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DIY, DIY Home Decor, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

DIY Winter Citrus Garland: How To Make Faux Garland Look Real

Today’s easy holiday decor DIY project is one that I’ve been dying to take for a spin for a few years now, and I’m excited to say that the execution was even easier and the result even more fun than I’d imagined it would be! The DIY project du jour? How to make your own DIY winter citrus garland using cute little kumquats! This same fool-proof approach works on real or faux greenery and garland or wreaths, so there’s plenty of room to get festive and play!

Cute Backgrounds & Wallpapers, Holiday Favorites, Lifestyle

Cute, Fun & Free Holiday & Winter Phone Wallpapers

They’re HERE! This year we’re bringing you not one but TWO sets of fun, festive and totally free winter and holiday cell phone wallpapers for a total of 12 unique designs to make you smile all season long! So what are you waiting for? Download, enjoy and share with your friends and family to spread the love!

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!

Holiday Favorites, Home, Home Decor, Lifestyle

Charming Country Cottage Christmas Decorating Ideas

A country cottage Christmas! ‘Tis the season, friends and if you love country cottage decor year round and are dying to get decorating, you’ll love all of the fun, country cottage holiday decor we’ve included in today’s post. We’ve been loving all of the quirky, cozy, charming country cottage holiday decor out there this year, so we rounded up tons of our favorite pieces from around the web to help you kick off the most magical season in style!

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!

Entertaining, Food, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

A Cozy, Festive Holiday Coffee Bar with Starbucks® Peppermint Mocha Flavored Coffee & Albertsons

It’s November 1st which means that I can now start celebrating the holiday season in my little corner of the internet with reckless abandon! The thing I love most about the holiday season is that it gives me the chance to gather with the people I love, and when those celebrations happen at our house it’s bliss! Which is why I’m so excited to kick off this special season of gathering with a cozy holiday coffee bar tutorial for you built around the festive coffee blend that fills my cup and my heart with joy throughout the holiday season: Starbucks® Peppermint Mocha Flavored Ground Coffee at Albertsons. Coffee lovers unite!

Entertaining, Food, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

Easy, Fun 4th of July Party Ideas, Decorations, Recipes & More!

4th of July week here on Love & Specs continues with something we’re SO excited to share – all the easy, cottage-perfect 4th of July tabletop decor and party ideas and inspiration you can handle complete with fun, festive decorations galore, tasty, effortless recipes and food ideas and a detailed breakdown of all of the tips, tricks and sources!

Holiday Favorites, Lifestyle, Men’s Favorites, Style, Summer

4th of July Outfits for Him & Her

It’s 4th of July week here on Love & Specs and to kick off the celebrations, we’re rounding up tons of patriotic, summer-perfect outfit finds for both men and women so you and your squad can come correct with the fresh, festive duds when the moment arrives in a couple of weeks! And bonus, everything included is under $200 and because everyone celebrates this special holiday their own way, we included a mix of pieces that are perfect for preppy picnics, lakeside lounging, casual backyard BBQs, slightly polished parties and more!

Holiday Favorites, Home, Home Decor, Lifestyle

Valentine’s Day Home Decor You’ll Love All Year Round

Valentine’s Day holds a special place in my heart – I’ve always looked forward to this time of year when the sweet cards, candy, heart-covered clothing, flowers galore and pink decor would start to hit the shelves! So today I’m sharing the love and rounding up my very favorite Valentine’s Day-inspired home decor items that are out there right now that also happen to be tasteful and subtle enough to feel totally appropriate and not even a little bit obnoxious (in my humble opinion) in your home all year round. Just doing my best to fill your entire year with a little more love!

DIY, DIY Home Decor, Holiday Favorites, Home, Lifestyle

Winter & Holiday Season DIY Bucket List Board

Today we’re setting our intentions for a season well lived and well loved, and sharing our DIY Winter Bucket List Board tutorial, plus the sick season essentials we stock up on from Fry’s that make sure we get to enjoy every single item on our list to the fullest!

Fun and FREE Christmas Phone Wallpapers featured by top Phoenix lifestyle blog, Love and Specs

Cute Backgrounds & Wallpapers, Holiday Favorites, Lifestyle

Fun (and free!) Holiday & Winter Phone Wallpapers

Our free phone wallpapers/backgrounds for the holiday and winter season are here! Thanks to the genius illustrations of artist Rhian Awni, we got to create six fun, cute, and totally festive holiday and winter wallpaper designs for your cell phone that will keep you smiling all season long. All totally free, and all guaranteed to bring the cheer!

