Long dresses

Although I never wear long dresses, I'm really drawn to this one. She looks so ethereal. What do you think, my sweets? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

P.S. An adorable long maternity dress.

(Via Refinery 29)

Have a sweet weekend.

My dears, what are you up to this weekend? My dad is coming to visit, and I'm soooo excited to hang out with him. He seems so debonaire that it feels odd to refer to him as "Grandpa," so we're trying to think of an alternative name for Toby to call him. What did you call your grandpa? Anyway, have a wonderful weekend, and here are a few fun links from around the web...

Ha, well played, Domino.

Kate surprises her sister with a trip to Paris; here's her cute reaction.

Loving this shade of pink makeup...and here's Charlie wearing it!

Stunning photos of statues at the Met.

An adorable way to reveal a baby's gender.

Beer does a body good? Good to know.

Damn, those are sexy swimsuits.

Blue wish list.

Inspired by Harvey Faircloth's inspiration wall.

Ann Taylor, is that you?

Hang art without poking holes in it.

A chewing gum artist, of all things.

And a funny little video: Baby's first audition.

Have a good one! xoxo

Friday giveaway!

Today's giveaway is from The Vintage Pearl, a jewelry studio based in Oklahoma. The lovely designer Erin makes handcrafted, handstamped necklaces and bracelets with your loved one's names and initials. She's giving away a $100 gift certificate so the winner can pick out her favorite piece. Aren't they sweet?

For a chance to win, please visit The Vintage Pearl and leave a comment below. A winner will be chosen at random tomorrow. Good luck!

Update: Melissa is our lucky winner. Thank you for playing. Plus, a bonus for all readers: Get 15% off your order with the code CUPOFJO.

Giant flowers

This coming Tuesday, artist Will Ryman will launch an installation called The Roses on Park Avenue -- they're 38 giant pink and red roses, along with beetles, bees, ladybugs, aphids and thorns (which the New York Times says will "stir a sense of foreboding"). Twenty petals will also be scattered on the ground, six of which will double as lawn chairs. The flowers will stay up through May as "the artist's love letter to New York City." Can't wait to see it!

P.S. Remember these waterfalls?

Photos of Toby

Just 'cause. :) He's almost eight months old, I can't believe it!

French slippers

How adorable are these slipper socks for kids and grown-ups? They're made in a small village in France and would be perfect for padding around the house.

(Via Black Eiffel)

Christmas Hair by Katherine

First of all I just want to thank Katherine for sending all the cute hairstyles.  Here is another cute one she did for Christmas.

 An easy and favorite hairdo on my daughter is the small ponytail, then put it and some more hair into another ponytail. I do two rows that go from the front to the back of her head. For Christmas Eve, I put a ribbon between the two rows like a shoelace.

If my daughter would let me use more than one elastic I will be trying this style on her as well.

Wednesday giveaway!

Today's giveaway is from Mini Mioche, a collection of eco-friendly organic baby clothes made in Canada. They're the kind of soft, comfy basics that babies will live in. And don't you love that they're organic? (Toby has their boogie pants!)

(On a personal note: Toby has a bunch of cute baby clothes that he just doesn't end up wearing, but these are the type of comfy basics that he wears everyday.)

They're giving away a $100 gift certificate, so you can treat your favorite little one to some cute things (or get some gifts for a baby shower). For a chance to win, please visit Mini Mioche and leave a comment below. A winner will be chosen at random tomorrow. Good luck!

Update: Sarah B. is our lucky winner. Plus, a bonus for all readers: Get 15% off everything at Mini Mioche's online store by entering the code CUPOFJO15 through January 23rd.

Dunton Hot Springs wedding

Remember Dunton Hot Springs, the Colorado ghost town tucked into an alpine valley? Well, lucky couple Victoria and Sean just got married there! Check out the amazing photos of their wedding, complete with a pig roast, hot springs, wildflowers and s'mores. And those views are incredible!

(Photos by the amazing Max Wanger, of course)

Engagement ring

How *gorgeous* is this ring? Swooning.

I'd love to ask you, my darlings: What's your relationship status? Are you married, engaged, dating, single, it's complicated? Just curious. :) I'd love to hear...

