what we wore wednesday

so i tried to update a post last night but blogger was down. now it's what we wore yesterday.

do you like how i'm posing so studiously on our corporate dorm housing two seater? i thought you would. i'm wearing a white wife beater under a turquoise Old Navy tank. my navy blue skirt is from Gap and it's RIDICULOUSLY comfortable. and my TOMS.

i love my TOMS. blue with yellow anchors. yum.

the kids were cranky after naps and didn't really feel like posing for pictures. so i secretly got them while having some craft time. big A is wearing a cute stripes polo with some cargo shorts, all from Target. 

little a is wearing a dress that looks like a t-shirt with ruffles on the bottom from Walmart. it was $5. LOVE.

i like to call this beach/messy hair. i strategically used a mixture of pool water and sunblock to create a textured look, then, while running after her, fixed a cute little clip to get her hair out of her eyes. 

and my bangs. they are still so, so messed up. i like to call these mydaughtercameatmewithscissors look. hopefully they will have a serious growth spurt before our family pictures with Jackie Wonders.... next week. yeah, i don't think so either. well, i can just say i did it on purpose. i mean, that look is totally in, right?

What We Wore Wednesday

well hello there. 

i'm so silly, i almost forgot today was Wednesday! for reals. that's what happens when you're a stay at home mom, away from home, at camp, with no calendar. thankfully my husband took some pictures of us on our way to dinner and i'm whipping up a post. thanks honey!

aren't you feeling so loved? i mean, i put absolutely NO effort into this outfit. actually, i was WAYYYY cuter this morning in a pretty floral summer dress and yellow scarf, but i changed before these pictures because the marine layer rolled in and i was cold. (did you hear that Fresnonians??? i said i was COLD! i know, that was mean.)

i pinky swear to be extra cute next week. cross my heart.

Big A is OBSESSED with this Thor helmet. he kinda looks like a little troll creeping around the parking lot here, but actually he is hunting for the best stick to replicate Thor's mallet. 

oh good, he found one. see all those leaves on the ground down there? yeah, he tore up that bush. get it Thor, get it. "kid Thor" (as he quickly corrects me if i ever use his real name...) is wearing a super wrinkled orange and plaid button up from Target and some jeans. i also made him put on closed toed shoes because of the chill in the hair. i hate ever thinking that those sweet little toes are cold!

little a chose a pretty pink and white floral tunic from Old Navy, jeggings from Target, a brown cardi and gold sparkle shoes, also from Target. here she is looking for caterpillars and cocoons under the map of the campus. 

i've got on a gray t-shirt from Old Navy for $3, navy blue super skinny cords also from Old Navy, and $3 moccasins from a thrift store in Fresno called Neighborhood Thrift. that super cute bag was a gift for my baby shower with little a and it is from Anthro (!). 

 we like Old Navy. specifically the sale rack where i can find things for $5 or less. i really hate spending money on clothes, but love to shop. i know, i'm crazy.

i'm sooooooo bummed because my mocs recently ripped. see it, over there on the left shoe? ugh. i love them so much. i'm thinking about duct taping them from the inside, but that's totally ghetto. do you have any suggestions? 

also, i may or may not have butchered my bangs. and by may or may not, i mean i did. i usually cut my own bangs and do a pretty good job, but something possessed me to go shorter!?!?! what? i know, i think i'm sleep deprived or something. please remove all scissors from our room until camp has commenced so i don't feel tempted to cut them again. bangs are not the portion of hair you should be taking risks with people. they are right at eye level and you can never tell if anyone is looking at your funky bangs or straight into your eyes. it's crazy making. 

good night and happy wednesday! 

xoxo.

Smitten Saturday?

oh no, i'm kind of freaking out that i didn't do a Smitten Saturday this past Saturday and am feeling really bad that i haven't posted anything for a while. my little family packed our bags (a months worth) and headed down to San Diego for a month so my husband's band, 330 Plan, could lead worship for Hume SD. 

here they are, practicing before the morning chapel in front of the amazing set.

we will be setting up camp for the next month here. it's so nice to be back in our hometown but a little overwhelming to try to be present at the camp and still try to see all our family and friends. i get the feeling these next four weeks will go by fast and i want to treasure every moment! all in all, we are very happy to be here. 

little a, singing Hosanna in front of 200+ junior high schoolers

the least i can do is share with you all the amazing pictures i took on Saturday when i went to the Farmer's Market in Little Italy & Seaport Village with one of my besties, Heather.

big A decided he was Thor, all day.

flower inspiration for a friend's upcoming wedding. (Leah, these dahlia's would be so pretty in your centerpieces!)

mmm, golden raspberries. 

wow. just, wow.

while driving around Little Italy and Down Town i saw soooo many awesome backgrounds for pictures, i think i'll have to come back and just capture them all one day.

historic carousel.

coronado bridge.

me and the feather.

lola, the parrot, and big A. i mean Thor. 

sorry if my posting is a little more random and sporadic, i'll try to keep up with my goings on around San Diego. 

love. tara.

p.s. some people have mentioned that they had trouble leaving comments, i think i fixed it so comment away!

