Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2013 If you are new to The Mom Creative, welcome. I hope you will stay awhile. I’m Jessica – wife to Matthew, mom to Elias, a silly and spirited four-year-old, and Adeline, a spunky almost two-year-old. I’m also a marketing professional, savvy deal finder, photo lover and memory keeper trying to juggle it all.

Each Tuesday, I share my most recent spread as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts. Some links are affiliate links.

Week 20: May 12-18
Pages used: Design A, 8.5 x 11, Design I and 6 x 12 for 4×6 Photos

I am still running a month behind, but was glad to complete one week’s spread this week. I used a lot of inserts (three!), and love everything I included.

On the first spread, you can see the adorable picture Elias made me for Mother’s Day.

For the first page, I used two instagrams on the date card and then journaled about them. I edited the photos to 2×2 and then printed them on one 6×4 picture and trimmed them together. I also added journaling directly on the Mother’s Day picture.

On the other side of the page, I inserted art that Adeline made me for Mother’s Day. For the Design I page, I inserted Instagrams from my week, along with a few journaling bits.

On the back of the I insert, I used all photos from our rummage sale.

Then I used a 6×12 insert with 6×4 slots. All the photos are pictures we took on the deck one night.

For the last page, I divided it in half. The left side is all soccer photos of Elias and the right side is photos of the kids napping.

Project Life posts and links worth checking out
Just in case you missed it last week, you can get lots of new Project Life products now on Amazon. Check out the list here.

It’s not too late to sign up for the phone photography class from Big Picture Classes, which kicks off July 1. I’m so honored to be one of the instructors for the class. Yesterday I received the list of challenges that are going to be included and man, it’s going to be a fun class.

I love the calendar Rechelle included in her spread last week.

I love how simple Heather kept her pages. You don’t have to get complicated to document your story!

As always, Ali’s pages never disappoint!

These digital Honey pages from Life with the Sutterfields are so cute.

Have you seen the video 99 Balloons about the brief and beautiful life of Eliot Mooney? It’s one of those YouTube viral hits that leaves me a puddle of tears every time I watch it.

Today I’m blogging over on Eliot’s dad’s blog The Atypical Life about a story in my life that is unfinished, in honor of his forthcoming book A Story Unfinished: 99 Days with Eliot. I hope you will join me there.

This is a review six months in the making. It’s not sponsored (though I do use a referral link). I believe in the products and am excited to give you my most “honest” thoughts (pun intended).

Let me start at the beginning…

In January you might remember that I met Jessica Alba at the Alt Conference. She was there promoting The Honest Co., which she co-founded after finding it difficult to find healthy, non-toxic, affordable products for her family. (Her kids are the same ages as Elias and Adeline).

To me, words like “organic” and “natural” always seem like they will not work as well and be more expensive, so I couldn’t wait to try out The Honest. Co., which prides itself on offering, quality, affordable products. I also loved how much I connected with Jessica – a working mom like me, who loves her kids well and struggles to find time to do all that she is passionate about.

Can anyone else relate?

When I returned from the conference, I ordered a free trial of both the diapers and essentials pack. (They now have a vitamins essentials trial too, but that wasn’t available in January).

When I ordered the trials, it was $5.95 to ship both, making it an awesome deal. I love having small sizes of good products for traveling, so I figured even if I didn’t love the items, it was worth the shipping expense. You would pay more for small travel items at Bath & Body Works – and they don’t have diapers, ha!

It’s important to note that when you order the free trial, you are automatically entered in their monthly shipment program (more on that in a minute), but you can totally just cancel it if you don’t want it.

After receiving the trial, I decided to continue with the monthly bundle subscription, but not the diapers. They are by far the most adorable diapers I have ever used, but frankly, they are too pricey for my budget and they run a little small. I’ll stick with my Target diapers, thank you very much.

Speaking of Target, I know that some of these products are more expensive than if you would buy similar items there, but here’s why I think Honest Co. products are worth it.

