Tuesday, October 25, 2016

DIY Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Banner

We're hosting a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Halloween party this year.
I wasn't feeling like I wanted to do excessive crafting for this party and while looking for decorations,
I found a plain skull garland. 
So I decided to jazz it up a bit for our party. 
Keep reading for the details or just enjoy the pictures!



Y O U  W I L L  N E E D //

+ paper skull garland
I found this same banner/garland at Target and Wal-Mart. 
Other options would be to print out skills and cut around them 
or if you have a cutting machine-use that to cut out skull shapes.

+ brightly colored paint

+ papers
to make paper flowers-other options would be making felt flowers 
or purchasing flowers from the dollar store

+ various embellishments
Definitely an optional part. 
Just use whatever you've got lying around the house!


S I M P L E  I N S T R U C T I O N S //
Use a q-tip to add paint then hot glue embellishments and flowers.
To make my paper flowers I just googled "paper flowers" and followed the pictures.
I just wanted to make this easy and quick.





There you have it!


xo_lauryn


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Sneaky Tricks to Fake Getting Ready.

As much as I love glamming up and getting ready, 
I'm not ALWAYS in the mood to spend a thousand years getting ready.
Shocking right?

And since motherhood has been upon me- comfort and movability is uber important.
(I mean who invented jeans. Sheesh.)

So since I don't always think I should show up to Target with my bedhead, leggings, and tee shirt;
I fancied myself a few easy tricks
... and I'm saying TRICKS cause its kinda magic...
to make the world and even yourself 
believe you spent more time fancying up than you really did.



LIPSTICK
With lipstick, make sure you're using a BOLD, stand out color. 
I'm wearing makeup in this picture, but when I'm not-the lipstick has to make a statement to help hide the "I'm too lazy to pretty myself up today" look. 

SLICK BACKED HAIR
Here I braided my hair and sprayed back any fly aways and whispies.
Sometimes I'll slick it up into a high top knot bun.
Other times I'll part it and slick back the sides into a low ponytail.
Slicking back the whispies just makes you look more put together when you don't have the time to tame your mane.


ACCESSORIZE 
With this outfit, I added this cute delicate lace vest, some bracelets, and dangle earrings. 
Just imagine the outfit without them... the accessories totally hide the lazy look.


HEELS
And adding heels to ANY outfit is going to amp it up. 
Put me in pajamas and heels and its gonna look like I made an effort. ;)
(totally kidding.)



Pretty sneaky, right!?
Have a lovely day peeps.
xo_lauryn


♥♥♥♥

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Fire Themed Family Halloween Costumes



I'm super excited to be working with my fellow blogger and sweet friend
Chelsea from Simply Pett for this post.
We are both sharing our family themed costumes for this year.
She's got a little girl and I have a little boy so be sure to check out her post
for a more girly family garden theme!


I love doing family themed costumes each year for Halloween.
Though, I know that the older my little one gets, the harder it will be.
Luckily, it worked out perfectly for us this year when my little guy 
announced he would like to be a fire truck for Halloween.

I'd like to say it was an easy decision to do a fire themed family costume, 
but for a good amount of time my husband was 100% set on being Ash from Pokemon.

Finally though he caved.
husbands...;)

I feel like there are a lot of options when doing a fire theme:
Firetruck
Fireman
Fire
Fire Hydrant
Dalmatian Puppy
Smoke
Smokey the Bear
probably a lot more...

We went with the Firetruck/Fireman, Fire, and Smokey the Bear.



F I R E T R U C K / F I R E M A N

You will need:
+ firetruck
Ours will not be pictured, 
I fully intended to create one from a box-something like this
But while meandering in Marshall's one day we found one ready to purchase 
(I know... it went against everything I had to purchase a pre-made costume.)
our little boy was so excited when he saw that we couldn't resist. 
Plus-we decided it will be much more comfortable for him.

+ fire hat 
(cheaper and easier to purchase-
generally any dollar store will have them)

+ black jacket or hoodie
I purchased a Hanes version from Wal-Mart for about $5.

