Valentine's Day kid's picks for Etsy

And now for something completely different from my last post. 

It's a shameless attempt to get the peeps on my most popular Pinterest board (Arabella's Dream Wardrobe) to come check out my blog.

I've made 2 collages of my most favorite Valentine's Day kids clothes and accessories available on Etsy - here's the first one (mostly modern less-traditional colors).

1. Itzi and Bitzi 2. Sparkkids Clothes 3. mfandj 4. TheAfricanLlama 5. SweetandSilly3 6. kakabaka 7. Itzi and Bitzi 8. TheStripedSwallow 9. Giddy Up and Grow 10. 3lp Couture

And the second one (mostly traditional less modern):

1. Sunflower Seed Stitch 2. Giddy Up and Grow 3. pdstudiosstore 4. The Modish Life 5. ArtsyCraftsy 6. shopantsypants 7. Birdy Boots

I used PicMonkey's collage feature which was painless and intuitive to use. Almost immediately after I made these, I saw this tutorial from A Creative Cookie showing how to use Photoshop to make the item collages with a white background like all the cool blogger kids do - next time. 

In case you're wondering, I won't be ordering a Valentine's outfit for Arabella this year due to our budget, and also I'm hoping to get her to wear the cute pink dress that I couldn't get her to wear on Christmas.

This one:

If you know me In Real Life, this dress is a 4t - so please call dibs in the comments if you want this hand-me-down when Arabella outgrows it.

My word of 2013 is......

disencumber

Apparently, the thing this year is to have a theme word (or so I've noticed on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Fast Company's website, etc.) 

So that's mine up above in the big bold print - disencumber. Meaning: to unburden, free from debt or encumbrances (not anything to do with cucumbers)

I am one thousand percent focused about this one.  

I've actually been on a pretty good roll with this in December and just need to maintain the momentum - stuff is leaving our home to go to Goodwill or friends that will love and use it more than us at a fast clip, and nearly every empty food container and product package has been converted into a makeshift drawer organizer somewhere in the house.

This year is going to be more about shedding the old than adding on more new.  Extricating myself from excess weight, debt, email overload, clutter, etc.  

I want this year to be all about simplification, ease and lightness.  Freeing space on my emotional and physical hard drive, gaining momentum towards a lifestyle that I can sustain on a daily basis.  

The amount of maintenance required to keep up with our current possessions and email volume is ridiculous and could be spent baking a cake, writing a blog post, or felting soap (I don't know how to felt soap - I just love the idea of it - although I hate the sound of wet felt rubbing together so it's actually probably not for me). 

In the not-so-frivolous department, the extra time, money and energy I'll have from paring down can be spent helping family and friends with unexpected expenses, skating with my daughter, and pursuing a Master's in Child Development.  The stuff that really makes me happy. 

This is kind of turning a corner from the "Life to the fullest" tagline you see on the header, and that is completely intentional. This year I want a year less full, with room left over to breathe and enjoy it.  To put it another way, I want to:

s

Stop me if you've seen this one before

I'm not going to be confused with a monk anytime soon - my version of minimalism is still going to be most people's maximilism. But systems are being put in place so that my family can spend our time doing more important and fulfilling things than look for my cellphone for the umpteenth time. 

In the vein of our easy breezy theme, here is a simple and inexpensive style tip for the New Year from Arabella:

A soda bottle cap makes a lovely and stylish cap for your Calico Critters creature.  And if you drink Diet Coke at even 10% of the rate Arabella's mom does, there will never be a shortage of hats in your home.