Scentsy Online Party!

Since it is starting to feel a little bit more like fall outside, I thought it was time to order some new scents for my Scentsy warmers.

And I thought maybe some of you guys would as well, so I am hosting an online Scentsy Party. You can go here to check out the new fall catalog and go here to shop, just make sure you click on Lauren’s Party.

Never heard of Scentsy or haven’t tried it yet? You can go here to read more about it, but basically they are little ceramic warmers with a light bulb inside that warms the scented wax on the top tray. I have had mine for about a year now and I love it!

I have always been a candle person and I love having the house smell good, especially in the fall/winter. Now that Aedan is old enough to find a chair and move it to any counter he wants to help himself to cookies, I can’t very well have candles burning around the house.

With my Scentsy warmers all I do is switch on the light and a few minutes later the room/house is filled with wonderful scents. Aedan pays zero attention to the warmers, but even if he did, the wax is paraffin wax so it is hot, but will not burn. I love that I can switch it on and just leave it all day without having to worry about it. You could even plug it into a timer and have it set to go off just before you get home. How great would it be to come home to a wonderfully smelling house at the end of a busy day?

They have different size warmers as well as small plugins. I have two full size warmers; one in my kitchen and one in our bedroom. I am going to be ordering a couple plugins for the bathrooms and maybe a third full size warmer.

Once you have your warmer or plugin, you just have to grab some scent bars. Each bar comes with 8 little squares inside. I usually put 2 squares in my full size warmers and it is plenty to fill the house with the scent. The bars on $5 a piece or you can bundle and save a few dollars, but you get the equivalent of a pretty large candle for just $5.

I keep my kitchen warmer on just about everyday and I find that I only need to change out the scent every week to week and a half. The warmer in my bedroom doesn’t stay on as much so I can go a good 2 or 2.5 weeks before I change out that one.

Now the hard part is just deciding which scents to pick up first!

Probably my all time favorite is Luna. I feel like it is a perfect scent for any room. It is not too strong, but it will fill the house with a wonderful clean smell.

My second favorite scent is Welcome Home. It is just perfect to warm in the kitchen.

Scentsy just came out with their fall/winter scents and here are a few I will definitely be ordering…

Honey Pear Cider

Black Ruby

Snowberry

These would make great Christmas gifts/stocking stuffers, so get some names crossed off your list and pick up one for yourself to welcome in the cooler temperatures!

My online party will be open from now through September 21st.

-Lauren-

Mid Week Update

I feel like for awhile I was on a roll with posting about 3 times a week…until now, since it has been a whole week since I have posted anything.

We had a pretty good Labor Day weekend. Jon had to work Friday and Saturday night, so Aedan and I hung out up in Round Rock all day Saturday to let him rest. We spent the day with my parents and had dinner with my grandmother. Aedan has so much fun over there since my mom saved a ton of original little people toys plus a bunch of other toys for him to play with. On top of that he loves playing with his Pop and Nenna.

We all hung around the house on Sunday and ran some errands on Monday. I was looking for a new water bottle and lunchbox containers for Aedan to take to school on Tuesday, but never ended up finding what I wanted. Then yesterday when I was at the grocery store, I found both items, go figure.

Monday afternoon, Aedan and I made these muffins for him to take for lunch. They were easy to make and taste pretty good, plus they don’t have any sugar in them.

Yesterday was Aedan’s first day of school. Of course he woke up super early for some reason, so I knew he would be pretty tired by the time he came home, but he had a great first day. His teacher said he got a little sad when he realized Jon and I left, but he got over it pretty fast and was totally fine the rest of the time. She said his favorite part was music. He told us all about it in the car and then last night he told me he ate snack with all his new friends at the table. :)

I think it will be a little rough when I drop him off tomorrow since he knows I am going to be leaving now, but hopefully he will get into the swing of things in a couple of weeks.

