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Ailee Petrovic

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10 Items You Need from The Monogram Shop (Giveaway!)

The first time I ever stepped foot into The Monogram Shop, I knew I had found my match. Everywhere I looked, I saw gorgeous jewelry, monogrammed purses, colorful napkins, witty cards, and adorable baby gifts. I wanted it all.

If I ever need a gift for a baby, friend (male or female) or something special for myself, I head to The Monogram Shop, as I know I’ll be able to find something good. I tend not to leave myself enough time to get something personalized, which is an issue, as I always fall in love with something that needs to be monogrammed. My goal for this year is to be more proactive in buying presents more than just a couple days in advance.

Last week, I went to the store to meet with Leah to discuss some fun party items for Isla’s birthday. I cannot wait to see how they turn out! I also browsed the store, looking at their latest and greatest. If you’ve never been to The Monogram Shop and live in Houston, you’re seriously missing out. I’ve put together a list of ten things that you need from The Monogram Shop, which includes their jewelry, colorful cups, travel accessories and many other pretties.

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The best part of all is that The Monogram Shop is offering one lucky Snapshots & My Thoughts reader a $50 gift card to their store. You don’t have to live in Houston to use it either, as you can order from their website or over the phone. The giveaway ends at 11:59pm on Friday, April 17th. Good luck!

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Have you visited The Monogram Shop before? If so, what did you think? If you live outside of Houston, is there a similar store in your area? I’d love to hear about it.

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1 Jewelry | Bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc.DSC_0308The Monogram Shop

Week in Review

Yesterday, we celebrated Easter for the second time, as Serbians follow the Julian calendar as opposed to the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world. I love it, as most of the time, we get to observe holidays twice! We headed to the Saints Constantine and Helen Church Serbian Orthodox Church in Galveston for the morning, then had a family lunch at Sasha’s mom’s beach house in Tiki Island. Sasha’s sister, Ivana, came into town for the weekend to be part of the celebrations, and it was so to spend time with her (i.e. shopping at J. Crew, running, eating). I could not have gotten luckier with a sister-in-law. I love her to pieces.

The week was relatively low-key, as I spent a lot of time trying to sort out my work and Isla’s birthday party. I cannot believe that it’s only a month away, and since we’re going out of town for the two weeks prior to the get together, I want to try to organize things now!

Other highlights from the week include:

  • Going to watch Legally Blonde (The Musical) at the Miller Outdoor Theater with a couple of girlfriends and sipping a tiny Sofia sparkling wine can as I hummed along to ‘Omigod You Guys‘ (did any of you watch Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods on MTV in 2008?).
  • Eating the world’s best veggie burger at Counter Burger after doing a 5-mile family run at Memorial Park with Ivana.
  • Watching two movies (we never, ever watch TV or movies, so this was huge!) – 100 Foot Journey and A Million Ways to Die in the West – we absolutely adored both. And the former made me so excited about our Paris trip!
  • Pulling the trigger and booking tickets to Melbourne for January 2016 for the Australian Open (I bought mine with United miles!) – we’re also going to do a Auckland, New Zealand trip while we’re there and I’m ecstatic because I’ve never been there before.
  • Going to the dentist for a cleaning – this falls into my high, as I love getting cleanings and coming out with my teeth looking three shades whiter; however, I also found out I have my first cavity, which was super depressing and would definitely be the low-light of the whole week.
  • Meeting with Leah at The Monogram Shop and discussing Isla’s birthday party decor, amongst other things – more to come on this later in the week!
  • Going to The Little Gym of Memorial for Isla’s first gym class – it was so cute and she loved it so much, especially walking on the beam, playing with other kids, and doing flips and rolls on the cheese mats.
  • Spending an entire afternoon with one of my oldest childhood friends, Brittany, to celebrate her birthday with lunch from Zoe’s Kitchen – she is hilarious, so we pretty much laughed for five hours straight. I cannot wait for Brittany’s wedding in Vail this summer!
  • Visiting Isla’s cousins – Mila, Lazo and Ana – at their house and decorating Easter eggs (not Isla, just me!). I haven’t decorated eggs in years and years and I forgot how much fun it is!
  • Finally, after months and months and months of nagging, getting to meet with a landscaper to ‘fix’ our backyard, which I dislike a whole lot. I’m excited to see what he comes up with!
  • Going to Isla’s swim class at Dad’s Club, which she seems to enjoy now! Everyone said it would take just a few visits, and they were telling the truth – I think she’s accustomed to the water now, as well as the drills and the sweet instructor.
  • Last, but not least, creating a photography site, which I’m pretty darn excited about. I have a few ‘clients’ (friends or friends-of-friends) for whom I’m taking baby or family photos in the new few months, and I wanted a place for them to easily view and download their pictures. I’ll share more details this week!

How was your week? Also, it’s my friend Mara’s birthday today – hop on over to her blog, Hook, Thread and Tinker, to wish her a happy birthday!

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The Perfect Little White Dress

Two weeks ago, I posted a roundup of my favorite blush pink dresses (read here), and I had a request from a friend of mine who is engaged to do a refresh of an old little white dress post (read here). I’m sharing twenty-four of my favorite ‘little white dress’ finds in a number of price points, ranging from this gorgeous Forever21 dress, which costs $35, to this fun, perforated Chloe dress at $589. Also, I slipped in a romper and two maxis, which aren’t really ‘little white dresses,’ but they belong in the roundup!

When you’re engaged, there are a number of occasions to wear a white dress besides your wedding day. Couples showers, engagement parties, bachelorette parties, bridal luncheons, rehearsal dinners, etc. – the list goes on. I recently rewore a shower dress at Isla’s Christening, and I wore every white dress I own during our honeymoon to Bali. They’re handy items to have on hand!

