Happy Black Friday! I will be putting all of the sale roundups that I find here in this blog post and I will let you know as I update them!
Here are the retailers that I have done in order!
Target
Sephora
5 Tips to Get Your Guest Room Ready for Guests
At this point, it feels like each blog post I start, I say something along the lines that Dustin and I love to host people. We love having people over, entertaining, feeding people and enjoying their company. Two weekends ago we had my sister and her boyfriend come stay with us for a few days and it was a blast! This past weekend, Dustin’s friend came into town for a few days. Now, this weekend we have more family coming into town!
Living halfway across the country isn’t always great for when you are wanting to grab dinner with your parents but the plus side of this is that when you do get to see your friends and family, it is special! Its uninterrupted time with the people you care about. Now I am just rambling but the point of my ramble is that when I have people coming to visit, I want things to be prepared and ready for them to get here so that when they are here we get to just enjoy the time!
Today I am sharing 5 ways to get your guest bedroom and really your whole apartment or house ready to have those guests there.
I like to make sure that I have things on hand that our guests will probably need but might have forgotten. For example I buy things like extra toothbrushes, contact solution, makeup remover/wipes, lotion, razors, dry shampoo and hairspray. There are some other things that I keep in the bathroom rather than the guest room like Advil, Tylenol, Tums, tampons/pads and other things that they might not have or forgot but also depending on the guest, they may not want to ask for!
A laundry basket for dirty towels and clothes, if they are staying for awhile they might want to do a load of laundry! A table of sorts so they can put their suitcase on something and not bend over all the time to dig around in their luggage, we have our old tv stand in the guest bedroom and it works perfectly. Lastly, a spot to hang things! We just give our guests access to the closet in the guest bedroom to hang things if they need.
Fresh towels and linens! I think the day that I became a true adult was the day that we officially had two sets of sheets for our bed and the guest bed{full transparency that we literally just got extra sets of sheets a week ago…. sooooooo yeah}. I LOVE the feeling of getting into a fresh, clean bed but I HATE having our bed unmade all day long while the sheets get washed. I know this is nothing new but I had a serious AHA moment when I started just swapping them when I took them off the bed. Especially with having guests back to back to back, having a change of sheets made it so much easier!
Have things on hand that they like! For example, my sister and her boyfriend both drink Dr. Pepper, I made sure to have that on hand for them to have while they are here. Another thing to pay attention to is is they have any allergies! My sister is allergic to dairy and we made sure that she could eat each meal.
Having a cozy and homey space for them to escape! When we are traveling or visiting family I love being able to have a spot in the place I am visiting to sit in silence for a minute.. probably the introvert in me talking but sometimes a girl just needs a nap or to sit by myself. Even if your guests are sleeping on the couch, being aware that you should give them time to recharge. I think that art makes a space feel more warm and inviting, not to mention interesting! It can be a great conversation starter. I love the art that is in our guest bedroom, I will link to the seller here! The pieces are amazing, I seem to find something new in the art every time I look at them.
I hope you guys found these helpful and will make your lives easier as well. I will leave you with two things.. Having an extra set of sheets will make your life easier. Number 2, having all of those extra things on hand for your guest could/will come in handy when you run out of toothpaste one morning and realize that you have an extra tube in the guest bathroom!
5 Things to do in Thailand
สวัสดี(hello in Thai)! My name is Chloe Hartley, I am Emma’s sister, and a travel enthusiast! I have been to 40 states and 7 countries, which is a lot considering I am only 17! I love traveling and can’t wait to share my tips and experiences with you! I hope that you have fun reading! One of my favorite trips so far has been Thailand {so much that I’ve been twice}, here are the things that I love doing when I visit.
1. See a movie - They have the best stuff at movie theaters, from five different types of popcorn to twenty different movies to reclining massage chairs, at a very low cost you are going to have a good time at a Thailand movie theater!
2. Bua Thong Waterfall - Thailand is a tropical place, any outdoor thing you do will be a memorable experience!! One of my favorites was climbing Sticky Falls. It is made of limestone and the rocks have a sticky like texture. This is a fun event to go climb this beautiful natural creation.
3. Spend the day with elephants!
ELEPHANTS!! Thailand is known for their animals, mainly the elephants and monkeys. I have gone to elephant sanctuaries while in Thailand. This is an all day experience, it is so fun and you feel connected to the elephants. It makes for a great day! Make sure you are finding an ethically responsible sanctuary!
4. Eat authentic Thai Food - Yes, Thailand is known for its beautiful sights and animals. But it is also known for the food! From Boba tea to soups and a variety of other fun foods. You should try EVERYTHING! I was skeptical at first but really there wasn’t anything that I tried that I didn’t end up liking!
