Free Christmas Music

If there is anything I like more than Christmas music, it's new, free Christmas music.

Crate & Barrel offers free Christmas music right now as part of their Get the Download. Hurry on over and get some new tunes (and some fun apps).

It's just what this Monday needs.

Adding Some Spark to Your Mom Uniform

Most moms I know get used to dressing in a uniform. Before I had kids I developed my own personal winter uniform. Trouser-cut jeans, a solid colored long-sleeved tee and some sort of bold accessory, like a long necklace, dangly earrings or a scarf. Not the most imaginative, but it worked for me almost every day.

Truthfully, not much has changed with kids. The days I effortlessly put on a necklace, ring or fun earrings I feel so much more put together. Quickly putting on jewelry is so much easier than doing full-make up. My sweet eight month old is actually really gentle with jewelry, so I'm not afraid to make it part of my everyday style. (It feels silly to admit it, but since it's such a part of my style, I practice with my kids' hand being gentle on my dangling earrings or necklace and saying "oooooh" as we nurse. So far it's a trick that seems to work with both of them!) A mom has to do what she can to preserve her sense of style when her life is overtaken with kid demands!

My husband bought my engagement ring online from Shane Co, without ever having seen it in real life. It ended up being perfectly "me." The husband was pretty proud of himself. We bought our wedding bands from Shane Co as well. We love making trips to our local Shane Co every six months (around our yearly and six month anniversaries) to get our rings cleaned, polished, and, when needed, replated. Shane Co's lifetime guarantee is fabulous (they've replaced a prong on my ring that got a little abused), and we love treating ourselves to cookies and cocoa in their stores. My simple solitaire wedding set is the perfect starting point for accessorizing my outfits.

Building off my wedding ring, I like to put on other meaningful jewelry. These Capri necklaces from Shane Co are perfectly proportioned. Engraved with something personal (initials of your kids, a word of the year, or a family motto would all be sweet). They would go with almost anything, including more necklaces! Layer those babies on, with all different lengths, for a style that's all your own. I'm crushing on this beauty, also from Shane Co.

Direct from Italy, the Capri Necklace is available exclusively from Shane Co. Personalize your Capri Necklace with your initials or favorite saying.


Another meaningful piece I like is this CTR ring with Shane Co's sterling silver and sapphire line. CTR stands for Choose The Right, and it's a message I want to emulate every day, and one I want my kids to know, internalize and do. So wearing that pretty ring would be a great reminder that I have the ability to choose.

It's amazing what a little sparkle can do to an otherwise ordinary mom uniform outfit. Using jewelry with added meaning puts some personality into looking put-together.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Five Friday Finds :: Awesome Money Saving Apps

1. Gas Buddy— It's helpful to look up where the cheapest gas is close to you (especially nice when traveling), but we've found the price hike alerts even more helpful in saving money. We can fill up before the prices spike.

2. Cartwheel by Target— This app allows you to select mobile coupons, stack them with paper coupons and save on what you buy at Target (it even shows you coupons specifically to use with things that are already on sale!).

3. Craft Store Apps— Jo-Ann, Michael's and Hobby Lobby apps allow you to access you coupons while you're standing in line. No more getting to the store and realizing you forgot your flier or coupons. 40% off, at your fingertips. And you can use coupons at competitor stores. (Note that the Michael's app requires you to register first.)

4. Shopkick— Shopkick rewards you with points for walking into different stores, and the points can be redeemed for gift cards. Additional points can be earned for scanning barcodes of specific items in store. That part is like a scavenger hunt for adults!

5. Redlaser— This app will tell you the best price on an item (either online or in a brick and mortar store) when you scan a product bar code, and can give you heads up on available coupons.

2011 Design Trends

That's right, JoAnn's Special is doling out trend advice! Don't worry, I didn't come up with them on my own (that would be a little frightening!) A few weeks ago I went to Day of Design. My favorite classes were the interior design ones. The cute girls from Opal Never Shouts taught one of the classes, and the other was taught by an interior design instructor at BATC.

Here are my notes from the Design Trends 2011 class. The teacher kept reminding us to not feel like we had to redo our entire house and get overwhelmed, but just to find 1 or 2 new trends we wanted to incorporate and go from there.