What We Wore Wednesday

today is ridiculously hot, like 100 degrees or something. so my kids pretty much wore these outfits for the photo shoot and to Target, then they came home and stripped down to their chones. 

ballerina little a in a dress from Target and flip flops from Old Navy. easy breezy. 

she chose to wear her hair in high pig tails and i had to practically wrestle her to the ground to put them in the little twisty buns. with it being so hot i thought i was being a thoughtful mommy by keeping her hair off her neck... but nooooooo, she has specific ideas about how she wants to look and i better not get in the way. sheesh. in the end, as you can see, i won because i'm the mommy. what?

 what a comedian. big A said this was his "handsome pose". yes, yes it is. he chose his Shawn White tshirt from target and some hand-me-down shorts from i don't know where. also, navy blue slip ons. he's also holding his pen pal letter from our neighbor down the street. he keeps it near and dear to his heart.

even whilst he does self defense moves. he wanted me to capture him doing a Kung Fu kick for his Papa (my dad is a 6th degree black belt in Kung Fu and taught it for many years). so, here you go Papa. 

 this is big A's pic of me. i'm wearing a Quiksilver shirt from Marshall's or one of those discounter stores that i love so much. it's silk and i LOVE the pattern. i paired it with my too short shorts from 2003, a $1 belt from Goodwill, and my rainbow flip flops. (do you love my dumpsters in the background? me too. it was trash day. sidenote: my trash guys come at 5:45am!!!!! what? no, that's not ok. can i call the city for that, i feel like they're breaking some letthegoodcitizensoftheworldsleeptilnormalhours code!? what time does your trash guy come?)

little a's pic of me. i had to be close by for this one, she makes me so nervous holding my iphone. she is not trustworthy yet. 

mkay, now i feel awkward. not sure how to close this.... 

i guess, HERE WE ARE!

hahaha

P.S. don't forget to join me in gifting our husbands with some sweet sweet love making for father's day!

Challenge: 30 days of love making!!!

whoa, what!?!?! that's right people, i didn't stutter. i am going to challenge you to 30 days of love making. because i'm gonna do it and i don't want to do it alone. hhheeeee.....

i'm just like every other girl who doesn't like to do anything alone; like get ready for a party, shop... pee. so why should i want to do this alone? back when i turned 29 i decided to make a list of 30 things i'd like to do before i turned 30. making love to my husband everyday for 30 days was on that list. what better time to accomplish that goal AND give him a GREAT father's day gift ( i love two-fers!) than to lump it all into one. 

in all seriousness, i have been hearing a lot of stories about couples that just aren't making love. like, for YEARS. and i am just not ok with that. i mean, how can a marriage survive without intimacy? don't get me wrong, we are NOT perfect. there have been seasons when we were only intimate once a month... and when i was pregnant, if he even looked at me with his side eye i would get nauseous. seriously, i could only do it in the shower, his natural body odor (which i normally LOVE) made my stomach turn. now this might be too much information for you but i think it's important to talk about. and i'm not ashamed to share my struggles because there is probably someone out there who is going through the same thing. but my desire and my heart are to have a long, fulfilling marriage and sex life where neither one of us are settling with just being roommates. don't you want that too?

when thinking of a way to present it in some special package, rather than just blurting it out, i remembered stumbling upon this awesome 19th century packaging suite a while back and knew it would be such a rad way to break the amazing news. 

the bottom says, if you can't read it, "the fine print: i promise that, come hail or high water, i will prepare my heart to make love to you every day for 30 days. i promise to give you all of my heart, all of my mind, and all of my body in a loving and appropriate way to create oneness between us. i promise to put our intimacy above all else for the betterment of our marriage."

it truly is so important to prepare your mind, heart, and body for intimacy. a dear friend gave me some great advice about starting early in the morning, tell yourself you will be making love that night. shave your legs, shower, wear your matching underwear set, whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable. you know what they say, "men are like microwaves, woman are like crockpots"... so make the extra effort to start getting hot 8 - 10 hours before!

if you are interested in using this gift certificate you can download it here. 

i feel like this is going to blow my husband's mind away, i mean how happy would any man be to get something like this? so i want us wives to band together and die to ourselves so our marriages will gain from it! who's with me? anyone? 

i'm going to be posting weekly updates and i would love to hear from anyone who is willing to join me in this challenge. if you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment i would love to hear from you via email at taranuncio@gmail.com. 

i hope you will all consider this, it could change your marriage forever!

