Author Archives: Jenn

Top 5 Tips for Planning and Hosting a Baby Shower

Happy Friday everyone, I’m so excited for my baby shower with my friends coming up next weekend and I realized that I never shared the details from the gender neutral shower that I threw for my friend last April. Most people hate the stress of planning events, but I thrive on coordinating and designing parties and events so I was super excited that my friend allowed me to partner with her family to create the perfect shower for her and Baby S. I’m not gonna lie…boy showers and parties tend to be a challenge for me because I’m so girly, but this tropical animal theme with gold and palm print accents turned out even prettier than I could have imagined. Thankfully I had plenty of help from my assistant along with her mom and sister and some fabulous vendors.

Scroll through this post to see everything we used to throw the perfect baby shower along with my top 5 tips for hosting.

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Me & the beautiful mom-to-be

My outfit: Printed Ruffle Dress (also similar here) | Nude Heels | Jewelry c/o Julie Vos

Top 5 Tips for Planning and Hosting a Baby Shower:

Choose a date at which the mom-to-be can still enjoy herself. A pronounced baby bump is adorable, but you always want her to still have plenty of energy and time to organize all of her gifts after the shower before the baby arrives. We planned this for shower in the middle of her second trimester. We also made sure it was a date that her most important loved ones would be able to attend.
Once you’ve chosen a venue, theme, date and time, design an invitation that reflects the theme and mail out the invitations 3-4 weeks before the shower so the guests have enough time plan ahead and purchase a gift from the registry. I love using Minted for all of my invitations because it easily allows you to upload addresses and have both the recipient and sender’s addresses printed on the envelope. So when they arrive, all you have to do is stuff the envelopes and put them in the mailbox. Minted even offers customized stamps and matching thank you cards too.

I found these gold safari signs on etsy and used inexpensive gold frames from the dollar store to display them. I used dessert stands to display the favors for guest to take.

We gave out scented soaps as shower favors and used stickers from Minted to customize them. I found these palm leaf placemats at World Market these wooden letters at Hobby Lobby. We chose the baby’s initials and spray painted them gold, which they ended up using as decor in his room.

3. When it comes to decor, once you choose your theme or color scheme, look through your house to see what you already that you could use like candles, vases, tablecloths etc…This will help you save some money when it comes to shopping for decor. Speaking of saving, I always like to make my own flower arrangements too when hosting at my house instead of hiring a florist. I like to save florist for venues when I have lots of space to fill.

Cake & cookies by The Little Oven

4. Make a check list and delegate different tasks to people who want to help. I always think it’s best to put different people in charge of each category. For this shower, I was in charge of all decorations including the cake and cookies and her mom and sister took care of all the food and beverages. However, if you have more people on the party planning committee, you can break it down even further to where one person is in charge of beverages like tea and the mimosa station and another person who is in charge of just the cake and favors. I’m sure you get the idea, but just make sure you keep track of everything in one place. I like to use google docs to this because it allows other people to edit the document as well.

5. When the shower date finally arrives, be sure to set up as much as you can the night before so you can see if there’s anything you’re missing while you still have time to run out and grab it. The check list should definitely help prevent most of that though. On the day of the shower, get yourself ready first and then give yourself about 2-3 hours to finish decorating and setting up before your guests arrive.

I found this rattan chair at World Market and have used used it at multiple other baby showers too.

The 16″ Set of Gold”OH Baby” Balloons always comes in handy at baby showers and gender reveal parties!

Extra Tips:

I like to provide the guest honor with a special comfy chair and bottle of water while she opens gifts as well as a pen and paper for the gift-list secretary. It’s also nice to go the extra mile and stand nearby with scissors and trash bag to collect the scraps and help with difficult bows.
Make sure the mom-to-be gets a photo with her cake before you cut it and serve to guests. Speaking of cutting the cake, I think it’s always a good idea to pass out cake during gift opening to give your guests something to do.
Gift your guest of honor with customized thank you cards that match her invitations.
Host a diaper raffle for a chance to win a prize. Just be sure to mention that on the invitation. Also, I love the ideas of requesting children’s books with handwritten notes inside of them instead of cards.

We used children’s books as the guest book. Also, you’ll notice that I framed the invitation too. I always like to tie in the invitation to the decor. You can also pass the books around while the guest of honor is opening gifts to make sure that everyone signs.

I think decorative cookies can also be considered shower favors too.

