Happy Friday Everyone!
One – Blog Happenings!
Happy Friday, friends! First, I wanted to let you know that I have a personal GIVEAWAY that I would love for you to enter at the bottom of this post. And, secondly, I’m excited to share with you that I’ve had some of my photography published in a book for the first time! Yay! I’ve been working with Simply Earth for a few years and they reached out to me several months ago about using 10 or so of my photos in their 2020 Essential Oil Recipe Book. I’ll be sharing the link for this book next month, if you’re interesting in buying it.
Here are a couple of my photos on the left side pages on both of these spreads. It was so exciting to see all of my hardworking published into a book. It was definitely a highlight of the month for me!
Another highlight of this month was reading all of your comments on my ‘Why I Quit Link Up Parties‘ post. If you have time, go back and read the 30 or so comments. It is interesting to hear how everyone feels about link up parties. I will say, it seems it is about half/half. Some of you really love the link up parties and how they bring more traffic to your blogs and the rest of you have given them up or plan to give them up soon. I enjoyed writing this post, mainly because it was nice to take a look back down memory lane and it was nice to hear some feedback on how everyone else felt. I know I made the decision for my own personal reasons, but it made me feel better that I’m not the only one seeing these changes and pivoting my blog due to them.
Well, I did it! I got my first reel up. I was doing some research and I’ve heard InShot is a great free app to use and you can also do video in Canva. I subscribe to a clipart site called Haute Stock and they offer a lot of reel templates, fonts, etc. and they’re available with Canva. So, I created my first reel in Canva and it wasn’t all that hard to create. I’d love you to stop by and see it HERE! 🙂 So, I’m curious… how do all of you make your reels? Do you use an outside app, Canva or do you create it in Instagram?
Two – Valentine’s Day (Decor, Early Dinner & Galentine’s Gift)
Did everyone have a good Valentine’s Day? I decorated the area by my coffee maker for Valentine’s Day and it was fun to look at it every morning while I made my cup of cozy. Brian and I were able to sneak away for a coffee break and I love how Kaldi’s has pink coffee cups!
Brian and I went out early for our Valentine’s Day dinner. We went to a new to us place in the historic Italian area in St. Louis called ‘The Hill’. We went to Dominics, which has been family owned since 1971 with white tablecloths and excellent service… and dishes! We both got the lobster risotto and the lobster in it did not disappoint! Yum!
Brian surprised me with red roses and there are white/cream hydrangeas underneath and chocolate covered strawberries from Chocolate Chocolate. Yum!
Jessica, one of my Instagram friends that lives close to me asked me if I wanted to do a Galentine’s Exchange. It was a lot of fun and she did great with mine! Look at these cute bracelets she made for me (see photo above).
Three – What I’ve Been Loving Lately
Shop These Products:
I’ve heard of this Catalina Crunch cereal, but I thought you could only buy it online. However, when I was in Target the other week they had the Cinnamon Toast and Dark Chocolate varieties! Win! But, then I liked them SO much… I decided to buy the 8 flavors variety pack online. So far the Fruity flavor is my ABSOLUTE fave! Yum! And, I’ll confess… I also ordered a 4 flavor variety pack of their cookies! A perfect sweet treat for every once in awhile without all the sugar!
I started a monthly subscription to these Ruby Love period boxes for a special teen in my household. I went ahead and ordered them for 12 months. I thought they’d be nice for her to prepare her for what is to come. We keep the period stuff in the linen closet for now in a basket. It comes with period underwear in each box along with wipes, pads, pantyliners (these are all disposable). Then, there are a lot of cute gifts in the boxes each month, which I think makes it fun! The Christmas box had hot cocoa and holiday themed items, last month’s box was spa stuff and this month had a cute cup (the leg was broken when we got it, so they sent us another cup!), hair tie, notebook and some hangers.
