Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I love Home Goods

I love Home Goods. I really do. I think I go in there weekly (at least). My latest finds? A colorful pillow, perfect for my living room couch....some candle holders and a large teal lacquer 'J'. I think I spent under $40 for everything. Nice!!!



And if you are reading Elements of Style you may have seen her latest Home Goods find...an imperial trellis rug. Really? Oh my. Better go back. She's also doing a giveaway for a gift card. Check out the details here.

HAPPY TUESDAY!!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Easter Ideas


Owen and I are heading to our first little Easter party this morning, so my mind is on this upcoming holiday! On Easter Sunday we are heading to Sonoma to visit my Dad and stepmom, where we'll undoubtably enjoy some fantastic food and an egg hunt in their lovely garden. Saturday though I plan on doing a little brunch and egg hunt at our own house. So there is much to be done!

First off....need to decorate Owen's Easter basket. I bought a plain wicker basket from Michaels and the plan is just to tie a big ribbon around it and add some books, a toy or two and a few treats. But just check out Martha Stewart and of course she has some good ideas too! Both a bit girly for my little guy...but I could adapt them...

Lots of little bows

Flowers around the rim of the basket - all it would require is a few fabric flowers and a little hot glue

Next up, have to dye some eggs. I'll confess, I'll probably just pick up one of those Paas egg decorating kits to do the colors. Easy and fast. Also love these glitter eggs from Martha Stewart, I think it would be fun to have a mix of both! They do require me blowing out the eggs though, hmm....I guess we'll see how the week goes! Directions can be found here.


And for the menu? I'm thinking stuffed french toast. Mainly because I was just watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay and the stuffed french toast was the dish chosen for competition. Oh my did they look good. Sadly the recipes aren't up yet on Food Network! Ugh. After a google search though found one here at this blog. Looks delish, right? It's a meal in itself, so thinking just fruit, juice and coffee on the side. YUM!

I'll let you know how it all goes!!

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Happy Friday!! Links to Love...

FRIDAY! Are you as happy as I am? Fun plans? We will be doing the usual...meaning hanging out, getting a few errands done, and enjoying plenty of family time in the backyard, park, wherever we end up :)

Have a lovely weekend all and enjoy these links to love...

This house has been making the blog rounds and has me swooning too

By the way, owners of that house make absolutely amazing handmade flowers (shown on the lovely shoes above).

Up for some DIY this weekend? Check out these adorable bird houses.

Or just want to relax? Check out my favorite coffee table books.

For some online reading instead check out Mrs. Lilien's blog - colorful and fun, with some clever rhyming too.

I'll be wearing this and enjoying the sunny weather.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Coffee Table Books

Do you love coffee table books as much as I do? I dream of filling my home with all kinds of cool books. Just browsing Amazon and here are a few on my list right now...

This one is bound to be entertaining....and Tom Brady? Nice little eye candy.

We have a vegetable garden on our side yard and getting ready to plant again this year. My gardens have done okay, but I have higher hopes for this year! So I'm in search of a good gardening book. Anyone know of one? Just saw this one and loved the pictures and title...

And a new cookbook, that way I can put my garden's bounty to good use! I've been eyeing this one since it came out last fall.

And to satisfy my design cravings....here are two...

The Best of Elle Decor...well I love that magazine, so would love the book I'm sure. Inspiration please!

And because who doesn't love Kelly Wearstler

Last but not least...for my son, my FAVORITE children's book of all time

HAPPY THURSDAY!






Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Jonathan Adler Giveaway on Cococozy!

Just had to share this amazing giveaway....check out Cococozy's blog for a chance to win this Jonathan Adler lamp. Swoon. Enter this week, a winner will be announced this Friday!


Etsy love - paintings by siiso

One of my favorite blogs, Nest Egg, posted a feature on affordable Etsy art the other day. So thank you Rachel for this great find! I'm in love with Etsy seller sisso. Amazing oil paintings and prints....

This one is my FAVORITE - sold today though! Eeek, should have just jumped on it!

like this one too....

or for only $20....a lovely little print

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

Stella & Dot

Remember that meeting I went to a while back while in Pasadena? Well, that meeting was an informal meet and greet with the CEO and founder of Stella & Dot, Jessica Herrin. If you recall, the night before I had been to my first S&D party and had a fantastic time! So when I found out I could meet the founder, why the heck not? She was very inspiring, telling her story of how she built her company into an incredibly successful direct sales company. Any lets not forget the jewelry, LOVE. Well, I realized that I had to just jump in so...I am now a Stella & Dot stylist!

I think it's a perfect compliment to Pretty Smitten's style. Colorful, whimsical, fun, stylish and affordable! I'm so excited to offer my readers a chance to host online trunk shows....here's how they work....you get to invite your friends to shop my S&D site, and they get to browse for a week and contact me with any style questions. And then YOU earn free jewelry based on a percentage of sales. Have a blog? An online trunk show makes a wonderful feature. Or just need instant gratification? Shop here.

