My Dress: Lilly Pulitzer [c/o] | Maxi’s Dress: Lilly Pulitzer [c/o] | My Shoes: Loeffler Randall {old}, Similar | Sequined Tablecloth: Etsy | Unicorn: Similar | Bow: Gift

Photography by: Madison Katlin

Woof! February was rough. I don’t like to be negative online, but boy am I glad this month is over. Most of the things were minor pesky issues {like leaks in the home and the flu} but those things can add up when it seems like something is going wrong daily. If anything, I love to do monthly favorites because while a favorite find may be frivolous, it does allow me to stop and think of those joyous moments in between the daily grind. Because at the end of the day, although this month was challenging, we had a little girl that turned 1. It was the most beautiful gift in the world to watch her be a newborn and turn into a tiny little toddler. I mean what a huge blessing- and to experience that I’ll go through however many “hard” months there are! I hope you’ll join me in taking time to reflect on your month as well!

My Favorites

• Favorite Skincare Addition: I tried a new mask {on insta stories, yikes!} that launched this month. I’m a loyal customer to the TULA Kefir Serum +Moisturizer, so when I saw they launched a Kefir Mask I was intrigued. If you missed my embarrassing insta story, here are the take aways. First things first, it is a mask that you can pump out. Most of my favorite masks come in a jar and sometimes I feel a little “eh…is this wrong?!” that I’m dipping my brush in the jar and on my face and back and forth it goes. Same feeling I get when someone double dips a chip in salsa. Like should I be worried about this? Should I relax? You know the thoughts. So I liked the fact this pumps out…moving on. This mask looks like a unicorn. It has an opal effect and smells like vanilla ice cream {to me}, so that’s a nice touch. And now you’re thinking, “Okay, Katey. You don’t buy a mask because of that.” Agreed. Here is why I love it, it gives you a phenomenal “well-rested” glow. If you watched on insta stories, you saw how it really brightened my under eye area which is much needed. I’m always tired, so I always look tired under my eyes. My mom is always like, “You’re not sleeping! I can tell! Your eyes!” Now if you’re oily, I’d skip this mask for you as it’s really moisturizing. I do have a discount code which is “Katey” at checkout.
• Granola: I harped in this post, but I’ll get on my soapbox again. I could very much so live without granola. Yogurt parfait? Yeah, doesn’t do it for me. So why did I buy this granola at Central Market? Couldn’t tell ya. But it was an evening, Maxi was in bed, Paul was home and this mama got to browse the grocery store for 45 minutes. It was glorious and in the blissful moment I threw some things into my cart that I have no justification for. Purely Elizabeth’s Chocolate Sea Salt Granola is one of those items. It’s made with coconut oil and coconut sugar and only has 6 grams of sugar in one serving. I shared in the post that I really only need half a serving {it is very filling}, so it was a step in the right direction to less sugar! It has probiotics in it and tastes like the edges of chocolate chip cookies. I’m literally getting up to grab some as I type this.
• Mommy Products: I have two new mommy products I’m loving this month. We got a new changing pad. Glamorous, I know. If you aren’t a mom, feel free to skim over. If you are a mom, you know just how often you’re washing your changing pad cover. It started to get annoying and gross to think about. My friend, Diana, has this Peanut Changer. I asked her about it maybe 3 months ago and she sent me the link online. I saw the price and thought, “LOL! No.” It stayed in the back of my mind each time I washed or bleached the changing pad cover. What drew me to the changer was the fact it’s made of dura-Soft material. It is impermeable to any liquid which stops bacteria growth. Luckily for Maxi, someone in our family sent her a Nordstrom gift card for her birthday. I used it to purchase an outfit and this changer. I’m obsessed. Life is changed. Forever. No, seriously, if you’re registering I highly recommend looking at this. Secondly, Paul needed a carseat. We purchased the Pria 85 for my car when she converted, so we knew we’d go with that for his. Rachel Zoe designed a new line for Maxi Cosi and Quinny. Maxi and I got to check it out this month {and we are doing an exciting giveaway soon for a mom!} so I love this. I’ll do a blog post on the giveaway, but the Pria 85 in this collection has a really cool magnetic-clip feature that allows you to get your baby in the car QUICKLY and safely, which is very important to moms. We all hate turning our back in a parking lot. If you’re browsing for carseats, definitely check this out before the post!
• Urban Decay Lipstick: You know how you can eat the same thing for breakfast months in a row without deterring? I do the same, but with lipstick. I recently got the Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in the shade “Backtalk” in a press kit. One wonderful aspect of my job is I do get to test a lot of products, but because I’m always testing I find myself to be really unimpressed by things. It’s one of those, “Oh, this is a copy of this brand.” thought process. {I know it’s a major myth in blogging where it is only natural to think, “Oh you like that because you got to test it in a press kit.” I completely see how people think that, but I promise it is totally false. Journalists and bloggers are sent product to test and I find it makes us pickier with products. I don’t share 99.9% of what I test because it doesn’t excite me. Think of eating every single peanut butter brand on the market if you were a professional taste tester. It would all taste the same at the end. It makes it harder for products to stick out to journalists and bloggers, but that is exactly why it is important we test so much. If I only tested a few products a year, I wouldn’t trust my own reviews.} But this lipstick? I’m impressed with the pigmentation for my skin tone. I wore it in this post and it makes your lips look so much bigger! I told Paul it reminded me of pregnancy lips {#swollen}. So I’ll probably wear this lipstick every single day until my friends tell me to mix it up a bit.
• Jewelry Display: One of my “projects” this month {and I use that term loosely because we had 3 weeks of the flu in this house, let’s be real we accomplished nothing in February} was to finish organizing my closet. I had a ton of delicate necklaces in my closet just tangled on the shelf. I couldn’t find anything so I spent a bit scouring Amazon. I ordered one of these and then ordered one more! Be careful when you put them together as the back can tear a bit, but you don’t see it and it still works. I have these displayed in my closet and I now can actually see all my necklaces to find what I want! I’m really pleased with the result for the price and I’d recommend these to anyone. It’s not $100 quality by any means, but it works and it works well!
• Ulta Brightening Scrub: I’m going to do a post on a few new Ulta products I’m liking but I had to share in case you had that $3 coupon burning a hole in your pocket. 😉 This is a whipped brightening scrub that smells like citrus. It has Alpha Hydroxy Acid to smooth your skin and instead of using it all over, I’ve used it on my hands. Daily. This may sound odd, but I’ve seen a huge difference in the health of my cuticles. I started to use the scrub on my hands after I finish my skincare routine. I feel like my hands are a lot smoother and my cuticles are a whole lot less embarrassing. I like that this is a brightening product because our hands are very susceptible to age spots with driving and our hands constantly getting hit by the sun.
• Favorite lunch: I’ve got a new lunch routine and it takes 5 minutes to make. I’ve been making some hard boiled eggs at the beginning of the week and then it takes no time to grab lunch. First, I’ll sauté a handful of spinach with a bit of olive oil, himalayan pink sea salt and walnuts. Then I make a little egg salad. I honestly eyeball this step, but here’s how I make mine. I chop up 2 hard boiled eggs, toss in 3 chopped cornichons, a teaspoon of Duke’s Mayo {or greek yogurt if I’m feeling crazy} and a teaspoon of whole grain mustard. Then I take my plate, and place the spinach with the egg salad and grab a few Mary’s Crackers. Delish! I could eat this daily. It looks horrendous but tastes amazing {to me}.

