Eclectic Little Life

Fall is almost my favorite time of the year. The weather changes from a sweaty, hot mess to a crisp, cool refresh. That's exactly what that season is, too. Most people think refresh and renew when they think of spring. We can't have all that new life and new growth until we shed our old, shed our clutter, shed what is weighing us down. Autumn is exactly when the Earth does this as well, so it just feels natural that we gravitate toward the same feeling. The quote from the title of this post comes from F. Scott Fitzgerald, who I think felt the same way I do. Autumn makes me want to start new routines, it makes me feel inspired, and it makes me feel a little melancholy. When a new season comes, that means another has gone. You never really realize how fast time goes by until all you want is for it to slow down. Two of my sister-friends are going through some new, fresh changes. One of them has just started on a new adventure. New places, new people, new...

We recently hosted some guests in our home, that's what inspired me to finish my accent wall. Sadly, I didn't have the wall finished by the time they stayed. I did however make sure they felt comfortable and at home. So this blog post is going to be a easy little guide on how to make any guests in your home feel welcome. I'll have them saying "Wow, is this an Airbnb?" (Which I'll have you know my guests said while they were here 😂 ) I have stayed places before where I felt unsure and uncomfortable, I wanted to make sure that anyone staying with us felt like it was their second home as long as they were there. I love having people stay with us and I am such a people-pleaser. A lot of these ideas are super easy, but make such an impact on the people who see them. We can call these steps the A, B, C's of being a great host. Step 1: (A)dd Personality When staying somewhere, it feels so much home-ier and cozy when there are personal touches that ...

Summer is coming, and for me that means more reading! I really slack on my reading during the school year, and I guess since I'm less productive in the summer, it just feels more satisfying to take a minute to read than to watch Netflix or scroll Instagram. I used to get in trouble as a kid for sneaking huge stacks of books under my covers to read after bedtime. My mom said she would feel so bad for telling me to stop reading and go to bed. I kept up my love of reading over the years, but really slacked off at times. I go through spurts where I burn through books quickly, and then lulls again where I "can't find the time". Throughout all these times, one thing helped me make sure I was always reading, audiobooks! I used to worry that audio books didn't count as reading, and in case you're like me, you couldn't be more wrong. I was listening to a lot of podcasts and realized if I could focus enough to listen to them, that I could easily list...

Benjamin and his family are from Florida, and we try to make it there at least once a year to see everyone. Last year, Townes and I took our first trip to where Benjamin's family lives.  It was a lovely trip and we got to see lots of family we don't get to see very often. I was pretty bummed out we were visiting Benjamin's family without him, but still happy we got to see everyone. This year, however, Benjamin got a week off the same week I got Spring Break, so we headed back to Florida for Townes' second expedition of his life. Last year he was just shy of a year old, I was still breastfeeding, and he was getting the hang of walking. This year would be completely different. I was so nervous about the car ride since last year he did very well except for the last leg of the trip he cried and wanted me to hold him. I thought for sure this trip would be miserable since he's into so many things and always wants something to do. I filled his backpack with fun ac...