valentine fun

Here's a roundup of all kinds of Valentine fun, in case you're in the mood to be a little crafty.




The step-by-step tutorial for this homemade felt heart brooch from Dabbled are easy enough for a beginner to follow. Cute right?



Remember this heart braid from last year? I'll attempt it again with Precocious next week. I swear.



What about this great heart pillow made out of buttons? Totally doable.



This heart pudding pie from Make and Takes looks delicious and adorable, a winning combination no?




Um, molten Chocolate cakes from This Week for Dinner? Yes please.


What are you making at your house this week for Valentine's Day? I just found out I'm in charge of games for Precocious' classroom on Friday.

Yikes.

Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller?

missing in action.

That is all I have to say about that.


My feet are the size of two small water buffalo, so I will lie in bed one more day with some bad magazines and a cold compress on my head before I resume blogging.


Just know this: fun things happened in Nashville and none of them had anything to do with this guy or the National Tea Party:

minted valentine cards giveaway winner!

The Minted giveaway winner is Andrea:

I've been known to send out Valentine Cards because the Christmas season was just too busy. This would be great!

Congratulations Andrea! Hurry and claim this so you can get some Valentine cards out.

what shoes to pack for a trip.

How many shoes does a woman need for a blogging conference? If you answer correctly, I'll buy you a Diet Dr. Pepper.


This is how many I packed for Nashville. Well, that's not true, I added a pair of running shoes so I could sneak in a run with the girls from Eat. Blog. Run. so I technically packed 7. Yikes.

I think I packed too many, but I actually put some back if it makes you feel any better.





These Anne Klein flats are new to the traveling mix, but you can't go wrong with a great pair of ballet flats. In hot pink no less, with a flower!





And these? Oh be still my heart. They're Steve Maddens and I love them. I love them down to the last ruffle; they make me happy just looking at them. Whether or not they'll be practical on the dance floor is another matter entirely.





Here's the breakdown of what I take on a business trip:

1. Slouch boots. These are great with leggings or skinny jeans and are insanely comfortable to wear traipsing through airports.

2. The Steve Maddens. Every trip needs a pair of sexy heels for a cocktail party and these are it this time around.

3. Ballet flats. I do a lot of walking and standing when I'm at a conference and it's good to have a foxy pair of comfortable shoes.

4. Black heels are the equivalent of owning a great pair of jeans. You can pair these babies up with jeans or that little black dress you brought. Do not leave home without these.

5. Low, flat, pointy toed heels. These are great for skirts, jeans, and almost everything inbetween.

6. Converse: don't leave home without 'em. Ever. These can go with a dress at the end of the night, when my feet are burning but I still want to dance. Or. I can throw them on with some leggings and a sweater for the plane ride home. Versatile babies, those Converse.

What shoes do you take when you travel? Your go-to, no-fail assortments? I'm dying to know.

how to pack make-up & jewelry when traveling.

As you read this I'm 36,000 feet in the air on my way to Nashville, Tennessee for a blogging conference called BlissDom. I'm 10 kinds of excited for this trip. I didn't go to the conference last year and heard wonderful things about it, so I can't wait to hop off the plane and party like it's 1999 with all my blogging friends.

For the record, Precocious was born in 1999. I wasn't doing a whole lot of partying. Or sleeping. But that's neither here nor there.

While packing for this trip I got to thinking about what to take on a 4-day trip. I tend to *ahem* over-pack a little {a lot} because I hate being left without the one thing I knew I'd need on the road. I'm getting better the more I travel, I really am, but it's taken some time.




Here's a really compressed version of my makeup bag, the traveling kit I take when I fly. Don't laugh. I really do need this much at my disposal when I travel; I never know if I'll want to go natural or smoky eyed. I'm mysterious like that.





And these are all the brushes I need. This is a compact version of my makeup brushes, I have at least twice this many. I know, I know, it's a sickness.





But look! It all fits nicely inside this cute pouch my friend Donna made for me. Isn't it great?





In case you were wondering, yes, I was able to zip it closed. I only had to offload a few things to an extra Zip-lock bag for safekeeping. Shhhh.


Which leads me to jewelry. Yes, I pack my jewelry in Zip-lock bags. I probably could use a fancy jewelry roll but these work just fine. Who says Zip-locks aren't fancy?





I have to do a little bit of untangling when I land, but no one is worse for the wear and all the jewelry is contained in its own little space. I love things being in their own little space, it's the organizer in me.