Favorite Posts

• Try On Session
• Happy Birthday, Maxi
• Living Room Tour
• Best Gifts For a 1-Year-Old Girl

Your Favorites

• Pearl Jacket: Styled Here
• Skinny Jeans: Styled Here
• Bow Pumps: Styled Here
• Cotton Dress: Styled Here
• Sigma Palette: Reviewed Here

Projects

• Diaper Bag: This sounds silly, but in March I want to figure out a diaper bag situation and stick to it. I’m always switching out diaper bags. I love my backpack, I love my regular diaper bag and I always find a day or two a week I can use a regular tote. Because our days always vary, I just see the need to vary a bag. But after getting to my hair appointment last week without a wallet and having to drive back home, I realized enough is enough. I was like, “Stop being a diva, Katey. Stick to one!” I asked y’all for your advice and got a ton of good tips to think over! I do think I’m going to go with a tote {watch me change my mind} and I’m thinking of another Barrington tote? I feel like I’ve recently had to switch all the stuff we take for the day as she is older, so hopefully this works!
• Before & After: My life-long best friend, Austin, gets married in April. Our parents have been best friends for 30 years and our moms got pregnant together with us. He’s Maxi’s Godfather and truly, my family. He’s marrying the most wonderful girl in April and Maxi is the flower girl and Paul is a groomsman. It’s a Black Tie Wedding so I definitely want to go all out for it! Because I do get to test a lot of products for my job, I was wondering if y’all would want to follow along a before/after skincare challenge or something as I prep for the wedding?! I thought it would be fun to pick a brand or product that I’ve been wanting to try through. I’ve got some pigmentation issues I showed on Insta Stories yesterday. A sweet reader had me send her pics of my skin and she said we first need to work on pore size and tone, then we can address what is left of pigmentation, so I found a product I’m going to partner on and try and I’m excited to start!

 Monthly Read

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I did read my one book this month. I chose to read Divine Time Management. I shared January’s book here and this was a complete 180 of a read! This book is a faith-based time management book, but what I really enjoyed was that it wasn’t necessarily geared towards those that struggle with time management. If you are Type B and don’t time-block your day, you’d still adore this book! If you are Type A and struggle with micromanaging your day [ME!] you still get a lot of “meat” out of this. I’m #TypeA #FirstBornSyndrome #ControlFreak with 14 to-do lists at once and can tell you with 100% certainty what I am doing next Thursday at 2:30. I really gravitate towards books like this, but so many times I end the book and think, “Eh, nice sentiments. Learned nothing.” I’ll be honest, this book took me a long time to get through. It’s not a page turner. It’s convicting and you’ll want to whip out a highlighter. Here’s a one section I loved:

“God doesn’t ask you to be there for everyone. God asks you to be obedient and to do what He says to do, when He says to do it. Even Jesus couldn’t always be there for people- even people He dearly loved- when they wanted Himt o be there, such as in the story of Lazarus dying before Jesus’ arrival to work an even greater miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead for God’s glory.

If Jesus had tried to be a “superfriend” and rushed to Lazarus’ home as soon as Mary and Martha asked Him to come, He would not have been in alignment with the Father and would not have fulfilled the full glory of God in the situation.” 

This hits home for me in every single way possible! I think that I have to do every single thing a person asks me to do and in turn I really think I interfere with God’s plan for me. I could go on and on about this book, but I’m still really dissecting it [still have a FEW more days of February! 😉 ]. You could definitely read this book as you read another book because I found I wanted to space it out so I could absorb every single bit.

The greatest takeaway was that I learned that {for my faith} if I believe that God is the author of my life, why do I think I need to be the master of my schedule? I spent a lot of the weekend praying to God and asking what he’d like me to cut out vs. dive deeper in. Paul and I went to dinner last night and I shared with him what I am wanting to change in our schedule and we are really excited to see how we feel in a few weeks!

Truthfully, I’ve probably talked your ear off enough for a Monday morning. Let me know what you enjoyed most this month and what you are reading!