Summertime. Are you feeling it? That smell in the air? That’s most likely a neighbors BBQ that you’re wishing was yours?
I shared this pic on Instagram today. Poolside watching the kids swim with my HGTV magazine in hand. The last two days have been such a non-stop whirlwind of activities that it felt wonderful to sit down and relax this afternoon. The whole 20 minutes of it until Kole decided he was done with the pool and needed food immediately. :) But I could taste summertime for those 20 minutes! Hearing my kids laugh and splash around in the water while reading about the “not so stuffy way to style shelves.” (Vary the heights of your decor – that’s key.) See how much I learned. In just 20 minutes of down time.
Because summer is quickly approaching (wonderful smells and all) I’ve been thinking about a lot of things I want to do to get ready. Time to prep for those sometimes loooong days with the kids home!
I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend! I love Memorial Day. So grateful for such a special holiday to remember and honor everyone who has served and continues to serve our country. We had a low key family weekend at home which was just what the doctor ordered around here. :) I know some of you are finishing up school this week (jealous!) but for those of you who have a few weeks left like we do I thought I’d share a few ideas for teacher gifts. I received a lot of really sweet gifts over the six years I taught school, but I will promise you that the gifts I remember most and still have to this day are the kind letters my students and their parents wrote me. Nothing beats a sincere heartfelt handwritten letter. I love to go back and read them. Some of them still bring tears to my eyes. So we’ll be writing letters for all of my kids’ teachers for sure! But it’s also fun to give a little something with our letters. Here are a few things I’ve done in past years…
The year before that I put together a fun gift for summer. I always try to think of what I would like for a gift. You can’t go wrong with sunscreen and a towel and the People Style Watch issue. Perfect accessories for a day at the beach or pool!
I thought this was a cute, simple idea too. You could put any treat in a jar with a “you’re the sweetest” card. Especially fun if you know your child’s teacher’s favorite treat. My students always knew my favorite treats. And my favorite hobbies and my favorite movies and my favorite quotes and my favorite subjects and my favorite future baby names…. Some of us are a bit more of an open book than others. :)
Teachers can never have enough white erase markers (or any other school supply for that matter). Fun way to present them.
But let’s not talk about May. Or busyness. Or thin threads.
Let’s talk about something fun.
Like baskets.
Wanna know what’s even more fun than talking about baskets?
Talking about baskets with labels on them. :)
I received this sweet comment on my last post:
Looks great!! Did I miss the post about the baskets under the coffee table?? Please share!! They are exactly what I’ve been looking for for mine :) Adore your home and your blog!!
(Thank you for that!) Since I aim to please (and because you don’t have to twist my arm to chat about organizing with baskets) here is a post on my coffee table baskets.
I actually bought these baskets to go in my office. They are the Cameron Wire Baskets from Pottery Barn. I wanted two of them and thought that was what I ordered on-line but didn’t realize that they come in sets of two (note to self: next time notice when it says “comes in sets of 2”). So by ordering two I ended up with four.
That was a happy mistake. :)
I felt it was meant to be.
Oh for the love of labels. Aren’t they beautiful!? I haven’t written on them yet because I’m not 100% sure this is their final resting place. I’m having too much fun moving them around and organizing different things with them.
I took some new pictures of our family room two weeks ago and just haven’t had time to share them. Our drapes finally came! And pillows! Most of them anyway.
Ignore the shelves. They are a hot mess in these pictures! Still haven’t got around to styling them yet. But so fun to have drapes in this room! I’ve never had drapes before and I’ll admit I was really nervous about how these would look.
The pillows are all blue and grey (love the fabrics!) but I have two more coming in a different color (one more for the couch and one for the striped chair). I have played around with a lot of different colors for this space and was having a hard time deciding what would compliment the blues the best.
I’m so happy to be done with all the big decisions/purchases for this room. Now I can just accessorize which is what I enjoy the most! Tempted to take everything off those shelves and start this second! But it’s almost midnight so maybe I’ll get some sleep first and tackle them tomorrow.
