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Ailee Petrovic

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Week in Review

I was so excited about tomorrow being Thursday, until about ten minutes ago when I realized it was only Tuesday. I’ve definitely fit enough into the last two days to have spread it out between three, so perhaps that’s why! Last week was equally busy, but less photography and more party prep. I threw one of my best friends, Destiny, a baby sprinkle on Saturday – you can read more about it here!

Besides the party, which was definitely my favorite part of the week, we had lots of fun moments, including:

  • A day trip to Austin to meet sweet baby Matilda! She is adorable. I got to catch up with my friend, Jeff, at lunch and then eat dinner with the Gordons and Tapps at True Food Kitchen. It was such a happy day! Isla got to spend the day in Katy and we both spent the night at my parent’s house!
  • Having both Amanda and Meredith help with party prep – love getting to spend more time with these two besties, and I’m so grateful for their time!
  • Going to two gymastic’s birthday parties – one for my nephew, Lazo, and one for Esther’s little lady, Naomi. Both were so much fun and Isla fell asleep very easily that evening!
  • Eating Fu’s Garden for dinner with Bob and Ivana – we love spending time with them and are trying to convince them to become our neighbors at the new house!
  • Taking blog photos for Lauren Mills – I am seriously, seriously in love with her son, Ford. He is the absolute cutest!
  • Stopping by the Houston Polo Club to see all of the horsies. Isla loves them so much! I cannot wait for her to ride one!

I’m totally braindead and am probably missing other wonderful moments, but for now, I’m signing off to edit tons of photos that I took today! Hope you’re having a great week so far! xo

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Destiny’s Baby Sprinkle

Baby Sprinkle Girl Creative Shower Real Sprinkles Invitation on Snapshots and My Thoughts by Ailee PetrovicYesterday, I threw one of my best friends, Destiny, a baby sprinkle to celebrate the impending arrival of her sweet baby girl (and also her 25th birthday!). The shower was at Sweet Paris’ CityCentre location, and despite the weather outside being frightful, the atmosphere inside was seriously delightful (ode to one of my favorite Christmas carols). Destiny’s mom flew in from Las Vegas for the shower, and it was so nice getting to celebrate with Baby Thompson’s Nana there too!

We ate crêpes, decorated cupcakes, guessed Baby T’s arrival date, took photos in front of the sprinkle backdrop, watched as Destiny opened one adorable baby item after another, and had wonderful conversations amongst old and new friends. I love baby showers!

Destiny and I met last summer and quickly became good friends. We both have 2.5 year olds, Truman and Isla, who are also best friends, and I love seeing them together, as Isla always lights up when she sees her pal. Destiny is one of the most sweet, considerate, and thoughtful people I’ve ever met, and we wanted to show her how loved and appreciated she is. The group of ladies  at the shower definitely filled the room up! 

There were a lot of talented ladies who helped me pull off the sprinkle, and I’ll start with the invitations, which were created by Papellerie (the same gals who did our wedding suite and Isla’s birthday invitations). I am thrilled with how they turned out – they have sprinkles in them (see video on my Instagram here). 

The gorgeous wedding cake was made by Lisa of Maple & Love, whom gave me all of our incredible travel suggestions when we went to Melbourne. It was a lemon and strawberry cake, and although I don’t eat eggs, I did totally get a bite of the icing – glad I did! 

My Cricut got a good workout, as I used it to create the bottle shapes for the Eos party favors, the ‘Guess Baby Thompson’s Birth Date’ activity and the vinyl shapes for the mylar balloons. I left the heavy duty laser cutting to Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made wooden boards reading Oh Baby Girl that she covered in sprinkle paper. She is the best!

At a recent party I co-hosted, one of the other gals suggested we order thank you cards and pre-address/stamp the envelopes to help the mama-to-be, and I thought this was such a great idea, so I ordered pretty pink and gold thank you cards from Tiny Prints. I also ordered customized mug from Tiny Prints that read, “Sugar, spice, all things nice – that’s what Baby Thompson is made of” for the tea and coffee. Side note: I’m also obsessing over their gorgeous Holiday cards. We’ve gotten a few in the mail that are Tiny Prints, and I love them!!

My amazing friend Amanda baked cupcakes that were at each place setting, surrounded by colorful sprinkles from Layer Cake Shop. Guests got to decorate them as they wanted, then take them home (because crêpes and cakes made for fully tummies!) in boxes, which had customized birthday stickers, also from Tiny Prints. 

Meredith, the queen of creativity (hello invitation stylist!), helped me to blow up and stick all of the confetti-shaped balloons to the backdrop, which my wonderful mom sewed (Sasha DIYed the PVC pipe stand and Amanda sanded it down! Talk about a team effort!). 

I am seriously so excited to meet sweet baby Thompson. Our oldest babes are already best friends and I know that she and Emi will follow in their siblings/mom’s footsteps. It was such a joyful shower, and I would love to re-live it all over again. She deserves all of the love and attention, as she is one of the most selfless people I know. February cannot come soon enough!     

