2016 Year In Review

(photo credit: Monroe Fox Photography)

Last year I shared a video recapping the year. Today you get a post. I'm full up to my ears of editing and one more video might push me over the edge.

20 Questions: 6 Years Old

(birthday sign at school)

For the last few years I've been asking Tracen the same questions on his birthday and today, today he turns 6. So here we are, once again, wondering where the time has gone, and me trying not to ugly cry while thinking about how proud we are of our not so little boy.

December 21, 2016 || 6 years old

1. What's your favorite color? Rainbow, I love all the colors!
2. What's your favorite toy? Bluey- (stuffed animal he got w/Grammy)

3. What's your favorite fruit? Strawberries

4. What's your favorite TV show? Kai Lan and Max and Ruby

5. What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and Cheese

6. What's your favorite outfit? Jammies

7. What's your favorite game? Trouble

8. What's your favorite snack? Reese and Oreos

9. What's your favorite animal? Monkey, Orcas, Dolphins and Elephants

10. What's your favorite song? Stressed out (21 Pilots) & Whip Nae Nae

11. What's your favorite book? Baby Animals (all about baby animals book)

12. Who's your best friend? Eli- he was my first friend in Pre-k & I miss seeing him

13. What's your favorite cereal? Cherrios

14. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Swimming

15. What's your favorite drink? Juice

16. What's your favorite holiday? All of them! It's just so exciting

17. What do you take to bed with you at night? Blankey and Bluey

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Butter bread, Strawberries, Waffles and Pancakes

19. What do you want to eat for dinner for your birthday? Mac and Cheese

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a helper, I want to help people 

A lot of things are still the same from the last few years but its also nice to see the person he's shaping into be. Today Trace had his holiday party at school so Jer and I took the day off work to be there all together. 

Last night we baked and frosted lots of cookies to take in and share with both Kindergarten classes. Ending the night with some mac and cheese for dinner, per his request, and some ice cream sundaes with cousins and friends!

Happy 6th birthday Tracen! Always remember to stay true to your self, let your vibrant personality shine through and always be kind to others. You will go so far in life, I can't wait to see what this next year brings for you!

If you want to see his answers from his 5 year old questions and 4 year old questions here ya go!

Sharing a Room

When Tracen turned 2 we specifically got him bunk beds as his new big boy bed. I was pregnant with Skylor and knew I wanted them to share a room one day.

I use to beg my mom for bunk beds growing up. She always said fine but you will have to share a room with your brother. I never liked that idea so I always passed when she made that comment.

Ever since we moved Tracen out from his crib and into his bed he's been in our bed 90% of the time. If he sleeps through the night in his own bed we know it's because he was exhausted from the day before.

Skylor is three and a half is still going strong sleeping in his crib. When we moved into our new house he was about 8 months old and strictly bed shared or co-slept  next to us. I had him in his crib for the occasional nap but he never actually slept in his crib. When we moved I think Jerek said something like 'we should probably put Sky in his own bed now right? Don't you want to have the bed to ourselves again?' I most likely looked at him and laughed because it wasn't like Tracen really slept in his bed, so who cared if there was one or two in our bed, the more the merrier in my opinion!

If it's not broke, don't fix it. That's how the saying goes right?

Anywho.

Sky has never crawled or fallen out of his crib, he loves his bed! When he was little we would be in the living room and he'd point to the ceiling and say night night, meaning he wanted us to take him upstairs to his room and put him to bed. Yes, my child use to ASK me to go to bed.

You can see why I'm having a hard time saying bye to the crib.

Sky will stay up for an hour or more after we put him to bed and play PJ masks with his stuffed animals. I'm sure you've seen on Snap or a vlog where I'm standing outside his bedroom recording him yelling "you'll never get me PJ Masks! mauhhahahahah"  Some nights he goes to bed with a couple plastic dinosaurs, a huge monster truck and a couple books.

So many parents are all like 'you let him bring toys to bed? It's bedtime though, he needs to sleep'

I will politely let them know that my kid has been sleeping through the night since he was a few months old and usually at 12 hours a day with a 2-3 hour nap. Ask me again if I care that he brings the whole damn toy box to bed.

No. No I do not care!

Jerek bought the boys new bed sheets for Christmas and when I asked him what size he got Skylor (crib or twin) he said Paw Patrol and then I think whispered twin and held his breath. He knows I'm dreading the change from the crib to a bed.

