The Liz List - October 18, 2019
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Happy Friday! 🥳 Y’all Kate turns 6 months old tomorrow. 😩 I can’t even handle it. It flew by. Everyone warned me it would and it has and it’s wild. What’s cool though is she’s starting to be more interactive and fun. Honestly babies are kind of just bumps on a log for a while. 😅 Obviously you still love them through the boring (but adorable) newborn phase, but they really are much more enjoyable to hang out with all day once they start babbling and giggling. It’s been fun.
Also, I decided I’m going to start doing highs and lows on here. It’s an easy way to share about my week + allows me to keep it real while giving me an outlet to maybe complain a little. Sometimes a girl just needs to complain! So here we go…
My high for this week came late Saturday night when Becki Owens regrammed this picture of mine from last year. Guys. When I saw the notification on my phone I stood up and cheered. My husband was so confused. 😂 It 👏🏻 was 👏🏻 so 👏🏻 exciting! As of writing this, my own Instagram account has grown by about 80 followers, which may not sound like much but it’s an 8% increase which is a LOT. I know this probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to most of you, but it was so encouraging for me. Growing a social media following and getting people to read your blog is really hard. It’s a saturated market and it’s awkward when you first start and people who don’t get it make fun of you and there’s not a lot of feedback and it often feels like you’re oversharing to coworkers and high school acquaintances with no purpose. 🙆🏻 Bottom line: her post came at the right time and was so affirming and motivating for me. Even though I have no idea what the hell I’m doing over here, I hope I’m on the right path to figuring it out!
My low? Freaking Louis (our maltese) has been hiking his leg all over our living room curtains. I’ve had them professionally cleaned once already, but he’s at it again. 🙄 He will not stop, and there’s nothing I can do but tape them up and wait for him to die. 🤷🏻 It’s honestly so gross. Most of the time he’s cool, so I guess he can stay. 😒 Dogs hiking their legs and ruining stuff is my low. And please, every time you see my “perfect” house on Instagram, just know a dog has pissed in every room.
This weekend is pretty low key. Tomorrow afternoon we’re headed over to my in-law’s house for an early Halloween celebration with Kate. Her first Halloween! 🤗 I couldn’t decide on just one costume, so we’ve got a couple. 👻 On Sunday, I’m sure it will be our usual routine of church, brunch, and football. My plan is to not put anything on my to-do list, so I’m looking forward to taking it easy.
Without further ado, here’s what I’ve been into this week:
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: Chatbooks. If you follow a lot of Instagram influencers then you may have seen ads for this product, but I promise I’m not jumping on the bandwagon just because it’s cool now. I’ve been ordering them since Kate was born, and I freaking love their product (shout out to Kaycie for telling me about them!). As any parent does, I take pictures of my kid on my phone all day long. Chatbooks allows me to get these photos off my phone and into a cute book. That way the photos don’t just live in the cloud for eternity and are printed for posterity. You can add dates and captions and it’s so easy. I do one book for each month of Kate’s life. Also they’re SO affordable! I honestly have wondered to myself how they stay in business because the quality is so good.
WELLNESS: Turns out working from home CAN make you more productive. At least according to a new study. You might want to forward it to your boss! The Stanford study “found that participants who worked from home saved the company thousands of dollars, performed their tasks more efficiently, and reported higher levels of satisfaction than other participants who were asked to stay at the office.” There were negatives cited too (poor work-life balance, feelings of isolation, etc.). Some of which I can relate to given that I work from home!
HOME TOUR: Inside Instagram founder Kevin Systrom’s Lake Tahoe home. The design isn’t my style, but it’s beautifully done and the VIEWS. 😍
FALL DECOR: Here’s some fall front porch decor inspo for y’all. I’m working this year’s display this week!
PODCASTS: Since Kate was born, I’ve gotten really into podcasts. I like that they’re a screen-free way to occupy my mind when I’m home with Kate all day. No offense to Kate but she’s not the best conversationalist. 🤪 Here’s what I’ve been listening to: Be There in Five by Kate Kennedy (generally about pop culture, though sometimes a deeper dive into heavier topics but ALWAYS funny), Everything Iconic by Danny Pellegrino (mostly Bravo TV related), Bitch Sesh by Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider (also Bravo related), A Drink with James (by the founder of Fohr, it’s about social media & the business of influencer marketing), Absolutely Not by Heather McMahan (God she’s so fucking funny), The Harvard Business Review IdeaCast & The Harvard Business Review Channel (I don’t listen to all of these, just the episodes that seem interesting to me - episode topics range from business to wellness to parenting to health - anything and everything really, but always science-y and data-driven), and Bad On Paper by Grace Atwood and Becca Freeman (they discuss books a lot, but not always - I don’t listen to every episode but pick and choose depending on the topic).
SOCIAL MEDIA: Jennifer Aniston joined Instagram and crashed the app. Her first post was iconic.
Have a great weekend! 🥂
XOXO,
Liz