This morning Aedan and I went over to a friends house for a little play date and other than that, I have just been getting things done around the house. My plan for tomorrow is to get some projects started for Adelaide’s nursery so hopefully I can post some pictures soon. I feel like I am a little more behind on getting things ready for her than I was with Aedan, but I am hoping I can use the time he is at school to get those things done soon.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

-Lauren-

30 Weeks!

30 weeks down, about 9/10 weeks to go! :) I took this picture at the end of the day, so my clothes are all wrinkled, but you get the idea.

How Far Along: 30 weeks
Size of Baby: Pineapple
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I’m up 20 lbs., which I think is right where I was with Aedan at this point.
Gender: Hopefully still a girl. :) Adelaide Caroline
Movement: Lots of movement. Sometimes I feel like she moves more than Aedan did, but its probably about the same.
Sleep: Sleeping okay. I have a hard time falling back asleep when I wake up in the middle of the night, but its not horrible.
Maternity Clothes: Same as before, maternity tanks, a few pair of shorts and mostly workout clothes at home. I did find some William Rast maternity jeans on eBay for $30. I love them. Now I just need fall to arrive so I can wear them!
Symptoms: I’ve been getting heartburn in the evenings, but as long as I am careful about what I eat, it is not too bad. Mostly I just feel worn out by the end of the day. Being pregnant with a toddler is no joke! :)
Aversions: Still some foods that I just can’t think about. Also some weird things like Dawn and the shampoo/body wash I was using when I was really sick.
Cravings: Fruit and ice water and sweet things (not great for the weight gain).
What I miss: Not being so tired at the end of the day. When Jon was gone for 2 weeks, I really noticed how worn out I felt at the end of the day. I would put Aedan to bed and then just want to get in bed myself.
Worst Moment of the week: This is more last week, but both Jon and Aedan were not feeling great all week so it wasn’t too fun for anyone.
Best Moment this week: Everyone is feeling better, Jon finally got a couple of days off work (the project he is on right now has him working both Friday and Saturday nights and while he is supposed to get his weekend on Monday & Tuesday, he usually still has to take a call or two those days). This week, he was able to fully take off both days which was great.

-Lauren-

Last Week of Summer

This is our last week of summer. Aedan starts preschool/mother’s day out, twice a week, next Tuesday and our schedule starts to get pretty busy.

I’m looking forward to getting back into more of a routine. Although our schedule hasn’t been too different this summer, since I still see my clients around the same times and such, but we have been more lazy about getting up and going in the morning. Aedan will be going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-1 and then on Wednesdays he and I are going to start going to a Mom to Moms group. I will probably see clients on Mondays so really our only full day at home will be Fridays. I think it is going to work out well once we get into the swing of the routine.

Since summer is winding down I have been trying to fit in some more fun things. It has been getting a little cooler in the evenings so after dinner we have been walking to one of our neighborhood parks for some playtime.

We have been playing outside more in the afternoons as well…

Aedan and I have been meeting up with a few other moms and kids for some play dates this summer and last week we all took a trip to a fire station. Aedan loved it all except when the firefighter put on all his gear, then he was not so excited.

Jon has also been busy, he spent one morning cleaning out the garage and now we are able to fit both cars and his motorcycle, along with all our other garage stuff in the garage. Not too bad.

We have meet the teacher later this week so other than that and work, we are just taking it easy and enjoying our last week of summer.

-Lauren-

Show Us Your Life–Laundry Rooms

Time for more of our house tour! This week Kelly is featuring laundry rooms so I thought I would link up. In our last house, and in most houses in this area the laundry rooms are usually more like a wide hallway that leads from the garage to the house. I hated it! I could never leave laundry baskets by the washer/dryer because then they were in the way of getting out the door. Then it was always such a pain to bring stuff in through the laundry room, especially after having Aedan. It was just so crowded.

In our new house we have an actual laundry room. Love it!

Eventually I’d like to cover the shelves above the washer and dryer and make some built ins to fill up the space next to the washer/dryer, but for now I am just loving having a spot I can close off for our laundry area.

