Evenflo Sibby Travel System. (review)

This post was sponsored by Evenflo as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received the Evenflo Sibby Travel System to facilitate my review, but photos and opinions are all my own.

(perfect example of those times when Caleb prefers to do his own thing than ride along with use!)

  If you know me, you know I sort of like to keep the amount of baby things we have to a minimum. We never owned one of the infamous rock'n'plays, only lightly used our fancier baby swing, and all the toys we own were gifted or handed down to us from friends and family. So you know it's a big deal for me to admit that we have three strollers now! 

  When our first son was born, we were gifted an amazing travel system that we used the HECK out of. I can't even express how used and beat up and broken in that stroller and car seat are by this point! After we found out we we're expecting #2, we splurged on a sturdy double stroller since Caleb would only be 18 months old when he became a big brother. But lately, we've been finding ourselves somewhere in between those two- Caleb is too antsy and independent to sit in a stroller when we go on our daily walks, but he's not quite ready to be forced to walk the entire way (the 2 year old drama is real!). Add to that our growing frustration with our old, bulky carseat from our last travel system- and we knew we needed a solution!

With the opportunity to try out the new Evenflo Sibby Travel System, I was excited to see if this was the right fit for our family.  As it turns out, it's perfect for the parenting stage we're in right now. The Sibby is unique because fits a carseat for Tyler to ride easily AND has a Ride-Along Board for Caleb to hop on when he's done walking. It's like the Goldilocks of strollers! It's one of those baby items that is worth the price and we'll be holding onto for a long time. 

 First of all, let's chat about the LiteMax Infant Car Seat. YOU GUYS. It is so so so lightweight. I mean, obviously the name indicates that. But it really, truly is. Even Justin was impressed by how light it is and how much easier it is to carry than our older model. We absolutely love this carseat! Bonus? It clicks into the Sibby stroller crazy easily. We're used to having to clip on carseat adapters to all of our strollers and being able to skip that step is awesome- since Tyler is getting older and sturdier at sitting, we can easily chose between clicking his carseat on the stroller or simply sitting him in it. 

  And this stroller! We've never had a umbrella stroller, but I feel like the Sibby has all the benefits of both a lightweight umbrella stroller and a regular, more heavy duty one. It is light and easy to handle/breakdown, but also pretty sturdy and comfy. Tyler is super tiny (I've mentioned that a few times before, right? ;D), so a more cushy and comfy stroller is still a must for him. And this wins! The Ride-Along Board give Caleb a great option to hop on when he's inevitably sick of walking (or, more likely, I want to move a bit faster!). He actually loves it and thinks he's helping me push Tyler while he's riding (he's not, but you know, toddlers). 

  But full disclosure, our Sibby Travel System (available at Target) arrived smack dab in the middle of our move so it took me a week or so to unpack and try it out. We've been using it for rides around the neighborhood in the afternoon, but I've been waiting until a weekend when Justin could help me snap some photos. And then it stormed this entire past weekend! And during the one dry window, Caleb was being an absolute stinker and refused to show of how much he truly does love this ride along board! But trust me when I say he loves it. And I love that it easily clips up for when he doesn't want to hop on- then it's not in my way and the stroller can act as a single. 

  So, moral of the story. This Travel System is just right for the phase of two kids two and under. This car seat is amazing! Both boys can ride along in the stroller, but we're not stuck with a bulky double seat or ride-along board when Caleb wants to be independent- we can quickly clip up the Board and keep going!

  Do you have a favorite stroller or travel system? What baby items are on your must-have's list?

Baby bums.

This post was sponsored by WaterWipes as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review.” #WaterWipes #IC #ad

Someone has been practicing "Cheese!"

  We're having another baby! That's not really news, since I only have 5ish weeks until we meet the newest member of our family. But I have been nesting like crazy lately, which I never did when I was pregnant with Caleb. Having done the newborn thing once, I have a good idea of what we will probably need, things we won't use, and the essentials I need to stock up on. Last time, we kind of just played it by ear and didn't have any expectations, which worked great for us. 

  One thing I discovered with Caleb was that I do care about the products we use. I think you have to pick and choose your battles, since you can't fight them all. Health-ful, less/non toxic products are important to me and we mostly stick to diapers and wipes that are free of harsh chemicals and hidden ingredients. We don't go overboard, but you don't have to be hardcore or rich to stick to good-for-you products!

  One of my new favorites? WaterWipes! Guys. We go through a million wipes a week. That might be an exaggeration, but probably not. Between diaper changes and general messes {why are toddlers SO messy?}, good wipes matter. And all wipes are NOT created equally. They just aren't. 

  What do I love about WaterWipes? Well, first of all I love that you can find them at Meijer. One of my favorite places to shop for baby things! The wipes are made up of TWO ingredients- water and .1% grapefruit seed extract- that's it! AMAZING. Completely chemical free. So they're safer and more natural for my little guys and their bums. Plus, they help keep diaper rash at bay. Since they don't have any preservatives {did you know most wipes have preservatives in them?? Gross}, they will keep for up to 15 months but need to be used within a month of opening {which is easy to do since babies poop a lot!}. 

