Hey Hey! It’s Friday!

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 10, 2014 // 23 Comments

Hello hello! Anyone else shocked it’s Friday? I am!

Here’s what I’ve been up to this week!

1. I be draggin’. I’m pooped. Elizabeth’s First Birthday tomorrow can not come soon enough. But it’s been a fun week so far preparing and having family in town! The rest of the family comes tonight and the high events begin tomorrow!

2. Speaking of party planning, I am having a blast planning with my mom. She is amazing! I haven’t had so much fun before “shopping” my house for things to use for our party. We also fussed with my kitchen table, which will be the food area for the party. Here’s our working plan.

3. My mom also managed to just throw together the arrangement over my fireplace. You should have seen what my attempt was first.

4. I managed to squeek out a few fun blog-related things! I’m teaming up with Tif at Bright on a Budget and Della at Della Devoted to do TWO giveaways! My particular favorite is the Naked2 Basics Pallet. You know you want one! Check out the post for details on how to win. (If you’re reading this now because of the giveaway, then hi!! Excited you’re here!)

5. I did my first 6 day recap for the 30 Outfits in 30 Days. I basically loved every single outfit, but this is how I felt about that awesome striped shirt with gold collar!

Let me know what you’ve been up to in the comments below! Have a great weekend!

Linking up with:

Fall Must Haves and a Giveaway | Falling into Basics

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 9, 2014 // 6 Comments

I love Fall, especially when it comes to the clothes.

I tend to gravitate towards neutrals and basics in colors like brown/khaki, navy and green. Then I sprinkle in some brighter color (usually in richer tones) in the accessories.

I have a few of my favorite Fall pieces integrated into my 30 Outfits in 30 Days challenge as well as some new-to-me items I mentioned in my Fall Haul video. If you’re on the lookout to update your Fall wardrobe, look for a few of these items in classic shapes, so you can use them each year!

Basic Trench

Striped Top

Riding Boot

Plaid Anything

Scarves in any style!

A red lipstick

Smoky brown eye shadows

Utility Jacket in Army Green

Comfy Knit Pants

Easiest way to update your wardrobe for Fall? Enter the giveaway!

Say what??! A giveaway?

Yep!

I’m teaming up with Della at Della Devoted and Tif at Bright on a Budget to do, not just one, but TWO giveaways!! And seriously, if I was allowed to enter, I totally would, because these items are the perfect accessories to give your Fall wardrobe and makeup collection a serious boost.

First up, we’re giving away an awesome polkadot infinity scarf in a pretty teal color (you know how much I love polkadots!) as well as a long gold tassel necklace with tortoise shell detail. Love it!

The second giveaway will be over on Instagram, so be sure to follow me for updates when that goes live later today! It will be a super versatile bracelet that’s lovely, chunky, and will be so easy to layer with other bracelets and watches. And also a Naked2 Basics pallet! This is stocked full of gourgeous browns for easy smokey eyes. Major jealous!

Interested in winning? Click here to enter!

And then head on over to Instagram to follow me and be updated on when the #fallingforneutrals giveaway goes live with details on how to enter!

A HUGE thank you to y’all for reading and sticking with me. I blog because it’s just fun! And hearing from all of you and chatting is such a joy. So these are tokens of appreciation.

Good luck! We’ll be announcing winners on October 16!

30 Outfits 30 Days Challenge | Day 1 – 6 Recap

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 9, 2014 // 13 Comments

View the other 30 Outfits 30 Days Challenge Posts | KickOff

First 6 days are done for the 30 Outfits in 30 Days Challenge! If you’re not sure what’s up, you can read more here. But, long story short: I chose 30 items from my closet, and challenged myself to make 30 unique outfits for the next 30 days!

Here are my thoughts from this week’s outfits.

*FYI – I’m just now seeing that I put the pictures in the collage in the wrong order! So let’s just roll with it 🙂

Most Worn Item | This turned out to be my ponte pants from J Crew Factory! These are the most comfy pants ever!

Favorite Outfit | I LOVE Day 4. It was a good combo, and I loved those shoes with the pants. I wore that outfit on a busy party day, and got many compliments (that instantly puts outfits in the “must rewear” cateogry). But, if I’m honest, pretty much every outfit this week was great.

Least Favorite Outfit | Can I say none? I liked them all!

This Week’s Surprise | Day 1’s outfit! I decided that on Day 1, I would just do something COMPLETELY new to me. The shirt was new, and I initially thought the shirt and pants wouldn’t go together. But I really liked it together.

Hardest Thing About This Week | Nothing to do with the clothes themselves, but this week was just super busy because we’re in full party mode for Elizabeth’s First birthday on Saturday. So it was just hard to get pictures taken each day.