5. Visit a night market
Night markets are a must, you can find so many fun trinkets and things to bring home for yourself as well as friends and family. You can also get fun foods, make travel arrangements for excursions like riding elephants, and usually they are connected to a mall with a movie theater!!}
A Gift Guide for Mom
Hello! I worked with my mom on this gift guide and it was so much fun to do with her! We also came up with a short experiences gifting list if your mom doesn’t want “things” rather than “time” with you!
A Cooking Class {so fun, here in Boston you can do a Macaron Making Class!}
Mani/Pedi date {a classic and you can never go wrong with this}
A wine tasting day at a local winery {what better way to spend a day?!}
A broadway show! {Check and see what is playing near you and grab a couple tickets to the show! We love seeing shows, The Lion King and Aladdin are so good.}
Arrange for a cleaning service to come clean the house {this one isn’t so much a gift to spend time with you but you could do this in combination with a mani/pedi date so your mom can spend time with you AND come home to a spotless house!}
Here are the things that are either on my moms Christmas list or things that she already has and loves! Things that I know your moms will love as well! I even have a couple of these things and/or are on my own list! *cough cough* Drunk Elephant baby facial, I have wanted it for about a year now and just have never pulled the trigger. My mom loves their face oil as well {so do I}.
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A {Gluten Free} Friendsgiving Brunch
Here it goes!
I put it up to vote last week of weather you guys would like to see a Traditional Thanksgiving, Brunch, or a Fiesta and Brunch won by a landslide! Today I am sharing the details from our Friendsgiving brunch and I can’t wait for you to see how it turned out! Most of the things we made I found a recipe for on Pinterest and I will link you to it so you can get all the details from the original maker. I will also share if I tweaked or added anything to the recipe. But there are a couple of things that I created like the Orange Cranberry Mimosas!
Hash brown Breakfast Casserole - This recipe came from Kelsey from The Blue Cheese Bungalow {how cute is that name?!}. We loved this casserole, it was so yummy! Cheesy and delicious.
Maple Brown Sugar Bacon - I used Alea’s recipe from Premeditated Leftovers. I saw the picture of this recipe on Pinterest and I was sold. Then we made it and OH MY GOODNESS, it was GOOD. I had never had sweet bacon at all and I can’t believe that I waited this long to have it.
Gluten Free Pumpkin Waffles - This was a super yummy recipe from Audrey at Mama Knows Gluten Free. Very good, I put syrup on them but they were so yummy that I could have eaten them just by themselves.
Yogurt Bar - This is pretty self explanatory and I just put out yogurt with gluten free granola, brown sugar, chocolate chips and thinly sliced apples! Easy and delish!
Orange Cranberry Mimosas - See the ingredients and instructions below!
For the decor, I wanted to keep it simple because we made all of the food as well, I went with an easy burlap table runner and some small white pumpkins! I will link all of the details below. I had so much fun putting this together and it really felt like the perfect combination of easy and delicious! As always I would love to know if you end up trying anything from this post, it would make my day!
4 Wine and Cheese Pairings
I feel like this has just been the week of hosting blog posts, but who am I kidding- I love it! I wanted to share some wine and cheese pairings that you can put out at your next get together. I love taking the guessing out of what you are serving and you can just enjoy the company! These are my four go-to’s when I am having people over. I know that I post really large charcuterie boards but you can put out something as simple as cheese and cracker, it doesn’t need to be extravagant. I will give you some examples below!
Pino Noir and Brie
This is always my first thought, especially in the fall and winter. I love pairing a creamy, buttery brie with a pino noir. You can always leave it as just brie and wine or you can elevate the cheese and add a jam! My perfect combination is brie with rhubarb jam and Simple Mills almond flour crackers! Its both salty and sweet!
Pino Grigio and Gouda
Gouda is a bit heavier but the Pino Grigio complements the cheese with its lighter taste of the Pino Grigio! If you are wanting to add a bit to the cheese you can pair it with dried apricots and table crackers! If you are gluten free I like the Schar Gluten Free Table Crackers. This is such an easy combination to put together because you can just set out the gouda, apricots and crackers on the cheese plate and your guests can decide how they would like to eat it!
Riesling and Goat Cheese
This is one of the yummiest combinations! I love goat cheese… I mean LOVE it! We had a great combo at on our Halloween Grazing Table that was the goat cheese log rolled in fig jam and crushed pistachios! Another option would be the goat cheese log rolled in honey and then rolled in a mixture of finely chopped apricots and almonds! The sweet Riesling will complement the dense texture of the cheese!
Merlot and Aged Cheddar
This combination is SO yummy in the winter and so easy because it doesn’t need to be really paired with anything. I like crackers paired with the cheddar! You really don’t need much more, the cheddar goes nicely on table crackers as well! Or if you like the saltiness, you can use Simple Mills Crackers instead!
