Sweet potatoes! Linking up with Narci, Erika and Andrea, today for my Friday Favorites, 04.2020 post. Even though this is a weekly post for many of my blogger buddies, I’m just hoping to share my faves once a month, on the last Friday. And so far, so good. In case you missed it, please check out the goodies in last month’s Friday Faves, here.
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Friday Favorites 04.2020
This month’s favorites are a conglomeration of all kinds or real and virtual things. A couple of favorite blog posts I enjoyed this week, a couple of fashion purchases inspired by some blogging fashionista friends, and some ideas that I think are pretty cool. Let’s get started.
Favorite Organizational Product
One of my faves for this month is a thingamabob my sister Valerie bought first bought and shared with me. A hobby cart to help me reach my winter goal of decluttering and organizing my craft space. Yeah, I said winter goal! Actually did do a preliminary declutter of my craft supplies in the winter. But got down and dirty in there this week. And as a reward for my hard work, I ordered this cute Recollections red metal cart from Michaels. It is currently on sale, and comes in about a half-dozen colors.
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Have been following along with Taylor’s 52 Weeks To An Organized Home. But we aren’t scheduled to tackle crafts until late October. With all this free time on my hands, I hated to wait. Besides, if this stay at home order is in place all summer, I will need to declutter and reorganize by then again anyway.
Favorite Fashion Find
During my blog reading earlier in the month, I fell in love with a look shared by Jess Jannenga at Elegantly Dressed and Stylish. For her Turning Heads link up, Jess paired a camo skirt with a green/yellow and pink floral blouse. I love the play between edgy and feminine, hard and soft.
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Isn’t she just stunning? I was anxious to replicate her fabulous look. And in the post, Jess linked to her NYDJ skirt, but it was a little beyond my budget limits. Not to be deterred, I shopped until I found this Style & Co. camo skirt, on sale 30% off, at Macy’s.
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I have several blouses I think will work. Which one do you like best?
So will shop my closet first, before buying something new. And then I will share my copycat look here with you.
Several Favorite Blog Posts
I have done a lot of blog reading this week. It has been uplifting for me to read about everyone’s reflections on and experiences with Covid-19. Brings us closer together knowing we aren’t dealing with this very lonely time all alone. Three posts this week especially resonated with me.
The first one was written by my Australian friend Deb at Deb’s World. The title of the post is What I Heard This Week. It made me think about the things I am hearing and not hearing during these very strange days.
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Another post that spoke to me was written by my friend Laurie at Meditations in Motion. In her post Stubborn Hope Begin in the Dark, Laurie is very open about her struggles dealing with a feeling of panic and sense of fear that strikes her at unpredictable moments these days. I can relate. As I’ve shared here, Sunday and Thursday nights are my hardest times. Not really sure why those nights in particular. Maybe Sunday night because I am anxious about what the week will bring. And Thursday night because I am sad for what the weekend won’t hold?
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My new friend Jennifer from My Ashes for Beauty wrote about how these days are beginning to run together. In her post Not Just Another Day, she reminds readers to not wish their lives away by focusing only on a future once the quarantine is lifted. Jennifer reflects on how each day is a new day, with new opportunities. Encouragement I needed to hear. Because I tend to forget to live in the present, in the moment.
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Favorite Act of Love
My daughter Brennyn is a neo natal nurse in Ft. Worth, Texas. She is so dedicated to her patients and their families and works with a great group of day shift nurses who have become like family. One of Brennyn’s closest friends is Kathryn. And Kathryn is the subject of one of these Friday Faves.
For each holiday, Kathryn crochets hats or booties for the babies born in their unit during that special time. And then she sets up the sweetest backdrop and, with the new parents’ permission, Kathryn photographs those precious babies. Brennyn shared Kathryn’s Easter backdrop with me. And then Kathryn was kind enough to send me photos of the sets for several earlier holidays. Check these out!
Another act of love comes to us from El Paso Strong, an organization that came together after the August 3 mass shooting in our city. The El Paso Strong website provides much information, including statistics, health orders, FAQs about the coronavirus. And it was their recent suggestion that the city unite behind our medical professionals and first responders. How? By turning on lights on the exterior of their homes at 7:30 pm each Friday. Unite with Light.