What packing tips do you have? Anything I should know to streamline the process? Do tell.

suave hair party.

Last weekend I hosted a Suave hair party, which basically means I got to have a party for all my girlfriends wherein our hair was styled. With Suave, of course.




My amazing friend Donna brought cupcakes.







And Alma {thank heaven for Alma} supplied the cold caffeine. I didn't get any photos of the copious amounts of caffeinated beverages, I was too busy drinking it.





Thanks Alma!




My darling hairdresser Camille, {incidentally the only hairdresser I've ever had who agreed to make me a dye job blonde} showed up to make us all pretty. And how.




This is my cousin Jeanine ready for prom *cough*, I mean a night at home with the kids.




She loved getting all dolled up.





Her sister April, another cousin, was hot to trot with her curls and new black hair. She's normally a blonde. Why do we always want what we don't have?




This is my good friend Janell and her adorable blue eyed baby who had broken his foot a few days earlier. He wasn't a happy camper, but his mama's hair is ridiculously pretty.




See what I mean? Stinker. Janell's always had great hair.





This is Beth, an old college roommate, which means we've been friends for 15 years through thick and thin. She also has ridiculous hair: thick, wavy, naturally blonde and beautiful.





This is the back of my head post-ringlets. Viktor thought he'd died and gone to heaven. Turns out, he has a thing for ringlets. Sorry Viktor, this is the last time you'll see me sporting curls.




Look at foxy Marie. She flipped her hair over her shoulders all night like a shampoo commercial girl. Oh you vixen, you.




Jyl's hair was pretty cute in ringlets too, right? I had no idea hair so short could be curled, but Camille worked magic on all of us shorties.




Michelle always looks great, but she works so hard I don't think she ever sits still long enough to be pampered by someone else. Michelle doesn't look old enough to have two grandkids, right? I think she's secretly discovered the fountain of youth.





I have no idea what I'm laughing about, but it must have been good.





It's possible it was Carina who made me laugh, which she frequently does with her snarky witticisms. Doesn't she look great with straightened hair? Normally she's a Spaniard with naturally ringlet-ed hair; and yes, I'm jealous, why do you ask?





I love Kami. She's one of those people you'd love to hate for being so pretty, perfect, organized, and accessorized if she wasn't such a wonderful person top to bottom. And funny, that Kami is funnnnny.




She did a little internet browsing while she was getting styled. Doesn't that make you love her even more? What? It makes ME love her even more.




Alma ended up with a soft and sexy up-do. Love, love.





This was an interesting experiment for me, mixing my real life Bunco group {yes, I have a Bunco group, don't mess} with my blogging girlfriends. I don't know what I was worried about, all my friends are amazing, generous, beautiful, strong women and they got along swimmingly; well into the night actually.

Thanks Suave, we had a great time!



{I was compensated for food and each of the attendees left with a sampling of Suave products}

michelle obama's style.

I ran across this article in New York Magazine about Michelle Obama's style since she's been in the spotlight. Personal politics aside, this woman has some serious style.















I had a hard time choosing a favorite outfit {don't I always?} but I love the belted look she seems to favor.

Also? Even it doesn't seem like an oddity for us mere mortals recycle outfits twice a week, Michelle is doing the same thing, and I love her for it.

{photos via New York Magazine}

valentine hearts.

My friend Donna, who knows I enjoy some vampire fiction, brought me a box of Twilight themed conversation hearts a couple weeks ago.





Not only do they make my tongue go numb, some of them are sparkly. Yes, sparkly.


I love Valentine's Day.

hot lunch box date night in.

The grown-ups don't celebrate Valentine's Day at our house, it's created some, uh, tension in years past, but if we were to have a date night in this would be it.

Night at the Drive-In
$39.95
{via Hot Lunch}

Everything you need for a stay-in movie night packed in an adorable metal lunchbox.


Now that's something even Viktor could stand behind for a stress free Valentine's Day.



{I received a lunch box to review for this post, and I may or may not have eaten the entire contents upon arrival.}

winter beard.

I hate facial hair. A lot.




But Viktor's latest growth has me rethinking things a little. Okay, I think it's totally sexy, even though it's red.

minted valentine cards giveaway $50.

Do you remember how cute my holiday cards were this year? I loved them more than I've ever loved Christmas cards, and guess what? Minted, the company that made them, is offering a giveaway for one of you. $50 worth of Valentine Cards for you to hand out as you please to the ones you love.


