Custom Invitations with Basic Invite!

I'm partnering with Basic Invite today to share a little bit about their "truly custom" invitation website! You may remember that I have worked with Basic Invite in the past to create custom thank you cards which I loved!

I was compensated for this post by Basic Invite. All words and opinions expressed are my own. Thanks for reading along!

photos provided by Basic Invite

Basic Invite is truly the best invitation website I have come across and they offer hundreds of beautiful options to choose from for wedding and birthday invitations, birth and graduation announcements, customized business stationary and more!

The Basic Invite website is super easy to use and almost every little detail of their products are customizable! They offer over 180 different color options for each element on the card so that you can make them look exactly how you want down to the littlest detail! Their website also allows you to preview your design as you go along. The option to customize and personalize so many details is what really sets Basic Invite apart from other invitation companies! You can even order a sample card to see how your finished design looks and feels in person before placing your final order. 

One of my favorite features of Basic Invite invitations are their gold foil designs! They offer foiling in gold, silver, and the best in my opinion- rose gold! How gorgeous are these gold foil Sweet 16 cards? Basic Invite also offers over 40 different envelope color options and all of their envelopes are peal and seal which is such a time saver!

Graduation season is coming up quickly and Basic Invite offers the best graduation announcements and invitations with over 300 designs to choose from and customize! They also offer hundreds of options for college and high school graduation thank you cards!

Do you have children graduating from high school or college this year? My littles will be "graduating" 1st and 4th grade and I can't even believe how quickly it's going! Next year will be the last year that they are both in elementary school together and it's literally breaking my heart!

Be sure to check out Basic Invite if you are looking to create beautiful, personalized invitations or stationary! 

Use code 15ff51 for 15% off your purchase!

XOXO, Gillian

Teaching Children Responsibility through Pet Care

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WhatFuelsRight #CollectiveBias

I can't express enough how positive the experience of adopting a pet has been for our family! I was really nervous about adding another living thing to our lives but it has so much easier than I anticipated and adds immeasurable joy to my kids' everyday!

My boys have truly enjoyed the experience of having their first pet and I have loved walking through this special time with them! They are at perfect ages (6&10) to help out with pet care; in fact they love getting involved and taking on the extra responsibility. I'm partnering with  Purina® and PetSmart today to share a few ways to get your kids involved and teach responsibility by caring for a pet! I love that not only am I strengthening their bond with Finn but am also helping them mature by learning to serve and care for someone besides themselves!

Involve your Kids from the Beginning!

Our decision to get a cat was kind of spur of the moment but also something that had been pressing on my heart for about a year prior. The kids were over the moon when I announced that we would be spending the weekend looking for a cat and they were with me every step of the way!

If bringing home a pet is something you plan for in advance, you can get your kids involved by having them help research pet care online or by looking for books at the library. Even though we didn't plan far in advance for Finn, the boys were with me at the pet store to help choose what we needed (vs. what we wanted) to care for our new kitty! We also started talking about what they would be doing to help out and I made it clear that they would need to show responsibility from the start!

Play Time

This is one of the easiest ways to get your kids involved in pet care because hello, kids love to play and so do animals! I've taught the boys that sometimes when Finny starts biting or getting a little too rambunctious, he is telling us that he needs to play. They love tossing toys for him in the living room or even creating cat toys out of cardboard. Asher was making forts for Finn the other day in the bedroom and I love seeing our cat bring out their creative side!

Feeding

Feeding is another easy way to involve your children and teach them some responsibility! Asher, my 6 year old, especially loves feeding Finn. When he gets home from school, he always makes sure Finn's food and water bowls are filled! Finn gets especially excited about his morning meal because that's when we give him wet food and Roman loves helping with that!

We like mixing it up and offering Finn different foods and have recently tried the Purina® Beyond Natural and Purina® Beyond Simple Origins lines that we picked up at PetSmart! PetSmart has the widest variety of premium quality Purina products available at amazing prices. We love and trust the Purina brand (check out my last post with Purina here!) because they provide complete and balanced diets for pets!

Rome and Ash love our visits to PetSmart and we always seem to come home with a few extra things that we didn't come in for... During this trip, Roman tried to convince me that we should get a Chinchilla, ha! PetSmart allows pets in store and I really want to bring Finn on one of our trips to see how he does!

Click on the image above to shop the Purina Beyond Natural cat food for your kitties! We tried the Indoor Grain Free cat food in the flavor Salmon, Egg & Sweet Potato and as you can see,
it is Finn-approved!

The Dirty Work

Honestly, most of pet care is pretty fun and enjoyable in my opinion but of course there are a few aspects that take a little more encouragement when getting the kids involved! I am definitely dropping the ball a little in this area. I usually clean out the litter box myself because it's just so easy but this is an area that is perfect for teaching my boys responsibility! I also need to involve the boys a little more in making sure they brush Finn regularly because the cat hair situation is starting to get real around here!

Best of All, Cuddling!

I really feel like giving our kids more responsibility in pet care helps to strengthen the bonding process! Feeding, grooming and attention are all ways my cat feels love and giving my boys a nudge in those areas has helped them to connect!

