Toddler Birthday Exchange

What's the best part about turning three?  The fact that we get to keep the celebration going by participating in a fun toddler birthday exchange!

Elizabeth got a bunch of us mamas together and we were excited to get a gift from Waverly of Words About Waverly:

They just welcomed their second daughter Avalon into their family...isn't she precious?

Ethan was really into presents this year for his birthday.  It's actually really sweet, he'll say, "Thank you for my present" before he even opens it.  I'll admit, it makes the gift giving process a whole lot better now that he gets it!

You can find his pajamas here--currently on sale!

Waverly hit the nail on the head {see what I did there?} and got Ethan a tool set...he loves anything tool related, so this was a hit!

Thanks Waverly for making Ethan's birthday that much more special!

Check out the rest of the exchange here...we got some fun gifts for Presley!

Amanda & Lily : TICKLED PINK

Ashley & Waverly : WORDS ABOUT WAVERLY

Elizabeth & Mason : CHASIN' MASON

Jess & Sadie : SADIE SKY BOUTIQUE

Laura & Liam : TINY TOES, LITTLE NOSE

Laura & Presley : HAPPILY EVER PARKER

Laureen & Tyson : CHATEAU DEVEAU

Natasha & Ethan : SCHUE LOVE

Sara & Mac : RUNNING FROM THE LAW

Sarah & Brantley : SEEING ALL SIDES

Stephanie & Gray : OLIVE AND TATE

Traci & Charli : THE HALLWAY

xo natasha

House Love // House*Tweaking

Do you ever have one of those moments where you're perusing Pinterest and you come across a room that is just pure perfection?  And then that "moment" turns into hours of reading and gawking the blog it belongs to?  That happened to me a couple days ago when I came across Dana's blog, House*Tweaking...I devoured her site and just love every single room in there.  Check it out...

Amazing right?  You can check out her entire home tour here, and don't tell me I didn't warn you!

I hope you have an amazing weekend!

xo natasha

Get Inspired: The Bloom Workshop Comes to CA!

Many of you may be familiar with my talented friend Michaela of Michaela Noelle Designs.  She and her friend, Ashley have put together an inspiring workshop called, The Bloom and it's coming soon to California!  Here's a little more detail:

The Bloom Workshop was designed for creative women who are eager to learn about blogging, social media, photography, interior design and styling. Our goal is to share our knowledge on how each of these topics work together to help take blogs or businesses to the next level. 

Bloom's mission is to help fuel women's creative passions, establish authentic community, and help each attendee feel confident in their small business or blog.

With special sessions on the specifics of blogging, social media best practices, design, styling and photography, a styled photo shoot to practice the skills guests just learned, and a Q&A session with a panel of experts, Ashley and Michaela created this workshop as a hands-on and genuine place to learn or hone creative skills.

The California workshop will be held on April 10th, 2015 is in Los Gatos, CA. Click here to register and get more info.  Receive 15% off on your ticket purchase for the California workshop, use the code BLOOM15 at checkout!

Not in California, no problem! To find a workshop in a city near you, check out the register page.

If you've just started a blog, want to hone in on your photography, or just meet a group of like-minded women, then you should definitely check this out!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...Happy Monday!

xo natasha

Midweek Musings

It's midweek, fall is in full swing and I seriously can't believe Halloween is next Friday!  Time is flying!  Today, I'm catching up on all the latest happenings...

I recently decorated my mantel for Halloween.  I am loving these little black cats from Paper Source.

Is it just me or is TV really slow right now?  Luckily, I'm really into the new Showtime series, The Affair.  It kind of reminds me of Gone Girl...the story is told from two different perspectives.  Pretty intriguing so far!

We made chilaquiles for dinner the other night and boy was it good!  You can find the recipe here.

We had a college friend's wedding this past weekend and it was fun to get away for the night.  I especially loved rocking this dress from Lulu's.

Last, I am so excited to introduce my newest sponsor, Annie from Home of the Malones!  Here's a little bit of her and her sweet blog...isn't Brody the cutest??

NAME/AGE/LOCATION

I'm Annie, a 29 year old gal living in Pensacola, FL (my hometown).

FAMILY

I got married in April 2012 to my husband Matt. Six months later we found out we were pregnant. In June 2013, we had our son Brody. We also have one fur baby, Bella. She's a four year old, 7 pound, white Maltipoo, who is extremely jealous of her little brother.

WORK

I stay at home with our son, Brody (15 months). I worked for Chase bank just out of college then in the family business for 4 years prior to having Brody. I had plans to return back to the family business; but as of right now, I'm taking a bit longer sabbatical than I had planned. I feel so lucky to spend every day with this little guy.

HOBBIES

I love to travel, workout, shop, cook, entertain and blog. I really enjoy my role as stay at home Mom and take advantage of my time at home to decorate, cook new recipes and plan parties! We love to entertain and never pass up the opportunity to take a great trip.

WHY I BLOG

I started Home of Malone's a few months after we got married as a way to document our journey of building our first home and my pregnancy with Brody. I read so many blogs when we were planning our home and definitely during my pregnancy {insert Schue Love} and I loved the concept. I learned so much and thought it would be fun to start one of my own to share our ideas and document our married life.

WHAT I BLOG ABOUT

I blog about family, food, fashion, travel and life in general. I love to decorate for the holidays and share my passion for trying new recipes. I have an addiction to online shopping and am thrilled when I can share my favorite new fashion find. I have no shame in over posting photos of my son either!

