Style Lush

Currently Coveting: Bar Carts

by Christina

I've been working on some tweaks for my dining room lately and I have the perfect corner for a bar cart. Seriously, this corner is begging for it. Nestled in the corner with my curtains as a backdrop, I can picture it. It would be perfect. But, I have kids, two boys, 2.5 and 5 years old. Putting my wedding crystal and booze on a cart, with wheels, is probably one of my dumbest ideas this week. But I want one, and I can dream, there are no shards of Waterford floating in a pool of gin on the floor in my dreams! Also, in said dream, I can afford a $1400 bar cart! HA! My dreams, they are delusional. Whatever, my dreams have good taste.

(via wayfair) (that price, wayfair, IS NOT)

This one is nice too, but not really what my dreams are made of.

(via hsn.com)

This has no booze, mine would have all of the booze. But I still love the styling of the cart and the cart itself. The flowers and the lemons would be a must if I had one of my own. Perfection.

(via the fabulous design file)

So, there you have it. I am obsessed, what do you think?

 

 

Date nights at home

by Christina

Life is exhausting and expensive. That could have easily been the title of this post. It's true. I stay home with two very crazy puppy-like boys and my husband works, a lot.  We are about to celebrate 14 years together and man, that's a lot of years. At this point in our life it's really easy to throw on your pj's, grab a carton of ice cream and veg out in front of the tv together at the end of a normal day. We've heard all of each others stories, know all of the family drama so coasting at this stage would be really easy to do.

With two kids and one income we manage to have one fancy date night per month. And it is magical. But, my sitter has a life and we have a budget so once a month it is. So what do you do when your weekends start to look like this?

You add another date per month and you do it at home. One, it's much more affordable to eat and drink at home and there's no sitter to pay. Two, you can drink and not drive! Three, you're at home, wear a skirt that's too short or that uncomfortable push up bra!  Date, date like you mean it, not like you're an old married couple. It's just once a month. Live a little!

We tag team putting the kids down, so it goes fast. Then its our time. We mix it up a lot but there are rules. Okay, one rule, no yoga pants or pjs. I get dressed, at least as cute as I would to go to a movie and sometimes even wear a dress. But it's always thought out, not just thrown on. This is a date!

The house is cleaned that day, I light candles, Mike makes a play list and we hang out. No tv. Just us. We like to have a theme, as if you were at a restaurant and we sit at our dining room table, not in the kitchen. We'll have nachos and margaritas or wine and cheese. Sometimes I cook a full meal, sometimes we get takeout, others it's just drinks and dessert. The menu is fun but it's really about connecting with each other at the end of the week after all of the mundane tasks of a couple with young kids.

We love this time together at home, sometimes more than going out. No interruptions, no bad service, no babysitter transportation. It's awesome. I totally recommend it.

(family photo circa summer 2010)

 

Adult Hair Clips

By Jen

I am trying to become a person who accessorizes. In this quest, I've been looking at hair clips that I think I could pull off as an adult. 

{Image credit: Little Birdie Secrets}

{Image credit: Melinda Rose Design}

{Image credit: Flowersbythevase}

What do you think?  Can I pull them off or should I stick to my trusty elastic hair bands?

Santacon Houston

By Jessica

This past weekend was my first annual Santacon Houston. Not familiar with Santacon? It's a pub crawl, that takes place all over the world, wherein all the participants dress up like Santas or various other Christmas themed things/people. (Our particular Santacon was also a toy drive for kids, I'm not sure if other versions do that as well or not.) It was a total blast and I'm so glad we were able to make it this year. You know that I am always down for any costumed opportunity but up until the last moment, it didn't look like I was going to be attending and when I found out I was, it left me scrambling for ideas. In my 11th hour (ie the day before) I came up with the following costume ideas and at the first bar a guy told me that I should put it on Pinterest. That's right. And at the last bar a random girl told me the same thing so, shout out to those Santacon participants, your wish is my command!

Here is a picture of my husband and me at the third bar of the night.

My husband in his "Griswold" Santa hat, Goodwill sweater and tangled up in a set of Christmas lights, but what exactly do I have going on? Let's see if there are any better pictures to work with, it was super hard to photograph properly.

Here we are at our house before we left for the evening. You can see my husband in his fuller "Griswold" glory, work gloves, dazed expression and covered in lights. His hat came from Hobby Lobby during one of their 50% off weeks, so it cost $1.50 and then I added the letters with glitter paint.

