Truly Lovely

Fancy This Fridays #127 and Features

2013-05-16T22:36:16Z

Happy Friday dolls!!! In case you missed it this last week I shared a review of a pretty Mikarose dress and a brand new Mombo nursing pillow. I also shared an easy Spring/Summer craft to prettify your office desk!

This week the features from Fancy This #126 are all focused on organizing! I am in FULL nesting mode over here sorting through and getting rid of junk, switching rooms around, tidying and dusting… So let’s all get a little more organized this next week with these featured tips!

First up, let’s organize our blogs with these FREE sidebar titles from Angela of A Typical English Home. They even come in 12 different colors! Click over to her place to download and access those please. Thanks!

Next up we’ll focus on organizing the kitchen with Cleaning and Organizing Kitchen Cabinet tips from Kendra of A Proverbs 31 Wife.

And finally we’ll get the pantry organized! Life Outside the Box with the Cartens shows us how she made over her entryway closet into a nicely organized pantry!

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs!
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our Featured on Truly Lovely board!! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

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Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.

Not the blog itself.

2. Please link only your OWN posts.

We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.

3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!

4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.

Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…

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Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have the best weekend!!!

Mombo Nursing Pillow

2013-05-15T15:49:57Z

This post brought to you by Comfort and Harmony. All opinions are 100% mine.

Baby girl is due in July, so I have been really interested in and researching mom centered products lately. Especially products to help the new mom transition into motherhood more conveniently. Enter the brand new mombo nursing pillow from Comfort & Harmony.

Here’s a little video of yours truly giving a quick description of what the Mombo nursing pillow is and how it works. A few notes… I am 30 weeks 4 days expecting in this video. Fun times. You’ll notice we have a cameo appearance from a nosey, little black dog. Thank you Pandy… And you’ll hear a few mumbles from the ‘camera crew’ now and again… i.e. My niece and her little friend were there while my sister in law filmed this for me. I’m going to call this video a mom in training success! Not everything worked out perfectly, but we got it done! haha…

So in short, Mombo is a brand new baby nursing pillow with two unique sides, a firm side for nursing and a soft side for lounging. It also includes a pocket for a small vibrating massager to make baby more comfortable.

Since I have yet to start nursing (or have my baby for that matter, haha) I shared the Mombo with my friend, Meghan and my baby godson, Reiner. Meg was impressed with the high quality of the Mombo. She has used other nursing pillows since having Reiner and said this was the nicest one she’d seen so far. It’s the only one that includes the battery operated massager that either of us has seen on the market. The cover is made of a super soft fabric making the pillow a cozy spot for little Reiner to kick back and relax.

After trying the Mombo while nursing Meghan also shared that she feels like the firmer nursing side will be much easier for me to use, compared to other nursing pillows, when it’s my turn as a brand new mom because it gives you more support while you’re trying to learn the best way to hold baby.

I personally love the pink cover, it will be perfect for baby girl once she gets here.

So how about you friends? Have you ever heard of or tried the Mombo nursing pillow? You can check out other Mombo products by liking Comfort & Harmony on Facebook or following Comfort & Harmony on Twitter. Mombo products are available for purchase at Babies R Us.

Spring Potted Flower Pens

2013-05-09T18:50:09Z

Hey there pretties! Spring is in full swing here (you could ALMOST call it summer…)!! Even if it’s not quite warming up where you are yet these Spring Potted Flower Pens are sure to brighten your day!

Since we’ve just passed Mother’s Day and all, shout out to our Momma, Lillie. This was another crafty idea that she shared with us and we then made together… You can see another Momma Lillie idea here.

Materials Needed:

Small clay flower pots
Small decorative rock
Fake flowers
Green floral tape
A box of pens
Scissors
Vinyl cutouts or stickers for decorating your flower pots

Start by decorating your flower pots with the Spring vinyl cutouts or stickers. I cut out several butterflies, a few different floral shapes, a few twigs and leaves all in vinyl, then just peeled and stuck them on the flower pots like stickers. Each flower pot then gets filled three quarters full of the small decorative rock.

To create your flower pens wrap a fake flower and a pen with floral tape. I used the long stemmed fake daisies left over from my wedding and just cut down the stems. Place the stem and the top of the pen together and simply wrap all the way down with the tape. The floral tape I used had to be wrapped really tight but it held the pen and flower well while looking like a green stem!

