diy mama

lifestyle blog sharing diy, family, travel, organization & disney tips

Life

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Disney’s FROZEN Easter Backpack

I was so excited when I got accepted to make a Disney’s FROZEN Easter basket for Sophie! This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DisneyEaster #CollectiveBias
FROZEN Easter Backpack for toddler Disney vacation
I was especially looking forward to Easter this year with Sophie to begin our traditions of Easter egg hunts, big flowery hats and eating Peeps. I knew I wanted to do an Easter basket for her while putting my own spin on things, so all of her goodies will be things she uses all the time (rather than a ton of candy and more stuffed animals).

When I heard I had the chance to do a FROZEN themed basket, there’s no way I was passing that up. Sophie is more than obsessed with FROZEN and especially loves Olaf. We’re taking her on her first trip to Disney World and wanted to make her a #DisneyEaster basket backpack filled with everything she’ll need for her trip.

Walmart Disney Easter
I had a fun time going to Walmart with her Grandma to pick out goodies for her trip. I wanted to do a mix of  FROZEN items and practical Disney Vacation items. I’m most excited for her FROZEN PJs because I want to start the tradition of giving a new pair of Disney PJs when we visit the parks.

Disney Vacation Toddler Backpack
Disney Olaf Easter Egg
The fillable Olaf eggs are also super cute and I know Sophie will get a kick out of them! I didn’t want to go crazy with the sugar because I know she’ll get plenty from her Easter egg hunt. Putting cereal and cheese crackers in the eggs will still be a fun surprise for Sophie once she discovers the Olafs.

Disney FROZEN Vacation Toddler Backpack Walmart
Bringing along this insulated waterbottle will save us from spending extra money on soda and juice and keep her hydrated better. The Girl Scout in me wanted to protect her so I packed some SPF50 lip balm, 100% UV sunglasses, Mickey band-aides and sun hat. Sparkly Princess bows were a must as well as her neon outfit, Olaf socks and pink heart shoes! I seriously can’t wait for her to open her FROZEN Easter Olaf backpack and see how cute she is rocking those shades!

Olaf FROZEN Easter Peep
By the way, Olaf loves Peeps as much as summer. What are your family traditions for Easter? I remember getting dressed up in matching dresses with my sister, finding a real egg during an Easter egg hunt and having an indoor Easter egg hunt because it was raining and loved it just as much.

For more Spring inspiration on decor and recipes, check out my Pinterest board!
Follow Shelly @ DIY Mama’s board Spring Decor & Recipes on Pinterest.

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March Goals

(This post contains affiliate links. Although, I did not receive any of the below products for free, I will be compensated a small percentage if you purchase through my links.)

March_featureHello and happy almost-spring! March is always exciting because it means that the snow will start melting soon (although we just got 10 inches dumped on us yesterday, so it may take a while.) We’re not letting the snow slow us down though! We took Soph swimming at the pool yesterday and went sledding today. Keeping busy helps make the winter go by faster!

Before digging into my March goals, let’s see how I did on my February goals. We’ve been really enjoying ourselves at Montessori this past month.

Sophie is a joy to watch interacting with the other kids and improving on her work every week. We went on a family Valentine’s date to Applebee’s because it was an hour wait everywhere (at 2pm!) We made it up by going to Red Lobster the next day. I was sure to give Jeffrey more time to spend on studying and writing throughout the month. I am still reading the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and have added the #40bagsin40days challenge. I have done terrible at finishing the jewelry nook in the closet! I haven’t made the effort to figure out our paint color in there and therefore haven’t been able to finish the project, but I HAVE been having a lot of fun. I made sure to stay very focused on Sophie and making sure I was present for her and Jeffrey and it has made my month very fun! I read The 100 Year Old Man (of which I gave a 3/5). I also learned a lot from Lisa on our chat about Light Room and have been doing all of the posts’ photography editing there. I’ve done fairly well on the 5 post/day commenting. Some days I’ll skip but do more the next day. I’ve also been using co-schedule and tailwind to schedule posts and pins ahead of time. I haven’t seen a great difference in numbers yet but it’s only been a month.

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I honestly can hardly remember February. It flew by. We were able to see Second City when they came to town, which was hilarious! We also went on a party bus downtown Indy and I had a girl’s night out to see 50 Shades. Our neighborhood girl’s night was awesome because we played Cards of Humanity while watching Downton Abbey. I’ve also been having a ton of fun planning our Disney vacation and getting our home decluttered and organized.

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March Goals:

Family

  • Continue with our 40 Day Spending Freeze
  • Start with Monthly Date Night in a Box
  • Take Sophie to a show or museum

Life

  • Catch up and complete #40bagsin40days
  • Complete Whole30
  • Swim twice per week

Blog

I have a lot of behind-the-scenes secrets that I’ve been working on that I WILL be able to share with you in due time. For now, I want to know about your goals. What do you do to stay on track? Do you have accountability partners? A goal planner? A really organized brain? Let’s talk about this!

PS: Shameless plug guys. I’m on Facebook. I need more followers. I’ve gotten a lot of good tips from high rollers but could use any tips you’ve found helpful! Oh and don’t forget to follow me. I follow back!

