Styled by Jess

Fashion Florals

Florals are everywhere right now, have you noticed? You can *literally* get any form of fashion in a floral pattern right now. I personally think we should all tread lightly with this floral trend but there are some pieces that are just lovely. Here’s a little round up of some florals that I’ve been coveting and next week I’ll have a “What to Wear – Florals” to share.

Loeffler Randall Lock Clutch Tucker Floral with Graphic Printed Fabric from Piperlime

H&M Floral jacket (only $30!)

7 For All Mankind Cropped Skinny Jeans tropical paradise from Shopbop

J.Crew Floral Stripe Tee

Adorable floral shoes from Sole Society

I can get my Z involved in the trend with this floral peplum one-piece from babyGAP

And my husband with these floral cufflinks from Zara

Easter Crafts – Easter Egg Tree

Now that we have all these colorful and fancy Easter Eggs – we need something to hang them on! This Easter Egg Tree is so easy to make.

You’ll need: florist wet foam, twigs (I used curly willow), a vase, fish tank gravel (I used the kind that look like mini rocks).

Cut your brick of florist wet foam to size and then trim the corners so the gravel can get all around and cover it.

Stick your curly willow (or pussy willow would be nice too) into the foam. Put the branches in at an angle so they are not sticking straight up.

Once you like the placement of your branches, pour the gravel over the foam and make sure all the green is covered.

Decorate your branches with your Easter eggs and enjoy your colorful centerpiece. Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

Easter Crafts – Colorblock Easter Eggs

Colorblock in neon AND glitter! These were so fun to make and fairly easy so you definitely have time to make these before this Sunday.

You’ll need: eggs (I blew the eggs out, Martha has great directions on how to do so), egg dying kit (I bought the kind you find at the grocery store), Mod Podge, water, glitter, a brush, and a needle and thread.

First, dye your eggs according to your kits’ instructions. I bought the Paas brand in neon, because why not!

Once your eggs are dyed and dried, string them so you can a) hang them later and b) use the string to help with the glitter steps.

I ended up putting a dot of hot glue on the bottom of each egg to make sure the string stayed secure.

Then it’s time to glitter! To get the real colorblock look, I covered half of each egg in glitter. I watered down my Mod Podge a bit and then painted it onto the egg. Make sure you make straight lines so your glitter goes on straight.

Shake on the glitter.

Clean up with a brush.

Hang to dry and decorate your tree (tutorial tomorrow!) and voila – a colorful neon glittery colorblock Easter!

What to Wear – Easter Sunday

To me, Easter Sunday, no matter when it falls on the calendar, is always an excuse to get dolled up in spring-y clothes. This year, even though we’ll be celebrating in about a week and there will (most likely) be snow on the ground, I am still dawning an outfit fit for a spring afternoon. I showed you last week what our Z will be wearing, so now it’s my turn!

1. Smocked crepe blouse from Old Navy; 2. Belle Fleur Statement Collar from kate spade; 3. Dark blue spring-weight coat from H&M; 4. Grey polka dot pants, old, from Anthro; 5. Easter Lilly; 6. Colorful floral Nine West shoes from Zappos; and 7. Jewel in the Rough Pouch from Anthro.

Couple Things…

What a week! There were a couple annoyances – I had an allergic reaction to Aspirin (I know, weird) and then later in the week slipped on ice and hurt my elbow…but we had some great things too – I met some old friends for dinner one night and then I had a night in with Z the next night when my husband met up with his pals. Here are some other highlights from the week:

We celebrated our heritages in food: Irish Soda Bread on St. Patrick’s day (I’m Irish) and Italian pastries on St. Joseph’s Day (my husband is 1/2 Italian [and 1/2 German]).

We ate linguini on our girls night in. =)

I was at an event at the Ritz this week where they had individually wrapped jelly beans – so cute!

Someone has learned how to slam doors and has too much fun doing so.

I hope you have a great weekend, here are some links from the week:

I am not embarrassed to say one of our big weekend plans is to try the newly open Shake Shack in Chestnut Hill. Here are some ordering tips if you’re going there too.

Congratulations Worcester, MA! But you may have snow til May.

This blue suit from Zara is fab, I wish I had somewhere to wear it!

From Vogue.com, how to look better on screen when you Skype!

What to Wear – Z’s Easter Outfit

Ok, we all love this adorable polka dot dress from the Jason Wu for Target/Neiman Marcus line, right? Well as soon as it went on sale after the holidays I got one for Z to wear on Easter. Here is how I’ll style it for her Easter Sunday look. I just love little girls’ looks on Easter – with formal dresses, white tights, and party shoes. So sweet.

1. Bunny hair clips from Seed Heritage; 2. Jasun Wu for Target/Neiman Marcus, no longer available; 3. Zara baby velour jacket; 4. Teeny tiny cross necklace from Nordstrom; 5. Melissa & Doug plush bunny; 6. Cute, colorful felt carrot Easter basket from Paper Source; 7. Metallic bunny mary janes from Seed Heritage (aren’t these just the cutest baby shoes you’ve ever seen?!); and 8. Carter‘s ruffle bottom tights.

Easter Craft – Polka Dot Easter Egg

Last year I started a new tradition of decorating a wooden Easter egg for our Z that we can hang every year. I made a purple egg with white polka dots and frankly, I didn’t love how it came out. Since we love polka dots in this house, I decided to re-do how to make a polka dot Easter Egg. This time it was easier and came out looking exactly how I wanted and envisioned.

