Gift Ideas Inspired By Books: Mary Poppins

I cannot tell you how pumped up I am to see Mary Poppins Returns. After reading some magazine features on the movie, I can’t stop talking about this movie! Of course both movies are based on the books by P. L. Travers.

An obvious gift here would be some movie tickets or say an iTunes gift card to buy the movie when it comes out. I know that people are all about those experience gifts right now and I feel like the experience of going to a movie may be one that is forgotten! It’s expensive for tickets and snacks that a gift card could help! And, those tickets could be accompanied by anything on the list below! 

1. Mary Poppins Boxed Set - I'm thinking about buying this book for my pre-schooler.

2. Hunter Boots

3. Burberry Umbrella - While Mary Poppins’ umbrella famously has a parrot head handle, any lady on your list will love this luxury umbrella!

4. Kite Crossbody

5. Sugar Bowl - Like the umbrella, I wanted to up the game on another memorable moment from the original movie. You know the words...Just...a...spoonful...

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Gift Ideas Inspired By Books: Thelma The Unicorn

This book ended up in our house the same way I discovered books growing up - from a Scholastic Book Fair! We love this book in the Smith house. As my readers know, I had a porcelain unicorn collection growing up and we used the spirit animal as inspiration for Lennon’s room decor. Thank goodness she shares my love of the glittery, horned animal.

If you haven’t read this gem, it’s about a horse that wishes she was someone else - a unicorn - but she finds out that it’s not always better to pretend your something you are not!

1. Thelma The Unicorn Book

2. Unicorn Snow Tube

3. Unicorn Garden - 8-year-old me would have LOVED this.

4. Custom Unicorn Planner

5. Unicorn Nail Polish Set

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Gift Ideas Inspired By Books: Dragon Loves Tacos

I loved books as a kid. Still do. After a slow start, I was worried that my daughter wouldn’t share my love of books, but finally she’s catching on.

Given that I spent a lot of my nights with kids books, I decided that would make a good theme for my annual gift guide!

Over the course of the next few days, I’ll share some gift suggestions using inspiration from the titles of some awesome kids books.

Apologies in advance that a few skew a little girly and a lot of my suggestions are children's’ gifts, but hopefully you’ll find some inspiration!

Let’s kick things off with Dragon Loves Tacos!

Just call me a dragon because I LOVE TACOS! This popular kids book has become a popular birthday party theme and it’s awesome. At first, I was a little skeptical of this book, but then it caught on and I totally loved it. If you haven’t read it yet, the title kinda gives the plot away. Dragons love tacos. But, there is one kind of taco they don’t like. Here are my gifts inspired by Dragon Loves Tacos!

1. Dragon Loves Tacos Returns Book + Matching PJ Set (Original book with PJs here)

2. Tacosaurus Rex Taco Holder

3. Tortilla Flatbread Maker

4. Dragon Rocker

5. Food Truck Playhouse

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Oh! This Is The Greatest Show!

This summer, The Greatest Showman took over our television. My three-year old loves belting out the soundtrack and the movie is a nice relief from all of the animated princess flicks.

While watching the movie one weekend, I turned to Lennon and said, “Do you want to be P.T. Burnam for Halloween?” She said, “YES” and thus this costume was born.

While I’m always a big DIY-er, I did spend some time scouring the internet for a costume. It’s really tough to find a ringmaster jacket for a toddler. There was something on Amazon, but I just couldn’t justify the spend. Then, I found this tutorial, and it was all over!

You guys. This Greatest Showman costume was the EASIEST Halloween DIY that I’ve ever made!

I purchased an oversized red hoodie, and just cut off the hood and the pockets.

In my ribbon box (yes, I said my ribbon box), I already had the gold sequins and ribbon for the chest area. For the final product, I added some fringe on the shoulders.

No sewing. All glue gun.

The hat has been an issue. I just couldn’t find one small enough for the kid’s head, so we went with this headband and a leotard for dance class.

