The Juggle

It seems my new strategy is to retreat from the blog when I am feeling like my to-do is suffocating me, so I am going to push myself out of my comfort zone and just deal.  There are people out there dealing with a LOT more than I am and definitely stuff more IMPORTANT than mine, and I have always tried to steer clear of thinking it's because I am a working mom, because I had weeks like this long before I was married or had kids, it is life.  There seems to be this unspoken of state in blogland where moms that work judge moms that stay at home and bloggers that are married or have kids seem to claim the high ground over singletons.  In my personal opinion we as a country like to glorify the act of being over scheduled and at the end of the day there is nothing really luxurious about it other than the reward when you cross everything off of your list and take a break.

So here I am and I am here to stay.  I said I would keep it real and in the case of today's post, it's all over the place.  We ran into our friends at Lowes today...we squeezed in a trip between last minute camp packing shopping (I'll get to it) and a rock climbing birthday party, because I needed Mr. G to help me pick some tile for a shower insert.  Let's not even discuss that it was for a shower we never intended on re-tiling, but I promise after this week all I have left is a few more pieces of furniture to cover, 4 area rugs and the driveway.  We agreed to put off the new range and fridge until the end of the summer because I am driving myself crazy with spreadsheets trying to decide between 3 models of each!  Anyway, my friend sent me an email that made my day, and made me stop, she missed the blog posts about shopping and wanted to schedule a time when the adults could get together and the kids could play and it made me realize that in the end life is about those memories and the emails and calls that make us feel like we are a part of something bigger than our to do lists.

Now, I will admit my to do list for tomorrow is done, and waiting for me in my planner, and I will tackle with gusto...TOMORROW.  Mr. G is watching Game of Thrones in the other room.  I will confess, I am not into that show, I need subtitles to understand it so I am blogging.

That birthday party I mentioned....well here is a little snapshot of it:

Mr. G took Mini K and let me tell you NOTHING says adult supervision like your spouse texting you a photo of your child rock climbing while blindfolded that says, she is having a blast and hasn't broken anything.  What would we do without them?

We have 3 1/2 days of school left and field day, and Mini K will be a rising 2nd grader.  A week from tonight she will be heading to bed in her bunk in her cabin at camp!  Our front room is now officially the packing staging area.

As with everything I seem to do, I turned to EBATES for camp prep.  I mean if I have to purchase a page full of items (and YES I monogrammed EVERYTHING) I might as well get cash back right?   SO we ordered her lime green camp trunk from Wayfair.  If you need a camp trunk, join EBATES and then head to Wayfair.  Their prices were 25% less than everywhere else, free shipping, no sales tax and cash back!  My mom sent her a trunk organizer that fits in the top of her trunk and has these 2 page protector like openings so I wanted to fill them with photos.

I typed in collage prints on EBATES and Snapfish came up so we spent yesterday morning uploading photos and creating 2 8.5x11" collage prints on Snapfish and picked them up a mere 35 minutes later at our local Walgreens.  The best part, well besides crossing it off the list?  10% cash back!

As a child I LOVED camp, but I will confess there is a word that when I see it on a note from school or an email or anywhere it makes my skin crawl:  LICE.  I think it might be one of the worst 4 letter words ever!  My fabulous hairdresser told me about a line a year ago that I consider a camp and school must have:  Fairy Tales.  The line is all natural and I am a believer.  You can purchase it online at Amazon and our Ulta also carries it.  There is a lice be gone treatment that I use on Mini K once a once.  It smells nice and I always let her watch tv while it is on her hair.  The week before she goes to camp or starts school I use it twice in one week.  It literally kills and repells lice, nits and eggs on contact.  They also make a lice repelling shampoo, conditioner and detangling spray that are already labelled with Mini K's name and ready to go in the shower caddy when I picked it up from my monogrammer tomorrow.  I want her to have a great time at camp, but I do NOT want any little friends making the journey home!