Vendors:

Balloon Garland by Animated Art Balloon

Cake & Cookies by The Little Oven

Palm Leaf Wreath by The Sweetest Grace

Decor Design by Haute Off The Rack

How precious is this mom-to-be? Her shower was in April and below is a photo of when we visited them in the hospital after Wells was born in June.

5 Tips for Spring Cleaning & Organizing Your Home

February 19, 2020

Hey everyone, I’m so disappointed in myself for how few blog posts I’ve published so far in 2020, but we all know this pregnancy has been a whirlwind of change for me. I hope to get better about publishing more blog posts as I have a whole list of posts I owe you. Even though there hasn’t been much action over here with the blog, I’ve been super busy at home organizing our home and preparing for this baby so I thought I would share some of the ways that I’ve been preparing our house starting with the purging unnecessary items and spring cleaning. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do this alone. I had the help of Sara West from South Coast Organizers.

When Sara reached out to me with the idea of collaborating together on home organization, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I’m actually a pretty well-organized person, but everyone has areas in their homes that could use some improvement including me. In fact, our garage has been a disaster for the past year and with the all of the new baby gear and equipment arriving, we knew we needed to make more room. Also, our pantry along with a few kitchen cabinets definitely needed some attention too. Once Blake and I made a decision together, Sara visited my house and took photos and measurements of each of the areas. Then she sent me some proposals with different options for organization products, tools and storage bins.

I was able to look through the proposal and click on individuals products links to approve them before she ordered. While I love a clean look, I also like to see what is inside of the bins, so we went with a combination of clear and grey bins with labels of course. Scroll through this post to see before and after photos along with 5 tips from Sara on how to get your home organized.

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Garage Organization:

5 Tips for Spring Cleaning & Organizing Your Home by Sara West:

Start small!

Once you organize a small area in your home like a drawer or closet, you will get the momentum you need to tackle bigger spaces.

Be intentional with your space.

Give everything you own a home from you clothes down to batteries and lightbulbs. Decide where every necessary item you have will live and make space for it.

Declutter 2-4 times a year.

We tend to focus on getting organized at the beginning of each year but it is a process. Choose a few times a year to comb through your entire house and donate items you aren’t using or don’t need anymore. Smaller decluttering sessions will take less time then having one big purge each year.

Don’t put an item down, put it away!

The key to staying organized is putting things back where they belong. If you’ve taken the time to give everything a designated spot, tidying up with go quicker and your home will stay organized.

Ask for help when you need it.

If you have tried and failed to get organized, call an expert for help. A professional organizer will take into consideration your space and lifestyle to create and execute a plan for the organized house of your dreams.

Pantry Organization:

I know that woven baskets look so much prettier when it comes to storage, but I like how you easily you can just wipe out these plastic Y-Weave Basket Binsin the case of accidental spill or food explosion in the pantry.

Coffee Cabinet Organization:

This clear riser made all the difference in my coffee mug cabinet. It’s great for dish cabinets too.

This Bamboo Expandable Step Shelf makes it so much easier to see all of my spices at once while cooking.

I hope you found these organization tips helpful. Next up, the baby room!

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Refreshing Guest Room Update

January 30, 2020

Morning everyone, I’ve been doing a lot of nesting around the house lately to prepare for Baby P’s arrival from wallpapering the nursery and cleaning out all of the junk closets around house to updating our guest room and making space in our room for baby gear. We plan to have our moms, my sister and a night nurse help us out during those first few weeks so updating our guest room was huge priority to make sure our helpers have a comfortable place to sleep. Additionally, the guest room is directly next to the baby room so once the baby starts sleeping in his own room I’m sure we’ll spend a decent amount of time in the room right next to him. Just like our room, I wanted the room to feel fresh and clean with crisp white bedding and soft colors so we decided to get the same Serena and Lily bedding that we have on our bed.

I always get so many questions about the paint color in our house. We have the same paint color in every room throughout the entire house and it’s the Sherwin Williams color match to Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter HC-172.

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Details: Lanai Mirror, Solana Sheet Set, Leighton Pillow Cover, Sutter Linen Quilt, Mar Vista Matelassé Duvet Cover, Solana Shams, Square Leighton Pillow Cover c/o Serena & Lily | Ivory and Blue Abstract Medallion Area Rug | Similar Marble Accent Table | Pastel Tufted Velvet Storage Ottoman

I always like to place towels in the guest room for my guests to use. Serena & Lily makes the most luxurious bath towels. We have the Sonoma Collection.