I know I know, it's probably time but I literally can't let go of this kid. Sometimes I pick up 18 month old clothes and put them in my cart at Target and convince myself that's his size. I bought an Ergo for $8 at a mom to mom sale the other week (in mint condition, a steal really!) and carried Sky around the farmers market in it.

I'm a lunatic, I get it.

I've been going back and forth on when we will transition him to the new bed and here are the options I'm dealing with.

1. Take bunk beds apart (Tracen refuses to sleep on the top) and put them side by side in Tracen's current room and make them a new room (Tracen's is bigger) New paint, decorations etc. It would be THEIR new room together, the big boy's room.

2. Take bunk beds apart and put one in Sky's room. Redo his room to make it a big boy room with new decorations, paint, etc.

3. Buy another king size bed and make our bedroom one big old bed-sharing room for all of us to sleep in and never let them grow up.

I personally like option 3, Jerek, not so much.

Now here are my concerns with these options.

1. I STILL have to sit in Tracen's room till he passes out at night or he won't go to sleep. As long as I do, it takes about 15 min after I say good night and he's out. If I add Sky into the room he would stay up for probably 45 min after lights out and play. Which I don't care about but this would probably keep Tracen up, which would then keep me in there till they both passed out, which would then cut into my time watching Shameless spending time with Jerek.

2. If we put Skylor in Tracen's room I don't know if Tracen will get all crazy and say this isn't YOUR room, this is MY room and then resent me for it and go crazy

3. Will I be mentally stable if this all goes well and the kids stop coming into our bed at 2am and will you find me on the floor of their new room sleeping with them.

As you can see I'm clearly insane and we should probably just keep things the way they are. I promise to stop buying infant carriers for kids that are half my height and we can all move on with our lives.


Sincerely,

Lost-and-confused-on-how-you-let-your-kids-grow-up-but-still-try-and-stay-semi-sane

Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids

This will be our 6th Christmas as parents and it's totally different as a parent than as a kid but honestly, just as fun if not better as an adult! I don't think my 10 year old self would have agreed with me back then though.

This year we decided to get the boys their own Kindles. I have gone back and forth on this for probably the last year but honestly the breaking point, pun intended, was when Skylor dropped my phone and broke the screen a couple weeks ago at Home Depot.

Decision made.

Catch up

The white noise in blog land has been heavy lately huh. When I say the last few weeks have been busy I mean THEY.HAVE.BEEN.BUSY!

But honestly, don't you hate when people say that, like DUH WE'RE ALL FREAKING BUSY!

So sorry for saying that.

Moving on!

The shop has been crazy lately but its been amazing, no real complaining there! If you are following on Snap or IG stories you'll know that because I usually chat with you while I'm in the basement filling orders. A HUGE thanks to everyone for all the love from Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, that shit has been NUTS!

I've been busy printing shirts, wrapping merchandise and trying to get to the post in time for last pick ups. Doing this all while working a full-time, attempting to be a great mom, wife and friend has been a little tricky. Sorry to any friends or family in advance, or I guess not so in advance. I suck.

Oh and as if I wasn't already overbooking myself this month; something I love to do, I decided to do Vlogmas over on my YouTube channel, OUI! Vlogmas is vlogging every day in December (or some just do 25 days, but I'm doing the whole month).

I've been nostalgically watching old videos and missing all the vlogs I had time to do. There's been a lot of life changing things that have been happening to friends and family close to us and it's been pulling on my heart lately. I wanted to make sure I'm getting back to where I started, the roots, the recording of our everyday lives. It started so casually as documenting my life living from the very beginning and I feel like I've been pulled in so many directions (while good directions, but all different ones) that I haven't been capturing nearly as much as I'd like to.

So this month I'm bringing it back to the basics.

Didn't Brittany say that? Maybe not.

This weekend we went to the tree farm we went to last year and picked out a cute little baby tree with some of Jerek's family. I dunno why but I wanted a smaller one this year. This however resulted in the tree stand we already had being too big for the little tree we got and Jer had to DIY that shit, nothing a tree skirt can't cover!

