Cozy Fall Essentials (and a giveaway!)

If you're following me on Instagram, you've probably already noticed that I love fall.  Scarves, soups, hoodies, and pumpkin-everything is totally my jam. So when Parachute asked me to write about my cozy fall essentials, I was all in.

 

To have a chance to enjoy your own cozy fall day with one of my essentials, be sure to read to the end of the post to enter the giveaway!

 

 

For me, the fall season is the epitome of coziness-- a time to enjoy both the beauty of nature and the comfort of home. So my fall essentials allow me to savor and enjoy all that the season has to offer.

 

As you've probably already figured out if you've been around here for awhile, there's not much I love more than a steaming, hot cup of coffee.  And with pumpkin spice and other fall-flavored coffees dominating this time of year, it's not hard to find a great seasonal cup of coffee.  But as the weather cools, I also love to warm up with hot apple cider, hot chocolate, or a cup of tea. 

 

With cooler weather and decreasing amounts of sunlight daily, cuddling up with a warm blanket is key for enjoying the fall season.  I shared my love of adding blankets and throws to my décor in order to bring texture and warmth to our home in this post, and am always looking for cozy new throws to spice up our décor.  I think these striped cashmere throws from Parachute look divine!  Can you imagine how amazing it would feel to curl up under cashmere?!  It sounds heavenly.

 

 

Another essential for enjoying a cozy fall is having fall-scented candles and soaps around the house.  This season, I'm really loving my Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake scented candle.  I swear it makes my house smell like I'm baking something amazing!  Which in turn makes me want to eat cookies or something, but that's another story....

 

With the craziness of adding twins to our family, I spent several months without having any time to read. But now that fall has arrived (and the babies are starting to sleep for longer stretches of time), I'm finding that I can incorporate a bit of my favorite pastime back into my life.  I've spent a few quiet moments recently reading in my favorite Kindle app and catching up on issues of magazines I didn't have the chance to read over the summer.  Curling up with a book or magazine is such a great way to spend a chilly fall evening!

 

So to offer you your own piece of my version of a cozy fall day, I'm giving away a one-year subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Better Homes and Gardens!  Enter using the Rafflecopter below.  The giveaway will run through midnight on 10/26 and the winner will be contacted via email.  Good luck!

 

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 So, that about wraps up all I need for a cozy fall!  Sipping a hot drink and reading under a snuggly blanket with fall candles burning in the background...sounds like heaven.

 Now if I can just get these sweet babies to sleep so that I can experience it ;)

What are your cozy fall essentials? Leave them in the comments below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Friday Favs 53

Happy Friday!  Here are some things I'm loving right now!

Fav #1

This sweet corn soup is amazing. It tastes like fresh corn on the cob.  In a bowl.  Which means I ate it almost every day until it was gone :)

 

 

 

Fav #2

I'm loving these wood watches by Jord right now!  My favorite is the Cora series Zebra wood and Turquoise.  I love the different tones in the wood, and think it would look great with a lot of different outfits!

  

Fav #3

I can't do another fav post without sharing my diaper bag with you.  I love it!  The JuJuBe BFF was such a splurge, but it's so pretty and functional! At this point in life, I use a diaper bag rather than a purse, so I needed one that looked great.  I parted with a ton of Ebates dollars that I've been hoarding for a long time in order to make the price more palatable.

The best price I can find for this print is here, and it looks as if they are always offering 10% off.

 

Choosing a print was SOO hard because I loved so many of them!  I gave Mr. M. some input, since he might need to carry the bag at some point, and he preferred the Queen of the Nile, which is a black and white herringbone pattern.  I love the fabric paired with the gold hardware.  Although let's face it-- had the leopard print been released when I bought my bag, he probably wouldn't have gotten a say!

 

Fav #4
 

And speaking of Ebates...if you aren't using it yet, you are missing out! It's awesome, and I use it to get cash back on almost everything I buy.

They work with almost all of my favorite stores, and it is just too easy not to use.  All you have to do is go to the Ebates website and open the website of the store you are shopping at from there.  That's it! 

You definitely should check it out! If you do, please use my referral link!

Have a great weekend!

 



DIY Mobile

One of my favorite parts of waiting for the babies to come was designing the nursery.  I had dreamed about it for years (I shared some of those dreams here), and one thing I knew for sure what that I wanted to DIY a mobile. 

 

As it turned out,  I needed to DIY two mobiles. :)

 

 

There are so many great DIY mobile inspirations out there, but my favs are the paint chip mobiles and I knew that was the direction I wanted to go in!

 

I can't take any credit for figuring out how to DIY these mobiles, though.  I totally adapted Merely Mothers DIY Better-Than-Pain-Chip Mobile to meet my needs, so I'll let you click on over there to read their tutorial. It's so simple! The only changes that I made were to use different colors, and to string my circles on fishing line instead of thread. 

 

 

I would recommend securing the strands of circles to the embroidery hoop with a dot of hot glue (in addition to merely tying them on), something I've had to go back and do after having two strands fall off. 

 

The supplies for two mobiles cost me about $15, which I thought was pretty good considering that I've seen similar mobiles listed anywhere from $30-70 on Etsy. The circle punch was the most expensive item on my list, but I got that for less than 10 bucks with a coupon.

 

Supplies Needed (for each mobile)

 12 inch embroidery hoop

7 inch embroidery hoop

4 sheets of cardstock for each color on mobile (16 sheets total)

2 inch circle punch

fishing line (I already had some)

white thread (I used some we had on hand)

keyring (I stole one out of our junk drawer)

 

Visit Merely Mothers for the instructions and to see their gorgeous mobile!

 

 

The babies just love to gaze at them!

 

I'm working on a full-on nursery post, but I hope you liked this sneak peek in the meantime!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Favs 52

Happy Friday!  Even though I'm on maternity leave, Fridays still get me pumped because the weekends mean that Mr. M. is home with us!  Love that...and the extra sleep that comes from his help with middle of the night feedings!

Fav #1

 I can't talk about favorites without acknowledging that October has arrived!  I LOVE this month...the weather, the foliage, the fall fashion that I can finally wear.  Welcome October! Oh, how I have missed you!

 

 

Fav #2

I recently discovered the Etsy shop Layered and Long, and I am in love.  They shop features tons of gorgeous layering jewelry that is also special enough to stand alone. I especially like that you can customize your necklace's length and material (most pieces are available in silver, gold, and rose gold).  I have my eye on the gold bar necklace, which I'd love to have engraved with my kids' names.

 

 

 

...but I wouldn't be mad at anyone who bought me the Herkimer diamond necklace.  Just sayin.

 

 



Fav #3

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the cutest personalized books!  Lost My Name books tell the story of a little boy or girl who has somehow lost his/her name, and embarks on an adventure to find it.  Each story uses the letters in the child's name to guide his/her journey to recover their name.  Have a kid with a short name?  They'll add in some extra part of the journey to ensure their story is at least 24 pages.

 

Ours arrived last week, and they are adorable!  I'm planning on giving them to my kids for their first Christmas, so I loved that I was able to include a personal message to each in the front of their books. 

Thinking this would be the perfect Christmas gift for the little one in your life?  Use my link for 15% off!


Have a great weekend!  We are watching and waiting to see what Hurricane Joaquin means for us.  Hoping your weekend is safe and dry!