Style Lush

Currently Coveting: Embellished Headbands

By Maggie

I could never wear headbands because my hair is so flat and a headband makes my hair thicken up right around my ears which makes the shape of my head look all weird and, well, no headbands for me. But I recently chopped all my hair off and I no longer HAVE hair to thicken up right around my ears and headbands are one of the few ways left to dress up my head. A little volumizing spray around the crown, some pomade and a feathery headband and I am ready to ... drop off the library books? Pick up the kid from preschool? I don't know. I will find SOMEWHERE to wear these lovelies!

Top Row:

Rosemary-Glacier wool felt flower headband from PetitCalla, $14.99
Black beads and rhinestone headband from LiveInStyle, $27
NoirLuxe feather crown from SweetGrassMill, $20

Bottom Row:

Black felt flower headband from sewZinski, $16
Zipper headband from LoriGami, $16 (did we decide the zipper trend was cute or not?) 
Leather floral headband from LeatherBlossoms, $34 

{photo credits: PetitCalla Etsy shop, LiveInStyle Etsy shop, SweetGrassMill Etsy shop, sewZinski Etsy shop, LoriGami Etsy shop, LeatherBlossoms Etsy shop}

My Fave Christmas Present: Seattle Neighborhood Print

By Maggie

My husband took note of the nine million hints I threw out -- an "OMG I LOVE THAT" for every time we walked by the local art shop with these prints in the window -- and gave me one for Christmas. 

I can seriously stare at this thing for minutes on end, memorizing the boundaries of each neighborhood in my favorite city. I don't think it's ever going to get old. 

Mine is mounted on a board, but online the poster is just $22. You can buy an Ork City Neighborhood Poster for 14 other cities, as well as the Great Lakes (and also for the human heart and brain, um, no thanks.) 

{photo credit: orkposters.com}

Turn your furniture into presents

By Maggie

Hosting a holiday gathering and need your playroom/rec room/basement, even your nicely appointed living room to look a bit more festive? Wrap your furniture!

Please excuse the horrid photo with the chair in the way. If you pretend the chair isn't THERE, you might be able to tell that that giant gift is actually the 4x4 Expedit bookcase from Ikea. We use it for toys and books in our basement playroom, and when I realized I had 40 people coming to my Christmas party and I was going to need all the space I could get, I had to find a way to make the playroom look like... less of a playroom. A whole bunch of wrapping paper, ribbon, tape and two Expedit bookcases (the other is half the size of this one) later (plus some Christmas lights strung across the ceiling) you'd never know that room is normally a plasticky Fisher Price disaster zone. 

Cute, huh? And if you've got kids, they'll LOVE ripping it down the next day. Fun times!

{photo credits: ME}

Foreign language wooden blocks

By Maggie

I first spied these amazing Uncle Goose wooden blocks at a friend's house a few months ago and I've been hemming and hawing over them ever since. On one hand, they're sort of pricey for wooden blocks. On the other hand, they're so AWESOME. 

Depending on the language, each block displays a letter, number, animal, brush stroke, number and some of the Asian language sets can be stacked together to make a map of the country. 

The only Chinese my biracial kids know comes from Ni Hao Kai Lan, with a smattering of dim sum orders thrown in. I think these blocks would be a hit with my map-loving three-year-old and would impress the grandparents to boot. In fact, I think this would make an excellent gift FROM the grandparents! 

You can buy them from Amazon in the $30 to $40 range, though the more obscure languages (Hebrew!) can be found directly at the Uncle Goose block website. 

 

{photo credits: lindenwoodinc.com}

Urban Decay for the tween set

By Maggie

I usually hide from salesladies and their intrusive, over-enthusiastic questions, but when the lady in Sephora asked if I needed help, I threw myself at her feet. "Gift! Niece! Thirteen years old!" I sputtered, and she could see the desperation in my eyes because she patted my hand and led me straight to the Urban Decay display. 

"Anything Urban Decay is good," she said, "but this is the thing that will make you the coolest aunt ever." 

Do you see what this is, people? This is GLITTER EYELINER! Drool!

It's eighteen bucks, but my super cute, super tiny, super stylish girl will love it (in purple, it's her favorite color) and I can't WAIT to see her dad freak out when she opens it. 

 

{photo credit: sephora.com}

Games your preschooler will love and you... well, you may not HATE them

by Maggie

My kids love to play games and they REALLY love to play games with ME, but if I have to walk them through one more round of Candyland I'll run screaming from the house. So I've invested some time and not too many dollars looking for games that 1) my kids will enjoy and 2) won't drive me insane. At least the first time. 