We are 16 days away from Tracen turning 6 and my mind body and soul just can't handle. I guess that's another post for another day though. Last night after bath time the boys were running around screaming, playing and laughing hysterically. I tried to reel myself back from being a party pooper and making them calm down before bed because they were so cute and having fun. They were acting the way I had dreamed about years and years ago when I wanted to be pregnant again. Laughing and playing together like best friends do.

Then the noise stopped and we found this. Sky was begging to sleep in bubbas (Tracen's) bed.

Before I get too sappy and start crying I bid you farewell for today that is!

Don't forget, if you want to see what we're doing ever day this month come over and watch us in real life, or as real life as 7-10 min of a 24 day hour can be!

Click HERE to watch the first 4 days in case you've missed it.

xx Chel

13 years

7 months into our marriage seems like nothing compared to the last 13 years of dating. From a young and feisty 17 year old to an older and even more tenacious 30 year old, here we are. The years have flown by but the memories are so fresh in my head, it's like they always say, it feels like it was yesterday.

Favorite Cruelty Free Makeup

After getting back from the wedding I knew there were some big changes I wanted to start making and one of them was to start eating a plant based/vegan diet. It's been a little over 6 months and things are great! Many times when you say "I'm vegan" people jump down your throat and start saying then why do you wear leather, why do you use that makeup, etc, etc.

While I know my whole life isn't considered a "vegan lifestyle" which that alone is VERY hard to do, I do try as much as possible to avoid animal products and animal cruelty in the things I buy. So one of the steps I've been doing aside from eating a vegan diet, is to start and try to only use cruelty free makeup.

How Much is a Destination Wedding in Mexico?

I've gotten a ton of emails and comments on posts or photos asking how much our destination wedding and overall trip to Mexico cost so I figured I'd gather up all the receipts and emails and lay it all out for you. I did this for our pre-ception already and had a great response from people that liked to really see how much everything costs! When it comes to money I know some people don't like talking about it. However when I was researching destination weddings I'd get so annoyed when people wouldn't say how much things actually costs. How else are you suppose to get a clear idea!

5 Easy Dinner Ideas (Vegan)

What's for dinner?

The dreaded question you hate hearing come from your husband, kids or even the damn dogs mouth! I won't lie and tell you I cook one meal and everyone eats it cause we most defentilay don't! My kids snack as SOON as I get home from work. Well actually, they snack all damn day and I can barely get them to the dinner table let alone make them eat what we are eating.

I usually make 2 meals, one for the kids and one for Jerek and I. I try to give them what we are having from time to time but they are so damn picky its just not worth the fight. Gotta pick your battles ya know. I do try and coordinate meals though. For example, if we are having pasta I will usually make mac & cheese for them. If we are having Mexican, they will get cheese quesadillas, etc.

 If you have been following my Insta stories or Snaps over the last month (or longer) you will see I do cooking segments. Yes, I'm calling them cooking segments okay. I'm no Rachel Ray but sometimes I pretend I am when Jerek's not home! These "segments" usually consist of me drinking beer while telling you what I'm doing and attempting to not burn my house down. My dad was a chef for many many years but cooking is most definitely NOT in my blood! 

We are a meal planning family, or at least we try to be. We also try and keep our weekly grocery bill to $125 (it was $100 but we recently realized we were always going over anyway & altered it.) We meal plan for 5 dinners and we go out for Pizza Party Fridays and on Sundays to Jerek's parents.

Recently we signed up for Shipt and I legit couldn't be happier with the service! I've heard some mixed reviews on shoppers not bringing items on the list or not doing a good job with substitutions. I haven't had this problem and they always will text me whenever something isn't in stock and I tell them what to get instead. I'll have a whole review on the service in another month or so after I have used it some more, but so far we have had 3 great experiences. All times I've cleaned the house braless and had groceries magically show up on my doorstep without hauling kids to the store so like HELL TO THE YEAH!

So without further blabbing, here are the 5 meals I have planned for the week. (I also make enough to eat for left overs the next day for lunch for both of us)

INDIAN:

This is for an easy day, like Tuesday's when we have soccer practice! We use the Maya Kaimal Curry Simmer sauce and I buy the cubed extra firm tofu, throw it in a sauté pan and brown up. Add this sauce and let it simmer. I make the rice in our handy dandy rice cooker and throw a piece of Naan bread in the oven. BOOM, easy, filling and spicy!

ONE POT CREAMY GARLIC PASTA:

This is one I've made a few times on Snapchat and Insta-stories. It's less than 10 ingredients and nothing hard, hell it's made in one pot!