+ yellow duct tape

+ thin silver/reflective tape

Instructions:
This is insanely easy...
just wrap the yellow duct tape around the sleeves then place duct tape on the front.
Add the silver tape centered in the middle of the yellow.
Its amazing how instantly it turns to a fire coat!

We will likely put the "reflectors" on some khaki pants for him as well.
Just one stripe on the bottoms.
And if you're feeling real fancy, it would be super cute to add onto black rubber rain boots!

We also created a little "Volunteer Fireman" thermal to wear underneath (as pictured).
It requires a heat press, cutter of some sort (we have a silhouette), and transfer vinyl.
If you want more details on that feel free to shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment!


F I R E and C O A L

You will need:
+ all black attire

+ red, orange, and yellow tulle
How much you get depends on how long you want your skirt and your size.
I got 2 yards of each color and had to make the skirt shorter than I had planned because I didn't have enough. 
So just keep that in mind!

+ string

+ makeup or face paint

+ accessories of your choice

Instructions:
Measure your waist (or where you intend to wear the skirt) with string.
Leave about 2 feet extra to tie together.
This can alternatively be done with elastic instead of string sewn together the size of your waist creating a pull on skirt.
I wanted to use string so I could just tie it around my waist like an apron.
Follow this link to an easy to follow tutorial from Simply Real Moms.
This is the method I used.
I just did yellow and orange every other, then added red randomly in between.

The majority of this costume is going to be accessories and makeup/face paint.
Come back around Halloween time to see it all come together!


S M O K E Y  T H E  B E A R

You will need:
+ a shovel

+ ranger hat

+ paint/alphabet stickers/vinyl cutouts

+ smokey the bear shirt

Instructions:
Get a ranger hat, add on the words "SMOKEY"
with black alphabet stickers, paint, or cut it out on vinyl.
DONE!
There really aren't many instructions for this.
If you want to look more like Smokey the Bear,
he wears no shirt so you could go for a brown sweater and jeans.
We opted for a Smokey the Bear shirt and brown pants.
Really the seller for this costume is the hat and the shovel.
So get a shovel from your garage and get in character to prevent forest fires!
Because... only YOU can. ;)


We can't wait to get these all put together for the big day.
Make sure you come back to see everything all together!
woot woot for HALLOWEEN!!
xo_lauryn

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Family Minion Halloween Costumes 2K15

Before tomorrow's Halloween Costume Post hits the blog, 
I thought I'd share last year's Halloween costumes since they never made it up...

Like many other trick-or-treaters, 
we followed the minion theme...
but you can't deny a (then) one year old's wishes.
He LOVED minions at the time.

Hubby and I went with the crazy purple minions...
I mean, that's what happens when you turn into parents..
you go crazy, right? ;)


 


Tomorrow I'll be sharing our costumes for this year as well as materials 
instructions on how to put them together.
Can't wait for the big day. Halloween is my FAVORITE!!

xo_lauryn
♥ ♥ 

Sunday, October 2, 2016

High Fiber Food Options for Toddlers and Kids

Disclaimer: There is some subtle potty talk here 
(and I don't mean swear words, just talking about kids and bathroom problems!!) 
So continue at your own risk.. ;)

Unfortunately, 
My little monkey struggled A TON when switching from formula/breast milk to cow's milk.
We are talking serious constipation, anal fissures, and with holding bowel movements for days and days at a time. Yes I know its TMI, but it's life guys.
Our doctor prescribed Miralax,
and I was sorely disappointed when after a year absolutely NOTHING had changed.
When returning to the doctor I expressed my intense concern for this seemingly unsolvable issue.
Well guess what.. 
He told me to keep up with the Miralax. :/
Also to make sure his diet was highly concentrated with fiber.
So trusting our incredible pediatritian, that's exactly what I did. 

But finding high fiber options for a toddler took a lot of research on my part.
So much so that I hope no one ever has to do that for themselves.
I thought I would share some easy and toddler friendly high fiber options I found:






My little guy is currently two and a half, so the problem is not yet resolved. 
However... it is HANDLED! Which makes me happy.
As long as I keep this high fiber diet in tact and use a small dose of Miralax daily, 
my sweet baby has no more struggles going to the bathroom. 
and THAT makes a momma happy.
xo_lauryn
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