Hi there! I think it's pretty obvious that I love shopping LOL! And one of my favorite places to shop - for most of my life actually - has been Woodfield Mall. So, when Woodfield invited me in to check out some of their back to school sales, I was BEYOND happy to go!!!
It was such a fun day! We started out having a little play/lunch date with friends and after lunch, the shopping commenced! I had $200 to spend and I think I got some super cute items! First I hit up Kids Foot Locker. Does anyone else have an obsession with Adidas??? I used to wear Adidas gear ALLLLLLLLL the time in College and Shell Toes were my go-to shoes! Now I'm into high-tops. But, I wanted my kids to have matching shell toes, so these are the ones we picked out. And for a good price - $55!
We tried out a few more shops, specifically Urban Outfitters and Ivivva, but didn't find anything that was really fitting our needs. Although, Urban Outfitters had some tempting sunglasses! And when my kids get into sports - Ivivva will be on my list of places for athletic gear! So many cute leotards and jackets! We ended our trip at Altar'd State. I honestly never knew this store was there but it had so many cute little nicknacks and pretty jewelry! I saw this glitter water bottle and HAD to have it - because, glitter.
I thought the planner was perfect for me. First off, it's pink. Second, I have SO MANY goals for myself and I absolutely plan on "KILLING IT" in 2018. And also, the school year is starting and this planner is already being filled in with Parent Associate Meetings and birthday party dates. With 3 kids, there are A LOT of events to keep track of and this planner will be getting a LOT of use! Now - how sweet is this gift bag they gave me?! This wine on-the-go glass??? I NEED this!!! LOL!
And Woodfield also hooked my kids up with treats from Starbucks! They, of course, chose cake pops!
I LOVE Woodfield!!! If you've never shopped there, you need to get there. Even though I live in the city, it's still my go-to shopping mall! Hit it up! There are so many stores and so many deals to be found! And, obviously, they treat their customers amazingly :) Until next time, xoxo
I received this item free for review but all opinions are my own.
Hi there!
I've been a parent for nearly 6 years and my kids are ALWAYS throwing me for a loop and I ALWAYS have a billion questions! 6 years later, and I'm STILL asking Google for help! If 6 years later I'm still Googling answers, imagine how many questions a BRAND NEW parent has! In comes Google Home!!! I'll be honest - I never even knew this existed until I received it in the mail! It's SO HELPFUL!!! And it's so easy to use!
1 - Plug it in 2 - Download the Google Home App 3 - Log in with your Google info and set up your Wi-Fi 4 - Say "Hey Google" and ASK AWAAAAAY!!!!!!
Google sent this super helpful book along with the Google Home - 50 of the Top-Searched Baby Questions. Flipping through this book, I couldn't help but giggle. I asked ALL of these questions when I had my first baby. And I still asked many of them when I had the 2nd and 3rd babies - it's hard to remember EVERYTHING! LOL! THANK GOD for Google!!! If you want to check out all the questions in the book, click HERE for the digital copy! Now, the real benefit of Google Home is that every time you have a question about your baby, you don't have to stop what you're doing to grab a device to type in a question. When you're a new parent, your hands are literally full (of baby and baby stuff and sometimes poop or puke) at all times, so if a question comes to mind, you can literally call the question into the air and Google will answer in nanoseconds. It's SO COOL!!!
A sampling from the book. Download your copy HERE!
The day I plugged it in, my son stood in front of it for an HOUR asking it everything that popped into his head - from "How are you doing?" to "How fast do cheetahs run" to "How are bananas made" and he got an answer to almost every single question. I KNOW this device will get a lot of use in my home! I mean, let's be serious - it kept my kid occupied for an HOUR and was teaching him everything he wanted to know - that's a parenting WIN!!! And I'm sure my husband and I will ask Google Home a hundred parenting questions in the near future. Every day there is something new to learn about these little people!
You know Google is listening, because when you call her name, she lights up!
Are you a new parent with a ton of questions??? Check out the Parenting MasterClass live on Tuesday, August 1 at noon EST on the Fatherly Facebook page, in conjunction with Google Home for New Parents. You will learn so much!
Hey! Did you know that with sea horses, it's the DADS that give birth to the babies?!?!? That makes the Fatherly logo PERFECT! Thanks Wild Kratts for teaching me and my kids this. My #1 watched this episode at LEAST 10 times!
This summer has kind of been killing me. My #1 has been home since June 2nd, and we had NO plans for the entire month of June for him - we just kinda winged it and hung out all over the place and made up activities for ourselves. That's tough. Entertaining a 5 year old all day, every day for a month is HARD!!! One of his favorite actives we've done so far was creating clay animals. Together we created this cat and it was so fun for him and super easy.