• Honest products are non-toxic and healthy for your family: With all the chemicals in so many products today, I think it is great to avoid as many as possible.
• Convenience: I love that the products come to my door every month and that I don’t have to ever worry about running low on something.
• Customized: I pick what comes in my bundle each month. You can also pick the date, so if you need them to come less often (like every 6 weeks instead of 4) you can totally do that.
• It saves money, part 1: Yes, some of these products are more expensive, but in the long-run, it saves me money because it ensures that I don’t have to go to Target as often. Every time I go to Target I end up buying way more than what was on my list, so by having essentials shipped to me, I don’t need to go to the store to buy them and be tempted by those clearance racks and pretty displays.
• It saves money, part 2: Bundle packs save you up to 35% off the retail prices of the items. For example, here is what my next order looks like.
  
  Retail cost would be nearly $52, but I will pay just $39.95, plus not have to spend time to buy the items or the gas to go to the store.
• It’s charitable: I love that with every product you purchase, Honest Co. donates product, money, time, and effort to addressing critical health & social issues affecting children and families. I love that.

Since my January sample shipment, I have continued to receive monthly shipments from The Honest Co. and have tried just about everything offered in the essentials bundle packs. Here are my favorite products and those to avoid.

Favorites

• Healing balm: LOVE this stuff. If you or someone in your family has dry skin, this stuff is miraculous.
• Laundry detergent: Both the detergent and the laundry pods work awesome.
• Conditioning mist: Adeline’s hair is getting to be that snarly, hard to comb length and this stuff makes the comb go through her hair like butter. I am a bit obsessed with it.
• Dishwasher pods: I order these pretty much every month. They clean our dishes great.
• Face and body lotion: This is a very light lotion. I really like it.
• Cleaners: I have bought the surface, floor, bathroom and toilet cleaners and have been happy with all of them. I love that they are all non-toxic.

Avoid

• Bubble bath: It does make great bubbles, but it is very watery and I just don’t think you get enough for your money.
• Sunscreen: It’s awful. Thick. Sticky. Doesn’t rub in well. They reformulated it, but I still think its terrible.
• Hand sanitizer: It smells nice, but has a weird, lubricant consistency that leave a bit of a sticky residue. I don’t really like it.
• Bug spray: It smells really awful. Don’t make the mistake of spraying it in your house… the smell lingers for hours. It does prevent bug bites though!

Of course, this is all just my personal opinion. Each month I am incredibly happy to receive my box of Honest products. There’s so much to love – even the packaging.

If you are a busy mom, I definitely encourage you to try The Honest Co. They just might be what you have been looking for!

Zulily has a TON of crocs 60% off today!

We LOVE crocs in the summer time. They are so comfy and easy to slip on. Elias and Adeline can easily put them on themselves and they are great for water days at school, going to the pool, etc.

I have a pair of ballet flat crocs and they are some of my favorite shoes. (is that embarrassing? Maybe. But trust me. They are sooooooooooo comfortable and cute. I often wear them to work or when I have to run a bunch of errands).

They have crocs for everyone in the family, so go check out the sale before they sell out.

While you are on Zulily, be sure to check out the other sales. They have tons of cute clothes for kids and moms (I buy more for me on Zulily than anyone else in our house), as well as Jelly the Pug (my favorite girls dress line for Adeline), Jake and the Neverland Pirates toys and gear, and other fun stuff.

Happy shopping!

Disclosure: compensated referral link used

As many of you know, I work full-time outside the home. Will you join me on (in)courage today as I share 12 Ways to Love & Serve in the Workplace?

xo

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2013 If you are new to The Mom Creative, welcome. I hope you will stay awhile. I’m Jessica – wife to Matthew, mom to Elias, a silly and spirited four-year-old, and Adeline, a spunky one-year-old. I’m also a marketing professional, savvy deal finder, photo lover and memory keeper trying to juggle it all.

Each Tuesday, I share my most recent spread as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts. Some links are affiliate links.

