Author: Big Mama

On Tuesday I filled out my bracket for March Madness and by Thursday afternoon all hopes I had of making correct win/loss predictions were dashed to the ground. My bracket couldn’t be more busted and I think the lesson here might be that you should never trust my basketball instincts.

So let’s talk about clothes since I’m on a little firmer footing. First, you should know that Carol & Company is currently offering 50% all John Wind jewelry with code WIND50 at checkout plus free shipping on ALL jewelry with code FREESHIP at checkout. This is a great chance to find something great for yourself or some good gifts for all the gifts that the month of May seems to require between Mother’s Day and graduations and all that business.

Now for some other finds:

1. dahlia embroidered maxi dress

I saw this dress in person at Anthropologie and thought it was so pretty. And now it’s on sale for $99.95. I think this would be so great because you can dress it up or down depending on your dress needs.

2. talma peasant top

I love the colors in this and think it would look great with white jeans. And it’s on sale for $59.95.

3. haloed horn hoops

I also saw these at Anthropologie and loved them immediately. They’re like a hoop with a little something extra.

4. crochet tank dress

The cut of this reminds me of the Free People voile slip, but this is more affordable. It comes in red as well, but I really like the white because it’s more versatile. You can wear it with jeans or leggings and even put a jacket over it if you need one.

5. kensie sleeveless eyelet dress

In case you’re looking for an Easter dress. This one is on sale for $79.20.

6. flutter beach tunic

This is a great swimsuit coverup. It also comes in navy and white.

7. lush roll tab woven shirt

I love these tops. They come in a bunch of colors, are reasonably priced and look great with shorts or jeans.

8. lace zip jacket

Ever since I saw this I’ve been evaluating whether or not I need a lace zip jacket. I’m not sure the answer is yes but I think this is so pretty.

9. target sonora sandals

I saw these sandals in Target when I went there to buy mint M&Ms because HEB has been out of them for like a month and P needs his mint M&Ms. They come in black or cognac and are really, really cute.

To clarify, the sandals come in black or cognac. The mint M&Ms only come in green.

10. like peas in a mod dress

Speaking of things that come in green, I really like this dress. It would look great with everything from pretty sandals to a pair of Converse. It’s very spring-ish to me.

So there you have it. Happy first day of spring!

Have a great Friday.

I just have to say first thing that your response to the book and the video trailer yesterday warmed my heart. If I were like the Grinch I’d say my heart grew three sizes that day, but I already had a big heart and would never dream of stealing Christmas from the Whos in Whooville. Although I might be tempted to put some reindeer antlers on Mabel and Piper next year.

After watching the weather forecast on Tuesday night, I noticed that it appears our temperatures will remain spring-like for the foreseeable future. I mean I’m sure we’ll have another cold spell or two, but it will be short lived. And so I decided yesterday that it was time to reorganize my closet and put all my sweaters and heavier things up on the top shelf and get down my shorts and other summer items I forgot I owned until I saw them again.

This is honestly one of my favorite things to do. Which is so bizarre considering that I am really not an organized person in any other area of my life. My desk drawer is a travesty. The pile of things on my desk is stacked haphazardly. If I want to use the pepper in my spice cabinet it will take me five minutes to find it because I put it back in a different place every time and P will be the first to attest that I am THE WORST at using something and not putting it back where it belongs. It’s just what I do.

Yet when it comes to my closet I am a completely different person. I can live for a little while with t-shirts stacked at random or my sleeveless shirts being hung amongst my long-sleeve shirts, but it eventually becomes more than I can bear and I have clean it all up and throw out things that I know I never wear anymore and are just taking up space. So that’s what I did yesterday. I hung my gray jeans together and my skinny jeans together and my bootcut jeans together and my patterned jeans together. I got my white jeans down from the top shelf because it’s about their time again and lined up all my shirts according to style and color.

I made a pile of things to donate, a pile of things to take to the cleaners and a pile of things that needed to be thrown out. And when I looked up three hours later to survey the situation, you would have thought I’d finished a triathlon with the level of pride and satisfaction I felt.

Meanwhile, Mabel stayed by my side the whole time and felt certain that all the clothes landing on the floor were intended purely for her comfort.