Old fashion/new fashion

Miss Moss has the raddest series of posts about how to get the looks of old-school movie stars, including Ava Gardner and Jane Birkin. How cute are these folded shorts and sandals?

Rolls to Side Pony

 This is fun easy and really quick.

I made a side part and then made a roll adding hair each time starting on the right side and rolled it down to the left side. (this will be your long roll)

Now on the left side start a roll just above her ear and roll to the bottom of her neck to meet the other roll. 

 Below is a picture of the 2 rolls before putting them together.

 Secure with an elastic.

 I then wrapped a small piece of her hair around the elastic and secured it.

 She wanted a flower so we clipped it above the elastic. 

The best things in life are free.

For a while now, I've been depotting my mac eye shadows & popping them into palettes, as it saves space & makes things a lot easier when looking for certain colours. Obviously not everyone thinks this way, and for those of you who prefer to have the indivdual pots, this blog post may sway you slightly. I'd been saving all my eye shadow pots in a little bag & I had then shoved them in a draw & completely forgot about them. It was always something on my "to do list". For those of you who aren't aware of the Back to Mac scheme, it's basically just a good way of recycling empty packaging & Mac give you something back in return for 6 empties. Usually a lipstick. I took along my 18 eye shadow empties & picked out 3 new colours. It would have cost me £40.50 but got 100% discount. Very satisfying indeed. These 3 are the colours that I had been oggling for a while, and obviously with the lipstick now retailing at £13.50 (stop mac, seriously, stop with the price increases) now is a good time to take back your empties. I picked up Chatterbox, Creme Cup & Shy Girl.

Lush also do a recycling scheme, where if you take back 5 empty black pots, you get a free fresh face mask. I don't find it very hard emptying any lush black pots, especially if you regularly buy the fresh face masks anyway, they only have a shelf (or fridge) life of 2-3 weeks, so after this time it should all be used up. I am definitely guilty of throwing a few away in the past...and now i regret it. I picked up "Catastrophe Cosmetic". It's my absolute favourite face mask. I love everything about it, the smell, the colour, the texture, the way it makes my skin look. I'll be buying these over and over and over, and then hopefully being rewarded for recyling buy recieving a free one every now and then :)

Overall, quite a satisfying little shop, since I ended up spending no money on things I actually want and love. So, ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this blog post is SAVE YOUR EMPTIES & SAVE THE PLANET. :)

♥

Notecards

How adorable are these cards? Since I'm prone to gasps, shrieks, superlatives, and general over-enthusiasm, they're right up my alley.

Home inspiration: Hanging bulb

Oh my goodness, I'm in love with this beautiful room. Everything from the vintage frames to the topiary to the flickering candles are just gorgeous, don't you think? But most of all, I adore that hanging bulb. Any idea where you might find one?

Update: Here's the rest of the house. It's from a real-estate listing in Sweden, believe it or not!

(Photo by Alvhem, via Abbey)

Someday Summary - Saturday

Sorry that i'm updating you on my not-so-exciting life again this evening, I wanted to show you a few bits i've bought recently but I got back from work & it was dark, so that will have to wait until tomorrow when I can actually take some photos in good lighting.

♥ The photos above were taken last night, My brother (Joe) was off to a masquerade ball and I was off out for drinks with my girlies. We don't have many photo's together, and any that we do have, are either stupid or old. Look how much we've changed! In the old photo, I believe I was about 5 & Joe was probabaly 3 or 4. I do hope you appreciate my crazed expression (I promise i'm not posessed) & my equally terriffic jumper. I just want to squish my brothers chubby little cheeks. I also find it quite funny that aged 5, i am sporting naturally ombred hair...
He will be off travelling on Wednesday & I've helped to create a blog so he can document his antics. So follow that HERE. Nothing on it yet, but he will be doing a post before he goes, and obviously posting lots whilst he's away for 3 months.
♥ My week is getting slightly better since Wednesday's "Bleurgh" post. Lots more work & distractions & a few hours of peeking sunshine.
♥ I have rekindled my love of Ebay. This is never a good thing. First purchase of the year on ebay is an oversized, vintage farm yard animal jumper. Not everyone's cup of tea i'm sure, but I would quite like to wear it with leggings, my boots & a bit of a messy barnet up-do. I'm sure i can work those farmyard animals somehow.
♥ Currently reading A Twenty-Something & Thats Peachy