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Maryal Miller Carter

loveandspecs

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Instagram post 17874356132304607 Another look at our backyard home office w/ our pretty new wood French doors! I don’t know how my life took this strange adulthood turn, but I am now obsessed with doors. Had you told my teenage self that I’d spend hours scrolling through the @usdoornmore site just daydreaming about all of the cool doors I could install around my house, I would have spit out my Slurpee & laughed in your face. Yet here I am, pregnant, freaking out about the magic of doors! 🤷‍♀️ I already loved our backyard office, but now it’s about 10x more cottage cozy with these doors & all that natural light streaming in! Working from home never felt so good 🥰 You can see the before & after pics & learn all about how to order custom doors online at the link in my bio!
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Instagram post 17906274784724051 The weather is starting to get pretty perfect here in Phoenix & it’s making me V excited to start exploring the amazing spring front walkway situation around Arcadia! I look forward to riding my bike around, snapping these pretty flower-lined spring paths pretty much all year & from what I’ve already seen around the neighborhood, this year’s spring Arcadia lovefest tour is gonna be GOOD! I think I’m basically just going to focus all my attention on the walkways this year. They’re just so incredible! Are you guys as excited for this year’s spring Arcadia tour as I am?! 🏡🌸🌼💐
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Instagram post 18195918829015109 Oh man am I excited to start sharing our finished exterior remodel of our cozy cottage-cute backyard home office! This space is & has always been a favorite part of our home & tackling the exterior remodel with the help of my parents over the last year has been so much fun & such an education. We’ll be sharing more of how we tackled replacing all of the exterior siding, etc. in the coming weeks but today is all about these beautiful new wood French doors that I’ve dreamed about putting here for years. Years! And they’re even prettier than I’d hoped. Hop over to the link in my bio to see the before & after pics of the front of the office & the doors & hear all about our experience ordering custom wood French doors online, how we easily sealed them to protect them from the elements & more! 🎉
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Instagram post 17897897764829822 You know I love Valentine’s Day so I’m just gonna allow myself to stretch the love fest out a little longer 🥰 💗Chris left this morning for a work trip for a couple of weeks & I swear pregnancy has made me even more sappy for this guy than I already was! 😭 I wish you guys could all know him & have a chance to laugh with him like I do because it’s just the absolute BEST! He’s just an amazing guy. Amazing friend, amazing partner, amazing uncle, amazing everything. I’d never gone through the pics on my phone and saved the photos of us in a folder so I could look back on our relationship over the years & reminisce a little, but I finally did it last night during my typical 3am to 4am pregnancy wake-up & now I’m just over here getting lost in reliving all of the fun we’ve had! 10 snaps doesn’t even come close to covering it. Swipe to the last pic to see our very first photo together that my sister snapped on our first double date to send to my parents so they could scope him out 🤣 Hope you’ve all been able to feel a little love in some way, shape or form this week & if you find yourself needing some more, just DM me & I’ll remind you how awesome you are & how glad I am to have you here! 💗💗💗
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Instagram post 17936172811445601 Man I just 💗 this holiday! I can’t help it! 🥰 Especially now that I get to have this incredible guy as my Valentine for the rest of my life (and my baby daddy). How did I get so darned lucky? So happy Valentine’s Day, my love. You’re my very favorite thing about life & make me the happiest girl alive, day in & day out. May you always find an ocean to ride a wave on! 🏄🏻‍♂️
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Instagram post 17884006397006795 It’s my birthday! And because I love birthdays & basically any reason to celebrate anything, I thought it would be fun to finally share a little secret me & Chris have been cookin’ up for my 36th year 👶🏼🤰We’re closing in on the halfway mark &  it feels pretty awesome. It’s also getting harder & harder to hide this big ol’ belly from you guys 🤣 Everything has been a lot slower around here (well basically me... I’ve been a lot slower) for the last several months, but I have to admit that I’ve kind of loved the slow down. We’ve been in a little bubble of happy. Guess quarantine really got us good 😜 Baby boy arrives this summer & I’ll just be over here fussing over his cozy cottage nursery (which has been SO much fun to design w/ my mom’s help) & Chris will be over there stockpiling all of the kids’ golf & fishing gear he can find. It’s gonna be a heck of a year! 🎉

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