// Things I Love Thursday v.269

I have been incredibly under the weather for the past couple of days, hence why everything is rolling out a day late. I'm nursing a fun bout of kidney stones + infection, just a week before having my gallbladder taken out. We're trying to combat it as quickly as possible, as to not delay the surgery I should've had last year, but of course along the way my body decided it was not a fan of the pain medication I was prescribed. The reaction to it was far far worse than the initial back pain (Why is that always the case?! haha) I'm doing my very best to get as caught up as I can on things - I'm blogging and painting signs in bed so I can stay on schedule. Design clients - your mocks may be delayed until Monday, so please hold tight! In the meantime, here's a short but sweet TiLT ♥ 

♥ this is one of my favorite etsy shops ♥

♥ this styling! ♥

♥ this ♥

♥ this cute little design ♥

♥ this fantastic photo! ♥

♥ this. this this this. ♥

♥ this flyer design ♥

// 18 things Feminism has destroyed.

// I am 110% obsessed with everything Charlotte Olympia has out now. Have you seen the amazing alient/UFO bags?!

// and if you love all things cat and cat-related apparel, this this this!

// Why all white people are racist, but can't handle being called racist: The theory of white fragility. 

// Every single exhibit at MoMA from 1929 to the present... now online!

// This collection was inspired by indie music and contemporary art... and I kind of think the plethora of ruffles are fun! (That Mixed Media dress is one of those things that is so "ehhhhh" I can't help but love it haha)

// 16 places to go if you're young, broke, and want to travel the world. Provided you can shell out for those pricey plane tickets!

// Conspiracy theories thrive at Donald Trump rallies.

// Wishlist Wears: this oversized blush pink cashmere sweater // LOVE how this dress is styled - i want it all! // this moto jacket // the east/west transport tote (this is currently in my cart, so !!) // the perfect halloween dress // this little peachy lace number // this beige crochet-esque dress // this mint moto jacket! // i LOVE the contrast of this print!

// 10 things to remember when it feels like things won't get better.

// Just a reminder that all of Rory's boyfriends were terrible. Who is excited for Gilmore Girls?!?

// This site will make a stuffed animal clone of your pet (!!!!)

xo KB

// Squeezing It All In

So I have a confession to make... I was that person who said her kids wouldn't jump on the furniture, or eat dirt, or eat dinner (usually pizza, I know. I'm the worst.) in the car while we rush around. Well... guess what? All of those have happened... in the last 48 hours. I'm really not sure how people with several school aged children do it. Amy, for example. She has 3 kids at home, all in school, all with extracurricular activities... I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Every day Toby and I work on his homework, study and test on his various subjects, and then practice everything he needs to get his first Boy Scouts badge next week. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when Linden gets in school. (Uh, and I don't remember second grade being nearly as demanding!) Anyway, my point is: we're busy. Often. Always. Much like you and your families, I'm sure. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Even still, I try my best to cook at home as often as possible. It's not always the best, and my children regularly do things I said they never would, but my goal here is to get my children fed, bathed, and in bed before I go bonkers. Give me a little grace here, okay? 

While I don't really posses a lot of prowess in the kitchen, I am really darn good at that slow cooker! Usually I have about a 15-20 minute window to get dinner ready and served between all of our obligations and routines. Tossing chicken, chili, or porkchops into the slow cooker is quite literally the easiest part of my day. No matter what time we make it home, I know we'll at least have some delicious protein waiting for us.  Lately one of our favorite meals has been Mushroom + Ranch Porkchops, with baby carrots added to the slow cooker. Oh my word! The carrots get so tender and delicious, and the porkchops get the perfect coating of flavor. We also eat a lot of corn on the cob in this house. My mom buys like ~30 dozen ears of corn from a nearby Amish family so we're clearly never going to run out of that stuff! Boil 'em for 5 minutes and they're ready to go! And then of course mashed potatoes. If there's one thing I can get Linden to eat always, it's mashed potatoes. He's a potato fiend! He does not discriminate against potatoes (me either, buddy!) We used these new Idahoan Russets mashed potatoes the other night because they were super quick and effortless (seriously, under 5 minutes). They taste great, so no complaints here! Typically we buy their Baby Reds but the Russets are perfectly smooth and are ideal with a bit of butter and salt.  I also kind of love that they say that when served as part of a weekday dinner, they make "any day taste like Sunday." (They're available nationwide now, too. Just a heads up! And here's a package shot so you know what I'm talking about haha!)

