I mentioned this weekend that major changes were on the way. Well, they’re here! I have a brand sparkly new blog! I will no longer be blogging on A Touch of Lovely. Instead, I’ve moved over to my own domain:I hope you’ll follow me there. I’ll be blogging about many of the same things but will be focusing on improving my writing. If you enjoyed yesterday’s post, you’ll love what’s to come on Cuddles and Chaos.

Please note that if you currently subscribe to A Touch of Lovely and would like to continue getting updates on my newest posts, you’ll have to subscribe to my new site. There’s a spot for you to put your email address in on the right side underneath my social media icons.

Speaking of social media, you can find me at all of the old places (Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram) as well as on my new Facebook page.

Thanks friends!

I had a couple of different conversations recently with other bloggers about how much good a little dab of color will do ya when it comes to your lips. Somehow this one minor step can bring your whole look together.

Where’s the proof, you ask? Why, it’s right here:

This is what I looked like trying to get out of the house the other morning before adding color to my lips. Disheveled. Wild eyed. In need of chocolate before the clock even struck 10 am.

Add just a dab of Revlon Colorburst lip butter in Tutti Frutti and poof! I’m an actual human being ready to emerge into a world where I may just run into other grownups. My lip color is by no means overwhelming. It’s subtle and shimmery but it tells the outside world that I’m more than just a house frau with a herd of wee ones hanging from my teat. I mean, come on. It’s even a coral-y color, which is so on trend.

In case you were wondering, this trick also works well on young children:

To make sure the magic wasn’t just in the lip butter, Samantha put on Cover Girl Nature Luxe gloss in anemone. As you can see, it was just as magical.

She enjoyed it’s smoothness and the fact that it made her lips more red than mine (which she told me in a little bit of a “nanny nanny poo poo” voice).

Lest you think this trick is a magical cure all for all creatures, don’t get ahead of yourself. Babies are a whole different ball of wax.

Elyssa emerged from the application process still naked with a drooly chin, scraggly hair and Burt’s Bees breath. Some things are just a lost cause.

*Please note, I will no longer be posting on A Touch of Lovely. I’m moving over to Cuddles & Chaos. Come check it out!*

via Pinterest

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Today marks three years since my husband and I got married (work that math and our six-year old daughter out in your head and we’ll talk about it another day). To celebrate, I did a fun little post over on Bijou, my bridal blog. Check it out to hear each of our versions of how we met as well as a little bit on what we think of each other.

And, just because, I’ll leave one of our favorite songs here for you to listen to…

This was the longest week everrrr. No, really.

Samantha was knocked out with a mystery illness that started last Monday. When she was still running a high fever on Wednesday, I took her to the doctor where they could find nothing wrong with her aside from the fever.

Listening to their instructions, we headed back into the office on Friday (that’s us and her new polar bear in the waiting room) for blood work since the fevers hadn’t let up. Still unsure what was up, they tested her for a bunch of things including Lyme disease and West Nile virus.

Cue a weekend-long waiting game. On Saturday they told us her white blood cell count was good and they thought it was a virus. Slight breath of relief.

Since my girl couldn’t do much of anything we spent most of the week playing games. Zingo is one of her favorites (she likes to tell everyone that it’s “Bingo with a zing!”). We had to rapidly throw any chips we couldn’t use at Ellie to make sure little Godzilla didn’t tear our boards apart. She wanted to play so badly!

Come Monday my poor girl was no better. We headed back to the doctor for a physical and a follow up. This time, we saw her actual pediatrician who immediately asked me if she had been coughing when he listened to her lungs. Babycakes has pneumonia.

I never thought I’d be glad to hear that, but it was so nice to know what was going on and what we could do to make her feel better. We picked up her prescription and headed home for more games.

Side note for anyone who doesn’t have children: if you ever decide to have any, they are the perfect excuse to start playing your favorite childhood games again. We’re playing Old Maid here.

When we got bored of games, we turned to coloring. Samantha got a couple of huge coloring books for Christmas and they really came in handy this week. We both worked on this one–with a few stray scribbles from the Ellie monster.

And lest you think my little bean was all subdued and well behaved because she knew her big sister wasn’t feeling well, think again. Miss Elyssa loved having more opportunity for trouble. “Oh, momma is taking Sammie’s temperature? Perfect time to hop in the sink!”

Ellie also seriously enjoyed her first tastes of chocolate pudding. Believe me, I don’t start out with the intention of letting her get filthy. On the contrary, I really tried to feed her myself. But this girl is stubborn. When she wants something she will make a big stink until she gets it. And you know what? Pudding doesn’t cause any harm. I let her go crazy.

As wild as my little one can be, she’s also the sweetest most cuddly little thing. Shots like this are why she’ll continue to get away with murder!

Anyway, I’ve been reading to both girls pretty much since they emerged from the womb. We have tons of favorites, one of them being Where the Wild Things Are. When Max decides to give up being king, the wild things shout at him “Oh please don’t go–we’ll eat you up–we love you so!” I’m not sure how or when, but at some point I start saying this line to Samantha.

