The biggest sale of the year is here and I wanted to share some of my favorite affordable and luxurious finds for beauty, home, and kids from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.
If you’ve been around for a bit, you know I love a good find, especially if it’s on sale! I have shopped the N Sale for the past few years and love that they offer more items than just women’s and men’s clothing and shoes. It’s my favorite time to not only stock up on those items, which you can see a few of my picks on this post – but also to stock up on items for Christmas, for homes, and for the girls for the year.
Because my girls aren’t in massive growth mode, I usually buy one size up. And they can wear them for the entire year, and some beyond.
I’m always shopping for our short term rental properties. So some of the items are pure luxury and so soft that I have them in our own home. And give them as gifts too! What better way to welcome others into your home, but not really your personal home, than some of your favorite things!
Before we get too much further, I have to let you know I’ve included affiliate links. Which means if you shop through my link, I get a small commission, at no additional cost to you, and it makes me smile a little more 🙂
$1,000 Gift Card Giveaway
And I also have a fun giveaway for someone to win a $1,000 gift card to shop the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale which will basically run the whole month of August! Enter below.
I have teamed up with an amazing group of bloggers to give YOU a chance to win:
a $1,000 Nordstrom Gift Cards to shop the Anniversary sale!
Simply enter below by completing the rafflecopter. You’ll receive one entry per completion. This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada only and runs until 8/17. Winner will be announced here. Good Luck!
Void where prohibited. By entering the giveaway you acknowledge that you are agreeing to complete each task, which involves following, liking and subscribing to newsletter’s.
Ok, so now onto my favorites for finding luxurious items for home, beauty, and kids. If you click on the photo, it will take you directly to my liketoknow.it where you can shop my picks and add them to your wish list for when you are able to shop.
Happy shopping and wish list building! Only a few more days until the sale opens 🙂
For anyone that knows me well, knows that I like good food, but most days, I’m a simple cook.
If I don’t order it, it may come in a box, a cup, a bowl, or something similar. If none of these, then it’s fresh, raw fruit or veggie.
That being said, for me to make an elaborate, multi-step meal with multiple courses isn’t realistic.
I’ve tried and partnered with nearly every meal prep and delivery service out there. And still, meal time is a struggle for me nightly. And if I’m being honest, like I always am, the idea of making meals and dinner stresses me out more than most things in my life. I know that if I had a personal chef that would make the things I need to eat (like fruits and veggies) it wouldn’t be a problem.
If this person would also cook for my husband and children, I know it would take a lot of stress off my life.
The book that teaches you how to cook like your Grandma did
So, when I was offered to test out this new book, “The Anti-Cook Book” by Shelley Onderdonk and Rebecca Bloom, I was intrigued by the title. Easy, Thrifty Recipes for Food-Smart Living it goes on to say…
As I dug deeper and deeper into the book, I realized that any and everyone could use this book successfully. Because we all have little time and we all have to eat. These two moms, wives, and career women teach the readers that no matter your status, age, budget, background, makeup, anything else socioeconomic status wise –
You can do this!
Even for those of us who pretend to know what they are doing with our nutrition and in the kitchen (ME too).
The book is sprinkled with personal stories and easy, simple recipes with minimal instructions needed. And a bit of spunk and quirk along the way keeps you (it did me anyway) interested in the story and reasoning for the choices made in the book. Another sprinkling throughout the book that usually goes with a story:: Real text message conversations from the authors’ lives.
It supports the story and also that they know what they are doing.
Most of the cook books I’ve ever owned or seen have a full page, or very near full page, dedicated to a single recipe. This book combines story, ideas for using the recipe, proof it’s a great one, and then the recipe in short form. All on the same page. Incredible work and less intimidating for those of us (ME too) who don’t even want to open a recipe book because they are already checked out of the process.
Throughout the book are useful tips like planning meals for the whole week, without spending hours on end in the kitchen making them. Or when is appropriate to use Google because I know y’all pull out your phone or ask Siri whether you want to admit it or not!
It’s the perfect time of the year to gift this book to a Grad or a Dad in your life, or heck, an overwhelmed, underblessed Martha Stewart Mamma (also Me) who just wants to make their life a bit easier.
Grab the link here and get yourself and those who need this the most a copy. (It’s the cheapest cookbook I’ve ever seen!)
And leave me a comment letting me know your cooking/Martha Stewart style too. I’d love to know where you stand on this and if this book is on target or way off the mark for you!
{I originally wrote this back in August 2018 and never pushed publish. So there are a few updates to add}Â
On May 24th, 2018, we finally completed the American dream. We became homeowners after a 3 year journey!
You are probably expecting to see fully done amazing photos, but that’s not the case. We bought a 1976 house that was still stuck in the late 70s and could have been considered antique.
It took so long because my hubby is in an industry that is similar to Real Estate, so the market is always being watched. And I wanted a fixer and he wanted a move in ready home.
I should also add that at the start of the 3 year journey, we had just opened a local gym (neither one of us knew anything about the Gym space aside from working out in one ourselves) along with just having our baby and getting married. We did, however, find a house that we fell in love with and put an offer out, the week of our wedding, and it got declined. So 2 days before our wedding, our agent called back and said the seller was going to consider our offer because the original couple had to back out because of medical issues. So we had an up and down battle from the beginning. We go on our honeymoon excited and happy the hunt is over… Fast forward to December and closing and the bank says they won’t approve our loan……. talk about heartbroken. So we were kinda gun shy for a while and the gym was taking a TON of our funds until we decided to sell it in late 2017 allowing us to get back into the home buying game.
Anyways, we (mostly me) looked at several houses, and I’m a feelings and vibe kinda gal. And I LOVE looking at houses and the design, choices, and possibilities. So we had offers in on other homes, but they didn’t feel right or work out until this one.
(Also – if you need moral support while going through this process or just to vent and be sad about an unaccepted offer, I’m your girl.)
And our budget was as little as possible.
So, Mamma won! (Because happy wife, happy life, right?!)
Annnnnd because it sits on a 1 acre lot in the city and has a detached garage that Steve loved…
But also has horses for the neighbors, so it was a compromise for sure!
That’s one tip I have in this whole experience. Learning to compromise on what isn’t the most ideal, but not things that are absolutes for you.Â
We knew we wanted a big lot and house, with a good price, and the additional garage was an added bonus. The horses were not ideal, but the neighbor is older, so they won’t live there forever either.Â
The first few visits to the house, I thought I was in an episode of Fixer Upper – trying to bring an old house up to date. Or so I wished.
But the more we got into it and the vision and possibilities presented themselves, we knew we were going to be in a bit deeper. And longer.
Because lets be real, what you see on TV is SO FAR from the truth of how long the project actually takes. At first, it was fun and exciting. Then it was a lot. Now, it’s still a lot.
But I don’t know that I’d recognize the same house if we didn’t document the journey. We’ve made 2 mortgage payments thus far, and will pay at least 2 more before we can even think about moving in.
We’ve made 7 payments thus far, and are still waiting on our building plans to be approved before we can start putting the place back together.. which could be at least 4-5 months.
And this was just the first weekend of demo!
It’s way different than from the beginning, but the vision and possibilities are becoming more of a reality, and I’ve learned so much in this part of the journey.
Huge changes right?! I will continue to update as the progress keeps going and we make decisions as to what we should do and companies we are going with so you can get ideas.
As I dug deeper and deeper into the book, I realized that any and everyone could use this book successfully. Because we all have little time and we all have to eat. These two moms, wives, and career women teach the readers that no matter your status, age, budget, background, makeup, anything else socioeconomic status wise –
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