We are already deep into the month of July and this mama is soaking up quality time with the kiddos. You may have noticed that I went MIA from Instagram this week and the blog, sometimes you just need to shut off and immerse yourself in everything right in front of you. It’s good for the soul I tell you! We mostly baked, watched movies, stayed up based bedtime and swam until our toes were pruned. I feel whole again, like I’ve been given a kick start. With so much travel for work and perhaps putting a little too much on my plate – this week off was exactly what was needed and I am so thankful you guys awaited this next Bliss List so patiently. Merci! Xo

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No. 1

My skin has been pissed lately, I say that because it’s the best way for me to describe it. This may sound crazy but after adding 2 new staff members to our team all of our cycles went BONKERS!!!! I was breaking out all over my chin from being 2 weeks late and what I suspect, aligning with the other gals on the team. One of us barely even gets a period while the other was smack dab ever 31 days, I am about every 40 days and another doesn’t get it AT ALL!!! So you can just imagine the way all of our bodies were frustrated and confused – as were we lol. Enter the ridiculous amount of hormones floating around our office and PMS, we all needed a bottle of rosé by end of day yesterday! If only rosé could get rid of pimples right? I usually go to my aesthetician to keep my skin under control but I had to take matters into my own hands and turn to a daily & every other day rescue at home. I have been LOVING the Kate Somerville Intensive Exfoliant Treatment and the it Cosmetics Miracle Water – both are phenomenal products and have truly rescued my skin this week!

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No. 2

We are all currently obsessing over these fun and delicious ‘Banana Bonbons’ snacks found on the Goop website! It is no secret that bananas don’t last a minute in our house, we snack on them daily – ahem, peanut butter banana sandwiches anyone?. I bake banana bread every Sunday, we use them in almost every smoothie recipe and mostly recently starting using them for our dairy free chia pudding recipe found here. These Banana Bonbons are a hit with the kiddos and adults and make a great topping over smoothie bowls or frozen yoghurt too! And, if you are looking for an extra hit of protein I add some hemp hearts into the mix!

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No. 3

Purging is a must in our household, for every season. With our 2 kids growing far too quickly out of their clothes & shoes and myself just changing my style every, second I find myself drowning in piles of laundry AND just stuff without a home. Our closets can only fit so much and I am getting sick of seeing bins in my basement deemed “out of season” when really it’s just going to hide away down there for another 3 years until I go through it again. What do you guys do with your old clothing? You know, the denim mini skirt you find from grade 9 and think holy F did I seriously wear this!?! How did my ass even fit into it! Well, unless it’s a designer bag or Chanel worn out espadrilles – I drop all of these embarrassments off at a charity. If you are looking to put some extra change in your savings account or for some spare cash to spend at Homesense, you could always drop off your gently used items to a consignment store or sell them yourself. Here in Ontario, many of us use the Facebook Market or Kijiji and last year I was also introduced to Varagesale which works great as well. I suggest taking some pretty good pictures of your items because just like on e-commerce sites, it can be what makes or breaks the sale for your 4 year old lululemon pants finding a new home! 😉 There are websites online meant for this kind of selling as well of your fashionable used items, The Every Girl shared a great article here on 9 places to sell your items for cash. I do have to say though, selling like this does take some spare time so keep that in mind.

If you can round up a local bunch of moms wanting to donate gently used kids items for mamas in need, that is my first suggestion to you for purging all of those precious onesies – trust me girl, I know they are hard to part with. I get it. But, telling myself that these items will go to children who are in need made it much easier. And, if you are needing $ to use for buying more clothing for your kiddos perhaps try a second hand store that will buy your used kids clothing and give you credit to buy, often these shops give a higher amount for credit knowing you will use it within their business. We have local ones that also buy gently used clothing and toys too, so purge away mama!

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No. 4

Speaking of purging, let’s talk clutter. Do you sometimes feel like you are drowning in kids toys? So many of our readers tell us that they feel like they can’t have nice stuff, or a nice home since having kids. You guys know I strongly disagree with this. Our kids know to respect our home, there are no mini sticks smacking our wainscotting or markers on the white slip cover sofas haha! We have rules in place that we all follow to make it fair and so that we as a family can keep our home looking the way we want. Don’t get me wrong, my house is often a mess – especially my kitchen island, the hub of “stuff”. But, you could eat off of my floors because I vacuum I swear every ten minutes and the kids toys are put away when they are done with them. In our last house I shared our living room tour and a bunch of ideas for hiding kids toys, well I mean, storing them haha! Our last living room was hella small, super narrow and we had no play room separate from the living space so we made due with what we had for square footage and found creative ways to organize the kids stuff. See the full post here!

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No. 5

Shopping is my other therapy, my first is quality time with the family – baking! Have you been eyeballing or shopping the Nordstrom Sale? I totally got sucked in guys, I shopped all of my own favourites from my blog post here and went to town on everything all of my blogger friends were sharing too. I drank the Nordstrom Sale koolaid haha and I don’t feel guilty about it one bit! These jeans were my first buy and I can’t wait to share how they fit with you, Madewell is one of my favourite denim brands for myself and the kids.

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No. 6 

THISSSSS beautiful project by Amber Interiors is killing me! You guys know we’ve been on the hunt for land for awhile and our current home will be going up for sale next Spring, you know if things go according to plan haha. I have been collecting inspo for a year and this one gives me all the feels. I love the earthy but bright feel of this living room and the rest of the project is just as gorgeous. This project of hers makes me crave a 4 post bed even more, I have been wanting to switch from our tufted upholstered for awhile and this may be the final push. Amber is so talented and I double tap every thing she posts to her Instagram, no lie! See more of the inspo for our next home on my Pinterest board here.