We have talked about putting a doggie door under the window since it would lead out to our side yard. We will probably do that one day since we will probably always have at least one dog. But it would involve cutting through the brick outside which is a big project and pretty permanent.

And here is our washer and dryer. We bought these when we bought our first house just before we got married. I’ve been really happy with them, except the front loading washer is hard to keep clean. The drawers underneath them hold so much stuff which is so nice.

I always keep a container of cleaning wipes on the washer to clean up any laundry soup drips and then a small trashcan on top of the dryer to empty the lint screen into. I am horrible at remember to do that so having somewhere to put the lint helps motivate me a little more. :) Then I throw dirty rags or hand towel from the kitchen into the little bin behind the trashcan so I can just wash them once a week.

Is your laundry room a separate room or a walk through? If you have a front loading washer, how do you keep it clean?

-Lauren-

Rooms coming up that I still need to show…Jon’s office, Adelaide’s nursery, and our bonus room. Pictures coming soon!

Dresser Redo

Last summer I posted about how I was given my grandparent’s old dresser. It needed some TLC so I sanded it down, painted it black and spray painted the hardware silver.

Basically it started off like this…

Then when I got done, it looked like this…

It was perfect for Aedan’s room and I loved it. But since Aedan got passed down a matching set of furniture for his big boy room, the dresser is going into the new nursery with the crib. Since we are having a little girl, I decided a black dresser wouldn’t really go with her nursery.

Once I decided on fabrics for her room, I knew what color/look I wanted for the dresser and my sister and I finished it up a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love it!

We primed and then painted the whole thing blue. I honestly don’t even know what the name of the color is. I had this color in mind and went to Home Depot and just found it. It was a Martha Stuart color, I had matched in Behr. Since we primed, it only took two coats of paint to cover the black.

Then we sanded the edges and a few spots on the drawers and tops.

Then we went over the whole thing with a dark stain, wiping it off just after we applied it. It really brought out the wood and black colors from underneath the blue.

Then I spray painted the hardware oil rubbed bronze this time.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and I can really see this lasting in Adelaide’s room long after it is a nursery. My mom saw a smaller dresser with the same type of finish selling for $250 so I was pretty excited with my $25 project. :)

Oh and here is a little sneak peak at the fabrics that are going in her room…

Now I just need to get started on the curtains and crib skirt!

-Lauren-

Show & Tell Monday

1. If you were searching for a home now, tell me what would be on your "MUST" list

Since we just bought our house 8 months ago, I thought I would just share a few things that were on our “must” list….an open floor plan, we love the kitchen and family room to be one big room (check), a separate study since Jon works from home (check), a good size master bath, we didn’t have that before and we needed it! (check), at least 3 bedrooms (check, we got 4), a good size backyard with shade (check). I could go on and on, but those things were all pretty high on our list and we got them all, plus a lot more!

2. Show me your favorite room in a home {either your home, or any home, i.e. kitchen}.

My favorite room in a home would probably have to be the family room. I love the causal feel of the room where people relax and spend time together. I love our living room, but I don’t love our furniture. If I had an unlimited budget our living room would have this look…

 

(source)

3. If you could have any room redone, tell me which one would it be and what would you like done?

I don’t think I’d like to redo any of our room since our house was brand new when we bought it, but I would love to buy some new furniture for our living room and dining area. Both are much larger spaces than we had in our last home, and could use some bigger pieces. Some day…

4. Tell me where your favorite stores are to shop for home decor.

I am usually at Target at least once a week and I usually end up picking up something for our home there but if I am going shopping specifically for our house, I usually end up at Home Goods.

5. Show me your dream home {it can be your home, if you already have your dream home}

I love love love our new house and we plan to be here for a very long time, but there is a house I drive by on my way to Aedan’s sitter each week that is just perfect. It is in a really nice neighborhood on a large lot and there is no way we will ever be living in this part of town. But the house; it just looks perfect and it’s been for sale for the past 6 months…it can be yours if you have a few million sitting around. :)

-Lauren-