Friday Favorites and Happenings

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

I can't believe that we are already half way through this month. How did that happen? I have some fun things coming up and feel like I just might be past the after holiday blues. Anyone else?

Onto Friday Favorites and Happenings.

ONE. First off, if you are not following Cristin Cooper then you need to be. She is amazing. I LOVE her make-up tutorials and her fashion sense. I have definitely bought many things just by her recommendation. Many months ago, maybe even a year ago, she mentioned her love for NYX Butter Gloss. When I went to ULTA on one of my many trips, I decided to check it out. First, I bought the Creme Brulee and then the Vanilla Cream Pie and I love them. I wore the Creme Brulee out last Friday when I went out with my girlfriends. It is subtle, but adds enough color and is sooooo smooth....like butter. So if you haven't jumped on the NYX Butter Gloss train, then you should. Plus they are super cheap.

NYX Butter Gloss

TWO. I don't know if you noticed, but last week I finally bit the bullet and bought my own domain name. Of course, someone had www(dot)sparklesandlattes(dot)com which sucks. And it sucks even more that it went to a wordpress site and not even the correct full url like I put above. And I didn't want to buy it for $300 plus dollars, so I settled on www.sparkleslattes.com. 

I feel like it was time and a blogging goal of mine for 2019. I didn't share any of my blogging goals, but getting my own domain name, putting more time and effort into my blog and IG, posting more often, dipping my toes into IG stories (like actually talking in them) and focusing on growth this year were goals that I had in mind.

THREE. Last Friday, I became an aunt again. My SIL was pregnant and she decided not to find out the gender until she gave birth. Just like she did with my nephew. Well Friday morning, she had a baby girl and now I have a niece. They named her Shelby and I can't wait to meet this little love joy this weekend.

I knew once the baby was born, I was going to order a personalized blanket. So after we had her full name, I went onto Etsy and ordered a personalized blanket. I chose the one below in the colors you see and I can't wait to see her snuggled in it.

The Bee Boutique NC

FOUR. Do you travel internationally? Because we all know that I do. Well I usually use a travel adapter from work, but decided to finally get one of my own. And this came after my last trip and two of my co-workers having the coolest travel adapter. Yep, I went there with AWESOME travel things. So I bought one for myself for this trip. What do I love about it? It has US, UK, EU and AUS. It basically works almost anywhere. And I already have one for Mexico, so this covers me for almost anywhere I go. Even to Israel which I have to go to in March. So if you are traveling overseas, buy this for yourself. It is only $19.98 and is amazing. Plus you can plug in 4 usb cords. 

Travel Adapter

FIVE. About a year ago, we got new pillows. We bought into the hemp hype and bought some. They were great for awhile, but they quickly just flattened. I lay in the middle of my pillow and no matter how many times I opened the pillow, moved around the hemp pieces, it would go back to the same shape. My pillow went to crap quickly, but Rory's took longer.

Rory finally gave in and said we NEED new pillows asap. So I went online and started searching. He was interested in the My Pillow, but I wasn't sold. I found the Isotonic Indulgence Side Sleeper Pillow (they have back/stomach ones too) and this was more up my alley. We have been sleeping on it for a few weeks and I love it. I just hope it lasts awhile, but so far it is fully, great for sleeping on my side and my neck and back don't hurt anymore.

Isotonic Indulgence Side Sleeper Pillow

I am linking up with April, A Little Bit of Everything, Meet @ the Barre and Cup of Tea.

Have a great weekend!

Cutting the Cable

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

Have you cut the cable? We did at the beginning of the year and it has been the best decision.

image via

It all started off with our Direct TV bill going up $56 in one month to bring our cable/internet total to $227 and that didn't include our $9 Netflix subscription. Ouch. I was fed up with the price and our service was just plain awful. Half the time, we couldn't get to our DVR'd items and had to search for them to watch them On Demand. And the other half of the time, the feed was just bad. So I made the decision to cut the cable.

So how did we do it? Well first, I asked my co-workers what they were using to watch tv. The overwhelming response was either Apple TV or Roku paired with Hulu Live TV and Netflix plus Amazon Prime (if you have it). I also did my own research and found the same to be true. So the first step was to buy two different Roku's. I bought one for my tv in the living room which is 4K and our main hub area and the other one was for our kitchen which is just a basic flat screen tv.

