Lifestyle | The Bailey Bunch Blog

Halloween Decor

November 1, 2016

November 1st, Halloween is over 🙁 Where in the world did October go?! Seriously, that month flew right on by! As I was cleaning and taking down my Halloween decor, I got sad that we didn’t get to have the costume party we had wanted to have this year! I only got to share our Halloween decor with a handful of people, so I thought I’d share it with y’all today on the blog!

In case you didn’t know, I love holidays! Every holiday! Halloween is an especially fun one for me though because it kicks off my most favorite season, Fall! When I was a little girl, I would get so much joy coming home from school seeing that my mom had finally decorated for this holiday! I knew the cool new knick knacks and decorations wouldn’t stop coming for some time because after Halloween comes the Thanksgiving decor and then the always most fun, Christmas decor!

As a Mom myself now, I try to provide my kids with the same joy I got through holiday decor. I hope they appreciate it as much as I did and it provides them with everlasting memories as well 🙂

I scored these Stackable Pumpkins at Sam’s Club this year! Hey look, they are on clearance now…you’re welcome!

Patrick’s Grandma, who is also a big fan of the holidays, bought us this adorable candy dish a few years back. It is one of my most favorite Halloween decorations! This year I found the little “I Love You More Than Candy” sign at Homegoods 🙂 Gotta love Home Goods for some cute and affordable holiday decor!

This year I decided to pay homage to Halloweens past with framed photos of our Halloween costumes over the years. I got the cute “Trick Or Treat” sign at Target…they had so many great finds in the Dollar Spot this year! The frames are from Hobby Lobby, my most favorite spot to find frames! They are always 50% off and they have so many to choose from…score!

I always have so much fun decorating these birdcages for the holidays! The added leafs and pumpkins just scream fall!

Last year I made these Cheesecloth Ghosts. They were ridiculously difficult to make and a complete and utter mess! After finally getting them to work out, I took great care in putting them away so I could use them again!

I found these ultra cool golden skulls at Joann Fabric this year! I’m super into skulls after visiting Europe and seeing the decorative skulls in Hallstatt and at the Bone Church in Kutna Hora.

Literally, they are “hand towels”! It never gets old! I found these at Joann Fabric this year!

These “Day Of The Dead” style skulls were bought from Joann Fabric last year. How fun are they?! I love shopping at Joann’s for Halloween decor! Download their App so you always have a coupon on hand! 🙂

I love, I mean, I LOVE this fireplace! I found these spiders at Target in the Dollar Spot…for real! I’m not a fan of spiders but how creepy cool to they look climbing up to some other spider inspired decor?!

I found this sign at Home Goods…love that place for fun little knick knacks like this!

How much fun is this bone inspired Candelabra!? Again, it totally reminds me of Kutna Hora, where they put actual bones together to make decor in the basement of a church.

Well, that’s all for our Halloween Decor this year! Many have asked about our Halloween costumes and how in the world I created my flower face…I’ll share that next on The Bailey Bunch Blog 🙂

Be Blessed + Be A Blessing

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Fall Break With My JORD Wood Watch

October 21, 2016

This post is sponsored by JORD Wood Watches. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When JORD Wood Watches asked me to partner with them on a “Fall Themed Adventure”, I knew I could deliver the goods! JORD provided me the Cora Purpleheart and Pearl Wood Watch and I provided the fun filled adventure! This watch y’all, it’s the perfect Fall accessory! The wine colored wood pairs beautifully with all of Falls earthy tones providing a pop of color to any ensemble! Oh, and in case you haven’t taken noticed, “wine” is totally one of the “it” colors for Fall of 2016!

Fall Break = Road Trip Time!

Patrick and I packed up the kids and hit the road for Clemson, South Carolina this year! The five hour drive from Nashville takes you right through Chattanooga and Atlanta providing great opportunities to break up the drive! We did so each way in each city 🙂

ATLANTA

In my personal opinion, you just CAN’T drive through Atlanta at dinner time and NOT stop at Antico’s! This is the best pizza that we’ve ever had! I’ve not been to Italy, but I like to believe this pizza is as close to authentic Italian pizza as we’re going to get until we get there! I mean, the brick ovens were brought over from Italy…this place is the closest you’re going to get to the real deal people!

CLEMSON

Clemson is a total college town, and the people there bleed orange and purple! We stayed at the Tillman Hotel and the entire place was decorated “Tiger” style. In fact, there weren’t many places we went in town that weren’t completely colored purple and orange!