For school and trick ‘or treat, we have some more layers - a white collar shirt and gold vest! Along with the shorts and cane, all of these items were purchased from Amazon! Here you can find links to the hat, gold vest, sequin shorts, sweatshirt and the way too big top hat (a steal at $6!). I'm pretty sure I made this costume under $50. And thanks to Amazon, everything was delivered to my door! 

Oh, and an added bonus? A themed class treat was super easy for this one!

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This is a bathing suit post in October.

This is a bathing suit post in October.

Temps dropped in Pittsburgh this past weekend, so I’m going to talk to you about bathing suits.

Doesn’t seem right, does it? But it IS.

J. Crew has become my go-to for mom-friendly bathing suits to wear while chasing my kid at the pool or beach. I tend to keep my eye on their options for when they go on sale and this week the suits have hit some of the lowest prices that I’ve ever seen!

Here are some of my favs! And seriously - most of them are under $20!!! Shop now for next year and save!

         

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Let's Get Scary: Halloween Ideas for 2018

You guys know that I love Halloween. And my annual ideas for Halloween costumes is one thing that I keep consistent on this blog.

Throughout the year, I spot things and I’m like “Yep, that will make a good costume.” This year was no exception.

Without further ado, here are my top 8 costumes for 2018

Mason Ramsey aka the Yodeling Walmart Kid - This little dude went viral earlier this year and then became a pop cultural icon. He appeared on Ellen, at Coachella - people loved Mason. And this costume is easy - you just need jeans, a white shirt, cowboy boots, a bow tie and your golden.

Handmaid’s Tale - This isn’t a “new” idea, but I just binged watched the show, so let me have my moment here. The Handmaids are a good group costume, but please don’t make it slutty. Also inspired by my binge watching: Orange is the New Black prisoners, cast of Stranger Things or the all the vintage garb from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Gritty - The Philadelphia Flyers recently introduced a puzzling mascot - Gritty. At first, people were straight up like WTF, but now he’s become a bit of pop culture icon. If you’re already a Flyers fan (sucks to be you), than you may have a jersey and can just add some wacky fur to your face and voila! Halloween 2018 done.

Kayne and Lil’ Pump - This rap duo appeared on the season opener of SNL dressed as water bottles. Grab your bestie and decide who gets to be Perrier and who can be Fiji.

Banksy - This one may be a bit more tricky to pull off, but bare with me. The illusive artist, Banksy, pulled off a huge stunt last weekend. One of his famous paintings was being sold at Sotheby's in London when the frame started shredding the painting. Banksy planted the shredder INSIDE the frame for this very moment more than two years ago. It was estimated that the stunt DROVE UP the value of the artwork by DOUBLE. To create this costume, I’m visioning a box that has the painting half in / half out, and your head peering over the top of the paper inside the frame/box. Read more about the stunt here. Bonus sidekick costume could be the girl with the balloon!

Tonya Harding - With a hit movie about her life and a stint on DWTS, Tonya Harding was in the spotlight earlier this year. A Tonya costume is a little tricky to pull off, but a quick Amazon search pulls up a several ice skating costumes that you can totally Tonya-ize. Add yourself a Nancy and you have a nice little pairs costume!

Yanny / Laurel - This year’s version of “the dress,” you totally know you listened to that audio file. For the costume, you can do a little two sided costume with one side Yanny and the other Laurel!

LaCroix - Last year I was at a coffee shop on Halloween and the barista was dressed as a can of LaCroix and it made me LOL. Here’s a cute spin on that costume with tye-dye dresses. Amazon also has a dress where you can just add “LaCroix” with a Cricut machine!

I’m assuming you’ll see a lot of Royal Couples, Superheroes, Incredibles, Queer Eye, Stranger Things and G.L.O.W. Girls.

Image Sources: yahoo, Boston Globe, ABC 7, Insider, The Guardian, Glamour, Self, LaCroix

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