Top Five Friday!

5. Eye Shadow Base

Found {HERE} on Amazon

What?! Eye shadow base?? I don't even know who I am right now. I am totally not a "product" kind of girl. I have pretty much used the same basic hair care, face wash, & make-up that I've used since my high school & college days that can be found at Target. I'm totally low-maintenance when it comes to girly-ish stuff. But I kept seeing a couple bloggers that I regularly follow talk about primer for their face & eye shadow base, and I kept thinking what is all the fuss?! Why do you even need these items? Isn't it just more stuff? I have one "brand-name" item in my make-up bag, and it's Urban Decay make-up setting spray. To put it simply, I love it. So when I saw Urban Decay had an eye shadow base, I was all geared up to try it. But then I came across a Maybelline version at Target before I'd ordered the Urban Decay brand, so I decided to give the Maybelline version a whirl. I also tried a Cover Girl primer. I can't really say I've noticed a difference with the primer, but the eye shadow base is legit!!!! It totally does everything it claims it will do, I love it! I may splurge & try the Urban Decay brand next time around, but the Maybelline one totally works for half the price!! Am I the last girl in the world to start using eye shadow base?! I wouldn't be at all surprised if I am. ;)

4. Linky Love

via {nesting place}

Here are links to two blog posts I really enjoyed recently: "The {lost} art of listening" via The Art of Simple  found {HERE} & "3 Simple Things Every Laundry Room Needs" via Nesting Place found {HERE}. With all of the minimizing we're doing lately and daydreaming about our next house, it makes me want to be very intentional about the stuff in our space. So the laundry room post was very timely for me! And the first post? I think it's a good read for everyone in today's society!

3. Hanna Andersson's baby line

Hadley helping me shop for her little brother :)

For my first three-ish years of parenting, finding cute, cheap girl clothes was a breeze! Then when Shelby was 3.5 but already moving out of toddler sizes b/c of her size, we ran into trouble. "Big girl" sizes was apparently synonymous with inappropriate tween clothing. Suddenly finding age-appropriate clothes in Shelby's size was not only hard, but almost impossible! Thankfully, I found the Carter's store (previously I'd only ever bought a few Carter's items here & there from Kohl's or the Just One You line from Target) and Hanna Andersson. Not only did both of these places carry sweet looking clothes for girls in bigger sizes, but they also had coordinating items for Hadley..score!

Fast-forward to now when we're gearing up for our first boy--I never thought buying clothes for him would be hard, but boy was I wrong! We aren't in the market for much at this point since we're about to embark on a move, but we wanted a few sweet, simple sleepers to get us through those fleeting newborn days. I never knew how hard that would be!!!! Almost every single store only carries boy clothing covered in monsters, trucks, or pirates from the newborn size on up! What?! Where are the sweet little light blue things?! I'm totally fine with monsters & pirates on a toddler boy or even an older baby, but a newborn is supposed to have sweet, precious baby clothes!! To make a long story short--if you want sweet looking clothes for a newborn boy, your options are very limited. Hanna Andersson will be your saving grace!

2. Girls who aren't afraid to hold worms

The girls love little creatures of all kinds. Last summer they were into roly polies big time, and that is still a favorite this year. Recent highlights have been holding worms they discovered when puddle jumping, capturing fireflies in a jar with Daddy, & finding a snail while walking from the library to the park.

 

1. Family Date Nights

For the past two Saturdays, we've gone out to "sit-down" restaurant (as opposed to our usual go-to spots like Chick-fil-a, Jason's Deli, or Panera) for dinner as a family & then out for dessert. I'm so glad the girls are getting to the age where we can do this more often & they think it's fun!! This past Saturday we went to La Cantera (I'm sooooo going to miss this outdoor mall when we move!!) to have an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory (hooray for gift cards!) & then walked around a bit--the weather was PERFECTION! We did a little shopping & let the girls play on the playground before heading home. It was such a fun family night!


Happy Friday to you!! :)