‘Plant’ your flowers in your flower pots by sticking the pens down in the decorative rock and you’re finished! Now you have pretty Spring Potted Flower Pens to display on your desk or give as a spring gift!

Happy Spring lovelies!!!

Linking this here and here and to these.

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post! If so, we’d love if you’d follow along!

Mikarose Maxi Maternity Review

2013-05-13T19:41:47Z

Hey there friends. Have you heard of Mikarose yet? Surely you have… They are a clothing company that specializes in lovely, modest dresses. If you have heard of them did you know that several of their dresses can double as nursing or maternity dresses!?! They’re not strictly designed for that purpose, but they work wonders doing double duty!

I was recently given the opportunity to review the Makenna Maxi from Mikarose as a maternity dress. The photos shown in this review show me at 30 weeks 4 days expecting.

The Makenna Maxi comes in three colors. The teal with white stripes shown in my photos, gray with white stripes and black with white stripes. I had yet to try a maxi dress but after hearing how comfortable they could be I had high expectations. Luckily the Makenna Maxi dress blew those expectations out of the water!

*Please excuse my squinty look here, wanted to show you one picture without the sunglasses, but now you can see why I put them on… haha

It’s made of a super soft viscose and spandex fabric. Which means it’s soft against your skin, but also stretchy to accommodate that growing baby belly. The detailed band around the waste helps the dress accent that baby belly as well.

The sleeves on the Makenna are at a length where my chubbier than normal maternity arms felt modestly covered and comfortable. I’m a taller girl (5’7″) so it doesn’t drag the ground like I assume most maxi dresses are supposed to. Having it catch on my belly made it even shorter, but it wasn’t uncomfortably short. It still fell at a length to feel like a maxi dress.

Overall I am pleased with the Makenna Maxi dress and I’m thrilled to have a fashionable clothing item that I can take from maternity wear to AFTER baby comes! You can find out more about Mikarose here.

So tell me friends, have you jumped on the maxi dress train yet? How do you feel about maxi dresses?

Disclosure: I received the Makenna Maxi dress from Mikarose in exchange for my honest review. As always opinions shared here are 100% my own.

Fancy This Fridays 126 and Features!

2013-05-09T22:20:36Z

Happy, happy Friday peeps!!! In case you missed it we have a GIVEAWAY happening right now for a fun book! THREE winners even! And Kayli is one of the SPEAK NOW ambassadors, so we’re helping host the link up for that here.

Now onto the features from Fancy This Fridays 125!

So this week’s theme is based on the master bedroom… Or bedroom redo… Or something along those lines… Let’s just say I am in the process of revamping my master bedroom, hoping to get it all finished before we get too close to baby getting here. Obviously these bedroom projects caught my attention!

First up, check out this cool bed made from old doors!!! Lacey from Charm and Sass shows us how she and hubby made a fun new bed in a couple of weekends.

Next up, Steph of Crafting in the Rain made some pretty vertical ruffled curtains. I’m thinking I like the vertical ruffle look! You??

And last but not least I am loving this bright reupholstered chair from Christine of The DIY Dreamer. Not sure if it completely counts as a bedroom project, but I have a couple of old chairs that need transforming. One might end up as a vanity chair in the new bedroom!

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Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.

Not the blog itself.

2. Please link only your OWN posts.

We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.

3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!

4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.

Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…

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Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have the best weekend!!!

Speak Now Link Up (And a surprise!)

2013-05-08T06:31:33Z

Happy May Speak Now friends, both new and old!

Today is an exciting day for Speak Now

Today, some fabulous ladies have teamed up to link up and tell you that you’re beautiful.

Speak Now is all about beauty from the inside out.

We believe in your dreams + passions. We believe in you.

Today we want you to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re beautiful.

Identify what makes you feel beautiful. Make this feeling an obligation in your life.

Today we are here to remind you that you can do anything.

Today and everyday, you are lovely, you are perfect, you are bold, you are unique.

Today and every day- you are beautiful!

Speak Now is a women empowerment organization

built around the philosophy that self-love, self-respect, + self-confidence will make you beautiful.

We empower. We create. We educate. We inspire.

