Styled by Jess

What to Wear – April Showers

April is know to be a rainy month, so what should you wear to still look great but stay dry? I tend to like to wear bright colors on gloomy, rainy days – do you? I’ve put together a cute and colorful outfit below to give you some ideas. Sidenote: I just bought the little raincoat and it’s SO cute. It’s very thin, which will be great for warmer weather. I love that it’s the shape of a trench but also has a hood for when it’s especially down-pouring and you’re caught without an umbrella.

1. Oriental print shirt from Zara – a floral top under your raincoat is great to remind you spring flowers are on their way; 2. A Longchamp, the perfect waterproof bag; 3. Hooded tartan trench form Anthropologie, on sale right now; 4. Sleek Lifeproof waterproof iPhone case to protect your phone as you text in the rain; 5. Colorful Marimekko print umbrella; 6. J. Crew toothpick jean in huron; and 7. I love these rainboots by Kamik, they’re a great height and the little crest is cute and preppy.

Elizabeth Street – Street Style

This past Friday, my little Z and I were featured as the latest mom and child on Elizabeth Street – Street Style. Elizabeth Street is a site where “stylish moms meet” so we were thrilled to be noticed for our street style. Check out my interview!

It was so hard trying to figure out what to wear for our photo shoot so we ended up doing it on Easter Sunday when I was wearing this. Then I put Z in an every day outfit – the one that needed a special little accessory to make the outfit come together. Here are some outtakes from the photo shoot:

All of that said – I did the interview because I am trying to grow this little blog and have more and more people read it! So first, thank you for reading and please continue to do so. I post fresh, original content every weekday! If you like what you read, please comment on the post (I guess if you don’t like what you read you can comment too, but be nice about it 😉 ). You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest – just click the little buttons you see on the top right of the screen.

Thanks for reading!

Couple Things…

I just have a few photos to share this week and they’re mostly from Easter Sunday. We had a trying few days with a grumpy/tired/teething/whining girl and days like that don’t seem to beget many photos. She seems to have gotten out of her funk though just in time for the weekend! I have some fun girl plans Saturday night (shower and mom’s night out!) but other than that we’ll be doing some good old hanging out as a family.

Here is a photo from our first egg hunt on Easter Sunday, Z kept the ears on the entire time and found all 8 hidden eggs all by herself!

We did seem to capture a nice family photo at our second egg hunt of the day and look how proud she was of herself after gathering another 6 eggs at our Church egg hunt!

We brought this orange and poppy seed cake to Easter dinner and it got rave reviews, you should definitely try the recipe!

Look at this face! Even when we have a bad week of moody grumpiness and I remember just how hard this parenting thing is…I am always reminded that she is just the best thing ever. =)

Have a great weekend! Here are some fun links:

After Z’s crazy days I immediately bought this book. Have you read it? Was it worth buying?

New Great Gatsby trailer – can’t wait to see this movie!

We just bought our Z a play kitchen, but the link to this DIY one has been floating around this week, I love it!

RIP Roger Ebert.

Game of Thrones’ Facebook page.

Quick DIY Flower Pin

I am a firm believer that accessories can make an outfit. When you want to look particularly “put together” you always add a special accessory or two, right? Well, we were taking some family photos over the weekend and our little Z’s outfit was missing something. I quickly realized she needed a special accessory to really make her outfit come together: yes – even 17 month old toddlers need to accessorize!

I remembered this little polka dot pistachio green flower I bought on sale at Joann’s forever ago and decided to make it into a quick pin for her cardigan. It was so simple!

All I needed was a large safety pin and the flowers. The package came with two flowers attached to twist ties.

First, twist the twist tie around twice onto the pin. Twist very tightly so it’s very secure.

Then, wrap the ends of the twist tie all around the pin. You’re ready to wear – yes, it was that easy!

BEFORE. Now, she is a spectacularly cute and sweet girl [in my opinion ;)], we are just talking about outfit here, people!

AFTER – Doesn’t this little pin just make her outfit?

Fashion Florals Update

Did you notice at Monday’s White House Easter Egg Roll our fashionable First Lady was wearing the floral and striped top from J. Crew I included in last week’s floral round-up? She is a total J. Crew-lover like I am! I love that she wore it with white pants – looks great.

