birthday BOOTS

I have a quick minute and must share with you my favorite purchase of the year made a couple of weeks ago with my birthday money. I love birthday money. It's so much better than regular money because you can just buy fun and slightly frivolous or extravagant things with it. My extravagant birthday purchase was these Born boots.



They make every outfit I wear 100 times more exciting. That much excitement packed into one outfit element is definitely worth the dollars hubby earned, gave me, and I spent.

DIMyself Christmas Decor

Oh my goodness. Will our internet ever stop acting up and will I ever return to blogging on here regularly? I wonder. As I type, I am sitting on the floor at my parents' house while the little one plays on a blanket next to me with Nana. I can usually get a few things done on the internet this way. Today's 15 minute internet goals were to check Amazon listings, check Facebook- which is beginning to bore me lately, and to look up a pom pom wreath tutorial. I plan to make a few Christmas decorations in the next few weeks. Due to our remodel and our health, hubby and I spent the last 2 Christmases living with my parents and we are ECSTATIC to celebrate in our own home this year. We are so excited that we plan to put up our tree as soon as possible after Halloween and have a nice long Christmas season all November and December. Yep, I'm skipping fall decor and going straight to Christmas. I hope to be able to hop back on here and share my Christmas decor once it is finished. Christmas project #1 is---

this Pom Pom Wreath from Bleubird

I was planning to make a wreath with store bought pom poms, but I can't get over the fun texture of the DIY yarn pom poms. Do you have any fun Christmas decor that you've made? I'd love to see it. Just link to it in the comment section...... aaaand baby is fussing. 15 minutes are up. I miss you all dearly and hope you are enjoying autumn. xoxo

P.S. Bleubird is officially my new favorite blog. Talk about style.

jumpin' JEGGINGS

I haven't been to gap.com in a while so I don't know if this is a new feature or not... but I just got on to look at their jeggings and nearly had a heart attack when the legs started moving and posing for me. I felt like I was looking at a trading card Harry Potter-style -- (nerd alert). (And yes, I am jumpy.) But I must say that it's a helpful little addition, being able to see the way the pants move. I'm not sure if I'm on board for the whole jeggings fad because of way too many sightings of painted on ones that looked as though they were about to burst at our county fair... but if all jeggings were as tasteful as these, I'd probably give the fad a thumbs up and throw some into my own shopping cart as well.

playing CATCH-UP

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Well we finally have the internet back up thanks to my husband and our tech-savvy friend who plays tech support for us via text message. I can't believe I haven't been in the swing of blogging for 2 whole months. I've missed it but life has kept me busy enough with other things. I have been:

-- on a family vacation to a Clear Lake lake house with my parents, sister, bro-in-law and 7 month old niece. Vacationing with a 2 1/2 month old is not vacationing. We came back more tired than before. 

-- deciding to be more social- I am an introvert and a bit of a hermit by nature- and had dinners and chats at home with friends a handful of times. They were relaxing and enjoyable and are forcing me to come out of my shell more.

-- writing down real life scenarios I want to someday weave into a book. As creative as I try to be, life is even more surprising and random than what I can come up with on a high-functioning brain day. 

-- trying to "finish" decorating the house. There are still lots of projects I want to do but things are coming together more and more every week. I look forward to having it done enough that I can share photos with you.

-- amazed that I was on call for jury duty and didn't get called in. Wonderful.

-- watching Adelaide smile and laugh and babble and finally come through some seriously grumpy and high maintenance weeks. She was nursing every 2 hours day AND night for over a month. Insanity. I am slowly catching up on sleep and returning to normal life tasks. 

-- learning that the little girl loves being out to see new things, so we've been spending lots of time shopping, well, mostly the window sort, and she has been l-o-v-i-n-g it. She's a shopaholic already. Scary.

-- debating whether I should chop my hair off again or let it grow out. Every time I see a pixie cut on a stylish woman I want to chop mine back off. But then every time I see someone with long bedhead curls or hair thrown up into a fabulous ponytail with a tiny french braid twisted in, I want to grow my hair out. The longer I debate, the longer my hair gets, so I suppose by I am deciding by not deciding...

-- learning to speed date with my husband. We used to go on long, carefree day dates, but those days are on hold for the time being. Now we drop the girl off with grandma or nana and see how much we can jam into 2 hours. Or we just go home to relax in a babyless home. I love those glorious hours with just my husband. He is a fun one to date.

-- dreaming of a perfect life not sitting in a crooked house surrounded by laundry and a crying baby while I try to function on little sleep and attempt to make myself look presentable. But how boring would perfect be? I wouldn't be covered in teething baby drool that leaked out of an enormous baby smile. I wouldn't be able to laugh with my husband at yet another crack running up our kitchen wall. I wouldn't be able to appreciate freshly shaved legs after a week (or 2... this is real life, people!) of hairy ones. And perfection can stay a dream... Imperfection creates a much more interesting reality.

What have you all been up to? In real life and in your daydreams?

P.S. I wrote this post one-handed as my other hand is trapped below a sleeping baby. Motherhood is throwing all sorts of new talents my way.

RETURNING shortly

I love this little cutie!

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. Our internet has been down for a couple of months and with the busy life of parenthood and life in general we haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. I hope to be back on soon. I have lots of things rolling around in my head to share. I hope you are all having a fabulous summer!

NATURE NURTURES: my MYCHELLE skin regime

I have decided to start a series of posts on living naturally- using things from nature rather than things fabricated by man to nurture our bodies through nutrition and beauty and medicine. Due to some health problems in the last years and finding that natural medicine and products were the only things to help my body heal, I am very passionate about nature's healing abilities. I believe God created our bodies to thrive off of what grows from the ground. I want to share with you the things that have helped my body get back on track in hopes that they'll help some of you.

For the first time in my life I love the skin care line I use. I have been using it for a couple of years and don't see myself finding anything better. I finally feel okay going out in public with no makeup because MyChelle has given me skin I don't have to hide. (And if I happen to want light coverage, my MyChelle foundation is perfect.) MyChelle's products are natural, paraben-free, fragrance-free and made up of mostly fruit and vegetable ingredients. I am all about putting natural things on and in my body and I am confident my skin is soaking up all sorts of goodness with my MyChelle products. It doesn't hurt that most of the products smell yummy because of their ingredients. I love their skin care line so much that anytime the subject of skin care comes up, I have to join in and recommend MyChelle... as I am to you now! The products I use and love daily are:

Fruit Enzyme Scrub: Made up of fruit acids and bamboo and jojoba beads, this fine scrub is gentle enough that I use it daily to clean my pores and remove the grime and dull skin from the day.

The Perfect C Serum: I swear by this stuff. Made of 17% vitamin C, it strengthens collagen and minimizes the signs of aging. It has made my skin tighter, smoother and brighter. I just love it.

Fabulous Eye Cream: This is a thick cream that has smoothed out some of my smiley eye lines. Other eye creams irritate my eyes but this one just nourishes.

Pumpkin Renew Cream: I love anything pumpkin and love being able to slather pumpkin on my face. It smells divine but most of all, the shea butter and organic pumpkin seed oil truly feed my skin. My favorite face cream ever.

I've loved each and every MyChelle product I've used, even those not mentioned. I want to get my hands on one of their masks next. If you want to try their products, check out their trial sets that include sample sizes of most of their products.

How about you? What natural beauty products make you glow?