Hello Spring Q and A

Spring is officially here and I am loving it! I am not a winter weather type of gal. Not only is Spring more fun because we spend most of our time outdoors but the clothes are just better! I am loving this top from Thistle and Finn and I love how it pairs well with jeans, white pants, shorts and I’m even thinking about a skirt. It’s so flattering and breastfeeding friendly so it is one of my favorite spring florals in my wardrobe.

I get asked SO many questions on a day to day basis I decided to do a little Q and A blog. I really enjoy putting these together because a lot of you ask the same questions and it’s a great way to talk about everything and you can use it as a reference as needed. If you want to ask me anything else, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it ASAP!

Q: who takes all of your photos? It looks like you have a professional photographer following y’all around!

A: on a daily basis, I take the photos that I post with my iPHONE 7. I love the camera on my phone and it’s just so quick to grab when I want to document something. For blogs, My husband takes my pictures and we use the Canon Rebel camera. It’s really great and easy to use. I use Adobe Lightroom to edit.

When we have photo shoot sessions with photographers, we use local ones that we love. Erin Dietrich Photography, Kristina J Mosley Photography, Gabby Bracey Photography and Sullivan Row are ones that we work with a lot!

Q: how do you get your girls to nap every day at the same time?

A: some days are easier than others but for the most part, we eat lunch and around 12 I get them into the bed. I close the curtains to make it dark, turn on a box fan for noise, diffuse some sleepy time oils (Lavender and Cedarwood) and I lay down with them. I nurse Scarlet Reese to sleep and Harper normally falls asleep after SR does. They nap for about an hour. It’s when I accomplish a few things on my to-do list.

Q: I really want to start focusing on creating a non toxic lifestyle. How do you suggest going about starting?

A: first things first, RESEARCH! Start learning about the ingredients in the stuff you have. Go to www.ewg.org/skindeep and type in your personal products. Start looking at the backs of labels and really learning about what you’re using. If you see something that you don’t like, chunk it. I switched over to Norwex first, essential oils then Beautycounter and it’s really rounded out my “product” circle. I shop for groceries by really skipping the middle aisles where the processed foods are and eating fresh foods. The clean fifteen and dirty dozen are great references when shopping for produce. It helps you buy organic when needed.

Q: how many loads of laundry do you do a week?

A: I post on my instastories about how I follow a weekly cleaning schedule. You can see the ones I use by going to my Pinterest page: LSWAmanda and checking out my “organizing” board. I do this because housework gets overwhelming for me and I have found that by breaking it up day by day helps me. I do 1-2 loads of laundry every day. I am looking to reduce this by subtracting an entire load of laundry devoted to bath towels. I am in the process of buying Norwex towels for our house so each person will have one towel to use all week. These towels are embedded with silver – silver smothers and kills bacteria so there’s no mildew or “dirty” going on.

Q: how did you learn how to do different hair braids? You used to post a lot about them.

A: during the summer, braids are my jam! It’s so dang how in SC that I had to find a cute hair style to rock other than a top knot. YouTube is my go to for learning new braids. My favorites are Dutch fishtails but im currently learning the pull through braid. Once our temps get higher, y’all can expect me to start rocking braids 24/7.

Q: why don’t you do makeup tutorials if you sell makeup?

A: honestly, it’s because I am not someone who wears makeup 24/7, I am a mom that stays home and makes it out on the weekend haha. I don’t go to fancy dinners or out to clubs so I don’t go wild with my contour and eye shadows. I sell Beautycounter makeup because I love it and it’s what I wear but I am more focused on sharing the mission and that’s getting safe products into the hands of everyone. Kudos to everyone who does makeup tutorials but I just can’t. My kids would be in the background picking their noses and screaming at each other.

Q: why should I take health advice from you?

A: you don’t have too. If you don’t like what I say or what I do, you don’t have to take any advice I give. That’s what is so great about social media, YOU choose who you follow. I am not a licensed nutritionist, doctor, chiropractor, etc. I share what I know. I’ve researched constantly for the past five years and I share what I learn with yall. I started this blog because I transitioned into a healthier lifestyle and was overwhelmed with questions from my friends and family on how to do the same. That’s when I decided to put it all together in a blog so it would be easily accessible.

Q: do you drink alcohol? I see you never talk about it but you’ve talked about drinking a lot before you transitioned your lifestyle.

A: on the weekends, Derrek and I normally split a bottle of Moscato or Muscadine wine after all the kids go to sleep. We never go out to bars or party. That’s just not something we want to do at this stage in our life right now. For rare date nights, we will go out to dinner and randomly have a mixed drink but that’s extremely rare. I will say that once I quit binge drinking, a lot of my weight started falling off.

my SR just woke up so that’s all the time I have to answer questions this time! I hope y’all enjoy this post.