I love necklaces. I don’t wear much other jewelry.  Never been big on rings or bracelet, but I love a good necklace or set of earrings. It’s probably b/c my wardrobe mainly consists of t-shirts, but you can really dress up an outfit with a pretty, eye catching piece of jewelry. I came across J Topolski’s site on Etsy when I was searching for an Earthy, nature inspired necklace, look what I found!



Jenny Topolski is an artist and designer currently based in Brooklyn NY and she makes some really pretty items. She does jewelry, but also painted pendants, pottery, prints and stationary.  A Jill of all Trades!  Check out a few that are up for sale now:


What item would you get?

I know I already have one fantabulous contest going on, but I couldn’t sit on this one any longer.  As I said a few weeks ago, I have been on the search for a signature scent.  Truth be told I like to smell like baked goods. I have always leaned towards brown sugar, vanilla, cake batter scents.  So, when I stumbled upon Tropical Bomb and saw that they had a perfume oil called Sugar Binge, I just had to try it:


All of their products are made with the finest butters* oils* waxes* and fragrances* to create top of the line Body Care items and Perfumes. Every product is hand-made,hand-poured,and hand wrapped.  This sugar binge perfume is awesome.  It has a little roller on it, so you can easily apply it to your wrists and neck or behind the ears or wherever else you dare!  Behind the knees….over top of your regretted tramp stamp tattoo maybe!?!  Say what!  I’ll hush now.

Anyway, Tropical Bomb makes lot of rad products, lip balms, body butter, perfumes and much more.  Here are a few items that I am going to have to get soon:



The good folks at Tropical Bomb have sent me a gift bag to give away to one of my lucky readers!  In this package you get a cute little zip keychain purse that can hold the peachy keen lip gloss and Beach Cove perfume oil!  How fun is that!?!


To enter you have to go to the Tropical Bomb shop, have a look around and leave me a comment telling me what you think your favorite product would be.  Want an extra entry or two?  Then tweet, facebook or blog about my contest, make sure to leave a separate entry telling me you did so.  I will use random.org to pick the winner on Sat.  Contest closes at 10am 1/30.

I have lots of great stuff coming up for you this week!  Including crock pot bread pudding (already drooling), homemade black bean & oat burgers and I will be trying my hand at some vegetarian dish that I haven’t yet picked, any suggestions?

Good morning and Happy Sunday my dear Bloggy friends.  I am heading to an hour of power yoga soon!  But this morning I have a great giveaway for you.  Don’t forget to enter the Funktional Spa Giveaway that is over this afternoon. 

You know how when Xmas rolls around, you are always excited.  It’s fun to get presents, its fun to see your family and friends and celebrate your own traditions. But how often do you really get a gift you love? I mean sure, you l like the stuff you told everyone to get you, I mean you picked it out, you love that you got gift cards to go shopping b/c you love to shop, but how often are you taken by surprise by a gift that shows the gift giver really gets YOU?  I was lucky enough to get just such a gift this Xmas.  Look at this yoga bag my sister Tina gave me:

Isn’t it just gorgeous?  A true work of art. I get a ridiculous amount of compliments on this bag when I go to yoga class  The designer is Jaya from Green Trunk Designs, those great pictures are hers, the ones I took just didn’t compare. She hasn’t had her Etsy store up for very long, but boy I hope she goes far b/c these are just one of a kind.  And guess what!  She’s giving you one!  Yep.

All Green Trunk Designs items are designed, sewn, photographed and packaged by Jaya in her home in New York, where she lives with her husband and coaches cross country and teaches fitness classes at her church. All of her items are made to out of eco friendly, vintage, upcycled, and repurposed materials.  How cool is that!  It’s pretty being green.

So now on to the contest.  Visit Jaya’s site and look at the EXCERCISE MAT BAGS and leave me a comment telling me which one you would want if you win.  Make sure to leave the titles of the bag you like best.  Want an extra entry?  Just Facebook, blog or Tweet about my contest and leave me a separate comment (again with your fav bag, just put entry #2, I want bag XYZ) telling me you did so.  I will leave the contest open until Saturday Jan 30th at Noon.  Good luck!

Hi there Bloggy friends I hope you are all having a good Humpday.  I recently got some business cards printed up to promote my website and I wanted a business card holder, so of course I looked on Etsy and look at what I found!