You’ll need: eggs (I used a wooden egg but you can do this with hard boiled or blown eggs as well), glue dots, glitter, and string to attach and hang the egg.

Before I began decorating, my husband drilled a hole through the wooden egg and I painted it white. I also wrote her name and the date of Easter on the bottom (since we’re saving these year to year). Start by strategically sticking your glue dots on the egg. Peel back the paper over the sticky part one dot at a time and pour glitter. These dots are very sticky and the glitter will stick nicely.

Brush off unwanted glitter with a small paint brush.

Now you’re ready to string the egg and hang it! Stringing your egg can be tricky, this year I used thick thread and then added a matching green bead in between the bottom of the egg and the knot to make sure it stayed in place. Done – cute egg!

PS. I’ll have the how-to next week on the little Easter Egg tree you see here…

I Need a Pouf

Our family room is long with a step down in the middle which creates the feel of two separate rooms. The top level is where we have our desktop computer, bookshelves and toys and therefore where our Z spends a lot of her time. The lower level has our couch, TV, coffee table and a couple other odds and ends (this is where Maxine the cat hangs out, see below).

There is an interesting phenomenon with this set-up when we have guests over…everyone sits on the floor of the upper level. Whether it’s to get down to play with the kids or to sit on the step and watch a sporting event on TV, the ground of our upper level is almost always a guest seat.

nordstrom-at-home-tufted-spots-pouf — Tufted Spots pouf from Nordstrom at Home

So, when I saw this adorable pouf on Pinterest, I was sold. What a perfect piece to have in the family room to be a sometimes-table-surface and a sometimes-guest-seat so they don’t have to sit on the floor. And it’s orange! Which I’ve mentioned is the color of our family room and it would coordinate perfectly. But, even after speaking with a rep from Nordstom at Home, I was told tragically this pouf in orange is sold out – they will not get any more in stock – ever.

And now I am on the hunt for a replacement. Here are some contenders, what do you think?This striped blue one from CB2. I like the handle, it’s totally moveable.

This Pull Up a Pouf from Land of Nod is really cute and the color would coordinate with our couch.

Also from Land of Nod this Grey Herringbone pouf, but not sure I like grey.

The pouf collection at West Elm, especially this Bazaar Pouf, is fantastic – but I’m not spending $249.

Cute chevron pattern from an etsy seller – she has tons of colors and patterns, so maybe this is the way to go.

Thoughts?!?!

Couple Things…

What a week – you can definitely tell Spring is in the air…that foot of snow we got last Friday is just about gone! This weekend we’re excited to hit the slopes for probably one last time this season and then we’re going to a little birthday party for my niece (turning 6!!) and my nephew (already 3!!). Time flies, huh?

Here is a photo recap of our week:

Two words: PLAY KITCHEN!

We got the above mentioned play kitchen at Ikea and kind of had a blast while we were there. Z tried out every table and chair in the kid section, look how serious she took it! I also thought this rug would be fab if I had a home in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or that neck of the woods.

I went to a fun afternoon tea/fashion show at Bloomingdale’s with my friend Amelia. The tea part was great, the fashion show could’ve used a little more fashion (only 15 looks!). I wore my favorite J.Crew bow pants.

We went out for sushi! This photo is deceivingly calm…the restaurant where we ate didn’t have high chairs so while we were chop sticking and dunking into soy sauce, our munchkin was ripping apart the table. It was what they call “a disaster.” At one point my husband grabbed bungee cords from the car to bungee her to a seat…yeah, that didn’t work either.

Have a great weekend, here are some fun links:

Shake Shack Chestnut Hill opens Wednesday 3/20 – can’t wait to try!

More Jenna Lyons from J. Crew, I love those glitter-heeled shoes…

Clothes do make the man, at least this character from Girls.

Aren’t these flower-print shoes adorable? They would be great with what I’m thinking of wearing for Easter…

Blue Apron for Dinner

If you haven’t guessed, we enjoy food in this house, and we really enjoy making food. Trouble is, we’re always wanting to try new recipes and ideas and sometimes, frankly, it’s exhausting. Well, we found a sale on Ruelala recently for a site called Blue Apron and we knew we had to give it a try. You sign up and the ingredients to make 3 complete meals are delivered right to your door. It’s the perfect way to try new recipes without a) having to figure out what to make or b) having to go out and shop for the ingredients.

Your ingredients arrive with a nice letter making you excited for your cooking adventure!

Our ingredients to make: Chicken Saltimbocca, Pork Ragu, and Cod Coconut Curry.

I especially enjoyed the “Knick Knacks” bag filled with spices and smaller ingredients like chile peppers and ginger.

They make the recipes super easy to follow along with photos.

This is the Cod Coconut Curry with Baby Bok Choy and Yukon Gold Potatoes. Overall it was good – but it was very spicy and there was a lot of grittiness to the bok choy even though we thoroughly washed it.

This is the Chicken Saltimbocca with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes. This one was very good – you can’t go wrong with a meal with cheese and prosciutto, it was also Z’s favorite.

This is the Fresh Rigatoni with Spicy Pork Ragu. This was also very good, but the most that we feel we could and would make ourselves. You can’t beat fresh pasta though, it was from a place in New Jersey.

Overall, we had a great experience with Blue Apron and three fabulous meals. The ingredients were fresh (accept one rotten onion) and very interesting (we had never worked with Birdseye Chiles before). We also don’t use many fresh herbs so that was a real treat to use them in every meal.