The next step was to get a better internet. If you want to cut the cable, you need a great quality internet and we had awful internet. So I went online, set up an install of the new internet and waited 2 days for that to be installed. On the install day, they hooked up our new internet, I hooked up the new Roku devices (super easy) and purchased Hulu Live TV. Now Hulu Live TV is $39 per month and you get all of your local channels (like local news broadcasts), NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, plus about 50 other channels. Before purchasing, I checked what shows I watch were available. Everything except the shows on HBO and AMC (which still might be available once the show starts) were available. You can purchase HBO or other channels through your Roku or Hulu. I also added on the $14 package where I can fast forward through commercials and have 200 hours of DVR service.

Once that was all set up, I called Direct TV to cancel my service. I told them it was my New Year's Resolution to watch less tv and that I wanted to cancel it. I made sure I wasn't in contract anymore and I was firm. You have to stand firm and not back down. They will try to keep you by doing almost anything. Once I got past the initial talk with them, we cancelled my service and they gave directions on how to return my boxes, router, etc. I was told to take them to my local UPS store along with my account number and UPS would send them back. They will give you a paper with your cancellation confirmation and your shipping info. You need to keep that. Once everything is shipped back and it has been received, you should call Direct TV or whoever is your cable provider and make sure it is fully cancelled. They will try to get you to come back once more, but just deny them.

So I have had my service for about 3 weeks now (I started the process right after Christmas) and I love it. Sure, it was a learning curve to figure out the Hulu interface, but now I have all my shows in the My Stuff tab, I can search for things easily and I also have Prime and Netflix. I can get everything I had before and I pay $100 total per month. That is a savings of $127 per month. Way better. And if I am not watching as much tv, I can downgrade my Hulu, get rid of any channels I am not currently watching and just simplify.

So have you cut the cable? I also got my in-laws to cut their cable at the same time. They already had Apple TV, so they are using that, but have Hulu Live, Netflix and Prime. They are just as happy as we are.

Any questions?

Winter Bucket List Update

Since it's been a quick minute since I wrote out my Winter Bucket List, I thought I would give you all an update on it. Here is our original bucket list.

So what have we accomplished so far? 13 out of 18

We have:

Donated Toys
Watched Christmas Movies (we watched ALL.OF.THE.MOVIES)
Attended a Holiday Party

Annual Christmas Eve Party

Took the Girls Christmas Light Looking (many times)

Baked Christmas Cookies for Santa

Cut Down a Christmas Tree

Made Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Sent out Christmas Cards

Went Sledding
Made Gingerbread Houses

Read Christmas Books
December 1st Breakfast with Elf on the Shelf

Made a Christmas Craft

Friday Favorites and Happenings

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

Wow this week has been a week. Heck, this year has already been a year. I see those memes where it says they are going to start their new year in February and I think that is me. It has already been crazy around here.

Let's get into Friday Favorites and Happenings.

ONE. So my first happening is to tell you about a trip I hinted at in a previous post. I am going on another amazing work trip towards the end of the month. Rory is staying home with the girls again since this is work related, but don't worry, we have a fun vacation coming up in April. So where am I going? I am going to Gibraltar (which I have been to before, but we are walking over to Spain on our free time which I haven't been to yet), France and Belgium. I have never been to the last two and I couldn't be more excited. The food, the sights, the wine, the cheese, the chocolates. Oh I can't wait. That being said, if anyone wants to write a guest post for me during the week of the 28th, I would LOVE that. I am gone from the 23rd to the 1st. I usually don't like to post when I am gone, but Rory, the girls and my family will be around.

TWO. If you follow me on IG, then you saw my story of me in the ER with my hospital bracelet. If you didn't document it, then it didn't happen. Ha. But really. I had been having pain since last Thursday in my lower left abdomen. I went to Mr. Google and google the sh*t out of my symptoms. I took quiz after quiz and came up with three things it could be. But none that I could really treat. I told myself that Monday morning I would go to the doctor and get things checked out.

Well, during the weekend, the pain was awful. I had a fever off and on, I had constant dull aching in my abdomen and sudden sharp knife like pains there too. I even skipped out on going sledding with Rory, the girls and my father in law since it was just hard to sit.

On Sunday, I was starting to feel nauseous on top of the other symptoms and finally headed to the ER after talking to my mom. I am stubborn and need to be pushed to do something like go to the ER. So I went to the ER and it was packed. Ugh. But luckily for me, they got me back in no time. I was hooked up to an IV and had blood drawn and urine taken. Then I had an ultrasound of my abdomen. After being there for 6 hours and a massive snowstorm rolling in, I was free to go home. They told me it was something in my uterus and that I needed to see my OBGYN the next day.

I sent this photo to the girls since Sutton would wondering where I was and where my owie was.

