happy weekend!

hello lovely readers. i hope today is as good as a friday should be...a winding down of the week behind you and a start to a great weekend. what do you have planned?

since last week was earth day, i think some green-related links are in order...why not last week, you might ask? well, i wasn't in a linky mood, but also, the hardest part about making changes is to do them after all the pomp and circumstance (as in new years and resolutions and earth day and greening your life).


so today, some links you might enjoy:

glamour's 30 little ways to save the planet. i love numbers 4 and 22. and check out number 24 - shocking stat!

along the same lines, here's 12 easy ways to green your home from house beautiful.


and here are 30 eco-friendly home finds from country living.

and on that note, in case you missed my post last week about the fabulous fabric website cia's palette, here is that link. with fabric choices like this, you'll want to recycle old furniture you have just so you can reupholster it!

something i plan on doing this weekend that's not only green but relaxing is to make sure to sit outside with no agenda, no plans, no blackberry and no time limit. i want to just sit and listen to the breeze, the water far in the distance and the trees dancing around. throw in some dappled sunlight and maybe an afternoon nap and i'm golden.
top photo from house of turquoise, bottom photo from www.hkll.zc.bz, all others from house beautiful.

chocolat

well, as promised, i wanted to share the pictures from the work baby shower i planned. the shower was yesterday, and it was a big success. the theme was chocolate, since the mommy and daddy to be refer to the baby as "baby chocolat."

of course, a conference room always looks like a conference room, but i tried to pay close attention to the details in my control and hope the officey vibe would disappear (or that the chocolate fumes would make people hallucinate and not see the glaringly officey things about the room). i think at first, when i told my planning crew i wanted to cover the built-in bookshelves with ivory tablecloths, they thought i was a little nutty, but it worked and i think helped the room to feel more festive and less like a meeting.



because we weren't going overboard with the catering (4pm parties always result in lots of leftovers), we made sure everything was chocolatey. in keeping with the chocolate theme, we had a mini candy bar in pink takeout containers and sprinkled the table with chocolate chips. right before everyone arrived, we poured cups of chocolate milk and regular milk, replete with hot pink straws all tilting to the same side. i find that details like that take only seconds, but make a huge difference with how it all looks.



as discussed, we did my favorite baby thing of all-time, the clothesline, full of clothes in pinks, greens, orange and yellow -- fun and cute, but not too girly (the mom-to-be isn't into overly girly things). these pictures look depressingly conference room-esque, but it looked better in person and you can see how random bookshelves would have been a real buzz kill behind the clothesline. i think the balloons loose on the ceiling helped to create a festive feel as well.

and we started a little library for baby chocolat with some of the classics.

now all that's left to do is meet baby chocolat!

right on time

i'm a little obsessed with michael kors watch collection...check it out (maybe for mother's day)...

tortoise and horn watch bands? YES PLEASE.

and for good measure, throw in one of the "rose gold" ones too (they're pink stainless steel).

and how about these 70's glam silicone cuffs? love. them.

the details on these lovely pieces are so dead-on and well done. i feel like these are watches even for people who don't wear watches. feel me?

oh and one other small detail...did i mention there's one in LUCITE?

slightly varying selections are available at bloomingdale's and nordstrom. see each link for their full collections.

all photos from bloomingdales and nordstrom

the luckiest

mitchell and i realized something really great recently and here it is...between the two of us, we've been to 25 weddings (some together, some apart). of those marriages, 21 are still together. that's 84%.

now resist the urge to explain it away (we're young and in another ten years, etc..) - some of the 25 weddings were almost 30 years ago, and the ages of the brides and grooms have varied significantly.

join me in just appreciating the simplicity and hopefullness of that ratio. it makes me think of this song (video is unrelated) which made me cry on the train by myself a few sundays ago (piano just kills me).

picture from the essential man

tiny treasures...flipping

look at these YES PLEASE adorable flip flops from old navy (the known mecca of cheap, fun flip flops). such a great way to rock a peace sign.

and if you're partial to hearts, there's that too. love!

and peace!

luckily, you don't have to choose that preciously, because for $5, you get 2 pairs. still the best deal around.

here are some other especially cute ones this year. (and then of course there are all the solids)

all photos from old navy

on the (clothes)line

i'm in a baby shower shopping kind of mood, since i'm planning one at work and just had the most fun ever perusing the target baby clothes and books sections. for this particular shower, all in shades of pink, brown and cream, we're starting the baby's library with some classic childhood books and doing the clothesline gift too, which will double as decoration. the clotheline gift (pictured here along with a baby basket i made last year) is a great one because in addition to being a great looking gift, it also provides many different pieces and you can be creative with colors and themes.

i'll share pictures after the shower, but in the meantime, let's talk about baby gifts since i know there are so many showers this time of year and we're all sick of buying boppy pillows and diaper genies.

first, to do either a basket or the clothesline idea, i recommend starting with a couple of great base sets (with several pieces each) and adding to them. it's cost effective, and it also bulks up the offerings right from the beginning. for a basket, i always like to add one really special item like this jacket:
both the basket and the clothesline could easily be a joint gift since they look like (and really are) so much stuff! so let's say you start with something like the the sets shown below and then supplement it with just a few other items in the color scheme, you have something that is unbelievably substantial within a reasonable budget.







remember, each piece gets clipped separately to a really long piece of raffia or twine, so it goes a very long way when you have so many pieces, and looks like so much more than if you were to give the set all wrapped up the way it comes.












here's a cute boy combination, starting with two multi-piece sets:
















and even for as yet gender neutral babies, there are cute options, again starting with base sets:







so fun, right?? to string it all up, just take your time and make sure you balance the weight of the pieces well for the whole length of the twine.

to me, this idea never gets old. it's such a dual purpose gift - of course it's useful because you've probably just quadrupled the not yet born newborn's wardrobe, but it's also visually exciting and cheerful, which goes just as long a way.

email me if you need specific links for any other pieces shown here.

stay tuned for more baby gift ideas tomorrow!

clothesline photos from time inc, life of tees and flickr, peace, love and happiness onesies and first neutral base set from babies r us , pink and white leopard onesie set from buy buy baby, all other clothing photos from target