We first became enamored with Annie Dean earlier this year after stumbling across her site AnnieDean.com. Combining tips for entertaining and etiquette, this modern day Miss Manners proves that you can juggle a hectic lifestyle (did we mention she’s a lawyer?) and still be ultra chic. This week she’s sharing her five easy tricks to make spring a little more fabulous.
Here’s a secret: Essential oils are the best way to make your home feel a little extra glam and to keep your guests wondering how you manage to have everything in your home smell so fantastically clean. Whole Foods, and many health stores, offer a variety of essential oils for $10 or less. You’ll only need a drop or two for each use, so these little bottles pack a big punch. After you’ve cleaned up, rub two drops of essential oil into your countertop for a deliciously fresh scent that will last for hours. And don’t stop there.
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We first became enamored with Annie Dean earlier this year after stumbling across her site AnnieDean.com. Combining tips for entertaining and etiquette, this modern day Miss Manners proves that you can juggle a hectic lifestyle (did we mention she’s a lawyer?) and still be ultra chic. This week she’s sharing her five easy tricks to make spring a little more fabulous.
On a recent spring day, I tied up these linen Supergas sneaks and headed to the park with Jessica Soffer’s brilliant debut novel, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. It was hours before I could tear myself away.
The story is of a professional chef and her daughter Lorca, a sensitive and earnest fifteen-year-old who believes that if she can perfect her mother’s favorite meal (a traditional Iraqi dish called Masgouf), her life will be as beautiful and as happy as she imagines it can be. In the meantime, she is haunted by her mother’s determined coldness and in secret moments, wounds herself in hopes that she’ll be reminded that she’s alive.
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We first became enamored with Annie Dean earlier this year after stumbling across her site AnnieDean.com. Combining tips for entertaining and etiquette, this modern day Miss Manners proves that you can juggle a hectic lifestyle (did we mention she’s a lawyer?) and still be ultra chic. This week she’s sharing her five easy tricks to make spring a little more fabulous.
There’s no better summer mal than a light, fresh, and healthy salad. Get your gal pals together and serve one up on mismatching vintage china with pressed linen napkins to keep things casual-chic. Lately I’ve been serving wine Italian-style in these juice glasses from Fishs Eddy, $1.49 each. And even if you’re dining for one, don’t forget the red lipstick. Read on to get my recipe for mango avocado salad with shredded chicken and goat cheese:
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We first became enamored with Annie Dean earlier this year after stumbling across her site AnnieDean.com. Combining tips for entertaining and etiquette, this modern day Miss Manners proves that you can juggle a hectic lifestyle (did we mention she’s a lawyer?) and still be ultra chic. This week she’s sharing her five easy tricks to make spring a little more fabulous.
Fresh blooms make any home brighter. Here’s a crash course to at-home botanical beauty.
To make a really spectacular bouquet, find a vintage crystal knick knack to use as a vase. I picked up the vintage crystal ice bucket pictured above at an antique shop in Greenport, Long Island for just a few dollars. Crystal glassware is dreadfully expensive when purchased new, but you can put together a whole vintage set for under $100, so keep your eyes peeled!
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We first became enamored with Annie Dean earlier this year after stumbling across her site AnnieDean.com. Combining tips for entertaining and etiquette, this modern day Miss Manners proves that you can juggle a hectic lifestyle (did we mention she’s a lawyer?) and still be ultrachic. This week she’s sharing her five easy tricks to make spring a little more fabulous.
I’m addicted to colorblocking. It’s easy, chic, and lighthearted, and it’s the springtime antidote to the all-black outfits we New Yorkers wear from September to March. But if the idea of dressing in contrasting colors from head-to-toe feels like too much, colorblock with your nails and your lipstick instead.
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Have you ever wondered what you would eat for your last meal? Melanie Dunea has. When she’s not interviewing people for her blog My Last Supper, she spends her time as a freelance portrait photographer and casual instagramer. And this week, Melanie is sharing her favorite beauty, food, and photography tips on the Birchbox blog.
At first meeting, you probably won’t register my face, but you will absolutely take note of my hair. It’s a riotous bushel of brown coils: shoulder-length, impressive in diameter, and very, very curly—always a bit of an anomaly in this blow-dried world. And, while I have an admittedly strong personality, my hair is an outright rebel. It’s got an identity and swagger all its own—which means that for years, I never knew whether I was going to wake up to a frizz bomb or a dull, flat nest.
