Styled by Jess

A Weekend in Portland, Maine

My husband and I were lucky enough to escape to Portland, Maine over the weekend for a little second babymoon before our little one arrives soon (our first babymoon when I was pregnant with Z was in Southampton). We decided there were really 2 main priorities for this weekend away – to eat and rest. I know that sounds gluttonous and lazy, but at least there was lots of walking in between meals AND we are parents to a wild toddler so we really just needed a rest.

Portland is known for their restaurant scene and we were excited to try it out (I had been to Portland a few times years ago, but my husband had never been). We did a little research and found out that if you love food you must try Fore Street. We called a few weeks in advance and could only get a reservation for Friday night so we hustled up there Friday evening and boy was it worth it. And by the way, I happened to see a photo on Instagram from a friend who was also in Portland for a bachelorette party and she posted a photo from Fore Street the very next night – it’s THE place to go!

The wide open kitchen with wood burning oven and grill not only made for a great view and ambiance in the restaurant, but made the food especially delicious.

The next morning we slept in, had breakfast at our hotel, and had a couples massage at the hotel spa – this was the resting portion of the weekend. We finished up in time for a walk around town and then lunch.

My husband did a little research and found the most unbelievable place for lunch – Duckfat. I am a pretty big fan of the sandwich in general and I might declare this was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had (I ordered the BGT panini – bacon, goat cheese, and tomato – the yummiest combo of flavors)! Duckfat is known for their french fries fried in…you guessed it…duck fat. They make everything from scratch, including milkshakes and a short list of sodas, I had the Scarlet – a berry soda with a hint of ginger. We didn’t order a milkshake but from what we heard from guests around us those were amazing as well.

We walked across the street and popped into Two Fat Cats Bakery to grab a sweet treat for later. This bakery is known for their whoopie pies, so we tried the traditional chocolate with vanilla cream. It was a great whoopie pie – the filling was more frosting than whipped cream, but light like whipped cream. It’s a must try if you’re in Portland, Maine! The outside looks SO unsuspecting, but aren’t all the best places that way?

Portland has tons of cute shopping and places to poke around in, which we did our share of, but wasn’t the focus of this trip – I am verrrrry pregnant after-all, so walking around on quaint cobblestone streets isn’t my fave! But boy did we luck out with weather and had a summer-like day on Saturday, just perfect for milling around and enjoying our toddler-free time.

We woke up Sunday morning to a dreary, rainy day – perfect for having some complimentary-delivered-to-our-hotel-room-door coffee, followed by brunch at our hotel before hitting the road to get home to our girl. Now that the babymoon is over it’s time to get ready for baby!!!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention our hotel! We stayed at the Portland Regency Hotel & Spa – it was great. The hotel is located centrally in the Old Port section of town and we easily walked everywhere we wanted to go in Portland, great location. The hotel is housed in an old Maine National Guard building and still has that historic vibe but still has modern amenities. I would highly recommend staying here on your visit!

HappyFamily GIVEAWAY

We’re always on the go in our house and it seems like my Z is always hungry – “I hun-ry, Mommy!” It’s hard, especially as your baby gets older and turns into a toddler, to find great tasting AND healthy snacks for them to eat. Well, we were first introduced to HappyFamily products when we started Baby Bootcamp (strollerfit) classes when my Z was just 6 weeks old. Once she was old enough to try them (around 6 months) we were hooked.

When we go out, I always carry a lunch bag full of food, my Z likes variety in her snacks (she gets that from her daddy!).

HappyFamily makes premium organic food for babies, toddlers, kids & grownups. I love HappyFamily because I can let my Z snack on any of their products and know she’s getting healthy, organic, and often veggie-packed food (toddler granola bars with kale, SCORE!). And my Z loves HappyFamily because everything tastes SO good. I am so excited to bring you a HappyFamily product giveaway today!

The above is filled my Z’s favorites from HappyFamily, enter to win this package – it contains a selection of their most popular products for ages 12 months and older, as well as additional coupons, educational resource cards and a reusable Happy Family tote bag! *Note you may receive different product flavors than you see here.

Use the rafflecopter widget to enter below! The more options you do to enter, the more entries to win you’ll have! A winner will be picked Monday, April 21.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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UPDATE: Contest has ended – thanks for playing! A winner has been notified via email.

*Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by HappyFamily, however all above opinions and thoughts are my very own. And let’s face it, you know toddlers and my Z would not be gladly snacking in the above pics if she didn’t LOVE these products!

Couple Things…

I found the cutest window clings to decorate for Easter, to be honest though Z loves them too and they haven’t spent any time on the window since I first put them up.

We finally watched Frozen and now our Z walks around twirling with arms in the air singing “…it go, it go!” almost ALL of the time.

We made homemade raviolis over the weekend – it had been a while!

And a special Saturday brunch-at-home treat of homemade monte cristo sandwiches using the same alpine lace cheese as in our ham & cheese paninis.

Necktie shopping for my husband at TJ Maxx – this surf and turf tie was my fave, ha!

We had a great time at my hand-painted wooden bead necklace class earlier this week…they all came out great and fitting for each persons’ style. Here’s Janet’s – perfect for spring, dontcha think? I have one more class in my craft-class series, join me Wednesday, April 30th to make handmade cards – register today!

Z Style – Casual Sneakers

Yesterday I shared a round-up of fun, cute casual sneakers with you…for adults. Today, I share with you my Z’s casual sneakers, which are my favorite of all. I found these sneakers during the summer Zara sale and bought them in a bigger size for her to wear later. Well – it’s later and they fit and they are just the cutest and coolest sneakers. I love that they’re slightly grown-up looking (not your usual kid-look, ya know?) but they are really good sneakers on her feet for all the running, hopping, jumping she does.

