I seriously can’t believe it is already Thanksgiving week! We are hosting at our house this year. My in-laws are flying in tomorrow and we will also have some friends over. It’s not my first time cooking a turkey. I cooked one when we were living in Arizona a few years ago, but I still get so nervous I’m going to mess it up or overcook. Wish me luck! This morning, I was able to squeeze in a quick barre3 workout and got all the Thanksgiving shopping completed this afternoon. One outfit completer I can’t stop wearing this year is my faux fur vest. It’s under $45 and goes great over tops, dresses, and sweaters. I am putting some of the ones below on my Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping list this year. These are all under $100!
Sweater // Scarf (out of stock but linked so many good ones below!) // Denim (maternity here) // Booties
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My go to accessory these days is a scarf. It can instantly elevate a simple outfit and takes thought out of planning an outfit. Scarves make the perfect gift this holiday season. Sharing some of my current favorites this season below, all at an affordable price. HAPPY SCARF SHOPPING!!
I joke about it always being sweater weather in Seattle but it’s always chilly enough to wear one. I didn’t own many sweaters until moving here but now I wear one daily to stay warm. This chunky sweater from Nordstrom is one of my favorites this season. Sadly, it’s already sold out but I’m sharing some of my other favorites below. Click on the image and it will take you directly to the website. HAPPY SWEATER SHOPPING!!!
You know you are attending the right event when you are greeted at the door with cocktails. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend the #WFMfriendsgiving put on by Whole Foods Market Seattle and Hot Stove Society. They even had a mocktail waiting for me. After a little mingling, we headed into the cooking room to make more cocktails. Sadly, I’ll have to wait until baby #2 arrives before I get to indulge in the fun cocktails.
Hot Stove Society is the cooking school of Tom Douglas Restaurants. If you live in the Seattle area, I don’t even need to explain who Tom Douglas is. If you don’t know who he is, you can read about him and his many restaurants here. Chef Hershall led us through hands on making of sweet potato gnocchi. Then we learned how to prepare lamb. The cooking class finished off with a Thanksgiving feast. I can’t forget the amazing pumpkin pie dessert either! I’m hoping to incorporate a few cooking tips I learned in my own cooking. I am planning to cook the whole Thanksgiving meal this year. Most of the recipes I use are my Mom’s. She cooks Southern, so there will be lots of butter and cream in my dishes. However, if you aren’t up for the cooking, Wholefoods has options to pick up your entire meal. You can go here to order online and pick up in store. They offer a lot of choices from turkey to sides. Their dressing is amazing and I am thinking about picking up some for my meal.
I’ll leave you with two drink holiday drink recipes courtesy of Wholefoods Market Seattle and Hot Stove Society below. Thanks so much for having me as a guest to the #WFMFriendsgiving!
Apple-Wine Cocktail
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tbs apple cider, preferably spiced or mulled
1 sprig fresh thyme or rosemary
1/2 honey crisp apple, very thinly sliced, divided
ice cubes as needed
Ginger Gold (Perfect mocktail for all the other pregnant ladies out there!)
The San Juan Islands are truly magical. If you live in the Pacific Northwest and have never been, book a trip now. You can access the islands by ferry and total travel time is around three hours from Seattle. We chose Orcas Island for our first island trip and can’t wait to get back and explore more of the other islands. We stayed in a waterfront cabin at the West Beach Resort. It was the perfect cabin weekend. Some other places nearby to stay were: Beach Haven Resort and Rosario Resort. If you are going during off season, like us, make sure you get groceries to cook in your cabin. The grocery store in Eastsound was really nice and a lot of the restaurants have limited hours this time of year.
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Moran State Park is another place worth exploring with lots of great hiking trails for all levels. Check out the Washington Trail Organization website for more trail details. We drove to the top of Mount Constitution with hopes to see the amazing view but instead we were greeted with fog. We couldn’t even see 50 feet in front of us. We will be back for the view!!
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Orcas Island was the perfect weekend getaway and we can’t wait for our next trip!
I wanted to share some of our current favorites for Logan at one year. Logan is approaching 14 months next week and these products are still getting lots of use. Some days a cardboard box keeps him the most entertained but these toys and products are getting the most use in our house. What are your baby favorites? I love finding new toys or products for Logan so please share any current favorites in your baby’s rotation!!
The San Juan Islands stole my heart this weekend. We took the ferry over to Orcas Island and stayed two nights at the West Beach Resort. There is something magical about every place we visit living in the Pacific Northwest but this island might be at the top of my favorites list. These are a few photos from our ferry ride to the island and our first day at our cabin. We had typical grey and drizzling Pacific Northwest weather waiting for us when we arrived.
Our household has been battling colds so we spent most of the weekend catching up on much needed rest. Sunday afternoon, Ryan and I escaped the house for a few hours for an afternoon coffee date. Nothing better than sipping a latte on a cold, rainy Seattle day.
This post is mostly my thoughts on working out and buying clothes for that second pregnancy.
Everyone tells you all pregnancies are different and after living through another first trimester, I can tell you they are right. I didn’t get this sick with Logan. The sickness feeling comes in waves but has been so bad that I basically didn’t work out for two months. I listened to my body and glad that I did. My focus was on doing more activities with Logan like going to the park and adding in more stroller walks since I wasn’t working out. I did run some but it was for mostly short distances. This week I started back Pilates and barre. I complete my Pilates workouts at home and started going to barre3. They have childcare so that makes them the best! Seriously though, after only a few classes I can tell my muscle tone is returning. The workout is a mix between barre, Pilates and yoga. Overall, it’s a great workout and perfect for expectant mothers. Let the instructor know if you are pregnant so they can show you modifications on the core series depending on how far along you are.
As the bump continues to grow, getting dressed becomes harder. When I was pregnant with Logan, my belly was the biggest during the summer so it was easy to wear a lot of dresses. I didn’t invest in any maternity jeans and I used the bellaband on all my existing shorts and pants. However, this pregnancy I will be investing in one or two pairs of maternity jeans. Last pregnancy, that last month using the bellaband on my pants was not comfortable.
Non-Maternity Sweaters that you can wear through Pregnancy
For tops, I will try not to buy many maternity specific items and focus more on oversized tops and sweaters. Some of these favorites will be tunic length now but will slowly get shorter as the bump fills them in. Target and A Pea in the Pod have great maternity selections.
We are excited to finally share our secret. Baby #2 is on the way! This pregnancy has been a little rougher than my first but hopefully I will start feeling much better soon.
Our weekend was too short as always but we did manage to squeeze in some family time around Ryan’s never ending work schedule. Logan got a chance to go to his first Sounders game Sunday and his first game was a win so now they are playoff bound.
I am starting to feel a lot better so hopefully it will be a week back to my workouts and cooking every night. I’ll let ya know how it goes 🙂
