Seven Ways to Romanticize Your Life in 2025 on Any Budget
You work hard. You put a lot of other people first — whether it’s your husband, your kids, your team at work, or your parents. You are the point-man for school day lunches, parent-teacher-conferences, weekend playdates, coordinating Mr. Fix It visits, vacation plans, getting dinner on the table, and making sure the household is running smoothly.
It’s few and far between, but there are special moments throughout your day and your week when you slow down, even for just a minute, take a deep breath, and you are reminded of how beautiful your life is, how grateful you are for the people you’re surrounded by, and how damn quick the days (and years) are flying by.
So this year, you decided you’re going to focus on slooooooooowing things down, inhaling more — deep into your belly, and romanticizing these days, because before the blink of an eye, they’ll be gone. You and your spouse will never be as young, healthy, or vibrant as you are today. Your babies will never be this age again. You’ll never be in this time and space together again. It’s going, going, gone. And you’re realizing above all else, you need to start cherishing it all a bit more.
Am I projecting? Or do you feel me?
If you feel me, great, I’m not crazy! I can’t believe that our daughter is already well on her way to two years old. I can’t believe we’ve been in our home in the burbs for nearing three years. I can’t believe that Ronnie and I have been together for going on fifteen years. And most of all, I can’t believe just how much of it I’ve taken for granted. As I set intentions for 2025, one of my biggest intentions was SLOW DOWN. No more rushing between meetings. No more rushing between work and daycare pickup. No more rushing to get dinner on the table. No more rushing to get Charlie to sleep. No more rushing to brush my teeth and slap lotion on before bed. No more rushing. This year, I am slowing things down, and taking big breaths in the space in between.
Whether SLOW DOWN was your intention for 2025, or you’re just inspired by reading my words, and seeing yourself and your life in what I am saying, I thought I would share just a few ways that I am slowing things down, rushing less, romanticizing more, and literally smelling the roses (see Le Labo, below) this year, and how you can do it too, whether what feels good for you is being indulgently frugal or indulgently superfluous.
1. Get A Fabulous Smelling Soap and A Fresh Loofah
There’s nothing more fabulous than an everything shower. I don’t know about you, but the few times I get to take a long, indulgent, everything shower, by the time I am done, I am a new woman! I find that the shower is my best thinking time — if I am ever troubled over a problem at home or work, or looking for creative inspiration, I hop in the shower, and without a doubt, I start channeling fresh, creative ideas. Scents have the ability to transport us to memories, happy places, and better states of mind. Here are a few of my absolute favorite smelling shower gels. Grab a fresh loofah, suds up, and effortlessly drift into a better state of mind.
2. Get Bath Robes For You, Your Partner and Guests and Have them Embroidered
When we moved out of our high rise in the city overlooking Lake Michigan, to our 1960’s A Frame in the suburbs on three acres of with a pool, pond, and the most glorious sledding hill you’d ever imagine, my mom said “we’re going to call this the Caldwell Country Club” and it stuck. As the Caldwell Country Club became the setting for long summer pool days, barbecues, and bonfires, it also became the setting for sleepovers and slow Sunday mornings. After racking her brain for ideas one Christmas, she had the brilliant idea to take the bathrobes I’d been accumulating (to ensure any guest had a fluffy robe to slip into when they stayed the night), and have them embroidered with “Caldwell Country Club” logos she created. Having custom-embroidered robes for me, my husband and our guests is a total luxury, and one of the things that people compliment most when they come to stay with us. I’m a bathrobe and slippers every day kind of girl, so this was a no-brainer for this list. While a fabulous bathrobe alone is absolutely incredible, the up-level is major when you take them to your local embroiderer and spend about $15 per item having them embroidered with your initials, or heck, even your “family brand.”