Striped sweatshirt – crewcuts (old) / Jeans – Lucky Brand / casual sneakers – Zara (old) (similar 1, 2, 3 – put some bright laces in this last pair!)

Casual Sneakers

We all have sneakers for running/working out, but I’ve always loved a casual sneaker for every day – like your converse all stars, for example. Well, I am finding TONS of awesome casual sneakers out there right now, and being super duper pregnant and still chasing after a wild 2 year-old, you can imagine my kicks have been in major use lately.

1. Technically these New Balance sneakers are from the boys department at crewcuts, but did you know the conversion for women’s sizes to boys? Your shoe size minus 1 1/2 – I wear a 7 1/2 women’s shoe, 6 in boys.

2. I have always loved a good Marimekko print, so these Converse Oxford Unikko sneakers are just fab – and on sale!

3. The kate spade and keds partnership made some cutey cute casual sneakers, I am partial to the polka dot New York Kick sneaker.

4. Zara always has fun casual sneakers (albeit pricey), this season I am digging the Sneakers with Detailing with that tiny hint of pink.

5. Always being a metallic fan (my favorite neutral), I had to include these new Converse Lace Up sneakers in silver – on my list!

6.I haven’t gone down the casual hightop sneaker road myself, but if I did, I’d try these DKNY Lace Up Wedge Sneakers, don’t you love that coral color?

Call for Guest Posts

If you read this blog, you know by now that I am pregnant with baby #2 – we are so excited to welcome our new little one soon enough! While I will be focusing on out little ones in the early part of summer and posting here a little less, I would love to keep up with some fresh, fun content on styledbyjess.com and wondered if there are any blogging friends out there who’d like to do a guest post? You know I write here about all sorts of topics, so feel free to pick one and run with it – fashion, style, crafting, food/recipes, fun activities, motherhood, am I missing anything? Drop me a note at jess at styledbyjess dot com and we’ll chat more about it including dates, photo specs, etc…

Thanks!

Washi Tape Easter Egg Card

I thought it would be fun to use springtime colored washi tape to make cute Easter decor! First up – a (very) little Easter card that is so cute that I almost don’t even want to send it to anyone. These cards are so easy to make!

You will need: Blank cards (I used cute, tiny cards from the Target dollar section), washi tape, double sided tape, an x-acto knife, white paper, and scissors (not shown).

Start by sticking your washi tape on the card. I stuck mine vertically up the card.

Flip around and trim the edges.

Draw your shape on the paper (I’m making Easter cards so I used an egg and a bunny, but this can be done for any season or shape) and cut out with an x-acto knife being careful to preserve both the shape and the paper the shape was cut out of.

Cover the back with double sided tape (or a glue stick would work here, too) and stick to your washi tape-covered card.

How adorable are these?

Mine happened to be the perfect size for a floral card. Hoppy Easter!

Couple Things…

Made a springtime washi tape thank you card this week!

She is obsessed with baking these *cookies (a sweet gift from our sitter on her last day of daycare last week).

My husband is not a fan of pasta-based meals so I always make some new pasta concoction on nights he’s out – earlier this week it was grape tomatoes, spinach, onion, garlic and julienne zucchini – SO GOOD!

We’ve had lots of snuggles with the bump lately – I think these 2 will get along nicely (I HOPE)!

Have a great weekend everyone and don’t forget to follow my new blog FACEBOOK PAGE!

Z Style – Spring Jacket

By March I am always DONE with wearing a heavy winter coat, aren’t you? It’s like…it’s been long enough, winter – I’m ready for something lighter and more colorful! So it comes as no surprise that it seems as though my Z is the same way. In the fall we did a little shopping at our favorite local second hand store (Growing Up in Belmont, MA) where we found her winter boots, a few other summer items, and this amazing spring jacket. In ebay terms this jacket was NWT (new with tags) and from the Missoni for Target line – score! As soon as my Z saw it in our coat closet a couple weeks ago she has demanded to wear it every day – no more winter coat!

Jacket – Missoni for Target (second hand) / Pants – Joe’s Jeans (TJ Maxx find) / THE boots (GAP Outlet)

Ham & Cheese Panini with Alpine Lace Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese

I love sandwiches. One of the hardest parts of being pregnant for me is not being able to eat a cold-cut sandwich. And sometimes you need a nice sandwich to really fuel your day, right?! Well, when you’re pregnant, they say you can microwave your cold-cuts and then make them into a sandwich…but let’s be honest, once a cold-cut is warm the whole sandwich needs to be warm. Enter the panini.

We decided to make ham & cheese paninis the other night for dinner and used Alpine Lace Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese for the cheese portion of this delicious sandwich.

To make the perfect ham & cheese panini (whether you’re pregnant or not) you need: ham, Alpine Lace Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese, dijon mustard, and a nice bread – we used fresh ciabatta.

Assemble your sammy (don’t forget to mic the ham if you’re pregnant!) including a nice spread of mustard…and press. We use a hot grill pan and put the sammies under a heavy sandwich press.

Look at that…and the melty cheese, so good!

We had this for dinner with a side of broccoli slaw. The Alpine Lace Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese was the perfect cheese for this panini! My life has many ingredients – one of my favorites? Alpine Lace® Deli Cheese. Visit Alpine Lace® Swiss Cheese to create a personalized nutrition label outlining your own recommended daily allowance of happiness! Here’s mine… Update: Like Alpine Lace on Facebook for more recipes and snack inspirations!

*Disclaimer: I received compensation and goods for this post, however all above opinions and thoughts are my very own and I truly adore cheese!