High Five for Friday + A Chicago Onesie

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 5, 2015 // 26 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by Katie, Caitlin, Tif and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week’s featured blogger is Rachel from Garay Treasures!! She’s a SAHM mom to four and blogs about lifestyle and fashion (her fashion posts are my favorite!!). I follow her on Instagram and basically double tap every OOTD pic! Rachel also hosts the “Bloggers Who Have Inspired Me” link up every Tuesday. I love combing through the other blogs and get a chance to meet new people. Be sure to swing by and say hi to Rachel!!

1. Yay! It’s Friday! Hope you all had wonderful weeks. I’m currently on vacation now in my childhood hometown, Columbus, OH! This whole week was basically preparing to go on vacation…. you almost had a weekly vlog of nothing but me doing laundry and cleaning toilets. So since that was likely the entire content, I decided to skip the weekly vlog this week 🙂

2. Last week I asked the question “Would you buy a $200 pair of sunglasses?” and it was the best chat here on the blog and on IG! I really enjoyed reading all of your responses! So thank you for the thoughts. For the record, I decided to keep the sunglasses, and they are amazing! I’m just guarding them with my life 🙂

3. Did you see Tuesday’s May Favorites post?? Go check it out!

4. I’ve had this picture saved forever, but here’s something comical! I noticed on my Netflix home page they had these suggestions for Kimmy Schmidt…

5. I put Elizabeth in the funniest onesie from my sister, who lives in Chicago. She posed with her belly jutting out like she had gobbled up 5 Chicago style hot dogs.

So now, on to the linkup!

Fellow bloggers – ready to join in the link up? Just write a blog post about 5 things that made this week awesome! Add your link to your blog post down below (make sure it’s your blog post, not your blog home page!). And then grab the H54F button to add to your post! And go visit at least 3 fellow link uppers AND this week’s featured blogger! It’s just the nice thing to do.

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

May Favorites | A Brush + Book + Mason Jar

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 2, 2015 // 15 Comments

It’s the most wonderful time of the month! Favorites time! I have a few things I’ve been obsessing over this past month and couldn’t wait to share them with you!

Links down below of products mentioned!

And if you didn’t realize I had a YouTube channel, swing by to check out other videos and subscribe!

Products Mentioned:

Favorite Necklace | Crystal Dome Trio from J. Crew Factory

Favorite Skirt | Black Stripe Skirt from J. Crew Factory (no longer available, but similar)

Favorite Haircare | TRESSeme Fresh Start Volumizing Dry Shampoo

Favorite New Beauty Tool | Bobbi Brown Eye Blender Brush

Favorite TV Show | Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith

Favorite Random | Mason Jar Cups at the Dollar Tree (similar)

For the record – none of these products were given to me, and there are no affiliate links. I’m just not that cool.

Linked up with – Tuesday Talk & In Residence

High Five for Friday + The $200 Sunglasses Debate

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // May 29, 2015 // 27 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by Katie, Caitlin, Tif and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here! Just FYI – Caitlin is having a blogging break right now, but she’ll be back next week!

This week’s featured blogger is Abby from Always, Abby!! Here’s what I love about lifestyle bloggers – there is always such variety in the posts. Some makeup, some fashion, some daily life. And Abby is no exception! She’s a new blog to me, and I’m so glad she links up here, because I’ve got someone new to read and stalk! Swing over and say hi to Abby!!

So I basically fell of the face of the earth this week! I came back from the Memorial Day holiday and basically ignored the blog. I didn’t even visit any of you!!! I am so sorry about that. It’s like going a whole week without texting a friend. I missed you all. But I’ll be back at it on the regular next week.

You may have missed it on Instagram last Friday, but I thought it would be fun to post my fav pic from the week on Friday morning, to continue the excitement of H54F. So if you want to do that too, tag your pic on Instagram with #H54Ffav so I can see it too!

Anyway, here is what I DID do this week….

1. I did quite a bit of blog brainstorming this week, and even recorded 4 (!!!) videos. I’ve got a May Favorites, 2 empty product videos, AND a brand new series kicking off in June! Pretty jazzed. YOU don’t really benefit from all of that right away, but eventually you will.

2. Memorial Day weekend was tons of fun! I hope it was great for you. We went up to my in-laws house and it was such a delightful time. I didn’t vlog at all because I didn’t want them to think I was a dork, but it was such a fun weekend. We had a quick walk in the woods….

Went to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens… it has the coolest Children’s Garden with a ton of fun exploring sections, but the best part is the splash ground! Had to drag Elizabeth away.

And then, my sister-in-law purchased a cute baby pool for Elizabeth and her cousin to splash around in. They played in it all day separately, but only together for about 10 minutes because their naps were on opposite schedules, but the squeals of delight were such fun!

3. So I didn’t do a lot of blogging this week because I was focusing on housework. I was on a roll, and didn’t want to mess with that! Know what I mean? I had a genius moment in the organizing department this week. I needed to figure out a way to organize our linen closet that is really deep. It’s so deep that it’s a pain to utilize the closet effectively. But as I was hauling an empty Costco diaper box I realized it was the perfect size for the closet! Blog post coming soon, but I was high fiving myself after that!

4. This week was a Trader Joe’s shopping week and couldn’t resist a few bunches of flowers! These are a few of my favorite things.

5. Yesterday I had to do a quick run to the mall. I snagged this striped peplum top at the Gap for only $9! Crazy! I haven’t been to the Gap in a really long time, and I miss it. But I told myself I would only keep this top if I could find 5 ways to wear it when I got home. I did – and I plan on having a post on that soon!