Is something similar being done in your community?
Favorite Friday Funnies
Some of you guys find the best memes and gifs. I must not know where to look for them!! But stumbled across a couple of Covid-19 funnies this week. I bet all of you have seen them already but they were new to me. And gave me a laugh.
The DIY mask video had me rolling! I cannot sew, although my mom did so beautifully. She tried to teach me and I even took sewing lessons. But none of it ‘took.’ That might be why I found this so hilarious. It could be ME!!
We started tracking our Weight Watchers points this week. That’s funny on its own!! But PC was looking through the WW Connect feed and came across some great graphics about ‘AC’ – after Covid. Of course, when I tried to find them, I couldn’t. But came across this and thought it was cute.
After quarantine…
And I will leave you with this parting pic.
Your Turn
What would be on this Friday Favorites 04.2020 list? Have you been doing any on line shopping? Found any special bargains? Resorted to cutting your own hair yet? Girls, mine is getting so long. And so gray. Sad state of affairs.
Off to change clothes so we can run. Trying a new route today. Hoping you have a pleasant weekend and are able to find a way to do some of the things you enjoy most…SAFELY!
Hugs and kisses,
I love Jess s style! She knows what looks good on her. I think all three blouses look good but the right one looks the best for me! Now show it is because it s a hell of a good outfit! Happy weekend!
I have been dying my own roots but I haven’t cut it and never will. If this goes on forever, I’ll have my daughter trim it but I guess I will have long hair for life. The only shopping I’m doing is for food and toiletries although I did buy a new pair of garden shoes as my old ones the sole came out.
I think that any of the three blouses would work. A larger floral would be best so I would choose the blouse on the right.The video is hilarious. Happy weekend.
My hair is getting quite long too so I’ve resorted to buns, pony tails, braids and more… with the help of a few clips to keep those shorter hairs in place.
I have my hair in a pony tail today. My bangs have grown out enough that I can finally tuck them into the elastic. Wore a headband yesterday. But that, combined with the elastic on my face mask and the ear pieces on my sunglasses gave my ears a good working over. Ready to have my hair shaped up!!
Hi Leslie,
Love the haircut picture! My hair is getting long, you can really tell when its straight!
Thank you so much for the feature and I am excited for you to style your camo look! That is a great skirt too! I love the colors and larger print in the one on the right. Your craft cart looks great! I have some photography projects for the Great Room I have yet to do.
have a good weekend!
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
I am thinking I prefer the same blouse as you do, paired with my camo skirt. But I go back and see your beautiful blouse and want one with more white and yellow. Lighter, breezier colors. Your look is just so spectacular.
OH my goodness, that video was HYSTERICAL!!!! Ha! I totally thought she was a legit sewer and never expected her to be hilarious. My sister and I signed up for a sewing class. We bought patterns, fabric,all the notions and we thought we’d be making clothes likes no one’s business! We bailed after the first two lessons and decided to go to dinner and shop!
Your new camo skirt is cute, cute, cute and I think the first two blouses are both my faves. I can’t wait to see you in them!
xo,
Kellyann
Ha!! Your sewing experience sounds like mine. My daughter and I bought cute little sewing kits and boxes to keep everything in, registered for a class and attended about 3 sessions but the teacher NEVER came by to help us. After the 3rd class we decided we’d rather eat Mexican and have margaritas. I kept my pattern and fabric for years but finally tossed it in a closet purge.
Can’t wait to wear my camo skirt. Going to start wearing skirts and little tee shirt dresses like I would jeans.
Hi, Leslie – I can’t sew either. A friend sent me the “Kay Sewing Tutorial” and I also fell over laughing. Very, very funny!
Thank you for sharing it again here!
Isn’t that sewing tutorial so cute. She is so serious and so likable.
I’m doing alright – definitely a lot of online shopping, which I need to stop. LOL Granted, most of it is for OTHER people so I suppose it’s not too bad. I don’t cut my hair often, so it’s doing okay, but I get my hair really thinned out when I do go, so it’s probably going to start getting really heavy soon and that’s the part I hate.
