Category: Favorites

Top 10 Posts of 2016 with Behind the Scenes

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I’ve been seeing these top 10 posts of 2016 pop up all over my feed lately and was just dying to find out what Popcorn & Chocolate had in store. I can’t believe a whole other  year has gone by. This year was full of some fun crafts we shared on our blog and some not so fun transitions and moves in our personal lives. Throughout it all we’ve always had our blog going, even if it has meant spending our whole weekend dedicated to taking pictures and creating crafts. I love the grind of blogging and wouldn’t have had it any other way. So, without further ado, here are our top 10 posts from 2016 with a bit of behind the scenes commentary as well (inspired by Laurel at A Bubbly Mess).

10. Free Thanksgiving Table Printables thanksgiving grocery list | Popcorn & ChocolateAs you make your way down the list you will see that this was the year of free printables. Since they seem to do so well we will definitely incorporate lots more in 2017! Behind the scenes: I sent this picture to Rose of me using our printable to plan my Thanksgiving. Double behind the scenes: my Thanksgiving was delicious (thanks for asking), Rose’s was a disaster as her thermometer exploded in the oven and ruined her whole turkey. Thanksgiving printable

9. Flamingo and Swan Pool Float Costumes Bird pool float costumes | Popcorn & ChocolateI’m so glad you all loved these costumes as much as I did! They were a hoot to make and looked ridiculous on, which is a sure sign of a good costume. Behind the scenes: What you didn’t see with these pictures is us attempting to take them. I kept laughing at Rose behind the camera. I’m pretty sure she still has these costumes floating around her house…Pool float behind the scenes

8. Fruity Flower PotsDIY Stamped Clay Flower Pots | Popcorn & ChocolateAnother favorite DIY of mine. These guys were super fun to make but also so fun to take pictures of. Some crafts just don’t want to go your way when you are photographing them, but these little gems were great. Behind the scenes: We used one fake air plant because Rose keeps killing all of ours. Before you scroll down to the next picture can you guess which one is fake from the 3 above? Fruity pots behind the scenes

7. Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and ChocolateAgain, so glad you guys liked these silly candy cane flamingos! Behind the scenes: When I was making these my mom kept laughing at me every time I went outside to spray paint them. Then I left them drying propped up in our wheelbarrow in the garage so everyone saw them whenever they went in out of the garage. This was me on the day I photographed them – red nose and all. It was cold. Flamingo behind the scenes

6. DIY Pom-pom Easter Baskets DIY Pom-Pom Easter Basket | Popcorn & ChocolateBehind the scenes: these baskets were super easy to make but the hard part was finding the actual basket. We were at my house in NH and my mom had Easter baskets she was getting rid of so we were going to take them but forgot them so we scrambled all over Allston trying to find some cheap but decent looking baskets. We ended up finding these at the dollar store and they seemed to get the job done. Also, fun fact, we were in San Francisco when we wrote and published this post.

5. Colorful Etched Vases with Flower Puns and Sayings Colorful etched vase with sayingsThis is one of our most popular DIY’s on Instagram as well so I’m not surprised to see it make it on the list. Behind the scenes: Oh, where to start? These vases damn near killed us. It was one of our first crafts we made for Homedit so we wanted to make them perfect. Well, we soon found that what we originally wanted to do, which was to have the etched words colored, would not, will not work. We were stubborn AF trying to figure out a way to make this work. We must have dyed a million jars with different solutions. Eventually we flew in the flag and just went the easy way out and spray painted them. So much easier.

4. Cactus Piñata Cindo de mayo cactus pinata | Popcorn & ChocolateThis was one of my all time favorite crafts to make. I mean, it’s a cactus piñata, what isn’t to love? I was smitten with it. Behind the scenes: See how proud I am of my piñatas? I made that Aries ram for Rose’s birthday and promptly named her Lucinda and the cactus Señor. I convinced myself that I had a hidden talent of piñata making… perhaps we shall see if this holds true in 2017??Piñata behind the scenes

3. Nautical Hand-Painted Backgammon Board Handmade backgammon board | Popcorn & ChocolateThis was another one I loved to make (and play)! It involved us going to the beach to take pictures, which is always a win in my book. Behind the scenes: the one problem with taking pictures at the beach is that it can be windyyy. Everything kept blowing around so we had to strategically place rocks and bags onto the towels. Unfortunately we couldn’t do the same with my hat… Backgammon behind the scenes

2. 2016 Printable Oscar Ballots 2016 Oscar Ballot | Popcorn & ChocolateAnother printable for the top! Behind the scenes: This ballot came out great but what you didn’t see were the countless hours we took to make sure everything was aligned nicely and that the colors were bold enough. Not to mention having to look up most of these movies as we hadn’t seen any of them… eek.

