Last week, Prairie and I were visiting the home of my sweet friend Sara of @usdrifting. It was a hot day here in the Mojave, and Prairie and Sara’s daughter Stella inevitably ended up naked splashing in a tub of water. At one point Prairie put on Stella’s fairy wings and climbed up in their van to check it out. I snapped a quick pic of her little backside with her fairy wings on peering out of the van’s portal window. It was such an adorable moment and one of those serendipitous times when you just happen to pull out your phone and capture what turns out to be one of your fav pics ever.

Continue reading “My first experience with mom shaming” →

I’ve talked before about how I felt the need to makeover my wardrobe after becoming a mother and moving to the desert, but one thing I hadn’t really ever figured out is jewelry. “My jewelry personality” so to speak. Pre-kiddo I used to love to wear big statement pieces, but honestly I haven’t worn much besides my wedding band these past few years. The few things I have purchased in this time I need really reach for.

So when Jewel Street reached out to me and offered me a piece of jewelry of my choosing, I was both excited and also confused. This would be my first piece of fine jewelry that wasn’t either inherited or my engagement/wedding ring. This would be a piece of my own to pass on to Prairie someday! I love the idea of an heirloom piece, but what heirloom piece style am I?? Big and bold? Timeless and chic? Modern? Simple? Boho?? Ahh, so many decisions to make!

After countless hours virtually window shopping, (they have A LOT of AMAZING indie designers to explore) I discovered the lovely work of Uma K. Which is funny, because they feature  designers from all over the world- but somehow I found and fell in love with the work of a free-spirited California girl! I guess I officially love the Cali-cool style, what can I say? Just like the clothing I gravitate too, my jewelry should be simple but sumptuous- it all seems so obvious to me now.

Anyhow, I chose this 14 karat gold infinity ring. Uma K’s pieces have an air of mysticism about them, which is very Joshua Tree to me and just feels right for this chapter of my life. I truly love the symbology behind the infinity ring that I chose. I love how simple it is, yet how special. Another really cool thing about Uma K is that she makes some of her pieces in Brass too, so here’s a more affordable version of the same shape.

So a while back I shared an instagram post about how my family now earns money from my account & thanked everyone for following along and supporting us. I know folks can get irritated by sponsored posts, so I wanted to remind everyone that I am a real person who spends a lot of time on this platform, and part of the pay-off for me being able to earn some income from it. There was a lot of questions & curiosity about the world of social media “influencing” (that word makes me seriously uncomfortable) so I promised a blog post.  It is a big topic that I kind of don’t even know how to dive into, hence why I’ve procrastinated writing this, but I’m giving it a shot.

Continue reading “some thoughts on instagram influencing” →

Between living in the desert and breast feeding, I pretty much feel like I can never stay on top of drinking enough water. And that bothers me, because I am a huge believer in the restorative powers of hydration. I was recently thinking of ways to increase my water intake, and wishing there was some easy way to drink water on the go without having to fish my water bottle out of my bag. I thought of getting some sort of camel back, but I don’t like to drink out of plastic- especially here in Joshua Tree, where temps get so hot it can cause all kinds of stuff to leach into the water. I’d been thinking and thinking about what to do, when the answer serendipitously dropped into my lap (isn’t it funny how it always seems to happen this way?). My friend introduced me to the kickstarter campaign for Closca Bottle + App and it is all my water bottle dreams come true. It is made of borosilicate glass (one of the strongest and toughest glasses available fyi, for clumsy folks like me) with a silicone sleeve that hooks to your backpack (or stroller, or bike, or purse, or whatever) for easy on the go access!  They kindly sent me a bottle to try out. I have been using it about two weeks now, and it’s truly the answer to all my #hydrationproblems. So I am super excited to be partnering with Closca to help spread the word.

Continue reading “Cool New Product Alert: Closca Bottle + App” →

When we bought our home, a big part of what appealed to us about it was the charm factor. It’s a 1958 brick homestead cabin (with an addition that makes it a 2.5 bedroom) and it came with two 50 year saguaros in the front yard! There’s lots of other vintage charm too, like beautiful exposed beam high ceilings. But unfortunately, although it was very recently renovated- the contractors that worked on it had much different taste then we do and they essentially turned this unique little gem into a boring Home Depot showroom.

Because of our (extremely) limited budget we’ve decided to focus attention first on the living room & I wanted to give you guys a progress peek! I’m calling it a “facelift” versus a “renovation” because there’s so much I’d love to do, like knock down walls and install windows, but for now (due to that darn budget) we are keeping things more surface level.

My lovely friend and super talented photographer Merrill was over recently shooting a story about me for Noble Carriage and I asked if she would take some shots of the living room too, and lovely human that she is – she obliged! Thank you Merrill!

Okay so here’s the current state of the living room! So mad at myself for not remembering to take many before pictures, but this should give you an idea:

Continue reading “my living room facelift!” →