five things Friday: gifts for literary lovers + giveaway for you!

Got any big weekend plans? One of my biggest excitements about the arrival of Friday is knowing I've got some serious quality time with a book coming up. (Real party animal, here.) For those of you in the same boat, I've got something to spice up that reading time even more this week: a giveaway from Literary Book Gifts! But first, a few of my favorite book-inspired items on their site, all of which would make excellent gifts for the literature lovers in your life (yourself?).

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Lots of fun options for tees and totes for both men and women, as you can see. And these fingerless cashmere gloves would be great for writing (and blogging, of course) on a cold winter's day - but also for reading! My wrists have this weird habit of getting cold, especially when I'm trying to read in bed, but these would keep one's paws warm and cozy while still allowing for page turning ability. Almost makes a girl want to get snowed in again. (Almost.)

For a little Friday fun, I've got a pair of these gloves to give away to one of you, lovely readers. Enter via the Rafflecopter below - open worldwide, and if you win, you get to pick from the 13 available colors.

Happy weekend reading time!

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around the house: powder room + canvas art giveaway

I am lucky to have a spouse who pretty much just says "whatever you want" when I start scheming about some sort of room redo...which means that a bathroom renovation just might be happening this year. If so, it makes sense to start with the upstairs one that we use the most, but there is another full bath as well as two half-baths that I'd love to update someday also. In the meantime - mini updates!

And this mini update for this very mini powder room that's just off our entryway is a lovely one. The room is so small, and has floor-too-ceiling paneling, along with some colorful floor tiling, so I really hadn't thought to do anything else in here aside from adding a basket to hold extra toilet paper rolls and hanging a stripey towel on the existing hook. But then I was offered a chance to review a canvas from Canvas Factory, and the powder room got instantly prettier.

I purchased a digital image from Jenny's Print Shop, which allows buyers to print the artwork in whatever format they'd like - and this lovely abstract was just the perfect thing for a 16"x20" canvas. Easy to hang up with no framing needed, and the colors are perfect with the floor tiles. I've ordered canvases from other sites before, and this quality is definitely comparable, but what I like even more is the "mirror" option for the sides. When it comes to canvas prints, I like the image to wrap around to the sides, rather than having a solid color there, but usually this means the image on the front has to get a bit distorted, so that some of it can wrap around to the sides. Canvas Factory has a mirror setting, though, that allows the whole image to be on the front of the canvas, and then just mirrors an inch from the edge onto each side, so you get the look and the integrity of your image. I love how this one turned out.

Looking to spruce up a space of your own? Enter this giveaway to win a 16"x20" custom canvas! (Open to US and Canada residents only.)

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mini me Monday: spring break boutique wear (+ giveaway!)

This is Hendrik's first year with an actual spring break, but unfortunately we can't take advantage of it because Peter is on call... (Though we're lucky to have been on several past "spring break" trips thanks to college-aged brothers having time off - look at sweet baby on his first!) This year, six days off from preschool - and from the daycare he goes to for after-care - is going to mean lots of mommy + Hendrik time around our own (chilly) town. Still, browsing through cute spring/summer boutique clothing, a girl can't help but dream of warmer destinations - or maybe these could be actual ideas for your actual upcoming trip, especially if you win this $50 cute spring/summer boutique clothing giveaway to Picket Fence!

Aren't these little outfits adorable? I can see all of these pieces from Picket Fence being great for a warm-weather spring break, but also really versatile for a kiddo's spring/summer wardrobe. I think I might have to get Hendrik those shorts - can't go wrong with chambray! My only complaint is that there are never cute sandal options for boys - we ended up with crocs last year... at least they make them cuter than they used to.

If you are headed out on a spring break vacation, I still stand by these as great items for traveling with a toddler, these as great items for road-tripping with a preschooler, and these as great items to pack for yourself. For those of us in the (forced) staycation situation, how about some fun with Lego/Duplos, or baking Easter egg cookies?

And now for a giveaway! Enter below for a chance to win a $50 credit to Picket Fence, which has lots of great spring/summer options for kids and babies... Giveaway closes March 29 and the winner will be notified then.

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Sharing on Trend Spin's spring favorites.

mini me Monday: back-to-school boutique (+ giveaway!)

For the first time, we are officially going to be in back-to-school mode with Hendrik as the summer comes to a close! He's pretty excited about his new 5-day-a-week preschool, and I'm pretty excited to bring you today's back-to-school mini me style ideas, because they come with a giveaway opportunity for you...

I know it's a bit silly, but when I buy clothes for Hendrik I like to find unique cute stuff for him, rather than always ending up with the same t-shirts as most of the other 3-year-old boys in town - since there are fairly limited options for where to shop around here. So I love learning about online kids boutique options like The Picket Fence, where I can find a little something different for him. From this shop, it was fun to find some new-to-me brands like Livie and Luca for shoes (I love buying boy clothes, but shoe options can be so limited and tricky!).