The real reason I went to the mall was to find my husband a new pair of sunglasses. I found him a pair of Maui Jims, which are super lightweight, and have a 2 year warranty. But they are SUPER expensive for a pair of sunglasses. It seemed ok, since my husband is the guy that uses something forever, until it breaks.

Naturally, I had to buy myself a pair. But I’m REALLY regretting it. $200 for a pair of sunglasses that I’m bound to break at some point? Ugh…. What do you think? To keep or not to keep? I love the sunglasses and they are so lightweight! But I’m the girl that buys $20 sunglasses from Nordstrom Rack… I need help!

I feel like I wrote way too much! Sorry about that. But after one week of not really chatting with you all I felt like there was a lot of blabbering to do.

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

High Five for Friday + A Haul, Strawberries and Some Rain

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // May 22, 2015 // 36 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by Katie, Caitlin, Tif and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week our featured blogger is Whitney at Come Home for Comfort! Even if you’re a newish reader to this blog, you know I’ve referenced Whitney’s posts often! (I especially loved her recent one on Princess Catherine) I also included Whitney in a post about my favorite blogs. Whitney writes about a variety of topics, but what I love most are her posts about marriage. She is such an encouragement. I often get inspired to do sweet things for my husband because of her posts. She has become such a great blogging friend! Swing by and say hi!

Did everyone have good weeks? Ours wasn’t particularly interesting, but here are the highlights!

1. I swear I just went in to Walgreens to buy some milk….

2. Elizabeth and I went strawberry picking! I picked a baby in strawberries (8 lbs 9 oz.) and Elizabeth ate about a pound’s worth. She looked like she had murdered someone by the end of it…

3. And those strawberries are so yummy! They deserve their own highlight.

4. While I don’t talk about church all that often, our church is going through some fun times right now, and it’s exciting! Our church is building a new church home, and I’m on the building committee. We had a meeting Wednesday talking about and planning for our ground breaking on June 13! YAY!

5. Thursday morning it poured buckets. So naturally we just popped the deck door open and watched it rain. (I swear, she chose that dress herself!)

I did record it all too! If you fancy a watch while you drink your coffee, then have at it! Thank you all so much for your kind comments last week about my first vlog. It is a lot of fun to do! Not sure if it will be a weekly occurrence yet, but it’s still a fun change!

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

The Summer Vacation To Do List 2015

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // May 20, 2015 // 23 Comments

I was one of those girls that sat down, with her pretty notebook, and dreamed about all the things that had to be accomplished when Summer Vacation rolled around. It usually included reading a lot of books and even “have an adventure”.

You loose that sense of excitment as an adult, but this summer I want to try and capture the joy of having summer ahead of me, armed with a list of stuff I have to do! So here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish this summer – some activities as a family, and some just me.

Visit every park in Durham County | There are a ton of city parks (over 40!), and most I haven’t even seen. I’m sure there are treasures that I don’t know about. Some have great playgrounds, others have spraygrounds for summer fun!

Go to the NC Zoo | Can’t believe we’ve been here almost 5 years and we have yet to go to the state zoo. Seems like a no brainer summer activity.

Visit a pool | We’ll be a bit moochie, but we have several friends who have pool memberships and can take guests. Pick me! Pick me!

Road Trip outside of NC | This one is already scheduled, but still should be added to the list!

Road Trip within NC | Now that we have a minivan, I should be able to convince my husband to do a day trip or overnight trip within NC.

Beach Day | We aren’t huge beach people, but it would be fun to do a quick day trip to the beach.

Visit the Farmers Market | I still can’t believe this hasn’t happened yet this season, but it needs to.

Go to the Marbles Kids Museum | This museum is in downtown Raleigh, but I’ve heard it’s a great museum, even for toddlers. This would be a good “too hot” activity!

Schedule Date Nights | We had a babysitter about a month ago, so my husband and I could go out to eat and enjoy a relaxing dinner. It was DELIGHTFUL! We need to get more of these on the calendar.

Attend a Bull City Craft Playcraft session | This is a really cool craft store that does toddler crafts almost every week day. It would be tons of fun, and a great “hot day” activity.

Keep Vlogging | I’ve already started, but I’d love to keep this up over the summer… whether it’s weekly OR random whole days. We shall see.

Attend a Food Truck Rodeo | There is a BIG food truck rodeo on Father’s Day, which we went to last year, and I’d like to do it again. But there are other smaller rodeos throughout the summer that I would like to hit as well.

Go to Pullen Park | This is a really cool park in Raleigh that we haven’t been to yet. Plenty of playground space, but also a carousel and a train!

Attend an outdoor concert | There are several options (free and paid) in the area for outdoor concerts. Just need to pick one and do it!

Organize more play dates | Many of our play date activities will wind down for the summer, but I don’t want to miss out on friend time.

Reread the Mitford Series | Jan Karon’s Mitford Series is my absolute favorite book series. I ADORE it! Lighthearted, warm, and funny, it’s just the kind of books that leaves you smiling when you finish reading them. There is a new book coming out in the fall, so I want to reread the entire series in anticipation of that new book.

Schedule “hookie” weekends | Our weekends are always jam-packed. We go to church on Saturday, and I am involved in several things each week, which means it’s a busy day! And then we jam so much in on Sunday that the weekend is rarely relaxing. I need to pull out that schedule and just block off weekends where we have nothing scheduled and block it off to play hookie.

What are your plans for this summer? Even if you don’t have the summer off, like the good ol’ days, try to plan a few special things!

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