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Have you ever wondered what you would eat for your last meal? Melanie Dunea has. When she’s not interviewing people for her blog My Last Supper, she spends her time as a freelance portrait photographer and casual instagramer. And this week, Melanie is sharing her favorite beauty, food, and photography tips on the Birchbox blog.
J’aime Paris. No, really. I love, love, love Paris. My first impressions of the city came from Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline books. I was enamored of that cheeky little girl, scared of Ms. Clavel, the teacher, and had a mad crush on Pepito, the Spanish Ambassador’s son who lived next door. But, mostly, I lingered over the drawings of Paris and dreamed of sitting in a café eating, drinking, and just being Parisian.
Fast forward to the late 1970’s. I found myself in a restaurant in Paris sitting in an overstuffed chair, perusing an oversize menu and feeling très Madeline-esque when the waiter came over and served us a plate of Gougères. I was surprised, as we hadn’t ordered anything yet. I looked at my parents who encouraged me to try the cheesy puffs and explained that they were compliments of the house. Free food? Paris was getting better by the minute. I popped one in my mouth and savored the warm gem as its flavor exploded on my tastebuds. I have never forgotten my first Gougères.
Many years and many Gougères later, I began baking my own. I’m always ready to slap on my apron to make a triple batch. I love to have them on hand for when visitors drop in unexpectedly. I have experimented with many recipes over the years and I think this one is the best. Pop open a bottle of cold champagne, cue up some Serge Gainsbourg, close your eyes. The taste of a warm Gougères will transport you.
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Have you ever wondered what you would eat for your last meal? Melanie Dunea has. When she’s not interviewing people for her blog My Last Supper, she spends her time as a freelance portrait photographer and casual instagramer. And this week, Melanie is sharing her favorite beauty, food, and photography tips on the Birchbox blog.
The first thing I do each morning is brew myself a piping hot cup of tea. It doesn’t matter where in the world I am: A day that starts without tea is doomed.
I don’t use any old tea because I prefer Tetley’s, which comes in a nice round pod and is available at any local grocery story in England. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with U.S. manufactured Twinings or Harneys. But, to me, English tea just tastes better and stronger. I’m not a purist by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t bless my pot with a drop of hot water, and I use quite a lot of milk, which many deem a sin. Once in a while, I’ll go to the fuss of tealeaves, but usually only when I have a discerning or highfalutin visitor.
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Have you ever wondered what you would eat for your last meal? Melanie Dunea has. When she’s not interviewing people for her site My Last Supper, she spends her time as a freelance portrait photographer and casual instagramer. And this week, Melanie is sharing her favorite beauty, food, and photography tips on the Birchbox blog.
I’m a professional photographer and I love Instagram. Thanks to the ingenious app, I can check out what’s cooking in April Bloomfield’s kitchen or see how my pal’s holiday is shaping up. Sure, I have fancy cameras for work and a little point and shoot for recreational purposes, but most of my day-to-day snaps are taken with my iPhone and uploaded straight to the site. When budding photographers want to talk cameras and equipment, I always tell them the tools don’t make the photo. Naturally, there are benefits of better, longer lenses and good camera bodies, but none of that will help you catch what Henri Cartier Bresson called the “decisive moment.” A moment is a moment, you either see it and it moves you to click, or you don’t.
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Have you ever wondered what you would eat for your last meal? Melanie Dunea has. When she’s not interviewing people for her site My Last Supper, she spends her time as a freelance portrait photographer and casual instagramer. And this week, Melanie is sharing her favorite beauty, food, and photography tips on the Birchbox blog.
I used to dodge kisses from my Grandmother Oma at bedtime, not because I didn’t love her, but because her face was always greasy. Sitting in front of a vanity mirror, dressed in a lovely robe, she would slather layer upon layer of cream while going on about the myriad benefits of moisturizing. “Trust me,” she would say. “When you are old, you won’t regret having taken care of your skin.”
I took her words to heart and by the time I was a teenager in the ’80s, I was blowing over half my paycheck ($4.35/hour working in the school cafeteria) on—you guessed it!—moisturizer. Lotions, creams, serums, fluids, balms, salves, emulsions and unguents. You name it, I was daubing onto my face, lids, neck, shoulders, knees, and toes.
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