Tag: product review

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Everything Else Pregnancy

Seraphine Maternity Wear

I’m to that point in this pregnancy where certain maternity clothes I *loved* at first no longer will work for me. That includes anything without a full panel. But what was been my go-to all winter & I believe will continue into the spring, tunics. Especially one’s that work with black leggings as I haven’t been able to find full-panel leggings in other colors.

So when a rep from Séraphine contacted me to see if I’d be interested in trying out their maternity wear, I jumped at the chance. I chose the Panel Tie Tunic in black & it arrived super quick {from the UK no less}. Séraphine was a new company to me, but I realized I recognized their maternity wear from seeing celebrities like Jennifer Garner & Jessica Alba wearing it in magazines.

My favorite thing about this tunic: the material, the cut & feel of it. It’s so soft & also one of the only maternity tunics/dresses I have that I don’t *have* to wear a tank under it so that I’m not flashing a ton of cleavage.

I also love that I’ve been able to both dress this tunic up & will be able to dress it down for regular work days & weekends. So far I’ve worn it to my VA baby shower a couple weekends ago & then again this past week at my work conference {photo taken in hotel room mirror}. To both events, I wore it with leggings, black patent flats & a pink cardigan. Really cute, right?!

Seraphine tunic love at my shower, work trip & hanging in my kitchen

Oh & this lazy pregnant chick loves that my tunic is machine washable & hung dry without me having to then iron it!

I now have my eyes set on some of Séraphine’s spring maternity clothes. My favorites include the white & navy striped breast feeding top & the ruched sleeved jersey nursing dress {how cute would both be to wear this spring & then summer?!}. I’m pretty sure I’d wear this knot front dress while pregnant & hope I could still make it work even when I wasn’t! If you’re looking for pretty yet practical nursing bras, Séraphine has those too.

Séraphine has generously offered to help all of y’all, my readers & friends, bring home a cute Séraphine item of your choice {over $30} at 20% off with the discount code: ST20. Happy shopping!

I was given the tunic for the purpose of this review but was not compensated in any other way. All the opinions listed above are unbiasedly honest & my own.

Categories
Everything Else Reading

BlogHer Book Club: Born Wicked

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood is the first of The Cahill Witch Chronicles series. Y’all know I love a good series {think Outlander, Hunger Games & even dare I say Twilight?!} & figured why not try reading this one.

Born Wicked is historical fiction set in New England in the late 1800s. But it took me a while to realize that. Based on clothing, diction & home descriptions, I gathered almost immediately that it wasn’t a modern day story. But then I was getting confused where & when the story was taking place. Finally, a couple chapters in, the author specifically states New England & mentions the witch trials of the 1780s being about 100 years before. I wish the clues in the novel had been more specific so I wouldn’t have been so confused for the first third of the book.

This is also one of the first witch books I’ve read in a very long time. I wasn’t sure about that part of the story, but I ended up enjoying the magic portions. I enjoyed reading about the sisters, Cate, Maura & Tess, from Cate’s view point. We were able to see the struggles of all three but I cared most about Cate. The stress of her raising her sisters after their mother’s death. The “love” triangle she finds herself in between her childhood, boy-next-door BFF & the bookkeeper-turned-gardener in her backyard. The sisters trying to fit into town society when they’re different & have been sheltered away.

At first, I truly didn’t think I’d like this book, but the more I got into it, the tougher I found it was to put it down. I’d recommend it for light reading & do look forward to the next story in the series!

You can learn more & join the discussion about Born Wicked at the BlogHer Book Club Born Wicked discussion page.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are all my own.

Categories
Everything Else Food

Everyday Desserts


By this point, y’all are familiar with how much I’m continuing to eat in order to grow & sustain these babies. A lot. Still something every two-three hours.

The weather here has been in the 80s for the last couple of weeks. So now not only am I looking hugely pregnant, I’m also looking sweaty. But the one one of the great things about warm weather & spring/summer is that fruit will soon be in season locally! Bring on the NC strawberries, blueberries, & peaches!

And while bananas aren’t grown local, I didn’t get the childhood nickname of Suzanna Banana by coincidence!

Fruit is by far my favorite go to when I’m hungry. Add COOL WHIP whipped topping, and even the most basic fruit becomes a special, exciting, delicious snack or dessert.

Top plain white cake with strawberries & COOL WHIP, BOOM, you’ve got Strawberry Shortcake. Perfect for Easter weekend when our fresh strawberries should be coming out.

But my all time favorite dessert is banana pudding. {if any of y’all try to call me Suzanna Banana though, it’s on.} Since I eat dessert every night now, & since Target had both bananas & COOL WHIP on sale this past week, I took advantage and whipped up this banana pudding for the weekend. This recipe makes a lot. Like feed-a-family-reunion, take-to-church-pot-luck, perfect-for-girls-beach-weekend lot. Or, you know, feed-Suz-&-her-growing-babies lot. 🙂

I’ve shared this recipe before but it’s been a while, and it’s my favorite & also one of the easiest Banana Pudding recipes I’ve ever made. I swear the reason for it’s awesomeness~ COOL WHIP. I used two small containers of COOL WHIP this time & it made the pudding part so moist & light. The recipe is from my friend Kim’s Mississippi Momma. You can’t beat a southern lady’s recipes y’all!