1. Printable Super Bowl 50 Commercial Bingo Super Bowl Bingo Boards | Popcorn & ChocolateI am not even surprised that this is the number 1 post of 2016. These bingo boards got us so much traffic, we were tootin’ our little horns we were so excited. You best believe we will be doing them again this year. It’s our little tradition since college so we gotta stick with it. Behind the scenes: Our other tradition is to make so.much.food. and eat it all through the whole game – just the two of us. Here was our spread: lots of veggies and apples(?), pretzel bites, a faux chicken tender (we thought we should have some protein), chips, and a huuuge bowl of a vegan cauliflower cheese dip. Sooo good. I think I eventually got up for dessert too. No shame. super bowl behind the scenes

Anddd there you have it, our top 10 posts of 2016. I love looking back on our crafts and seeing which ones do well. I get so happy when I see that a craft I loved to make is popular. I hope you all are having a wonderful start to 2017 and hope you all stick around to see what we get up to this year. Let us know in the comments below which one of these DIY’s you liked the best!

50422011067__fcade0b3-b189-4181-bd48-ce77464e5e11And, also, just because I couldn’t leave without sharing this little New Years behind the scene fail. Here is what I wrote without thinking when I was trying out the 2017 champagne bottles. I sent this picture to Rose but she was grocery shopping so I’m going to guess she didn’t notice I put 2007 either.  #whatyearisit?

February Favorites

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air plant | Popcorn & ChocolateHello my lovelies! What a short and fast month February was, amirite? I swear this month like didn’t exist… Rose and I have a trip to Oregon and California planned for the beginning of March and all of a sudden that is next week. Like what?!? I thought it was still a month away… We are super excited to travel and explore new places. If anyone has any recommendations on what we should do/eat/see in Portland or San Francisco comment below! We would love to hear your suggestions. Another thing we would love to hear is what you loved through the very short and quick month of February. Here is what we just couldn’t get enough of.

Matcha latte | Popcorn & ChocolateFood:
Matcha tea! When I first tried matcha I was like no this is too thick I definitely don’t like this. Then I started to slowly crave it and finally now I cannot get enough of this deliciously creamy and wonderful tea. We have this set from David’s Tea and I’ve been loving the vanilla flavored matcha. I like to make mine with coconut milk and dip oreo’s into it. Rose likes the plain better and so far we’ve liked this grade best since it’s creamy and not too earthy.

Oreo’s: Speaking of Oreo’s… These. These. are. just. too. good. They feel slightly more natural and healthier than regs Oreo’s so I don’t feel too guilty eating them every single night for the past month. Plus, added bonus, you can have three per serving.

The_four_PLL'sTV/Movies:
Pretty Little Liars: We are a bit late to the game, but we started watching PLL from the beginning last year and are almost almost caught up to the new season. It’s been intense but we are thoroughly addicted now (Rose thought she saw Alison on the street this weekend) and won’t know what to do once we are caught up.

Room: We just watched this over the weekend and loved it. It was really intense to watch but definitely well done. I mean, Brie Larson did win an Oscar for it… so…

tillandsia | Popcorn & ChocolateRandom bits:
Perfume: Okay this comes with a bit of an (embarrassing) backstory… I was watching an interview with Shay Mitchell where she said her favorite scent is this Persian Gardens rollerball that they sell at Whole Foods. Well being the psycho Shay fan that I am, I wanted to smell like her, but once we got to Whole Foods they were sold out of that scent. We smelled all the others and I really liked this vanilla one at the time so I bought it. Every Whole Foods we went to thereafter we scouted out the perfumes until we finally found the one. Let me tell you it was well worth it because it smells amazing and now I can be just like Shay. #noshayme