Here are my favorites for entertaining a small crowd!
As always, I am here for questions! I would be THRILLED to help you figure out what you will be serving for your next get together. No matter how large or small, just ask!
Gift Guide for the Hostess
Here we go with this years gift guides! I wanted to start off with gifts for the hostess! I don’t think its a secret that I love hosting, in fact without really realizing until right now when I started writing… that each of the blog posts for this week has to do with hosting! Gift Guide for the hostess, 5 Tips for Getting your Guest Bedroom Ready and lastly, Wine and Cheese Pairings! A fun week in my opinion but I might be biased lol So here we go…
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Three Themes for Your Friendsgiving
I am SO JAZZED for this post! We are hosting a Friendsgiving this year and I couldn’t be more excited! If you know me, you know that both Dustin and I love to host, have people stay with us while they are in town, friends over for dinners. We just love it! If you are new around here, you can see the details from our latest get together here. We decided to have a Friendsgiving and I couldn’t narrow down what theme I wanted to do for the get together. I was talking to my mom and she suggested letting you guys vote! If you head to my feed I am going to give away a Starbucks gift card to one of you that votes!
The three themes that I came up with were a Traditional Friendsgiving Dinner, A Friendsgiving Brunch, or a Mexican Fiesta! I put together an inspiration board for all three themes just to give you guys an idea of what I was thinking. Our Friendsgiving is next weekend and I will be writing all about the details once it has happened! Here are the inspiration collages. I put the links to all of the original recipes below each of the photos, so if anything looks delish {which it all does} go check it out!
Traditional
Brunch
Fiesta
| Cranberry Margaritas | GF Churros | Decor | Pork Carnitas | Skirt Steak Fajitas | Guacamole | Mexican Street Corn Salad | Queso |
Which one would you choose to do?! I like all three of them and seriously can’t decide! I will let you guys know which one was chosen as soon as I know! Stay tuned for the results and to see what I came up with for our Friendsgiving!
Ultimate Guide: Create a Stunning Thanksgiving Grazing Table with Festive Charcuterie Ideas
Craft the perfect Thanksgiving Grazing Table with cheeses, meats, and seasonal extras for a festive and easy-to-make spread.
Read more7 Things to Keep in Mind When Traveling Internationally
Hi guys!
I wanted to talk about some things that I learned before and while traveling. I learned most of these thing from my parents who have traveled and also my sisters who travel A LOT! I feel like this blog post will be one of those that is always being added to just because I learn something new every time I go somewhere! Here are 7 things to know before you travel!
Learn cultural norms - You will want to learn things that could potentially be offensive where you are headed that would be totally normal where you live, do some research before getting there!
Know the exchange rate before you leave - It would seriously suck to get there any if cost so much more than you expected. Just know what you are getting yourself into! Sometimes its like you get a discount for yourself. For example, when I was in Singapore, it was like a discount when I would shop because of the exchange rate. Just something to pay attention to, make sure its in the budget!
Alert your bank - Let your bank know that you will be making purchases in another city or country, you want them to know your travel plans so they don’t freeze your account. There is seriously nothing worse than being somewhere and your account being frozen! This happened to my whole family while we were at Disney World one time because we lived in Iowa and there were charges happening in Florida. Its a great thing that the bank does in case of fraud but a bummer if you don’t plan ahead.
4. Bring your debit card - My sister told me this one and it makes so much sense! Bring your debit card with you to the country you are traveling to and then take out cash. Refrain from pulling out cash and then exchanging money, you will lose less money this way!
5. Learn some of the language - Its important and polite to learn at least the basic words in the primary language that is spoken wherever you are headed! Things like hello, goodbye, thank you… that sort of thing! Its a nice gesture and can help you with certain situations!
6. Make sure you know that even if you plan things will not go as you planned and that’s usually where the fun stuff happen. Yes, it is nice to have a plan or an itinerary to get in all of those things on your “must do” list- it is important to also be okay with changes! While we were in Santorini we didn’t plan on spending any time hiking, but we stumbled upon it and it was one of the coolest afternoons of the trip!
7. Be cautious, but don’t be closed off! Be aware of your surroundings and the people around you, but don’t let that stop you from meeting new people and making friends on your travels! We have met so many great people on our trips and love that! We met a couple while we were in Mexico last summer and spent pretty much the whole time with them! That wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t get out of our comfort zone.
I hope that you guys found these tips helpful for your trips that you have planned! Do you have any tips to share? I feel like when you are traveling you are constantly learning and I love that! Like I said before, I’m 100% sure that I will learn something new about travel on our next trip and the trip after that.