Baby Sprinkle Girl Creative Shower Real Sprinkles Invitation on Snapshots and My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovicailee_petrovic_161203_l86a7555

2016 Gift Guide for the Book Lover

Today’s gift guide is near and dear to my heart, mainly because a) I love reading and b) I am basically just sharing all of my favorite books with you. I’ve broken my top recommendations into categories, so that you can help distinguish which book to buy for your book-loving family member or friend. I thought about writing a little synopsis of each book, but figured you’d probably read that on Amazon (where all of the books are linked to). My favorite thing to do is buy ‘excellent’ quality used hardback books, as they’re way, way cheaper and there’s something nice about a book that’s been handed along, right?

Without further ado, my book gift guide recommendations are as follows:

For the history lovers: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, The Chaperone by Liane Moriarty, and The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Week in Review

Happy almost-December! Can you believe that it’s only two days away? I’m freaking out (with excitement). My favorite time of the year! Both our living room and Isla’s trees are up and decorated (it only took two weeks to put ornaments on the trees, whoops). I’ve bought two out of probably twenty Christmas gifts, but I still feel like that’s an accomplishment!

We had the best Thanksgiving at my parent’s house in Katy on Thursday. We ate the most delicious meal (veggie stuffed mushrooms and ratatouille were the best!), went around the table and said what we were thankful for this year, then played the most intense dice/present game, that always involves quite a bit of yelling. Afterwards, everyone vegged out (after dishes were done), for the rest of the day. Thanksgiving and Christmas always go by way too quickly! I hope you had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations with your family and friends too.

Other highlights from the week included:

  • Going to church at Bayou City Fellowship and getting to catch up with one of my best friends, Andrew, afterwards at our house. 
  • Eating way too much at the annual cousin’s BBQ on Saturday evening – we had a great time, as did Isla, who was so sad to leave at the end of the night!
  • Catching up with Sasha’s cousin, Natalia, and her mom, Zlata, at Peli Peli on Wednesday night. 
  • Having our friends, the Behennas, over on Friday evening for amazing – visit Friday evening
  • Doing our annual Thanksgiving turkey trot at Memorial Park – we’ve run the trails or 3 mile loop every year since 2012 and want to keep the tradition going forever! If I can do it 30 weeks pregnant, there’s no reason we should ever stop! Ha. 
  • Taking family photos for my intern, Hannah, the McCabes, and the Gentrys, and snapping blog photos for  Elly at Highland Village.
  • Eating lunch and catching up with my friend, Ellen, at Zoe’s Kitchen on Monday. She brought lots of goodies – can’t wait to share details next week of what they were for!
  • Stopping by Papellerie to pickup extra copies of Destiny’s shower invitation!
  • Drinking coffee at Tiny’s No 5 Milk & Cookies with Megan and Olivia – only Miss O did the cookie/milk combo, but she seemed to love it, and I was obsessed with my Chia Pudding!
  • Going to my 30 week appointment at my doctor – the next visit will be an ultrasound visit, and I cannot wait to see my Emi Girl! It’s crazy how you have so many ultrasounds early on, then they just stop!

Hope you have a wonderful week!! xo

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The Best Black Friday Sales

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I hope you had the best Thanksgiving yesterday! It’s such a joyful holiday, and I love when we go around the table listing all of the things we are thankful for. Then, of course, come the competitive games where everyone is yelling at each other, so you give some, you take some! Ha. 

If you’re like me, you look forward to Black Friday sales in order to secure Christmas gifts at a big discount. I’ve already ordered four gifts this morning, taking advantage of some of the sales listed below. I’m sharing my favorite stores’ sales – hopefully this helps navigate the insanity of Black Friday!

Happy shopping! Hope you have a great holiday weekend.

  • ASOS: 30% off everything with code THANKFUL30
  • Banana Republic: 50% off 5 regular-priced items 
  • BaubleBar: 30% off purchases with code THANKS30
  • Boden: 30% off everything and free shipping
  • Bookroo: 25% off any multi-month subscription for new Bookroo subscribers with code BF25OFF (new subscribers only, one per customer, available Black Friday only)
  • Furbish Studio: 20% off everything with code HOLIDAY20
  • J. Crew: 40% off purchase with code HOLIDAY
  • LOFT: 50% off everything
  • Minted: 15% off no minimum, 20% off $150+ on holiday with code BF2016
  • Nordstrom: Take an extra 20% off selected sale items
  • Serena and Lily: 25% off everything with code BESTEVER
  • Shopbop: Spend $200+, get 15% off; spend $500+, get 20% off; spend $800+, get 25% off with code GOBIG16
  • TOPSHOP: Up to 50% off select items with code THANKS
  • Trina Turk: 30% everything