It’s my birthday! 

Birthdays are a big deal around here at The TomKat Studio and we believe everyone should celebrate their special day in a fabulous way! I am super excited this year for two reasons.

#1: I’ve always dreamed of hosting a huge birthday giveaway!
It’s happening! I’ve gathered some of my very favorite friends, brands and vendors to host a spectacular birthday giveaway so that you could ALL celebrate with me! All week long we are hosting the biggest giveaway I’ve ever hosted and trust me… it is crazy amazing. Read on for all of the fabulous prizes you could win! (just skip all my personal chatter if you just want to get to the goods)

#2: I’m turning 39. Ack! One year to go before the big 4-0.
This fact has me feeling all the things. All of a sudden I have this strong urge to do all of the things I’ve been dreaming about doing and living my life the way I’ve dreamed about living it. Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful for the amazing life I have. I wake up every morning happy for so many reasons. I have an amazing husband who supports me every step of the way and who is the most involved, awesome father you could ask for. I have two happy and healthy children who are super smart and talented, and who still want to cuddle their mommy every night. I have a career that I couldn’t of even dreamed of, doing what I love and being creative every single day. I have incredible friends and an amazing family who bring me joy and happiness with every shared moment (especially when we are drinking margaritas).

art print via Lil Luna

But in the back of our minds, we all have things that we know we need to work on. So I figured if I actually typed out all of the things that run through my head, it might help remind me to work on these things.

1: Take Care of Myself.
I am obsessed with work. It is endless and I always feel like I could be doing more. I need to figure out how to separate work from home. I LOVE working from home, in my cute little office all alone, all day. I love crossing things off my to-do list (aka getting shit done) and I feel quite productive most days. However, it probably isn’t the healthiest thing to grab my coffee (always in a cute mug) and go straight to my desk every morning. Once I sit down, I get sucked in and never get up until it’s time to get the kids from school (except to grab something not-so-healthy for lunch). This cycle means that I never go to the gym. Everyone in my life goes regularly (my husband is as fit as he has ever been, which I love, but I’m a little jealous) and I want to be healthy and look my best, too. I keep saying I don’t have time because I have so much work to do, but I know that if something is important, you have to make time for it. I think it’s time for me to commit and if there was ever a good time to commit, wouldn’t this next year before I turn 40 be optimal? Why is this such a hard habit to get into? With this, comes eating healthier (ignore the delicious cupcakes below) and getting the health checkups I should be (mammogram anyone?). It’s no fun getting old, but if we can do it gracefully, let’s try.

2: Simplify + Organize.
The older I get the more my obsessive tendencies are coming out. The housework is never ending and if you’re like me, you strive for a perfect house where everything is put away where it belongs. Sometimes I drive myself crazy with this. Though I have a housekeeper weekly (yes, I am spoiled but one of the reasons I work so hard is so I can have help!) my house always feels like it’s in disarray. Soccer cleats, bags, water bottles, backpacks, dirty socks…oh and then there is all my crap. Every photo shoot we do leaves me with bins upon bins of props and supplies that may or not get put away for weeks on end depending how busy we are. I recently read the book, “The Life Changing Habit of Tidying Up” and I loved it. One of the things I love about moving so often is cleaning out, donating and selling things we don’t need anymore. It’s a cleansing process that makes my OCD heart happy. This book just reinforced what I already feel and took it to another level. Ever since, I have cleaning out rooms and closets as time allows (Marie, the author suggests you do it all at once, but I don’t think I have enough free days in a row to conquer this entire house) and the sense of accomplishment when I finish a room is amazing! I highly suggest reading it and getting on this train. Another step we’ve taken this summer to help control the chaos is to really crack down on the kids helping out. Kate is an excellent dishwasher and Tommy will do just about any chore for a dollar. To keep them on track, I’m all in for making this deal formal with a legit chore chart once school starts. (I’ll share the printable when I design it 😉 So, my goal is to embrace the insane notion of a perfect house, try my best and not be too hard on myself when it doesn’t happen.

3: Plan for the Future.
As 40 approaches us (my husband also turns 40 next year), it’s made me realize that we should really have a plan for the next ten years and beyond. Sure, things are going well for us both, but what is our strategy for the coming years? I don’t know about you, but I dream of retiring and spending all of our time at the beach and in the mountains (and visiting the kids while on scholarship at their ivy league schools, of course ;). As far as TomKat, I’m not really good at business planning, as I typically just fly by the seat of my pants and the work just keeps on coming. How great would be to set some goals and boundaries for myself that might allow me to not work so much (see #1)? It sounds fantastic to me! As you may know, we have a passion for real estate. My husband owns his own real estate brokerage and I am a former Realtor, so we have a shared love of investing in real estate. We are both risk takers (not typical for a married couple) and our choices have served us well over the years. We have a true passion for finding, renovating, remodeling, decorating and flipping homes. Our Flagstaff vacation home has been a great success for us and we would love to do more like it. We have been in our current home (our 15th to be exact) now for nearly 2 years (time to sell!) so we are now in the process of finalizing the plans to build our next home (super excited to share that process!). So while we are continuing to make moves to benefit our future, I want to really put together a solid plan this year for what the next ten years look like and what can we be doing to plan our future retirement (on the beach).

I’m pretty amazed at the effect this upcoming “40” milestone is having on me!

I truly hope it inspires me to do all of things that I really want to do.

image source unknown

Okay, so thanks for letting me share all of that. I know it was long.

Now…on to the super fun BIRTHDAY giveaway! 

Seriously, I am so thankful to have all of these AMAZING vendors on board to treat YOU (my lovely readers) to some fun and fabulous prizes in honor of my birthday!

We’ll be picking one winner for each amazing prize! Prizes include:

• One year TomKat Tee Subscription
• $150 The TomKat Studio Shop Gift Card
• $500 Pottery Barn Kids Gift Card
• Cricut Explore Gold Cutting Machine + Tool Kit
• $200 Tiny Prints Gift Card
• $150 May Designs Gift Card
• $150 Johansen Totes Gift Card
• $150 Lily & Val Gift Card
• $100 Emily Ley Gift Card
• $100 Hello World Gift Card
• $100 Gigglosophy Gift Card

Crazy amazing, right?

So what are you waiting for? 

CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER. GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON THURSDAY, 7/14/16 AT 11:59PM EST. SALE EXCLUDES CAKE STANDS, BAN.DO, KATE SPADE AND SALE ITEMS. NOT VALID ON PREVIOUS PURCHASES.