Personalized Photo Cards

This year I've been all about making personalized photo cards for special occasions. I've been passing them out all year long and not only has it been a huge hit with everyone, but most of the time it's also less expensive than buying a card from the store. 

This year I made my mom's Mother's Day card courtesy of Card Store. Here's what it looked like...

The whole process is simple and quick which is great because it took me forever to pick a card from their Mother's Day selection. 

Here's the thing about personalized photo cards... Yes, they take some time to make and yes, you have to plan ahead of time so you can order it before the occasion, but I promise that all of the time you put into planning and making the card is absolutely worth it. Everyone seems to really love them and at the end of the day it makes the card so much more meaningful when you put your own love into it.

Father's Day is a month away. Make sure to check out Card Store's Father's Day card selection to make your own personalized photo cards for all those special dad's in your life!

Weekend Wrap Up

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day weekend! Mine was quiet,
low key and just perfect. Here's what it looked like...

Friday night started out with date night. While most people saw Gatsby, I was a good wife and went to see Iron Man 3 with Nate. Saturday we had a little pool party with the kiddos at Sissy's place. These three little monkeys loved jumping off the side of the pool... they were absolutely fearless.

Mother's Day started with church and then a late lunch at my sister's house. Bubbs finally gave mommy his gift and was quite excited about it. Unfortunately my mom got called into work and couldn't join us for lunch. The woman is my hero. She continues to work so hard and it was a bit disappointing for her to get called in on a day when we're supposed to be celebrating her. We'll definitely be making it up to her!

Lastly, I was finally able to finish my gold bowl DIY project. I can't wait to use these little pretties.

That, friends, was my weekend. I hope yours was amazing and for all you wonderful moms out there... I hope you had an incredible Mother's Day!

I'm linking up with Sami and Leeann!

Personalized Stationary

One of my favorite gifts I ever received (during my bridal shower) was a set of personalized stationary with my future name. Something about seeing my name on paper made me even more excited about getting married and the cards were absolutely adorable.

Because I loved them so much it's become one of my go to gifts to give to my girlfriends for bridal showers. There are a ton of websites that offer personalized stationary and thank you cards and one that I really like is Tiny Prints. They have some of the cutest designs and the order process is simple and fast. It also ships super quickly which is great for impatient people like me!

Here's the set I gave to my BFF during her shower last year...

{personalized stationary via Tiny Prints}

I recently ordered a new set, courtesy of Tiny Prints, but it was hard to pick just one. I loved these, these, these, but ultimately I picked these...

Personalized Note Cards | Address Labels

I adore them. I love the simplicity of the design and my favorite part are the matching address labels. I can't wait to pop these in the mail!

Tiny Prints also has great photo books, invites and personalized gifts. I actually made a gift for Bubbs to give to his mommy for Mother's Day, but just in case she takes a peak on my blog before Sunday, I'll have to show you next time.

Father's Day is coming up so make sure to check out Tiny Prints for those special dads in your life!

Tuesday Love

This week's Tuesday Love is all about my favorite B's. Boobs. Just kidding. Here's what I'm really loving...

Beauty...

I've been all about make up lately. I love a bright blush and NARS Mata Hari gives my cheeks a pretty rosy tint. I've also been loving this Trish McEvoy Eye Base Essentials. I use it by itself daily or as an eye shadow base for when I actually have time to do my make up. 

Blooms...

Fresh flowers always make me happy and believe it or not these beauties, along with my past bouquets, are from the grocery store. They always put together the prettiest arrangements and I have the hardest time picking just one.

Baubles...

I stopped by World Market to pick up a gift bag and I left with these amazing pieces. I couldn't help myself. The jewelry was on sale and I had another coupon on top of the sale. They were practically free so inexpensive and such great pieces for spring and summer.

Bubbs...

My favorite is growing up way too fast. This is him fishing over the weekend and it's one of the few recent pictures where he looks like a baby. I wish I could slow things down... have him stay in the baby phase a while longer, but at four years old it's clear that he's a big boy now. 

That's what I'm loving this Tuesday. I hope your Tuesday is nothing but lovely!

Weekend Wrap Up

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was relatively low key with the exception of my friend's daughter's Sweet Sixteen party. It was the major highlight to the weekend.

I'll confess that I'm extremely uncomfortable around large groups of teenagers. All those hormones and weird behavior kind of freaks me out, but I did it because I love my friend Kathy and I love little miss Lily, who've I've known since she was at least ten years old. 

The best part of the night was the sumo wrestling. I took on my friend Toni and honestly she didn't really have a chance. Not just because I'm utterly competitive and highly aggressive, but mostly because her head barely peeked through the padded sumo suit.

It was so much fun and something I've always wanted to do. The sumo suits are really hard to get into. You literally need two or three people to help you get in. Once you are in you immediately start sweating. I didn't have too hard a time moving around, but it's absolutely impossible to get up by yourself once you fall. 

Ladies, it's dark, but for your viewing pleasure, here's my fight...

I'm the one in the blue and as you can see I totally dominated. Up until I jumped on top of Toni and then fell and then it was game over for the both of us. If you ever get a chance to do this, please do because it's so much fun.

I'm linking up with Sami and Leeann!

Pay Day / Any Day

I'm back with another Pay Day / Any Day post. Lately I've been all about handbags, but having a great handbag collection can be quite costly. Especially when designers are charging $500 and up for a leather handbag. The good thing is I've been able to find more affordable versions for some pretty expensive bags. Last time I found this and today I give you the 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli bag and less expensive version.

If you follow a lot of style bloggers, I'm sure you recognize the Pashli bag. It's a great tote, but at $875... it's too high a price for me. So when I saw this on JustFab I couldn't help but wonder...

And I didn't wonder for too long at all... 

I'm quite pleased with the less expensive version. And if you sign up with JustFab your first purchase is 50% off making this bag just $20. 

What would you do? Would you save up for the real deal or go for the much less expensive alternative? 

April Review

April showers bring May flowers and I'm hoping May flowers brings beautiful weather. Seriously, April was rainy and up until the past couple days, it was still cold. I'm super excited for May, but today I'm looking back on how April looked.

April was all about experiencing firsts. I tried several new restaurants: Chick-fil-a, The Savoy, Jane's Restaurant, Bakin' & Eggs. These restaurants were all so good that I'm already planning to return to every single one of them.

Nate and I got to see our first Blackhawks/Redwings game in Chicago. While I'm not new to massages, it was my first time going to Bliss, and it was just that... pure bliss. I finally got to see one of my favorite comedians, Jo Koy, and he was absolutely hysterical. Bubbs got his first Mohawk Warrior haircut and has been very excited to get "stylin". It was our first weekend at my sister and brother-in-law's camper and my BFF announced that she was prego with her first bebe. It was a month of firsts and I quite like all the fun in experiencing new things.

Of course my monthly reviews aren't complete without looking back on the baubles and what I wore.

The blue bag that boss lady gave me was on repeat and it's safe to say that I'm a bit obsessed with it. 

And because it was such a good month, I'm also looking back on all the lovely blooms.

That was what my April looked like. I'm glad I took the time to look back because I was blessed to have such a lovely month. I hope May is just as sweet.