I'm having a hard time deciding which ones are my favorite, what do you think? Are you stuck on the *I Like You* one? I am. Giveaway details below.










Giveaway Details:

1. To enter the Minted Valentine Card Giveaway leave a comment on this post.
2. Leave ONE comment on this post between today and Friday February 5th Midnight, MST.
3. Link to this post on your own blog (include the url in your comment) and receive an extra entry.
4. Twitter about this giveaway with a link to this post for another entry.
5. Become a fan of Petit Elefant on Facebook, and you guessed it smartypants, you get a third chance to win!
   
6. Anonymous entries will be ignored, so please include your email with comment.
7. If you're selected to win, you have 7 days to claim the prize or it will be forfeited.

got diapers?

Once upon a time diaper was a diaper was a diaper, all pretty much about the same. Anymore, it seems, the competition is fierce, and the latest innovation is calld Dry Max, by Pampers. You know them because they also make those great swaddling diapers for newborns to ease all that umbilical cord drama.

So these new Dry Max dipes are thinner than other diapers and made with less materials and less packaging. Nice. Also nice, the pricing is the same as current swaddlers and cruisers. These are being launched in tune with the upcoming Winter Olympics (2 more weeks!) which means the new diapers are going to Vancouver with those Team USA athletes toting their wee ones along for the adventure. They are even sending special Team USA-printed versions with the parent-athletes.

Bummer (I couldn't help myself) that the special Team USA dipes aren't for sale, but beginning today you can request a free sample pack of the new Dry Max diapers. And if your pack happens to include a Team USA diaper, you win a year's supply of the new Pampers Dry Max diapers. If you've done any diapering, you know that's a dizzying number (avoiding another tempting pun here) of diapers that you won't have to pay for. Yes, please. See note below.

Also cool is that Team USA speedskater Chad Hedrick, and skeleton luge champion Noelle Pikus-Pace are documenting their experiences (including their babies) during the Games. Starting February 12, you'll be able to follow them via pampers.com.

***note: Go to the Pampers website for free diapers. You will have to register with the site to enter.

studio 5 fashion segment.

I was on Studio 5 again yesterday, talking about how to dress warmly while still being cute in the Winter. I was way more comfortable this time around, and didn't flail my arms around quite as much. I still said *fun* a lot, but I guess I must say it a lot in regular conversation.


You can't win them all.


Go to the Studio 5 website for the full article on what to wear right now. At least if you live where it's cold, which I do.

mom 2.0

Have you seen this video from the peeps at Mom 2.0? It didn't make me cry. Much.

Cannot wait to head to Houston for this conference, {where I'm speaking, squeeeeeee} next month. If you aren't signed up yet, you really need to get on that.

handmade valentine cards.

I decided the other night, when I saw the dismal array of Valentines at the store, we were going to make our own this year. Both Charming and Precocious were totally on board and let me boss them around with the details.




I decided the best route would be to use my fabulous Cricut machine to do the dirty work for me, leaving me only to assemble and glue the pieces together. I kind of love the result.





I cut out little tags {isn't the paper wicked cute?} and pieced together red rectangle centers where the kids can write Valentine sentiments along with their names.




Like so.





Just a dab of Elmer's on each corner and we were ready to rock and roll.





I thought they needed a little more gussying up so I cut out some purple hearts {I could have never made them so straight if I'd done it by hand}, glued those babies on the top corner and we were good to go.





Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. I think I might loop a sucker through the tag hole before the kids take them to school.

Cute, right? Love my Cricut.

beautiful perfumes.

A few weeks ago my good friend Carina casually gave me a bottle of this Banana Republic perfume, Alabaster. I spent the night sniffing the bottle every few minutes just to make sure it still smelled as delicious as it had the first time I took a whiff. It did. It does. It's delightful.

And look at how pretty the bottle is, just lying willy nilly on its side. Mmmmmmmmmm.





This is my current perfume of choice, Vera Wang Princess. It's in a tie with Alabaster right now. I'm not going to tell you who will be in the lead tomorrow because it's too close a race to predict a winner at this point. They both have their virtues.

It's like telling me to pick which child I love more. I can't; they each have their good points.

What are you wearing? Or not wearing? Does perfume drive you bananas?

I've always worn it {since the 7th grade when my mom bought me Exclamation! at the drugstore}, and feel so much sexier when I have it on. I wear it to bed so I smell nice for my husband and in the morning so I smell nice for myself.

travel seat for babies.