On me, you can see I am wearing a skirt that is lit from beneath and is sorta bell shaped? It also has black fringe and I am sporting fishnet stockings. I happen to be "a major award" from A Christmas Story or this

My costume started with a $60 Lauren Conrad dress that I found on clearance for $6 on account of a busted zipper (they were already 60% off, the zipper just added the rest) which I chopped into a skirt before adding the black fringe. I picked the dress because it was a linen material (like a lamp shade could be) and had trim detail in four places which reminded me of the panels of the lamp. I didn't want to add any wire to make the skirt stick out like an actual lamp on account of how crowded the bars would be, but I chose to hot glue the fringe which made the skirt stiffen at the bottom and stick out.

For the lights, we purchased two battery operated strands of LED lights (they are snowflake shaped). I ripped a hole in the bottom of one of the pockets and fed the lights through before sewing it back closed and then sewing the light strand to the bottom of the skirt. I kept the skirt lit pretty much the entire night and after almost 8 hours, it was still going strong!

(blown out iPhone photo to show the fringe)

Plus, I was told that I could just take the lights out and just wear it as is because it makes a super cute skirt, so if you have a clearance skirt you want to gussy up a bit, just slap on some fringe!

Have you ever attended Santacon?

Tis the season for a hostess gift

by Christina

It's here! Can you even believe it? Day after tomorrow, Thanksgiving. Four weeks later? CHRISTMAS! I'm sort of breathing into a paper bag, I mean, where did this year go? No matter what you celebrate you're bound to end up at some sort of shindig in the next few weeks and etiquette says, you'd better not show up empty handed. These holidays revolve around food and drinking, there is no better time than to arrive with booze! So, this is not a hostess gift guide, this is a one stop shop. Get a bottle of what ever and put it in this. It's $10.95 and it's awesome.

If you want to bring more, add a festive floral arrangement or a seasonally scented candle. No need to make things complicated. The birch box will be a hit. Promise!

(image via pinterest via cb2)

A Year of Dates: A Great Holiday Gift

By Sara

A few days ago I received the best link in my inbox from a good girlfriend of mine: the blog, Life In General, and specifically the author's brilliant Christmas gift to her husband, a Year of Dates. 

 

Shannon, the author, pre-planned a year of dates, one for every month, for she and her husband and presented him with the basket for Christmas. This is such a nice way for a couple to a) make time for date night, at least once a month and b) try things they might not otherwise. The dates can be as easy as a restaurant gift certificate for dinner and a movie or something more extravagant like a weekend away at a nearby bed and breakfast. I know my husband and I don't take enough time to nurture our relationship, especially with little ones around, so this would be a fantastic way to jump start 2012. Consider this added to my Christmas gift list!

All photos courtesy of Life In General and Shannon Brown.

Painting With A Twist

By Jessica

Sometimes you are awake and chatting with a friend on Facebook at 4:30 in the morning because of insomnia, a migraine or copious amounts of rum (hey, no judgments) and divine inspiration strikes. Divine inspiration in the form of a crafty fun thing for our group to do which could include her Littles by Proxy in the coming weekend that they would be in town. That crafty fun thing turned out to be Painting With A Twist . Have you heard of it? It's a painting class where you are welcome to bring your favorite bottle of wine (or other beverage) to imbibe while the instructor walks you step by step through creating a painting. We didn't actually choose to imbibe anything as we had a day class with Littles in tow, but think of the possibilities for bachelorette parties, book clubs (you could have a painting directly correlate to a theme in your book), cooking clubs, wine tastings, date nights, etc.

Each location has a calendar of the classes they are offering in future but if you book a party of 5 or more people you can specify which piece of art you would like instead.

 
They provide you with your canvas, paints, brushes, smock and instructor.

Each step in the process is laid out by the instructor and it's fun to see how differently people paint. Also interesting which people are SUPER ANAL about how they blend, cover the edges and how slow they take each step. I happen to be crazy, CRAZY slow.

Our group worked on the peacock feather the day we attended:

(The Littles by Proxy in question is 5, didn't she do an awesome job on her painting? We call it her "blue period" as a nod to the greats)

Here is my finished painting. It's currently hanging in our office above my desk.

Our little group is planning our next outing with a painting that is a nod to an inside joke and is sure to be insanely tacky when it's done but I can't wait. It's going to be a blast!

The best kid book for adults ever.

by Christina

If you follow me on Twitter you are well aware that my two boys, who I love dearly, are trying to kill me. My formerly amazing sleeper is now a total crap shoot, sometimes he sleeps great, other nights he is up for the day at 3 am. He is a huge bear to get down, too. We've tried and tried and tried to fix it to no avail. I have to be in his bed until he falls asleep. I hate it. My 11 month old? Well, he was up every two hours of his precious little life for 10 months. I was awake for 10 months. Even now, a month later, he still wakes up a time or three per night. I'm sleeping more but still not much.