ONE PAN MEXICAN QUINOA:

I haven't made this one yet but when I saw the words one pan, I was like yup, me, that's my kind of meal so I put it in this weeks meal plan! Mexican is also probably my absolute favorite thing to eat so we usually have a Mexican dish once a week. I think Jer is sick of taco's or make your own bowls so I'm going to try this bad boy out! We will serve it with a side of beans and throw this whole mixture into soft taco shells, YUM!

TEMPE SLIDERS + FRIES:

If you've never had Tempe before you're missing out! We first tried it at Green Dot Stables, also, if you've never been to Green Dot in Detroit you should stop reading this and go have lunch, dinner or both there, just sayin! But anyways, we tried it there once and have been hooked ever since! Tempe is a soybean base product in a patty/square-ish shape and most importantly FULL of protein, like 31g per serving! So for all you people like dude you need to eat meat and get protein, girl byeee! 

We usually change it up so they will range from BBQ style, or Asian, Thai or just plain American style. We then throw them on some little slider buns, fry up some delicious waffle fries, crack open a beer and pretend we're at the bar on a date. Ok maybe not that last part but it pretty much feels like bar food without your blood pressure rising and your stomach feeling like crap!

SOUP + SANDWICHES:

Once it gets to be winter I have a ton of soups I'm going to make in the crock pot but for now I've been reaching for Amy's brand soups. They are all vegan, very filling and have a ton of different flavors to choose from! Jerek loves the chili and I love the lentil one. I also grabbed a couple new ones to bring to work for lunch this week. 

For the sandwich part we usually make BLT's or bacon grilled cheese sammys. For the BLT's we use the veggie bacon (only certain ones are vegan), fresh tomatoes from our garden and lettuce. For the bacon grilled cheese, again use the vegan bacon and then Daiya brand sliced "cheese". It's so creamy and taste JUST like cheddar cheese and honestly better in my opinion. Imagine Velvetta cheese in those packets, YASSS! Jerek will make a vegan mayo and hot sauce mixture and lather it on the bread before throwing it on the stove to grill up. It's heavenly!

I also snagged a bag a fake chicken strips to have on hand to throw on big salads when we aren't feeling like cooking or on Saturday during the day. Eating vegan/plant base isn't hard, the options are endless and our grocery bill has not raised from when we ate meat (a common misconception people often think it's MORE expensive to eat veterinarian or vegan.) I hope you got some ideas for dinner and if you want to follow along this week I'll be showing you these meals on my Instagram story!

Happy 3rd Blogiversary East Willow Grove

The title is a lie, I'm sorry. September 26th was my official 3 year blogiversary. You're like, right Chelsea, that was almost 3 weeks ago, COOL. Like a lot of things in life, I'm late chatting about them! My excuse? I was high up in the sky trying to throw back a couple cocktails and not have my children climb all over the plane at 10pm on Sep 26. You can watch the whole video here! Who thought a red eye with kids was a good idea?

East + Willow The New Shop

I finally got the site set and all figured out, for now until I want to do something and need to learn more coding and am up till 2am trying to figure it out.

An Auburn Hills Wedding

{photo cred: Mollan Photography}

Kindergarten is crazy ya'll, crazy!

I'm over here thinking I'm super women getting the new shop ready to open, edit wedding videos and then get ready to shoot more weddings that I'm that mom rushing to get to pick up before Trace walks out the door, looks around and is on the verge of crying that I'm not there and "have forgotten about him." Mix in soccer, busy work schedules and watching Ray Donovan, man I'm exhausted!

10 Things to Do While Your Toddler Takes a Bath

| picture from last year|

Last night I was sitting in the bathroom on the little wooden bench I always sit on when the kids take a bath. I grabbed my phone and started making a list of things I needed to get done before we leave for Colorado Friday morning. Before long I got distracted and started cleaning m makeup brushes., it needed to be done and I thought it was the perfect time since I was already in there. Plus, those things haven't seen soap and water for longer than I'd like to admit; perhaps that's why I'm breaking out so much? Anyway.

Friday Faves

Hello there and welcome to Friday, you've made it!

At least that's what I told myself this morning at 530 when my alarm was going off,

YOU MADE IT! IT'S THE WEEKEND! PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY YO!