Link your blog up to connect with other bloggers who believe in the empowerment of women and help us spread awareness about the importance of women empowerment!

Once you link up, no community experience would be complete without a little welcome gift!
We are giving away a $100 visa gift card and any piece of beautiful jewelry from the Speak Now shop!

So link up, enter our giveaway, take a look at some of our blogging friends, and share our mission with your friends, family, and fellow blogging community.

We are an online community designed to believe in you.

Today, we want you to join our movement.

_________________________________________________________________________________

HOW TO ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY

& win a $100 visa gift card and a custom jewelry piece from our jewelry store

MANDATORY TO ENTER:

****MUST FOLLOW SPEAK NOW ON EITHER FACEBOOK, TWITTER, OR INSTAGRAM TO ENTER*****

*****MUST LINK UP BLOG BELOW TO ENTER*****

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

+1 for each // Follow Speak Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – COMMENT FOR EACH

+ 1 for each // Follow via GFC, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for any of our co-hosts – COMMENT FOR EACH

+ 1 // Share Speak Now’s I AM BEAUTIFUL May link up with your FB or twitter friends - COMMENT FOR EACH

+1 // Spreading the word via status/tweet/instagram post- COMMENT FOR EACH

COMMENTS ARE OFF ON ALL WEBSITE’S CO-HOSTING THE EVENT SO YOU CAN HEAD ON OVER TO SPEAK NOW’S WEBSITE AND COMMENT TO ENTER!

{ WWW.WESPEAKNOW.ORG }

A very special thanks to Aunie of Aunie Sauce, Casey Wiegand, Keri-Anne Pink, and Salena Lee for sponsoring our link up!

What I’ve Been Reading Lately and a Giveaway!

2013-05-03T17:37:26Z

Hey there lovelies! According to my 20 Wishes list I am well on my way to reading my goal of 50 books that I WANT to read in 2013.

2013 Reading Challenge

Kassi has
read 22 books toward her goal of 50 books.

hide

22 of 50 (44%)

view books

I’ve read 22 so far this year and I’m working on the 23rd as we speak. I enjoy looking through other reading lists and finding fun reads to add to my own, so I thought it would be fun to share what I’ve read lately in case anyone is looking for something similar. Oh, and at the end of this post you’ll find a fun book giveaway!

So first up, the Beautiful Creatures series. First of all, the first book came out as a movie a couple of months ago, which caught my interest, and thanks to one of my favorite book bloggers (shout out to Marissa of Rae Gun!) I joined a book club on GoodReads where they were listed. They are in the young adult genre, something along the lines of Twilight or Divergent. The stories are a little bit darker than most YA books I’ve read, but I still thought it was a fun read overall. The writing is not at a level of other popular YA books, but if you’re looking for a breezy read just for fun, here you go!

via

Next up, The Dirty Life: On Farming Food and Love. I really enjoyed the story behind this book. It’s a true life story written by a woman that goes from city living in New York City to farm living in up state New York with her soon to be husband. It’s really a fun take on the city girl goes country theme made popular by The Pioneer Woman. My entire background is based in agriculture, it’s what I studied in college even so I wasn’t surprised by some of her more detailed farm adventures… But a word to those that aren’t as acclimated in agriculture… Don’t read this book around lunch time… There may or may not be detailed stories of the cooking of ALL animal parts… Just sayin…

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Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay is my new go to gift for new moms or baby showers. This book is HILARIOUS. I marked it 5 stars on GoodReads! It’s one woman’s take (a comedian no less) on the advice that gets thrown at you from the baby books, well meaning acquaintances, your mother in law… as soon as you get pregnant. It really helps to make light of the situation and just really helps calm your nerves about people sharing opinions you didn’t ask for, or about things you are certain you might be doing wrong because ‘perfect’ moms don’t do it that way. Such a good book!!!

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Now that brings me to my fourth book. Technically it was a book I read as part of my 2012 reading challenge, but I enjoyed it and would like to share it with you today! The Magic Warble by Victoria Simcox is the story of a young girl suddenly pulled into a magic world that includes fairies, a prince, talking animals and more. I think this is the perfect story for kiddos of the say 9-13 age range, give or take a few years. But even as an adult I found it to be a fun, easy read.