3. Get A Pair of Matching Pajamas and Have them Embroidered
Like custom bathrobes, there’s nothing more glorious after a long day of work or play, than slipping into a fabulous pajama set. Whether you’re a jersey cotton girl, or enjoy fine silk, there’s something to be said about the combo move of an everything shower + your skincare routine from an embroidered robe + a matching pajama set. After I had Charlie, I basically lived in my Skims pajama sets for my entire maternity leave. Slip out of the shower, dry off in your robe, once you’ve got all your skincare on and you’re perfectly dry and warm, slip into one of these, take a deep breath, pour yourself a hot lemon water, and read your favorite book in bed. You’re welcome.
4. Get To-Go Coffee Cups and Stamp with a Custom Stamp
Ronnie hates the fact that I bring my coffee cup in the car when I leave the house for daycare drop off! After three or so major spills, I had to agree with him — I needed a better way! At first, I switched to putting my coffee in a Yeti, but then my car became a Yeti graveyard because after daycare drop off, I go straight to the gym, leaving my coffee to either get too hot (summer) or too cold (winter) to be drinkable by the time I am back. In search of an alternative solution, I decided that I would get to-go coffee cups off amazon, and start bringing my coffee in a ‘Starbucks-style cup with lid.’ This solved the problem — no more spills, and no more Yeti graveyard, I bring my coffee with me everyday, and recycle my cup on the way to the gym. Perfect! Or so I thought, until at a local coffee shop I love, I saw them stamping their to-go cups with a branded logo stamp. Needless to say, I needed one for myself, so I re-created the “Caldwell Country Club” logo from our embroidered robes, and made it into a stamp. Now, I get to bring my morning coffee with me in a Caldwell Country Club to-go cup, and when we have guests over, I get to send them home with one too. What joy!
5. Treat Yourself to an Utterly Indulgent Cup & Saucer Set and Have a Tea Party with Besties
I have a soft spot in my heart for tea parties. When I was a little girl, this was my favorite play-pretend thing to do. I still remember my first tea set and the small table and chairs that I would sit in, cheers-ing anyone who would have a tea party with me. As an adult, I’m no different. I love the feeling of a long, slow morning or afternoon with girlfriends, when the conversation is flowing, and your cup is overflowing with joy. My mom knows me well, and so for my bridal shower, she hosted a tea-party-themed get-together. One of the most special aspects of the day was how each of her best friends donated luxury tea sets they’d been gifted throughout their lives, for the occasion. As a guest of the party, you might be lifting a tea cup to your lips that had been passed down for three generations and came from England, a set that had been brought back from Japan after World War II, or a handmade set from Italy. Every tea set had a story, and wow was it fun trading the stories of each set between the generations of women who’d convened to celebrate my special occasion. There’s no better time for a tea party than today. If you’re ever wondering what you can do to elevate the hosting experience when you and your girlfriends want to get together, but want something lowkey, I’d urge you to have a tea party.
Franz Porcelain Cup & Saucer Sets, (this set is stunning) OR a lot of the major luxury designers have really cute sets too: Hermes Cup & Saucer, Tiffany’s Cup & Saucer, Prada Cup & Saucer
6. Get Custom Stationery and Return Address Stamps
Our mailboxes are constantly full of bills and junk mail. It’s few and far between these days that you get a handwritten letter “just because,” but think of how special it would make you feel if you did? That’s why I go out of my way to write notes to friends. Handwritten notes and thank you cards are a way to say “I love you” “I appreciate you” “I’m thinking of you” and so much more. I always have stationery, envelopes, and stamps on hand to send some snail mail to the people I love.
7. Capture Your Core Memories in Really Special Ways so You Can Revisit These Moments with Ease
Maybe it’s just me, but at some point my phone became a graveyard of photos and videos that meant so much at the time I captured them, but have gone on to live NO life outside that digital frame. After years of feeling like my memories had disappeared into the cloud, I decided “No more.” Here are a few ways that I romanticize our family memories so I can visit and revisit our special times.
An annual scrapbook (mine live on my family archive site linked below!)
An annual home movie that brings together your favorite video memories from the year with interviews of family members
A custom website, updated monthly, with your family’s core memories on it
I hope you found something on this list that spoke to your soul! I can’t wait to hear the ways in which you romanticize your life. You are so worth it.
Xo
