Holiday

April 27, 2020

Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up so soon! It is only two weeks away, which I cannot even believe! Even though we are quarantined, I feel like these months are flying by. Mother's Day may be a little different this year for families, but it is still so important that you celebrate your moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and friends. You can celebrate these women by sending cards, giving gifts, or sending a sweet message.

This is my first Mother's Day as a mommy and I am so excited! I remember last year on Mother's Day feeling so sentimental and grateful for all the moms that I know especially my mom, my mother in law, and my grandma. I felt in awe of what a mother does for her family. My mom has been there for me through every high and low life has brought and I just wanted her to know how grateful I am (don't worry, I feel this way on Father's Day too for my Dad!) Little did I know I was already pregnant and on my way to becoming a mommy too! This year, since we are quarantined, we won't get to attend church and celebrate with a lunch after, but I am hopeful we can maybe have a picnic, or go on a walk, or just do something to see our moms! (trying my best to look at things positively and focus on what we can do, not what we can't do)

If you are Mom, know that you are a rockstar. You are strong, you are powerful, and you deserve all the thanks and hugs in the world! Hopefully your sweet family can spoil you to thank you for the mother that you are!

Below are some gifts that you can order easily online if you need to shop for the moms in your life, or if you want to send a link to your husband letting him know Mother's Day is coming up:)! Haha! All items I am linking are under $50!

Jewelry

Accessories

House Items

How I like to Gift

For Mother's Day, I typically like to do something sentimental, like a picture frame and a photo. Then, I add in a candle or a fragrance. Lastly, I add in something that I know they will enjoy like a piece of jewelry or something for the home. I hope this was helpful. I would love to hear how you are celebrating Mother's Day this year and what you are gifting! Leave a comment below :)!

xo,

Jess

April 8, 2020

10 Things to Do at Home for Easter

Happy Wednesday friends! Is everyone having a good week? I hope wherever you are that the sun has been out and shining down on you. We are on our "spring break" so this week has been SO nice to take it easy, tackle tasks around the house, and get some content together!

Easter is this Sunday and I know Easter might look a little different for everyone this year. I have been so so excited for Easter this year because we have Andrew with us. We are going to try our best to make this Easter special even if we can't go anywhere. Growing up I will never forget everything my Mom did to make Easter so special and I cannot wait to begin some traditions and make it special for Andrew as well. Here are 10 fun and simple things you can do at home with your family this Easter!

1. Easter Brunch

I love the idea of a brunch on Easter morning. If you have kids, you can wake up, make a yummy breakfast, and allow the kids to open up their Easter baskets! Brunch doesn't have to be fancy it can consist of easy items you have in your kitchen! I'm thinking pancakes, fruit, eggs, bacon, and juice. YUM!

2. Watch Service Online

One thing that will be particularly hard for me this Easter is not being able to go to our Church for Easter. However, I am grateful to our church and many all around the Country for working hard to record their services and stream them online for us at home! Gather the family together, get comfy on the couch or bed and watch Easter service. Put the phones away and worship and pray together. Talk with your family about the meaning of Easter. If you need a service to watch here is a link to our Church, Purcellville Baptist.

3. Family Photos

It is always so special to get dressed up on Easter in fun spring outfits to celebrate. Let's keep doing this! Get your family dressed up, set up self timer on your phone and snap some family pics. Take photos throughout the day to capture new memories. You will be able to look back on this and be so thankful that you did! I already can't wait to put Andrew in his little Easter outfit!

4. Easter Lunch or Dinner

Depending on where you are, it might be hard to come by what you typically cook for Easter lunch or dinner. No worries! You can make any meal into an Easter meal. This year I am not going out to any stores, we have just been doing delivery and weren't able to get everything I would usually make. I remembered that Cracker Barrel does meals for holidays and I ordered one! I am super excited for a yummy Cracker Barrel meal for Easter this year. One of the best parts is that they deliver AND I do not have to cook! It might become a new family tradition around here!!

5. Picnic Dinner

If the weather is nice, how fun would it be to have a family picnic dinner or lunch!?! You don't have to go anywhere, you could do this on your deck, patio, backyard, or front yard! Grab a blanket and throw it down, use paper plates and just enjoy the fresh air. This sounds so fun to me! I think it is going to rain on Easter here, but maybe one day this week we can try for a picnic dinner.

These next five ideas would be so fun to do with kids. You can also do them if you do not have kids! When Andrew is older I plan on doing these types of activities on Easter because they are similar to what we did growing up! I love keeping traditions alive while also creating your own.

6. Make Easter Cards

Grab any supplies you have around the house; markers, paper, scissors, glue, and crayons. Have each family member make a card for all the members of the family. In the card write or draw what you love about the person. This would be a great thing to share and read aloud as a family. I really think it would help lift spirits if anyone needed that! And how special is it to reflect on what we are grateful for. I love this activity because it doesn't require anything but thought.

7. Easter Egg Hunt

Of course you have to have an Easter Egg Hunt! These are the best! I haven't done one in ages, obviously because I am old! This year though I decided to get plastic eggs, fill them with jelly beans, and hide around the house. I will have Tyler carry Andrew around the house and find them. I am so excited for this! Parents where are your favorite places to hide eggs?! ALSO- if you do not have kids you can totally do a grown up version of this. You can stuff the plastic eggs with other items like cash, or gifts, or I have even seen airplane bottles used for this! haha!

8. Decorate a Cake

There is something special about holidays and baking. Am I right?! I love baking something sweet around the holidays! Decorating a cake could be such a fun and easy activity for the family and then you can enjoy it after! I will never forget growing up the Easter Bunny cake my mom used to make. It was the cutest thing ever and I remember she would work so hard on it! I have found a similar recipe you can use here. You can also just use any type of cake mix you have in the pantry. The main thing is you need to round cake pans. One pan will be for the bunny head and the other pan you will cut in half for the bunny ears.

9. Easter Bunny Popcorn

I am so excited to make this! This is super easy to do and hopefully you might already have all these items in your pantry! You will need popcorn (kettle or regular- up to you!), melting chocolate, and sprinkles. For this you will first pop your popcorn. Then, melt your chocolates. I am going to use white chocolate melts. Pour the popcorn on a piece of wax paper and drizzle melted chocolate on top! Then, add sprinkles to make it fun! So tasty and SO easy! Oooh if you have M&M's or pretzels you could also add to it for extra crunch.

10. Family Movie Time

Grab the popcorn you just made and find a movie for the family to watch. What a special way to end a special and family oriented day. Who else loves movies to end the weekend?!?! If you need a good movie for the family, Onward was just shared on Disney+ and it is so so good. Tear jerker for sure.

I hope you enjoy these ideas! What family traditions do you and your family have for Easter?! I would love to hear.

Leaving all photo details below if you are interested in shopping.

XO,

Jess 🙂

April 2, 2020

Baby Easter Basket Ideas

Outfit/ Blanket (on sale for $12)/ Basket

Hi guys! Happy Friday!! Do Fridays matter anymore?! I honestly think YES. Now we have the weekend to really relax and not think about how we are working from home. Save that worry for Monday.

I hope this post finds you and your family well. My heart has been so heavy this past week with the severity of the coronavirus and the numbers climbing quickly. I am working each day to remind myself of what I am grateful for, look at the positives, and do my best with what I can! Hopefully you can do this as well. I am currently "teaching" or "distance learning" from home and seeing my students work does bring joy to me and I am happy to see that this can keep them busy while learning and gives them a bit of a schedule! I also get to cuddle with Andrew all day for much longer than I had thought and for that I am BEYOND thankful for.

I am also spending time browsing the internet and pinterest and finding so many cute things! This week I was really focused on all things Easter, because it is next Sunday! Easter is my favorite holiday. For the meaning of it, the season of it, and just the overall feeling it gives. I was thrilled to finally be a parent and put together an Easter basket for Andrew! Don't worry, I know he will not remember this. However, it is special to me and he is going to get one every year until he's 18!!! Maybe even longer honestly. Haha!

I found great items for baby's for both a girl Easter Basket and a boy Easter basket. You can shop all the links below. The toys I am linking Andrew either already has (and absolutely loves) or is getting in Easter basket (like this one). All of these should have fast shipping and should get to you by next week if you order soon! I hope this is helpful 🙂 Enjoy your Friday friends!

Boy Basket Ideas

Girl Basket Ideas

November 10, 2019

Holiday Gift Guide for Your Mom!

Happy Sunday! This gift guide was my absolute favorite to make because I love shopping for my mom and mother in law. In my opinion, shopping for moms is the easiest! The women in my family love gifts and are fashionistas themselves.

Everything in this post is all under $50 and within a wide price range so you can purchase hopefully a few things for your moms! Let's be honest, moms deserve all the spoiling. Don't forget how much they have spoiled you! When I give gifts, I love when things match and all go together. I will share a few gift "clusters" that I think would go together perfectly.

Pretty and Classic

Chic and Stylish

Relaxed and Comfy

& Classic PJ's

I hope this helps you find some great items for the wonderful moms in your life. I already can't wait to put together pretty gifts for both of my moms. Happy Shopping!

XO, Jess

November 8, 2019

Men’s Holiday Gift Guide: Under $50

November is in full swing, which means it is time to start shopping for the Holidays! I am sharing my first ever holiday gift guide. This gift guide features all mens items for $50 or less. All of these items are things I would purchase for my husband, brother, father or father in law. If the men in your life are similar to the men in mine, they don't typically buy things for themselves. Therefore, Christmas (or birthdays) is the best time to buy them all the clothes they need!

When it comes to shopping for the men in my family, I stick to a few favorite stores. One because of price point and two because of quality and style. My two favorite places to shop for men in my family are J. Crew Factory (yes please outlet deals) and Old Navy. All items featured in this post are from both of those stores. I promise you can get something for everyone at either of these stores!

Work Wear/ Casual Outfits

First I will share some of my favorite items as work wear pieces or casual pieces to wear out on the weekend.

Comfy and Cozy

These next items are what I really love to buy for Christmas. All the comfy and cozy extra items! PJ bottoms, slippers, hats, socks. Basically all the things that would have come in a stocking when you were younger!

I hope this guide helps you find great items for the men in your life that you love! They deserve to be spoiled just as much as we love to be spoiled 🙂 What gift guide should I do next?? I'm thinking mom...

Happy Shopping!