I posted that picture on Instagram yesterday and someone mentioned it looked like those pink pj pants had the Simpsons cartoon characters on them. I assure you that is not the case lest I lose all credibility. They are actually little birds wearing hats which is much more elegant than Homer Simpson.

And I am not even kidding that I just took a break from writing this scintillating tale of my closet clean out to read an article a friend posted on Facebook about Marie Kondo and her organizing strategies where she actually says, “Clothes, like people, can relax more freely when in the company of others who are very similar in type, and therefore organizing them by category helps them feel more comfortable and secure.”

I’m going to sleep soundly tonight in the knowledge that my jeans feel more secure than they did yesterday. As for my socks, sadly, they are still rolled in a ball and have no chance to rest as suggested in the article. Also, I didn’t kiss any of my stuff goodbye or thank it for its service and yet I feel only marginal guilt about it.

Au revoir, orange Lucky brand sweatpants with the embroidered bird on the leg, you served me well as you masqueraded as legitimate pants that felt like pajamas.

See you later, eight pairs of underwear with elastic that had gone to that big elastic graveyard in the sky.

Thanks for the memories, yellow wedge heels that looked so great and made my feet feel so bad that I once walked through a hotel lobby barefoot because I couldn’t wear them one minute longer.

Fare thee well, swimsuit coverup from Target that had seen better days…specifically in 2005.

I bid you adieu, six socks that had lost their mate. May you find a new partner in the great sock afterlife and may you never have to be rolled up and exhausted again.

Yesterday morning I had an appointment with my dermatologist. I won’t bore you with the details but the short version is children of the 70’s and teens of the 80’s didn’t realize sunscreen was an important component to outdoor exposure and now it’s sad times as I try to make myself like Cher and turn back the hands of time.

I feel like I should clarify that I’m not doing anything drastic, just using various fancy creams and lotions like wrestlers use. But my life is good! Really good! I get to wake up every morning, at 5:00 a.m., and make some soup! It’s the best. I love it.

I’m sorry. I got carried away quoting Nacho Libre as one tends to do.

Anyway, I came home and was folding laundry when there was a knock on the door. It was the UPS man and he was delivering two packages. One was my new pair of white denim shorts from J.Crew which, frankly, would have been enough excitement for one day. As for the second package, it was full of these.

I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to holding an actual book in my hands and realizing that’s my name on the cover. It still seems totally surreal.

But there it is and I am so excited about it and can’t wait until you all can get your hands on a copy of your very own. I have so much to say about it but I can’t even find the words right now except to say that God had his hand in every bit of the timing of this book about friendship.

(By the way, Caroline is the one that came up with the idea of having two girls on swings and so I’ve promoted her from Best Daughter to Chief Book Cover Designer because how great is that cover?)

Here’s the book trailer video that we made using so many of the pictures y’all sent in. I hope you love it as much as I do. Feel free to share it and spread the word. And if you don’t see your picture here, there’s a good chance you’ll see it somewhere before it’s all said and done.

The book releases on Tuesday, April 7th but you can find out more about Nobody’s Cuter Than You on the official book page which includes all the various locations where you can pre-order a copy and also find things to tweet and pin and all that business.

Hope you have a great Wednesday.

And bonus points if you immediately knew that Mr. McFeely was the mailman in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.

One day your mom does something new and puts your bed on the back porch to air out. Piper will now refer to it as THE BEST DAY EVER.

And it’s fitting since she and Mabel turned one yesterday.

They won’t even tell you the part about how they were offered no cake to mark the occasion.

Well I am almost despondent that Spring Break is over. The whole week went by way too fast and I don’t even have a new episode of Downton Abbey to be my spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. So I’ve just had to appease myself by making up fictional scenarios in my head about Duchess Kate’s visit to Downton Abbey last week.

For instance, I like to believe she’s telling Miss Hughes that it’s about time Carson proposed and it seems a shame they didn’t seal it with a kiss as opposed to just a pat on the arm.

And here she and Lady Mary are laughing about how relieved they are that Lord Gillingham is going to marry Mabel Lane Fox and Kate is encouraging her to make sure she sees Henry Talbot again because he’s totally dreamy even if he’s not the future King of England. Not all of us get to be royalty, Mary, but we can find a handsome stranger who crashed a bird hunt and drives a sporty roadster.