A big hit in our house lately are these giant dominoes I picked up (from Ross of all places) for five bucks: 

Not that any of us really know HOW to play dominoes, but we match the pictures and count the dots and when we've made a train that covers the entire living room we turn it into a road and destroy it with Matchbox cars. Fun times! 

We also like oversized toddler-friendly playing cards, like these Old Maid cards from Amazon. 

I picked ours up at the dollar store, and the favorites so far are Memory and a Winnie the Pooh set where you make pairs, ie: the vase card and the flower card, the broom card and the dustpan card. The dollar store is actually a FANTASTIC place to find preschooler activities. 

When we get tired of matching and counting and otherwise educational-ish games, we bust out the marble run. 

Ours is a third this size and I found it in the dollar bins at Michaels, but all I have to do is build it and it keeps my three-year-old entertained long enough for me to hammer out a blog post, so it's a win.

If you have any suggestions for fun preschooler games (the "fun" part is relative, of course) let me know in the comments!

{Photo credits: toysrus.com, amazon.com}

Help and inspiration for color palettes

By Maggie

I love to redesign my blog and make my own invitations and announcements and other print items, but I always have a hard time coming up with a color palette. I tend to favor the same schemes (my last blog redesign used the exact same colors as the previous one) or too trendy colors (I outfitted my kitchen in turquoise and red, which I thought was super original until I saw the exact same scheme in a million different stores.) 

Right now I'm dreaming up a potential website for a baking business and, as usual, I'm blanking on a fresh color palette. Enter COLOURlovers, a website devoted to colors, palettes, patterns and color trends. They have color palettes devoted to weddings, web design, and your home. One of my favorite features is the ability to browse palettes by "most loved". Here's one of my favorites:

For the website I'm designing I'm thinking something along these lines:

I'll definitely be using this site to inspire my future print and web projects and maybe you'll find it useful too! Do you have a go to or favorite color palette right now?

 

{photo credits: colourlovers.com} 

Currently Coveting: Anthropologie Dresses

By Maggie

I've never bought clothes from Anthropologie because I am 1) cheap and 2) SO not cool enough, but while killing some preschool hours at the mall, I ducked into Anthropologie and allowed myself a quick perusal of the clothing racks. Just for fun! Not like I'd buy anything! I certainly didn't expect to fall in LOVE:

Silver Cloud Dress, $188

I think this dress may be my favorite dress in the history of dresses. The sad thing is that I OWN this dress. I own a silver sequin dress in this exact same shape, but this one is so much NICER. The spangles aren't super garish or shiny, and I suspect they do not constantly fall off and embed themselves in the carpet like the sequins on my dress at home. It's PERFECT for a holiday party, if you are, of course, the kind of girl who likes to sparkle. The sales clerk also informed me that people are buying it a size up for more of a flapper Roaring Twenties style. I APPROVE!

I didn't buy it. WOE. I also didn't buy this one: 

Jacinth Sweaterdress, $148

...or this one:

Dried Leaves dress, $158

 

{photo credits: anthropologie.com}

Baby Booties Giveaway Winner!

By Maggie

Remember these cuties? 

Our lucky winner is Dawn K.! Yay Dawn K.! Dawn K. also happened to be the first person to leave a comment, thereby proving my whole giveaway winning strategy (lurk until there are at least a handful of comments so I'm not the FIRST) completely and totally wrong. Look!

Dawn K., please send your contact info to Elizabeth at ebj123 at gmail dot com so you can get these booties on your girl ASAP!

{photo credit: babybellamaya.com} 

Current shopping weakness: baby girl outerwear!

By Maggie

I have this teeny tiny problem called Shopping For My Daughter. Right now the thing she needs (and I use the word 'needs' rather loosely, obvs) is a winterish jacket. Those sweaters and hoodies aren't going to last much longer and everywhere I look I see the cutest size 2T coats in the WORLD. 

Left to right:

Faux shearling jacket, $31.33, from Crazy8
Chelsea check duffle coat, $46.50, from Pumpkin Patch
Ruffle wool blend coat, $35, from Old Navy 

Left to right:

Shearling hoodie coat, $64.50 from Gap
Gem button swing coat, $57.99, from Gymboree
Wool blend pea coat, $30, from Old Navy 

Now, I have to say I think some of these prices are sinful, but I've got time (and coupons!) to wait for the outerwear sales!

{Photo credits: Crazy8, Pumpkin Patch, Old Navy, Gap, Gymboree}