I’ve been meaning to catch up on the blog but life has been so busy lately! I’ve made the announcement over on instagram and facebook but in case you missed it, Layla is going to be a big sister! I’m due in October and now in my 2nd trimester which I’m so happy about as my 1st trimester was very tough on me.
Right after my 1st trimester we went on a Disney Cruise which is where we took these pics! Our first stop was in Key West so I booked a local photographer to capture some cute family photos and of course had to sneak in some for the baby announcement! I’ll be sharing more of the shoot later on as we got a lot of fun shots and will have some tips on taking family pics while on vacation.
In addition to the new baby, we also bought a house! We finally moved out of the city and got us a house about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. As much as I love our new house, I was afraid about moving to the suburbs but honestly the city we live in is so fun, has great shops and restaurants and we finally have a backyard! I could not be more happy about our decision to move. I’ll be sharing lots more about our house as we are in the process of decorating but first we have to unpack and oh boy that in itself is quite the task!
Thanks so much for reading while I try to manage everything during this huge transition in our lives but I promise to be back soon!
Happy 4th of July! I had such a great weekend, we recently got my daughter her first bike and it’s the cutest thing ever watching her ride it. I’m sharing some photos from the weekend below, but first, I headed over to the mall to do some shopping and J Crew had a great sale! 30% off your entire purchase and additional 50% off sale! It looks like online is pretty much the same deal however I did find that some prices differed online (some things were on sale online but not in store) . Either way, in store or online you are still getting a great deal. Anyway, there were SO many good things, here’s the best of the bunch!
You know I love my bow tops! This one is so cute and come in this print as well.
I’m a midi dress lover and I’m also loving eyelet these days. I love the shape of this dress and the strap details. It’s not super flattering with my sandals but I know this will be super cute with heels and a clutch. It comes in orange too.
Another cute dress! I love the stretchy top and the gingham. It’s so lightweight so it’s a great dress for those really hot days or even to wear over your bikini if you are headed to the pool or beach.
I loved this outfit. I’ve been needing some new jean shorts and I really liked how these fit. Not too long and not too short. I also adore this top. I accidentally cut off the top of the pic, but there is a tie on the shoulder. The ruffles and the embroidery on the bottom makes this such a cute girly top.
Head on over to shop! There’s so much cute stuff right now and this sale is one of their better ones I have seen!
Here’s some snaps from our weekend! We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Seattle, La Rustica. It’s right by the water and it’s just the loveliest little restaurant with some of the best pasta and Italian food ever. I believe it’s a family run business, the service is always great and it’s just a nice cozy, romantic spot. Highly recommended! It’s actually one of our regular date night spots but we brought our daughter this time to enjoy the food and she loved it. We take her out to a lot of nice and not necessarily “kid friendly” places but we always get great treatment and have never felt like people were annoyed that we brought our daughter. We actually get a lot of compliments from people at restaurants about how well behaved our daughter is and honestly, I think it’s because she’s just so used to going out with us. I also come prepared with our own cups (most of these restaurants aren’t going to have plastic cups with straws readily available!) and other food/snacks in case she’s not into the food as she can be kind of picky with food. We’ve never had a problem with bringing our own food for her and it really does help to be prepared just in case.
Not the best pic of us as it was hard getting a pic with the sun going down, but here’s what I wore!
This is the view right across from the restaurant, isn’t is gorgeous? There are houses right on the water, I’m so jealous of their view!
As I mentioned, we got our daughter her very first balance bike and she’s been doing so well on it. She just loves it. We walk from our house to the park which is about a mile away and she rode her bike almost the whole way and then she practiced some more at the park. We got her the Strider bike as we tested quite a few bikes and my husband and I really liked the look and feel of the bike. It’s very lightweight, but also sturdy and a perfect starter bike. We went with the balance bike instead of a training wheel bike as we felt like getting her used to balancing on this kind of bike would be more beneficial for her to learn rather than pedaling on training wheels. Although I learned to ride a bike on a training wheel bike (which I’m sure everyone my age did) I just felt like this was the better way to go for her. We went to our local bike store and she picked out the bike, helmet and even a bell! All pink of course 🙂 .
Notice we are both wearing Minnie Mouse shirts and Adidas Superstars. She loves to twin with mommy!
And here we are at the Farmer’s Market. I had to get some fresh peonies of course and we bought lots of fruit! I love this time of year and being able to go to the Farmer’s Market to get fresh veggies and fruit. She is very happy about me letting her hold a receipt. LOL, the things kids get happy about!
I don’t eat yogurt but everyone in Seattle raves about Ellenos Greek Yogurt so if you are in Seattle and love yogurt, it’s a must try! My husband says it tastes more like ice cream than yogurt!
I have to admit, there’s a lot of things that are hard to deal with as I age. Having grandparents pass away and seeing my parents age has put a lot of stress and worry on me. My parents did everything to give us the best life growing up and I want to do the same for my parents as they grow older. When Bay Alarm Medical reached out to partner on this post, I was very intrigued as it was something that I didn’t even know existed but the more I found out about the company, the more excited I was to get it installed for my parents and have it in their home. Even if we never have to use it, it’s the piece of mind that we all have which is what I think all of us needs.
The Bay Medical Alarm is a system that you can install in your parent’s (or whatever family member you would like) house that has a simple way to call for help when it’s needed. I filmed a short video reviewing what came in the box, how to install it and my general thoughts about it!
As I mention in the video, I really am so happy to have this service for my parents. They are generally pretty healthy which I’m so thankful for, although we have had some health scares in the past few years and most recently my mom was on vacation and took a little tumble and broke her arm! I was so worried for my mom and was thankful that my dad was there with her when it happened. It just really shows that anything can happen and makes me want to protect them even more.
Installing the unit is so simple. All you need is to plug it into the phone line and into a power outlet and you are good to go! This is the base unit that needs to be plugged in. I installed it in my parents family room where they spend most of their time. It’s great that it’s big and the Help button is bright so it can not be missed.
The wireless wall button is so nice that it doesn’t need to be connected to anything. You will want to place this in an area close to the ground so that it is easily reachable. I decided to put it right by my parents stairs. They have two sets of stairs so I put it in the middle landing so that if anything were to happen if they were heading out the door or just coming in, they would be able to access it.
Obviously, we never know where an accident may occur, so the buttons may not be in a place where it may be easily accessible which is why it’s wonderful that Bay Alarm Medical also has these necklace and wrist band buttons that can be worn all the time. They are even waterproof so can be worn in the bath or shower! They are so lightweight so you don’t really feel them on and I think it’s a great option for both my parents to have this on when they are at home.
I’m so lucky in that I usually see my parents at least once a week but on the days that I’m not with them, I do worry about them a lot. Knowing that they have Bay Alarm Medical in their home makes me feel so much better. My dad still travels a lot for his business and so on the weeks where my mom is home by herself, it makes all of us feel a lot better that if anything were to happen, we have a much higher chance of being able to get to her quickly with this system.
The best part about blogging is all the awesome people that I’ve met through here! Cindi has been a longtime reader of mine (and I followed her back when she had a fashion blog as well!) and when she emailed me to let me know that she had followed her dreams of quitting her day job and starting her own photography business with her husband I was so happy for her! She and her husband offered to come to my home and shoot my family and I can’t thank her enough. We just love these photos. Layla was about 2.5 months here and now that she’s approaching 4 months, so much has changed, so we love having these photos to capture her at this age!
A little peak at her nursery! We’re not completely done decorating it yet but it’s getting there. All the little trinkets in her nursery are things that have a lot of meaning to my husband and I, the giraffes we bought in Jamaica when we got married, the gray dachshund is from our trip to Hong Kong, the stuffed animals and hello kitty are from her grandparents, and I painted that little panda canvas myself!
Can’t even believe they got the doggies and Layla to look at the camera! You can see the rest of our shoot on their blog here.
