Winter Accessories // Whitney Wears {a fashion blog hop}

Maybe it's a bit misleading to title this post "winter accessories" because California winters are not all that intimidating. But, with that said, it has been very rainy lately and cold for us and so I will share with you what I wear during winter. Be warned there are no heavy layers involved. Plus, I wanted to join Becky, Beth and Meghan again so I made due ;)

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Also needing noting- Kinsey has been my willing photog lately but these are not her best work. I blame the cold and early morning sessions we've been logging.

I don't know why I look so chipper here, I guess I was having a good morning?! Though how could I not, I'm wearing mustard (my favorite!) and the gorgeous scarf Desiree gave me from the Fall Scarf Exchange.

 mustard sweater (similar) // black skinnies

Super blurry but such a cute outfit haha. The top half of this outfit has been the result of being extremely lucky in winning PinkBlush giveaways, two years in a row. The Aztec cardi was from Decemeber and the cowl neck tunic was from 2015. I love how perfectly they match! But the boot socks are kinda the star here. Are you wondering about the hair? The moisture in the air does my bangs no favors, so when the forecast calls for rain, I pin them back.

 Aztec cardi // boot socks (similar)

That little dark spot is Brielana's drool puddle, I had just put her down for a nap. Some of my favorite things here- mustard scarf, gray and stripes. 

scarf (similar)

So what did you learn? That us Californians really do have awesome weather? That my winter clothes are pretty much everyone else's fall clothes? That maybe I need to start having an adult take my pictures? Yes, all of the above :)

Check out how these lovely ladies styled their winter accessories:

Beth

Meghan

Becky

Linking up here.

   

   

Snowball Cookies // White {A Year of Color #1}

Welcome to the first link up of A Year of Color! I am so excited to see how everyone is inspired by each month's color. January is all about white and I went the easy route with a recipe ;) Enter, Snowball Cookies!

Let me start off by saying we survived the plague this last week so I feel wayyyy behind on life. Whatever Kinsey picked up from school traveled to Brielana and then to Brian and myself all in the span of two days! I'll spare you all the details but I have never felt so wiped out before. Thankfully this little recipe is so easy to throw together! And a sweet treat is always much appreciated.

My favorite recipe generator seems to not want to work for me anymore so forgive the plain text. (When it rains, it pours, no?)

Snowball Cookies

also known as Italian Wedding Cookies

adapted from Land O'Lakes

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F

Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place onto ungreased baking sheet about 1-inch apart.

Bake 18-25 minutes until very lightly browned.

Let cool 5 minutes before rolling cookies in powdered sugar. And once again after completely cooling.

Enjoy!

So easy and so delicious!

Now it's your turn! Add your link below. Thank you for joining Desiree, Justine, Stefanie and me for Color For A Year! Next month's color is pink and the link up will be on Friday, February 17th!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here.

   

   

Survey Says {Blog Questionnaire Results}

First off, thank you so much for taking the time to do my blog questionnaire! I have been in a bit of a creative slump so reading your feedback has been so refreshing! And a little surprising...

Question One:

What do you like to read about?

1. Book Reviews

2. DIYs

3. Fashion

4. Preschool Activities/education

5. Product Reviews

6. Recipes

There was a tie- Book reviews and Fashion got the most votes. And I have to say that really makes me happy. You can most definitely see more book reviews with What We're Reading Wednesday and I will be adding more style posts.

Question Two:

What could you do without?

Now this was where things got interesting. I had several people say "no book reviews and no DIYs" a couple "Day In The Life posts", a "no DITL posts" and a "no guest posts" with some saying they couldn't think of anything they didn't like (bless you) and a "no preschool posts as their kids were past that age."

Let me be super honest- I'm not a DITL type of girl. It takes a long time to document, I will forget to take pictures and I'm not a very exciting person. I may do one just to see how it goes but don't expect more than that. Thanks :)

Question Three:

What do you want to see more of?

I was surprised to see that my Preschool classroom was a hot topic. I swear my education posts get the least pageviews and yet, that's what everyone seems to want to see more of(?) Which is also a bit confusing lol. And that was also one of the first things I was ready to drop so I will compromise and do a few seasonal class tours. And the preschool activities are pretty much a cornerstone of this blog so those won't be going anywhere.

Question Four:

I recently started sharing fashion posts. What do you want to see?

1. How-to style

2. Flat lays

3. Roundup collages

4. Collaborations with other bloggers

5. Every day style  

And Every day style was the winner! Which completely tickles me as I am not a fashion blogger by any means, nor do I spend lots of $$$ on my clothes. But I do feel like I finally know exactly how to dress my body and am having fun playing with my personal style. And I love being able to share that with you!

Question Five:

And how often?

Responses ranged from "once a week" to "once a month". I think once or twice a month is my sweet spot- it actually takes a lot of coordinating photographing clothes (who knew, right?)

Question Six:

I don't get them often but, Sponsored content- how much is too much? What frequency is "acceptable"?

Now I asked this because I do not want to turn off people with too many sponsored posts. I never had intentions of being a for-profit blogger and actually find it a bit tacky when people start blogging just to make money. So rest assured, if I do make sponsored content it is because I really believe in the product. Getting paid is just a bonus.

Question Seven:

Any thoughts/ideas/concerns? I'm all ears!

This was my favorite category to read through! There was no negative feedback and everyone was so sweet! Thank you!

Question Eight:

Care to Share? Leave your name, how long you've been reading my blog, and a fun fact about yourself.

Well, the funny thing is, I'm horrible at fun facts so I was hoping you could inspire me! But turns out no one is good at naming a random fact without warning, haha.

This was so fun! Thanks again for the inspiration!

Linking up here.

   

   

Children's Book Club // Snow Paint {Snowmen at Night}

I'm joining Jess to host Children's Book Club and have Amy's big shoes to fill so wish me luck! 

For those of you who don't know the premise of Children's Book Club it is a monthly link up where we share a book and some ideas for crafts, snacks, art, math etc to fully engage with your child(ren) and then we come back here and  share what we did! Then the next month's book is announced and we do it all over again! There is no set activity and the additional activities are just ideas to spark creativity and learning. Let's get started!

January's book is Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Beuhner. This was a new-to-me author and I love that it is a husband and wife team (reminded me of James and Audrey Woods when they were together.) The neat thing about Snowmen was the hidden pictures in each page- a Santa Face, a cat, a dinosaur and a bunny camouflaged throughout the story! Did you see them?

After spending way too much time searching every page for the hidden pictures I whipped up some Snow Paint for the girls.

This paint uses only three ingredients- salt, flour and water in equal parts. It looks like thick pancake batter but when it dries it looks like glittering snow! Er, I could be wrong about it since the last time I saw snow was in 2006 but it  is a neat sensory experience. And clean up is easy too.

Next month we'll be reading Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond (of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie fame) Below is some inspiration. Come back here on Tuesday, February 21st  to share your activity! Now it's your turn to link up.

Alphabet Matching // Name Puzzle // Heart Letter Practice // Compliment Cards

Cupid's Arrow Toss // Cupcakes & Counting // Roll to Fill // Heart Rocket

Heart Sorting // Lacing // Lego Hearts // Counting

S'mores snack // Heart Pizza // Fruit Hearts

Heart Hopscotch

We hope to see you next month for February's Children's Book Club!

Linking up here.