So to kick of my stylist 'career' here are some of my S&D favorites....


As seen in InStyle....the Sayulita statement necklace

And stay tuned for more exciting collaborations between Stella & Dot and Pretty Smitten!

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Welcome to Spring!

Yesterday was the first official day of Spring. So welcome Spring! I'm ready for your sunshine and flowers. And in honor of Spring (and just because I really feel like I've been needing it) I decided to update Pretty Smitten's color scheme and logo. Don't get me wrong, I do love the blue and red I had before. They are the colors from my son's room so obviously near and dear to my heart! BUT I'm a girl who loves color, and just didn't feel like Pretty Smitten's colors were really reflecting the true me.

I'm quite smitten if I do say so myself. Late last week and over the weekend I worked on some new marketing materials featuring these bright new colors. Stickers, business cards, marketing postcards and thank you notes....I'm so happy to have some fresh materials!! Order something from my shop and you'll get to see them in person :)

Stickers

Business Cards
Marketing Postcard


thank you note


Just wanted to share. Hope you like them!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Still alive!

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posting this week....BUT stayed tuned please! I will be back Monday with some exciting changes. Until then, have a wonderful week and a fantastic weekend!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Spring Day

Hi all! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!! Did you go to Target to check out the Liberty of London items? I did, but actually didn't buy anything! There was some cute lingerie, but trying to be budget minded so I passed. I thought the bed sets were very cute too, but all of our beds in this house are done! So what did I get instead? A little inflatable pool and a bag of 100 plastic balls. I wanted something for Owen to be able to play with outside. Yesterday was gorgeous, low 70's and the perfect Spring day. Snapped some photos of our little guy with his new 'pool' and wanted to share....

He was quite thrilled with the whole thing. Woke up from his afternoon nap and immediately saw the balls. Skipped the sippy cup and went straight for these instead. First he sat in the pool (no water) and threw them around. Used his little shovel and scooped them and was just generally in awe of the shear amount of balls.

New game...dumped them all out and turned the pool over.

Crawling under....

Where's Owen?

There he is! Yep, he thought this was hilarious and of course so did we.

It was a very fun day! Here's hoping that the weather stays this way all week.

HAPPY MONDAY!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Happy Friday!! Links to Love...


We made it! Friday again. My hubby has been traveling this week and I'm so glad that he comes home this afternoon! I'm getting a cold and it's been a long week. Planning a special dinner for the three of us...using of course my veggies from my Farm Fresh box...but other then that laying low, hoping this cold disappears quick. What about you? Any fun plans for this Friday?

Okay here we go...a few links to love....

I have been browsing recipes for my veggies...Whole Foods has some great ones!

Thanks to Isabella & Max Rooms...fun with chalk paint!

What a cute birthday celebration!

And remember, Liberty of London hits Target stores this Sunday!! Naomi Watts showed us a sneak peak at their NYC pop up store. Check it out here.

Sorry this is a short one...didn't have the chance to put these together before my son woke up this morning! So I currently have my favorite little guy pulling at my pant leg...and sorry he wins over the Friday Links to Love. Have a great weekend!!


Thursday, March 11, 2010

My first Farm Fresh box has arrived!

Hi all! Sorry this post is a little later in the day then usual...it was one of those mornings. My little guy woke up extra early, our fridge is on the fritz and the milk went bad (meaning no baba for little one and no milk for mama's coffee!!) AND the comcast cable and internet connection went down. Yikes. So after our morning playdate, lunch and now finally nap (my son's, unfortunately not mine!) - I am finally able to write my blog post for the day.

But I think the wait was worth it, I'm so excited to share with you today what I got in my very first Farm Fresh to You produce box! It arrived all nice and packaged on my doorstep this morning....

All packaged up...and on the box they even ask you to return the box to them the following week for reuse. Love that!

I had ordered the smallest box and didn't put in any special requests. You are able to request which vegetables you like/don't like...but I figured I'd be adventurous! I wanted to see what they would bring me. So here's everything I got.....



It contained 2 Braeburn Apples, 2 Navel Oranges, 1 Fuji Apple, 1 Green D'Anjou Pear, 1 Eureka Lemon, 1 Green Cauliflower bunch, 1 Red Chard bunch, 1 Green Kale bunch, 1 head of Romaine Lettuce, 1 bunch of Nantes Carrots, and 1.5lb of Russian Banana Fingerlings. Phew! That's a lot I think for the small option. It is $25 a week which I think is pretty reasonable considering the quality of vegetables! Already ate one of the apples with lunch and it was delish.

So now I have to plan my menu around all of this great produce! Any suggestions? I'm thinking roasted cauliflower for sure, easy and yummy. And then might put those lovely fingerling potatoes on the grill this weekend....

HAPPY THURSDAY!