hanging air plant | Popcorn & ChocolateAir plants: For Christmas, I gave Haley this awesome hanging air plant from a craft fair in Boston. I thought it was just the cutest thing and the girl who made it was super nice and made lots of cool stuff (you should check her out!). And then my mom got me a bunch of cute little air plants too! They’re so silly looking and everyone told me they were so easy to take care of… and then I killed one of mine and it was very sad and only got worse once I killed Haley’s… So you’re probably wondering why are air plants on my favorites when I can’t keep one alive? Because have you seen them?? I want to buy a bunch more and not kill them because they’re so fun to put everywhere! If anyone has the magic touch and can tell me how to take care of them properly please comment! Am I supposed to water them by spritzing them every day or am I supposed to bathe them once a week? Twice a week? For an hour? For 8 hours?

IMG_9787West Elm Vase: Rose got me this guy  for my birthday and I absolutely love to fill him up with fresh flowers. I’m also loving the whole Oh Joy for Target line -especially this painting.

Comment below what you have been loving this past month! Did you do anything fun for leap day? I might have eaten a few extra Oreo’s because, hey, it’s an extra day.

Behind The Scenes Photo Dump From 2015

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Umm it’s 2016. Like, what? Did 2015 even happen? Where was I? Does anyone else feel like 2015 flew by? Before we dive right on into 2016 I want to take a moment to reflect on 2015. Although it happened in a blink of an eye, we had a lot of fun over here at Popcorn & Chocolate. Some of these moments we shared with you and some we didn’t, so I thought I would do a little round up post of some behind the scene shots from 2015. Please excuse the low quality pictures – this is just for fun!

January 

The year started in typical P&C fashion with a couple selfies. May or may not have involved some alcohol 😉

IMG_9379As our news year’s resolution we decided to cut out processed sugar, which basically just meant we made a lot of cookies with coconut sugar instead of regular sugar. We also ate a lot of that ice cream..

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We had a lot of snow days during 2015, which meant a lot of shoveling and a lot of cookie baking.

IMG_9692January ended with my birthday and a lovely crown Rose made me!

February

IMG_9882We watched the Super Bowl and played Bingo during the commercials. Keep your eyes open this year for a fun Super Bowl post!

This is what typically happens after a food photoshoot (okay and sometimes during..). Those peanut butter and jelly pancakes were just too good.

March

This is what most of our photo shoots look like – someone standing on a table or a chair and always in pajamas. We made this bailey’s cake for St. Patricks day and were enjoying it all month long.

April

IMG_5900For Easter we made these bunting flags, which I so beautifully modeled, what am I doing with my fingers??

Then it was Rose’s birthday where I got to decorate my bar cart full of presents and goodies. We also went hiking and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cause those pancakes weren’t enough.

IMG_0780We ended the month with my favorite day of the year – free cone day at Ben and Jerry’s.

MayIMG_1181Lots of walks and hiking in May.

IMG_1280We did possibly my favorite photo shoot to date with this delicious cilantro lime popcorn.

IMG_1333Lilacs were in full bloom and we went to the local arboretum to see them!

IMG_1665We went to wine night at the zoo where we saw kangaroos!

June

IMG_1698We moved. It was stressful. This meal made up for all of it.

IMG_1848We went strawberry picking and had to stick our heads in this corn.

July

IMG_6898This is what happens when you try to take pictures of popsicles.

IMG_1968The famous crotch shot from our watermelon mojitos… nice socks.

Lots and lots of trips to Cape Cod, which were filled with lots of fish tacos and lots of puzzles and lots of not pictured s’mores.

August

IMG_2765True life I’m a crafter and a chocolate addict.. this is a typical scene found in our apartment. As are these…

We were busy painting away in August.

September

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetWe visited this goon.

IMG_3271We also finally got a tripod! No more standing on tables.. still pajamas though, always pajamas. And socks.

October

We went to plant night and added to our ever growing succulent collection.

IMG_8145On our trip back home  we scared the bejesus out of my dog in our Halloween costumes.