Do y'all do weekly family dinners or anything like that? Like straight out of Parenthood haha! So yeah, this is what some of our weeknights look like. Huddled around the coffee table because Toby needs help with his homework and Linden won't sit still long enough... Sometimes you just gotta choose your battles, ya know? While it's not typically perfect, we're able to actually enjoy each other because there's a rule of no TV or electronics while we eat. Except for me to take these pictures, clearly. Haha!

Even though our schedule is usually overwhelming and hectic, I still find myself pretty darn happy because we're able to do things the boys love. Toby is always tickled pink for Boy Scouts, and Linden gets giddy when we go to the park. I'd rather spend my time with them as opposed to standing over a stove for an hour or two that I don't have to spare. We're a busy bunch, but a lucky busy bunch!

xo KB

PS; Things I Love Thursday will be up tomorrow! I'm running a bit behind obviously!

// Michaels Makers Summit 2016

Another year of the Michaels Makers Summit has come and gone! It was such an exciting 4 days in Carmel Valley, California. I can't even begin to tell you how scenic and beautiful it was (Hopefully the photos below do it justice!) It was so cold though! I'm very familiar with the climate in that part of California, but it's still a shock when you're coming from 94 degrees with 93% humidity! haha I figured I'd just walk y'all through the event by breaking it up into days... Here we go!

Day One - Sunday, September 11th

I hopped on a flight bright and early in Nashville, and flew to LAX and then San Jose. Luckily some of the gals from last year spotted me in Baggage Claim because we had no idea where our driver was. Once we all got settled in on the bus, we had about a dozen or so Makers. That helped make the 1.5 hour ride to Carmel Valley a bit easier. We stayed at the Carmel Valley Ranch and WOW! That's really all I can say about that haha It was so great to have everything in one place this year as opposed to having to commute to the Summit location last year. Most of us from the bus were pretty famished so we sat down for a quick bite. I had that insanely delicious French Toast. My mouth is watering just looking at it. Afterward we all settled into our rooms (actually they were suites... that we had all to ourselves! Whhaaaa! I hope y'all saw the room tour on Snapchat!) and played it cool until it was time for our Welcome Dinner. Michaels always knocks it out of the park with the styling and the menus. That night I took advantage of the huge bathtub... and then again and again and again. I know, the bath snaps were overkill, BUT Y'ALL! IT WAS SO BIG! AND THE WATER WAS SO HOT! If only my tub at home was as big!

Day Two - Monday, September 12th

Monday was the first full day of the Summit, and the 4 classes we had scheduled were for the Makers only. (In case you missed it/forgot: This year Michaels chose 50 sweepstakes winners to join us for the Summit! They came on Monday night and joined us at dinner.) The classes we had were so much fun. Jane Davenport's Mixed Media was probably my favorite of the day. I loved seeing how easy and simple shibori dyeing can be, too! Nicole Farb from Darby Smart led that class. In our Cricut class I made a cute little shadowbox to store fun photos and moments with my girlfriends. Also - how about the decor, right?! Everything looked so so stunning. The macrame "walls" were my favorite! Dinner on Monday was really fun because we all had assigned seats and the sweepstakes winners were there. We also had a very special guest... Sarah Michelle Gellar! She told us all about her new biz Food Stirs and she was positively charming. Monday night included a lot of Chardonnay haha! And of course more of that amazing bathtub. #sorrynotsorry

Day Three - Tuesday, September 13th

So I don't have any personal photos of Tuesday and I'm really bummed about that. I woke up really sick and I just did not feel like myself all day. At first I thought "What?! Am I hungover?! How?!" but it became pretty apparent after not too terribly long that nope, I just had some icky virus. Most of the day I felt like I was just going through the motions, and there were so many great classes that day! The one I was most looking forward to was the Macrame class with Annabel Wrigley. She taught our Weaving workshop last year, and she's just so kind and patient. And a little side note here: Holy macrame is HARD! My brain is totally not used to working that way (I'm just not a very mechanical/analytical person. Wahhhh) Pretty much everyone else in my group was leagues ahead of me and I finally just grabbed my piece and went to lay down. I was so into learning, but my nausea was not having it. I had a steady rotation of shower / bath / bed until it was time to go down for dinner. I wasn't sure I was even going to go, but I had heard it was totally beautiful so I went. Oof. Bad idea. Once we all got seated on our poufs and pillows (ha, yes!), the food started coming out. Once the Cauliflower Soup Sip came out, I was done for. I headed down the hill to wait for a shuttle back to my room where I zonked out to sleep off whatever was happening to me. Luckily I felt right as rain on Wednesday morning (Thank goodness, since I had to fly across the country. Womp!)