This weekend we were so busy that I didn’t even get started on Project Life until Sunday night. And being that I was five weeks behind, I was a little overwhelmed with the volume of photos to go through. But I took it a week at a time and got through three weeks of photos (selecting, editing and planning my pages). I’m hoping with a little diligence, I might get close to caught up by the end of the week. I’m keeping things as they were intended with Project Life and not using a bunch of embellishments, etc. to try to streamline the process.

Today I am going to share week 19, which was the first week in my second album. Since we just had family photos done on Saturday (did you see the sneak peak on Instagram?), I will likely use those for the first page of album two.

Pages used: Design A, Design B (trimmed) and Design I.

I really mixed cards from a lot of kits this week – my date card is from Seafoam and my journaling cards are from Jade, Honey and the Bridgeport childhood kit.

My Design A protector is super simple – just photos + one journaling card + one text card from Bridgeport.

For my Design I insert,  I used all phone photos and a grid card with stickers on it to journal about the photos.

I had one extra photo, so I trimmed it and added it to the grid card on the back. Perfect.

For the Design B insert, I trimmed one row off the bottom and one off the side to make it smaller to meet my needs. I really love having full size 4×6 vertical photos in the spread.

All the photos on the front side are phone photos. The back is all photos taken before and during a baby shower Adeline and I went to.

The week of May 5 had some really high and some really low moments. To keep them private, but still include them in my album, I used two folded journaling cards. I labeled them “the best day” and “the worst day” and wrote on the inside of the cards.

I also used a sports journaling card from Bridgeport to write about Elias’s soccer game/season. It fit perfectly!

Links worth checking out

Every week my Project Life pages include phone photos. I am always looking for ways to improve my phone photography, which is why I am so excited for the Phone Photography Project class. Today is the LAST day to sign up for the reduced rate of $39. Tomorrow it jumps up to $49. It is going to be incredible + have tons of tips and inspiration for you to kick up your phone photos a few notches.

I always like the way Sarah at The Arena Update mixes photos + embellishments in her Project Life album.

Love all the kids art Michelle included in her Week 21 spread. I have a bunch of my kids’ art in my week 20 layout that I will share next week.

Grace and Light’s Project Life art journal is so cool!

New Products

Many new kits and products will be hitting Amazon this week – starting today. I will be updating this post as things become available, so be sure to check back (your clicks help to support this site, so thank you, thank you for them). Also, as a bonus, if you purchase any of the new core kits, you can add an “older” kit to your order and get it for 30% off. Sweet!

New Core Kits
Project Life Core Kit – Jade Edition: This is the kit I am currently using. It is fantastic. I think it might be my favorite Project Life kit to date!
Project Life Core Kit – Honey Edition: This is the next kit I am getting. Love the bright, fun colors. I used several honey cards in my layout this week.
Project Life Core Kit – Midnight Edition
Project Life Core Kit – Cinnamon Edition
Project Life Core Kit – Kraft Edition: Important to note, this kit has a cream base (many other kits have a white base, so if you like to mix and match, this is something to consider)
Project Life Core Kit – Rain Edition

Mini Kits
Project Life Mini Kit – Seasons
Project Life Mini Kit – Holiday
Project Life Mini Kit – Wedding

Dividers
Project Life Designer Dividers + Label Stickers – Jade Edition
Project Life Designer Dividers + Label Stickers – Honey Edition
Project Life Designer Dividers + Label Stickers – Midnight Edition

12×12 Patterned Paper
Project Life 12×12 Designer Paper Collection Pack – Kraft Edition – 24 sheets
12×12 Project Life Designer Paper – Jade Edition
12×12 Project Life Designer Paper – Midnight Edition

3×4 and 4×6 cardstock
Project Life 3 x 4 Textured Cardstock – Rain Edition
Project Life 4 X 6 Textured Cardstock – Kraft Edition
Project Life 3 X 4 Textured Cardstock – Kraft Edition
Project Life 4 X 6 Textured Cardstock – Honey Edition
Project Life 3 x 4 Textured Cardstock – Honey Edition
Project Life 4 X 6 Textured Cardstock – Midnight Edition

Your turn to link up! Also, just a friendly reminder to please remember to link back to The Mom Creative in your posts. Thank you!