In the middle of all of this prep, the Grove is in party mode.   Or I should say our customers are in party mode and I love seeing what theme each new order brings!  I have gotten some great ideas so I thought I would continue the party spirit!  ALL invites are 30% off with code: GTA3.  The sale will run through June 25th so you have some time to plan your soiree and save!  All invites are on sale so if you have a shower or party to throw save yourself some money so you can get a little something for yourself!  There is something about seeing an invite in my mailbox that makes me smile.  Is it just me or can you identify an invite over any other piece of mail?  You can see all of the designs on sale HERE.

I kept it real, and this post might be the written equal of a sleeping pill, but I will be back tomorrow and seeing as how we are swimming in fabric over here I might have to do a post!

In With The Rain

The past 6 weeks have been a blur...a blur of wrapping orders, swim practice, lacrosse games, party planning, construction punch out lists, family travel, home decorating and the dream of sleep.  Today is the first day I feel caught up and I am celebrating it as a new chapter.

The flip flops are unpacked, the seersucker is hanging in my closet and the promise of summer soirees and bbq's is on the horizon.  The end of a school year and the start of summer have always been one of our busiest seasons.  We get so many emails from clients wanting to get a head start of holiday shopping, teacher gifts, etc.  I always struggle with how to best help and this year I am hoping I have picked the best SALE...you will have to share with your friends and let me know!

Starting tomorrow through June 3rd our ENTIRE paper site is on sale...that includes cell phone cases, ALL invites, stickers, if it is HERE it's on sale!  Simply add your items to your cart and your discount depends on your total purchase.  The SALE code is:  SWST13

20% off orders of $50
30% off orders of $100
40% off orders of $200 or more

Order your cards, invites, favor tags and more!

One of our biggest sellers this spring have been these tags personalized with:
Thank you for dinner or Thank you for having us!  Clients have told us they will tie them to homemade bbq sauce, bottles of bubbly, boxes of truffles and other hostess gifts!

Camp time is around the corner, turn our calling cards into K.I.T. (Keep In Touch) Cards.  I LOVE this one!  Simply personalized with your camper's name, email and mailing address and help them have a pen pals throughout the year!

Label their gear with our waterproof stickers!

No camper, no problem...a sale is the perfect time to finally order some wrap around address stickers!  Send your packages in style!

The sale starts tomorrow, but you can add items to your cart tonight!  I am going to spend my evening, catching up on all of your blogs and organizing our summer schedule!

Yellow Is Not My Favorite Color Today

My car, front porch and I am pretty sure the inside of my lungs are yellow today.  Not a pretty pale yellow, or a bright sunshine yellow, but a nasty, cottony (is that even a word?) POLLEN yellow.

Despite an allergy shot and meds, I am not winning the battle but come tomorrow my hose and I will be in full force and I am determined to win the war this year!

Until then, sweet dreams of the non_pollen variety!

Beantown...

I co-chaired Mini K's school auction this year.  It was Friday night and so much fun, but I spent the weekend catching up and watching Mini K play a great lacrosse game.  Our Sunday night dinner was spent with Mini K lobbying that we fly up to Boston for the "holiday" as it was educational.  Baby C spent dinner screaming Go Sox and Red Nation.  Then yesterday happened.

I am speechless and for me that is saying something.  I went to college in Boston, and watching those images yesterday took me back to more runs around Copley and down Newbury than I can count, cabs rides to and from Logan down Storrow Drive and evening spent at Dad's Diner, which I am not sure even still exists.

I met Mini K after school yesterday for track practice and she asked how fast the winner ran.  I answered and left it at that.  How do I tell a 7 year old we have some sick people in this world?  That an 8 year old boy has gone to heaven?  For the past decade we have been blessed, terrorism has been kept at bay by the men and women who stay up around the clock and see and hear things that we are shielded from, yet yesterday we saw it, and many many people felt it.  This morning Mini K came down for breakfast and I changed the channel thinking I had outsmarted her.  I was wrong.

On the way to school she said, I know something bad happened at the race yesterday and people went to heaven and are in the hospital.   I asked her how that made her feel and she said sad.  We arrived at school and I hugged her and she said something I will never forget:  "Mommy I knew something was wrong yesterday because you hugged me really tight like this.  Can you hug me really tight all the time?"  I nodded, told her I loved her, got in the car and burst into tears.  My sweet little 7 year old summed up what I think we as adults forget, tell the people in your life how much you love them, don't take them for granted and live each day.  Unfortunately, we live in a world with bad people, and while it took our government a day to label yesterday, we all knew that anyone with the intent to harm people is an act of terrorism, their nationality doesn't make it any easier to understand.