Well Monday, I called my OBGYN and she wasn't in the office. She was still on vacation and would be back in on Tuesday, so they scheduled me an appointment for then. I went in on Tuesday and had another extensive exam, ultrasound and some testing done. It turns out, I have an infection in my uterine lining and that is what is causing the pain and fever. So now I am on antibiotics AGAIN for 10 days. Let's hope this gets fixed and it isn't something else along with the infection.

THREE. I recently bought two of the cutest sweaters. One is a cardigan and the other is a sweater. I love shopping at Vici (no not sponsored. just love their stuff) and recently found another shop called Cents of Style.

Since it is sooo cold here and snowing and just being gloomy, I have been living in sweaters. And the Vici sweater was basically free since I bought something a long time ago and returned it.

 Colorblock Cardigan

Vici Sage Sweater

FOUR.

I am linking up with April, A Little Bit of Everything, Meet @ the Barre and Cup of Tea.

Have a great weekend!

2019 Goals

I would like to make goals for myself for this year instead of resolutions. I don't know why, but goals are more attainable and I feel like I hold myself more accountable than a resolution that I made.

So here are my 2019 goals:

Have more patience with my children. The girls are 4 years old and let me tell you that the last year has been hard. Everyone says it is the terrible twos, but I felt like it was way harder with the 3 year old stage. I know 4 is going to be hard, but I am hoping that it is easier than 3.

So this year, I want to learn to have more patience with my children. I feel like I ask them to do something and they completely ignore me. I ask again and nothing. I ask about 4 to 5 times before I lose my cool and yell at them to do it. That is when they cry and eventually do it. I just want to foster more patience in myself.

Date my husband. As our days go by, I realize that our lives are so focused on our children that we forget about our significant others. Sure, we had date nights last year and they were amazing, but I want to try to have more date nights. Even if that is putting the girls to bed early and having a dinner date at home with just my husband. Or planning out date nights that are fun and interactive. I want to do at least one date night out each month and one date night in each month.

Purge and declutter. I have seen this same goal in a lot of people's lists, but it is something I try to achieve each year. I want to "Spring clean" more than just in the Spring. I want to go through our clothes, the girls toys and anything that we may not need anymore. I saw this cool idea of turning our hangers backwards with all of your hang up clothes. If at the end of the year, you still have clothes that are on a backwards hanger, donate them as you never wore them.

I also want to go through the drawers in the kitchen that are in desperate need of purging. Basically just go through the house and declutter.

Strengthen my friendships. Just like dating my husband, I want to put more effort into my friendships. I want to check in with my friends more. I want to have more girls nights. I just want to strengthen my friendships to where they were before kids and more responsibility. It will take more effort, but a simple text or phone call can go really far.

Read more. I see so many of my blogger friends reading 50 plus books year. While I don't think I can attain 50 books, I just want to read more.

What are your 2019 goals?

TBB Asks - Keep Me Entertained

The Blended Blog is hosting another year of TBB Asks and this month's prompt is Keep Me Entertained.

Book(s) you have read multiple times. The only book I have read several times would be Fun House by Dean Koontz. I used to love to read horror/thriller books. I still enjoy them, but reach for the suspense books more.

Favorite book/author of all time. That is a hard one. I am not even sure I can narrow it down to one book or even author. I do love Emily Giffin a lot, along with Sophia Kinsella and Lauren Weisberger.

Favorite TV show to binge. Tie between Sex and the City and Friends. I love them both and have seen the entire series for both of them way too many times.

Favorite new-ish TV show. I would have said This is Us if it was last year, but this year hasn't been as good as previous seasons. So I am going to go with Riverdale. I know, weird. But it is good and cheesy.

Favorite movie of all time. Another super difficult one. My husband would say something like Devil Wears Prada since I have seen it at least 100 times. But I think it would be either Dirty Dancing, Grease or The Big Lebowski.

Movie you are looking forward to watching. I had to google movies coming out in 2019 because I never get to watch the latest and greatest movies unless they come out on Netflix. So I am not even sure on this one.

First concert you attended. Offspring.

Ultimate concert (even if it can't happen!). A festival of Pink Floyd, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars.

Favorite music artist/band. Again, another one so hard to answer. If I split it up between older and more recent, it would be Pink Floyd and Incubus.

How do you listen? Mostly Pandora or my iTunes library.

Friday Favorites and Happenings

I feel like this week was a blur. Between the girls birthday on Saturday, NYE on Monday and then getting really sick on Tuesday, I just haven't been myself all week. I am still battling whatever sickness I picked up and I am just sad this is the way that I started the new year. But I guess it can only go up from here, right?

