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Love and Specs

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Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle, Style, Summer

Easy 4th of July Entertaining, Decorations and Food Ideas for Fuss-Free Holiday Fun!

4th of July may look a little bit different in our household this year thanks to baby boy’s impending arrival, but we’re still celebrating our favorite summer holiday by sharing this year’s festive 4th of July decorations and food spread for easy entertaining!

Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle, Style, Summer

Easy Summer Entertaining, Tablescape & Food Ideas You’ll Love

Summer is here… well unofficially at least! And to celebrate we’re sharing our annual fun, easy, pretty summer backyard entertaining setup in hopes that we can inspire all your summer 2021 outdoor hangouts, with a little help from our favorite festive summer treats, Peanut M&M’S® Red White & Blue Mix and SKITTLES® America Mix! Come see all the summer entertaining, tablescape and food ideas you’ll love!

Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle

The Best Orange Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe

A spring and Easter-perfect orange streusel coffee cake recipe that is not only mouthwateringly delicious, but completely unforgettable. Sweet, citrus flavors, cinnamon streusel and fluffy cake, oh my!

Entertaining, Home, Home Decor, Spring, Style, Tour Our Cottage Style Home

Sweet Spring & Easter Table Decor Ideas We Love: One Table Two Ways

In celebration of spring and Easter I thought it would be fun to finally bring back a little backyard tables decor inspiration after a year of putting all thoughts of entertaining on hold. With Easter coming up this weekend, I thought this was the perfect time to share a really fun spring tablescape, two ways to give you guys tons of table decor ideas to work with or put your own spin on this week!

Sparkling Ice Drinks by popular Phoenix lifestyle blog, Love and Specs: image of two gift baskets filled with Sparkling Ice drinks, cookies, drink mix in a mason jar, and pine sprigs with dried oranges.

DIY, Entertaining, Food, Holiday Favorites, Lifestyle

DIY Spiced Sparkling Ice Holiday Mocktail Gift Basket

We’re getting a head start on the holiday season by sharing an adorable DIY spiced sparkling holiday mocktail gift basket for friends or neighbors that’s as easy to whip up as it is fun to make!

2020 Summer Bucket List featured by top US cottage lifestyle blogger, Love and Specs

Entertaining, Home, Lifestyle, Travel

Our 2020 Summer Bucket List Progress Report & Our Fun Family S’mores Night

We’re sharing a little progress report on our fun summer bucket that we shared earlier this summer & one of our favorite activities on said list – a fireside s’mores hangout with the family – with help from our go-to neighborhood grocery store Albertsons & the summer-perfect drink we stock & sip all summer long, Sparkling Ice!

Entertaining, Holiday Favorites, Home, Home Decor

Fun 4th of July Inspired Red White and Blue Decorations to Love This Year!

Summer is officially here, and that means we have our mind on one of our favorite, festive holidays of the year that just so happens to be just a week and a half away – 4th of July! Our Independence Day celebrations may look a little bit more intimate this year, but that didn’t stop us from rounding up all of our favorite red, white and blue 4th of July inspired decorations from around the web that are perfect for small celebrations and general summer fun of all kinds, even if it’s just a backyard BBQ for two!

Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle

Our Husband vs. Wife Battle for the Best Easy Summer Cocktail with Q Mixers & Albertsons

To celebrate the summer season the best way we know how we’re mixing up not one, but two tastier than tasty summer cocktails, inspired by two of our favorite Q Mixers flavors from Albertsons! Come see the easy recipes for Chris’ refreshing Basil Lime Gin & Tonic and my bright, delicious Blood Orange Mezcal Mule and vote for which Carter cocktail is your favorite summer sipper!

Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle

10 Creative Ways to Celebrate the Simple Wins or Major Milestones with Cinnamon Toast Crunch™ & Albertsons

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re really into celebration around here. Give us all the happy, all the time! We love it. We live for it. We thrive on it. We grow from it. Which is why, with a little help from someone we know will absolutely, positively put a smile on your face, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and our friends at our go-to neighborhood store for all of our celebration supplies, Albertsons, we’re slowing it down today to convince you that you can and should be celebrating the small wins, major milestones and everything in between. We’re also sharing our favorite creative, simple, easily executable ways to celebrate the little things, so you can freeze the moment!

DIY, Entertaining, Food, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

How to Host a Winter & Holiday Season Bucket List Party

We’re taking this whole winter and holiday season bucket list idea up a notch by throwing a fun bucket list party for family and friends with the help of Chinet® so everyone you love can get in on the action! We’re showing you how we threw our own easy, fun-for-all-ages bucket list party complete with holiday decorations & tons of tasty treats, plus all the info you need to throw your own bucket list party with the ones you love this season, no fuss required!

Entertaining, Food, Holiday Favorites, Home

Easy Holiday Hosting Ideas with Hillshire® Snacking & Albertsons

Holiday hosting hacks, tips, tricks and ideas that make it easier for us to entertain and connect with the people we love throughout the holiday season are kind of our jam, which is why I’m so excited to share this fun little hosting idea that has made our hosting lives so much easier, with help from our friends at Hillshire® Snacking. This is the year we master this holiday hosting thing together, guys!  

Entertaining, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

Cozy, Cottage-Inspired Thanksgiving & Friendsgiving Table Decor Ideas

We’re pretty in love with all that is Thanksgiving, so in celebration of the upcoming holiday we’re sharing an easy, cozy, cottage-inspired Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving table tablescape full of affordable table top finds and simple decor and centerpiece ideas for creating an enchanting, cottage-inspired Thanksgiving table that wows!

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Maryal Miller Carter

loveandspecs

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Instagram post 17847720710728989 Oh, hey, wow! Who remembers feed posts?! 🙋‍♀️🤔🧐 Just thought it would be fun to give the lazy/crazy office cattle dog a permanent spot on the grid & take one more opportunity to send up a big praise be that this space doesn’t look like it did in the 3rd pic anymore because… storage! If I had to live under a mountain of office stuff for another day may have lost my mind. To see more of our office storage install/IKEA cabinet hack, just head to that link in my bio.
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Instagram post 17950725814721672 My little love bug 🥰 I have a long-standing love affair with all things Valentine’s Day & am basically in full bliss during the time between New Year’s day & V-Day when everything’s covered in heart prints & all the pink, purple & red color combos galore, so Emmet didn’t even stand a chance at avoiding V-Day jammies. Not even a little bit sorry, Em! Living for these heart jammies + that little baby belly! I haven’t taken the deep dive into V-Day decor & style that I usually do because diaper duty is keeping me pretty busy, but I DID round up all of my favorite Valentine’s Day pajamas/outfits for babies over on the blog because SWOON! They’re just too cute. Head to the link in my bio if you, too are into making your baby a heart-covered snuggle bug 😍
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Instagram post 17909912687201481 Still my favorite holiday house in Arcadia! Though I do seem to have a lot of “favorites” this time of year. 😆 There’s just so much holiday cuteness to be seen! But I think maybe this adorable family sold this house this past year & moved back East, and if so I’ll really miss seeing their decs. They were so beautiful! The neighborhood is starting to come alive with holiday decs this weekend & it’s definitely making me want to do another Arcadia Holiday Home Tour on the blog, especially since we’re not doing many decs of our own this year because that cute little maniac Elvis would delight in destroying a fun Christmas dec… especially a tree. Though admittedly, my track record of being able to actually get blog posts up since Emmet’s arrival isn’t great. Not enough hands, ya know?! 🎄
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Instagram post 17909881217036722 #ad Major parent hot tip! Check out @walmart and stock up on essential items, like @pampersus Swaddlers™ Diapers & Pampers® Baby Wipes™! I don’t think I could truly wrap my head around what an important part of our lives great diapers and wipes would become until Emmet got here. Now not only have we become devotees of Pampers® Swaddlers™ & Pampers® Baby Wipes™ after our labor & delivery nurses recommended them in the hospital (which is the kind of advice that’s worth its weight in gold when you’re new to this whole parenting gig), but we can stock up because diapers & wipes are by far our most used & purchased items right now. #babylife am I right?! 

It’s so easy to order online & have items delivered straight to your door - convenience unmatched. Since baby E arrived, delivery has been a total lifesaver for us because we’re about as stretched for time as it gets & anything that makes stocking up at Walmart on the stuff we need more streamlined is a huge win and leaves me more time for everything I can do instead! Check out my stories for more!
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Instagram post 17876857586544091 Our guest/kiddo bathroom is FINALLY done! And oh man does it make me happy. I’m not sure Emmet fully appreciates what a huge upgrade his bathroom got, but he’ll get there. All of the before & after pics, design details & decor sources are included in the blog post at the link in my bio & in my Stories. That @adexusatiles from @craftsmancourtceramics is obviously my favorite part of this remodel & its even better than I pictured in my head. Win! 🛀
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Instagram post 17918923891937199 Little man when he was at his littlest. 🧸Thanks for fitting our little pookins in @taq.photography.llc for the dreamiest newborn session when he was brand new. Your baby whispering abilities know no bounds! Emmet in a bear suit is the thing I never knew I needed in my life & now this is living rent free in my heart forever. 💗

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