Valentine's Day Ideas for Tired Parents + JORD Giveaway!

 Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by JORD Wood Watches. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

My pre-baby self used to look forward to going out to dinner on Valentine's Day. It was one of the few days a year my husband made the plans, so it didn't matter where we went. I was just happy to get out of picking a place to go. My husband will attest to my indecisiveness!

Fast forward a few years and Valentine's Day changed forever with Rowan's entrance into the world just a few days before. I still remember my husband made me take a three-hour nap that day, which was probably the best gift ever at that point. Bless him!

This year though, Valentine's Day has been synonymous with "your baby is getting older, cue the ugly tears" for me so there will be no heels or makeup for me! Just sweatpants, lots of cuddles from my littlest Valentine, and an at home date night with my husband. Perfection right there folks!

Reece Walnut and Navy wood watch c/o JORD

Rowan is usually out by 7:30 which gives my husband and I at least 2 hours before we're ready to crash too, so we've learned to set aside the to-do list and just focus on us. There are so many things you can do but here are a few of our favorites!

Make dinner together. It doesn't have to be fancy, our easiest dinners usually involve quesadillas or breakfast foods and eating on the couch.

Play 'Heads Up' or a board game. We use the Heads Up app and always have so much fun with it, even with just the two of us. Plus it video tapes each round which you can save and watch later for a good laugh. 

Go through old photo albums. Pull out the wedding album, baby book, or reminisce on that Europe trip you took in your younger days before the dark eye circles made an appearance.

Make a bucket list of places you want to visit, with and without kids. Speaking of traveling, we always get the itch to plan another trip after looking through vacation albums so we end up with a huge list of places we want to see next!

Toast marshmallows on an outdoor fire pit. Of course this only works if you aren't dealing with snow or freezing rain in February, but we love using our fire pit here in the South!

Exchange gifts. We usually keep Valentine's Day gifts pretty low key, but when JORD reached out to me about their wood watches I thought it would be a unique way to spoil my husband for doing so much for us!

I picked the Reece Walnut and Navy watch because the colors match everything in my husband's closet and I loved the modern rectangular shape. I also love the subtle plaid print on the watch face. It is light weight and very smooth to the touch, which my husband tells me makes it so comfortable he almost forgets he is wearing it! 



And as a bonus for you guys, I'm excited to team with JORD to offer you a chance to win a $100 credit toward the wood watch of your choice! All you need to enter if your name, email, and favorite watch... super easy! You will receive a $25 credit just for entering!

P.S. They have some gorgeous options for women too!

Enter here!

Contest ends February 12th at 11:59 PM. Both the $100 and $25 credits will expire on April 30th.

Luxury Wooden Watch


Do any of you have at home date nights?! I'd love to hear some of your ideas too!

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Easy + Subtle Valentine's Day Decor

This post was sponsored by Minted. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

I know, I know, Valentine's Day decor isn't a priority for a lot of people.

But hear me out, because there are so many ways to add a little bit of festive to your home without having tacky heart cutouts everywhere.

Although if its a school project from Rowan, give me all the tacky hearts! Bonus if they have my son's smeared hand prints all over them.

Plum Target Print via Minted

If you've been around long enough you know I like to do a little bit of decorating for each holiday, its just my thing. Especially now that Rowan is starting to understand holidays, I think its so fun to add a subtle art print or garland around the house!

By far my favorite ways to make our home festive and add a little pop of color to our mostly neutral space are adding pillows, throw blankets and framed art prints. After Christmas I felt like our entryway table really needed some help... its really long and I always struggle to decorate it without making it either too cluttered or too empty. So I finally decided to try out layering some frames on our mirror and I love how it turned out!

This Plum Target print from Minted's Valentine's Day collection is so perfect because it includes pinks, purples and a neutral grey for Valentine's Day but you can also repurpose it after the holiday in a half bath or laundry room that needs some love! Minted's French farmhouse frame is so pretty if you're going for a transitional or farmhouse style, but it would also be perfect with a modern champagne silver or black frame.

I layered it with a little art project I did with Rowan over the weekend using a potato stamp and paint! By the end Rowan was just finger painting (which is basically inevitable with toddlers and paint, right?!) and I love the combo of the two so, so much!

I also have Rowan's little playroom decorated with heart garland on the book shelves and teepee. He loves the hearts and counts them every time we play in there. I'm pretty sure he takes the garland down and hides it daily, because I find it in the most random places along with a few blocks or Dory figurines he ditched at the same time. Toddlers!

Here are a few of my other favorite Minted Valentine's Day prints that bring a subtle but pretty Valentine's Day theme to your decor! I think these would also be so cute as a gift! Make sure you order by February 1st to get it in time and use the FREESHIP code!

Day in Paris Print. Come Together Print. Peony with Spring Flowers print.
Plum Target Print.  Forty Six Key Print. 

