We know the weather is pretty ugly today in parts of the United States. We hope wherever you live, you are staying dry, safe, and toasty. Spring is trying its hardest to get here, isn't it? We are looking forward to picnics as the sun shines a little later into the day, as the grass is needing to be mowed more often, and as being barefoot becomes a necessary part of being outdoors. Check out Epicurious.com for some great ideas for easy, tasty, healthy picnic food. 
June Cleaver...that faithful housewife from the "Leave it To Beaver" TV series...
Wishing you a very happy weekend! What will you be doing with your weekend? Unfortunately, both of us are going to be up to our eyeballs in school projects this weekend. But what we wish we were doing is settling in with one of these fabulous books. We'd like to pick a project, set up the sewing machine, and have something handmade and fabulous by Sunday! Alas...
Something about this simple, paper wreath makes us smile. It's very spring-ish and happy. You can see more at Haru's Etsy shop. One of the best things about a paper wreath for your front door is that it's NOT awful silk flowers (anyone been in their local Michael's lately? There are some terrible silk flower wreaths for sale. Bad, bad, bad. Consider a paper wreath instead!)
If you havent figured it out by now, we love vintage. Check out this great idea we saw in the Napa Style catalog: antique silverware sold by the pound! This idea would be very easy to pick up for less at your local garage sales this summer. If you like the look of mismatched, whimsical place settings, grab a couple of your friends, and pick up a few sets of antique or vintage silver at thrift stores and rummage sales. Divide them evenly, and you will all walk away with a unique set of silver for entertaining.
Folks, it's shaping up to be quite a crazy week for us gals. School, work, homelife...all great blessings, but all things that can fill up schedules quickly! Please forgive us if we get a little behind on the blog this week! We are both trying to squeeze every last second from our jam-packed schedules! Our occasional daydreams having us dreaming about setting crazy schedules and deadlines aside for a fabulous spring vacation. Wouldn't a trip to Paris be lovely? Springtime in Paris...one can dream...
Or how about Corfu? The color of that water is mesmerizing...and could inspire quite the vacay wardrobe. :) Oh, to be sitting on the beach with toes dipped in that fabulous blue water. (sigh).
March 16 marks the one year birthday of the Babs Blog! Thank you to all of you who read this silly blog---we appreciate you! We love hearing from those of you who comment on posts and send up cheery emails. It has been quite fun getting to know some of you.
Martha Stewart has some beautiful Easter egg ideas. The photo above is gorgeous, and if your up to it, we'd love to see somebody attempt this! What really makes a beautiful Easter, though, is not the eggs or the bunnies, but the meaning behind Easter. Easter is coming up very soon...we hope you are thinking now about who you will celebrate with. Maybe this is the year that you offer to open your home up for Easter, inviting family, friends, and acquaintances who might not otherwise have a place to celebrate.
You've heard us talk about carnations before....how we have had to slowly change our opinion about this flower. Once considered lowly and cheap, we are now seeing how carnations can be lovely and chic. InStyle Weddings has these three photos on their site, and we think the very inexpensive carnation is continuing to earn new respect. Grouped en masse, aren't they lovely? The top picture especially is a great example of a party centerpiece...we can imagine an entire theme inspired by the elegant simplicity of those white vessels with the plum-colored carnations. Check out InStyle for more inspiration.
Barbie is 50 today! Her real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, but she goes by Barbie. (We personally think "Babs" would have been a much better nickname.) If you are a Barbie fan, do a quick google search and you'll be astounded to learn of the 50th birthday bash Barbie is having. Where? In Malibu, of course, in a mansion decked out like the Barbie Malibu Dream House. Designer Jonathan Adler has spent six months figuring out how to deck the house out in the most "Barbie-like way." And famed party planner Colin Cowie will be throwing the very pink party. (Sigh) She really does have it all, doesn't she?
Um, okay...this is genius! The Rachel Ray website invites various designers to come up with a monthly centerpiece idea. This month, Orla Kiely was invited to come up with a centerpiece idea. (You may remember our recent post on Orla Kiely's new line at Target). So, Orla Kiely, being the genius that she is, came up with this idea, shown above. She took fun, colorful socks, stretched them over flower pots, snipped off the bottoms of the socks so the pots sit flat on the table and...ta da! Cheery cuteness abounds. We think this is quite clever, and can come in quite useful for baby showers or a child's birthday party. For the whole how-to, and some other clever centerpiece ideas, check out Rachel Ray's "Centerpiece of the Month."
Pink and Polka Dot, a very fun blog we like to check in with, is holding a fabulous contest for those of you who have your own blogs! The winner will get a blog re-design by Sweet Faerie Designs. If you have a blog, you'll want to hop on over to Pink and Polka Dot and enter. Think of it as winning a new wardrobe for your blog---and who can't use a new wardrobe?
...a copy of THIS! The Farm Chicks have penned a cookbook with down home recipes. Throughout the recipes, they also give tips on how to do little projects to bring style to your home. Check out Barnes and Noble online for your copy.
Yesterday was Babs' birthday. No, her daughters didn't forget, but we were away from the blog yesterday and didn't get a chance to post on it. Shame on us. March 5 is a very special day. We cannot express how happy we are that our Mom was born. And we cannot express the joy that comes from having a Mom we can honestly say we love, like, enjoy, miss, and look up to. We know not everyone has parents they enjoy---we are so blessed! We chose a pictures of Baskin Robbins icecream instead of a birthday cake, because we know that Babs was probably wishing for 31 flavors on her big day! :) (Nobody appreciates icecream more than Mom, and probably now more than ever now that she lives in Liberia and a scoop is harder to come by these days!)
Mini Blueberry Turnovers
...a new, snazzy tablecloth to bring in spring? If you are looking for an easy, inexpensive way to give your home the feel of spring, there's nothing better than a fresh print used as a tablecloth. We recommend the fabulous Amy Butler fabric line (just a few of her prints are shown above). Measure your table and figure out how many yards you'd need to cover it. Order your fabric, hem it, and throw it on the table for an instant chic update. This is, of course, also an excellent idea for when you are throwing a party (say, a spring shower? Excuse the pun...) and you need an inexpensive way to cover tables. Renting linens can be limiting because there seems to be a lack of fun fabrics at rental places. Purchasing actual linens can break the bank! Consider finding a fun fabric---online or at your favorite fabric store---and putting it to use as a tablecloth or table runner. If you don't sew, it wouldn't cost much to have your drycleaner hem these (yes, did you know that most drycleaners do small sewing jobs?) because the hems are straight and it's the most basic, quick sewing job out there. Happy spring!