Earlier this year I shared about the book Beyond Ordinary: When a Good Marriage Just Isn’t Good Enough written by my friends Justin and Trish Davis.

This week only Amazon is offering the Kindle version of Beyond Ordinary FOR FREE. Go download yours right away so you don’t forget. It takes 2 seconds and you will be so blessed by this book.

Check out the trailer:

And while you’re on Amazon, don’t forget that Father’s Day is this coming Sunday. Be sure to get your gifts ordered.

Disclosure: Compensated affiliate link used

I’m excited to share more about my sister’s amazing circus baby shower! Yesterday, I shared about the theme and decor, and today I am sharing details about the food and games. Shower games often stink, but everyone seemed to enjoy these.

The menu

First, the important topic of food. Our circus baby shower was a luncheon and about 50 people were coming. Since it was a June shower, we wanted to the keep the menu light and fresh.

We set everything up buffet style. I loved that behind the food tables we had a display of frames from my sister’s maternity session + the Landon banner made by Lisa Leonard. We also had the circus cookie jars with balloons on the table to give it height and a pop of color.

We served:

• Small ham and turkey sandwiches: I bought two large bags of small buns at Sams (32 per bag). We made equal amounts of turkey and ham sandwiches and only had 2 sandwiches left over. PERFECT!
• Potato salad: Several different styles
• Pasta salad: My aunt made two kinds of pasta salad. I have never been a pasta salad person, but her BLT pasta salad was out of this world.
• Italian green salad with homemade dressing
• Freshly cut fruit salad
• Two types of potato chips
• Taco dip
• Homemade breaded parmesan cheese balls.

For drinks we had water, a few 2 ltr. bottles of soda and this adorable ducky punch, which has been pinned about 300K on Pinterest. So yeah. It’s popular. And delicious.

A few tips about the punch:

• Be prepared that it might not turn blue. I used the right Kool-Aid and generic grape juice and generic ginger ale and it was totally green. Luckily my mom had some blue food coloring.
• Not all rubber duckies float. This was news to me, but seriously, why would they make rubber duckies that don’t float?! I bought two kinds of ducks- circus ones from Amazon which did NOT float and large yellow ones from the $1 section at Target, which only sort of floated. I attached them to the floating sherbert, which seemed to help. It was irritating. Lesson learned – be sure your ducks float!

We also set up a yummy dessert table with brightly colored candy, cookies, cupcakes, cream puffs and cake balls, to fit with our circus theme. The candy in the jars, wrapped with tickets was the perfect centerpiece for the sweets table.

The games
Because it was a large shower and we knew gifts would take a lot of time, we wanted games that would be simple and enjoyable for people as they were sitting watching my sister. So we had two simple table games, both of which I found on Pinterest.

Playdough babies: Everyone had a small playdough container that they had to use to make a baby. Many people shared their containers and/or worked together, so we got some really intricate, fun babies. It was impressive. Melissa then judged what one was her favorite.

Homemade ABC books: Everyone at the shower was assigned a letter of the alphabet. They were asked to make a page for an alphabet book for Landon. I left town right after the shower and didn’t get to see the finished books, but I know my sister loved putting them together.

I hope these posts help you the next time you have a baby shower to plan!

Read Part One: Circus Baby Shower Invitations and Decor

This past weekend, I co-hosted a circus baby shower for my sister, Melissa, who is pregnant with her first child, a boy named Landon! (I love the bunting with his name made by Lisa Leonard. SO perfect for decorations and photo shoots.)

We hosted the shower in Wisconsin and had such a wonderful time. I am so excited to share all the details with you. Today I am going to share about the theme, invitations and decor, and tomorrow I will share about the food and games. Some links in this post are referral and affiliate links.

The circus baby shower theme
The idea for the circus baby shower theme was sparked when I found Valentine’s circus cookie jars and small treat containers at Target on clearance 90% off. Apparently, they were not a hit for Valentine’s, but I thought they were PERFECT for a baby shower. I bought everything I could find in Nashville, plus had some friends buy some in other cities and we were set. (This goes back to my tips and tricks for party planning in advance.)