-Lauren
Me, too!! Spending too much money online shopping. But what’s a girl to do???
Wish you could give me some of the heaviness of your hair!! I used to have lots of hair but
after baby #2, it got much finer and thinner. About to hit up baby #2, who is a all grown now,
to trim my hair. It is too long!
Jess is such a stylish lady! i love her linkup each week, and I like that you have found some cute ways to recreate her outfit. i think the third is my favourite, I really like the colour combination with the top and skirt together.
The little setups for the babies photoshoots are so cute! i think we will see a lot more DIY photoshoots now with it being so hard to continue photography with the virus. We were booked in to do a free family photo shoot and were so looking forward to it when the rules changed and now we don’t know if we will get the chance again – obviously the place is shut so we can’t contact them, although they did let us know that we could postpone the session before they closed so maybe we will get another chance.
Hope that you are having a lovely weekend 🙂
Oh, I have wanted a whole family photo shoot for years now. I think our family is probably done expanding, all the babies have been born that we are going to have, and this would be a great time to have photos done. If I can get everyone together and find a photographer, once the dust settles. Hope you are able to do you photoshoot soon.
You are so good at finding a bargain! Your skirt is identical to the other one, what a find. I think I prefer to look of it with the blouse on the left. But let’s see you modelling all three before we properly decide 😉
Those photo shoot backgrounds are adorable, what a lovely idea!
I am anxious to wear my new camo skirt out and about! Probably did not need another skirt…but at least I found a less expensive version of Jesse’s skirt. Kathryn is amazing with the photo backgrounds and adorable accessories she crochets for the babies to wear.
Great find on the camo skirt! Love those photo backgrounds!
Thank you, my friend. Can’t wait to wear the skirt somewhere beside here at home!!
Camo skirt is great! I like the middle outfit the best with it!
Thank you!! I ordered a sleeveless top to wear with the camo that might be the best bet yet!
I have one of those hobby carts downstairs for my sewing machine and sewing stuff. I got it at IKEA and I LOVE it!! Oh, that funny of Trump with his hair… what a hoot!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Oh, I wish we had an IKEA close. Or maybe it is better we don’t!! Ha! I put my cart together yesterday and really like it. Now my desk top is cleared off and I can use it for blogging and devotional time.
Oh that haircut picture is so disturbing! I love that camo skirt. I can’t bring myself to mix patterns like that. I am a little envious of those that do it and pull it off, but for some reason I just can’t do it. Can’t wait to see you in your combo.
Trying hard to branch out and experiment some with pattern mixing. Bought a new top today that I think will be the best bet for the camo skirt. Stay tuned!!
I wouldn’t feel bad about getting to a winter project in the spring–you’ll have to show us your craft room! Jess looked amazing in her skirt. I’ve had a camo skirt, but haven’t worn it with a print–I don’t have much in the way of prints. However, now it’s quite tight-boo! The mini photo booth is the sweetest thing for those little neo natal babies <3.
Isn’t Kathryn incredible with her mini photo booth? She has the biggest heart.
Try your camo skirt…it might surprise you! Then find a subtle pattern or some of
your great embroidered tops to try it with.
Lots to love here. I would never think of pairing camo with floral, but that look is great. I giggled at the haircut meme too…
Thank you! I would not think of pairing camo with any print until I saw how darling Jess looked!!
Mom I love you!!! You’re so fun! Thank you for featuring Kathryn!
I love you, my baby!! It was my pleasure to feature Kathryn. You and she are amazing nurses.
What a great post Leslie, full of a variety of topics and I’m so appreciative of your inclusion of my post!
Love the wine blouse with the camo skirt, but it’s not as springy as the middle option… Sigh. I, too, am in desperate need of a haircut. I cut Mr. CP’s hair this week, but he’s just a shade less particular than I. I’ve been experimenting with hair clips. They may just become my new best friend! I’m sorry to hear about your Thursday and Sunday miseries… I’m glad there’s a recognizable pattern; it’s more manageable when you know they will pass. Lifting you in prayer, Leslie! XO