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40 Hardcore Days

Hello friends! I know a lot of people are starting lent soon, meaning less chocolate and alcohol consumption. I’m not Catholic but I will be on the 40 day schedule that lent keeps starting Feb. 18th (yesterday). I’m not going to lie, this 40 days isn’t spiritual, it’s just to get my booty in gear to do stuff that I’ve been struggling to do lately.

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I will be participating in the #40bagsin40days challenge that has been going on for years! I’ve seen it the past couple years but haven’t felt the need to do major purging until this year. Can we say toddler? The challenge is to work on one area of your home or life each day for 40 days. This can mean getting bags of old clothes to donation, pairing down your 15 bottles of shampoo or organizing all of the 20 second videos of your baby from when every single thing she did was the cutest thing in the world (every. single. thing.)

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We’ll also be doing a 40 day spending freeze. Why? Because we really need to. We need to save for our September trip to Disney and our child needs to eventually attend college. A spending freeze can be whatever you feel is necessary.

For us, we’ll only be spending money on the necessities:

  • Mortgage
  • Utility Bills
  • Existing Memberships
  • Groceries (Whole30 exclusive)
  • Travel Expenses (for visiting family)
  • Learning Materials
  • Already Planned Activities

We’re starting ANOTHER Whole30 as we knew we would. We took a break for a girls night out and Valentine’s Day but are resuming this weekend. We will never put a hold on learning. If we need books or classes to learn something we’re passionate about, there’s no limit (within reason). We’d already planned to go see The Book of Mormon while it’s in Chicago and to a movie so we’re allowing ourselves to do those activities.

The things we’re not allowed to spend money on:

  • Craft Supplies
  • Starbucks
  • Legos
  • New Memberships
  • Books
  • Video/Board Games
  • Movie Tickets/DVDs
  • Eating Out
  • Tools
  • Sophie/Lexi Toys
  • Clothes

Do you agree that we have 40 hardcore days ahead? I have high hopes for us during this spending freeze. We have enough of all of the above to last us 10 years. There should be no reason for us to buy anything from the list above. I really wanted to post this for accountability. Is anyone else doing/have done the challenge or a spending freeze? What would improve your well being to give up for a little while?

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PS. If you need some extra motivation, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing is a best seller for a reason. It really makes you take  a double take on your life and all the ‘stuff’ you’ve accumulated.

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30 is the New 30

Hello loves! Today marks my 30th Birthday celebration here on planet Earth. I’ve never been one to be worried about getting older or telling my age. I don’t see age as a bad thing, in fact, I see it as a way to show how wise and experienced you are!

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I don’t have any special plans to celebrate my Birthday since we’re on Whole60 and most of my friends and family live a couple hours away. I am very excited to spend time with my family, inside, with a fire and look forward to the big Birthday celebration that will happen in September (Disney World)! For my blog life celebration, I wanted to share with you 30 things that I have learned over the past few decades. Some of these nuggets of wisdom are profound, some are silly, but they are all very meaningful in my life.

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  1. Invest in people that invest in you.
  2. Don’t compare your weakness to another’s strength.
  3. Always use SPF.
  4. Don’t cut your own bangs.
  5. If something isn’t working, don’t give up, just try something else.
  6. Some people can’t breastfeed, and that’s ok.
  7. If you feel sad, it’s possible that you’re just bored.
  8. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
  9. If you want to be better at something, you have to practice.
  10. Finding a great stylist, masseuse and nail tech in the same town is near impossible.
  11. If there’s something you like, just do it/wear it/sing it/read it/make it!
  12. Coloring books are the poor person’s therapy.
  13. Germs are good.
  14. NASA is awesome.
  15. The Beatles are the best choice for any mood.
  16. There is no ‘too old’ or ‘too young’ for Disney World. Ever.
  17. Photography is an invaluable skill.
  18. ‘Making someone’s day’ makes my day.
  19. Never move if there is a sleeping child on you.
  20. Tell people you love them, every chance you get.
  21. A BigMac and Gatorade will cure any hangover.
  22. Say what you’re thinking.
  23. Don’t be afraid of power tools.
  24. Do be afraid of spiders. They’re the worst.
  25. Nothing is more calming than the sound of the ocean.
  26. Buy yourself flowers.
  27. Living in all four season’s is awesome, except the 80% of the time when it’s too cold or too hot.
  28. There’s no such thing as too many Christmas decorations or nail polish
  29. Volunteer. It makes your heart happy.
  30. Puppies are so worth it.

What’s the biggest nugget of wisdom that you’ve learned from your past? Am I right about the spiders? Ew.

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Top Posts of 2014

Hello lovelies! I wanted to do a summary post of all the awesomeness that was had in 2014 here at DIY Mama! I had a roller coaster of a year blog-wise. Some days I wanted to stay up til dawn writing and crafting while there were weeks of me not feeling motivated to share one thought. I hear this happens and that it’s ok.

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I’ve also learned a ton on the tech & social media side of things, although I feel I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. Let’s see what you all thought were the best posts! They were interesting to me because they weren’t all in my top 5 but I do remember really loving writing each of these. Here were your top posts for 2014:

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Top Adult Attractions

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Now that I’ve had my first full year of blogging, I’ve realized there are two major things I need to work on for 2015: photography and branding. I was all over the place last year, mostly because I was learning how to use my DSLR (still am), editing programs and how I wanted DIY Mama to feel. I’m very thankful to all of you as readers and I’ve loved being able to share myself with you this past year! What was one post that stood out to you?

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