This adorable business card holder was made by Bits O Honey Designs.  She has some seriously cute stuff.  The gal behind Bits o Honey is the mom of two from Atlanta and learned to sew from her mom and grandma, she enjoys using bright, cheerful fabrics. Her items just make me smile, here are some of my favorites up for sale right now:


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Also, I have been on a search for the perfect signature scent   I have never been much of a perfume wearer, but every time I smell someone that has  on a great scent it reminds me that I really want to be!  Once upon a time I had some Honeysuckle perfume that I really liked, but the smell didn’t last long, I found a solid perfume seller on Etsy, Funktional Spa and ordered the Honeysuckle.  It comes in this adorable little container that is perfect for your diaper bag or purse and the best thing is that the smell lasts all day!  It smells just like honeysuckle and isn’t too overpowering.  I smell like a flower!  I love it.  The checkout girl at the grocery store even told me I smelled good! 


Funktional Spa is run by husband and wife team Drew and Wyn and they create lots of yummy products including bar soap, perfumes and body butter.  They were kind enough to offer up a contest!  They are going to send one of my lucky readers a gift!  Yes, you can win this:


How great does that look!!!  To win this soap/body butter set you need to visit their site and leave me a comment telling me something you learned.  It can be what you favorite product is, where Drew and Wyn are from, how many bars of soap they have sold, whatever strikes your fancy.  If you want an extra entry, just tweet, blog or facebook about this contest.  Make sure to leave an extra comment telling me you did so. I will choose a winner using random.org on Sunday afternoon.  Good luck!

I have 2 Somethin’ Pretty features to share with you today.  The first is Bella Headbands!  As a busy mom fixing my hair is something I pretty much never do, so I wear headbands a lot. I was searching Etsy for some really cute headbands so I could try and be a tad more stylish and I found  Bella Headbands.  She’s having some great sales through Jan 15th.  Check out some of the cute items you can buy:
 
I wore mine all day and didn’t have that annoying headband headache you can get sometimes. Cute and comfy.  Nice.  I got this black and gray geometric one and a brown&cream polka dot one. There are so many fun colors/patterns to choose from.  What color would you want to wear?



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I am really excited about this necklace I got from Crave Jewelery Design. It’s a cupcake ! I love cupcakes, so when I saw this adorable sterling silver necklace I knew I had to have it.


Jaci Riley the designer has such an eye for the unique and beautiful.  Here are a few of my favorite pieces:

What about you, which do you like best?

*Don’t forget you still have 2 days to enter my AZC Designs headband giveaway, scroll down and do so*

Good morning Bloggy friends. I love Sundays because I start my day with an awesome power yoga class at my local Urban Active. They are lucky to have a really talented teacher, I really like her style. Today she was telling us to breathe in with love, love for yourself.  Such a great idea. I try really hard to think positive when I do yoga. I will bitch about one thing though, the stupid gym took my beloved class from 75 mins to 60, boo on them.  And they started it at 9am, instead of 9:15 and the daycare opens at 9, so I will bea little late every time.  Whatevs. 

You know what I really enjoy?  The Dancing Warrior vinyasa. Do you know it? If not you can check it out here:
http://websiterite.com/uploads/Dancing_Warrior.pdf

I love Warrior 2, I always feel very strong and balanced when I am in this pose.

From the yoga journal online:

(veer-ah-bah-DRAHS-anna)
Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet, wielding a thousand clubs, and wearing a tiger’s skin

Step by Step

Stand in Tadasana. With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.

Turn your right foot in slightly to the right and your left foot out to the left 90 degrees. Align the left heel with the right heel. Firm your thighs and turn your left thigh outward so that the center of the left knee cap is in line with the center of the left ankle.

Exhale and bend your left knee over the left ankle, so that the shin is perpendicular to the floor. If possible, bring the left thigh parallel to the floor. Anchor this movement of the left knee by strengthening the right leg and pressing the outer right heel firmly to the floor.

Stretch the arms away from the space between the shoulder blades, parallel to the floor. Don’t lean the torso over the left thigh: Keep the sides of the torso equally long and the shoulders directly over the pelvis. Press the tailbone slightly toward the pubis. Turn the head to the left and look out over the fingers.

Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

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I am very excited to have another Somethin’ Pretty giveaway for you.  Yoga Grrllie graciously sent me one of her gorgeous yoga mat bag covers for one of my lucky readers! The one I have to give away is very similar to this, they are extremely study and well made, you will be the envy of all the other yogis in your class!


Yoga Grrllie is actually LaRae, a yoga and pilates instructor and she has her own website and you can learn a pose of the month there. Look at all the other fun items she sells!