We had breakfast at Sunnyside Cafe with our dear friends Reggie and Jessica. Reggie was the chaplain for the Titans while we were there, and is now the Chaplain for Clemson, his alma mater! Jessica helps with his ministry and mentors many of the female student athletes at the school. Our breakfast was as awesome as our company – which is saying a lot! I noshed on the Pimento Cheese and Bacon Quesidilla while Patrick indulged in the Pecan Praline Stuffed French Toast – southern cooking at it’s finest!

After breakfast, we walked over to the football stadium for a tour of the facility from our friend Tyler. Tyler is a Clemson grad and currently a part of the Clemson coaching staff. He and Patrick played football together for the Steelers and he and his wife Maggie became some dear lifelong friends to us! It was so nice getting to see them and their two beautiful kiddos 🙂

One of the highlights of our tour was seeing the office of Head Coach, Dabo Swinney! Beau got to sit at his desk…how cool is that?!

After our tour, we headed to a place called Chatooga Belle. This place…wow! It’s a farm surrounded by mountains that provides you the opportunity to walk the grounds and pick your own fruit! After some lunch at their on-site restaurant, we did just that!

GAMEDAY

Saturday brought Game Day – I’ve never in all my life seen so much orange and purple! Reggie and Jessica surprised us with some field side passes which was a super cool experience!

Noon marked kickoff for the big game…

…and what a game it was! The Tigers ended up winning the game in OT off of an interception in the endzone! The stadium went nuts!!! Fans were jumping over the walls to rush the field! Nearly the entire field was covered in orange clad fans…it was a sight to see!

We had such a memorable time experiencing Clemson! What an amazing school and community with such pride for their students!

Our kids were pretty exhausted post game so we headed back to the hotel to get our car and hit the road for Chattanooga!

CHATTANOOGA

Our plans for the day in Chattanooga included going to the Tennessee Aquarium. We had heard such great things about this place over our years in Tennessee and decided to check it out for ourselves!

Admission included access into the River Exhibit, the Ocean Exhibit and also into a special River Monster Exhibit that is going on there now. Each allowed you to get up close and personal with the animals! Whether eye to eye with a shark…

…Or hand to skin with a stingray…

You were never far from an interesting animal! Fish aside, this aquarium also offers the experience to see penguins, otters, alligators and butterflies up close! A definite must in the ever interesting town of Chattanooga!

IN CLOSING

As always, we had an amazing time exploring a few more parts of this big ole beautiful world that we live in! Thank you to JORD Wood Watches for partnering with The Bailey Bunch Blog and inspiring us to get out there and enjoy this beautiful “time” of the year 🙂

Be Blessed + Be A Blessing

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Whole 30 Results!

October 12, 2016

Y’all! We did it! We did another Whole 30 Challenge! It’s never easy, but it is always worth it! Results are in and I’m excited to share!

Patrick doesn’t get as into the results as I do with pictures and measurements, but he does play along with the weight. He lost a total of 10 pounds! I personally didn’t think he needed to lose anything, but he was a little worried because he was at his “football weight” – which he always had to fight to keep at while playing. He wasn’t fighting to keep it anymore, but he was keeping it, so it was an understandable worry. He’s feeling a lot more healthy and wants to continue to eat Whole 30 style but have more freedom to eat out. He also has suggested we do another challenge after the holidays – haha!

I lost a total of 12 pounds and 25 inches around my body! You may remember in my Halfway Update that I had lost 10 pounds, so it was a little frustrating to see my scale stuck for over a week. This is probably why Whole 30 has it as one of their “rules” not to weigh or measure yourself – haha! I had to keep telling myself, 10 pounds is 10 pounds! Each pound is a feat! I didn’t make it down to my college weight like I had hoped I would, so no laser hair removal just yet…sigh! I will get there…eventually!

The inches were where it was at for me! My biggest losses came from around my belly button and my gut which makes sense since this is a food diet, not a workout diet. I lost 4 inches in each area! I was also extremely happy with my Bum and Thigh results…both areas are super tough for me to lose in. Below you can read all of my results.

Bust: -2.5

Under Bust/Band: -2.5

Tummy/Smallest Part: -2.5

Belly Button: -4

Gut: -4

Hips: -1.5

Bum: -2.5

Thigh: -1.5 and -2

Calf: -.5 and -1

Not too shabby for not doing squat exercising…and I mean that as in I didn’t even do a squat! This diet never ceases to amaze me in how much food plays a part and makes a difference! If you are exercising and not eating the right things, you aren’t going to get the results you want. Now in my case, I think I need to start exercising in addition to eating right so that I can start seeing the results that I want to see!

Being a woman has me a little bloated at the moment (perfect timing – not!) but I’ll share regardless. Below you’ll see my start, then halfway results and finally my ending results.

I feel like the biggest difference can be seen from the side…

Overall I’m very happy with the results! I’m feeling more comfortable in my clothes, but more importantly, in my skin 🙂 I want to keep eating and cooking Whole 30 style because it’s actually quite satisfying and delicious! I will appreciate the freedom of being able to eat out a little more though! This diet requires quite a bit of cooking, so I’m definitely a little tired out of that! I have a few friends who are now doing the challenge after reading my 2 week post. If you decide to do it, please reach out! I’d love to be your support in helping to get you though 🙂

Be Blessed + Be A Blessing

DIY Cornice Project

October 7, 2016

Wood, some decorative trim, paint, brackets, screws and nails…that’s all it took to create our latest DIY project! I am so excited to share our new decorative cornice with y’all!

It was back in August that I striped our dining room walls and shared that I would like to create a cornice. I was in such a great DIY stride at the time, but I needed my hubby’s help with this project…he’s the woodworker of this family 🙂 After weeks of dropping hints that I’d love to make a cornice, he finally picked up what I was dropping down and surprised me by measuring, cutting and securing the wood I bought while I cleaned the garage…you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours right?! I was so in the zone with the cleaning that I had no idea he was finally doing what I had asked him to!

I’m the painter of this family, so I spent a day slathering her down with a few luxurious layers of Ralph Lauren Metallic Paint in the shade Cloth of Gold. I giddily went to sleep, so excited to hang her up the next morning! But first, we had to add our curtain rod…

Y’all, I’m so happy with our finished product! This was such an easy DIY project and it really brings a pop of pizazz to the room! It totally turns ordinary curtains into an extraordinary statement!

Slowly but surely, this room is coming together! I still have a few more decorative tweaks to make, but having curtains completed is a big feat for me! I really dislike doing curtains, but I’m really digging them with the cornice! This may not be the last cornice to adorn my home…stay tuned for more DIY from The Bailey Bunch, I think I found my groove again!

Be Blessed + Be A Blessing

LipSense

September 29, 2016

I’m a lipstick girl…I have been my entire life! When I was a little girl, I distinctly remember giving my Nana kisses any time she was putting on her lipstick because I knew that was the best chance I had of it rubbing off onto my lips so I could sport it too! Ahh, sweet memories! Those are about the only good memories I have of rubbed off lipstick though…usually, it gets me in trouble from my hubby or makes for an ultra embarrassing moment! But my days of leaving kiss marks on my hubby’s lips and having lipstick on my teeth are behind me now because friends, I’ve discovered LipSense!

What is LipSense? I’m going to tell you and I’m SO excited to share this with y’all! LipSense is a waterproof lipstick that lasts up to 18 hours and will not, I repeat WILL NOT rub off, smear or even kiss off! See?

I WILL post a video on my Instagram so you can really see that this lipstick is going nowhere! No more lip stains on my cups! And FINALLY a lipstick that outlasts my meal! The wonder of this product gets me every single time! It’s like I’m performing a magic trick in my bathroom every time I put it on! I should mention that there is no trick in putting it on…it’s a simple 2 step process applying the color to your desired shade then topping with a gloss! I am wearing Roseberry and Glossy Gloss.

As a busy mom of 2 littles, I don’t always wear lipstick, I give way too many kisses to my kids throughout the day – it just wasn’t worth it! But when we go out I love a strong lip because it makes me feel pretty – though recently it usually ends up smeared across my face somehow! No joke, the Sunday before I got my LipSense in the mail, I was sitting next to my hubby in church and he asked me how I got lipstick on my cheek…yeah, you read that correct! I mean it could have been the fight getting the kids dressed or in their car seats, it could have been during the tantrum of nursery drop off…your guess is as good as mine, but the point is I had lipstick smeared on my CHEEK for dang near an HOUR and God knows how many people saw it! No more of that now, thanks to LipSense!

If you would like to experience the wonder of LipSense yourself, please support my new friend, Tera, who was gracious enough to supply me with the products in this post so I could share it with y’all! She offers a money back guarantee, and if you don’t love a color you order, she will swap it out for you at no charge…how many companies do you know that would do that for a customer?! If you decide to place an order, mention that you saw this blog post to receive a free gift with your purchase! If you’re interested, but not sold, you should really consider following her Facebook Page: Tera’s Southern Kisses. This girl is so engaging and informative, but be warned she can captivate you into watching a 30 minute makeup tutorial…she’s kinda like the Bob Ross of makeup artists – haha!

I’m so excited I got to introduce y’all to LipSense – proof that we can have our lipstick and get our kisses too 🙂

Be Blessed + Be A Blessing

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Halloween Decor

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Fall Break With My JORD Wood Watch

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Whole 30 Results!

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DIY Cornice Project

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LipSense

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