Serena & Lily has the most beautiful coastal chic bedding collection that gives your home that fresh and clean feeling.

We don’t have a headboard for the guest room so I hung this decorative mirror from Serena & Lily above the bed to create the illusion of a headboard. Plus it makes the room appear larger too.

Blanket ladders are the most beautiful way to store and display your blanket. I love turning storage into decor. My exact blanket ladder is sold out, but Serena & Lily makes a beautiful teak ladder and here is a budget friendly option too—>5 ft ladder

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My Beauty Must-Haves from Nordstrom

January 24, 2020

Happy Friday friends! I wish I could say I was going somewhere fancy tonight looking all glam like this, but I’m just sitting on my couch enjoying the heart burn that comes along with pregnancy. Haha! I really only got all made up just for you guys to share some of my beauty must-haves from Nordstrom. I love how Nordstrom carries pretty much all of my hair and makeup essentials from skincare and makeup brushes to lips and hair tools.

Scroll through this post to see some of my top products that I use on a daily basis and when I’m going for a more glam look too.

My Beauty Must-Haves from Nordstrom:

Nordstrom carries my top 3 hair tools, which are the:

1. Whirl Convertible Tapered Interchangeable Styling Wand | This T3 wand is hands-down the best wand out there because you can change out the barrel sizes and it has five heat settings up to 410°F to perfectly style all hair types and textures.

2. The Brush Crush Heated Straightening Brush | I just got this heated hair brush last year and it’s such a lifesaver when it comes to getting ready quickly. I have naturally straight hair so I don’t really need to straighten my hair, but sometimes I just need to clean it up and I love how I can do it with Drybar heated hair brush so I don’t have to expose my hair to that much heat.

3. Cura Luxe Professional Ionic Hair Dryer with Auto Pause Sensor | I love this dryer because it has five heat settings and two speed options with a lock-in cool shot button to accomodate any hair type and texture. I’ve been using T3 hair tools for about six years now and they always exceed my expectations.

I love using the Urban Decay Naked Heat palette year round, but I especially love it in the spring and summer months because it helps you achieve that glowy sunset look. It also has quite a neutral colors in there for when you’re trying to go for a natural no-makeup look.

As for my eyebrows, I rarely ever leave the house without applying the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade® using the #12 Large Synthetic Duo Brow Brush. I how the brow color is waterproof so it lasts all day.

I get asked about my nude lip color all the time so here are the four steps:

1) Line your lips with a MAC Lip Pencil in the color Subculture.

2) Next, add a coat of MAC Matte Lipstick in the color Yash.

3) Top off your matte lipstick with liquid lipstick in the color Lady-Be-Good.

4) Finish off your lips with some extra plumping Buxom lip cream. Their lip plumping glosses work great too!

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1. Cooling & Brightening Eye Balm | The Tula Rose Glow and Get It really does brighten your under eyes and you can use it over your makeup when needed.

2. Brush Essential Kit | I’ve been using these Sigma makeup brushes for a couple years and they’re such great quality. Not only are they durable and long-lasting, but I notice a huge difference in my overall makeup when I use these brushes.

3. Blush | I’ve been using Nars blush in color “Orgasm” since I was in college and while I still love to try out other colors too, I can always come back to this one.

4. Original Makeup Sponge Applicator | Not only are beauty blenders great for blending your makeup, but they’re also good for adjusting makeup mistakes without messing up your makeup even more. Don’t forget to wash them every so often though!

5. Naked Heat Palette | *see above for review

6. Dipbrow Pomade® | *see above for review

7. MAC Lip Pencil in Subculture| Line your lips this color before applying nude lipsticks.

8. MAC Matte Lipstick in Yash | This is my favorite pinky-nude color

9. Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo | I love using both the Oribe Dry Shampoo and Texturing Spray when curling my hair. The texturing spray in an invisible dry spray that builds incredible volume and adds texture to any hairstyle. Plus they both smell really good too.

10. Diorshow Waterproof Mascara | *see above for review

11. #12 Large Synthetic Duo Brow Brush | I always keep one of these brushes on hand to touch up my eyebrows when I’m on the go!

This post is in partnership with Nordstrom a brand I love. All opinions and selections here are my own. Thank you for supporting the affiliate posts who make this blog possible.

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