It is summer, let's journal!

Most of us consider Memorial Day the official start of summer.  Maybe you have a road trip or two planned. Maybe you know someone who has a few road trips planned.  I ran across these little books and wanted to share them with you......in case you or someone you know would enjoy one

The Road Trip Passport

Letterfolk is a company that makes some super nice letterboards, journals and now these little passport books.  The Road Trip passport allows you to capture memories of all your time travelling by car

You list your destination, start date, end date, distance travelled, favorite stops, favorite moment and more

Here is an example from the Letterfolk website

In the back of the book there is a place for you to capture which state license plates you observe on your trip

This little journal is only $12 and has enough space to capture 20 different road trips. One of the guys I work with is retiring this month.  I understand he is going to do a little traveling following retirement.  I picked up one of these and paired it with a gift card as a small token for him.  But I really feel like we could all enjoy one, especially as the summer gets kicked off.

Now Letterfolk has several different themed passport books.  You can see the whole collection here.

There is a National Park book, one for capturing Recipes, Concerts, and Sporting Events.

They have two of these little passport books that I can't relate to......one is a taco book.  Is it a thing to eat tacos and journal about them?  and there is a running book where you record things about different races...okay I don't get running so I really don't get journaling about it but, whatever works for people.....who am I to judge.  Now I think I need to email them and suggest a Big Sale passport book.  I could totally document some epic shopping trips......now there is a book I could use.

Maybe you or someone you know would enjoy one of these little books.

We have just under a week left in May.  I know we are all busy but don't forget to complete your May Great Things in '18 Challenge.  Remember we are  honoring teachers this month......what a nice way to kick off their summer.  Hey, maybe your teacher has some Road Trips planned.

I will be back on Friday with some suggestions and finds for the Memorial Day Sales.  I will talk to you then.

Weekend Review

Welcome to Monday, girls.  I hope you had a fantastic weekend.  I told you on Friday my weekend would be busy.....it was......and it was great.  So many hard things go on in life.  It is just part of it, right? So when there are things to celebrate I am 100% in.  And this weekend we had two really fun events to celebrate and the best part is - I got to be part of the hosting.  So let me show you how it all came together.

On Saturday we celebrated my nephew's college graduation with a little reception.  We invited family and friends to come by and spend some time gathering to celebrate.  The house was LOUD....people were laughing and talking and eating and encouraging and celebrating a young man who has worked hard and deserved it........it was just like I like it.


Here is the graduation decor.  First up, we inflated close to 200 balloons.  We had red, white, clear and clear with confetti.

We did half of the balloon arch over the fireplace and had enough to hang from the upstairs balcony too

I picked up a couple of banners from Party City and we hung those

and, of course, we did the letterboard in honor of the big day

We had an absolutely wonderful time.

We took a quick nap and then started preparation for event number two the next day.  On Sunday we were celebrating the upcoming arrival of a new little baby girl.  So you know what we did?  We pulled out all the red balloons and replaced them with pink.  Here is the same balloon arch - now with pink.

And the upstairs balloons now with pink

We replaced the graduation banner with a baby one

and did a more appropriate letterboard

A sweet friend of the mom to be made a beautiful sign which we added to the decor......thanks, Sarah.  So fun meeting you and hanging out with you.

Now let me share a little of the details behind all of this and the links in case you are interested.

I ordered this 

Balloon Strip

Basically it is a strong plastic strip that has holes perfectly spaced.  You simply inflate your balloons and poke the tied portion through the little holes.  It was super duper easy.  Here are some of the balloons I used

Confetti Balloons

Clear balloons

White balloons

Red Balloons

Pink Balloons

Now we didn't use helium, but we did invest in this little gem to assist in inflating

Balloon inflator

If you even THINK you might need to inflate several balloons.....get yourself one of these.  We inflated all the balloons in no time.........where has this been my whole life??????

Such a fun weekend catching up with family and friends of old, meeting new friends and showering love on some special people.  

I hope you have a wonderful week.  I will talk to you on Wednesday!!!!

Fun Finds for Friday

It is finally Friday, hope it has been a good week for you.  I did find time to do a little browsing and here are a few things I thought were tempting this week.

Halogen Relaxed Cardigan

I love a good cardigan.  This one is long and to me that is a plus.  All the reviews talk about sizing down one size and I think that is a good idea.  I am digging this green but it also comes in black, navy, berry, gray and a black and white stripe.  Super good price.