The cuddles between my boys and Finn are the sweetest part of owning a pet. It's literally priceless to see how Finn will lay on his back and let Asher bury his face on his tummy because as Ash says, "it just feels so good!" Roman is not a great sleeper but now Finn likes to hop onto his bunk bed with him some nights and those are the nights that Roman always falls asleep the fastest! 

Well, I'm literally getting a little emotional because honestly having a friendly furry animal in the house is one of the best decisions I've made as a parent so far! I hope this post has helped spark a couple ideas for you if you are planning to get a pet or have just brought one home! 

I'd love to hear your stories of adding a pet to the family in the comments below! For more cute cat pictures, follow me on Instagram: @bygillianclaire

Check out your local PetSmart to try the Purina Beyond Natural and Beyond Simple Origins cat food for yourself! 

Other Kitty Posts:

Fall-ing in Love with our Kitten

We Got a Pet!

XOXO, Gillian

$200 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

Happy Wednesday! 

Today I am teaming up with a bunch of blogger friends to bring you another great giveaway! Enter to win a $200 Amazon Gift Card!

Good luck!

GIVEAWAY

Use the form to enter below and good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway One lucky winner will be selected at random and contacted via email. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before an alternate winner is selected. Open worldwide.

Drugstore Beauty Must-Haves for Winter 2.0!

Last year, you might remember that I shared my favorite winter drugstore skincare products! I feel like winter is the time of year where you have to be a little extra with your beauty routine. It's cold and dry and in my opinion a little bit miserable during wintertime! I wanted to do another round of my favorite winter skincare products that I've added into my routine this year and I threw in a couple beauty products this time as well!

This post contains affiliate links: scroll to the bottom of this post to shop my favorites!

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Polish + Matte Topcoat

Ok, I'm starting off by sharing two beauty products! The black nail trend has been hot this winter and honestly I wasn't sure that I would like it on myself. I always gravitate towards peach or blush nail shades but I tried it and I loved it! Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Polish is pretty much the only nail polish I buy now because I find it to be the best drugstore polish out there. People have asked if I get  manicures when I wear it and it lasts longer than any I've tried. This is the shade "Blacky O" and I've also been loving this Big Matte Top Coat to add a matte finish and mix it up sometimes!

Que Bella Gel Eye Masks

My under eyes always need help + in the wintertime I just want to add all the extra moisture and pampering there that I can! These are my favorite under eye masks and they are so cheap! I grabbed this 3 pack at Target for $2.99! I splurged for a more expensive brand while I was there last and these are so much better! The back of the package says that these eye masks "visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles and leave your eye area brightened and soft."

Pacifica Lipstick Wipes

I actually received these in a PR package back in the summer and shared them in a blog post already but they have really come in handy this winter! Even though these wipes are meant to remove lipstick, they are exfoliating and perfect for keeping my lips smooth especially before applying lipstick!

Blistex Lip Balm

Ok, another lip product! I have big lips and I swear winter is the #1 enemy for me! Blistex is by far my favorite chapstick brand and I've tried a lot. I almost always grab the Blistex Medicated Lip Balm but I tried this Soft and Lush Lip Balm and I'm loving how soft it feels as well as the girly scent! (That's the best way I can think to describe the smell!)

No7 Lift & Luminate Eye Cream

I won a collection of no7 products in a contest this year and I am always grabbing them! I really like this Lift & Luminate Eye Cream. It's just a good basic eye cream that's perfect to give a little extra moisture and life under my eyes before applying makeup!

DERMA E Psorzema Cream

I received this Psorzema Cream from DERMA E in a PR package recently and I've loved using it as a body lotion this winter! I don't suffer from Psoriasis or Eczema but if you do, you may want to give this product a try! It's inexpensive and DERMA E is one of my favorites because they are an awesome natural brand that is 100% vegan, gmo-free and cruelty free!

Have you tired and loved any of these products as well? I'd love to hear your beauty must-haves in the comments below!

xoxo, Gillian

It's January 30th and I Want to Throw in the Towel...

I have a serious love/hate relationship with New Year's resolutions. There is something about the idea of setting resolutions each January that gets me very excited... it's the same way I feel about school supplies in the fall, new planners or notebooks + moving to a new house with empty cabinets and closets full of potential... (This picture seriously captured my reality as a boy mom- haha!)

The Best Products for Maintaining Blonde Hair

     I started dying my hair blonde a little over 2 years ago and it's definitely been a bit of a learning curve to find products that work! Prior to going blonde, I didn't dye my hair for ten years and during that time I pretty much just used the cheapest drugstore products I could find. Since I never colored my hair, it stayed really healthy and strong even though I wasn't putting much effort into products. 

     Now that my hair has been through many rounds of bleach and color, it's become so much more important for me to take the time to find higher quality haircare! My hair stylist had to teach me that if I want to keep my hair healthy and my color vibrant, I have to invest a little more and most importantly always choose sulfate-free products!

So, after much trial and error, I've put together my list of "The Best Products for Maintaining Blonde Hair!"

*This post contains affiliate links! Thanks for supporting me!*

$500 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

Happy New Year! 

I'm partnering with some blogger friends to offer you guys a chance to win a $500 Amazon Gift Card! Christmas is over so this giveaway would be a perfect chance to treat yourself to something fun!

There are many ways to enter and I promise that you will find some new really cool bloggers to follow along the way.

Use the form below to enter and good luck!!

$500 AMAZON GIFTCARD GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway