Dress – Target; Jean Jacket – Nordstrom; Sandals – Sam Edelman; Ring – Kate Spade; Flower – BanDo; Watch – Michael Kors
Happy 4th of July everyone. Be safe out there and have a great day. Remember, if you need ideas for a table setting, see my post last week here, and if you want a fun last minute craft to do, my patriotic mason jar luminaries I posted last year are still a hit. Classic and pretty. See you back in a couple of days!
A while back we visited a restaurant in LA called The Eveleigh before a concert, and I fell in love with the simple decor. White stoneware plates, simple streamlined glasses and white farm napkins. The only decor that adorned the tables were tiny white votives.
But then a visit to the LA Flower Mart and I am reminded that it will always be about flowers for me. The more the better in as many textures as imaginable. I wrote a post a while back about the LA Flower District and the vendors I visited there, if you’re ever in the mood to go and hunt down a bargain. Even if you’re not planning for an event, it’s amazing to just walk around and buy a bunch of hydrangeas for yourself. We all deserve to have fresh flowers in the house from time to time, for no other reason than just because they make us happy, right?
Skirt & Tank – Target; Gladiator Sandals – Sam Edelman; Hat – Roxy
As summer rolls into full swing and the temperatures heat up, we often think we’re relegated to sundresses and shorts and tanks for the next 3 months, but I love the skirt and lightweight top option as well. It allows for a bit of pattern and texture layering, and usually is an easy and safe way to incorporate a printed bottom. Even though printed shorts like florals and graphic prints are on-trend right now, lots of you out there I know don’t feel quite comfortable delving into that territory yet, and that’s okay. Just fall back on a cute printed skirt to get some pattern into your wardrobe.
This skirt is super lightweight and kept me cool all day in 90 degree weather. The elastic waistband is more free feeling, and the inclusion of pockets is brilliant. I love a skirt with pockets, don’t you? The pattern has several colors so after the baby is born and I have more top options, I can see it going with a really cute coral and white polka dot top I have, or a navy and white striped tee. Pattern play is still very much on trend. While I’d love to show you how to do this now, I just can’t justify spending more money on maternity clothes with less than 2 months to go! Instead I went with a simple racer-back tank with a crochet detail in back, and a striped tank layered underneath that I already had in my closet.
Hats are the easiest and most functional accessory you can add to an outfit, especially during summer. It serves double duty as a cute add-on accessory and protection from the sun. I’m wearing hats almost daily, and am currently searching for a cute cabana hat. And of course I’d be remiss to not mention how quickly hats can cover up a bad hair day!
31 weeks and this is how I’m staying cool while maintaining my personal style. What are your go-to pieces this summer?
My relationships with my girlfriends are one of the most important things in my life. The women I consider some of my dearest friends took a long time to find, and some I’ve only known for a few years. While they aren’t women I’ve grown up with or even went to college with, I value and treasure their friendship just the same and try to make an effort to get together with them, without the kids as often as I can. The other night I invited a few friends over for a girl’s night in to eat, drink and watch an all time classic movie, Dirty Dancing.
Of course we had a great time. We could honestly have a great time huddled around a box of crackers sharing a bottle of wine, but special treats and a good movie increase the fun quotient. While I sometimes go more on the formal side when entertaining friends, I usually tend to lean more towards comfortable and casual, but regardless, I always follow a few simple rules when entertaining my girls:
– Offer both sweet and savory treats: Not every woman loves sweets, so I always make sure to offer something simple like cheese and crackers or chips and salsa (or both as is the case this night).
-When it comes to sweets, offer a simple dessert as well as something decadent: Not every woman goes head over heels for a piece of chocolate caramel marshmallow cream cake. I certainly don’t. Some women like more subtle flavors so I served Skinny Cow desserts alongside some cream cookies and snickerdoodles. I love Skinny Cow because none of their ice cream bars are sticky sweet (and healthy too!).
– As much as I find it hard to believe, not every girl drinks wine at girl’s night: For obvious reasons I did not partake in any alcoholic beverages the other night, but neither did another girl because she was the driver. So always make sure to offer a fun and fancy non-alcoholic beverage in addition to your wine and beer offerings. There’s nothing sadder than a girl having to sip plain ol’ water out of a straw during girl’s night when everyone else is whooping it up. Put out some fun sparkly drinks like Sparkling berry lemonade or make a ginger ale spritzer. This way no one feels left out.