US-POLITICS-EASTER-OBAMA

*photo from stylist.com

What to Wear – Floral Patterns

I mentioned last week that I like the spring trend of floral patterns but to be careful because all those flowers could easily become too much. Don’t you agree? You should also be mindful of what wardrobe piece you are buying in a floral pattern. You want to look for modern cuts when you’re shopping for floral because you could easily look matronly. For example: a floral skinny leg pant? Great. A floral collared button down shirt? Matronly.

I have put together a great outfit below for an example of how to best wear the floral trend – even with more than one floral piece:

1. Threadbloom blouse from Anthropologie worn tucked in; 2. Marc by Marc Jacobs bright orange cardigan from Bloomingdales; 3. Colorful beaded tea necklace (only $38! btw) from Swell Caroline; 4. Bright hair ties for your ponytail from Nordstrom; 5. Floral print trousers by Zara, these are a great outfit base because although they’re floral, they are almost considered neutral with the simple 2-color pattern; 6. Willow Road Gia handbag from Kate Spade; and 7. J. Crew Green etta pumps.

Daily Jewelry

Do you tend to wear the same jewelry every day? Other than the occasional statement necklace (which I obviously love) I tend to wear the same few pieces of jewelry every day:

– Wedding rings and engagement ring on my left hand
– David Yurman rope ring on my right hand
– Watch
– Diamond stud earrings
– Diamond solitaire necklace

Recently though, I found a couple of simple bracelets that I’ve decided to add to the daily jewelry list:

A little “Z” bracelet from etsy that I wear for my little Z and a beaded bangle Alex and Ani. They’re simple enough for every day – worn alone or even if I add other bracelets too.

“Spoon,” a Children’s Book

We have a new favorite bedtime book in our house!

I saw this on Amazon and knew it would be a hit. Our Z is a big chef! She loves to stir, help cook, and try new things…

So when I saw this book about a kitchen utensil I knew it would be a hit. The plot is about a sad little spoon unhappy with his “boring life” as compared to his friends – the exciting knife, unique chopsticks, and more.

But then his mom and dad help him realize he has exciting things in his life too – like diving into a bowl of ice cream!

And we love any book that sends our Z off to have sweet dreams…

We can’t wait to read Chopsticks next.

*all photos by me of Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illustrations by Scott Magoon.

Couple Things…

Happy Friday! I’m just going to jump into the photo recap of our week since so much happened:

We went to the bike shop to get Z a helmet so we can start doing some family rides. She immediately fell in love with this teeny tiny Specialized hot pink bike…soon enough baby girl! Then she and daddy took a spin with her new helmet, I think she’s going to like biking…

We went out to dinner at our favorite local B.Y.O.B. Mexican place that we learned finally got their liquor license. We’re disappointed because we like to bring our own bevs! Oh well, the food is great and we all love the chips. (Yes, she is wearing her DIY Peter Pan collar shirt!)

My sister and I went to a fun party at Madewell hosted by Birchbox. They had Pimms cocktails with blueberry, cucumber and mint (a surprisingly great combination), mini cupcakes, Pinkberry, and a braid bar. So FUN! And we may have bought a couple things for spring…

And our cat Maxine – those sweaters were freshly laundered!

Have a great weekend and Happy Easter! Here are some fun links from the week:

You have to watch this mini-documentary about the Newport Folk Festival! Dad, you’ll especially enjoy this link if you haven’t seen it already…

This is the best performance by the Backstreet Boys I’ve ever seen…

I love the colors and florals from Zara Home’s Spring line!

If you need some ideas for what to make for Easter Brunch, here you go.

GP has a new cookbook coming out – here is an interview with her about her recipe inspirations.

Easter Crafts

I thought I’d give you a quick recap of all my Easter craft series, but first some related exciting news! If you read this blog, you know by now that I am a big fan of Martha Stewart – her crafts, her recipes, etc… – I even subscribed to Martha Stewart Living when I was 12 years old!! Anyway, late last week when I saw her Twitter contest for Easter crafts I thought I’d enter and then she actually re-tweeted the photo of my adorable Easter straws, check it out:

It’s a thrilling moment when the queen of crafting (or I’m sure it was her staff, but still) thinks your crafts are good enough to share (and by the way, she wasn’t re-tweeting any other entries). Thanks Martha!

Here’s the recap of my Easter Crafts Series: