5 on Friday

  

{one}
The month of August is National Breastfeeding Month and the week of August 1-7 was World Breastfeeding Week.  I feel very blessed that I have been able to breastfeed Eloise for her first year.  Those first few days or weeks were hard to say the least.  Making it to 6 months seemed like a lofty goal and making to 1 year seemed impossible.  Seeing that August is Eloise's birthday month, I find it a little kissmet that the month of August celebrates breastfeeding.  Not gonna lie, I'm glad that we are in the home stretch!

{two}
My name is Mandy & I'm a Striped shirt addict.

If this whole stripes explosion/nautical look goes away tomorrow, I'm screwed.  I will have nothing appropriate to wear.  I don't know how it happened but I have at least 5 black & white striped shirts that I've bought this summer.  Granted, they are all different styles, stripe widths, and looks.  Don't remind me about how I'm not supposed to wear horizontal stripes if I don't want to look wider.  I'm a sucker for a cute clothing trend!

{three}
Project Life Scrapbook
A few of the bloggers that I follow have been raving about this Scrapbook kit and I'm totally digging it.  I used to love to scrapbook and I have grand ideas for making one for Eloise's first year but I feel like I don't have the time to sit down and do it all.  It's hard enough editting photos, journalling about the week, and putting it all together in a blog let alone making a awesome scrapbook too.  This seems like a great compromise between doing nothing and making a scrapbook that lives up to the masterpiece I have created in my head.

{four}
RIP Basil Plant.
I don't what my problem is when ti comes to Basil Plants but I can't keep them alive to save my life! My parents made me my own personal herb garden for my birthday and everything else is thriving but that basil plant.  Dang.  Back to buying overpriced packages at the store. Any tips on how to keep suckers alive?

{five}
To say that I'm excited about Eloise's 1st birthday party is the understatement of the century.  I have planned out every detail, made my checklists, and cleaned up my secret Pinterest board chuck full of all my ideas and plans.  The invitations have gone out, the various party attire pieces ordered from Etsy have slowly been arriving, the decorations are in production, and the menu is being finalized.  Brad has been helping me plan and indulging in all my random party conversations.  My sister & I are having a sleepover next weekend with 2 goals in mind: complete a central decoration/craft for the party and finalize our game plan for the cake pops.