#CrazyForCommons

This past weekend, our good friends, Amanda and Scott, got married in a stunning ceremony at the Southern Oaks Plantation in New Orleans. The wedding weekend kicked off with a bridal happy hour at Le Meridien hotel, where the bride and her family were staying. Amanda gave us the cutest monogrammed pajama pants to get ready in the next day, as well as a tiny bottle of St-Germain (obsessed). After we had a couple glasses of bubbly (in gold sugar-rimmed glasses!), we headed to the Galvez Restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. The speeches were wonderful, and the video that Amanda made was unbelievably good – almost all of the guests watched their faces flash by on the screen and were reminded of the many wonderful memories they had of the bride and groom.

The next day, we met in the bridal suite and started getting ready around lunchtime. There were lots of girls getting their hair and makeup done, and it was so nice to catch up with many friends I haven’t seen since high school. I slipped away for 30 minutes to take photos of the men getting professional barber shaves at Aidan Gill. Around 5:30pm, we all loaded into the limo and headed to the Southern Oaks Plantation. Once we got there, Amanda and Scott had their first look, then it was go-go-go as guests started to arrive. The ceremony was so sweet, and the processional New Orleans marching band that marched around with the bridal party afterward really helped it end with a bang. We headed inside for the reception, which was quite the party – Amanda’s incredibly talented dad and his band, Easy Money, played the best music all night long. The highlight of the entire party (for me at least) was when Amanda and her two sisters surprised all of the guests by performing ‘Single Ladies’ (watch an iPhone capture here – not the best quality, but you’ll get the picture). It is an understatement to say that they nailed it. I’m so impressed!

The grand exit was perfect, with guests shaking noise makers at the bride and groom as they left the venue as husband and wife. I am so excited for Mr. and Mrs. Commons. They are a perfect match, and I know they’re going to live happily ever after.

I cannot wait to see pictures from their talented photographers, Dark Roux! Until then, here are a few that I captured during the weekend.

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Week In Review + Isla at 10 Months

I hope you had a hoppy Easter and a most eggcellent weekend (the only puns I’ve got!). We were in New Orleans on Friday and Saturday for our good friends’ wedding, and drove back to Houston early on Sunday in order to spend Isla’s first Easter together. We carpooled with two friends and so we quickly dropped them off, then headed to my parent’s house for an Easter lunch and to see what the Easter bunny had delivered. Thank goodness that bunny knows what we want, as our baskets were filled with dried mango (Isla’s favorite too!), Bananagrams (you need this!), J. Crew and Starbucks gift cards, as well as other little treats.

Saturday was Isla’s 10 month-iversary, and we were sad to miss it, although we did FaceTime multiple times with her, as she was with my parents in Katy (and having the best time ever!). I cannot believe our tiny little baby is almost 1 year old, and that I’m already in the throes of planning her birthday party (we’re gone the two weeks following up to it, so I’m trying to get ahead).

Every day with Isla is better than the last. I grow to love her more and more each morning – it’s incredible that our hearts are capable of such expansion. She currently loves clapping, waving, being in charge of peek-a-boo (normally behind pieces of paper – see photo below), hitting me with balls to get me to say, “Ouchie!”, going to music class, popping bubbles, swinging at the park, taking naps in the stroller while I run, standing up, and walking everywhere with her walker (getting faster day-by-day). She eats everything except for raw beets, but most especially loves berries, cereal, sweet potatoes, avocados, mushrooms, chicken, pasta, quinoa, dried mango, puffs, clementines and chia seeds (weird, yes). Isla’s biggest dislikes are the blender, cold water at swim class, the first 4.3 seconds in her car seat, laying still while getting her diaper changed, getting her face wiped and when I take my cell phone away.

Isla is still sleeping from 6:30pm to 7:30am, but does not like to get into her crib unless she is accompanied by her lovie, a pacifier (or multiple), and at least two blankets. She is the DJ to her Cloud B Sleep Sheep, and constantly changes the tunes. She loves her bedtime stories, which we’ve now memorized. Going to get her in the morning is one of the happiest moments of the day, as she is still so excited to see me. That will never get old!

Although the week flew by, we had some very exciting moments, including:

  • My best friend from childhood, Alisdair, and his wife, Erica, came to Houston on Monday and stayed with us, so we had a handful of our friends over for dinner, wine, cheese and vegan treats – we had the best evening catching up, which doesn’t happen often, as Ali and Erica live in Scotland.
  • Another one of my closest friends, Andrew, was in town from Boston and came over for dinner, wine and good chats – as well as the Bieber roast, which was absolutely hilarious!
  • Meeting sweet baby Brooks and taking his newborn photographs, which you can see here.
  • Celebrating Amanda and Scott’s wedding at the Southern Oaks plantation in New Orleans – I cannot wait to share more photos this week! Every single detail of the weekend was perfect, and you will die when you see the video that was taken of the Long sisters’ performance at the wedding.
  • Spending Easter with my family (in our matching Gap outfits!), and knowing that we’ll get to do the same next weekend, as Serbian Easter is a different date than the rest of the world!
  • Having Sasha’s grandma come and visit for the day, and then spending the rest of the evening with his mom (Isla’s ‘Baba’).
  • Getting pieces of Isla’s birthday party in the mail and finalizing her invitations, which are being designed by Papellerie – I am way too excited about them. There’s an exciting custom confetti package that will be on its way to our house soon – have you checked out The Confetti Bar yet? I love it.
  • Isla’s swimming class was much more enjoyable this week, as she only cried once or twice. Everyone says it gets better every week, so I’m praying for even less tears this Thursday! She also is starting The Little Gym this week, which I’m excited about.
  • Getting my new desk and mirror delivered from West Elm – I am obsessed with both!

How was your week? I’d love to hear about your highlights in the comments below!

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