Back at it again on a MONDAY – how was your weekend? This week feels like crunch time before a little family vacay to the beach next week, so I’ve got another cuppa coffee poured to get in the zone. Especially since so many GREAT Q’s have come through via email/DMs lately, sharing a few of them today in a new #AskE! (If you’re in the mood to peep back through the Q&A archives, have at it here!). Talking everything from baby pool floats to buying houses, so it’s a fun one. 🙂 Also sharing this fun casual outfit I wore last week + loveloveloved!

Checkered tongue tee (around $20 on Amazon! Size UP one – I’m in a Medium!) // American Eagle jean shorts (25% off right now!!! SO good, high-waisted, do not go up yo’ butt! I size up one in AE denim.) // Checkered Vans // Acrylic tile bracelets // Water bottle

Do you have any recommendations for baby pool floaters? Any you have used or liked? My daughter is 7 months and everything I keep finding is for 9m+

Oh, absolutely – Liv is a TOTAL waterbug! This was the best float we had for her from last year when she was around 8 months in the summer – granted, it’s labeled as 9m+, but we were holding onto her in it and she could support herself up, so it still worked. And she still uses it now this summer at 20ish months, so it grew with her! I lovelovelove how it’s got a cute little canopy to keep them shaded while swimming.

BUT, for a 7-month-old, I’d recommend “sizing down” probably to the same float in the infant version, since it’s got more padding/support for baby safety.

Here’s Liv in hers last summer, around 9 months old!

I want a house sooo bad!! Any tips?! How long did the whole process take? Love your house, it’s perfect!

This house-buying process was…different? SO many factors contributed to that, namely, being in a global pandemic. But beyond that, it was a more unique situation than what we had experienced in buying our townhouse given the SELLER’S financial situation, which inevitably impacted how the process went for us. It worked out in the end, thank the Lord, but it definitely threw a wrench in the game for awhile. I talked about it a bit more here in our new house announcement post, so I’ll keep it short n’ sweet here to not be redundant for ya! Long story short, this house wasn’t our plan.

At least, it wasn’t our initial plan.

We thought we would be building our dream single family home before the pandemic ever hit. So much so that we had been meeting with builders and picking things out in showrooms. But all of that ended up falling through, and on the night it did, I happened to pull up my Zillow app as I plopped down on the couch all disgruntled and WHAT DO YOU KNOW – I found our house.

It was truly a God moment, and as more and more pieces came together, it was like God was laughing all along since He had so craftily orchestrated the process to work out as it did for us.

The whole process time period can vary greatly depending on your needs and wants and how you’re going about it! (For example, building from scratch, versus searching on Zillow, etc.) Also depends on the nature of the market – is it a buyer’s or seller’s market? Right now it’s still a seller’s market, I think, and was when we bought, too. (Meaning there are more people that are looking to buy than there are houses for sale, which impacts supply and demand and can influence pricing, etc!)

For kicks and giggles, I went back through my camera roll; we first saw our current house on January 30th. We closed on May 1st. We had put an offer in the same weekend we saw it, so it was definitely a road to get to closing!

I think my biggest tips would be:

Be open-minded, but clear on your non-negotiables. Always know the WHY behind a want. Do you need a certain number of bedrooms or bathrooms? What kindof layout to get from the kitchen to a dining area to family room? For us, I reaaaaaally wanted tall windows in a family room – a big space really great for gathering. We also had an island on our checklist and a nice open area for entertaining. I also needed an office, and we wanted four bedrooms. A big yard was something that we would’ve liked, but this house ultimately didn’t have that – BUT, it was OK because it came with a cute little swing set for Liv, had room to add on a deck later, and is in a fabulous community with great neighbors, so we were okay nixing a big yard since that wasn’t really a “need” (we don’t have a dog or anything and it would’ve just been extra to mow!).
Work with a great realtor. Our realtor was truly fabulous. He went to bat for us on so much, was SO communicative (which is HUGE for both J + I!), and saved us many a headache. And going through the process on the other side in then selling our townhouse, holy moly…a great realtor is TRULY make or break. We dealt with some awful ones as sellers, so we have even more appreciation now for our own – and know that they can literally lose a deal for a client if they’re not good.
Buy in the right season if/when you can! Ideally, in a buyer’s market and in the springtime, since that’s when most folks will put their homes up for sale if you’re going that route. (Because they want to be moved in time for the new school year, if they have kids!)
Mortgage over rent. Obviously this isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons, but if you can, opt for a mortgage over renting. Renting is literally throwing money away, while you at least build equity with a mortgage and can use that down the road in buying a new home. It builds up + pays off, literally!
Pinterest like a pro. Seriously! I had a board for every room in my head and albums on my phone’s camera roll dedicated to different spaces as inspiration hit. Learn the lingo so that you can search for similar spaces + styles online (ie., “vaulted ceiling,” “wainscotting,” the “rustic” look or a “modern farmhouse dining room” – ha!).

Hey! Golden Goose dupes???

You bet! Some favorites right here – all $100 or less compared to $500+ for the real deal!

Hey girl! Restocking on Tula and I’m going back and forth with restocking my sugar scrub or trying the exfoliating treatment mask. What do you think?

SO. Two of my faves here – and for different reasons, because they do different things!

The sugar scrub is a manual exfoliant. Meaning, it’s a gritty sugar meant to manually loosen flakes of dry skin from your face. It’s got natural enzymes inside to ALSO act as a chemical exfoliant, to help loosen gunk or debris on your face that might not be actually flaking off yet (lovely visual, right? Ha!). Ingredients include the sugar as well as papaya, pineapple, and the usual Tula probiotics.

It smells FABULOUS, might I add – like the best tropical vacation. Tula’s sugar scrub is actually my FAVORITE sugar scrub I’ve ever tried, because it’s basically impossible to overscrub or irritate your skin with it. The sugar literally melts away into your face

The exfoliating treatment mask is a clay-based mask (my all-time favorite clay mask, might I add!). It also works to exfoliate and has a BIT of “grit” in it to help manually exfoliate while you’re removing it. It’s got antioxidants to help re-hydrate your skin. And is obviously a mask instead of a scrub, so by the nature, they’re different in that regard.

Both are definitely worth trying + having in your regime, in my humble opinion. 😉

AND OF COURSE as always, my Tula code COMINGUPROSES will save ya 15% on whatever ya want! (+ you’ll get FREE shipping if you hit $40 on your order, FYI!). #TreatYoSelf

For your gallery wall in your dining room, did you order the photos/frames from a particular company, or did you print them yourself?

We got the two separately – the frames are right here! (And I got three packs – but they’re so affordable since the breakdown comes down to about $6.50 a pop!). Then I printed the photos here! I’ve used this website for YEARS for literally all of my photo-printing needs, from actual prints for framing to our annual family photo books. So I can stand behind + recommend them 100%!

Hey there! Is the color for the Pillow Talk dupe called Trust Your Gut? Just want to be sure since links can take you to different selections sometimes…thanks!

Yes ma’am – here it is again! I try to always + only link up exact products I’m talking about, and if it’s by chance NOT the exact thing, I always note that for you! One of my biggest pet peeves as a reader of others’ blogs is when things are linked up incorrectly or unclearly, especially if I want to buy something and care about it being the same thing (because that’s, you know, kinda the point? Ha!). So I put a whole lotta time + effort AND have help (thanks, Katie!) always making sure the right things are linked up for you, and any noted close alternatives if it’s something that’s old and no longer sold, or something sold out or out of stock.