I hope you will stop over to the blog and say hello!  I look forward to meeting some new faces and great blogs.  Thanks for having me, Natasha :)

Definitely pay Annie a visit and if you're interested in becoming a sponsor, simply shoot me an email at schuelove {at} gmail.com.  I'd love to have you!

xo natasha

Meet Megan + Necklace Giveaway!

Hi, friends!

Natasha is out on a work trip this week, hope she's doing ok being away from Ethan for so long, but I'm sure she's enjoying a little down time. ;) 

Natasha is a working Mom that I look up to, she always appears to have it under control (although, guaranteed there are moments of mass chaos that we don't see!). I also have a huge respect for all of you SAHM's - now, that's a hard job, but also oh so fulfilling!

I should probably introduce myself before we go any further, heyyyy ladies!!! I'm Megan, wife to Mike, Mama to Sofia, I work full-time for a shipping company (if any of you deal with logistics, give me a holla!), write Hello Newlywed Life blog & I own and design jewelry at DolceAve on the side. With all of that going on, family is always my #1 priority. I would give anything to be a SAHM, but that's just not in the cards for us at the moment.

Here's a sample day for us, just because I think "day in the life's" are fun, it's always interesting to see how other people live their lives. Right?

|6:20am|

Wake up, get ready & make the bed - this is a rushed process before Sofia rises, 'cause when she's up it's next to impossible to get dressed with the mini tornado working her way through our closet, pulling out every pair of shoes & necklaces that I have. She usually walks in the bathroom rocking my flats "walk-e walk-e" "Mammmma" then I walke walke miss hot stuff right back to the closet to clean the mess.

|7:00am|

Get Sofia up (if she's not already) & dressed

|7:15am|

Downstairs to grab Sofia's milk, throw her lunch in the diaper bag & off to the sitter

|7:45am|

Drop Sofia off & head to work

|8:00-4:00pm|

Work

|4:15pm|

Pick-up Sofia & give her a snack that I prepped in the AM, otherwise I hear "NACK NACK" the entire ride home...in traffic. Music to my ears.

|4:45pm|

Home - check the mail, let our dog out, start dinner & throw on some glorious yoga pants

|5:30pm|

Mike gets home & we eat dinner as a family. So thankful Sofia eats what we eat, makes things much easier!

|6:00pm|

Clean-up dinner & take a family walk

|6:45pm|

Sofia's bath (if it's bath night), jammies & milk

|7:15pm|

Brush Sofia's teeth, read books and chill in the rocker

|7:30pm|

Tuck Sofia in then I'm off to blog, work on getting orders out, clean the house & prep for the next day

|10:30pm|

Lights out & an episode of House Hunters International before zzz'ing

Everyday feels so rushed, by time the weekend hits we're all ready to relax. I'm sure many of you can relate. SAHM or working Mom, time is just a tough commodity to find these days. It won't be like this for long, so I try to embrace the chaos!

In honor of Mother's Day & all that each of you ladies do for your little ones, I'm giving away one necklace of the winner's choice. Enter using the Rafflecopter below, winner will be chosen 5/20.

Good luck & thanks for having me over to chat today, Natasha! xo

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Workout Mama's Online Bootcamp: A Review

About two months ago, Tamara of The Workout Mama contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in her five week online bootcamp.  I will admit, I was a little weary at first.  What all would this entail?  Would I actually be able to commit and get it done?  Where would I find time?  And would it actually work for me?  

I've always been a big fan of workout classes or videos, as opposed to going to the gym and working out on my own.  I get bored easily and don't push myself as hard as I would with a routine.  But let's be honest...I don't go the gym anymore as I don't have time between working full-time and being a full-time mama, so I've relied on workout videos, spinning {I bought a spin bike on Amazon!} and an occasional bar class.

The beauty of this program is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home and on your own time.  I worked out every Tuesday and Thursday morning...the workouts take about 30-45 minutes...and then once on the weekend.  Committing to this schedule was key in staying on track and having success with this bootcamp.  And it really made a difference in how I started my day.  I LOVED getting my workout in early and knowing I started the day out right.  And it was great that I didn't get to miss out on any time with Ethan since he was still asleep in the morning while I worked out.

I still have some baby weight to lose, but more importantly, I really REALLY wanted to tone up.  Over the last five weeks, I came to realize that FEELING good really has much more to do with how you look, not what you weigh.  I finally have some strength and toning back in my legs and arms and my endurance is definitely up.  It's an amazing feeling.

So...how are the classes?

They're awesome!!  Every Sunday, Tamara emails the routines for the week, one of which is a video lead by her.  All of the routines were super intense but easy enough to follow along and not nearly as intimidating as I was expecting.  I sweat a lot and really felt the burn for days after.  In short, Tamara kicked my booty...and I liked it!

The best part is, you also get to communicate via a private Facebook group with other bootcamp participants, which I loved.  We all commiserated over burpees and seal jacks {two moves I loathe!} and also encouraged each other.  It was undoubtedly what kept me on track each week and motivated.

 I'm so happy to be back to a routine that I don't want to lose my momentum so I am taking advantage of her FREE Christmas bootcamp right now AND I signed up for her January bootcamp...I just KNOW that I will thank myself after indulging over the holidays!  Now the question is...who's with me!?!

I would like to give Tamara a heartfelt shout out for allowing me to participate in her bootcamp and really motivating me to get back at it again!  She's amazing...and hello, she's pregnant with her second baby!  Talk about super mom!  Thank you Tamara...you rock!

xo natasha