I highly recommend hiring a professional photographer for a gender reveal session. These 10 months fly by and anything you have to remember the time will be cherished down the road. The gender reveal videos are so fun and for SURE a great way to share with your loved ones, but I suggest doing photos too!
So, if you are going to hire someone, you should take advantage of the time you have and the professional quality and shoot a couple different looks. I know, not everyone is a fashion blogger like me, but you will appreciate it later. Trust me. Plus, who doesn’t love an excuse to buy new things and get dressed up?!
I have been thinking about what decor to put above my bed in my bedroom since we moved into our house and was stuck in indecision. We have been in our house for TWO YEARS and I am happy to finally share what I decided to put to decorate the space above our bed in collaboration with Desenio.
There is no shortage of art options on Desenio, their selection is out of this world, so narrowing it down for the space above my bed was quite the process. I found their gallery wall creator on their website to be super helpful in helping me choose what art suited my personal style best. Usually when I am shopping for art, I have a million tabs open and hence, my indecision. With Desenio, and their gallery wall creator, I was able to narrow down what I loved in a rather short process!
I wanted the vibe of our room to be zen glamour and in my mind, that was a mix of textures (velvet, linen), hotel like bedding, and the beach meets metallic moments. As you can see, the main picture above our bed brings the zen vibe and the two surrounding it (here & here) – bring the glam vibe. I am so happy with how these pictures turned out from Desenio and highly recommend getting some art from Desenio if you are in the mood for a home decor refresh in your personal space!
When picking out my art for my glam zen vibe at Desenio, one decision I went back and forth on was the frames around the pictures. Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted metallic moments in this decor. There is an option on Desenio to get gold frames and this is something I was able to play with on their gallery wall creator. I am happy I went with all black frames because it ties in my black hardwood floors and my black velvet curtains. I think the gold elements in the pictures bring enough glam and the black worked out just perfectly for the vibe I was going for!
I hope you guys enjoyed this post with Desenio and got some helpful tips on how you can bring your decor vibes to life too!
Even though we have known the gender since December, I knew I wanted to do a studio photo shoot to commemorate and to, of course, share online.
Because we chose to do the genetic testing on our embryo, the lab was able to tell the gender before it was implanted. We asked our IVF doctor to get the results for us and put them in an envelope that we could share with someone once we figured out how we wanted to do the “reveal” to ourselves. My birthday is the day after Christmas and we decided this would be the perfect chance to find out. So we had a delicious bakery in Charlotte, Suarez bakery, make my birthday / gender reveal cake to cut together on my birthday in Highlands with my parents and best friend.
See the video here of us finding out we are having a baby girl. I was ELATED. I had a gut feeling I was carrying a girl and even referred to her as “she” but would have been thrilled either way. Or so I thought, lol. I think my scream in the video tells you that deep down, I really wanted a baby girl.
My new skincare routine with clean skincare brand Follain.
FOLLAIN REALLY KNOWS THE CLEAN BEAUTY GAME.
Follain was founded in 2013 with founder Tara’s mission to curate a store that sold clean beauty. Products with none of the bad stuff in them. She was on a mission to lead a clean lifestyle and along with eating clean, she was determined to do the same with the products she put on her body as well. She quit her corporate job and spent time researching the best beauty options for people and the planet! For years, they curated the shop with clean beauty brands like Herbivore Botanicals, ILIA,Indie Lee, OSEA and Ursa Major.
In addition to these fabulous brands, they also created their own clean skincare line. In addition to being free of toxins, cruelty-free and dermatologist tested, their in-house Follain line is affordable. I know for me, I have always wanted to indulge in the best options for my skin but that can be cost prohibitive. And they knew that. SO! This new routine that I have adopted is truly affordable and it works. I have seriously sensitive skin and have had trouble in the past finding an entire skincare line that works for me. I was excited to give Follain and chance and even more excited when each of the products worked for me.
HYDRATING CLEANSER – This creamy gel cleanser cleanses the skin without drying it out. It is a refreshing start to my day and perfectly removes makeup at night.
INDIE LEE BRIGHTENING CLEANSER– I alternate the Follain cleanser with this amazingggggg product. It makes my skin SO SO soft and it smells amazing. The combo of the two has my skin seriously soft and hydrated even during the winter.
