At Home

When it comes to being all natural and avoiding toxins and all that, I go through phases. Years ago, before I was jugging a big job, motherhood, and a blog, I had lots of time to read every magazine and book and I went on a huge kick to get rid of all environmental toxins in our apartment, from replacing our vinyl shower curtain liner to buying all green, non-toxic cleaning products and clearing out kitchen of bad plastics. I eased up as life got crazier and I just got too busy to stress over it all. And realistically, some green cleaners just didn’t get my bathtub or toilet clean like Clorox. It was the same with my beauty products — as much as I was worried about certain ingredients, I pushed it out of mind because I just wanted my skin to be clear and my hair to be shinier and fuller, and my armpits not to smell or sweat, and I found the green, non-toxic products just didn’t get the job done as well, especially the natural deodorants.

I’m really enjoying coming up with these bucket lists every season (see my fall list…

Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means a relationship expert.…

Packing for a beach vacation is always my favorite thing to do, especially when it’s the middle of winter and I’m so over all my winter clothes. All those summer shorts, sundresses, and sandals feel fresh again. Plus, it’s the perfect excuse to pick up some of the pretty floral dresses and coverups that I’ve been seeing everywhere and lusting over. Still, since packing is never easy, I created a list of essentials to help make packing for your next beach vacation easy. Here’s what I’m packing for our upcoming beach vacation and a checklist with all the essentials you’ll need for yours.

Friday was my birthday, so this post is a few days late, but after a fun weekend celebrating with my boys, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the previous year and my goals from the one to come. I’m not sure if I ever shared this, but I love birthdays! I love celebrating other people’s and my own. I just feel like it’s one day (or in our house, week) all about you and celebrating your life and where you’re at and going. It’s like my own personal New Year’s in many ways — a chance to reflect, reset, set goals. And since my birthday corresponds with spring, I always feel really hopeful and like it’s a time of rebirth in some ways.

Before I had James, I loved rainy days. It was the perfect excuse to stay in my pajamas, binge watch Netflix and order takeout. But all that changed since becoming a mom. Every mom dreads a rainy day. Keeping kids entertained while cooped up inside all day is no easy feat and it’s hard to get a toddler’s energy out if they can’t run around outside. Little kids need the fresh air and without it, they become hyper little maniacs. Luckily, our nanny has found some amazing activities to keep our little maniac busy when it’s pouring and because it’s rained almost every weekend, I’ve discovered quite a few on my own. Here are my favorite rainy day activities for toddlers.

This March, Andrew and I will celebrate our five year wedding anniversary. I’m kind of…

Like many of you, when mid-January hit, we were ready for a vacation somewhere warm. Last year, after much debate, we decided to bring our then baby along on our vacation. I wrote a post about what I learned from our experience. Well, we just got back from another January trip to Florida, and I thought I’d share my vacation with toddler tips after surviving a beach vacation with our crazy two year old. While I felt more prepared and less panicked about traveling with James now that we’ve flown and vacationed with him a bunch, we still made some mistakes this time (and had some wins) and learned a lot.

When I set out to write a winter bucket list, I was basically tired of…

Right before we had James, we moved into a newly renovated apartment, and finished decorating it just in time for his arrival. I swore we wouldn’t be those parents whose entire apartment is taken over by toys. I swore we wouldn’t buy James that many toys. After all, they really only play with a few of them and prefer to just bang on pots and pans, I said. And then we had James, and two years later, our apartment is overflowing with toys.

An organized closet may seem more like a luxury than a necessity, especially if you live in NYC and having a closet is a luxury. But a well edited wardrobe is truly they key to flawless style, especially for those of us who barely have five minutes to think about what to wear, and the first step to editing your wardrobe is to clean out your closet and organize it in a way that makes getting dressed simple and easy.

If you’re like me, you have way too many shoes, and no intention of giving any of them up anytime soon, which is why for part two of my closet cleaning series, we’ll be tackling shoes. Since they take up most of my closet space, I need a good system for organizing them. While over-the-door storage is the space-saving arrangement that makes the most sense for small space dwellers, shelves and cubbies, or better yet a closet just of shoes, would be my ultimate pick were space not an issue, as it allows for you to easily see all your shoes. From there, I prefer to sort by type (pumps, flats, wedges, sandals, sneakers, boots, etc.) and then color-coordinate from there. Here are my favorite ideas and inspiration for organizing your shoes. 

I’ve never really found a great way for storing my bags in a way that makes it easy to find them, keep them in great condition, and swap them out on the reg without tons of effort, so I spent a lot of time in the black hole of Pinterest and researching tons of organizational sites and books to find the best tips for storing purses to help me get all my handbags in order once and for all.

I am the type who totally makes resolutions and then forgets about them a month later, beats herself up, and then does it again the next year. I can’t help it. I love the possibility of a fresh start and a new year. Even though it might seem futile or a trap just to make you feel bad, I think it’s good idea to stop and reset and reflect on what you want to accomplish. Otherwise, it’s so easy to get so crazy on the hamster wheel of life that you find another year has gone by and you aren’t any closer to achieving any of your dreams.

I started this blog as a visual diary to help making get dressed in the morning easier for me. But I realized that if I struggled, and I worked in fashion and gave women advice on how to dress for a living, that other women needed this too.

This year, I vowed to get ahead of the game before the holidays. With so…

I had originally planned to write a post about what I’m thankful for, and I…

I LOVE holidays, have I mentioned that? Legit, I’m obsessed. I blame my mom. She…

As we struggle to conceive and the months pass by, we’re faced with the question…

It’s funny that I’ve had this blog for awhile now, but I haven’t really shared…