I’ve been wanting some kind of art that incorporated the quote for a while now and the other day I decided to make one myself. It couldn’t have been easier.

I picked up a pack of small canvases from Michaels not that long ago because they were on sale and Samantha feels extra fancy when she’s working on a canvas. I also picked up a couple of packs of foam letters at the dollar store, not exactly sure what I would do with them at the time.

I simply attached the foam letters to the canvas and painted over the whole thing (Samantha actually liked just the foam letters on the canvas, so we’ll probably use them for another piece of wall art once she decides what she wants hers to say). I decided on yellow because I’ve been wanting to adds pops of it to our living room.

I was nervous at first because a lot of paint collected around the edges of the letters. I wasn’t sure how it would look but, as you can see below, it ended up making a sort of drop shadow effect.

Not bad for a project that took ten minutes tops, right? My next project is a gallery wall in our living room which this may or may not find itself included in. If it does, I’ll post more pictures so you can see what it looks like in a collection.

Either way, I’m a big fan of word art. Are you?

Summer: Forever21 shorts / Tinley Road chevron necklace / Old Navy tami (tank + cami) / Guess flip flops / Fall layers: Old Navy cardigan / Forever21 layered necklace / Forever21 striped knit tights / Steve Madden oxfords

One of my favorite things about fall is the layers that go along with it. As it slowly gets cooler, we pile on more and more pieces to stay warm–which means we really get to experiment with what’s inside our closets.

The look I put together here is the perfect example of what I mean. It’s a mish mash (which, I’ll have you know, is a seriously technical term) of some of the most versatile pieces you could own.

If you’re trying to save some money, there’s no reason to run out and buy a whole new wardrobe for fall. Instead, shop your closet and add fall colors and textures to your summer faves. Think chunky knits and jewel tones mixed with some of summer’s bright colors. Cobalt is one of the best transitional colors. It goes as well with summer’s carefree tropical palette as it does with fall’s deeper jewel tones.

I am seriously cheap and trying to get on a tight budget, so I will most definitely be using this little tip in the coming weeks. In fact, if I invest in anything this fall it will probably just be a pair of oxfords. I’m kind of obsessed.

How do you transition to cooler temperatures? Are there any pieces that are on your must-have list this fall?

So instead of putting together a regular post, I thought I’d collect some of my favorite links from the week into a little round up:

This is so my life right now.

We shared this story about a couple going around the world having strangers pay for their weddings over on the Bijou Facebook page. I’m still laughing at this line: “The design of the blog features a strong sperm motif, though this may be unintentional.” Do you think they’re brilliant or horrifyingly excessive?

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get excited about this whole fall thing. Roasting vegetables, making some zucchini bread, picking apples. It’s starting to sound pretty fabulous after all.

My daughter has the most sensitive sense of smell I’ve ever come across (yet somehow, she likes the smell of the NYC subway system. Go figure). She routinely walks into the kitchen and scrunches up her face at the smell. She seems to be able to smell when the garbage is getting stinky before anyone else can. She then wants to immediately run to her room, grab a bottle of perfume (every six-year old needs it) and spray the kitchen. This results in a smell that isn’t masked but is suddenly garbage + Country Chic. Trust me, it’s not a good combo. I am most definitely going to try this DIY 2-ingredient air freshener  in hopes of beating her to the punch.

I need these for fall but now that they’re out of stock I might have to settle for these beauties instead.

Last but not least, I love this stud earrings DIY from Anna at In Honor of Design. I’m totally keeping these in mind for the holidays!

I hope you get out and enjoy the last bits of summer this weekend!

I mentioned last week that I put together a little Bored Jar inspired by a few different projects I saw on Pinterest (just searching “boredom busters” there brings up an endless array of ideas for any age group). I thought it would be fun to give you a little peek at our jar and some of the things Samantha has done with it.

First, I collected a bunch of ideas for activities. I picked things specific to Samantha and things that I knew she could do with little to no help since I was hoping the activities would keep her occupied whenever I need to get some work done. I mixed creative activities, learning activities and chores (she happens to like all three).

You can certainly make your popsicle sticks prettier than mine (I was in a rush, alright? No judging!). In fact, Samantha has already decided that she’s going to paint them (the next time she’s really bored, of course). If you’re interested in my full list of activities, shoot me an email here!

After I wrote out a bunch of sticks (which I picked up at the dollar store, by the way), I found a pretty mason jar to keep them in. Obviously a glass jar is not ideal for all age groups, but I knew Samantha would like that it signified that this is a Big Girl thing. Plus, she’s very mature for her age and I know she can handle it (cue me eating my words in the near future).

Easy enough, right? The part that takes the most time is thinking up fun (different!) activities that you know your child will like. But you could do that during Project Runway commercial breaks!

Here’s some of the fun Sam has had with this jar so far: