Valentine's Day Gift Guide Under $40

Last year I was so excited and ahead of the game when it came to Valentine's Day, I even sent out customized cards to each of my friends. It was so adorbs, click here to see more. 

This year, I don't have my stuff together as much and outside of work, find my mind only able to process the MASSIVE to-do list I have growing for before baby arrives. So I decided to share some of my favorite Valentine's gift ideas here this year instead.

Hope you enjoy these funny, sweet and cute finds just as much as I did!

1. Framebridge "Heartstagram" Framed Photo - I've been dying to try out Framebridge and send photos and art I've been hoarding for years for framing on the cheap. When I saw this cute heart frame with an Instagram picture for under $40, it instantly flew on my favorites list. 

2. Dove Dark Chocolate Hearts - Dark chocolate is my most favorite and Dove's rocks. Enough said.

3. 5' Heart Garland - For only $7 I love this Valentine's decor from TransparentEsDecor's Etsy store whether its for your office, a girls get together or your sweetheart at home. Oh and they also have really cute rain drop and gold garland too!

4. Holla Bear - Just go to the website and look what the text on these silly little bear's hearts say. Guaranteed laugh, just trust me! I'll give you a hint, one starts with the word "Shawty".  

5. PaperSource Hedgehugs card - I mean, how stinkin cute is this card? 

6. Reese's Hearts - Maybe its pregnancy, maybe its just my love for chocolate, but these Reese's hearts are better than the original to me!

7. Lush The Kiss Lip Gloss - I love all Lush products and would love to try this one out for a special Valentine's Day smooch. 

8. A Dozen Roses - Call me old fashioned, but I just love a good bouquet of roses like these from ProFlowers. Kudos to your special someone if they mix in some other more current blooms too!

9. Heart Mug - I'm a sucker for a cute mug (even though I don't drink coffee, only tea) and thought this one from PaperSource was so perfect for this lovie holiday.

10. Floral Robe - I have been dying for a beautiful, floral robe and loved this one from WeddingSong's Etsy page, especially for only $22. I think its the perfect little flirty number for this day!

So what are you loving for Valentine's Day, either from the above or what you've seen out and about?! 

His & Hers Couples Wedding Shower

Last weekend we had the honor of hosting (along with two other ahhhhhmazing gals) a His and Hers couples wedding shower for two awesome friends!  

Sarah and James are such a fun couple and we knew that we wanted to make their shower not such a typical wedding shower. So we did it late night, had some great food, only one game and plenty of adult beverages :). 

As hosts, we divided and conquered! I took care of the house, decor and sweets, while the other two took care of food/beverages. Here's the yumminess they whipped up:

On the food menu was homemade Shrimp 'N Grits, Vidalia Onion Dip, Smoked Sausage, Stuffed Mushrooms, Veggie Quiche, Hummus and a Veggie Plate (don't you love the dip inside the peppers!). As for drinks we had John Dalys (a spiked version of Arnold Palmers) and of course beer and wine. For preggo ladies like me, there was fresh Cucumber H20. 

As far as decor goes, I tried to stick with their colors, navy and yellow/gold, plus tried to tone my feminine side down and make sure there was some masculinity up in here for the "His" part :). 

You can buy the below banner from Banner Cheer on Etsy, here. I have to say they had one of the most thorough processes to ensure my order was correct and great customer service too. I highly recommend them for any of your banner needs!

I knew from the start I wanted to do a "His and Hers" table and also wanted to do a special dessert, so I combined the two and did an Ombre Strawberry Champagne cake for "Her" and Hard Cider Fireball Cupcakes for "Him" (recipes coming your way in a separate post!). To accent, I did little bourbon mini bottles with mustaches on one side and vodka mini bottles with glitter flags on the other. 

For the gift table, I zazzed it up a little with helium balloons that had fun and sweet pics of our awesome couple. Everyone really enjoyed this fun accent!

As far as games, we did just one really (besides His vs. Her beer flip cup outside). We had people write a question for Him, Her or Both throughout the shower and then at the end we played the Newlywed game with those questions where they both had to answer and if they got it wrong, it was jello shot time, hehe. We also did a date night jar which got some funny ideas added to it throughout the shower!

I was so excited to be able to do this for these two babes since their wedding is the weekend of our due date and we won't be able to go to the wedding. Hope you enjoyed this peek into such a fun night! What was your fav detail!?

First Trimester Must Haves

First of all, can I just say, it's super weird to 1. be talking about pregnancy stuff 2. be talking about pregnancy stuff FROM EXPERIENCE! Say whaaaaa.... crayzay.

Anywho, while its fresh in my mind, I wanted to look back and reflect on the things I discovered that helped me survive the first trimester. I'm now 26 weeks, closer to being in my third trimester than my first, but had to share because I would have loved to know all these things at once, upfront. 

If you're in your first trimester or thinking about getting preggers, read up. If you're so far away from this step, pin it for later. And if you've gone through a first trimester before, add your tips!

Don't be hard on yourself. No really, it's okay to nap every day and then go to bed early too. It's okay to ask someone to pull the car over to go to the bathroom, multiple times. It's okay to snack during a meeting. It's okay to let the dust bunnies live in your home for awhile. It's okay to "just can't". It's okay to ask your husband to build you a fire pit so you can have real life s'mores :).

Eat often + add ginger. Whatever you can stomach, eat it and try to eat a little bit every other hour or as much as you can. It will really help with nausea and energy. Also, keep anything with ginger in it nearby (ginger ale, snaps, chews, mints). 

Protein in the morning is clutch. Even if it comes in the form of egg white and cheddar biscuits from McDonalds (my personal fav and craving).

Take your prenatal at night. If I took my prenatal in the morning and then got in the car, it was bad news bears. Switch to taking them at night and they'll do their thing while you're sleeping comfortably, enjoy that comfortability now :). 

Go see your lady doctor. This is a no brainer...

Don't stress over baby details yet. You don't need to do ANYTHING right now except grow that sweet baby. You'll have time for nursery details, daycares, registries, showers, pediatricians, clothes and all that jazz in your second and third trimester. Just relax...

Baths will become epic, especially with epsom salt. Just make sure you don't get the water too too hot. My personal favorite is Dr. Teal's Epsom Salt Soaking Solution Sooth & Sleep which you can find at Target.

Start cocoabuttering errrday. You'll have to do this because your skin will be so itchy, but it of course helps ward off the inevitable stretch marks. If you can't stand the smell, like I couldn't for awhile, try Burts Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter instead.

The hardest part about the first trimester really is that you can't tell anyone the reason why you're behaving like hungover freshman 24/7. The best part is that you're starting the most amazing process I think a women can ever go through :). Enjoy!

Lashing Out

I got a little tired of my regular mascara and decided to try something fresh this new year, but oh where to start?! So I posted this photo on Insta asking what new mascara I should try out next:

Y'all had so many great suggestions! I had NO idea where to start though, there were so many to choose from... 

After spending a little too much time at Ulta going back and forth on what to try out I settled on Too Faced Better Than Sex. 

My go-tos prior to Tarte's Gifted mascara was Benefit's They're Real. I may go back to one of those, but I felt like They're Real rubbed off on my under eyes too much. No complaints about Gifted, I just wanted to try something new.

So far, I've only used my new Too Faced mascara for a couple days now, but I'm already loving the large brush and thickness of the mascara itself! 

What I'm not so sure I'm loving is the clumps that gather at the end of the brush and I've had a few flakes land on my under eyes. 

Regardless, isn't having new makeup just so much fun?!

So did I make the right choice? You guys let me know what your favorite is and what I should try out next, this may just turn into a rolling experiment!