Browsing Category

Living

Blurb
Living

Creating Fall Memories with Blurb

This post is a partnership between Blurb and Unlikely Martha. I take lots of pictures of my babies, and being compensated to share with you the importance of creating tangible memories of your life and family was a no brainer.

Fall is hands down my absolute favorite time of the year. As sacrilege as it sounds, please miss me with the pumpkin flavored everything rhetoric. Carving, patches and picking are the depth of my obsession with pumpkins. I like my fall crisp, cool, and earth toned. The soundtrack is that of leaves crunching underfoot and the smells render themselves to apple pies baking and Bath and Body Works Leaves scented candles.

Annually at the peak of leaf season, I grab my camera and my two reluctant muses and head out to the park for a fall photo shoot. This happens once a year and EVERY year they make me want to holler but I do it anyway because these years pass so swiftly and one day I know they will thank me for capturing these memories.

If I might be honest, those fall photos from the past few years live in my Dropbox and online. Not a print to be had.

Not. One.

In an effort to do better I was thrilled to be contacted to partner with Blurb to create a fun memorable photo book. I knew exactly what I would put in mine and went to work on the Blurb site creating a book of my babies’ most recent fall shoot.

Blurb book

The platform is super easy to use. While it is compatible with some of the more technical design programs such as InDesign and Lightroom where integration is possible, I opted to use the desktop publishing software BookWright to create mine.

Blurb

The hardest thing about creating my masterpiece was deciding on which photos to use and whether to go with the book or magazine option. Yes, you can make magazines with this software.

A variety of other options available within the software are:

  • Standard Portrait 8×10”
  • Standard Landscape 10×8”
  • Small Square 7×7
  • Large Square 12×12”
  • Large Landscape 13×11”
  • Any cover options (image wrap, dust jacket, soft cover) of your choosing.
  • Any paper options (Standard, Premium, ProLine) of your choosing.
  • Magazines: 8.5X11

Friends, let’s get out of the habit of letting our hard drives, clouds and phones be the only ones privy to the captured beauty of our everyday lives. Let’s create photo books and tangible prints that can be saved and passed down. These memories are important and creating memorable books to send to grandparents and loved ones can be a new tradition to start.

 

Blurb

Blurb

 

When you are ready head over to the Blurb website to get started creating your book. With the holidays on the horizon these would make great gifts.

 

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Living

5 easy ways to get organized for back to school

The gift and the curse. The yin and the yang. The trial and the glory.

All of the things that that are opposite in reaction are all of the feels that I have about back to school time.

Trading in ease, simplicity and the love of my bed on Saturday mornings for homework, nightly cooking and early ballet lessons/baseball games is what I’m getting my mind right for.

Y’all know I’m all about planning, and when I hear people say they don’t have time to plan my response is always then you want to stay crazy. A few short minutes of planning is worth a week of peace. Trust and believe.

Heading back to school is a trying time for parents as we have to start switching our own schedules around to accommodate for the needs of our offspring along with many of the other responsibilities that we juggle.

I implore you to plan your days and think of ways to make your life a little easier. Just a few minutes of planning will afford you a little downtime in the evening before having to do it all over again the next day.

Here are 5 tips to help you get organized for back to school

Setup a Separate Email Address for School Correspondence

Back to School

Yes. My inbox is ridiculous.

With school budgets getting cut and the increased adoption of technology more and more correspondence is being sent through email. I appreciate this because it keeps paper clutter in my house to a minimum and I don’t have to worry with physically keeping up with things. Before you go all don’t add another thing to my list just think about the fact that something important like 50’s dress up day may go unnoticed among your Gap sale email. I’m pretty sure this goes without saying but please make sure to check the email, like set it up to push to your phone OKAY.

Get Your Children Involved

checklist

For children that are old enough to take some responsibility in getting themselves ready for school post a fun check off printable they can use daily. This super cute morning printable from Baby Shopaholic makes sure your little one knows  what to do daily. Create one for evening routines as well and maybe offer a fun reinforcement incentive for success in consistently completing the list. In addition to getting themselves ready, introduce age appropriate chores. If they are only old enough to put their shoes away introduce it, one less thing you have to do.

