10 Steps To Crush Black Friday Shopping

November 23, 2017

There are two reasons in life I get up way before the sun rises with a smile on my face and a pep in my step. 1) Hosting a yard sale. 2) Black Friday Shopping.

My Black Friday days started back when I was in high school and got a job working for KB Toys. Who remembers them? Well, I do, because I lived for Black Friday. I even volunteered to work double shifts. They didn’t allow it but I tried and that is what matters.

The smell of new toys, the hysteria from strangers, the smirk on my face knowing exactly where in the store of the floor to ceiling toys the latest and greatest doorbusters where secretly hidden. It started then, my love for Black Friday, and before you judge me or call me out for being a materialistic fool please know that I really don’t care. For the tradition of Black Friday is something I love and yes, start counting down the day to somewhere after the 4th of July.

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Holiday Gift Guide for Your Best Friend

November 9, 2017

And, so it begins! The holiday season is upon us. I adore the holidays. In the weeks leading up, the excitement builds and I turn into a giddy Buddy the Elf. Oh, the image I just put in your head.

Last holiday season I got all down with my holiday bad self and customized a handful of Holiday Gift Guides and let me tell you folks something, it took off! Meaning I felt like a virtual shopper for many of you and even had follow-up work from friends, co-workers, and family saying, “Well, what should I get…?” No, extra work on me! I promise. I LOVE it.

So, here we go again. You ready? I thought since you are all my virtual BFF’s I would start with a Holiday Gift Guide that is suited for the best friend in your life.

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Amazon Farmhouse Decor Finds

October 28, 2017

This post contains affiliate links.

Dear Retailers, I am afraid I am slowly starting to turn into a pajama wearing, wine drinking, credit card using, couch surfing shopper. Is that suppose to be something to strive for? I am really not sure.

Living in the mountains, country, rural America – shopping on a big retailer scale requires a drive, and I usually reserve that for Target trips or Black Friday, but who is counting. Therefore, Amazon and particularly, Amazon Prime is my shopping best friend. I love the free shipping and quickness.

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Now I Am Left Cleaning The Mess

September 21, 2017

Article originally published on Her View From Home.

Disclaimer: I wrote this post in May of 2017. I held my breath and hit submit, as I emailed my first piece to Her View From Her Home for consideration. A few days later, the kind, patient and encouraging Leslie Means, creator of Her View From Her Home, gave me a chance at writing. A lot has changed since I wrote this piece; however, this time in my life was a breaking point that changed me. Like a light switch that finally after years of jiggling turned on. This work opened up my blogging networking doors, but it also contributed to the most private messages on any one post I have yet to receive. It is an important message, so I share again this time on here, in the hopes that it will resonate with you.

Lately, I have felt like the inside of a soda pop bottle. The liquid that swashes and swishes around against the inside of the plastic bottle being tossed around by a swinging hand. A sway to one side and a swoosh to the other before one day the handler grabs the bottle with both hands and furiously shakes it with all their might. The pressure builds. And finally the cap unscrews and I feel all the emotions that have been stirring inside me, spill out all over myself, others and everything I touch.

Now I am left cleaning the mess.

A mess that includes words mumbled under my breath to my husband in frustration, yet he heard; impatience with my two-year-old who just can’t keep up with my mental and physical speed of doing things; shortness with my work department team who bears the brunt of coldness after I return from a stressful meeting; a home that needs dire attention due to lack of time to care for the space; and, my own personal self who feels the weight of the world heavy on my mind and heart.

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Bustle + Bee

September 3, 2017

As a child, I was always obsessed with family ties. No, not the tv show (speaking of that have you ever Googled the youngest Keaton, Brian Bonsall? Let’s just say young Andy Keaton now has another headshot – and it isn’t the audition kind).

I make perfect sense, huh? Back on track.

Family ties, I was obsessed. I can recall being about four years-old and wanting my grandmother to exclaim how each person was related to me and to everyone else at a gathering. Great aunts, second and third cousins, I had you covered. My father would argue with me and say, “It is not your aunt it is your father’s aunt,” when I would refer to a great-aunt. I always won that fight!

So, if my mad family tree telling skills are still correct my second cousin, Julie (my father’s first cousin) her daughter Clare (still following?) started her own company and asked me to be involved.

Bustle + Bee is a planning and stationery subscription box. Each box contains five hand picked samples, ranging from gel pens to stickers, and everything in between. And, maybe the best news of all is that with Bustle +

Bee, when you hear the words “subscription box” that does not mean you have to pay each month. You may pick when you want a box and when you do not.