ULTRA HYDRATING MASK – If you have dry skin like me, especiallyyyyy during the winter, this is a must! I obviously do not use it after cleansing each time, but I have been using it once or twice a week during these dry winter months. You can leave it on for just 20 minutes, or if you are like me, you can leave it on for a few hours and forget, getting that extra hydration 🙂
Here is a photo diary from our January trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
SHEESH time is flying. It has been a month since we went to Steamboat and it seriously seems like yesterday and last year all at the same time. This seems to be the theme of my pregnancy.
I LOVE STEAMBOAT. But, I was a little nervous about going and not being able to ski at 12 weeks pregnant. I love our Colorado trips, though, and didn’t want to miss the opportunity for a trip out west so we planned the trip with my parents knowing I might *hopefully* be pregnant. As we got closer, I was really excited for a few days to just relax, take in the views, eat some good meals and spend a couple of days with Johnny and my parents. A true vacation. And that is exactly how it went!
Please give me a little grace here with my ramblings, stream of consciousness and overall disorganization. This is the best I could do 🙂 Here are some tidbits, hard things, good things and things i used and loved during my first trimester.
I am writing this at 15 weeks and really kicking myself for not writing it sooner. Honestly, I spent so many days doing nothing during my first trimester, why couldn’t I have just written down some more notes? But alas, GRACE. Must give myself grace.
because who doesn’t love an excuse to give yourself something GOOD.
We love Valentine’s Day, but not for the traditional reasons. Of course, we love to celebrate with our husbands, act girly etc etc. But what we really love is an excuse to TREAT YOURSELF. To love YOURSELF. If you have been listening to anything we have said on here over the years, hopefully you are loving yourself on a weekly basis, but in case you need a little reminder, here it is!
We are working on a full post on our favorite ways to practice self-love, but for now here are some gifts under $100 to treat yourself to something tangible and materialistic 🙂 Sometimes shopping therapy is the best therapy and we all know you deserve it.
A few highlights:
L & M leggings – these leggings made by local Richmond, VA friends are *IMO* as good as lululemon and half the price! It might be my growing belly, but I have been living in them lately. Use code TCP10 to save!
JW Pei Bag – this lil mini cutie is SUCH a fun bag to have on hand! It is only $80, available on Amazon in a few different colors and makes a serious statement. See it in action here.
OUAI Scalp & Body Scrub – Cath discovered this a few years ago and it became a favorite of mine as well! Leaves your scalp and skin feeling silky smooth.
It is a little late, but we didn’t forget our faux fur coats post this year! And this year, we are including more outerwear than just Faux Fur. We love our shearling / sherpa coats and our big puffers as well. So, if you need to add some warm outerwear to your closet this year, here are a bunch of great options!
Whether you are still prioritizing outdoor socially distant gatherings this winter, have a trip planned somewhere snowy or your current coats have seen better days, we *think* we have found something for everyone.
It has been a while since we posted a regular OOTD, but this outfit felt like it warranted its own blog post, it is that good.
Helloooo, good old outfit post! It has been too long.
We fell out of the routine of posting outfit photos on here, because we thought that might be limiting. Over the past few years we have been doing more “round-up” style posts. AKA Black dresses for winter. The Best Cowboy Boots. Faux Fur Coats and Statement Outerwear. You know the drill.
But when I was going through the looks from my recent trip to Steamboat, I thought that this post would make for a good old piece by piece outfit post. It will of course include a round-up of faux fur coats within the post, because I’m me and I just can’t help myself. But, lets talk about the other parts of the ‘fit first.
These sweatpants are worth the price tag, trust me.
I consider myself something of a sweatpants connoisseur.
If you take one look at my instagram, you will see. I have been living in sweat suits over the past few years. Stylish sweat suits, Mayfair Group Sweatsuits and fancy sweat suits but sweats nonetheless.
Like any non-millionaire shopper on REVOLVE (probably), I have been wondering if a $158 pair of sweatpants were worth it. I decided to take the plunge and try out these Pocket Joggers by Lovers and Friends and DANG, they are amazing. I packed them for our post-Christmas trip to Highlands and wore them every single day. Seriously. I am also wearing them as I write this blog post.