We picked up this polymer clay, which is easy to mold and can be baked to keep it's shape. We rolled out the parts on these Hefty foam plates and then carefully attached everything piece by piece. Then we placed the finished cat on some Reynolds Kitchen parchment paper and baked it for 30 minutes. VOILA! We made out own sculpture! And he was so proud! Another thing I've been tackling is cleaning up all the MESSES!!! My house has been a disaster for a long time. I have the hardest time keeping up with the mess! More stuff has been coming in and not enough stuff has been leaving!!!
So, the last few weeks I've been putting effort in to cleaning out the excess junk and getting the kids involved. Toys, furniture, clothes - I've been getting rid of it ALL!!!
Getting rid of toys has been the hardest. I hold on to things because #1, they were expensive and #2, "what if they MIGHT want to play with this someday???" But, I just need to get out of that mindset and part ways with all this junk.
I do sell items on Facebook, so this is what I've done with the toys:
I went through each bin and pulled out items that were just kind of junky - happy meal toys, toys that were missing pieces, toys the were slightly damaged - and I put those in a Hefty bag to be given away.
Then I pulled toys that were still in good shape, but not being used (or just plain got on my nerves) and asked the kids if they were ok with me getting rid of them. I was SHOCKED that they didn't fight me on ANY of the items I'd pulled to sell! SHOCKED I tell you!!! So, I photographed them each and listed them for sale on my neighborhood auction.
I went through my daughter's closet and pulled out 3 Hefty trash bags of clothes to give away, as well over 60 items to SELL. Then I went through my #3's closet and packed up his size 2T clothes in giant Hefty bags to give to a friend. I'm feeling great about getting rid of all of this junk! I have a TON more to go, but this is a great start! And you know what's awesome? In using Hefty and Reynolds Kitchen brands to take on these projects, I've been able to save a few box tops for my kid's school. Have you heard of Box Tops for Education? Every package you buy from Reynolds Kitchens or Hefty that has a Box Tops for Education emblem on it can be saved and donated to your kids school to redeem for money! Each box top is worth $.10. Everyone buys trash bags and parchment paper and foam plates, so why not use those purchases to give back to schools????
All of these products have Box Tops for Education!
If you click HERE, you can enter here to be one of 50 daily instant winners and enter to win the grand prize of $1,000 worth of Box Tops for your school! A total of five schools will be chosen for the grand prize and you can enter once a day until 8/29 so bookmark the site and visit often! Until next time, xoxo
Hi there! I'm sure you've noticed that I'm a total Target Fashionista LOL! Most of my clothes come from Target just for sheer ease. I can buy eggs, diapers and a cute dress all in one place! But two weekends ago , my friend's mom complimented the dress I was wearing to my nephew's baptism and when I told her it was from Target, she said she never finds anything she likes there! Honestly, I hear that a lot and am SHOCKED every time! I feel like there are so many cute pieces in there, especially from the WhoWhatWear line. Don't tell my husband but I bought four tops from this line just yesterday LOL! There are ALWAYS new pieces to choose from. WhoWhatWear stop taking all my money!!! So here is roundup of a few of my faves that are currently available from this particular line, starting with this dress I wore this past weekend.
Isn't this BEAUTIFUL!?!?!??! Seriously - I've never seen a dress THIS pretty at Target. I wish I could wear it everyday!!!
Here are a few more pieces I've picked up in the last month or so. Some I've worn, some I haven't, but no matter what I LOVE them and will wear them again and again!
You might remember a few months ago I shared my LOVE for SoCozy's curly line. We are still using the the entire line and my kids LOVE the smell of it. So, I was so excited to receive their Swim line!!!
SoCozy' Splash Swim 3in1 is a shampoo,conditioner AND body wash that cleanses and repairs damage to hair caused by pool chemicals, saltwater and the sun. Activated charcoal adsorbs and removes unwanted green tones, calcium salts, and chlorine buildup from the hair. A special blend of antioxidants and vitamins infuse hair with moisture. It leaves your body clean from head to toe!
Thanks SoCozy for this super cute piggy
shower cap! We had fun with it at the pool!
I received this box at the PERFECT time - the day before we were heading to the pool for the first time this summer for my niece's birthday party. So we tested it out at bath time that night!
My husband did the washing and he commented immediately about how the shampoo lathered so amazingly with only using a little bit.
I took over to wash my youngest and I found out that this shampoo is NOT tear free. OOPS! He was unhappy for a while, but he was ok in just a little bit of time.
It definitely cleaned their hair well. My boys hair tends to not need conditioner to detangle, but my daughter does. I must admit that this 3-in-1 did NOT condition my girl's curls enough to detangle. But, the saving grace was the leave in conditioner, which did give it enough slip to brush the curls out without tears. But my girl did NOT like the scent of the spray at all. She plugged her nose and actually asked me to wash it out. I distracted her enough to get her to forget about the scent while I finished brushing her hair. But she did ask me the next day not to use the spray on her again, so I won't.