– Flowers and lit candles set the tone and show you care: I love opening up my home to friends and adding special little touches to show I’ve taken time to prepare for them. While an invitation to someone’s home is always meaningful, when you walk in and feel the love and time they’ve put into hosting you, you can’t help but feel special. Buy a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store and light some candles; those little touches will go a long way.
– For movie night, take a poll of what everyone wants to see: Sometimes there’s a great new release out that everyone is dying to see, but when in doubt, always go for a throwback movie. Movies from your youth and teenage years are always a hit because there’s an instant connection, and everyone can sit around and reminisce, and anticipate the moments that will make you laugh and cry. Dirty Dancing is a perfect example. All night we kept saying “No one puts Baby in the corner.” P.S. Did you know it’s coming up on 25 years since Dirty Dancing was released?!?! Dude, I feel old!
What’s your favorite thing to do for girl’s night in? Do you play games, make a craft or watch a movie? We’ve done all three and I think sitting back and watching a movie is probably the most relaxing. Let me know if you have any other tips for hosting a perfect girl’s night in.
As part of the DailyBuzz Style Community, I received a stipend, DVD, and coupons for free Skinny Cow® product.
The last couple of days have been busy, the typical business of a mom with two kids I guess. End of year pool parties and summer camps and such. I definitely feel my energy waning and my feet are indeed starting to swell as I had predicted. I went swimming yesterday, on the advice of Maegan, and it did indeed help with the swelling though. If you follow me on Instagram (fourflights), you may have seen my bikini belly shot 😉 I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get accomplished these next few weeks, but at the same time, I hope I can let myself relax a little and just enjoy, without feeling the need to come up with a new DIY for you guys every week. We’ll see. For now I’m just going to look forward to a good weekend spent with some of my favorite people.
As we head into the weekend I wanted to share with you a mini article I found in this month’s Allure, about creativity. Point #2 really stuck with me because for the longest time I have brushed off any notion that I am creative at all because I always linked creativity with artistic talent. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life and my 7 year old daughter can now draw a pony better than I can. But hearing it said that being creative is more about being open minded and it can be something as simple as changing up a recipe finally connected the dots for me! So I guess now when someone says “you’re so creative”, I can hopefully take the compliment and say thanks instead of my standard, “No, I’m not!”.
So do you guys have any methods or practices to help you be a bit more creative? Do you consider yourself a creative person at all? Speaking of creativity, I’m about to head out to meet up with a good friend I met through blogging, Jules. We’re getting the kids together to play and while they play we’re going to brainstorm and try to be a bit creative ourselves. Hopefully we’ll feed off of each other. Any fun plans for the weekend?
Oh we bloggers are such funny creatures. Setting up tablescapes for parties and holidays days in advance just to take photos. As silly as it is, I actually like it, and it’s good practice for the real thing. My best friend is flying in from Arizona this weekend and we’ll be hosting her family for swimming and dinner the night before the 4th, so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to create a patriotic outdoor dining table and eat under the cafe lights.
I wanted to go with a classic Americana red and blue theme, but back to natural shades of canvas and gold instead of stark white, since we’ll be eating outside surrounded by trees and lots of shrubs. I covered up our old outdoor dining table with a painted canvas drop cloth, and brought out our good dining room chairs to make it a more sophisticated feel.
I mixed up the casual and more formal elements with this place setting. I wanted the tablescape to be both casual and laid back, but also a bit more sleek and sophisticated, with bits of handmade thrown in. I used mason jars and striped straws, but the vases and hurricanes were clean and sleek. I used paper napkins, paper place mats and plastic wear, but used my ceramic plates. It may seem a bit of a contradiction, but I really like how it turned out. Not too fancy, but not too casual either.
The highlight of the table were the glass hurricanes I made by using a glass etching technique and star stencils I created myself. The how-to is below.
Here’s a breakdown of how I created the different elements for the table: For the glass etching, I traced and cut out stars using a special glass etching stencil you can find on Amazon. It’s purposely blank so you can create whatever you want. Once you cut out your stencils, you adhere them to your glass and then apply the etching cream. Let it dry (even though it says it only needs to stay on for 60 seconds), and then rinse off with water. The stencils can be used over and over again until they no longer adhere. For the place mats I simply punched out stars in all four corners, and then used the punched out starts to scatter in the center of the table. For the painted drop cloth, just measure and figure out how you want your stripes to lay, and tape off your section to be painted with painters tape. Paint with fabric paint, let dry and then peel off tape. For the star votives, I painted card stock with gold metallic watercolor paint, and then punched out stars when dry. Adhere stars with a bit of double stick tape and then wrap the votive in gold jewelry wire a few times, twisting off the ends to hold in place.