Also, so glad I decided not to narrow down my shoes and purses to include them in the 30 items. It’s been fun to try to incorporate them. But, I’m regretting a smidge that I included my 3 jackets in the 30 items. Let’s face it, I spend most of my time inside… anyway, it’s called a “challenge” for a reason 🙂

So let’s recap each outfit! (oh hey, Katie’s bedroom! New picture location! Which, funny enough, means my tripod is set up in the room. So if you have NO idea what’s going on, you just walk by the room, see a tripod set up facing the bed… weird)

Day 1 | Top, Pants (similar), Necklace (similar), Bag (similar), Shoes (similar)

Day 2 | Top, Pants (similar), Necklace, Shoes (similar), Bag (similar)

Day 3 | Dress (kind of similar), Blazer, Necklace, Shoes (similar), Bag (sort of similar)

Day 4 | Top (similar), Pants, Shoes (similar), Necklace, Bag (similar with bow detail)

Day 5 | Top, Pants, Shoes (similar), Bag (similar with bow detail)

Day 6 | Top (similar), Chambray Top (similar), Pants, Shoes (similar), Scarf (similar)

Favorite Outfit? Favorite item?? I thought it was a pretty good week! And really, with the exception of Day 6, there were no “safe” outfits. They were mostly all new-to-me outfits as well.

Stay tuned next Thursday for another 6 day recap!

Menu Monday!

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 6, 2014 // 6 Comments

Hey y’all! Did anyone else have a whirlwind of a weekend? All my carefully laid plans for some serious 1st birthday planning fell apart. So I have a feeling there will be many late nights and early mornings in my future this week.

First, last week I mentioned that I was trying out this new Italian Orzo Spinach Soup recipe. It was so tasty! Even my husband, who dislikes any soup that has a “delicate flavor” declared it was tasty! So a winner!

This week’s menu is going to be extra intense. I’m not writing it down to say “Wow! Look at all that food!”. It’s more like it’s therapeutic for me to write all this out. This week, starting Tuesday, family is rolling into town for Elizabeth’s big 1st Birthday party on Saturday. So I need to plan out breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the whole week, to feed more adults than I’m used to.

The birthday party menu is also listed below, if you’re curious!

For more information on how I menu plan, look at this.

Monday:
Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal (blog post coming soon!)
Dinner: Pumpkin Ravioli from Trader Joe’s with a Walnut Brown Butter Sauce & Balsamic Drizzle

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Cereal and sausage patties
Dinner: Kale, Black Bean and Avocado Burrito Bowls

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal (my mom likes oatmeal!)
Dinner: Pizzas from Trader Joe’s and a Salad

Thursday:
Breakfast: Egg & Potato Breakfast Skillet, Fruit
Dinner: Potstickers with Fried Rice, Salad

Friday:
Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal
Dinner: Build-Your-Own Taco Salads
(Yes, baked oatmeal again. It’s so easy, plus I’m hoping someone will take pity on me and say “let’s go out!”)

Saturday:
Breakfast: Out to Eat
Birthday Party Day!
Cheese Platter, Crackers and Honey Rosemary Roasted Walnuts
Mini Cornbreads
Spinach & Goat Cheese Mini Bites
Veggies & Dip platter
Smash Cake (for Elizabeth)
Pumpkin Dip & Gingersnap cookies

Sunday:
Breakfast at our House:
Spinach & Cheese Strata
Cinnamon Roll Quick Bread
Hash Browns
Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits

Lunches will be a variety of salads, hummus, pitas and ready-made soups. Encouraging the grazing 🙂

Need ideas for dinner? Follow my Pinterest board – it’s where I save all of my dinner ideas!

http://www.pinterest.com/ktcupoftea/good-eats-dinner/

Linking up at Menu Monday with Org Junkie

Hey Hey! It’s Friday!

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // October 3, 2014 // 27 Comments

Hello hello! Hope you all had a glorious week!

Onward!

1. Man… can these weeks please slow down? I seriously need to pull an all-nighter just to catch up. And it seems like it’s been that way for weeks! Mercy.

2. Elizabeth’s 1 year birthday is next week! I haven’t done A THING to plan for it, except discuss plans with my mom. Haven’t even ordered a cake yet. But, yesterday, I tried to take her final 1 year monthly picture. I put her in her little birthday outfit she’ll wear for the party. And this was basically how it all went. No sitting and smiling.

3. It was a crazy week with nothing done, but at least it was a good blog week! I got up my Fall Haul video and launched the 30 Outfits in 30 Days Challenge! I picked 30 items in my wardrobe and am committing to wearing only those items for the next 30 days. So excited! I’ll be posting daily OOTD pics on Instagram and Twitter starting today!

4. I also put up a vlog in anticipation of the challenge! It’s a behind the scenes look at me picking the items, purging out my closet, and wrangling Elizabeth. It was so fun to do!

5. Can we just talk about Fall again?? Even though I had a mountain of apples to eat here at home, I still bought 3 Honeycrisp apples. And they were delicious! Favorite apple of all time! Which, of course, means I have to go to Costco and see if they have their massive flats of Honeycrisps.

Let me know what you’ve been up to in the comments below! Have a great weekend!

Linking up with:

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