heart magazine

A lifestyle publication for women that celebrates the authentic living of your best life!

A couple weeks ago (okay a month ago... i'm behind on getting this post up!) Ash & I attended the sweetest little soiree to celebrate the launch of something so special to my heart.
Heart Magazine.
The gathering was held at a most precious champagne bar + was a fun night out, supporting a friend + this brave and incredibly special venture.

Meet Rachel (and her precious family), the founder + beautiful soul behind your newest dose of happy! She's pretty in an obvious way, but what you find out when you get to know her is that her soul is so incredibly wonderful + kind, and that to me is even more beautiful.

You owe it to yourself to have a little piece of her in your life through Heart...  Starting with "the why of heart" post HERE!

Heart features content that takes care of your heart. In its pages you’ll find celebrations of the real, a hand to hold through triumph and tragedy, and authentic stories from women living their best lives. You won’t find suggestions for thousand-dollar outfits, or recipes that leave you cursing and hopeless. No recommendations for a spotless house or creative projects you’ll never master. This magazine promises to encourage new pursuits while also assuring you that you’re just fine, as you are in this very moment.

Whether you’re living your dream life or wondering if it’s normal to still not know what you want to do when you grow up, we hope that you will feel safe within the pages of Heart. We hope you will feel inspired, comforted, and at home.

It is our firm belief that women deserve to feel uplifted. Women deserve to feel connected and supported by others who get it. Women deserve to tell the stories they’re used to hiding, and from that, to find peace and happiness, and feelings they’ve not felt in years.

There is no time like the present to say what you’ve always wanted to say, and to do what you’ve only thought was possible later on. Later isn’t coming. It’s now. Now is the time to share your heart, the time to tell your story, the time to build other women up instead of tearing them down. Now is the time to connect, and grow, and be OK with where you are. That’s the mission of this magazine, friends. To stop waiting for that perfect time to be a perfect person, and to right now, this instant, allow yourself the grace you so desperately deserve.
(Excerpt from Heart)

We seriously need more of this in our lives!
Do yourself a favor today and visit
theheartmag (dot) com
to BE inspired or for an outlet to share and INSPIRE others!

And now a few fun snippets from the launch party! xoxo

**Rachel's Family photo by: Danielle Defiore**

All other photos by me :) 

we are f a m i l y !

i can't read the title without singing it, can you?

over the weekend we headed south to spend the weekend with chris' side of our family. we stopped in colorado springs (where we both grew up + met) to spend time with his mom + ended up eating lunch at the CUTEST restaurant ever, called Shuga's... heart eyes. i don't know if it was the orange ceiling,  bright red door, the drool worthy food, or the company, but overall it was a win. 

^^^my sweet lucy little bit. i could not love this child more. easy + happy. currently in a mom + dad only phase, but soaking it up until she phases back into allowing anyone + their dog hold her :)

^^^umm any bathroom nursing station that is this inviting and adorable gets ten points!

also, abel + his yaya^^^

 all day long i dream of chris salvaggione... still can't believe he's mine^^^

^^^the springs happy wall game is onnn point... foco where my walls at?  

^^^we then drove down to pueblo, where my sister in law and her husband live, admiring pikes peak + all it's glory on the way.

pueblo was pretty much summer time... 75/80 degrees, blue skies and sunny, popsicle deserving weather. perfect for playing in the backyard, strolling downtown + chasing abel in every different direction, which is exactly what we did.

^^^i love his feet off the ground, he has the best dance moves + an even better sense of adventure. i love you abel.

^^^this is abel's new favorite activity with me... "crying" aka Flying like a bird and flapping his little wings while i spin him... it's mostly adorable + i am so excited that pretending is finally here! hoorah! today he brushed his dinosaurs teeth + pushed him in the swing :) 

^^^this is probably my favorite picture from last week. i have to break it down by weeks because i take a billion and five pictures every day + constantly have a new favorite... but this one is it for now!

^^^late night talks at the table... one of my very favorite things.... and after RUNNING through the entire city of pueblo (okay, not really) this little guy was zonked. 

the following day, abel got "don'ts" for breakfast, per his request + chris made everyone else grandma salvaggione's famous french toast, yummmm. it was such a great visit, quality time, 1,000 too many carbs, good conversation + lots of smiles. 