Clare and Turner started this venture or maybe they would now call it an adventure, back in the Fall of 2016 for a college project. Happy nearly one year anniversary, ladies! And, it took off from the classroom and into a business.

Clare on the left and Turner on the right.

I was sent the Basic Box which contained a gold gel pen, a page of heart stickers, a miniature weekly spread, a sample of page flag washi tape, and pointed paper clips.

The adorable box only costs $10 plus shipping and handling. Oh, and their new Succulent Box is incredibly adorable.

I mean, seriously?

Sweet Clare, thank you for thinking of me and my Blog as you launch your new business. I love the concept of your company and the adorable packaging and bravo to the incredible logo. I noticed that right away!

For those interested in Bustle + Bee, Clare and Turner are extending a 10% off discount to Backwards N High Heels readers. Enjoy 10% off your purchase using code – HIGHHEELS10.

Enjoyed this post? Awe, thanks. I am blushing. We can connect through facebook || twitter || instagram || pinterest || bloglovin’

Toddler Must Have Products

August 27, 2017

If you scroll through Pinterest you know that the site is flooded with must buy, top items and baby guide lists. I know because I can claim a handful of them out there as my own. When I was pregnant with Lo, I lived off of the must buy guides. I would save pin upon pin that provided every detailed list of the items I needed for when the baby arrived. Things that eventually proved to not be worth the hype or fit our needs and items that I now know I could not live without.

Once Lo was born, I felt strongly to create my own lists. Built upon the same lists that guided me through my first pregnancy and months and years parenting, I knew how special and important word-of-mouth referrals were when I needed them the most and started to develop and share my own lists here on the Blog for you.

I was very scheduled and used my momming experience to release many age focused lists such as This One or This One, and then spent multiple days combining the guide of all guides for a Baby Registry.

But, now Lo is two years old, and rounding the bend to three, and I realize her priorities and mine have changed, and just as the time when she was an infant, now as a toddler, we still have some age-appropriate needs.

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Our Backyard Renovation

July 28, 2017

I started this post well over a month ago and then saved the post for a rainy day. Well, Let me tell ya what – it is raining and suppose to rain all day, through the night and into tomorrow. Can you say, weekend wash out?

So, back to our renovation.

Nathan and I moved into our home roughly eight years ago. Slowly we have renovated nearly 85% of the house. Some projects have been big as each bathroom received an overhaul, and we completely transformed half of the basement which was at one-time concrete cinder block exposed walls and concrete floors. Some projects have been minor in the grand scheme of things but made a bigger impact on us like new flooring and painting throughout, outdoor light fixture swaps, exterior painting of our home and back deck and then came the landscaping.

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I Wish For My Daughter

July 24, 2017

This past week we took a much, let me emphasize, much needed little family vacation. More to come on that later this week as I dive into some of our time spent in the Outer Banks. It was our first time visiting and it was quite lovely.

Over and over my little girl (in between meltdowns because let’s face it, life is not all it seems to be on a beautiful Instagram feed) would look at me with a huge grin and say, “Momma, I have fun.” It made my heart melt, actually, I would just melt into a puddle after that.

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2 Going on 13 – Giveaway!

July 15, 2017

Special thank you to GabbyBox for partnering on this post!

Parents, listen up. When you are sitting in that hospital room looking down at your perfectly swaddled newborn baby and that first person walks in and makes a comment about how fast this itty tiny baby will grow. Do not ignore them. Do not underestimate the power of their words. In fact, they are correct, time flies when it comes to your own children and before you know it, poof! they are a toddler.

One day I looked up and realized my “baby girl” (which I often refer to her as) was really not a “baby.” No, instead, she suddenly didn’t even look like a toddler but a kid. A kid!!

I mean, seriously? Look at this picture.

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Five Things Five-Years of Marriage Has Taught Me – Plus a Giveaway

June 25, 2017

1 – We give love differently and we love each other differently.
Have you ever heard of the five love languages? Words of Affirmation, Touch, Time Together, Acts of Service and Gifts. When Nathan and I were engaged we attended a few weeks of marriage classes with our pastor as we prepared for the big day. Part of the prep work was learning and understanding love languages and exploring what our personal language was and our partner’s. It was the first time I realized that we loved different and needed each other’s love in different ways. Five years later, that has not changed. Understanding each other is different is not enough. Instead, I have learned that having an underlying appreciation for the fact that we are two different people and knowing what may make each other tick is actually part of marriage success. I gauge our situations by trying to say things such as, “I feel this way because…” instead of starting on a “You did this…” By taking the blame off of the other person and expressing the way you personally feel is super important in validating the fact that we know each other thinks and feels different; therefore, we love differently.

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