First Day of Kindergarten

Which one of these two kids started Kindergarten today?

Van Hoosen Farm Wedding

First post back after a long labor day weekend and I figured I spare you the first day of Kindergarten post until he actually has his first day, which is Thursday. Tracen's school has 8 kids come on Tuesday, 8 on Wednesday, 8 on Thursday and then all the kids on Friday. He's a Thursday kid so you'll be able to cry with me later on in the week, no worries.

5 Tips to Eating Out with Kids

Last night we decided to ditch the meal we had planned and grab some patio beers and dinner to enjoy what is left of this fabulous Michigan summer.

I hear it all the time, how do you eat out with kids? The answer is simple.

We go out to eat with kids.

Friday Faves

Friday oh Friday, I welcome you with open arms!

It's been a busy busy week over here! Between working on editing wedding videos and working on the new website for the shop, I've been glued to my computer like an algae eater and it's not cute! The new inventory started arriving at the house this week and I'm getting it all prepped and ready. Steaming everything and starting to photograph it, ekk so exciting! I'm already planning out what will be new arrivals for the winter as well since it will be here sooner than we know! There will be videos and other blog posts showing the items, explaining the fits and the style of everything, so subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep an eye open for that!

The new shop will have it's own website but I will still be keeping Etsy open and have the T-shirts available at both shops. This is solely because the traffic I get from Etsy is astounding. I have options to pay for marketing and advertising on Etsy and I have and its brought me a ton of traffic and orders from it. The last few months I've been doing some experimenting with the paid advertising and turning it on and off on certain days and now I've stopped it all together. I was trying to gauge if it's worth the money or not. What I've noticed is that because my sales have gone up (from paid advertising) my shirts have moved up in the rank on Etsy search pages that I no longer need to pay for the advertising because they are already on the first page! #majorwin

If you follow me on Snap you would have seen me post this last night already so sorry if this is repetitive, it just makes me incredibly happy! If you type in the search bar on Etsy "boy mom shirt" "wife shirt" or "wedding shirt" I'm on the first page for all of these! It's been a lot of work, money and time but it's so worth it! You can follow the shop's Instagram page to see more customer photos, coupon codes and the new items coming to the shop next month.

I'm filming another wedding tomorrow so I'm charging batteries and getting SD cards all ready for that. I also like to watch a lot of other wedding videos online to get my creative mind going ahead of time. It helps me think of different shots I want to get or how to capture something I may not have thought of.

Since I'll be gone all day tomorrow away from the boys we are having our usual pizza party Friday night but this time a picnic in our backyard. Really what that means is Jerek and I will be taking chainsaws and literally cutting down anything in our way! We have SO.MANY.WEEDS and just crap growing everywhere that it has got to go! We realize this is the end of the summer and most people do this in the Spring. We've been so busy this summer that we've let the outside of the house go and it's about to get wild tonight! We got this pool at the beginning of summer on a crazy "Amazon lightening deal" so I will fill that bad boy up for the boys, grab some pizza and beer and make a night out of it while we tackle the weeds!

I've been on the hunt for some new boots for the fall because I had to toss a couple of mine last year as they had seen much better days. I've been looking at these cute brown ones from Nordstrom, these ones for a little color or possibly these ones for a little help in the height department. 

If you follow me on Snapchat (@eastwillowgrove) or have seen my nails in real life lately you will know that I have been doing at home gel nails for some time now. I've always done my own nails and rarely get manicures and gel nails at home have made my life SO much easier! I will usually do them at 1030pm and go to bed right after! There's no fear I will mess them up either, it's amazing! The set I got a while ago is the Sensational Starter kit but I've heard great things about the Red Carpet kit too. I usually pick up polishes at Sallys when they are buy 2 get 1 free because they are more expensive than normal nail polish's. I just bought a couple OPI ones off Amazon that I use a ton as regular nail polish; Lincoln Park After Dark, Funny Bunny and You Don't Know Jacques. These three are my all time favorite colors, I will even wear Funny Bunny in the winter because I love it so much.

With Labor day weekend coming up we're trying to think of something fun to do before school starts and life gets even more chaotic! I'm thinking a trip to Grand Haven is in order next weekend because my toes are dying to be submerged into some sand!

Hope you all have a great weekend! Do something fun, get outside and soak up that sun!

