dresses

Happy friday! Did you have a good week? Mine was full of studying for school finals and potty training. Super fun right? I'm afraid that is what my weekend will consist of as well.

Congrats to Prince William and Kate, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Can we talk about her dress designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen? Such a gorgeous and timeless princess dress in my opinion. What did/do you think of it?

In other dress "news", if you are a lover of Shabby Apple but can't bite the full-price bullet you might be pleased to know that they now have a section on their website for practically perfect dresses. These dresses are discounted usually because they have like a missing belt, missing button(s), a small spot, small tear in seam, or a mismarked size tag. I say get out your sewing needle!

Have a lovely weekend friends and I'll see you back here in May!!!

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retro Palm Beach home

My favorite design story from the May issue of House Beautiful was this light and airy 1960s Palm Beach home designed by Meg Braff. It's pretty and feminine yet is full of great detail with trellis, chinoiserie and fretwork found throughout the home.

shop talk : Whitney Smith Pottery

I only wish that the pieces of pottery I made in my high school pottery class looked like these pretty ones made by Whitney Smith.

happy {easter} weekend!

How pretty is this branch arrangement?

Anyone else in disbelief that it's already Easter weekend? Where is this year going? I swear it was just Christmas. I'm just glad that there won't be anymore major candy holidays for a while until Halloween. I've eaten more than my fair share!

Last year Olivia was still too little to understand the easter bunny and eggs and treats but this year she's understanding all the fun things that holidays have to offer. I love celebrating holidays with kids, everything is more magical.

Tomorrow we are headed to a friends for brunch and an egg hunt then Sunday we'll have a quiet day as a family. Should be great. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend! See you next week my friends!

mashup

It's Wednesday...hump day...would a mid-week mashup make you feel better about that? The kidlets and I are off to the zoo so I'll leave you with these links of things I've seen around the blogosphere. I hope you have a lovely day!

:: I think I need to make and eat some chocolate dipped peanut butter eggs! Stat.

:: Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought galvanized buckets were a good option for Easter baskets.
 
:: Lets hope that Lauren Conrad's new project, the beauty department is more interesting than the last couple seasons of The Hills.
 
:: A pretty baby shower where everything coordinates, even the guests clothing. {via the eclectic life}

:: Candy apple red washer and dryer, octagon tile and utility sink - oh my! A lovely laundry room remodel.

inspired workspaces

With school finals looming in the not so distant future, I'd certainly be okay studying in any of the workspaces below rather than, say, the school library or my not-so-pretty desk at home.

Source: justinetaylor.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: fabulouskblog.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: delightbydesign.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

easter buckets

So in my quest to make something at least once a month this year, April's project was to make my kids some sort of Easter basket to put all their loot in. Of course I couldn't just buy them normal baskets, I had to find something a bit different. I am hoping that Olivia and Landon won't be self conscience with their buckets in a few years when they realize everyone at the Easter egg hunt has typical easter baskets and they have metal buckets...

When I found these galvanized buckets I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them so I held onto them for a week or two. After thinking of some ideas I finally decided on a simple design of eggs nestled in grass. I'm really love how they turned out and I'm happy to report they worked beautifully at an egg hunt last weekend. I forgot to share last months project with you last month so I'll have to get around to taking a picture of it sometime this weekend.

I hope that you have an awesome weekend! Any fun plans?

group discussion : exercise

So I need some help and I'd love to hear your ideas, opinions and feedback. Here's the question...

What type(s) of exercise do you do and what keeps you motivated?

So I hate to admit this but I've still got a bit of post-pregnancy blah left from when I had baby Landon. Try as I might I just can't seem to find a good fit when it comes to exercising. I am not really a runner, when i went running last week I was chased by a possum!!! That kinda put a kabosh on my running high.

I want to look and feel better and I'm anxious because summer is coming and you know what that means...the dreaded swimsuit comes out. So is there a good dvd you recommend? Certain type of workout that's easy on an out of shape person like me? Please help a girl out and lets discuss!

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wood you?

Never in a million years would I have thought to put wood up on my walls. If you'd asked me a while ago what I thought of wood on walls I would've cringed and thought of 1970s wood paneling. These examples, however, are not even remotely close to 70s paneling but are much more visually interesting and shall we say green.

Erin of A Breath of Fresh Erin used salvaged wood in her study with great results.

I swear, only Kevin and Layla would think of using old gymnasium flooring in their reading/guest room.

The Bowers used shipping pallets in baby Bower's nursery. Shipping pallets!

Do tell: What are your thoughts of putting wood up on your wall. Is there a right room for this? Is this something you'd ever do?

have your cake

Thanks for letting me take a bit of a break last week. I was able to focus on my family and took some time to think about my priorities and this blog. As much as I love blogging, it isn't on the tip top of my priority list with right now. While I would like to blog five days a week, I have to be honest and admit that I most likely won't be able to do that for the next little while. I want to give you guys good content and not post just for the sake of posting so some weeks might have two posts and others five. I hope you can understand. Thank you for all of your comments and for reading! You are awesome.

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My mother in law, Linda, is an excellent cake decorator (she even made our wedding cake). A couple summers ago she held a cake decorating class for her nieces and daughters in law where she shared some of her wisdom and experience. I had a lot of fun learning how to use all the frosting tips but haven't practiced much since then I'm afraid. I'm thinking a refresher course is in order when we head home to visit this summer (how about it Linda?).

These gorgeous cakes below serve as great inspiration for when I finally bust out those tips and decorate a cake. I LOVe that ombre cake and how awesome is the cake with rock candy? I'm thinking it would be so fun for Olivia's next birthday.

Source: strawcut.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: stylemepretty.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: marthastewartweddings.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: postcardsandpretties.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: a-ladys-findings.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

...hello

Source: brabournefarm.blogspot.com via suann on Pinterest

So it seems that I've taken some sort of blogging break. My apologies for the silence. I am needing to put all of my focus on my family right now. If you don't mind I am going to continue this break through the rest of the week. Thanks for understanding and thanks for reading! Be back soon!