via themrseverything_

The Summit was such a wonderful experience. I swear when I leave I feel so motivated, inspired, and lucky! How I'm one of the 45(ish) Makers is beyond me. The women at the Summit are truly so remarkable and talented! Definitely pinching myself to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. And the winners that I met were equally as great! It was just a really cool experience overall.

I'm super stoked to get started on this year's Dream Tree, too! This will be my third year participating so if you have any awesome themes or ideas for a rad tree, send 'em my way! I'm rackin' my brain trying to come up with something awesome :P

A HUGE MAJOR WHOA NELLY THANKS goes out to Michaels, Jillian, and her entire team. It's such an honor and privilege to be part of something so neat.

xo KB

// Book Club: Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton

amazon // goodreads

STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND GO BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW! Don't even bother to read the rest of this review, just go buy it, read it, soak it in. This is the book most of us have been waiting for. I knew I would be totally sucked in to it after loving Glennon's previous book Carry On, Warrior (Review here!) I just didn't know I'd love it as much as I do! Oprah recently gave it her Book Club seal of approval, and I even had more than one person take notice while I was reading it and exclaim they were reading it, too. With the exception of the first 15 pages or so, I read the entire memoir on the flights home from the Michaels Makers Summit (more on that soon!). I cried as inconspicuously as I could, often having to stop reading all together because I'm just a hot mess. My copy of the book is now overflowing with highlighted passages and notes in the margins. There are just so many incredible chapters, quotes, and ideas that I would struggle to choose my favorite.  Luckily the rest of the internet is on it so I compiled a few of my favorite quotes below! Glennon has that magical quality with her writing that makes you want to stand up and shout "Oh my God, ME TOO!" Writers who find a way to be relatable to me totally have my attention. There is just so much honesty and truth and raw emotion in this book. I don't think you could possibly be disappointed by it. I feel like I need to take a few more days to process it all, and then read it all over again. It's that good, I swear. And it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Thank you for sharing this gift with us, Glennon!

xo KB

// Life Lately

September isn't usually such a busy time of year for us, but oof! This year, man! Between Toby's homework, Boy Scout schedule, and just the thought of piano lessons, I am zonked. Let's not remind me that I also have another little human to take care of and apparently I have some kind of moral obligation to shape him into a decent/smart person haha. Jussssst kidding. You know what I mean. We've stayed on the go quite a bit, and it's not slowing down any time soon. Maybe Christmas? 2017? 

Anyway, I'm getting ready to head toward Maya's to crash at her house so she can cart my booty to the airport super early in the morning. I'm headed back out to California for the 2nd annual Michaels Makers Summit. Last year I think there were only 50 of us (?!), but this year it'll be all 50 makers PLUS 50 sweepstakes winners. Holy moly, y'all. It's going to be wild! But the Summit is so fun! It's basically adult crafting camp and I can't get enough of it. I'll be sure to share entirely too many behind the scenes photos and videos on Snapchat, so go give me a follow if you haven't already! Snap: kaelahbee

I'll be in California until Wednesday, so I'll have quite a bit of catching up to do once I get back. Thursday is Boy Scouts day, and since Toby and CJ are in the same den, Whitney and I alternate Thursdays. She took them a couple days ago, so I gotta get all my ducks in a row so I can cart the boys around this coming week. Speaking of Boy Scouts, we just went and bought all of Toby's uniform pieces and goodness gracious that child is precious all dressed up. I'm kind of excited about the camping trip coming up! I've kind of always had my reservations about Boy Scouts (mainly due to the controversy in the past, and the fact we live in a very small, very conservative town), but that's more my issue than anything. Seeing Toby get so excited about badges and camping has me over the moon.

Until next time.

xo KB