Homemade Banana Pudding
Ingredients
1 large pkg instant vanilla pudding
2 c cold milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container COOL WHIP, slightly thawed
4-5 bananas. sliced thin
1 box Nilla Wafers

Directions
Make pudding as directed on package: Using wire wisk, mix pudding into cold milk for 2 minutes in large bowl.
Continuing whisking while pouring in condensed milk then COOL WHIP.

{ingredients; adding the good stuff}

In 2+ qt container, place layer of wafers, then thinly sliced bananas. Top that with pudding mixture. Continue to layer until all gone. Enjoy!

{1.5 qt full; COOL WHIP containers make great banana pudding holders}

And for some reason you have COOL WHIP & bananas left over, throw them in a dish with strawberries & blueberries & call that breakfast! Happy spring & summer eating!

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content.I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

Categories
Everything Else Pregnancy

Changing Diapers {a review & giveaway}

Saturday night, I dreamed I was at a cloth diaper conference & was super overwhelmed. The colors, brands, AIO, one-size, prefolds, covers! Ah! I woke up relieved though, since, thanks to cloth diapering momma friends & Changing Diapers: A Hip Moms Guide to Cloth Diapering by Kelly Wels, I *think* I understand the basics of cloth diapering. Enough that I’m beyond excited about cloth diapering our babies.

Yes, you read that right. No disposables {or very few} in our house. Cloth Diapers. But not your grandma’s cloth diapers. Modern cloth diapers are cute & fun & create the most precious fluffy baby butts!

I made my cloth diaper decision over a year ago entering & winning a few cloth diapers on blog giveaways, but Jason wasn’t really on board. Then I went to San Diego, met a lot more cloth diapering ladies & came home with a bunch more cloth diapers {thanks to the Haute Green party}. It was also at the Haute Green party that I met Kelly Wels & heard more about her website & her new book. Her marketing team sent me a copy of Changing Diapers shortly after I found out I was pregnant, but it’s taken me a little while {hello triplets!} to post.Changing Diapers breaks down the cloth diaper basics for those totally new to CDing but still has enough great information for those already using cloth. It even has a cloth diapering multiples section which helped {along with the $$$ factor} win Jason over into using cloth for our babes. I love the break down in the middle over every kind of cloth diaper & the most popular brands. Kelly includes beautiful photos & while she discusses brands & quotes real-life cloth diaper users, she doesn’t push one brand over another. Changing Diapers even has a blank chart in the back so you can keep track of the types, brands, sizes of cloth diapers you own.

A few of my favorite pages: the multiples chapter, diaper covers, prefolds & snappis.

In case you’re wondering, our plan is to use cloth from the beginning {well as soon as they’re home from the hospital}. My triplet momma guru Jenny has graciously handed me down their newborn & size one prefolds. I’m working my way to building up my stash of diaper covers & snappis. Since prefolds appear a little more tricky, I’m excited to have ten or so AIOs {all in ones} & pocket diapers that are more grandparent-friendly as they look very similar to disposables {I’ve overheard my mom & aunt telling family how cute those are!}.

Kelly is happy to share her love of cloth diapers to everyone in Changing Diapers. You can learn more about Kelly & cloth diapering on her website as well as pick up a copy of Changing Diapers for yourself or one of your pregnant friends.

And since we’re in the mood for giving, start your own cloth diaper stash {or feed your cloth diaper addiction!} by entering below to win a Fuzzibunz one size diaper.

Leave a comment tell me your first thought when you hear “cloth diaper”.

For a second entry, follow Kelly & I on twitter & tweet “Enter to win a Fuzzibunz #clothdiaper #giveaway from @KellyWels & @suzstreats at http://suzstreats.com/changing-diapers”. {edited to add: ok to tweet once a day. Please make an additional comment linking to your tweet.}

Good luck! I will close the giveaway & draw a winner using random.org next Tuesday February 7th at 11a EST. Can’t wait to hear what are your impressions of cloth diapers!

I was provided a copy of Changing Diapers free of charge for my honest opinion. I am an affiliate of Changing Diapers, but I was not compensated in any other way.

Categories
Everything Else Reading

BlogHer Book Club: The Underside of Joy

I finished Sere Prince Halverson’s first novel The Underside of Joy a few weeks ago. The title intrigued me, & I couldn’t hold off on reading it. Underside isn’t a word often used. The Underside of Joy? What would that be? The Underside of Joy, as per the novel {& me}, is what happens when your world as you know it falls apart & what happens as things are coming back together.

I’d pretty strongly recommend this book so I’m going to try to keep my review spoiler-proof. While I’ve never been divorced, a mother, nor a step-mother, I easily saw myself in the struggles & triumphs {no matter how small} of Ella Beane, the main character. I loved the children & the dog. I thought Sere’s character development was great. At different times, I wanted to shout out at Joe, Ella & Paige. The location, set in the North California, made me want to run off & go there just so I too could picnic in the woods by the water.

The end of The Underside of Joy was a bit predictable. I wasn’t shocked by it, but that’s not to say that I didn’t really enjoy the book. In fact, this is the first book I’ve recently read that I quickly passed on to a friend.

I’m looking forward to hearing what the other readers thought of this book & I know they’ll be a lot to talk about from it. To learn more about the author & join in on the discussion, visit BlogHer Book Club for The Underside of Joy.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are all my own.