 
1. Color Trends
Honeysuckle is the Pantone color of the year. You can learn more about Honeysuckle, a courageous, confident, and brave new color. She described it as a hot pink with red undertones, which created quite a frightening visual image. Fortunately, honeysuckle is much softer than what I had pictured.  I think it would be fun to trade out the orange in my front room for honeysuckle. Bet my boys would love that. 





2. Layering patterns. 
This bedding is from Anthropologie and has great texture. You don't have to keep the texture monochromatic either. I asked what the secret is behind getting, what look like random colors in a room to all work together without having it end up looking all mod podge. She said the secret is to start with a color palette of colors you like together and then as you find pillows, or throws, or rugs in those colors on different shopping trips they will all come together in a room and work nicely together. Like this room on Young House Love.










3. Paper Your Walls
This isn't your grandmother's wallpaper. Wallpaper companies have changed the adhesives and even the thickness of the paper, to make for an easier removal. And these wallpapers have huge print. Like patterns that used to be only 3" wide have been blown up to 1.5' wide.





  
4. Current Ancestral
Also hot is ancestral shaped furniture (think antique) with updated fabric, like this sofa and the chair above. Either my mom is way ahead of her time, or this trend has come full circle because she's been working on updating 2 "ancestral" chairs for a while now. Maybe I should find some velvety fabric and take over the project.

5. Lighting For Art
Light fixtures are going big and making a statement.  You'll also see big fixtures grouped together over tables. Image from Pinterest.













 



6. Headboards
Supersized upholstered headboards. This is one of my favorite trends. Perhaps 2011 will be the year we get a headboard! I think the nailheads add a good balance of masculine to a femine shape here.













 
7. Animal Prints
They can either be print and colorful prints or very subtle. This is a trend I thought had been around for a while, but I guess it is still hanging around.

















8. In the Details
Some of those details are:

Drum stools
Ruffles
Turned Spindles
Rugs
Grouping
Tufting
Clear Acrylic Furniture
Long Oversized Sofas

As well as mixing old and new.
Grey, white and bleached wood (Restoration Hardware has a lot of this going on)







9. Patterns From Nature
This reminded me of Put A Bird On It. But nature is so much more than birds!















So what do you think, do you love or hate these trends? Will you be adding honeysuckle to your home and wardrobe? I'm really liking the texture thing and the current ancestral furniture. I wonder what I can find at DI to DIY with...

Swimming Stockup

My favorite swimming suits come from Land's End. They fit right, they are modest, and they last. Being the tightwad that I am, I won't spend full price for a swimming suit (or anything else, really). After a few years of stalking the Overstocks section of Land's End, I've just about perfected my method.

Now is the time to start looking for this year's swimming suit. In the women's overstock section, check out the swimming suit selection. I appreciate the tools on the left-hand side of the page for the ways they facilitate my bargain shopping. You can sort by color, size, style, etc, which makes things really nice when you're trying to piece together a swimming suit with a somewhat limited selection. I always sort by price, then start looking for tops I like best. Then, I'll search around for matching bottoms. I appreciate that their suits come in tall, while I know that petites better suit other figures. And this might sound weird, but don't be afraid of the mastectomy tops. I have one, and though it's cut a little bit differently than the normal style, it offers more coverage without giving away its true purpose. It's the one I would take to the pool when I knew I'd have nephews grabbing at my neckline!

I usually load up my cart with more swimming suits than a girl would need on a two month Carribean vacation, but then I can weed things down without having to hunt for the piece again. And while I wait for a good sale or promotion (like free shipping), some of the pieces inevitably get sold out. It's all part of the fun of the hunt for me, and when I score a $15 swimming suit, I'm totally okay with it. After hemming and hawing for a few weeks, I usually strike a good sale and buy away. Often, I order a few more than is prudent, since returns are hassle free at my local Sears.

And one more tip: Nikkala is partial to the Land's End men's rashguards. A way for your man to cover up without sinking under the weight of a cotton t-shirt, and without having to drop the cash on a professional rash guard. They are also on sale at this time of year.

Any suits catching your eye? Knowing I'll be sporting a just post-baby body this year, the tummy control options are looking appealing in a way I've never imagined!