Hi Friends! For today’s weekend blog post, I thought I’d add to my ‘behind the gram’ series where I share snippets from Instagram and chat about what really went into taking each picture. I love doing these blog posts because it breaks down the wall of perfect Instagram-ness that seems to revolve around influencers (not that my feed is perfect by ANY means lol). I just think it’s important to not only share the highlights of your life on social media, but also what really happens to remind people that no ones perfect, no matter how good their lighting is, how flawless their makeup might be Facetuned;), or how seamless their photos look. My life’s a hot mess most days and I honestly think it’s fun and freeing to share that part!

*Read my last ‘behind the gram’ post here!

For once, this picture was actually just as it seemed. I used to stress about my social feeds, the number of followers on each platform, and that each photo be flawless like the top influencers. I quickly realized that no matter how hard I tried, my life and my personality is far from perfection. I think it truly hit me when I became a Mom. It was getting too hard to put on the facade of perfectionism so I gave it all up to be *mostly transparent* with every post I did (more on that in tomorrow’s really raw video). So far in taking this approach, my life has dramatically changed. I’m happier because I don’t feel the pressure to give into what’s popular on each social platform, I’m free to be myself, and the numbers are now just numbers to me. OHHH my goodness this photo definitely doesn’t bring back the fondest of memories. First off, Buitoni is seriously my favorite store bought pasta since I was a little girl so the pasta was definitely good…but making it, staging it, and filming it was another story. For this video and shoot, I was sponsored by Buitoni and working with such a big brand comes with a lot of legal technicalities I had to follow (ie: making sure the dish looks perfect/pasta isn’t withered, make the glare stand out less on the box, etc.). Well, I filmed the entire video, submitted it, and the brand came back saying I had to redo the entire thing because I COOKED THE WRONG PASTA!! loll It was such a simple mistake, but filming it took all day. This was the redo of the video and luckily it was all worth it in the end. It’s funny what you don’t see as a viewer:)This was the first day we went to our current Church as a family. I don’t talk too much about religion on my channel for obvious reasons, but I definitely don’t omit it completely because being Christian was a big part of my upbringing and still is a big part of who I am. Although there are tons of Churches in Charleston, it’s so daunting stepping into a mass group of people, knowing no one, and trying to make friends. I can honestly say it’s 100% worth it. The community we’ve found so far at our Church has been truly life changing. I’m so happy Annabelle will grow up around wholesome and good people. I know not everyone at Church is perfect (trust me, I know), but for the most part the community of families who attend really do have good intentions and have brought such a positive impact into our lives already.

Ay yi yi! This video! Seriously filming a video with a toddler is crazy! Annabelle was behind the camera screeching almost the entire time I filmed this review video so we had to redo it several times. It can get frustrating, but I have to remind myself that we are so lucky to be able to work with her everyday.On this day I literally spent probably 30 minutes doing my hair and makeup in the morning and never changed out of these pajamas. Ha…I really need to get a better work from home schedule going because some days I feel so overwhelmed. We’ve been going to bed at midnight, waking up with Annabelle at 7-8am and I don’t get myself ready and showered until about 10am. It’s a mess. I need to completely change my routine so I get more things done. My goal is to wake up before anyone at 6am, get showered and dressed, and start my day. I did this for about a month and then of course got distracted and back into my old ways. The new thing that has happened that I mentioned on Instagram is Doug is now putting Annabelle to sleep at night. This means I get an extra hour to work on my computer during the day and it helps sooooo much. After baby #2 is born we want to look into hiring a babysitter/nanny (not sure the difference?) twice a week so we have more life balance. Life balance seems to be such a struggle when you work from home!

That’s it for this week!:) Let me know what other blog posts you’d like to see. I love being more open on my blog and sharing it all! Thank you guys so much for following along. It really does mean the world that you choose to read my blog alongside my Youtube channel because blogging was and is my first ever passion! xx