In case you haven’t noticed, animal prints are everywhere, and I mean e-ver-y-where. I held out for as long as I could, but once it hit the “suburban runways” and made it cool for us stay-at-home moms to rock a leopard print – you better believe I jumped on it like a kid on Christmas. But I’ve always been one to make a trend my own. Meaning – I don’t like to just go along with it just cuz it’s popular. Let’s just say – I draw the line at socks with heels. I also usually sit on a trend for a few months, sometimes even a year, to make sure it’s sticking around before I take the plunge. Even if it’s something I love right off the bat, like animal prints, I still feel the need to put my own “CH2T Styling” twist on it to make it truly feel like my own.
I don’t know about you, but when I have a goal I want to hit, I always give it a catch phrase. Maybe it’s the marketer in me, but I just can’t help myself 😋 Which is how my slogan “10k by May” was born. About 6 months ago, right around the holidays, I was looking at my Instagram and realized I was so close to hitting 5k followers and thought it would be fun to set a goal to hit it by the end of the year. I ended up hitting it before Christmas, and it gave me the boost I needed to start setting goals for myself in the new year. The one goal that I’d always felt unattainable – was hitting that magic number “10k” on Instagram. Since I’ve never been one to give up easily, I started doing the math in my head and decided based on my exponential growth up to this point – that it was totally doable to hit “10k by May.” So here’s how I did it…
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase using the links in this post.
A couple months back I started sharing beauty and hair tutorials on my IGTV Channel which has been so fun, and I love hearing from people who’ve tried my techniques. Since this year my goal was to offer up more styling tips, and so many of my Instagram followers requested my next video be about styling – I launched my very first “CH2T Styling” video this week and I’m so so excited at the response it received! Now that the weather’s warming up, I decided to share “6 Easy Spring Looks” that has everything from casual everyday looks to fancier date night looks.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase using the links in this post.I received complimentary products from PinkBlush in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.
Is it just me, or is Easter like the sneakiest holiday ever? For Christmas, we start planning two and half years in advance. For Easter, it’s like, “Hey, I’m back! Hope you remembered to buy all the random things for your kid’s Easter party at school” (which the answer is of course, “No” 🤦♀️). However the one thing that seems to never slip my mind (must be the stylist in me), is shopping for the perfect Easter outfit for the kids and myself. Luckily, Cha Cha was easy cuz all her clothes are hand-me-downs, and really freaken cute ones too 😉 Garrett’s also pretty easy since he takes matters into his own hands, and already picked out the perfect spring plaid button-down that he’s been holding onto for over a month saying “I’m saving that one for Easter, mom.” 😂 So that just leaves me, and as luck would have it – I was able to partner with PinkBlush to style what I’m calling “Day to Night Easter Spring Outfits for Moms.” 😊
Spring is here!! I honestly can’t believe it. I don’t know about you, but I was beginning to doubt that it would ever come. In fact, I’d been planning to write this post for weeks now, but kept putting it off because 1) Houston weather is sucha tease, and 2) I was afraid by writing this it would jinx any nice weather we’d had 😉 But we’ve consistently had a week’s worth of sunshine, so I figured what better way to officially kick off spring than sharing one of my favorite styling collabs I’ve done with my talented friend and jewelry designer Hattie of Hattie Now Designs.
Have you ever wondered where old school fashion rules came from? Or is that just something I geek out over? It truly is so interesting to me, and what’s the most interesting is just how much influence our culture and the times has on how we dress. I could literally go on and on for days about this topic but I’ll save that for another day. 😉 Since what I really wanted to touch on, is something I’ve struggled with for years…wearing pink. Phew. There, I said it. Don’t worry – I’m not about to unload a bunch of feminist rhetoric on you, hehe, it’s really just a personal thing. I’d much rather wear black, gray, white, and sometimes the occasional blue. But here’s my problem – two words. Valentine’s Day.
How is it that another year is gone, just like that? I mean, 2018 feels like it didn’t even happen. For some reason – what should feel like a year went by, really only feels like a solid 6 months max. It’s like I woke up one day after Christmas, like woah, 2019 is just around the corner. Maybe it’s because so much happened last year. And maybe that’s why this year I was excited to actually get my hiney up off the couch and ring in the new year right – like we used to, before kids 😉
This past week I had the exciting opportunity to partner with one of my close friends, an extremely talented jewelry designer, to help launch her fall line. My friend Hattie launched Hattie Now Designs earlier this year, and it’s been so awesome to see her creativity come to life. She creates custom handmade jewelry that truly makes a statement. From stunning druzy necklaces and bracelets, to fun tassels and bold leather earrings – people are raving over her designs! I recently shared a fave “burnt orange” Longhorn-inspired pair on my IG that’s become my lucky tassels on game day 🙂 But her new blush colored teardrop tassels (pictured below) are my current obsessions 😉
There will always be things we take for granted in life. It’s just human nature to focus on the seemingly more important things rather than the things we do everyday. I bet you’ve never thought about how many times you’ve held your father’s hand, or remember what it felt like to be that little kid looking up at him walking hand-in-hand down the street. I certainly didn’t. Just like I didn’t know 14 years ago today, that it would be the last Father’s Day I’d be spending with my dad. He had been battling stomach cancer for two years and just had a major surgery that we were so hopeful would give him a second chance at life. I had just graduated from UT and it meant so much for him to see me walk across that stage and accept my diploma. Something he wrote in my graduation card has always stuck with me: “Raising you has been my greatest success in life.” Fast forward to later that summer, his health had quickly deteriorated and I’d moved back home to spend what we all knew were his last days with us. Although I don’t think any of us would have ever expected what happened next.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase using the links in this post. I received a complimentary product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.
If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve already had a sneak peek into what the last week and half has been like for our little Murray clan (oh, and for the foreseeable future I’ll be referring to my family as “The Murray Clan” – not because we’re part Scottish, but because that’s what happens when you binge watch Outlander for the first months of a child’s life). So long story short, my mom (who stays with us and helps me with the kiddos a couple times a week), ended up going to my oldest brother’s in NC to help out with his little one the week after Easter. I kid you not. It never fails. Anytime she’s gone, Grant gets told he has to travel for work. The first time it happened actually spawned my very first ever “Mom Jean Confessions” post where I so lovingly referred to myself as a Momaholic. But you wanna know the even more ironic part – it was literally three years ago to the day that they both left me hanging 😯. I’m convinced it’s a sick joke they like to play on me, just to test me. Not funny guys, not funny. Especially because this time around, Garrett and Charlotte both came down with the stomach flu – need I say more? No, but I will for entertainment’s sake. Oh and just in case you’re wondering why we all look so happy in these photos – this was literally the one day of reprieve we had. The hubs had just gotten back into town the night before at like midnight, Garrett had finally felt good enough to go back to school that day, and little did I know Charlotte would come down with what Garrett had exactly 24 hours from the moment these were taken. Hence, the title “Subliminal Messaging” 😉
