Yesterday was Easter Sunday. The weather was gorgeous! Evelyn had been excited to visit all of her cousins for the last week. I was excited to see family and catch up with them. I posted this super cute photo of my family in our Easter wear. I grabbed some pictures of the Easter cake I made for dinner that night with my in-laws, and we grabbed a couple of pictures of the girls wearing the sunglasses the Easter bunny brought them.

By all accounts, it looks like we had a great Easter holiday. And really, we did. We had a nice day. However, the picture above is completely misleading.

Evelyn was sick. She tested negative for the other thing, it is just a really nasty cold. But it was enough that we had to cancel all of our plans for the day. We stayed home and she rested and allowed her body to fight this virus.

She was pretty tired, although she mustered a little bit of energy to be excited about her Easter basket from the Easter bunny and a quick mini egg hunt we threw together for her. However, after that, she went back to sitting under a blankie on the couch. Poor kiddo.

I have two pounds of bacon in my fridge that I was supposed to bring to the brunch at my mom’s house. I have desserts for 8 people for the dinner at my in-laws house Easter night. I have a bunch of Easter baskets for friends and cousins that didn’t get delivered and are still in my laundry room.

The reason I am telling you all this is to remind you that Instagram and social media is just a highlight reel. It is almost never an accurate depiction of someone’s life entirely. I am very guarded with my girls’ privacy. I ONLY ever intend to post the highlights because I am personally not comfortable with posting anything else that might follow them around forever on the internet. So I just post the good. However, I hate to think I’m part of this narrative that I have everything together. That my girls are always perfect angels or that we never have hiccups or bad days. We do. Occasionally, I even feel like that is all we have. We have meltdowns, we have medical issues, I have days where nothing seems to go right. That is all rarely seen on social media but it is there.

The pressure on mums, specifically, on social media during holidays is intense. We want these perfectly curated Easter baskets, with the beautiful put-together charcuterie boards, and don’t forget the boomerang of the mimosa toast at brunch. I am 1000% guilty of all of those. I don’t know that there is anything wrong with all of that either. Why not aim for a great holiday? However, sometimes…it just isn’t meant to be and we should be okay with that too.

Evelyn wanted to wear her Easter dress and I originally thought no. Why risk getting a brand new dress dirty if we were just going to stay home right? Then I decided to go ahead and let her wear it. So we pulled of the tags, and then quickly grab a few family pictures. I’m glad we did that. Otherwise we wouldn’t have this gem of a picture of both girls.

So again, I hope you always remember that social media is the highlight reel. It’s not at all representative of the reality. These pictures were all taken within a span of 10 minutes and then we all put back on our loungewear and had a quiet day.

It was still a wonderful day with my family, even though it was different from how I thought the day was going to go. But wonderful all the same and we felt blessed.

Spring is just a few weeks away and we couldn’t be more ready for it! I’m ready for the flowers, the warmer temperatures, and more daylight!

We are so excited to be launching a new product this week.

Our personalized wooden eggs are perfect for any Easter basket, hostess gift, or place card for your holiday table. Since this is our first year selling these, we’ve limited our availability. There is a possibility of a restock but we wouldn’t count on it.

So don’t wait if you want one, get your order in as soon as you can!

I know most people consider Valentine’s Day to be the holiday for lovers but I love when we can celebrate how love shows up in all forms; especially in friendships. I’m 1000% behind any type of Galentine’s Day celebration. I was so grateful when I was asked to join this adorable shoot with Amy from White Blossom Events. I was even more excited when she asked Evelyn to join in the fun! Evelyn and Amy’s daughter Faith had hit it off the last time we got to have tea at our favorite tea house, Morning Lavender. I knew Evelyn would have a great time.

Look how adorable these girls are?! The dresses are from Alice and Ames and I’m in love with them. They are so well made and the material is so soft and swingy. They are perfect for dancing, jumping, and playing. The color palettes for each season are always right on the mark too. I’m anxiously awaiting for the next release! The bows, purses, and other accessories on the girls are from My Little Precious Co. Evelyn was super into all the little accessories and what is a girl day without accessorizing?! As a wise lady once said, “The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize!”

