instagrammed.

Here's a little peek of what we've been up to lately.
If you'd like to follow along on instagram, I'm @aprettycoollife!

Have a good week, friends!
xoxo

find me on bloglovin' and my fave social media sites!
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on being a grown up.

this post is sponsored by 3M. all opinions are my own.

There were things I never thought about as a kid...or a college student...or even as a newlywed...but as a parent, I totally care.

Like the quality of air in our home.
You know, what our littles breathe.

So awhile back 3M contacted me about trying their Filtrete Filters.
They say they do all kinds of good things:

              help improve air quality and captures airborne allergens such as pollen, mold spores, dust mite debris, smoke, pet 
             dander and smog from the air passing through the filter.

              has a unique, two sided design with one side that captures large airborne particles and the second that removes 
              household odors

              is the most effective 1" filter at removing odors from the home

              lasts up to three months

Now I'm not going to say that after starting to use the 3M filters light began to shine down in our house and birds started singing while we danced around like in a Disney movie.
But.
Every little bit helps.
And that's something to feel good about.

Follow Filtrete on twitter.
Follow Filtrete on facebook.
Register to receive seasonal e-newsletters featuring special offers, filter change reminders, better home living tips, and more by visiting www.filtrete.com

xoxo

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hello.

I don't think I'm surprising anyone when I say there's all kinds of drama in our bathrooms daily.

Three littles.

All who have a profound and deep love of teeth brushing.

And water.

Oh the water.

And being the one who gets to squeeze the toothpaste on the brush.

First.

And being the one who gets to flip the timer.

First.

Who gets to stand on which side of the sink.

First.

Oy.

You've seen this before.

And this.

I still can't figure out what was going on here.

So when it's finally my turn to be in the bathroom.

Alone.

I like simple.

Clean.

Easy.

See what I mean.

Even taking a daylight picture in the bathroom is a challenge.

Anywho.

Not long ago I was wandering through Target {shocking} looking at nail polishes and lip glosses and saw these cute new products from hello.

I'm not ashamed to say I buy things because of pretty packaging.

And these are super pretty.

But for one reason or another I didn't buy any that day.

So fast forward a week.

Totally forgot about the pretty products I saw in Target.

But in comes an email from hello asking if I'd like to try their new line.

Do I ever!

I mean.

Come on.

So stinking cute.

And so simple.

No. Drama.

But a pretty face only gets you so far.

Stylish packaging doesn't mean much if what's inside is no bueno.

My fave is the mouthwash.

It doesn't have that crazy burn that I'm used to.

Maybe mouthwash isn't supposed to feel all burn-y??

At any rate.

Just fresh.

Clean.

Nice.

No chaos.

No drama.

No mysteriously wet towels on the floor.

No unrolled toilet paper all over.

hello would love for you to try out their new line of products too!

Head on over to their facebook page and grab some coupons! :)

xoxo

Of course this post was sponsored by hello.  But as always, I only recommend products I really do like. And as always thanks for reading!! xoxo

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I really should drive a minivan.

This picture has nothing to do with anything. I just like posts with pictures.

We're all aware of my SUV driving woes.
And I always considered myself just a wee bit too cool for a minivan.

Til today.
A friend posted this amazingness on facebook.

Read it and tell me you're not thinking about getting a minivan.

Happy Friday, friends!
xoxo

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party diy: glittery pipe cleaner cupcake toppers

If you follow me on instagram or read last week's post about Sister's birthday party, you've seen these little cupcake toppers before. 

I started off thinking I was just going to make a number two, but of course got carried away and started trying to create words instead.

I think it worked out well!

It's probably self explanatory, but just in case, all I did to make these was write out my words in approximately the right size for cupcake toppers and then just started twisting the pipe cleaners into words.

 After I was happy with the shape, I hot glued a toothpick to the back.

Note : : the cheaper the pipecleaner, the better.  I bought a fancy-ish {meaning somewhat more expensive than I usually pay for a package of pipe cleaners} and had some leftover cheapy ones...the "fancy" ones were much fluffier, which made them hard to twist into distinguishable words.

And now you can laugh...here are the outtakes of my mini photo shoot re-creation when I wasn't taking pictures fast enough...I really should keep a fire extinguisher handy while blogging.  Oy. ;)

xoxo

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weekend sewing: dollhouse pillow

Over the weekend, a blog friend and a blog friend stopped for a little while in Chicago.
Luckily, the timing worked out that we got the chance to have lunch and indulge in some creative chit chat.

How we forgot to take a picture of the three of us...I'll never know.

Anywho, all that talk of making and creating got me all fired up to go home and sew something.

I'm soooo good at perfectly imperfect sewing. Ha!!

Since all my party prep came to an end, I've been feeling aimless...
So I made this dollhouse pillow for Sister...it's only been on my to do list since she was born!

This pillow is super straightforward...what you see is what you get.  Windows.  Door.  Chimney.  I added a pocket to the back for fun and thinking that little treasures will find their way in there as she gets older and is interested in that kind of thing.  :)

To see how beautiful and intricate dollhouse pillows can be...just admire Rubyellen's.  I can only imagine how much work she puts into them!!

xoxo

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happy friday.

Remember way back when I planted this tiny succulent?
Well, not only did my black thumb not kill the poor thing...it needs a bigger home!
It's a miracle. ;)

Enjoy your weekend, friends.
xoxo

find me on bloglovin' and my fave social media sites!
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diy: gold dipped wooden spoons

Remember when I painted my rainbow wooden spoons?
Somehow these two escaped my paintbrush since then.
Not any more.

And today it was a can of gold spray paint and me vs. the spoons.
A mini makeover ensued.

Just like the last time, all I did was tape off the bottoms with masking tape and then gave a few light coats to each handle.
It was 90+ degrees out today, so it all went super speedy.

And there you have it.
Two more pretty spoons for my collection.
Yay!
xoxo

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party diy: printable treat bags

{I have a few DIYs left from last week that I instagrammed but ran out of time to share...I'll post them over the next few days :)}

To keep favors simple {and easy!} for sister's party, I chose to give a few homemade chocolate chip cookies to each guest.

I followed my favorite recipe for the cookies.
For the bags, I adjusted my printer tray to 5 x 7 and printed directly on the brown bags.

To keep with all the bright and happy colors of the day, I used a rainbow of fabric scraps leftover from buntings to tie each bag through a hole punched through the top.

The strips were each about an inch wide.

We gave cookies, but of course almost any treat could go inside...candy, pocket pies, brownies, donuts, toys, trinkets...

For baked goods, I would suggest filling the bags as close to party time as possible to avoid any greasy spots showing through.  I filled ours a hour or so before the party and they still looked nice, but the few extras that we had left over until morning did show a few spots.
Just a FYI :)

To download birthday girl bags, click here.
To download birthday boy bags, click here.

Enjoy!

xoxo

find me on bloglovin' and my fave social media sites!
: : facebook
: : pinterest
: : instagram
: : twitter