Here’s a little ditty about the author…

“Victoria was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Austrian immigrant mother, and a Dutch immigrant father. She now lives in Western Washington with her husband, Russ and their three children, Toby, Kristina, and William. Her other family members are a Chihuahua, named Pipsy and two cats, named Frodo and Fritz. Besides being an author, Victoria is a home-schooling mother of twelve years and an elementary school art teacher of eleven years. In her spare time, Victoria enjoys managing her two older children’s Celtic band. She also loves writing, reading, painting watercolors, hiking, good movies, and just simply hanging out with her family and friends.“

You’ll find that the main character in The Magic Warble is named for her daughter, Kristina… Too fun, right!?!

Today Victoria is offering not one but THREE lucky Truly Lovely readers their very own e-book copy of The Magic Warble!!! Enter below using the Rafflecopter widget. The giveaway ends at midnight on Mother’s Day and the winners will be announced on Monday May, 13th. Thanks for entering and good luck!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tell me friends… What have YOU read lately???

Fancy This Fridays 125 and Features!

2013-05-03T15:32:40Z

Hey there Friday!! So nice to see you! In case you missed it, this week I shared a vent or two about pregnancy and a fun mocktail party that I hosted as a DOT Girls member of Crowdtap.

Last week we had all kinds of fun link ups. Here are the features from Fancy This 124….

First up we have a list of 5 Things I’ll Never Buy Again from Danielle of Snippets of Inspiration. They include things like homemade salsa, cream of soup replacement, etc. Each is linked to her recipe for making it yourself. This could be a huge money saver!!!

Sticking with the list theme for our second feature, Gaye of Calm Healthy Sexy shared her list of 16 Fun and Healthy Date Ideas. Now who doesn’t need a new date idea once in awhile!?!

And certainly not least on the list is our final feature of the week… I’m sharing this one for two reasons. First it is the cutest Little Girls’ Room design, and second Sarah of A Little of This, A Little of That had an idea of what she wanted for her girls room, but wasn’t sure how to go about making it happen. So she enlisted the help of a design team and got exactly what she wanted. I think in some cases we try to DIY everything as bloggers, which is great, but sometimes it doesn’t turn out exactly like we hoped… In other words, it’s totally ok to ask for help from a professional once in awhile!!!

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Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.

Not the blog itself.

2. Please link only your OWN posts.

We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.

3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!

4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.

Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.trulylovelyblog.net/category/fancy-this-fridays/" title="Truly Lovely"><img src="http://www.trulylovelyblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fabcy-fridays-button.png" alt="Truly Lovely" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have the best weekend!!!

DOT Girls Mocktail Party

2013-05-01T23:03:25Z

Hey friends! This last weekend I had the opportunity to host a fun mocktail party as a member of The DOT Girls on Crowdtap. {If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for!?!} I received a party kit full of all kinds of dot goodies including a full size bottle of the new DOT by Marc Jacobs fragrance, a small travel size bottle of the fragrance, samples to share with friends, dot nail decals to share and decorations for the party!

The day of the party my sister helped me get together a few fun dot snacks and drinks. I pinned some ideas on Pinterest and picked a drink and ‘dot’ snacks that I thought everyone would enjoy. To start with I made melon ‘dots’ for what seemed like hours… but wasn’t really all that long. Have you ever tried to make a decent melon ball?? It’s harder than it looks!

Kayli helped me make some yummy spice cupcakes that she iced and I topped with polka dot sprinkles for the sweet. I also served some chips as a salty option. Since I’m 29 weeks pregnant, one friend is nursing and the rest don’t normally drink I stuck to one ‘mocktail’ for this party and made some virgin Sangria following this recipe. I served the Sangria in wine glasses and the treats on red plates with black and white polka dot napkins!

The main table was decorated with a black table cloth, red dot confetti, a red dotted handkerchief as the centerpiece and then I displayed all the samples right in the center.

I also hung red dotted balloons above the table. All of the decorations came in my party packet excluding the plates and napkins that I purchased at Wal-Mart.

Once my guests arrived we enjoyed some snacks, visited and talked about the new DOT fragrance by Marc Jacobs. Because two of my guests had baby boys with them we opted to send the nail decals home for when everyone had some time to try them out for themselves. The babies made for some fun entertainment during the party though!