^^^four in a frame + light from Heaven... amen

the chores went undone...

multi-tasking to the wind, laundry... get comfy, it'll be a while.

a couple days last week, the weather was praise worthy! (insert praising hands emoji here). for reals though... 80 degrees in march is welcomed with arms from here to there, and the lack of chores, multi-tasking, social media-ing, etc. was a much needed breather for me. i focused solely on my husband and my kids and the conversations with my sisters + my mom. i took a billion pictures and never posted them, gained a few more freckles on my nose, and abel got his first skinned elbow of the season. it got me seriously excited for spring (not the elbow, but it comes with the territory for him)! i'm excited for the swapping of clothes in our closets, trading boots for sandals, beanies for headwraps, warm drinks for iced, and sitting on the patio- drink in hand! 

it's only mid-march, and i live in colorado, so i know that i'm probably jumping the gun here... we are bound to have ATLEAST one or two more snows, but it reset my mind to a place it needed to be reset to. a place less busy + crowded... and for that i am extra thankful. here's to being present, to focusing on the important, to loving well + living well, and letting joy fill you to the brim + over- spreading goodness wherever you go. 

now for a couple pictures of my boyfriends...

f i n d i n g b a l a n c e

today was one of my harder days as a mother. 

it honestly shouldn't have felt like it was... no one acted poorly or even melted down, everyone was generally content, but the lack of balanced days(months) leading up to it had me constantly thinking "is it bedtime yet?" and "how many more days until chris get's home?"

i felt the heaviness of not being able to go and do as i pleased or even just sit on my bed and blog or read a book or binge on a favorite show on netflix. 

i know this sounds selfish. if you truly know me, my parenting style or my heart then you know that i'm not.

it's mothering, it's 24/7 every day of my life from now until forever. i asked for it and i knew going into it that there would be days that felt like this. what i'm finding though, is that it really has nothing to do with my sweet kiddos, it all boils down to me and a lack of balance. yes i'm a mother... i'm also a wife, and a friend, a sister, and surprise!... a person all on my own too. i struggle putting myself before others, even when someone offers to watch the kids, or says "it's not selfish, it's important to take time for you"... i usually don't. i want to have it all together, all the time... i want to be the best mom + the best wife, and friend, and sister, and so on. and in return, as a person i sometimes feel drained. 

but i'm officially saying not anymore. 

in order to be the best i can be at all of those things, and the best version of the woman that God created me to be, i need to carve out a little time for myself as well, let go of the "i can handle the world's problems + don't need any assistance" mentality and occasionally breathe in 5 minutes of un-shared starbucks, attention or otherwise. 

so, i'm on the hunt for balance. i feel sure that i'll find it... it's probably been looking for me too :)

for the quiet corners of our hearts.

i still get angry + i still feel sad... there, i said it.

it's difficult to talk about loss... it's awkward, and it makes people feel uncomfortable. it's hard to REALLY talk about it and fully open up and jump in the deep end because you don't know where that jump will lead, will you be able to keep your head above water as you spill your guts about how you're really doing and how you're really feeling? will they be able to handle hearing it? 

so, often times we don't. 

...but today, for me and maybe for you, and for the quiet corners of our hearts that ache... i'm talking about it. 

i miss my dad. he died 16 months ago, and i still miss him, + every day that passes feels like another day further from him... further from the tangible, further from the freshest memories, further from the hope that we'd win. i feel this pressure, like i need to be okay by now and miss him less, i mean, it's almost been a year and a half and i'm STILL missing him and wishing things were different? 

yes, i am. 

i'm not naive, i know what's real + i've accepted it. that doesn't mean it stops hurting, and it doesn't mean it hurts less even... maybe just less often. i don't let it consume my days or even my thoughts, when feelings arise i work through them the best i can + move forward. i look at my life and blessings and am thankful, i focus on the good and the joy instead of the unknown reasons behind the heartaches. 

i never want to be a bummer. i seriously considered not writing this. i've actually considered writing, and not writing a post like this one for months, but today i am somewhere in between wanting to inspire others, and also wanting to be 100% raw and honest even if it doesn't sound perfectly poised, so it just felt right. 

my dad won't know my children, and my children will only know of him what i tell them... that's a scar on my heart forever... so some days i'm sad + sometimes i'm angry, and it's okay. i know i'm not the only one, and you aren't either. everyone is facing something, and it doesn't feel natural to let yourself be vulnerable, whether in private or to another person, but God created ALL of our emotions, not just the ones that feel good. allow yourself + your feelings acknowledgement. ask others how they're doing and really mean it, let the people who truly care about you in... you're likely to find that someone else has a quiet corner in their heart that needs life breathed into it every once in a while too. 

you're doing great wherever you're at... totally healed, grieving a new loss, angry, confused, or maybe a mix of it all. keep doing your best, keep moving forward, + pray that the joy in your heart will overtake that little corner someday. i'm going to...