We had a Halloween party the night before Halloween (and didn’t take down the decorations for a couple of weeks); on actual Halloween we ate popcorn and lots of chocolate.

November

IMG_4114The not so appetizing attempts at what I ate Wednesday.

Someone always gets the fun job of holding up the background. Awkward fingers out again for this apple cider popcorn picture.

IMG_4305It’s hard to find space to make lunch whilst working on 3 different projects…

December

Some presents underneath our tiny fake Christmas tree and one batch of many many many Christmas cookies we baked.

IMG_4588“Why won’t anyone help me up?” Back home for the Christmas holidays.

IMG_4655.jpgDecember wouldn’t be complete without some gingerbread houses. These are my mom’s, mine, and Rose’s masterpieces.

There you have it folks! Some highlights and outtakes from our 2015. Hope you enjoyed it! Let us know in the comments below some of your favorite times from 2015! Happy New Year!

 

Favorite Items To Welcome Fall

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I love the fall. It’s a time to cozy up and slow down, which is always welcome in my book. I like to enjoy all the things that fall has to offer like candles, blankets, and all the beautiful reds and oranges that are scattered across the sky. Not to mention it is a nice break from all the humidity and heat that comes from summer. I feel like to me as I get older fall becomes more and more about a time to unwind and really relax and enjoy the moment. Fall always used to be a time of stress as I shuffled off to school and then college, but now I get a moment to breath in the crisp air and really sit and enjoy the transition from summer to winter. Here are some items that I’m looking forward to enjoying and unwinding with this fall.

Looking forward to fall

  1. Sam Edelman ‘Paige’ Fringed Ankle Booties. I bought these during their half yearly sale and can’t wait to try them out this fall! Similar style from Target.
  2. Anthropologie Backstory Tee. Again got this on sale and can’t wait to wear it! Similar.
  3. David’s Tea Peanut Butter Cup. I love tea in the fall – this is a new fall flavor from David’s Tea that sounds delicious! Perfect in this mug.
  4. Threshold Herringbone Throw from Target. So soft and cozy!
  5. Marshmallow Fireside 3-Wick Candle from Bath and Body Works. My all time favorite fall candle from BBW.
  6. Fox Socks from Target. Gotta keep those toes warm too!

August Favorites

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Oh, okay, Summer I see what you have done there. You have done and gone straight to Fall. I guess I can be okay with this. I GUESS. So long as you promise to explode with pumpkin flavored everything (candles I’m eyeing you) and plaid styled clothing and lets not forget Halloween decorations galore. Can y’all believe August is over?? This summer flew by. I mean FLEW. Holy cow where does time go? Okay grandma stop ranting and get along with the post… If you couldn’t tell from the title we are here to talk about our goodbye to summer forever August favorites.

Princess taking over my parents bed... as per usual

Princess taking over my parents bed… as per usual

Home: Little miss Olive. We went home to NH in August and I got to see my giant horse of a dog. She hasn’t changed much.. still deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner, still jumps (jump is a bit of a stretch..) onto your bed and takes up the whole thing if you leave your door open for one second, still begs for food by resting her head on our kitchen table (yes she is tall enough to do this. Oh how I’ve missed all her silly dogerisms.

Succulents

Some of our new succulents and some of our old ones that were taking over… pinky I’m talking about you

Also in home – new succulents! We bought some new succulents to add to our home when we were at Ikea (they have some awesome succulents) and also took the opportunity to re-pot some of our old ones that were taking over. Rose likes to propagate succulents by taking a leaf that has fallen off or plucking one off as long as it has visible roots and planting it in a new pot. She’s been doing it to all of our succulents so we shall see what grows.

Fitness Blender home pageWorkouts: Okay this might be an odd one but Rose and I both love (well as much as you can love a workout) using Fitness Blender for our daily workouts. They have easy to hard to my legs are going to fall off if I have to do another jump squat hard workouts that you can choose from. You can also choose how long you want your workout to be, which is great for me when I try and wake up early and workout. If you haven’t checked them out you should!

Me before you book coverBooks: As Rose mentioned in our June favorites, she read and loved Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Welp, you guessed it, I finally read it and lovedddd it too. From the description of the book I was kinda like ehh but once I read the first few pages I was hooked and whizzed through the whole thing.