Smitten Saturday: father's day gift inspiration

my husband is the best. and by the best, i mean he loves me and our family with a crazy devotion and i would never doubt it. he is so good about being hands on with the kids, and always asks me if i need help or if he can pick anything up from the store for me. he hates being away from our family and hurries home from work to spend more time with the kids before bed. i love him and i can't wait to celebrate him on father's day. 

here are a few things i know he needs/wants/probably wouldn't like but i want to get him anyway: 

No. 1} a grill. his broke during our last move and i've heard him mention a few times now that the weather is warming up that he would like one. this weber from crate & barrel is classic, practical, and not ugly. 

No. 2} my hubby loves shoes as much as i do (he gets it from his mom!) and i think he would look so hot in these adidas samba's. mmmmyes.

No. 3} my husband is a manly man with a lot of facial hair. he currently has a beard, and has for quite sometime, but he is known for switching it up every now and then with a goatee or just being clean shaven. giving him an old fashioned shave kit would be a special treat for his face, i think. plus, it's just cool.

No. 4} another shoe. you can really never have too many, and i love these toms. 

No. 5} he needs a new wallet. 

No. 6} he has been talking about getting a new wedding band for a while and i saw something similar to this one on another guy and thought it was pretty rad. 

No. 7} i don't think he would like this bike, but i do. and i could get the matching one and we could be so cute riding all the bike trails with our kids in tow around fresno. people would puke over how cute we were with our matching bikes. that's always a good goal.

No. 8} my husband plays the guitar and people always get him guitar art for every special occasion because he's REALLY really hard to shop for, and they don't know what else to get him. we could open a store with all the guitar related gifts he's gotten. i always cringe when i see something with a guitar on it that is actually cool because i don't want to add to the collection, but these prints from yee haw are actually pretty awesome and i think they would look great in his office. 

also, i'm pretty sure he would appreciate a night of hot, steamy love making... but putting a picture of that on my blog would just take it to a level i'm not willing to go. but i'll probably make him a certificate for that or something. 

what are you gonna get your husband/dad/brother whose a dad/father figure/uncle that sort of raised you for father's day?

family movie night

every friday we do family movie night. we started this about a year ago in the hopes of cultivating a fun family day for our kids to look back on in fondness. we have dreams of one day making our home a safe and fun place for our teenage kids and their friends to hang out on friday nights that they actually think is cool. 

i know, i said it was a dream. a girl can try....

we always have popcorn and hot cocoa. several weeks ago i decided to start making my own popcorn. THIS week i got brave and attempted kettle corn. 

i look up a recipe and then strayed from it. mistake no.1. here is the recipe:

1/4 cup oil (i decided to channel Paula Deen and used butter)

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup corn kernels

1 tsp. coarse salt

it turned out more like carmel corn, which isn't bad but it wasn't what i was going for. i think i burnt the butter and it turned brown. next week i will follow the rules. 

i love snuggling up on the couch with my family. 

do you have any weekly traditions? 

DIY felt iphone 4 cover tutorial

ok, i am so excited to share this with you! yesterday i made an iphone cover for my new phone and it has been KILLING me to wait until today to share it with you. for 1} i can't believe i made something so cool. (i'm not trying to brag, i just really can't believe it worked!) and 2} i'm going to share with you how i did it. 

i worked really hard on this tutorial of sorts, so i hope you like it! 

 i got my inspiration for this from etsy. the basic form i tried to recreate i found here. and i loved the hearts on this one. 

most of the supplies i had laying around, except the felt. i only had polyester felt and i really wanted wool so i purchased an 1/8th of a yard each of gray and yellow from Joann's. SUPER CHEAP!

if you'd like to print the tutorial, please click here. 

i've never written sewing instructions before so i hope you expert seamstresses won't judge me too much. if something doesn't make sense feel free to ask me and i will try my best to explain it better. also, i have a super old version of photoshop so my dotted lines are kinda funky. my computer is ancient but i am blessed to have one and also for the gift of craft!!!

i hope you like it. if you make one i'd love to see pictures!