Anyway, we had a great rest of Spring Break. After spending time in Houston with Mimi and Bops, we drove to Bryan/College Station to meet Gulley and her boys at Honey and Big’s house and watch some Aggie baseball games. We were able to watch the Aggies come back from 3-0 to win 4-3 in eleven innings and improve to 18-0 on the season.

Gulley and I almost decided to make the kids leave early because we needed to be home by 7:30 and wanted to have time to go eat dinner, but then the Ags tied the game up in the bottom of the 8th and the kids informed us in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going anywhere. Plus, I don’t think Big wanted to leave either as evidenced by the way he immediately sat down front with the kids and they sawed Varsity’s horns off for the next three innings when they played the Aggie War Hymn.

Then, later that night, Tiff came over to hang out with us and we loved every minute of getting to catch up with her and just spend time laughing and talking. One of the things I loved about writing Nobody’s Cuter Than You was that it made me really think back on how important different friendships have been in my life and what they taught me along the way and so I almost have a new, fresh appreciation for the twenty-five years of friendship represented in this picture. We’ve loved and encouraged and prayed for each other for well over half of our lives now.

The kids tried their hardest to talk us into staying one more day, but Gulley and I both wanted to get home and have some time to catch up on things around the house and just relax before the break was over. So we headed home late Thursday afternoon much to their dismay and laments about how Spring Break should be at least two weeks long because school is just trying to ruin kids’ lives.

Of course it is. All that book-learning is just ridiculous and unnecessary.

We spent Friday just hanging out and then P, Caroline and I went to dinner at her favorite hibachi grill place that night and then came home and watched a movie and had a great time being together. Then she had a soccer tournament that required us to be up at an hour that I can’t even process, especially when you factor in that 6:00 a.m. now officially feels like the middle of the dadgum night thanks to the time change.

But it was a fun tournament and P and another dad brought their grills and cooked quail and sausage and kabobs in between games which, honestly, is a tournament strategy I can get behind.

We even brought Mabel with us in her kennel because she has cut her foot open and we need to keep her still for the most part which is about as manageable as wrestling a hyena. However, she thoroughly enjoyed the whole soccer tournament experience and, not surprisingly, wrote a haiku about it.

Blueberry muffin
dropped by unobservant kid
Soccer is the best

And finally, if your Spring Break is this week and you’re just on Day One, please know I am terribly envious but I hope you have a great one filled with all manner of fun. I’ll just be here packing a lunch while it’s still dark outside.

You know what the bad part of Spring Break is? That it’s almost over.

Gulley and I loaded up the kids and headed home from Bryan yesterday and now we’ll do our best to enjoy the weekend and try not to think about the fact that the hour we lost almost a week ago is going to come back to bite us all over again on Monday morning.

Here are a few things I found this week:

1. vacay adventure tunic

I love this simple white tunic because you can wear it with all kinds of different colors and accessories when the weather warms up.

2. keep your fringe close vest

I think this is really fun.

3. ace of basic top

Sometimes you just need a good basic black tee. I like that this one has a hemline that’s not just boring and straight across.

4. nike free fit training shoe

Speaking of not boring and straight across, these are about the cutest tennis shoes ever. And they come in some other colors and patterns, too.

5. plaza sur knit cardigan

This would be so cute paired over a tank with some cuffed jeans. I love that it’s a little different than just a basic cardigan.

6. vaneli emmalee wedges

Gulley and I saw these shoes in a little boutique yesterday and loved them immediately. Sadly, they were out of my size so I didn’t try them on but they felt like they’d be really comfortable.

7. j.crew chino shorts

These were my favorite shorts last summer and I’m glad they’re back again this year. I’m going to get a few new colors to show that I really do believe a day will come when the sun will shine again and it will feel hot outside.

Plus everything is an extra 30% off with free shipping when you use code HEYSPRING at checkout.

8. j.crew denim roll up shorts in white

I just ordered these as soon as I saw them. I love denim white shorts because it’s all the fun of denim without worrying about them being see through.

9. pleated pintuck plaid shirt

And how great would this shirt look with those shorts?

10. raven + lily keranga hoop earrings

I’ve come to the realization that I am a fan of just a simple gold hoop earring. And I think these would be really great with just about any outfit.

That’s it for today.

Have a good Friday.