You can see my in my dot shirt here with two late party comers. My sister and her friend had a church activity to go to during the party, but they came afterwards and enjoyed some snacks and some samples.

My thanks to Crowdtap and the DOT by Marc Jacobs fragrance for giving me a fun reason to invite my friends over to enjoy each others company, some yummy treats and a delicious smelling perfume!!! I live tweeted the party and party preparations here if you’re interested. Or you can check out my live instagrams from the event here.

If you haven’t tried the DOT fragrance yet I highly recommend it. I have been wearing it for the weeks leading up to the party and since then… My husband even likes it and he’s picky about smelly stuff…

Tell me friends, what is your go to perfume???

Just a litte vent… Or two…

2013-04-30T19:05:14Z

Hey there friends. Today I am coming to you with two very serious topics… The first… Why is there NOT a pregnancy section in each and every pharmacy!?! And the second… Why is it so hard to find maternity pants in a longer length!?!

OK, so maybe neither of those are that serious of a topic, but to preggo ladies with a cold or long legs it can be a dire situation. At least it was for me… Fairly early on in my pregnancy I received the flu shot, I know that can be a touchy subject with people, but my doctor recommended it, I’ve had the flu before and did not like it, so I chose to get the shot. Shortly thereafter the hubs caught a nasty flu/cold thing and honestly I wasn’t too worried. I just got the shot, I was feeling pretty good, so I just held out that I wouldn’t catch it.

20 week baby bump

But catch it I did… Ugh. I was tired, achy, had a horrible cough… My doctor gave me a list of medicines that are approved during pregnancy so armed with that list and a little internet research Nate and I headed to the pharmacy in town. I am not even kidding when I say we could not find a single thing that exactly matched the medicines on the list from my doctor. We finally found one thing that was fairly similar, so I took it to the pharmacist and asked if it was ok for pregnancy… He HAD TO LOOK IT UP! He had no idea… Then he tells me that it’s a level such on such on a level of something or other, which basically meant that yeah, it MIGHT be ok…

22 weeks baby bump

Such a pain in the neck! #firstworldproblems I don’t understand why there isn’t at least a small section especially designated for pregnant women at every pharmacy. Ok, I get that some doctors recommend certain medicines that others do not… So it might be hard to get a comprehensive list of items recommended, but there has to be an easier way to get a little cold relief while pregnant! Am I right!?! In the end I found some cough drops, drank a lot of fluids and basically slept for two days straight to feel better… and I finally did so take that for what it’s worth… haha.

{Please don’t take any of this too seriously… I don’t mean to offend anyone, it’s mostly the hormones talking… }

Which brings me to my second vent… I’ve always been a long legged gal… I’ve had trouble finding jeans long enough for my legs as long as I can remember. BUT it’s completely doable. Maternity jeans on the other hand are a completely different issue!!! First of all, I put a plea out on twitter for someone to recommend some longer maternity jeans. I had a few good recommendations to check out. At least one person asked if I really needed jeans in the summer. In Arizona no less. And the answer to that is yes. With our lifestyle I wear boots a lot. My husband ropes a lot. Most of the time I need at least one pair of jeans to get me through just one weekend! So I was on the quest for one pair of long maternity jeans.

27 week baby bump

Long story short I FINALLY found some (shown in the photo above)!!! I looked online for days… I asked around. Finally I found this pair from Motherhood Maternity on amazon.com and decided I’d give them a try {FYI, that’s not an affiliate link or anything, I just like the jeans and wanted to share}. They were the longest inseam I could find (34.5) that weren’t over $100 for one pair of maternity jeans. Seriously! I won’t pay that much for a pair I’ll wear out much less a pair that I’ll only wear for the next three months!!! I normally wear a 36 or even 38 inch inseam, in case you were wondering. When they arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 34.5 inches was plenty long enough! Even with boots! Happy day! But come on, there have to be more long legged ladies out there looking for longer maternity jeans, yes?? #preggoproblems

So what about you? Did/do you have any random vents associated with pregnancy??

{Again, please don’t take this as me being unhappy with being pregnant!! I am thrilled to be carrying my baby girl and experiencing everything that goes along with it. This is just a stab at a little preggo humor!}

Linking this here as a sort of WIW post…..

and here: