When hooking the plumbing back up, just remember to hook it back the way it was before you took it all apart. Look at the photo you took before you took it apart and it is really simple! After all of your plumbing is re-installed, caulk around the edges of the sink with a silicone based clear caulk.
BAM! BOOM! BANG! You are done! I mean, really? Could it be any more gorgeous? I literally couldn’t stop looking at it for DAYS! I still find myself just admiring my gorgeous new setup.
I have been so impressed with the quality of these Moen products. This faucet blows my mind everyday and I have never had any staining problems with the sink either. I couldn’t be happier!
Stay tuned for the next phase in my kitchen makeover! You are seriously going to die when you see the transformation! What do you want to change about your sink or faucet? What kind of style would you choose?
Get help planning holiday parties!
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bed Bath & Beyond for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I LOVE attending holiday parties! It might just be my favorite part about this time of year. It seems like there is a party happening every week! When you are the host of one of these holiday parties, planning can be very stressful. Why not get a little help with your holiday party planning from Bed Bath & Beyond? Did you know they have a special part of their site called Holiday Your Way that is made to help people get ready for the holidays? There are sections for food and recipes, entertaining, decorating, and gifting! They really are trying to help create the least stressful holiday for everyone by providing great tips, ideas, and more on this one magical site!
This week, I am attending two different Ugly Sweater parties! I have been given food assignments for both parties. The Holiday Your Way site has tons of Holiday Recipes to choose from so I can find the perfect recipes for the parties I will be attending.
I think this White Chocolate Macadamia Frozen Treat Sandwich recipe looks divine! It would be perfect for any holiday party.
I also loved looking through the gifting section of the Holiday Your Way site because I found this awesome article about mailing cookies overseas! My brother is currently living in Colombia and I would love to send him fresh baked cookies. I didn’t know that that was even an option!
I found the article about making houseguests happy in the Holiday Entertaining section really helpful too! My mother in law always comes to stay with us over Christmas and I would love for her to be as comfortable as we can make her feel.
I highly recommend checking out this site for all of your holiday needs!
What are your holiday tips? Do you have any special treats you make during this season?
