Erin Akin Carroll

Erin Condren Double Giveaway Winners!

Sep232011

Hey, friends!

We have had such a great week! I am so excited about the Erin Condren Double Giveaway and all that entered. Thank you all to everyone that entered the giveaway and “liked” ErinCondren.com on Facebook.

Nina and I are sure that Erin Condren really appreciated all the love this week!

We’re super excited to announce the two winners from each of our blogs plus the bonus winner!

Make sure you visit Nina at According to Nina to see winners 3& 4.

Now for winners 1 & 2! (Winners were chosen randomly through Random Integer Generator)

Congratulations to Erin from Confessions of a Magnolia Mom and Che!

And because the response was so great, ErinCondren.com Facebook “likes” are now well over 6,000! Thanks to you all, they reached 6,000 “likes” by Tuesday!

And now we get to do the 5th BONUS WINNER! Congratulations to McCall from My Little Bird Nest!

Congratulations to the 5 winners! We already have your email addresses from the comments, so we will just send your info to the Erin Condren team and they will send your gift cards to you as soon as possible! Happy shopping!

pinnable me: Halloween Parties

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sep232011

I’m working on some plans for a fun Halloween party. I’ve been collecting lots of fun ideas on Pinterest. A few weeks ago, I bought the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween issue. It has tons of great ideas and I found some of the photos on Pinterest.

I have three gorgeous Savannah Beverage Servers from Willow House and I’d love to do this. I love the idea of calling a signature punch “Witches Brew.” So cute!

Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

So this is a pin of one of the pictures from BHG.com. Isn’t this party design so cute? It’s simple, it’s playful and not scary Halloween. I just love it.

Source: bhg.com via Erin on Pinterest

These mummy dogs look so yummy and simple. Perfect for kids at a Halloween party!

Source: bhg.com via Erin on Pinterest

This candy corn inspiration board is too cute. I love the topiary so much! And I have got to figure out how to make the tissue poms to be color-blocked like that to look like candy corn. Anyone know how to do that?

Source: blog.finestationery.com via Erin on Pinterest

Today is the first official day of fall! Are you ready? Are you decorating for fall or Halloween? Are you planning a party?

late night post!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sep222011

It’s 9:05 p.m. and I’m finally sitting down to blog. I had good intentions and now I can’t promise that this post will even be worth reading. But I do promise it won’t be too long, so it won’t take you long to read it. Deal?

Today was a great day. I dropped off Hudson at school, ran to two meetings for Junior League decorations stuff and then picked up Hudson from school. I had lunch (a delicious gyro from Devine Foods) with a super great friend who is a fellow boy mom. I loved hanging out with her. She brought lunch to our house so we didn’t have to risk having our babies in the restaurant. Love that. Good day.
My sweet boys took naps and then I talked to two more great friends on the phone. Love that.
I had great intentions of recording a vlog for you all about some fun, organization-type topics. But while I was recording “take one,” my door bell rang, my dogs went bananas and my kids woke up. The second time I recorded it, I played it back and there was no sound. So I gave up. Don’t love that.
Lately, I’ve been finding that I’m trying to watch a TV show and I realize I’m not really paying attention. So I just go to bed. Or I’m driving down the road and start changing the radio station and then forget what I’m doing and end up either listening to static or some crazy inappropriate music. Weird. Please tell me you’ve done that, too.
I’m sitting here right now listening to the Dixie Chicks because I still love them after all these years. Just like my friend, Rachel!
Earlier, while I was trying to fix my vlog, I was listening to The Canadian Tenors sing “Hallelujah.” I think I have just about every version of this song in my iTunes library, but this one is my favorite, by far. They sang it on Sunday night at the Emmy Awards. I was sitting here, at the computer, writing posts to be scheduled for this week and listening to the Emmys. TC was at work and the boys were asleep. I heard this gorgeous four part harmony and asked the Twitter Universe who was singing. And Twitter always knows. It was the Canadian Tenors. Listen to this.

Have a great night, friends!

p.s. You have just a couple of hours to enter the Erin Condren giveaway before Nina and I close comments to announce the 5 winners!

Mommy Wardrobe Dilemma: an update

Filed Under: Style

Sep212011

Hey, y’all!

I hope you’re all having a great week. Be sure to check out the Erin Condren giveaway and enter if you haven’t yet.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my mommy wardrobe dilemma. I was struggling to get dressed every day and struggling to find comfortable, practical and flattering pieces to fit my mommy role.

I challenged myself to take a picture in the bathroom of my outfit every day before 8:45 a.m. for one week. I have to have Hudson at school by 9:00, so we’re always out the door by 8:45 every morning. My goals were to 1.) not wear my pajamas and 2.) try to put together a real “look” every day.

So here’s how it all shook out.

As you can see, I have a bit of a uniform. I managed to only wear my white jeans twice last week. But I also wore open cardigans three times, a tunic twice, and a tunic-like blouse once. Not too bad. And on Friday, Hudson and I went to Little Gym and then when I got home, I went for a walk with both of my boys, so I’m in yoga pants and…. yep… an open cardigan.

Besides earrings, I’m not great at accessorizing in the morning. I need to work on that.

The combination of bathroom lighting and iPhone camera is just stellar.

On the way home from the beach, we stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall outside of Charleston. Because of cranky baby boys, I only made it to the Banana Republic outlet. But I was able to find a gorgeous blouse that is appropriate for church and every day wear. I also found a few open cardigans (surprise, surprise) and a couple of more structured sweaters.

I went to Target one day last week (no, not for Missoni– I don’t “do” prints very much, so Missoni isn’t my style) and found a few great basic cardigans. Again, with the cardigans. Merona (a Target brand) also has my favorite long sleeve tee called the “Ultimate Tee.” I got a few white ones because I know I’ll be using them to layer all through the fall and winter.

The week that I took the OOTD (outfit of the day, for those of you who weren’t sure) photos, the only two new items were the cardigans from Monday and Friday. Everything else was already in my closet.

So based on what I have now, I compiled a wish list for the season. I would love a new pair of dark, flare leg, higher waisted jeans (not mom jeans, I swear). Flare leg jeans are the most flattering on me and dark denim is the most slimming.

I’ve also got a couple of basic dresses for church or for special occasions on my list.

Every year I buy all new black and brown tights. My favorite brand of tights is Hue. Nordstrom sells them and they rarely snag. But eventually they “pill” so I like to get new tights every year.

I’ve also got my eye on a couple of tunics from Boden and Ann Taylor Loft.

So, really, my wish list isn’t huge or extravagant. I really don’t need much. I was pleasantly surprised with my ability to hop on up and get everyone ready every morning. I found it helped me a lot to lay out my clothes the night before when I laid out the boys’ clothes.

Now my goal is to spice it up a little and accessorize a little bit more.

Details of my outfits for those that may be interested:

Monday: GAP Long and Lean white jeans, Banana Republic sleeveless top in navy and white stripe, Banana Republic cardigan

Tuesday: Milly top (via Gilt circa 2010), Citizens of Humanity Kelly jeans, Kate Spade earrings

Wednesday: Anthropologie white eyelet tunic, Citizens of Humanity Ingrid jeans, Handpicked earrings

Thursday: J.Crew purple cardigan, J.Crew gray ruffle tissue tee, Citizens of Humanity Kelly jeans

Friday: GAP yoga pants, Merona for Target Ultimate Tee, Banana Republic cardigan

Saturday: GAP Long and Lean white jeans, tunic purchased from cash and carry at America’s Mart in Atlanta

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