Lately…

First of all— thank you so much to all who have reached out saying you miss family life/weekend posts. I’ve been focusing so much on sharing outfits lately because for the last two years I kept getting feedback that people wanted more style and beauty posts, which was the original basis of my blog.

I’m hoping I can find more balance in 2017 and continue to share the style content I love but with home, life and family mixed in.

Let’s get right to it.

Caption this:
Lincoln’s first visit to Santa was about as great as Harper’s was and her face just says it all. She was really nervous seeing Santa and wouldn’t say much to him. Maybe next year? This picture is priceless and I will forever treasure its greatness.

In other news—we finished Lincoln’s nursery! Can I get an Amen?! It only took a little over a year. As you can tell, we are big on reaching our goals over here. We had the incredibly talented Nicole of Jacquelyn Nicole Photography  come and shoot the nursery and her pictures are incredible. We even shot some really great casual family phots with her and the way she captured Harper is just amazing. I’ll share those soon!

The nursery post will publish sometime in early January, but until then, this giant giraffe (we have two!) is on sale for about $40 off of its usual price, so now’s a great time to add a massive plush giraffe to your home (just saying’)
I worked with Framebridge to have this elephant print framed and it’s the perfect piece for over his dresser.
We’re all about the Christmas cheer in our home, so not only do we own an embarrassing amount of plush animals and animal heads, but they now too, are feeling the holiday spirit with Santa hats.

unicorn head  |  blanket  |  spotted sheets   |  felt name banner

So,  I pretty much neglected my skin and everything else for the last year and I decided no more! Now that I’m done nursing I’m on a skin care regimen fast-track and loving it!

I started using Rodan + Field’s Redefine regimen to review on my blog (side note— I do not sell it, and don’t plan to). I also added in their Reverse cream and am hoping to see a reduction in fine lines and age spots and have more even skin with smaller pores. So far I’m loving the regimen and have seen some small improvements in my skin in just a few weeks (the ones I’m using contain retinol which is why I had to wait until after I was done nursing). You can check out Angie’s R+F page if you have any questions— but I will be doing a full review including before and after photos after 8 weeks on the regimen.
I’m also using a few other products that are new to me and I’ll review more in depth once I’ve used them for a sufficient amount of time. They’re the ones above— PTR rose stem cell repair mask, Dior creme de rose plumping balm (seeing a theme here) and lavender essential oil which I diffuse at night a few times a week or when I’m having trouble sleeping.

Okay, now heaven help us all, because this part of the post is all about our couch saga, part deux. Why, do you ask, is there a “part deux” to our couch saga? Well, because it has been determined that the universe does not want us to have a couch. Jesus take the wheel, y’all, this has been the cluster of all furniture clusters.

So you may remember it took us like 16 weeks to get our Pottery Barn couch that we ordered for our new house. Well, when that couch came, the slipcover so was horribly made that Pottery Barn, being the awesome company that they are, 100% stood by the quality of their products and offered me either an exchange or full refund.

Not wanting to wait 16 more weeks, we opted for the refund. Kudos to PB customer service— great experience and why I continue to be a loyal customer!

I have some friends that purchased sofas from a local store. Not a chain but a store that kind of can “custom make” you a couch similar to ones you see in big brand name stores, but for less. Count me in, right?

My friends had nice couches, so I was all in. I went to the store, picked a couch style I liked, picked a fabric, and on my merry way I went. Kevin was so thrilled that I made a decision and for the next 13 weeks, we lived in ignorant bliss of what was to come (yes, I’m being dramatic in hopes you can laugh at all of this, because really, all there is to do at this point is laugh).

So the couch was supposed to take 6-8 weeks to be made and arrive. Notice how above I said 13 weeks? Like a deja-vu, our couch was once again”behind schedule.” The owner of the shop failed to mention he was using a new couch person for some of his stuff out in California. Great.

So our couch arrives. I like the overall color, fabric, style, etc. But when I saw the bench cushion when it first arrived it was…not that full. I convinced myself it was fine because “WE FINALLY HAVE A COUCH!!!” and for the next couple of months I just threw a blanket over it so I wouldn’t be bothered by the horrible creases that had formed from us sitting on it. I had emailed the owner a few times about my concern about the bench cushion, but I guess he’s super busy because he just didn’t respond.

Finally, I emailed him the two photos below and they spoke for themselves and he was horrified at them (like you could tell he hadn’t seen the final product before it was shipped to us, even though he told me he had and said it “looked great!”)

So he immediately sends me the contact information for one of his guys who comes over that night to measure our bench cushion and two weeks later it’s like a new couch.  A couch doesn’t make me cringe every time I look at it. Basically they added a high density foam to it to fill the bench cushion like it should have been in the first place. So our couch basically went from the “poor unfortunate souls” withering away in Ursula’s cavern in “The Little Mermaid” to Ariel’s dad finally giving her legs so she can marry Prince Eric. There is no better analogy than that, folks.

Thank you, universe, it looks like we were meant to have a couch after all (totally going to spill something on it next week for writing this though).Speaking of home stuff, there is stuff in our home that doesn’t suck (well, the couch doesn’t suck anymore, but you know what I mean). I’m really into items that are both pretty to display and actually useful so this recipe box and this cheeseboard struck my fancy and I think they make great gifts. You know, if you missed someone on your list. Or for yourself. Because you deserve it.
pineapple shakers  |  recipe box  | cheeseboard

The kids and I had some fun cuddles in bed this weekend (j/k, these pics are totally staged to show off our cute jammies). They’re by Gentry California and I adore them.

But, let’s get to the real point of these photos. This headboard y’all. I loved it at first, but I’ve come to loathe it over the years. I don’t know what I was thinking when we purchased a headboard with a fabric that changes color the moment it’s touched. A new bed has been on my list for quite some time, but after seeing these photos, I’m moving it up on the list. With our luck, we will have a new bed by 2018 after sending back the first two we order.
Daniel Wellington watches are among my favorite and this new one has a black faceplate with rose gold detail and it’s so chic! You can use the code “VERONIKA15” at checkout for 15% off of your order.
While it may not appear so in this photo, Harper is actually our compliant child with the tree. She knows not to touch it and when she does, is very gentle. Lincoln, on the other hand, likes to stand at the tree, touch an ornament, smile lovingly at me and laugh as he rips it off. God bless the person who invented shatter proof ornaments.
Before you go— this sweater is now on sale for $23! What a steal!


Have a great week!