The Nightingale book coverAnd while I was reading Rose’s recommendation she finally read mine and loveddd The Nightingale. Since we haven’t quite figured out how to share Kindle books we just literally swapped Kindles for the month.

Boyhood movie coverMovies: Boyhood. I know this movie has been out for a while but we finally got around to watching it and both loved it. The boy in it legit has the same voice/mannerisms/thoughts as my brother so it was amusing to watch for me and only slightly creepy. Regardless, go watch this and not be creeped out because you don’t know who my brother is.

Unreal_CandyCoatedMCFood: Unreal chocolate coated candy. Umm because it is too easy and I have to… these chocolates are UNREAL. But seriously these chocolates are sosoosoo good. Plus they are made with 100% real ingredients so you don’t feel bad when you go and accidently eat the whole bag in one sitting. Check them out – they make all sorts of different flavors and candies. We bought ours at Whole Foods.

June Favorites

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Helloooo summer and happy 4th of July everyone! This past month has been a hot one for us and summer has only just begun. It feels nice to be able to whip out shorts and t-shirts for the first time this year, although my pale legs have blinded a few people on my walk home. Not to mention how I’ve forgotten to shave a few times… sorry coworkers! I’ll get back into the swing of things soon enough (I hope).  Read on for what we have been loving and eating and reading and watching all throughout the past month.

Popsicle

Food: Popsicles – I have been making random fruit popsicles this whole month which meant I got to treat myself to a popsicle as an after work snack a lot. There was nothing I look forward to more than coming home to a nice cool popsicle after a long day at work (okay maybe also changing into pajamas, but popsicles were a close second). I’ve been really enjoying blended fruit, yogurt, almond milk, and a dash of honey yummy yummy! Also, a quick shoutout to Pipcorn! Rose loves this popcorn and recently they started carrying it at TJ Maxx! Woo!

Watermelon mojito

Drink:

Mojito’s – this is a little sneak peak of a post we are putting together shortly. We have been lahhhving making refreshing mojito’s all night every night. Check back soon for the recipe for this watermelon mint mojito we concocted!

Mint! We bought some mint to make those yummy mojitos but Rose has been infusing it in her water with lime and strawberries for a refreshing drink. She also steeped mint into her matcha lattes for a little bit of a minty note. So good!

nashville tv show

T.V.: Nashville – Oh my goodness this show! We have had this on our list of shows to watch for a while and finallyyyy decided to start it. It is so good so far! We are almost done with the first season and at the rate we have been watching we will soon be done with the second. Plus, we’ve been secretly jamming to the songs in the car when we go drive – boys and busses anyone??

The boys in the boat

Books:

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Okay so this is definitely not a book I would think I would like, but I absolutely loved it. It makes me want to start up crew, but not really because it sounds way too intense for me.

Me before you

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Rose has been loving this book and has not stopped talking about it all month, so much so that it is now on my list of books to read and it should be on yours as well!

Alba Botanica Sunscreen

Beauty: Alba Botanica – We’ve been loving this face wash by Alba Botanica. It’s lightly exfoliating and leaves that minty clean feeling after, you know that feeling? We’ve also been loving their sunscreen (we got this one) since it smells so good and feels natural. Especially since we’ve been on the Cape we’ve been applying and reapplying this stuff for days!

Well I hope you all enjoyed our June Favorites. Comment below with what you were loving in June!

May Favorites

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Wowa, where did May go? What is this? How can it be June already?? This June is going to be a good one for us. We have lots of fun summer plans in the books that we will be sure to bring you along for the journey. First on our big June plans is moving – we are moving apartments on the first and are very excited, and a little bit freaked out about how much stuff we have. How do two people accumulate so much stuff? Please, tell me, I would really like to know. Is it Target? It’s Target, isn’t it… Anyways, we also are planning a few trips down to Cape Cod this summer and will probably go for a long weekend as soon as we are settled in our new place. Exciting things on the horizon! But, this is all in the month to come and we are here to talk about what we loved in May. I’ll admit we weren’t loving much, (besides Uhaul and their cheap prices on boxes) but we managed to come up with a few things that we enjoyed throughout the month.