Tonight, the minnies are snuggled in their beds, tight hugs were given and prayers were said.

God Bless You Boston.  You are strong and a nation is hugging you tight!

Discount Thursday FInds

I had a different post planned for today, but decided to share some deals instead!  All but one of these you can double your savings by shopping through your Ebates account.  If you haven't joined Ebates yet, you are throwing money away so join HERE.

Horchow is offering 25-30% off the ENTIRE site, PLUS 6% cash back via Ebates.  If you pay with your Neimans Card and are an Incircle Member you get free shipping.  They currently have their monogrammed towels on sale, plus the additional 30% off makes them cost the price of a monogram...it's like getting the towel FREE!  I love giving these as graduation and housewarming gifts.

You can save an additional 30% off you purchase at Gilt with code:  GILT30.

C.Wonder is offering 30% off sale prices with code CITRUS and you can also get 5% cash back when you shop through Ebates.  They still have a lot of letters left in their fabulous monogrammed mugs.  These would be great as hostess gifts, teachers gifts or for yourself!

Happy Shopping!

Stick A Fork In It

This is NOT a recipe post.  Our dishwasher has been hungry for the past month...I am pretty sure it is on its last temper tantrum before it leaves us for dishwasher retirement home.  Unfortunately our forks have been the target its bad behavior!

So I know find myself on the search for new everyday flatware, or maybe an excuse to purchase new flatware.  If something sits still lon enough I will find a way to monogram it and my target is flatware.

I have found a few options and now I must decide.  If you have a set you love, and are willing to share, I would love some more choices.  Remember I have 2 minnies and am not looking for a service that I will need to hand wash!

This set from Ballard Designs has a vintage feel but is still casual, and there is always a coupon code for Ballard in Coastal or Southern Living.

I found this set on Ebay, a place I never would have thought to look for a set of new flatware.  I like the clean lines and classic block initial.

Believe it or not this 46 piece set is less than $60 with engraving!

Decisions, decisions....

Something to Remember

I haven't felt like blogging.  There isn't one thing, but just haven't felt like it.  Over the past week I have missed it.  I am now officially 38, my youngest is now almost 3 and another summer is taunting me in the not too distant future, but I have realized that the feeling of being unsettled might go away if I come back to just writing it all out, the good bad, the stuff that makes you wonder if I have lost it, essentially life!

This weekend was a reminder of how precious life is and how fast it can change.  I am a wife, a mother and the owner of two companies and I do not think I would be able to do any of these things without the wisdom and guidance of those that have gone before me.  I remember watching the news as a kid and not really knowing who the famous people were whose lives as ended.  Now it seems I remember them all...talk about feeling old.

The world has lost two amazing women in the last 72 hours:  Margaret Thatcher and Lilly Pulitzer.  One of them ran a country and the other created an empire based on living life to the fullest...neither required a discussion of the theory of "leaning in" neither took sides in the working mom vs. stay at home mom debate, both of them just lived their lives and did.

I can look in my closet, as well as Mini K's and Baby C's and see the impact that Lilly Pulitzer had on the world.  Her clothes make us smile, they make us think of vacations, and parties and family photos.  They are a wearable pick me up that were created out of one women's need to solve a problem and in solving the problem of juice stains she gifted us all with generations of happy memories, laughter and smiles.

Mini K had a date on Friday night...with her Daddy and without a moment's hesitation said I need to wear a Lilly dress.  Even 7 year olds know that a Lilly Pulitzer dress can change an evening!

Margaret Thatcher taught us all that a tough women is not another word for a witch.  She showed us how to go toe to toe with a man without the need for a quota or special help...in fact I think a lot of men wished they didn't pick a fight with her as it didn't end well for them.

Leave it to these two women to get me back to blogging.  I am not sure if anyone is still reading, but I am happy to be back!