Shop These Products:
When Clarisonic shut down, I was in the market for a new exfoliator! I purchased the Foreo Luna, which I love! It exfoliates on one side and then if you flip it over, it has a smoother side with ridges. I use the smoother side to massage my facial serum/oil into my face in the morning and evening. It works SO well. I enjoyed that so much, that I decided to check out some of their other products. I landed up with the Iris, which is their delicate eye massager. I lightly apply my eye cream in dots on my skin around my eye and then I use the Iris to gently massage the eye cream into my skin. It helps to prevent under eye circles/puffiness. You’ll see it is hollow in the center and you can use it to massage the top of your eye/brow bone and lids. You can look through the hole in it while you’re massaging the top part of your eyes. I use it for 60 seconds per eye and it is so therapeutic! The Iris is my new FAVORITE skin care tool! Plus, both the Luna ($50 off) AND Iris ($40 off) are on MAJOR sale right now on the Foreo site! When I bought the Iris recently, I automatically received free shipping… so, it was a lot cheaper than Sephora if you’re looking to get one soon.
Shop These Products:
I wanted to share my most recent Pixi box that they gifted me. It is their Rose collection and these products are so lovely! Here is what I received:
+Rose Essence Oil Infused – This oil instantly preps skin for a flawless makeup application. Infused with rose water, rose oil ad ceramics to help nourish and moisturize.
+Rose Glow-y Powder – A mineral-rich powder that can be used as a veil of blush or highlighter. It is infused with rose extract.
+Rose Lip Nourisher – This treatment lip balm leaves a hint of tint as it softens with rose hip oil and Vitamin E.
+Rose Radiance Perfecter – This rose-infused enhancer helps to blur and brighten skin to give a fresh finish. Packed with ceramics to keep skin nourished and hydrated.
Four – Books I Read in 2021, Latest Shows
If you’re on Goodreads, you know that at the end of each year, they email you with all of the books you’ve read that year. I read 11 books in 2021, which is a low amount of books for me. I used to listen to a lot of e-books during my commute, but my daughter moved to a closer school this year and it has cut down my commute by A LOT. So, in a way… that is a good thing, less driving time, buuut also means less reading! However, this year I’m hoping to start reading more during my lunch instead of working through it. We’ll see if I can stick to that! Out of all of these books, I’d say hands down that American Dirt was my favorite read this year! Brian even read it after he heard me tell him how good it was!
So, I’m still trying to finish the third (last book) to the Elin Hilderbrand Paradise series (Troubles in Paradise). Hopefully by next month I’ll have finished it! These are really easy to read, feel good books that give you a taste of family life on St. John’s with a little mystery!
We watched the newest Sex and the City show ‘And Just Like That’… And, WOW. It made me laugh, gasp… and, YEAHHH… It’s an interesting one, folks! We are currently watching Ted Lasso and it is such great show. We are almost done with it and then we’ll probably move onto the newest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!
Five – A Fun Giveaway!!!
Now, let’s get to the EXCITING giveaway I have in store for you today! In my last VineOh box, I received 3 extra gifts and I would love to mail out these gifts to ONE of my lucky readers today!
You’ll receive:
EB and Co. Open Circle – (Retail value $24)
Willow Collective Cozy Hat – (Retail Value $20)
Laritzy Classic Eyeshadow Palette—(Retail Value $32)
All I ask in return is for you to sign up as a subscriber to my blog newsletter (subscribe below)! I have been working hard on my email list this year and it is up to 212 subscribers! As an email subscriber, you’ll receive an email for each of my blog posts, giving you all the highlights! I am planning to make this fun for YOU! I want to keep surprising my subscribers with other goodies throughout the year as a thank you for being supportive of Curly Crafty Mom!
Giveaway will end March 4, 2022. Winner will be announced on Curly Crafty Mom blog on March 7, 2022. Open to Residents of the US only. Prizes cannot be shipped to PO Boxes.
To enter, subscribe to my newsletter below. It will send me an email when you join, so no need to do anything else:
I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend!