May favorites

Food: Well here we are again with popcorn as one of our favorites. You best get used to it because we eat a lot a lot of popcorn. We are always trying new brands and new flavors we see (so long as they are still pretty healthy and light). We have always loved the Lesser Evil brand but never tried their Himalayan Sweetness kind. We bought our first bag at Whole Foods and sort of forgot about it until we went to NH for the weekend and bought another bag of it there. Let me tell you we went through that whole bag in one night just the two of us and had to go out and buy 2 more bags the next day. We are LOVING it. Salty and sweet and light and delicious! Wow.. I had a lot to say about that popcorn, maybe we should just leave it at that? Nahh

Also for food, we have both been enjoying Tea pops from David’s Tea. It is basically strong brewed tea that is then poured over an ice cold glass of seltzer. We have been experimenting with making them at home and made a really delicious one that involved their root beer tea from last year and coconut seltzer. Sounds odd, but they are really good!

Books: I absolutely am loving The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I was hooked after the first page I read and haven’t been able to put it down since. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a gripping novel for the summer.

TV: We shamelessly watch The Bachelorette and are super stoked for the current season that just started. It is already full of such drama, loveit! We are playing along to The Bach Fantasy with Rose’s coworkers so we got some serious stakes for this show. We take our Bachelorette seriously #noshame.

Clothes: Rose is laahhving these pants from Loft. She got them in navy and has worn them a bunch already. They are appropriate for work but also comfy; A good purchase all around!

April Favorites

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Hello May! I hope everyone has had a splendid start to this month, I know we have over here. We thought we would stop by and share what we were loving in April as May is already almost half way through, better late than never!

So, what have we been loving this past month you ask?

April Favorites.001

For food it has been all things smoothie bowls. Both Rose and I have been eating them like they are going out of style. We have particularly been loving throwing some spinach into them and frozen mango. Top it up with some granola and what a delicious breakfast!

Now that spring is here and the fruit is fresher, we cannot stop buying the huge family size pack of strawberries at the store and eating every last one of them. We have even been adding them to our smoothie bowls, yum!

Lastly, for an afternoon treat, we’ve been munching on this bar nonstop. It has been my go to chocolate of choice lately. It is so soft and creamy and just melts right in your mouth. Plus, it’s from David’s Tea which is such a fun store to peruse and buy too much tea you don’t need.

For makeup/skin care Rose has been loving her Maybelline Color Whisper in Plum Prospect. It is a fun bright color for spring. I have been loving this face mask from Mario Badescu. It makes my feel skin soft and fresh after a day of wearing makeup.

For clothes, I have been wearing my Toms non-stop this season. It still is too soon to wear sandals so Toms are a good in-between wear, especially on days I have to walk a lot.

For books/movies we both loved loved loved Big Hero 6. It was so cute and funny! We are itching to watch it again. In terms of books, I absolutely loved We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I thought it was a great read and now I’m making Rose read it so we can discuss it.

That’s it lovies! Check back shortly for some new posts and I hope you all enjoy the month of May!

Things We Loved in March 2015

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Hello all! Rose and I have decided to share with you some of our favorites from the month of March. We enjoy reading these posts and thought it would be fun to make one ourselves!

march favorites

Food:

  • Nature Valley Protein bars – these bars are so delicious when you are on the run and need a quick snack. Plus there is 10g of protein and only 6g of sugar, which is a major plus in my book!
  • Nectarines – although they aren’t quite in season yet we have been munching on them in our breakfast throughout this month.
  • Trader Joe’s kettle corn and 479 Asiago, Parmesan and Cheddar popcorn – This post wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have popcorn on the list! These are the two bags we have been munching on extra hard.

Fashion:

  • Bomber jacket – I recently purchased this bomber jacket for the spring and am loving it! It is the perfect weight plus it isn’t stiff like most jackets so you can wear it comfortably all day long. Rose has a similar one in a floral print that she wears all the time as well.
  • Booties – Yay for bootie season! Now that all the snow has melted our booties are out to play.
  • Revlon Colorburst in crush – Rose has been wearing this color on her lips non stop throughout March. We love all of the colorburst colors but right now this color has taken center stage. Plus it stays on all day even through lunch!

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