Onto Friday favorites and happenings.

ONE. Let's start with the girls birthday. We had Friday off (the day before the girls birthday) because we had the internet guy coming out and the chimney sweep guy coming out. So after dropping the girls off at school, I came home to bake and decorate cupcakes for their class. I did funfetti with purple vanilla frosting.

The girls happily enjoyed their cupcakes and being sang to at school!

We decided not to throw a huge party for the girls this year since we have the previous three years. We decided just to focus on them. So we had an Avery and Sutton Day!

The day started off with breakfast at their favorite restaurant followed by some time at a new-to-us trampoline park. I didn't get any photos while we were there as we did the jumping and adventures with them. The girls had a blast, but we were all tired once the jump time was over. Plus we were sooo sore for days after that.

Next, we headed to pick up their birthday cake for later on in the day. Then we went home and had some lunch and naps for the girls. I got them up a bit early since we had to get ready to go have manis and pedis together. The girls love getting their nails done, so I set up an appointment for them to professionally get them done. They had the scrubs, lotions, painting, sparkles and the whole amazing treatment done. They even had amazing hot chocolates that I kept "feeding" them to while their nails dried. I just got a shelac manicure, so I would dry faster and could watch them more.

 Sutton and her pink color she chose.

 Avery and her bright pink color that she chose.

 Avery enjoying her pedi.

 Sutton enjoying her pedi.

 All done and just letting everything dry.

Once their nails were dry enough, I carried them to the car and we headed home. We picked up Rory and headed off to pizza with my parents, my in-laws and my sister and brother-in-law. We had pizza and garlic knots and then headed home for cake and presents.

The girls tore through their presents in record time, but got some awesome things.

After everything was done, we played with some of the girls new toys and then everyone headed home and the girls went to bed. I can't believe I have 4 year olds! Time really does go by so quickly.

TWO. Sunday was spent taking down all the Christmas decorations other than the Christmas tree. I just can't seem to part with it. Along with the Christmas decorations, I went through all of the girls clothing. I made two piles. One for donation and one for stuff to sell. I then went through my closet and did the same thing. I didn't go through my dresser yet though. By that time, I was exhausted. But I put everything up online to sell (on my poshmark) and then took everything to a donation location.

It feels so good to purge so much stuff for the new year!

Just some of the girls stuff that we donated.

THREE. The rest of the day was spent outside since it was in the low 50s. We have been having some crazy weather around here where we get one day that is 50 and then many days of barely 30 degrees. So we had to take advantage and go outside. The girls rode their bikes a bit, but then Sutton stayed on her bike and Avery changed to her scooter. 

FOUR. Monday was New Year's Eve and we had to work, but the girls school was closed, so my in-laws watched the girls. The girls had a blast going sledding (up in the mountains), riding scooters and playing with a bunch of new toys from Christmas and their birthday. We worked, but got off early. We headed home, watched some Dirty John (soooo good) and then went out to dinner at sushi. It seems like everyone had the same idea, so we had a 40 minute wait. But it was worth it because the sushi was sooooo good. Then we headed home, showered and went to a NYE party. We almost stayed home since we were both exhausted, but rallied on and went over to our friends house.

We had a great time. We had champagne, snacks and tons of water. We went home just after midnight and had a great time. But I woke up feeling awful. I thought I might have had a hangover from champagne, but it wasn't a hangover. It was some sort of sickness. I feel lightheaded, have a fever, get dizzy when I sit up or stand, have an overall feeling of blah, have a headache and sinus pressure. My nose and eyes were sooo swollen on New Year's Day.

So let's hope that this new year only gets better!!!

FIVE. We had the girls 4 year old appointment on Wednesday and they have grown so much. They are perfectly healthy (praise the lord) and the pediatrician was very happy with their progress. Sutton now weighs 36 1/2 pounds and is 42 inches tall. She has gained 5 pounds in one year and 3 inches. She is in the 80th percentile for her height and in the 25th percentile for her BMI. Avery now weighs 36 pounds and is 41 1/2 inches tall. She gained 3 pounds and 3 inches in one year. She is in the 75th percentile for her height and is in the 25th percentile for her BMI as well. The girls rocked their appointments, but HATED the shots. They told me they didn't want to go back to the doctor for awhile. Ha. No one does girls.

I am linking up with April, A Little Bit of Everything, Meet @ the Barre and Cup of Tea.

Have a great weekend!