Meal Plan Based on Your Weekly Activities

Don’t just meal plan, meal plan with a purpose. Kids have activities on Wednesdays? Plan a crockpot meal for that day. Eating out is such an easy and expensive cop out. If you can get in a place to prepare ahead of time you can keep your coins in your pocket. Give yourself grace to not cook at least once a week but don’t make that the option because you didn’t plan.

Batch Activities on the Weekend

My kids like warmed over pancakes. So guess what? On Sunday evenings I’m going to make enough pancakes for the week and put them in the refrigerator for breakfast during the week, some weeks I’ll make these. Ironing/laying out clothing, combing hair, signing all paperwork in advance for the week when feasible, laundry, creating snack baskets, and creating chore lists are great activities to batch on a free day to save you time during the week.

Set Reminders on Your Phone

Don’t force yourself to have to remember all of the things. Set reminders on your phone to keep you on top of the little things. I am notorious for forgetting to make my son practice his piano. I have a reminder set for when he has to start and another for when he can finish. Set one for when it’s time to start homework, dinner, leave for practice or for that daily activity you have to do that constantly slips your mind. Over time you won’t need it but its great to not have to remember those things.

If you have any more helpful tips please drop them into the comments. Let’s all help each other make this a smooth transition!

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Living

life updates | Disney. Boule. Back to School Edition

Every Summer I have lofty goals of continuing to update our Summer happenings here on a weekly basis and every year for the past 4 or 5 years I’ve consistently failed.

Between all of the madness in the world with these senseless killings, my rightful worries about the safety of my young son in this cruel world coupled with maintaining a business, traveling, attending a conference and just plain out keeping house and kids, this Summer has worn me slap out.

S L A P.

Two weeks from today, August 1 to be exact my children will board the school bus and my normal routine will resume as the wheels of the bus roll them right on to the school house.

So that means the next few weeks will be full of house purging, school shopping, meal planning, organizing and getting them back onto a sleep schedule.

Finish line, is that you? *hand over eyes, squinting into the future*

We have some catching up to do mostly regarding our trip to all of the Disney parks. I promise a detailed post of every park complete with pictures in the next week or so.

Disney world

 

Disney world

 

Disney world

 

Disney world

Just a little over a week after returning from Orlando, I spent a week downtown for the Historic 67th Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Boule.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

The Boule is a biennial gathering of all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. throughout the world. This year the event was hosted in Atlanta with nearly 22,000 members in attendance. To maintain my sanity and limit parking costs I opted to share an Air BnB with some of my sorority sisters downtown. It kind of felt like a staycation.

After learning about all of the amazing things the organization has in store for addressing more current issues plaguing African American communities as well as what has been done for communities across the world to include donating nearly 500K bookbags to students in need, 40K dresses for girls in Africa and being on target to restore more than 1,908 playgrounds in under served communities, I am feeling ready to get back to work after our Summer hiatus is over in a few weeks.

In the meantime I enjoyed the week of sisterhood, service and fun.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

 

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

 

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

 

That’s what I’ve been doing. You do know the ‘Gram, and Snapchat mostly catch my daily moves when I feel like being bothered. Give me a follow. I’m UnlikelyMartha on both

How has your Summer been? Any fun trips or updates to tell me about?

 

 

Save

Living travel

cocoa beach bummin’

The beach is hands down one of my favorite places. Memories of our visits to Rehobeth Beach in Delaware and Ocean City in Maryland flash me back to my childhood days walking the boardwalk and eating salt water taffy.

Last year my trip to to beach was short as was our trip this past week but the few hours we spent laying out, jumping waves and playing in the sand was worth it.

Cocoa Beach Florida

 

Cocoa Beach Florida

Last Wednesday, the middle of our week long trip to Disney was the perfect day to take a break from our park hopping to take in a little fun in the sun at Cocoa Beach. A short 45 minute ride transported us from the world of Disney to the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately my husband was unable to fully vacation with us due to work so we took the trek with our cousins and had a great day of Summer fun in the sun making memories in the sand.

Cocoa Beach Florida

This was Addison’s inaugural trek to the beach. My little water baby just couldn’t get enough.I just love creating these memories with my babies.

Cocoa Beach Florida

Cocoa Beach Florida

Cocoa Beach Florida

I’ll be back in a few days with a few posts highlighting our trip to all FOUR  Disney parks to include tips and lots of photos.

Cocoa Beach Florida

 

How are you enjoying your Summer. Taken any trips?

Save

Save