Life Mama's Babies Summer Weekend

Summer Vacation Week I

Our first week of Summer Vacation is over.

I have created a weekly schedule that involves school work, library, etc. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are reserved for outings and field trips.

For the first week of break I decided to let them have free fun.

We spent lots of time outdoors, riding bikes, taking walks and hanging out.

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Thursday I was given a Media Pass to visit Six Flags’ new waterpark, Hurricane Harbor. The kids had a ball, and so did I. I’ll blog more about that later in the week.

Six Flags over Georgia Hurrican Harbor

The rest of the week and weekend was low key. You know the normal, cleaning, grocery shopping…..and I got that accent wall done. Reveal to come this week!

How was your weekend? What do you have planned for your children this summer?

Technology

{Sprint Ambassador Review} Sprint HTC One M8 Harman Kardon Edition

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Sprint. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and to thank me for participating.”

If you’ve never known anyone that was effective and efficient in cracking phone screens be proud to say you know me even if it’s in your head. I’ve cracked more phone screens than I care to count. In true Mimi fashion, about 3 days prior to receiving a special delivery from Sprint I smashed my phone beyond recognition. Receiving my first  device as a Sprint Ambassador was a blessing as it brought with it the ability for me to talk without cutting my ear on glass shards…long story.

HTC One M8

After ripping the box open like a child on Christmas I reached in the box and retrieved an HTC One, Harmon-Kardon edition along with the wireless Harmon-Kardon speaker. The speaker was a bonus and a great one at that. We’ll get to that later.

HTC One Harmon Kardon

Coming from an iPhone my initial reaction was, “This phone is huge.” After using for a little over 2 weeks the size is still an issue for me, although not as serious of one as it was initially. My major con regarding the size is there are times where it is required that I use two hands. Maybe my hands are small or I am just used to the small footprint of the iPhone but I have had a bit of a time adjusting.

HTC One Harmon Kardon

Flipside…..the size makes for the most amazing experience with anything from apps to pictures. I will gladly hold with two hands to have a large Pinterest app. YES!! Two of my favorite apps are Pinterest and Houzz and this phone with its vivid colors and size has me in heaven. Heaven, as in snuggled under my covers while everyone is asleep pinning and such.

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I was truly looking forward to the camera quality. I know a few folks that are Android users and I have seen great pictures taken so I knew the pictures would be great. Once I got the phone and took a picture I’ll say the camera quality is AH MAZING! In outdoor light with the right app, the clarity could easily compete with a low level point and shoot.

The Harman-Kardon edition of the HTC One was developed with the music enthusiast in mind. I love music so I was anxious to try out all of the bells and whistles when it came to the music department. The earphones are are a dream, the clarity is unlike any other that I’ve experienced in the earphone department. I will say it doesn’t do much for “ratchet” music but jazz and other forms of music where instruments are prevalent the highs and lows are very distinct and clear.

About that wireless speaker? Awesome. Everything I just said about the headphones just magnified so that everyone else can hear. It is operated through any phone’s Bluetooth connectivity with little effort and will easily get the party started at the cookout.

As a part of Sprints new Sound Sessions, Sprint is giving customers access to Spotify’s catalog of more than 20 million songs. I didn’t have to do anything to download Spotify it was already there waiting. I created my username and password and was on my way to playing music on demand and creating playlists. While I had heard of Spotify, I had never used it. We pay for a music streaming service with another provider and unfortunately only one of us can be logged in at a time so if my husband is using it I can’t. Spotify has filled that gap. I found an R&B party list….Man. Usher, Xscape, Dru Hill….I’m sold.

HTC One Harmon-Kardon

Let’s get into the fact that I can turn my television and cable box from the phone. We stay losing a remote, but a phone is always near by.

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Overall I like the phone. I don’t love it yet because it is still awkward for me getting use to how the apps look and function in Android. One major issue is all of my pictures get cropped when I put them into Instagram. I haven’t mastered how far away I need to stand to keep everything from looking like a macro shot in Instagram. I’m just a creature of habit and the adjustment will come but it has been slow, not to mention everything is in my old phone so I am sure once I set everything up like I want it is likely that I won’t be going back to the iPhone and no it doesn’t have anything to do with the shards of glass.

Are you #TeamDroid or #TeamApple? Are you a creature of habit like me when it comes to learning new technology? Does this mean I’m getting old?

Fashion Mama Style

{Outfit of the Day} Go Big or Go Home

I love an oversized flowy top. My obsession has me with a few XL and XXL tops in my closet.

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I slipped and fell into this obsession when I went to look for a shirt that wasn’t in my size but there was an XXL available. I said to self, ” Mimi you can belt this and be okay.”

Sometimes the shirt falls a little longer than my shorts but I’m sure people know I have pants on. I hope so.

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If you are going to wear an over-sized shirt, I suggest either belting in the waist or adding a longer length necklace.

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Shirt: Kohl’s Shorts: Thrifted {Arden B.} Necklace: Kohl’s Bag: Abby & Co. Shoes: Kohl’s Sunnies: Versace Bracelet: Macy’s

Are you a fan of flowy tops and dresses? What are your go to pieces for the Summer?

Décor

{Kitchen Makeover} Curtainworks and Accént Walls

Slow but steady wins the race….that is the approach I am taking with redesigning the spaces around here.

After our  unfortunate kitchen paint debacle, I was able to go to Home Depot and get the correct gallon of paint on the house….as if they wouldn’t after that mix up.

I haven’t completed painting the areas that need to be repainted, but since I have the paint on hand I feel I can move on to make selections for the next part, its all the same. Paint in the house but not on the wall is practically the same thing. Not really but whatever.

I mentioned before that it looks really bland in here with the wall color being so light now, so I’ve decided to move onto curtain selection.

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Y’all know I’m not much of an online shopper but after unsuccessfully beating the pavement and finding options that weren’t long enough I decided to turn to the online marketplace to search for the 108 in curtains that I would need.

I reached out to Curtainworks to see if they would be willing to work with me in outfitting my kitchen with new curtains and they said yes!

I was thoroughly pleased with Curtainworks selection of curtains and how easily they were categorized on their site. I knew I wanted something a little modern and they needed to be long in length.  I found what I needed easily thanks to their many link options to include: Valance, Tab Top, Long, and Pinch Pleat just to name a few. I love a pinch pleat ( that was a hint).

I’ve ordered them and they got here rather fast. I wasn’t ready as I still have a few tweaks I need to do to the wall before putting them up.

Speaking of tweaks. As much as I say I love color my mind always defaults to neutral colors.  I had a grand idea of how I wanted the curtains to match some fabric that I purchased to reupholster a bench that is in the kitchen. Wouldn’t you know trying to match the fabric I ended up with a curtain color that is very close to the wall color and now I need to add a little pop of something. I am currently toying with the idea of an accént wall adorned with either paint or wall paper.

kitchen accent wall

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wallpaper kitchen

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I’m still a little torn but I plan to have this project completed before the end of the week. I’ll be back with the reveal. I promise!

I received complimentary product to facilitate this post. All opinions are mine. You already know!

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