Lush Maxi

I have this dress in the island floral and the blue.  The blue dress is listed as navy.  I would say it is more royal.  This is totally going to be my go to dress this summer.  I am trying to resist getting this black and white print...... but we will see how long the self-control holds out.

Lush Shirtdress

If you are not into maxi dresses, this is the same brand in a short, casual little pullover dress.  You could easily throw this on with a little flat sandal and be out the door in minutes.  Tons of color options.

J. Crew Pajamas

I love these little jammies.  Two color options available in a wide range of sizes.

INC Ruffled Sleeve Top

This cute little top is in 6 color options  Plus it is an additional 25% off with code ESCAPE

Lani Kimono

So many kimonos have a black background.  I thought this one had a pretty lighter coloring.  Would be cute with white jeans or blue jeans- don't you think?

Don't forget we have just a couple of weeks to honor a teacher as part of our Great Things in '18 challenge.

I have a busy weekend ahead.  Hope to share some of it with you next week.....including a little project that involved us inflating well over 100 balloons.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Frequently Asked Questions

I absolutely love checking my email and hearing from you all. A couple of weeks ago I had three questions come in back to back to back.  And lots of times you all have the same questions. I thought today I would share some of the most often asked questions and answer those.

Question 1: What is up with all the classes you take?

I absolutely love to learn.  Here is what I don't love - Test! So, yes, I will take a class in just about anything that doesn't have a pass/fail component.  It is interesting to me all the things you can do and learn if you just try. So I am always looking for classes here and there and thinking - oh that would be fun to know.  Now I am going to be honest, two classes stand out to me that I absolutely did not enjoy, did not invest in, and will never try again - basket weaving and matting and framing pictures.  In these two classes I learned I do not have the natural ability or patience to achieve these things.  But most classes I love.  I won't even tell you all about how much time I spend watching how to videos on YouTube.....there's  a lot of good info in the world.  I just want to keep absorbing some of it.

Question 2: What kind of shopping budget do you have?

Ha! Now this one is funny because my budget is much smaller than you think.  I keep myself on a very tight budget. If it is not on sale.....well I just don't buy too much that is not on sale.  But I do like to shop and so I do budget for it.  The main reason people can't stick to a budget is they fib to themselves and don't make it realistic.  I am going to shop so we account for it in our budget.  For instance, Nordstrom has a big sale in July.  I actually have a line item in my budget for the Nordstrom sale.....I literally put back $40 a paycheck which adds up fairly nicely over the course of a year and then I am ready to shop when the sale comes around....with cash.  As much as I love to shop, I also love to browse.  So I show you lots of things because I think you might be interested in them.....but I certainly can't buy it all.  Shop responsibly......nothing spoils a good sale more than fretting over how to pay the bill that comes later.

Question 3: How do you have time to read so many books?

What can I say - I love to read.  I always have.  But I gotta tell you - you guys kind of surprised me on the book comments.  Some of you hate the books I read and some of you love them.  Mainly, I want you to read a book if it is good and to spare you from reading bad books.  But here is what I do - I always have one Audible (through Amazon) book going that I listen to in the car and pretty much any other time I am by myself.  Sometimes my commute to work can be 30-40 minutes and the same back home.  So I am always listening to my book in the car.  If I am in the kitchen alone cooking, I listen then too.  And if you see me in the grocery store with my ear buds in, yep, I am listening to an audio book. The only thing that makes 30 minutes on the treadmill bearable is listening to a good book.  Secondly, I keep a traditional book going too.  This one is generally for bedtime reading, waiting at doctor appointments, etc.  So I always have at least two going at once.  On average I listen to two and read two each month.

Question 4: Another time question - How do you do so much stuff?

This just may be the most asked question and it is for sure the funniest to me.  I always have a list of stuff that I want to get done and need to get done.  My girls gave me this book that I capture my to do list in.

The funny thing is I feel like I can never get it all done.  So when people say I am doing a lot, I am thinking you have no idea how behind I am.  But you know what????......you do as much or more.  The only difference is I write mine down and post about it and talk about it.  Trust me, if you started writing down everything you do......you'd be quite surprised how much you are rocking things out.  We all do a ton of stuff.  I am not doing any more than anyone else.

So there you go a few things you guys ask and the answers.  I love hearing from you so please let me know what else is on your mind.


I will talk to you on Friday.....hopefully I will have time to do a little browsing and some fun things to share with you.  See you then!