happy weekend!

happy weekend, my readers, and happy mother's day! i hope you have something wonderful planned for the mother or mother figures in your life.

if you need some last minute shopping ideas, i'd love for you to check out the honey gift files. though many of them require time for shipping, even more of them are able to be bought on the spot in stores. for really last minute shopping, see this post.

if you don't have too much planned, but you want a special but low-key mother's day, how about sitting outside in the lovely spring air with a couple of sofia minis and some magazines to pore over together?

now for some stuff from around the web....

read this wonderfully lovely post by one of my favorite bloggers about the simple but beautiful art of making an impromptu salad. such a perfect combinations of photos and words, this post.

in other favorite bloggers, check out this hilarious yet amazing mustache-themed party (a 'stache bash) that jackie fo threw for her mom - so funny, and yet so dead-on with the details (and you know how i feel about details).

have you heard about vera wangs upcoming line for david's bridal? read about it here. i love that so many high-end designers are creating lower-priced lines for mainstream retailers...exciting!

well lovelies, as you know, there will still be one post each day next week even though i'll be away. i'll be in the city of light, and i'll be soaking up all i can so i can share the best of it with you when i return. i so value having you all to share things with - it's such a comforting way of processing and appreciating my experiences, and your input enriches it even further. thank you, as always, for reading.

top photo from country living, tomato photo from concrete magnolia, paris photo from love collage

mazels all around

mazel to all the winners of in style's annual best beauty buys...it's always fun to look around and troll for new ideas, and of course congratulate yourself on all the products you already know about and love. on that note:

of course:

i'm a recent convert to the dove beauty bar...i use the one for sensitive skin.
and although i can't vouch for these, i personally know people who swear by them.

the laura mercier tinted moisturizer:

the widely agreed upon best eyelash curler anywhere:

and here are some i definitely want to try:

how amazing does this seem?

i might have to get a bottle of this and tote it around with me:


i'll try any variation on this old classic...so nature fusion it is!


and given my love for all things aveeno, i'm curious about this too.


the BEST coral? i'll have to be the judge of that...i am intrigued by their description of the color, i will say.


and here are the things that were robbed, in my humble opinion:

revlon colorburst lipstick, specifically in lilac, soft rose and blush, a perfect shade a tiny bit darker than natural lip color.


and you know how i feel about these:

were any of your favorites chosen? are there any you think are missing?

all photos from linked sites

street smarts

what is the best travel tip you have? in all the reading i've done recently on travel preparing for my trip, i've come across some really good pieces of advice.

1. assume you'll be back.

this makes so much sense to me. although the opposite might be the more natural assumption and the inclination would be to pack it all in, the truth is that there's no possible way to see and do it all, so why stress it? i like the idea of managing the best we can with the amount of time we're in paris, and doing it at the pace we want to live at for the week. where's the enjoyment in desperately trying to see and do it all?

2. there is no "real" paris [insert any destination here]. it's different things to different people, and you will find your own preferences and what resonates most to you.

i love this thought. it can be easy to fall into the mental trap of hunting for the "true" experience of a place and missing out on it because you're looking too hard! every place is many things to many people, and i think it's a waste of time worrying about what's authentic and what's for show or for tourists.

what are some good tips you keep in mind when traveling?

photo from une femme d'un certain age

tiny treasures...lavender dawn

so today i'm going back to my roots with tiny treasures...for those that have been with me since the beginning of this feature, you might recall the very first tiny treasure, which was the mrs. meyers lavender room spray. the idea started then, and continues now, that a tiny treasure is a small indulgence we can give ourselves as we go through often mundane days, for no more than $5 a pop.

well, allow me to introduce another treasure in the lavender family...dawn botanicals jasmine lavender dish soap. and i mean please, you can't get any more mundane than dish soap. to have a little bottle of something that makes even the most unpleasurable things pleasurable? that is a tiny treasure by all definitions. (don't forget to eliminate the visual noise!)

here's how i came to know and love this one...a few days ago, i washed my hands in my office's kitchen and was very pleasantly surprised by the lovely smell. i noticed that it was dawn and made a mental note to come back when i wasn't carrying a giant potted orchid to do further research. then i promptly forgot about it. a few days later, i walked into the kitchen and noticed a distinct spa smell...who was getting facials in the kitchen, massages next to the refrigerator? nope, it was the recently sudded sink...fresh from the dish soap! and the rest is history.

for other wonderfully lavender scented things, see this post, and this one.

photo from viewpoints

such a pretty (cheap) face

so, did you ever get one of those weirdo emails saying that all these major department stores were changing their cosmetics packaging and needed to get rid of the old, perfectly fine stuff for bubkes? well, as it turned out, none of that was true...BUT it did all lead to a website that's been a pretty good find. and cheap!

my favorite thing is the elements compact which i filled with four different shades of pink from the eye and face elements collections.

another thing i love is the all over stick which is great for eyes, lips and cheeks.

are these the best makeup products i've ever used? no. but they're just as good as most i've used and are so reasonably priced that they make it easy to try out all different colors and products, mineral products and brushes & applicators.

i would recommend these items even if almost everything on the site weren't each $1, but really...i mean, even the compact is $1!

all photos from eyeslipface

forget-me-not

one of the most special parts of travel, to me, are the things that i bring home with me. some of these things, of course, are intangibles - they're memories, stories, lessons. some are in the form of photos that become an indelible part of our lives and our home - mitchell and i have a series of beach pictures from our first trip together to florida of each of us individually and of us together that are everywhere in our home.

some souvenirs are in the form of phrases or songs - our family still sings a johnny appleseed song from our stay at an amish bed & breakfast twenty years ago, and we all whip out the strange whooping sound we picked up at a staff show at an all-inclusive mexican resort. so yeah, memories come in many forms, and many languages.

as far as the tangibles, the souvenirs i would pick out as a young girl were choices made out of desperation - i would often choose something on the first day of a trip, because i was afraid that i wouldn't see anything else i wanted and i felt the need to secure my purchase right up front to avoid going home empty-handed. i think that's how my souvenir spoon collection came to be. many years and many trips later, i have learned much about myself - mainly, that there will never be a day i don't see something i want, so not to worry little carla. but also, that the items i bring home from my experiences in the world contribute to the feeling of being in a home that is reflective of my life.

when mitchell and i first moved in together, we each threw out a lot of junk that we had accumulated over the years. it was important to me that we did that, so that we didn't fill our new home together to the gills before we got to acquire anything together - i wanted us to have breathing room, but also to have space where we could accumulate things as a couple. i hated the idea that we would be somewhere and see something we liked, and then have to ask ourselves, "where are we going to put that?" i wanted us to be able to fill our home together
over the next however many years -- a home that reflects the life we are living. and as we have traveled, we've chosen things that have become special parts of our home and allow us to remember different places we've been geographically, but also where we've been in our story - living together, engaged, just married, still married :)

on one of our trips to florida, we bought a porcelain pig towel holder that has hung in all the kitchens we've shared so far. in woodstock, when we were planning our wedding, we bought a capiz shell windchime that hangs on our balcony, and on our first trip to fire island together, we bought a beautiful wooden windchime (actually made in woodstock, funnily enough) that hangs there as well. we've also bought handpainted crab salt and pepper shakers in chestertown, maryland and a tropical fish spoonrest on another fire island trip.

one of my favorite souvenirs from our honeymoon in the bahamas is a set of watercolor prints that hang in our bathroom which i admire every day. probably the most memorable souvenirs from that trip are the ceramic pieces we painted quietly on a rainy day and the sand from the beach that mitchell ran to collect as we were leaving for the airport.

another favorite idea of mine (and i did this on our honeymoon with bulgari notte) is to buy a fragrance on a trip (could be duty free, could be a local blend, or just at a department store) and wear it while there. then, even when i'm home, i have a scent that will always remind me of the trip...it really works!

and i have to tell you what my stepmother-in-law does that i absolutely adore. she and my father-in-law travel a lot, and from each place they visit, she buys a tablecloth. how perfect is that? i love that her collection is of something that adorns the table that the family sits around - for holidays, celebrations, parties. it's a beautiful way to not only remember the places you've been, but to incorporate them into the life you live every day. and they fold flat. double love!

a friend of my mother's collects dishtowels and my aunt collects salt and pepper shakers. i love all these ideas because they're small, usually inexpensive and they pack well. plus, they don't crowd your home with bulky items that seemed way better in a store thousands of miles away than they do next to your stateside clutter.