♥

Samsung Photography Challenge

As some of you might be aware via twitter, I am part of the Samsung Photography Challenge.
I was contacted by a PR company working alongside Samsung to help promote the different digital cameras they have to offer. Photography being something I absolutely love, and have always loved, I was definitely up for it. I was provided with a Samsung digital camera & I've been placed in the "style" category. There are also 3 other Samsung camera triallers (who are all more advanced than little old me), each with different cameras. Every month, you can vote for what you'd like me to take a photograph of, and once the votes are all counted, I am then set the challenge of capturing the winning vote. I am doing this every month for 6 months. I really loved the idea of this. They could have just sent me over the camera, told me to have a play about with it, then written out a review. But instead, I love that we are all a little more involved & being challenged to take photographs we might not normally try and capture. It's like being back in A Level Photography & having homework. haha. The categories aren't easy either. They really are a "challenge". My first was to capture "celebrating in the form of singing and dancing". This could have been an even bigger struggle had it not been New Years Eve. Once my chosen photo is uploaded, you can then rate it out of 5. I don't win anything for gaining a high score, it's just there for you to express your love/hate for the photo. Although I should hope you would all be kind enough to rate me nicely. :)
Obviously, the purpose of the Challenges are for me to get a bit creative & try different things out with the camera. For any of you who are thinking of getting a new digital camera, you should definitely check out the site, and how well the 4 different camera models work. There's nothing more honest than the photo's themselves.

Samsung Challenge Page
Samsung Capture on Twitter

If you are interested in photography like me, or like I said, are looking to buy a new camera, then do check out the blog & get involved with voting for the challenges and rating the chosen images. I will be tweeting about it when the time comes each month, so keep an eye out. Obviously, you don't have to, but it would be great if you did.

♥

I am not affilated with Samsung, I haven't been compensated or asked to write this blog post & I am not being sponsored. I am simply using one of their cameras :)

Have a romantic (long) weekend!

My lovelies, what are you up to this weekend? Alex and I are having a couple friends over for games and cocktails, and Toby is thisclose to crawling and practicing non-stop! It's really cute to watch, although every two seconds he does a giant face plant. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and here are a few great posts from around the web...

The yummiest New Year's Resolution? Bake a cake every month!

A homemade board book.

Funny T-shirt for grown-ups.

Cute onesies.

Grapes + chocolate.

Fabulous wallpaper.

Future husbands, take note.

Mmmm, don't you wish we could beam ourselves here?

Wow, this antique ring looks like a fancier version of my engagement ring!

Have a good one, my darlings, and take gentle care of yourselves. xoxo

(Photo credit unknown, via Lost and Modern Nostalgic)

Our Los Angeles hotel

A few readers asked where we stayed in Los Angeles, and I'd love to share: We were lucky enough to stay at the Oceana Santa Monica, which was one of the nicest places we'd ever stayed. We booked a two-room suite through the amazing (and addictive!) website Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so that we could stay up and hang out after Toby went to bed (at his cute 7pm bedtime:). The rooms were beautiful and and homey; our bed was insanely comfortable, and the hotel was right next to the beach.

But the biggest plus was the service. Every time we walked into the hotel, they would say, "Hello, Ms. Goddard! Did you enjoy your walk?" or "How was your lunch? How's Toby doing?" Fancy! I was amazed that they remembered our names, and they'd coo and chit-chat with Toby for as long as he wanted. :) The staff made the hotel feel so personal. One night, we invited friends over to play games, and we wanted to order pizza, so I called room service, and the guy answered the phone, "Hello, Ms. Goddard! How can I help you?" and when I asked for a recommendation for a pizza place, he brought up local menus, along with bowls of crushed red pepper and grated parmesan. How sweet is that? Those little touches make such a difference, especially when you have a baby. We can't wait to go back next year.

Anyway, we really loved it and would highly recommend it if you're planning a trip to L.A.! :)