Does anyone else decorate for Valentine's Day or do you give your littles a gift? I picked up a few things in the Dollar Spot for Rowan, but his birthday is a few days before so he'll be spoiled enough as it is!

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Favorite Workout Gear for the New Year

This year there will be no resolutions. Just my new year "word."

Prioritize.

I felt the serious effects of putting myself last, or not on the priority list at all, last year. My back (and the scale, sadly) are the direct result of not doing some of the things I love to do.

While I loved our weekend trips to the aquarium or trying new Charleston restaurants, I rarely broke a sweat unless I was being my typical helicopter mom self chasing my toddler around the playground.

One of the ways I'm carving out time for me this year is heading to the gym during my lunch break. It's not always possible but I feel so.dang.good. when I do! I feel even better when I have new high rise leggings to contain the "current situation" while I throw down some intervals on the treadmill.

And when I say throw down, I mean I go between 4 and 6 miles an hour. I know, I'm so fast.
 
Is it just me or is it so much easier to mentally prepare for the gym when you have new gear to wear?! I thought I'd round up some of my favorites in case you're like me and need a little gym wardrobe update. Also have I mentioned how much I love high waist leggings?

My newest favorites are leggings with mesh cutouts and tops with an open back. I'm normally so gross after basically any cardio so I feel like cute workout clothes make up for my hot mess appearance.

Right now those GapFit gFast leggings and the strappy bra are 40% off and you don't have to wear them as stirrups! And my top two favorite Athleta leggings, the mesh Plié Tight and Quest Chaturanga (which are SO dang comfy and have pockets for your phone) are on sale, plus 20% off! Sizes are limited for the Chaturanga tights though so move quick!

And FYI, you can pick up my favorite Nike running shoes at Nike Outlet stores for much less. They are so light weight, I love them!

You'll note there is no Lululemon here. I cannot justify the cost and have heard so many complaints about pilling! So far all of my Athleta leggings have been washing great so I'll take that budget for sure!

And for the record, I own almost all of the favorites below and highly recommend! I'm just waiting on a sale to take that Athleta sports bra home with me! (You can also click on the items in the collage above!)

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So I joined the 30-club...

Hi, friends! I hope 2017 is treating you all well!

You know how everyone is like, hey look how organized I am now? Well, I think I'm on a two week delay with the whole new years motivation thing.

I partly blame my birthday anxiety.

This past weekend I officially joined the 30-club and Rowan turns TWO (!) in a month, and I just cannot. I cannot wrap my head around how quickly the years go by with a kid. Someone make me get it together already, will you?

I haven't talked about it much on the blog, but I think its obvious that I needed to step back. Social media was draining me and it felt like my time was spread too thin. I really wanted to disconnect so I could soak up all of the good happening in this fun stage of our lives. And I have to say, it felt so good!

But I missed it here! So let's catch up, shall we?

+ After Christmas we made the 11-hour road trip north to visit family. Rowan slept approximately 30 minutes each way, so that was fun.

We woke up with a dusting of snow at my parent's house so naturally I'm thinking, "R's first snow day! He is going to love this!"

However, as most toddlers do, he had different plans. He was tolerant of the big puffy coat but drew the line at adorable toddler Hunter boots. You know when toddlers make their bodies floppy like rubber and raise their legs up higher than you thought was physically possible so you can't put them down? Yep. We finally caved and let him wear his Sperry shoes, a hat that was too small (but he insisted), and let him play with the shovel on the porch without having to walk in the grass. 1 - Toddler, 0 - Us. 

+ My boys got me a new camera for my birthday! I'm still learning to use it but love it so much already! I really hope to turn photography into a little side gig so I'm really excited to learn and practice more this year. That said, I've had a ton of questions about my equipment so I'm planning a post this week!

+ My girlfriends and I are planning a trip to Austin for a joint 30th birthday hurrah! I've heard so many good things so we're all excited! Hoping we can squeeze in a trip to Magnolia Silos too while we're there. If you have any recommendations for Austin I'd love to hear them!

+ I function best when I'm busy and love a good to-do list, but somehow prioritizing myself rarely happened in 2016. As a mom I think its really easy to forget about ourselves, but the gym, a manicure, and a few girls-only brunches need to be closer to the top of my list from now on. Hoping Emily Ley's book will give me a bit of motivation too!

+ Rowan refused to get his haircut on Saturday, leaving me almost in tears of embarrassment from the fit he threw. Does anyone else have a toddler who hates haircuts? We've tried the place my husband goes and a kid's salon but it doesn't seem to matter. His hair is starting to look like a mop!

This is my busy time with work but I'm hoping to make a consistent appearance in this space again, so I'm preparing myself for late nights and extra coffee in the morning. Thanks for sticking around during my little vaca!

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