on our trip to paris, i plan on collecting some interesting, unique items like textiles and local artwork. i'm not looking for anything designer - i can get that anywhere, and that's not what i'll remember most. most of all, i'm looking forward to the flea markets, the little parisien streets full of shops and the small pieces of french culture and beauty i can pack and take home with me.

do you have any souvenir traditions? i'd love to hear!

photos from www.dreamers.marthastewart.com, next autos, mary baker eddy library, marie's marche, jonathan adler via bo haute

earning our stripes

what are your thoughts on striped walls? i kind of love them! i think it's easy for a striped room to go horribly awry, but here are some images i've been collecting that i think get it right. what i notice that they all have in common is that the stripes are the same width in each color, rather than having one of the colors thicker.

in the case of the photo above, the stripes are two different shades in the same color family, which totally works and gives the room a soothing feel, despite its many colors and potentially busy stripe. another idea i've heard is to do the same exact color, just do one matte and one eggshell or glossy...that's a cool idea, isn't it?

the room below is also really soothing- i love the stripes in muted oatmeal and white, especially with the robin's egg blue in there too, and the use of the toile fabric against the graphic stripe.

this orange striped entryway makes me feel like i'm on vacation - love it. rather than using a contrasting pattern like the toile above, i sort of love how the couch is upholstered in a matching awning stripe to the wall. it's playful and fun.

here are a few in yellow, which i think is a great way to use such a vibrant color without overdoing it or having to wear sunglasses inside. the light totally bounces off these walls, but the interplay of the white and yellow tempers it just enough.

and look how unexpected and cool the ceiling here is. impossibly cool baby's room, btw (of course it's in the home of the painfully stylish jenna lyons).

here, in a more traditionally appointed nursery, turquoise and white stripes make an appearance and totally wake up the space. i love all the other punches of color mixed in here and how they play with the stripe.

and of course, black and white is always a classic combination in anything. check out the ceiling on the last picture here!

our downstairs powder room is screaming out to be spruced up but i don't want to paint it a solid color...i toyed with wallpaper, and i'm still considering it. but these stripes look pretty good...

photos from mrs. jones painted finishes, materialgirlsblog, hgtv, house to home uk, darling savage, in my house, apartment therapy, annechovie, lonny, apartment therapy

gold (and bronze) standard

i'm so excited about my recent michael's dollar bin finds that i had to share them with you pronto. i got the passport case above in both gold and bronze ($2) and a few luggage tags as well ($2 each) - love traveling in matching style, don't you?

what are your travel must-haves?

bonjour paris!

bonjour mes amis!

well, i have held it in too long and i have to share it with you, my wonderful readers. i am incredibly lucky to be going to paris on saturday for five amazing nights with mitchell, my parents and my siblings and their significant others. it's an incredibly generous gift from my parents in honor of their 35th anniversary, and i couldn't be more excited. in my absence, i plan on having one post scheduled each day and i can't wait to share with you everything i know i'll have to share upon my return.

i have been busy constructing a loose itinerary with a very detailed guidebook for us all to use which combines all the recommendations we've gotten as well as all of frommers' and fodors' wisdom. and i highly recommend rick steves' paris - he has guidebooks for many places, and he's so user-friendly and chock full of great information and tips, and even offers updates on the website.

SO in preparation for our trip, i am going to have one travel-themed post each day this week, in addition to a regular post. i welcome any tips you'd like to share about anything!

photo from thunda funda

back to the beach

well, as you might already know, i fall hard for fragrances, and often. while i used to love the idea of a signature scent, i have come around to loving the idea of a fragrance wardrobe - the same way one might wear different handbags or makeup depending on the occassion, the clothing or the mood, fragrance is a wonderfully versatile way of mixing things up.

but i have to tell you, i haven't felt this way about a fragrance in a long time. beach from bobbi brown might be my favorite yet. i was going to wait until memorial day weekend to share, but given the weather over the weekend, i just can't withhold.

the nice thing about beach is that it isn't coconutty or fruity like you might expect, given the name. i love me some coconut (especially with some lime and verbena thrown in) but this is a whole different thing. it smells like summer and vacation and the beach in the least intentional, overdone way. it smells like a smell you thought couldn't be found in a bottle and only in real life, a mix of sand, ocean, suntan lotion, sea air...you have to try it.

do you have a summer scent you love? have you put it on yet this year?

photo from bobbi brown

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!