The Garden Theater- Detroit Wedding

On July 23rd I loaded up my camera gear, kissed the boys bye for the day and headed to Detroit to the Ren Cen to start my day. Ryan and Sydney were getting married and it was a full day of shooting! I met Sydney way back when I worked with her sister at a tanning salon. I remember one day she walked in to tan and she was so bubbly and full of life and didn't stop talking, she was my kind of girl! Ryan and I went to high school together and had a lot of friends in common so it was so cute to see them together as I knew them through totally separate walks of life!

Etsy Shop Story + Giveaway

In December of 2012 I was newly pregnant with Skylor and I jumped on Etsy to sell jewelry I was already making for myself.  It was something I did before starting my blog that I enjoyed. Shortly after I started blogging and recording our lives here and on YouTube and I scaled back on Etsy and threw myself into learning everything about video editing, shooting and writing.

In 2015 I didn't enjoy making jewelry anymore and I made a growth chart to track the boys heights. I started selling these to local moms and families all over the US. I quickly realized how much I hated USPS as they ruined 5 of my orders, upset my customers and myself, so I stopped making them all together.

One day I was on Instagram and came across the cliche #boymom t-shirts. I had been looking for boymom shirts for a while but HATED the design and price of these ones. It was basic Hanes T-shirt with an ugly font. I think she was charging like $52 or something ridiculous.

Hell to the no!

In true Chelsea form I said I can totally make something better.

So I did.

Clothing is something I've loved since I was little so creating my own shirts wasn't that strange of an idea for me. I originally went to school in Chicago for Fashion Merchandising when I was 18 before I transferring to GVSU. This wasn't a new passion of mine, maybe just one that was pushed aside when I had kids.

So just like that the first 'house of boys' shirt was created, followed by 'house of girls' and 'house of twins' which are sold out currently. The house of boys shirts started flying off the shelf, I literally couldn't keep up with the demand sometimes. Apparently boy moms want everyone to know they are a boy mom. I get it though, because living in a houseful of boys is like living in a frat house!

Speaking of frat houses...

As the months went by I started keeping a list in my phone of funny or clever things I wanted to print on shirts, not just for adults, but for kids too. The next boy mom shirt I created was "I run a frat house shirt." Just like the house of boys shirts the orders were coming in left and right, sometimes people were buying both at the same time, it was awesome to see those notifications on my phone! A cash register noise would ding and sometimes Jerek would yell from the other room" you got another sale!" It's very exciting feeling.

Today these are my two best selling shirts, it makes me even more proud to be a boy mom.

I started to make a couple more shirts that were geared toward motherhood and not just for families that had kids of the same gender like the house of boys were designed for. In came the "Eat Sleep Mom Repeat" and the "Embrace the chaos-mommyhood" shirts.

Next up was the wedding related shirts, after all, I was planning my own wedding! I kept seeing the normal "Mrs." or "married!" tee's and I just didn't like them, I wanted something different.  So I had created the 'girlfriend fiancée' shirts and then a week later the Wifed Up shirt was then born.

The funny thing is, I get more orders of women ordering the wifed up shirts for their soon to be husbands to wear on their honeymoon! I love it! A design that most people buy to wear the day after they get married they tell me.

On June 5, 2015 I sold my first shirt. It's been a little over a year and I'm 3 sales away from 500 sales! It's exciting and hard work, all while I work in corporate full time, run my videography business and blog/vlog! I'm starting to look into trade marking, expanding in both kids and adult items and possibly selling in local shops!

One of the frustrating things I've stumbled across is a big Instagram account that started making house of boy shirts way after I did. While the designs aren't the same, I can't help but get a little butt hurt that I created them long before they did. Such is life though ya know! I realize that these things happen all the time and I'm starting to see how I can trade mark certain ones, be better about marketing and also open my own website so I'm not just tied to Etsy.

This has been my goal for a while now; a online store that is more than just Etsy. I've been working insanely hard on new logo, a new website and working with wholesalers to bring in other clothing then just my t-shirts! You guys, this is the stuff I learned in college and dreamed about doing, working for a company, buying clothes that you would see in shops. The reality is, I don't have to work for someone else to do this, I just had to do the research on how I could work for myself!