If you need a fabulous photographer in the Seattle area (they do weddings too!), I highly recommend Cindi+Chris, they are just the nicest couple and made us feel so comfortable during the entire shoot. Check out their blog and facebook page for more of their work.
Life has been super crazy lately and so posting on the blog will be sporadic but I’m still here and wanted to say hi! Just an update and sharing photos from my instagram. If you don’t follow me yet, you can follow me here!
Cherishing the moments of being able to take long walks with our dogs. (I’m almost 23 weeks here but I’m 24 weeks now!). Wearing a Forever 21 Dress
Last
week was a bit tough for me because of the pregnancy. Even though I
still don’t look very pregnant (you should see the surprised looks I
get all the time when people find out I’m 6 months pregnant). The
weight that I have gained has all gone to my boobs and my belly and all
that weight in front is killing my back. Sleep has been tough, sitting
on the couch has been tough, walking has been tough, etc… and I’ve
been a little unhappy about it all. My super sweet husband has been
giving me daily massages and putting up with my sh*t and he also got me a
little gift to cheer me up. I love the bow clutch that he picked out
for me. I just love that he went shopping on his own and picked it
out for me as I’ve never even seen or mentioned this clutch to him
before but when I saw it, it was so me, and I love that he knows that
about me. It doubles as a crossbody and has a bow print that you can see on the back.
I had a really great weekend celebrating mother’s day with my mom. Being pregnant has really made me appreciate everything that my mom has done for me and I’m so glad to be so close by and be able to see her whenever I want!
Our business is really taking off, so much so that we got a new office and are in the process of moving! It’s such exciting times to see our little business turn into everything we’ve envisioned (I mean we are not there quite yet but in less than 2 years, we’ve had amazing growth.) and having a team of people work for us. We’re also growing so rapidly that we’ve just hired two more people on our shipping team along with the merchandising intern that my sister is hiring. Such crazy fun times and I’m loving every minute of it!
We added watches to our designs and I LOVE them!! The Gold Link & Tortoise watch is my favorite and is selling like crazy. The colored watches will be on our site in a little bit. We are still perfecting a few things with the designs on those but get excited because they will be gorgeous!
And then, my husband and I bought a house! We just closed yesterday and am so in love with our new home. It’s so us and will be perfect for when the baby is here. So now along with the move for the new office, I have to move our old house into our new house which is quite a daunting task especially because oh yeah, I’m 6 months pregnant and will be 7 months by the time we move everything all in. Yikes! So all in all, it’s quite an exciting few months for us and I’m sure will be for the next few months and then before I know it the baby will be here. I’m actually more scared for that part than anything else! LOL! I hope you all are having a great week!
My husband and I are approaching our 5 year wedding anniversary so I wanted to capture some photos of us together as we haven’t had any since we got married! Our dogs are such a big part of our lives that I wanted to make sure that we got some photos with them too. Husband is not too fond of being on the blog (he’s not an internet guy at all, he doesn’t have a facebook or anything even social media related – the exact opposite of me!) but I had to post these pics because I adore him, adore us and adore our little family. I can’t help but just feel so happy and lucky when I see these pictures.
I wanted photos that captured us but I also wanted to avoid the “engagement” shoot look. Since my husband and I used to be wedding photographers we’ve taken more than our fair share of engagement photos and when you’re shooting a couple it’s easy to kind of fall back into that look and feel . Our photographer really worked with us to get the kind of shots we wanted. I’m very happy with the way they turned out. If you are in Seattle and looking for a photographer, I highly recommend to contact Miguel! (In fact, you might already read his wife’s blog, the lovely Carolyn. I adore them both!)
Right after my 1st trimester we went on a Disney Cruise which is where we took these pics! Our first stop was in Key West so I booked a local photographer to capture some cute family photos and of course had to sneak in some for the baby announcement! I’ll be sharing more of the shoot later on as we got a lot of fun shots and will have some tips on taking family pics while on vacation.