It's been a while since I've traveled with babies, but I well remember the hassle of hanging out in a restaurant that didn't have a high chair. It can be kind of a headache, no?

Snazzy Baby Travel Chair
$34.99

Check out this super compact travel chair you can throw into the diaper bag, carry on, or even your purse {if you travel with life sized purses like myself} and carry with you into the restaurant for your own ensured baby seat.

Love it.

valentine gifts for kids.

Back when I was a good mom, I used to get gifts for my kids on Valentine's Day. I'm a mean mom these days and I usually only spring for chocolates and a card for my kiddos come V-Day.

I have some great ideas for gifts that will make your kids go wild on Valentine's Day. Seriously, they'll love you forever. Unlike mine who will be in therapy for lack of toys when they get older.

Zebra Shooter
$26.95
via Marshmallowville

I cannot even begin to describe the amount of fun my children have had ambushing me with marshmallow guns over the past month. Perfect for any child old enough to shoot marshmallows at their unsuspecting mother while she cooks dinner. Some dads {cough, cough} may get caught up in the action too.

Magic School Bus
Slime Science Kit
via The Young Scientists Club
$19.99

For the Junior Scientist in your house, this slime kit could not be more perfect. This happens to fit the bill perfectly for Precocious, but Charming was equally as happy to contribute to the creation of slime. Fabulous stuff from start to finish.

FeltTales Pirates at Shipwreck Cove
via Babalu Inc.
$19.95

I think the possibilities with this felt story business are endless. Doctor's office visits? Long days filled with errands in the car? Road trips? It boggles my mind to think of the fun.

polarn o. pyret winter sale.

Polarn O. Pyret, the newest of my children's fashion loves, is having a massive winter sale. Massive. And it's causing me to rethink things like groceries. And utility bills.




This is the same company that is responsible for the cuteness that is skinny jeans on Charming. Oh my. Hurry over to the sale and stock up.

alt summit recap + some fashion.

So it turns out I was lying about only taking 5 photos at Alt. I took about 10, and they're all included in this post. There was some awesome fashion at Alt Summit, most notably worn by Erin from Design For Mankind. That girl has some style.




Design panel from Left to Right: me, Nicole from Making it Lovely, Jaime from Design Milk, and Karey from Mackin Ink. Lovely women all three.


Now onto the fashion!


This was the official Alt weekend photographer, and in addition to being really nice she had the best hair I've seen in a long time.



A really, really long time.





And I want it, I want it now.


She seemed to be under the illusion that I could make it happen with my hair, but I'm not so confident. I would love to rock a Mohawk, for real.




This is Destri from The Mother Huddle who wore a beautiful flower in her hair, go Destri!




Erin from Today's Mama {incidentally one of my favorite people on the planet} rocked a scarf over her R.E.I. winter-wear, and I love her for it.




Jyl from Mom it Forward rocked color from top to bottom every day. It was quite a feat of strength to keep going during the panel when I looked down into the audience and saw Jyl with red hair! The red hair combined with the green shirt and purple coat was stunning against the grey backdrop of S.L.C. in January.




Melissa {IS*LY} wore a pair of black skinny jeans, red cowboy boots, a blazer, big red earrings, and a long white scarf. And she was hot to trot, no?





Erin from Design for Mankind {one of my new favorite people. ever} is the only person I've seen to successfully pull off boyfriend jeans. EVER. In fact, I was getting all geared up to do a post about how no one on the planet should wear boyfriend jeans, ever, except maybe the boyfriends themselves.

Turns out, Erin actually wears her husband's jeans, and that's the trick. She paired them with her grandmother's old boots {very cute!} a funky graphic shirt and a great jacket. Love, love, LOVE.






It was too dark to get a full body photo of Kami from No Biggie and Marie of Make and Takes {I tried} but their cute faces suffice. Wonderful, talented, kind girls.

{Kami posted a full profile photo of a few of us and captured Alma's fantastic outfit. Also, she captured me looking like a chipmunk so, bonus}



Last, but not least, was Erin's last outfit on Friday. It involved a lot of layering, brown slouch boots, knee high socks, wraps and sweaters, and leggings. And is one of the best outfits ever. I think I might be too curvy to properly pull it off but it looked adorable on Erin.


So there you have it, several fabulous outfits from which to draw great fashion inspiration. I love the way everyone wears things differently, each owning their own style.

Rock on girls, you're all beautiful.