You guys know that I've been rocking the capsule wardrobe life for over 6 months now. So the pieces that will be added into the shop will be perfect additions to any wardrobe! They will be based around neutrals, simple patterns, and great for moms that want to spice up their yoga pant wardrobe! I'm so excited about whats to come, it's going to be a real online store and maybe one day I'll have a little shop, a brick and mortar store! A girl can dream, err wait, no no, a girl can WORK TOWARDS IT! I don't dream here, I just do!

With that being said, keep your eyes open for more announcement's regarding the shop! You can also follow along on the new/separate Instagram for the shop; East + Willow. There will be sneak peaks of new shirts, new clothing, accessories, coupon codes and big announcements so make sure to follow along!

To celebrate almost being at my 500th sale I'm doing a giveaway of 2 Eat Sleep Mom Repeat in the exclusive muscle tanks! It's crazy to think there are hundreds of people all over the world wearing something I created. As a thank you to all past and future customers, I'm also offering 10% off all orders for till August 19th with the code THANKYOUSALE.

Love you guys and cheers to East + Willow!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Favorite Podcasts

You've all heard me complain before about how much I loathe my commute to work before right?

And if you haven't HOW, HOW HAVE YOU NOT?!

I'm really rather annoying on Snap (@eastwillowgrove) about it the most. I'm always complaining and never really saying anything positive about it because honestly, who can be when you live 17 miles from work but it takes you almost an hour or more a day to get TO and then from work...

No one Susan, no one!

So lets get to the point here shall we!

Over the last few years I've discovered Podcasts and Podcasts have CHANGED.MY.LIFE. okay.

Not only have I gotten a TON of great business advice from them but I laugh and smile SO much on my way to and from work because of them! Laughing, smiling and driving to work never are usually in the same sentence for me so this shit is awesome.

Sometimes I wish I had my own Podcast but I have about a bajillion other projects going on right now I do not need to tickle my pickle with that too...right now that is...;)

With that being said I wanted to round up my 5 favorite Podcasts and hopefully you check them out, because I know you will laugh, learn something or be inspired by some if not all of them!

One of my favorite fellow bloggers, Lauryn Evarts from The Skinny Confidential, and her soon to be husband, Michael Bosstick recently started a Podcast that airs every Tuesday. The podcast was started as a place to get answers from both a guy and girl on branding, blogging, entrepreneurship, travel and social media. However I find myself laughing so fucking much because they banter back and forth just like Jerek and I do, have been together almost as long as we have and are getting married in Mexico as well. While I've learned a ton of tips and tricks from them I honestly love the fact that I feel like I'm driving with friends to work on Tuesdays!

I recently discovered Jackie Schimmel from Lauryn having her on her Podcast and just like Lauryn, I was dying of laughter listening to Jackie! I then went on a binge listening spree and this girl is FUNNY! She use to work on The Chelsea Handler show so her sense of humor is right up my alley. She is a Real Housewives fanatic and knows just about everything there is to know about all the seasons. She interviews tons of celebs, comedians and "socialites" and tells it like it is. She's raw and blunt, just how I like it! You may not learn how to make a homemade apple pie, but you will laugh for an entire 45 minutes wanting more more MORE!

Guys, if you are currently watching The Night Of on Netflix the Serial Podcast reminds me SOOO much of this Podcast! Serial is a Podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig, also a great podcast! It unfolds a true story over the course of the whole season as it follows the plot, characters and real thoughts that she processes as she unfolds the story. I loved listening to this while working out or on the way to work. Some days I was late getting into work because I would sit in my car to finish it, it was just SO good!

Jess Lively is a Michigander and Ann Arbor resident. She moved to Chicago when she started her own Jewelry line, then off to Austin where she use to blog and ultimately where she started her Podcast, The Lively Show. TLS is a weekly podcast that is designed to uplift, inspire and add a little extra intention to your everyday life. Literally, this is her mantra that she says before each episode and I always leave each episode feeling just that! It's a really nice and easy podcast to listen to, a feel good one and one where you can see she tries so hard every day to live life with intention and meaning.