I'm sure if you have kids you've got an issue or two yourself. We all need this book.

 Go the Fuck to Sleep!

 

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest

And the creatures who crawl, run and creep.

I know you're not thirsty. That's bullshit. Stop lying.

Lie the fuck down, my darling, and sleep.

 
The flowers doze low in the meadows

And high in the mountains so steep

My life is a failure,I'm a shitty-ass parent.

Stop fucking with me, please, and sleep.

 
The owls fly forth from the treetops.

Through the air, they soar and they sweep.

Hot crimson rage fills my heart, love.

For real, shut the fuck up and sleep.

32 pages of pure hilarious truth. I'd like two of them, one to pass on to each of my boys when they are old enough to laugh about it, you know, like when their kid wont sleep either. I imagine this would be a hoot at a baby shower, too. Though maybe not for a couples first child. Don't want to scare them shit-less.

 {available via amazon, images lifted from facebook}
 

A Beginner's Guide To The Brazilian Wax

By Kristie

YOU GUYS. About a week ago Jennie and I lost our damn minds and went and got Brazilian waxes. We willingly paid for a woman to rip hair from our delicate area and I'm here to tell you all about it. There are no before and after photos (you're welcome) so you'll just have to use your imagination.

So, let's begin...

I'm pretty positive that when Jennie mentioned going to get waxed there was alcohol involved. The best plans usually involve alcohol, right? We picked a date we were both available, she booked the appointment and we put on our brave faces and went for it. Now the problem with our grand plan was that we had no idea what to expect, how to prepare or how to care for our, um, service after. This post is for those of you who've never had waxing around that area and are dying to know how it works from beginning to end.

To Prepare:

• A few weeks, say about 2, before your appointment you need to stop shaving, plucking or otherwise messing with your business down there. (I realize this may impede on your "special" time with your partner but the end result should make it worth while. Or at least that's the goal.)
• The day of your appointment, be sure to shower as usual (your esthetician will appreciate that a thousand times over).

What Not To Do:

• Don't make an appointment if you're having your period (for obvious reasons) or about to start (you're more sensitive that time of the month).

What To Expect:

• You will be nude from the waist down. I asked about wearing paper underwear and unless you're doing a regular old bikini wax any clothes or coverings will only get in the way.
• Be prepared for your esthetician to get all up in your lady bits. She's seen hundreds and maybe even thousands of vaginas, it's just another day at the office for her.
• It's not a day at the spa. It hurts, I can't lie. I gasped a few times and laughed a bunch to keep from crying.
• You will likely bruise and have a little bleeding.

The Aftermath:

• Your lady bits will be a touch sore and you'll likely want to refrain from any sweaty exercise or other (ahem) activities until the next day.
• Showering using cool water and a mild soap (to get the errant wax off) when you get home is a good idea.
• Exfoliating every few days after your waxing can prevent any ingrown hairs, but wait 4-5 days to do this at first.
• We were told the results would last about two weeks or so.

Would I recommend all the ladies get themselves a Brazilian wax? Probably not. After the tip it cost $90 and with results that last about two weeks I'd rather save the money and get laser hair removal. But I'm glad to have crossed another thing off my life list even if it was one that forced me to down two alcoholic beverages before we even began.

Have you ever been curious about Brazilians or gotten one done? Best or worst experience in your life? Do you think Jennie and I have lost our minds completely?

Sponsor Spotlight & Giveaway: Eden Fantasys

By Jennie

Now, we love to talk shoes and jewelry and DIY projects at Style Lush, that's true, but we also think that when it comes to happiness, enjoying your partner and feeling sexy can be right at the top of the list of things to make you happy.

Enter Eden Fantasys. A shop for adult toys, lingerie, candles, and more.

Now, this is not a suitable website for perusing with your co-workers, but we support feeling good about yourself and your life, no matter what that might mean for you. 

We'd also like to welcome them as a sponsor, and we have a giveaway for our readers today. The Jimmyjane candle, a massage candle that comes in a variety of scents (from cucumber water to bourbon!).

If you'd like to have one for yourself, comment below and answer this question: when do you feel the sexiest?

This giveaway is open to anyone and everyone. And it'll stay live until 11:59 p.m. on March 22nd. Also, if you'd rather email your comment, not a problem. Send it to: stylelushblog AT gmail.com.