As a mother of two young kids, I try to walk the border of pretty and chic, but also fun and whimsical. I don’t ever want to create something in our home where the kids don’t feel like they can be a part of it, but at the same time I don’t want to create a completely child-centered home where you wonder where the adult stuff is. I hope I’ve achieved a balance of both with this place setting. If I didn’t, please just go ahead and let me think I did 😉
Do you all have any plans for the 4th? Entertaining, and if so, what kind of party are you throwing? I’d love to know!
I thought I had moved on from neon, but when I saw these polka dot office supply stickers in the perfect neon hue last week, I got really excited, telling me that my love affair with neon is not quite over. These plain white pots from Ikea got a definite pick me up when I applied the stickers and brushed on a quick coat of Mod Podge. Another case of neon to the rescue I suppose.
You’ll need some plain white pots, round office supply stickers in neon, Mod Podge in Gloss, and an applicator brush. This soft fine brush from Mod Podge is amazing and leaves very minimal brush marks.
Apply your stickers in whatever pattern you want. You could measure and get all precise if you like, but I’m a wing it gal and just sort of eyeballed it. Worked fine for me!
Once your stickers are all pretty and perfect, apply a thin, even layer of Mod Podge all over your pots to seal those stickers on and ensure they won’t peel off over time. Let dry for at least 2-3 hours before potting your plants, and you’re good to go. Super quick, super easy. Just how I like my DIY projects!
The melamine tray you see them sitting on in the shot below is a similar DIY I did for Nicole and will be posted on Wednesday. I’ll make sure to come back and link up the post once it goes live. I quite like the polka dot on polka dot action. One can never have too many polka dots, right?
Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!
P.S. I sort of have a slight obsession with Neon. To see all NEON related posts, click here.
Dress – Tucker for Target; Boots – Dolce Vita; Necklace – DIY
I’m continuing to find myself grateful for the change in trends and silhouettes in the last 5 years since I was last pregnant. I recall having to invest in a pretty hefty maternity wardrobe because so few of my everyday clothes worked for my pregnant body. But this time around, at 30+ weeks, I’m still able to wear a lot of my non-maternity wardrobe, which has saved me time and money. Longer length tops and looser, more flowy silhouettes are definitely to thank. Even the majority of my tank tops are long enough to continue to wear. The only thing I can’t pull off are non maternity jeans. I saw a picture of a girl today that was 9 months pregnant still wearing her cut off jean shorts, just riding them a little lower on her hips. There is no way in hell my hips, in their current state, can accommodate any of my old denim, but kudos to her!
Hoping your weekend was wonderfully relaxing or productive, whichever you wished it to be. Ours was a combination of both, which is always my favorite kind of weekend. I can’t wait to share some new DIY projects with you this week, more home centered, which isn’t something I always do here. It should be fun. See you back here on Tuesday! Linking up with Monday Mingle.
I couldn’t be enjoying this pregnancy more , and that’s the God honest truth. I have less than 10 weeks to go and while I’m in no rush to get through them, I do every now and then think about life after baby #3 is born. Of course life will be hectic and crazy, but the bright side is that I’ll be able to have a little wine to go with the crazy ha! If I feel up to it, I might have to host an end of summer wine and cheese party in our backyard with a few friends. I’d use these invitations.
And I’d even get out my cheese board and cheese knives, because I’m fancy like that. Especially when I have a screaming newborn wrapped to my chest, right? Oh, one can only daydream, right? If you could have a special little party, what theme would it be?
all cheese accessories from Crate & Barrel; invitations from River and Bridge
I have my maternity shoot with Miranda in just a couple of weeks and the dresses I thought would carry me through are fitting me a wee bit snug. I don’t want to spend too much since I only have 10 weeks left, but I want to love it since it will be emblazoned in photos for years to come. I also plan to wear it to my baby shower so it will get a bit more use. Perhaps I need to make Art take me on a date as well. Here are a few of the choices I was thinking of. Do any strike your fancy?
this one is probably my least favorite because of the sleeves, but I do love the beading detail and the color.
this is a favorite of Art’s and I do love a good maxi, especially a brightly colored one1
this is not my usual style, but still, I do like it.
another maxi choice, I love the side slit.
this one is the most out there I know, but there’s just something fun about it. Obviously the least versatile and least practical, but there’s just something about wearing sequins during the day time that says you really don’t give a damn 😉
What do you guys think? Can you see me wearing any of these, or should I keep searching?
all dresses under $80 from ASOS Maternity