  Just in general, as a mom, there are million things we can worry about or research the heck out of. I love that WaterWipes takes a bit of that off my plate and just offers a good, safe, healthy option for keeping my babies clean. I'm not a scientist and I don't have time to research harsh chemicals and their side effects. I find my trusted brands, and stick with them! WaterWipes is definitely on my short list that I share with friends with they ask me about my favorite baby goods now and I'm already stocking up for this new little babe!

  If you haven't tried them, find some WaterWipes near you asap:  http://goic.io/fKObNt!

  

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Joyeux Noel. {DIY}

  Who doesn't love a good holiday craft? I'm finding my time is really precious these days and I'm opting to buy lots of things instead of making them lately. But that doesn't mean I'm not crafting at all anymore! I'm simply prioritizing. I've got some baby things in the works, a really big housewarming gift {even though you moved in 6 months ago, Lauren!}, and some baby holiday crafts on my current DIY list. And I really wanted to make one nice Christmas decoration this year. 
  I've been eying all those gorgeous rustic-ish wooden signs for a few years now, but never wanted to pay such a large price tag for one. And then I discovered Royal Design Studio's new Christmas collaboration with Jennifer Rizzo and I had my solution! You know I already love Royal Design Studio's stencils {have you seen Caleb's nursery here and here?}, and I absolutely love Jennifer's style. Have you seen her new book? It's full of ideas for decorating your home for Christmas- with real house tours. I'm swooning over all the gorgeous decor! Her stencil line is also gorgeous, and I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to try out. My favorites were the classic letters, garland border, and Santa reindeer stencils. They're each so versatile and I have at least half a dozen ideas on how to use them still floating in my head. 

  But for this project, I stuck with the classic letters and garland border.  It was SO easy. The stencils are really durable {same great quality as the one we used on the nursery wall} and simple to use. Besides the stencils, the only thing I had to buy for this project was some red chalk paint- I had everything else on hand! I found the board in our garage, already cut to the size I was looking for, and had all the other paint and brushes from past projects. 

  I started by spraying my board white {after cleaning it off a bit}. I fully planned on leaving it white. I started lightly tracing the letters to gauge spacing and to start lining them up to paint. But then I didn't love that spacing I chose, so I just painted over then entire board with some neutral chalk paint leftover from my bathroom makeover {I love chalk paint right now}. After some good sanding, I kind of fell in love with the accidental color- distressed and pretty! Then I simply lined up my garland stencils, taped it into place, and painted away! Chalk paint is perfect for stencil project because it dries so fast- so the wait time between each garland piece and letter wasn't very long. The rest of the project is pretty self explanatory, right? I painted the other side of the garland and then each letter, one by one. While I chose a more subdued red color and purposefully didn't keep my painting too clean, it was still a little too bright and simple for me. So I used more sandpaper to distress the whole sign some more until I had it just right. And then I immediately propped the sign on my mantel because I'm in love with it! So pretty! And cheap! And easy! All the exclamations!

  It looks pretty perfect between some of my collected nutcrackers. Such a simple project, but I know it will be a Christmas staple around my house for lots of year. A little french wording to remind me of my Christmas spent in France during college and a pretty piece I love even more because I made it myself! 

  This is a sponsored post and I was given complimentary stencils from Royal Design Studio to review. All photos, opinions, and project ideas are 100% my own! 

Holiday cards.

  Do you send out Christmas cards? I've been begging Justin to let me send one out for the last four years, and it seems that having a kid makes it finally acceptable. You can see a teeny tiny sneak peek of our cards in that photo up there- but I can't show you the whole thing! I'm mailing them out first thing Friday morning, as soon as I round up the last of our addresses {and finally input those same addresses into my handy book!}. 

  We used photos from our mini session for our Cardstore card this year, but I'm kind of looking forward to using some crazy family photos in the future. My absolute favorite cards to receive are the candid, funny ones. And the geniuses behind Cardstore just launched their Candid Christmas Cards Contest! They know that the “typical” posed Christmas card photos don't capture the chaos that goes on behind the scenes every year, so to enter this contest, they want people to share a photo that tells the real story. Picture kids crying on Santa's lap, dogs knocking down Christmas trees, or your living room post-unwrapping-- basically whatever Christmas really looks like in your family. How fun is that?! And the grand prize winner will receive a $1,500 Visa gift card to put towards a holiday trip, a Nikon CoolPix camera, and free Cardstore Christmas cards to send out to their loved ones this holiday season! They're also giving away fun prizes for second and third place.

So it got me thinking of my craziest Christmas photo or memory- and I kind of came up blank. Well, on the picture front at least. If we could make a home video into a card, I would totally use the throwback family video of my sister exclaiming how cool her new bra is on Christmas morning. But anyways, now I'm sort of going to embrace the Christmas crazies. Perhaps will get a photo gem when we take Caleb to meet Santa?

And, just in case you haven't ordered your Christmas cards yet, let me shamelessly plug Cardstore. You guys. Not only can you include photos on the front and back {I love that!}, they include your return address on your envelopes and will address all your cards and MAIL THEM FOR YOU. I totally would have done that if I had been more organized with my address list. The holiday season is so busy and full, and while I love doing things by hand and putting personal touches on gifts, I also really value time. So any place that gives me more time is a place I love!

This is a sponsored post. I received complimentary holiday cards from Cardstore, but all opinions are 100% my own!

The September Tree. {Holiday Shop Feature}

   Remember how I said that I hand picked each shop included in the Holiday Gift Guide based on shops that I truly love and support myself? Well I meant it! And The September Tree is no exception- I may or may not have already bought one of my favorite Christmas gifts from Katie and have another sitting in my cart to be ordered today! 

   I love, love, love a good wreath. And Katie kind of blows it out of the park with her gorgeous burlap, boxwood {!!!}, cotton, and other creative pieces. SO many gorgeous designs to choose from. She sent me this beautiful cotton branch wreath and I can't stop staring at it. It's so unique and simple and kind of screams winter/fall. It reminds me of the grapevine wreath that I love so much, but in a better more updated way- it has so much character and I just love those little white puffs of cotton. While it's made out of faux cotton branches, they're very life-like and imperfectly perfect all clustered around. To be completely honest, I will probably keep it on my door until springtime rolls around, I love it that much! I'm also an extreme creature of habit and don't love switching out decor a dozen times a year, so having pieces that can easily fit into different seasons are my favorite.

  Here's where I should also mention that while you can find so many gorgeous pieces in Katie's shop {wreaths, bows, garden flags, tree skirts, pillows, etc}, she has also put some of that creative genius on paper and has her first book coming out in December! And you guys, it's legit. Hobby Lobby, Michael's, JoAnn's- they're all going to be carrying it! She's sharing all her best tips and ideas on crafting with burlap. Kind of amazing, right? You can preorder it here or here- just in time for Christmas!

  And if I haven't expressed how wonderful Katie {and her gorgeous decor!} is, she's also giving away a $25 shop credit! That is pretty much a steal- you could snag a wreath or gorgeous Christmas gift!  You can find the giveaway {and lots of other really, really great prizes} here. In the meantime, be sure to use coupon code HOLIDAYGIFT2014 for 20% off any item over $10!

{2014} Holiday Gift Guide GIVEAWAY!

   So, it's November. No more putting off your holiday shopping! If you haven't already, be sure to check out the Holiday Gift Guide and take advantage of all the great coupon codes {I have!}. And now, for the best part- the Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway! 13 of my favorite shops have teamed up to offer you some of their best goodies- and there is something for everyone. Babies. Tea drinkers. Home decor lovers. Holiday gifts. Fashion pieces. Journalers. SO MANY GREAT THINGS! And so many ways to enter! The giveaway is open until November 20th and one lucky reader will win EVERYTHING pictured above! Yay! 

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The perfect rug. {LoLoi}

{before}

{after}

 I knew I had to have a rug for Caleb's room, because the perfect rug makes any space look finished and a bit more put together. It is the best finishing touch you can put on any room. But it took me lots of searching to find one that was just right. I loved the idea of a fun pattern, but didn't want to clash with the stenciled wall. I loved the idea of bright colors, but didn't want it to end up looking like a clown room. I also wanted one that was soft enough for Caleb to play or crawl around on {one day!}. Add those things up, and you have a pretty serious rug challenge. 
  Enter Loloi's Piper collection. Oh. My. Gosh. My first instinct was to order a super cute patterned one or stripes or even a fun herringbone one. But after sending Julie some photos of our little guy's room and getting her professional design opinion {no, seriously. She does this for a living!}, I landed on a really simple green rug. 
  And it's perfect. When it arrived at the house {with the fastest shipping ever!}, Justin and I both kind of flipped out over how soft it is. If you've been over to my house in the last few months, I've probably made you walk on it just to see your reaction. This thing is hands down the softest rug I've ever felt. The size is just right for Caleb's room and I'm so glad I took Julie's advice to go with this simple design. It really grounds the room and adds a little more character without overwhelming the space. We needed something on the floor and this works wonderfully.
  After we read our afternoon book, Caleb and I usually spend some time playing on the floor in his room every day. In pretty much every other room of our house I lay a blanket down for him because of our scratchy carpet. But not in this room- his Loloi rug is perfect for tummy time and practicing his rolls. 
  I love this rug so much, I've started a rather long list of other designs from Loloi that I want to add to our bedroom, entryway, bonus room, and guest room. The Piper Collection is contemporary and perfect for a kid's room- but for any other room in my house, too. They have this navy striped rug that would look so good in either our guest room or master. Think I can convince Justin to let me buy it? 
  If you're on the hunt for a cute new rug, be sure to check out Loloi! Facebook//Instagram

While this is a sponsored blog post and I received a rug from Loloi, the opinions and photos are all mine!