So grateful that things have calmed down in our neck of the woods. Our mild weather is back and the fires are under control. But so heartbreaking to see the damage done. I spent some time today rounding up things to donate to a family who lost their home. Can you imagine having your house burned to the ground? Just completely gone. Starting over with absolutely nothing. So incredibly hard. I really feel for everyone in that situation. If you are interested in helping too you can google ‘ways to help with the San Diego fires’ and several fundraisers, etc. will pop up. It’s always amazing to me how communities rally together to help in situations like this. There are so many wonderful people in this world!
xx
Erin
“My little boyfriend’s first swim lesson! All smiles. Quickly followed by all tears once he went under. Baby steps. #mylittleman (So glad I’m not teaching him to swim. He’d cry and I’d hug him and never make him go under again and we’d get nowhere. This kid has me SO wrapped.) :)
“Me and my hot date at the ball game last night.” #gopadres!
If you want to see what we’re up to you can follow me on Instagram at erin_sunnysideup. I’ll also update Instagram photos to Facebook so you can follow me there if you aren’t already. And at some point in the near future I’ll have a way for you to subscribe to get my blog posts through e-mail. But whoa. One thing at a time. Baby steps for me too. :) Hoping to share lots of fun organizing and decorating projects that are in the works around the house on Instagram too! Not just pics of us in our pajamas. Although if you know us well it goes without saying that there will be a lot of those too. :)
#idon’treallyknowwhatI’mdoingoninstagrambutI’mreallygoodatfakingit.
Hi friends! I’m working on a post but keep getting distracted watching our news. With eight fires burning in our city the past few days have been eventful to say the least. I always get nervous when these Santa Ana winds come our way. They are never a good thing! So many of our friends have been evacuated and schools are all closed tomorrow. Praying they can get these fires contained soon. I’m rounding up a few things just in case, but hopefully tomorrow will just be a pajama day for us. So strange to have the kids home on a random Thursday! Southern California’s version of a snow day. :)
If the fires have slowed down and I can get my girls to entertain Kole for a few minutes tomorrow I’ll be popping back in! Keep San Diego in your thoughts today! And hug your kids. Because that’s what I always tend to do when slightly stressful situations pop up.
I could have cooked it a bit longer to let the cheese melt and bubble more but we were reaching “the witching hour.” Moms – you know what I mean. That lovely hour at the end of the day when patience is wearing thin and everyone is getting hungry and tired. And you just know that if you don’t feed and get those kids in bed STAT bad things are about to happen.
But Ziti lasagna makes everyone smile again. Throw together a quick salad or vegetable or french bread to go with it. Kids are fed and happy. Mom is fed and happy. All is well.
**For more recipes that I would love to try if I had more time and actually knew how to cook check out my FOOD AND RECIPE Pinterest board here.
Another Martha Stewart favorite I keep in my purse is this little zipper pouch. Perfect for all of those loose ends that can get lost. (I bought both of these items at Staples but obviously any file and small pouch would work!)
I always keep lots of lip gloss and chap stick with me. Along with floss or toothpicks, mini scissors and nail clippers. Can’t begin to tell you how handy these things have been! With my kids I’m always needing to snip or clip something and I love having floss or toothpicks when I’m running from place to place after lunch. The best part is that when I need one of these things it’s so easy to reach for the pouch vs. trying to hunt for my lip gloss in a big bottomless purse.
The other thing I strive to stay on top of is my inbox. I start to feel overwhelmed quickly when my inbox is flooded with e-mails. Then I forget to RSVP to a birthday party or to answer a question someone is waiting on or to put an important date on my calendar. No good comes from a flooded inbox! I finally came up with a folder system that has worked so well for me and I’m happy to say that I have been able to stay on top of my e-mails. (You can read about my 3 steps for getting my inbox under control here.)
So that’s it! My top three things I strive daily to keep organized. If I can keep my purse organized, my inbox under control, and my kitchen counters clean each day I feel like I’m on top of things.
And here are a few past posts I’ve written on motherhood. Because you know. Tis the season. :)
{Dear Erin – letter to read if you have a newborn}
I picked up this almost too bright aqua trey and a couple of glass bottles at Target. I’m probably moving them at some point but this is their home for now.
Did I ever show you guys the little indent I had my cabinet guys put in my oven hood for salt and pepper shakers? So fun, right? I saw it in a magazine years ago and was so happy I remembered to tell my cabinet guys to do it. Handy to have the salt and pepper so close when I’m cooking! I have lots of fun little things like that around my kitchen that help me keep everything organized.
At some point I’ll do a full kitchen post. As soon as I come up with the hours it’s going to take me.
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