We're going to be packing lunches this year too, so I've been keeping an eye out for a cute lunch box to use with the awesome bento box I got for him on Prime Day (need something to hold an ice pack with it) - and also having fun perusing Pinterest for fun ideas of what to pack in it. How cute is the rocketship theme of this mini wardrobe, capped off by that lunch box?

And while I don't get to shop for girl stuff myself, I just had to put together a little ensemble for those of you who do, after I spotted this ice cream backpack on the site.

What's your back-to-school shopping look like this year? Could you use some $$ for a cute outfit or lunch box (or maybe even a little something for yourself!)? Enter via the widget below for a chance to win a $50 shop credit to The Picket Fence!

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around the world: Insta-memory book + giveaway

Since I haven't yet managed to make a photo album of Hendrik's last year, let alone his baby book, you better believe I don't have any made up of our travels from the last few years. Recently I was introduced to the new FavePix app from Shutterfly, an iPhone app that enables you to create photo books from your Instagram photos, and I knew this would be the perfect theme.

I had so much fun using this app to pick out my favorite travel shots from my Instagram feed. It only took a couple of minutes from app download to book ordering, and the result is a great little book that encapsulates the last several years of trips, complete with location listings and dates pulled straight from my account.

Things I love about utilizing this app to make an Instagram photo book:
1. Really so quick and easy. The thing that has been holding me back from making photo albums of our trips (or Hendrik's baby book, for that matter!) is how long I know it will take for me to select photos, upload them, pick a book format, lay out the pages, decide on captions... but really with this app it's a 5-minute process. You can make it by selecting your favorite Instagram shots, or even easier and quicker, you can let the app put the book together by gathering photos by hashtags or letting it choose your most popular photos.

2. Free shipping! Plus it arrived within 10 days, which I thought was pretty good for a photo book.

3. The cool bamboo stand it comes with for display. What a great way to have your favorite photos as part of your decor and get to enjoy looking at them more often.

Things that I might like to be a little different before I make another one:
1. Ability to change captions. I must admit, sometimes when I post an Instagram photo I get writer's block on coming up with something clever to caption it with... and I wished that I could remedy that for my photo book rather than having the only text option be pulling directly from my Instagram feed. To fix it, I went back to Instagram and edited some of my captions/hashtags from on my posts before making the book.

2. Ability to change fonts. I like that it's simple - I need limited options in terms of layout, colors, fonts to get me to produce a book quickly - but it might have been nice to pick a different one for the cover to make it a little more my personal style.

Overall, I love it - such a cute little book, and so fun to display as part of the little arrangement on our sofa table - and would definitely recommend downloading the FavePix app to make your own. For just $19.99, you get a 6x6 hardcover photo book, a bamboo stand, and free shipping. Or... you can win one! Enter below for a chance to try out the app and get one book for free:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I was provided with a free photo book and code to give away a free book to one reader from Shutterfly, but all opinions are my own.

eating lately: sweet treats for all + giveaway

I "met" my blog friend Kait through my blog-turned-real-life friend Sarah, and in spite of the always major jealousy-inducing gorgeous photos of her Hawaii life, I stuck around for her vibrant personality, great writing, funny puppy stories, and yummy recipes - so I was excited to hear that she had a project in the works to combine several of those great things: Sweet Eats and Dog Treats, a gluten free cookbook of baked goods for you and your pup.

Even more excited to have a copy of my own to try out - as well as a giveaway for one of you to do the same! The chocolate honey cookie cake and ricotta cookie recipes were very enticing, but I decided to start with the citrus berry chex mix as a sweet & tangy side addition to the pulled chicken BBQ and slaw I was serving family dinner guests last week. (Also quite delicious paired with summer beers, FYI.)

And we couldn't leave out the dog treats portion of the book... There are several options, from more basic treats to "pupcakes", and they're perfectly simple, pretty much just using pantry staples. I had some leftover shredded carrot from my last mini me baking adventure (zucchini carrot muffins), so Hendrik and I got the mixing bowls back out to try the carrot & apple biscuits.

Somehow I had a bit of a kitchen fail here and didn't get a dough consistency to be able to use a cookie cutter, but we had fun making biscuit plops all the same. Giving Ginger a treat is one of Hendrik's favorite things lately, so he loved feeding them to her after they cooled, and she came back looking for more, so I say success, despite the weird consistency of my batter. Side note: Hendrik also ate a fair bit of batter, because that's his favorite part of making avocado blueberry muffins. Weird in this case because it has chicken broth in it, but whatever.

I love the simplicity of this book, from the crisp and clean photography to the totally straightforward and doable recipes, to it being an easy iTunes download. Also, all the recipes can easily be made gluten free with Kait's tips at the beginning, or you can just use regular flour if you're not dealing with dietary restrictions.

Want to try this out for yourself - or your pup? Leave a comment on this post sharing a link to your favorite sweet (or dog treat) by Sunday, August 16, and I'll pick a winner on Monday to receive a code for a free iTunes download of the book. Thanks, Kait, for sharing the code, and congrats on publishing your book!