Aromatherapy pillows:

Adorable aprons:


Ready to enter?  All you have to do is visit LaRae’s shop and leave me a comment telling me something you learned, it could be your favorite item, where she’s from, whatever, just make sure you check out her wares.  Want an extra entry?  Just facebook or blog about this contest, make sure you leave a separate comment if you do.  I will pick a winner using random.org on Friday afternoon.  Good luck!

You need to march your cute lil’ behind over to AZC designs and see what Alicia has going on!   Alicia lives across the street from me and makes the most beautiful, whimsical accessories and baby items.  When I was pregnant she gave me this adorable onesie for Harper. I remember getting it and thinking it was so huge, no way was my kid ever going to fit into it, now she is busting out.  My how time flies. 
Alicia has graciously agreed to send a free headband to one of my lucky readers.  To enter, hop on over to her site and come back and tell me something, anything, what product you love, where she lives, what she sold in the past and the comment will be your entry. Want an extra entry?  Just blog about my contest and leave me another comment telling me you did so.  If you don’t have a blog, you can facebook or twitter it, again leave a separate comment.


Oh and the best part, you get to pick your color out of those displayed above!  I will pick a winner next Tuesday at 6pm. Woohoo.

Oh this weeks Somethin’ pretty is really pretty!  I love little knick knacky bowls. I buy sushi dishes a lot from places like sur la table and use them to put jewelry, etc in.  Look what I got from Elm Studio on etsy! 

I love it!  I picked it b/c it said Naturally Sweet and she surprised me by putting Harper’s name on it.  Sweet for sure.  It looks flat in the photo, but is actually a bowl.


Once I ordered something similar to this for a wedding gift and they loved it:




Erin is supremely talented and takes special orders, you should definitely check her out. 

Harper and I braved the cold for a trip to Whole Foods and TJs today!  I needed coffee from TJs and I wanted to go to Whole Foods and get some of the Amazing Grass for my Green Monster trials. I ended up buying a bunch of different single serving packets to try them out and see which I like best before I invest $40 in a canister.  I went for those 2 things, but ended up with a lot more of course!  Looking forward to roasting some of those brussel sprouts, I have never been very successful at veggie roasting, any tips? I picked up some of my fav frozen foods – Quorn Guyere patties and TJs chicken quesadillas.  Some of my fav yogurts – Liberte and Wallaby Down Unders.  And I got a bag of chicken meatballs from Whole foods, they are asiago and fennel!  Yum.

Yay, I got somethin’ pretty in the mail today and I am totally stoked. Merry Xmas to me.  Seriously, how pretty is this hat!  Since I live in Cleveland I have a lot of winter hats, so when I came across this shop on Etsy I knew I needed one, Mel’s Belle’s Cloche Hats.  The best part is that the flower matches my winter coat perfect AND (are you ready for this!) the flower is a pin, so you can take it off and wear it on something else!



You have to go to the website  and check out some of the baby hats, oooohh my gosh so cute! I am totally going to get Harper one.


If you like Mel’s hats, you might like some of her other lovely items too!
http://www.loopoverloop.etsy.com/
http://www.aGarnishedLife.etsy.com

So, go take a look and buy yourself somethin’ pretty for Xmas, make sure to tell her Monicaonthego sent you!

I am trying to come up with several standing weekly features that I do on my website.  One is definitely going to be a crock pot recipe, one a baby related post, one running and I also want to do this one: A weekly Beautiful Item. I’ll admit it’s a bit of a Dooce rip off with her daily style pic, but I like pretty things and I want to post about them!  So, here is your first installment and I’m giving you two to make up for the last week
 

Both of these came from one of my mother in laws, Anita.  On the left is an adorable white porcelain coffee creamer.  He sits in the windowsill above our sink. The other is a bluebird of happiness, he has happiness written on his chest.  Back by the tail you can see there is a little crevice, that’s to stick business cards in. Personally I keep a little pad of post it notes in there and keep it by the front door for when you need paper in a jiffy. Cute stuff, huh!?!  Not sure where either of these were purchased or I would tell you.  But I found a very similar dog online, no luck on the birdie.  Dog Creamer

Dinner was just okay, I am disappointed. I thought it would be great!  THe chicken didn’t really absorb the spices very well. Maybe b/c the tomatoes watered it down to much??  I paired the chicken with couscous and peas.  Peas mostly for Harper.