The invitation
I was shocked how difficult it was to find a cute circus baby shower invitation. I found this one on Etsy that I loved, but the shop was closed during the period I needed to order. It all worked out though because I found a circus birthday invitation that stole my heart and the designer modified it with text I provided to make it baby shower specific.

Everyone absolutely loved it!

Once I received the design, I uploaded and ordered the cards from Minted. What was great about using Minted, in addition to the phenomenal printing and cardstock quality, was that I was able to upload all the addresses and have them printed on the envelopes for FREE! Such a huge time-saver!

I also ordered return address labels from VistaPrint that had elephants on them to keep with the circus theme.

Photo booth

I made a primary colored bunting to hang up with some colored fabric to make a sweet photo booth at the shower. (To make, get 1/3 yards of five colors and a pack of bias tape. Cut the fabric into 7″x8″ triangles, sew together the triangles, then sew to bias tape. I like to make my buntings double sided so that they will work anywhere.) The photo spot was centrally located in the room and was a focal point as people walked into the shower.

In it, we had a variety of masks (from Michaels) and clown noses for people to pose in a photo booth.

We also had a clown wig, but the ladies didn’t want to wear it. However, Elias was a huge fan.

Because of the photo booth, we were able to get pictures of Melissa with just about everyone who attended the circus shower, which was so nice.

We also planned to have her open gifts at the front of the room under an Ikea big top canopy that I hung above the fireplace, but people couldn’t see her, so we moved her to the more centrally located photo booth. The backdrop was darling for her gift photos, though I was disappointed to not have the big top in more photos.

Ticket accents

I bought tickets at the Dollar Tree and created a ticket garland on the railing leading up to the clubhouse where we had the shower. We also tied balloons to the end of the railing. It was SO easy and everyone commented on how cute it was.

I also wrapped tickets around jars of candy on the dessert table (more about the food tomorrow) and attached tags sent to me by the sweet Kerri P (be sure to click the link to see her amazing circus shower). The small circus napkins were from Michaels.

In the photo you can also see one of the circus tent cookie jars that I bought at Target after Valentine’s Day. We tied red, yellow and blue balloons to each of these and scattered them throughout the room. Originally we were going to use the Valentine’s cookie jars as centerpieces, but because of me being out of town, things didn’t work out as planned. However, what my aunt came up with was perfect!

The centerpieces

My Aunt Sandy took the lead and designed these beautiful popcorn circus baby shower centerpieces with the prettiest lollipops I have ever seen. They looked so awesome.

We scattered mint filled little circus tents (bought at Target after Valentine’s) on the tables as well.

After the shower, we made a quick video explaining how to put these centerpieces together. These centerpieces could work for a variety of themes. I am going to be creating similar ones for Adeline’s Sesame Street party in a few weeks. The possibilities are endless. Check it out below.

Tomorrow I will share about the menu and the fun games that we played, so be sure to stop back. And, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2013 If you are new to The Mom Creative, welcome. I hope you will stay awhile. I’m Jessica – wife to Matthew, mom to Elias, a silly and spirited four-year-old, and Adeline, a spunky one-year-old. I’m also a marketing professional, savvy deal finder, photo lover and memory keeper trying to juggle it all.

Each Tuesday, I share my most recent spread as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts.

This week I FINALLY got my week 18 layout done. Since I was out of town this weekend throwing my sister a baby shower (big post coming tomorrow!) I planned to do my layout last night. But I had an awful migraine (the weekend catching up with me), so I got up at 4:40 this morning to get it done for y’all. That’s commitment.

Since I had to get to work + the layout has tons of inserts, I made a quick video sharing my spread. I love, love, love how it came together and hope you’ll watch. Please ignore the fact that the video says it is Week 20. I got ahead of myself!

Next week I’ll be back to regular photo posts + will link to some favorite pages. Also, be sure to check out the big Erin Condren giveaway that’s below this post!

Your turn to link up! Also, just a friendly reminder to please remember to link back to The Mom Creative in your posts. Thank you!