The whole set up is just to die for. When we walked into the patio at the gorgeous Morning Lavender, Evelyn and I both sighed with all the prettiness. The planning, designing, and styling by these three talented ladies, Amy from White Blossom Events, Sally from Pretty Little Events, and Cindy from Sweetlee Made is just unmatched in perfection and attention to detail.

Anytime we get an opportunity to head over to Morning Lavender, we take it! I can’t say enough things about all the clothes, the teas, the tea service. In my mind, Morning Lavender is synonymous with “girls day”. It’s woman and BIPOC owned and Kim Le is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet! She’s just a big hearted, smart woman and one of my role models.

The curation of talented vendors is what makes any party, big or small, successful. Amy has definitely currated her group incredibly well. The sweets were the center of all the little girls’ attention. Sweetlee Made and Sweets by Keeks really out did themselves! We got those girls to pose and smile just as much as we wanted with the promise that they’d eventually be able to dig into those treats! I might’ve snuck a cookie for myself too and they were so yummy!!

Rentals can be a bit of a budget breaker but you really only need a few pieces to make a space pop. Finding cute kid size table and chair rentals can be challenging too, but Sweet Salvage Rentals has the most adorable kid party rentals. These were a perfect match for our Galentine’s Day Tea Party. I’ve been stalking their site since I’ll be planning a party soon myself, they have so many cute things!

The tea set is actually from Amazon and I’m totally getting myself my own set. You can order it here.

The beautiful and absolutely perfect florals were by Jovial Floral Co. She took that palette and matched it to complete perfection. The roses were such the perfect shade of pink and creams. It smelled heavenly. Let’s be real, no tea party is complete without beautiful florals! Jovial Floral Co. did not fail!

I love any opportunity to work with an amazing group of vendors. For this event we did heart shaped white acrylic stir sticks for the little girls to stir their sugar into their tea. They were so cute swirling them around. For place cards we did wooden pink painted heart place cards with names in white acrylic. Nothing elevates an event quicker than a place card right? Lastly, we did a wood “galentine’s” sign that was painted gold for the backdrops. I love being able to see our products in real life, I don’t usually get to. I ship them off or drop them off to a planner or client and I get pictures back. However, seeing everyone’s reactions, the little girls’ excitement, it was so fun! My favorite part though was the little bit of pride in Evelyn’s voice when she said “my mommy made them”.

The girls were given these adorable Hello Kitty masks from My Little Precious Co. and it immediately became one of Evelyn’s favorite masks. They are so light and comfortable for her to wear. They fit her little face just right with a great snug fit around her sides. I’ve ordered some more for her because they are so cute and comfortable for her. Anything to make it easier on her!

Of course, give a group of little girls accessories and they went crazy! Evelyn is still talking about the adorable purse she got to model. My Little Precious Co. has so many adorable high end accessories for little girls. We also have their placemats and when we go out to restaurants, they are always a huge hit. My girls love them!

Paper and Ink Designs did a fantastic job pulling everything together to create this gorgeous invitation for a flowery Galentine’s Day tea party. Go see her work when you have a chance, she’s amazing!

The amazing talent behind the camera is none other than the sweet Joy from Joy Theory Photography. She is so great with kids and capturing all the moments quickly and putting the kids at ease. The things she sees in the camera lenses versus what I see, just goes to show how talented she is. I was so excited to collaborate with her again. I was even more grateful to her when she offered to snap a couple of pictures of me with my girls. Hazel wasn’t the best model, but I will always cherish these moments that she captured. I can’t wait to work with her again professionally and personally!

I love a good Galentine’s Day celebration and I’m excited to make this a tradition for my girls.

Do you celebrate Galentine’s Day?

Shoot Details

Planning & Design: White Blossom Events

Styling: Pretty Little Events & Sweetlee Made

Photography: Joy Theory Co.

Venue: Morning Lavender

Rentals: Sweet Salvage Rentals

Cake & Desserts: Sweetlee Made & Sweets by Keeks

Laser cuts: Delovely Details

Florals: Jovial Floral Co.

Invitation: Paper and Ink Designs Co.

Dresses: Alice and Ames

Accessories & purses: My Lil Precious Co.

Models: The daughters of Sweetlee Made, Cathiecathicathy, Stayatbeach_mama, Delovely Details, Ting Makeup, and White Blossom Events