The Podcaster of Podcasts, Pat Flynn is amazing! It's like a Ted Talks Podcast but he's crazy relatable! He has a wife and two kids and is a awesome business man and serial entrepreneur! A lot of my business knowledge, advice and tips and tricks I've learned from him! He has an killer blog called The Smart Passive Income, which is where the podcast stemed from. On his blog he gives you business advice and how to get ahead of the curve with your online business or blog. On the Podcast though, he brings in tons of other entrepreneurs (men and women!) and they together discuss an array of topics on how they got started, secrets to making money and how to be a better entrepreneur, its amazing! There are hundreds of episodes so you will never be bored! In fact I go back and listen to some of my favorite ones time and time again and continue to learn something new every time!

There are a ton of other Podcasts that I bop around listening too from time to time but these 5 are my absolute favorite! They really get me through my commutes to work, through the boring ass days in the office and through my cardio at the gym.

So I hope you have discovered a new Podcast, or five to start listening too! What Podcasts do you love? Leave a comment below on any not mentioned, I'd love to find more and check them out!

xx Chel

Wedding Videography

Wedding planning ended months ago for us and while I can say that I'm happy the planning aspect is over I realize how much I kinda sorta maybe enjoyed it. Perhaps it was just the whole week in Mexico I enjoyed, or seeing our plans and ideas come all together or spending it with family and friends, regardless, it was amazing!

If you've been following along here for some time you will know that I've been recording our everyday life for a little over two years now! When I first started vlogging Jerek definitely didn't understand it, he was annoyed that I had a camera out all the time, that I was editing on the couch while we watched TV and that I was always trying to document things.

He quickly grew out of it after he realized how awesome it was to look back on the memories at any given day. I often catch him re-watching videos from weeks, months or even years ago, it's real cute! Jer even vlogged during his birthday scavenger hunt last year if you haven't seen it! The idea behind the vlogs were to not just capture the traveling we do or the big events but to also capture the everyday moments, the things you easily forget about. I didn't want that to happen.

Aside from capturing our everyday life I love just as much capturing other peoples special moments. This summer has been full of filming weddings and it's not slowing down! I've had a ton of inquiries and I've been working on a new website so today I wanted to share it with you now since it's up and running!

Come peak around East Willow Media and tell me what you think! I'm still in the process of editing and uploading more weddings, travel videos and more so stay tuned!

I have a few spots left open in 2016 and have started booking for 2017! I've been editing away on the couch at night while watching Netflix with Jerek, it's been a crazy, fun and exciting summer to say the least! Feel free to look around the site and if you have any questions, ask away!

Happy Third Birthday, Skylor!

Three years ago I waddled into the labor and delivery room at 8pm, praying I was over 5cm dilated. I had been walking around at 4cm for two weeks and taking care of a toddler like that is exhausting! Sure enough I was at a 6 and admitted. About 4 hours later with a push, a laugh and a smile you were here! Born at 37 weeks you were a whopping 8lbs 6 ounces! I was in awe at how easy it all was this time around!

From the beginning Sky has always been an easy, go with the flow baby. He was easy to feed, easy to soothe, and easy to put down for bed.  I wore him everywhere we went, he rarely got upset and took Tracen's 2 year old rough housing like a champ. He will play in his crib for hours, reading books, and playing with his stuffed animals. When he's ready he will yell for you to come get him, giddy with excitement he always says I SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!

His personality shines through his smile but he's very mellow kid (this may sound like an oxymoron but it's not!) He hates the sun, is very much a homebody, quite the opposite of a true Leo baby! His emotions are big when he is enjoying something, he will squeal with excitement about it being soooooo good or sooooo fun! When you're not expecting it, he will say I need a hug and hug you so hard and smile afterwards. He loves Ducati and Jerek the most, would lay around on the couch with them for days if he could. 

Sky is sweet and light hearted, a lover of food and smiles! Everyone always says Tracen looks like Jerek but it's uncanny how much Skylor and him look alike at this age! The days go by so fast and I remember this very moment as if it was yesterday! I can't believe you are already three baby Sky Sky!

Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself! Rummaging through all the old photos and videos makes me so incredibly emotional! But also SO happy that I've been documenting it all and not just via photos but through videos too. Videos show stories and emotions that can sometimes be lost in photos years later. We are having his party on Sunday and surprising him with a new helmut and scooter! Like most things with second kids, he gets a lot of hand me downs. I figured hopefully something shiny and new will up his excitement and maybe get him to walk again. He got his cast off last week and has yet to walk, so fingers crossed!

Happy birthday Skylor Vance, to the littlest of my house of boys!

| 1st birthday video  | 2nd birthday video  |