I think this line has a great objective - getting all the chemicals from pool water out of your kids' hair is important! I would definitely use this on my kiddos again. I just need to be careful not to get it in their eyes. And even thought my daughter didn't like the scent of the spray (it smells like coconuts, which I think is perfect for summer, but she didn't agree!), it did detangle her hair very well. I'll just use it on my boys and myself LOL!
BONUS to this box from SoCozy - they sent a little something for ME too!
SoCozy teamed up with 37 Actives and FranceLuxe Hair and sent some other goodies. I can't wait to try this 37 Actives cleanser and cream! I'm ALL ABOUT anti-aging ANYTHING!!!! I'm trying to stay looking YOUNG! Maybe I'll update on these later.
The FranceLuxe hair ties are AWESOME! They are super thick and strong, metal free and they work great on my girl's thick, curly hair. Plus she loves the colors, so they have been getting a lot of use.
Run out and pick up some SoCozy products - you will love them I swear! You can get them on Amazon!
My Facebook friends have already seen that I wore this kind of crazy dress in public a few days ago. Let me tell you - this was NOT EASY for me to wear!!! I binge watched the first 6 seasons Game of Thrones a few months ago and now I'm obsessed like the rest of the world. So, when I found out that the White Sox were having a Game of Thrones night promotion, I made up my mind to go in an outfit inspired by Missandei, Daenerys Targaryen's right-hand girl. I found this dress on Fashion Nova and thought it would be perfect. More "inspired by" than an actual costume.
It's way sexier than anything I've ever bought in my whole life. I think I am conservative in my style and I try really hard to hide the parts of my body that I think are flawed. Just looking at this dress, I knew it would expose every single thing I hate about myself. But I bought it anyway. It was the wrong color so, I ended up dying it.
It was supposed to be blue, but it turned grey. Better than pink, so I just went with it. And then I bought a ton of stuff to get myself into it. How did I get my saggy boobs to stay into this dress you ask? Tape. A lot of tape.
The Bring It Up Breast Lift Tape lifted my horrible boobs up enough that I didn't worry people would think I was an 80 year old with really good skin. The nipple covers because, obviously. And the dress tape to adjust the shape of my boobs a bit (because the Lift Tape made them kind of a funny shape) and to keep the dress from shifting around too much.
But in all honesty - all the tape in the world could not make me comfortable in this dress. I wore a sweater the entire night. I only took it off to take the photos.
We waited about 45 minutes for this photo
I actually brought my biggest handbag and put an extra dress and and bra in it because I was sososososososoooooooooo nervous about wearing this in public. If it wasn't for my husband's encouragement, I wouldn't have even left the house like this, none-the-less walked into a stadium with 30,000 other people. But I did it. At the end of the day, it was just a costume and I'll never wear it again. And I don't really have anything to be embarrassed about. I'm not skinny. Oh well. I have real, large not-at-all perky boobs. Oh well. I'm not the only one who has these things and I'm not the only one who has insecurities. I just put mine on display for a LOT of people. And I've survived.
But really, I'm never wearing this again LOL! Until next time, xoxo
I'm so excited to introduce you all the Christine. You guys - her style is A. MA. ZING!!!! You are going to need to hit the FOLLOW button right NOW! I met Christine foreeeeeever ago when I worked at an insurance company and she was friends with a few of my coworkers. I remember asking her where she got one of her outfits and she said her sister made it! How cool is that!?!?! You'll see below that her sister is still her favorite designer! We ended up meeting again after all these years at the birthday party of one of those same former coworkers and in chatting I learned she recently started sharing her fashions on Instagram and plans to launch a blog soon!
So read on to learn more about Christine and be sure to follow her on Instagram at @Chic_Mom_Factor and be BLOWN AWAY by her seriously gorgeous looks!
Name
Christine
Age
Can I keep it secret?
Number
of Children
1
Favorite
item you are wearing today
My sister’s collection, L’avenement
Favorite
Clothing Brand
L'avenement
Favorite
Handbag Brand
Chanel and Celine
Favorite
Shoe Brand
Valentino, Chanel, YSL, Sturt Weitzman
Favorite
Makeup Brand
Cle de Peau Beaute (for skin care), Chanel [for] blush and
Mac [for] colors
Favorite
colors to wear (makeup and/or clothing)
Black
How
long does it take you to get ready each morning?
45 minutes
Celebrity's
Style You Admire
I can’t think of at this moment.Always love Audrey Hepburn. Sometime, I like
Rachel Zoe too.
Your
Personal Beauty/Fashion Philosophy
Simple, elegant and chic.
Why
You Love Being a Glam Mom
Always love to dress up since a little girl. Being a
Glam Mom is my way of living, I wouldn’t know another way around.
I'm Michelle. I'm a mom of 3 littles who loves to buy stuff and tell other moms about it. Subscribe so you don't miss any updates! And be sure to follow me on:
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Instagram - TheGlamMom
