Dear Spring, Are you really here? Please say yes. We are gearing up for our very first egg hunt with an outing to a local farm on Sunday. I can’t wait to see the bebes with the little spring farm animals. Should be a fun weekend and the forecast here calls for blue skies- we’ll see how it shakes out as Punxsutawney Phil was clearly trying to pull a fast one on us.

A Few Fun Easterly Things

-Thomson’s seersucker pin striped blazer with matching shorts at Pink Olive.
-Dad’s skinny minty tie, an Etsy find.
-My Peacekeeper’s “Paint Me Content” natural lipstick- this is the most flattering color for fair to medium skin-toned women. I pretty much wear this everyday. I originally found it at ABC Home and they have since sold out, available at the company’s website.
-Felt Easter baskets found at Whole Foods.
-Gigi’s ballet flats- another Etsy find.
-My go-to yucky stuff-free Tarte foundation with SPF 15 for the hopefully sunny weekend- love this stuff.
-Gigi’s Tulip Clips- aren’t these adorable- and spring appropriate. Hello Shisho.
-My Colorcycle Tote from Anthropologie. I love this thing. I throw diapers, wipes, pacis and my laptop in, and I’m good to go.
-My Punchy Pink Chewbeads for the teething bebes.
-Portrait of a spring lamb by Sharon Montrose at The Animal Print Shop- amazingly cute baby animal portraits- so adorable for a nursery.

What I’m Cooking for Easter Dinner: 

Yields: 2 servings

How You Make It:

Seared Sea Scallops
1. Over medium heat, add a small pat of Irish butter to the pan.
2. Add scallops (6-8 for 2 people), season with salt and pepper and quickly sear on both sides until browned, about 2 minutes tops.
3. Take off the heat and allow scallops to cook off heat for 5 minutes. They will cook through.
4. Add pan back to medium heat and throw in a splash of white wine with the juice of a lemon. Allow to come to a boil, take off the heat and drizzle over scallops.

Salted Arugula Salad
1. Throw a large handful of washed and dryed arugula into a mixing bowl.
2. Salt the leaves with a few pinches of sea salt and work through.
*The key to your salted salad- add the salt before the olive oil so that it will stick to the leaves. This little tip courtesy of famed Italian cookbook author, Marcella Hazan.
3. Add in a handful of pine nuts, sliced avocado and a few fresh mozzarella balls.
4. Season with fresh black pepper.
5. Squeeze the juice of a small lemon over the greens.
6. Drizzle olive oil to taste over the salad and toss.

Voila- a super easy and tasty meal.

If I’m super ambitious, I’ll make this for dessert, a Cornmeal-Almond Cake with Mascarpone and Strawberries- kind of perfect for Easter. Not exactly great for the calorie counting that I’ve been trying to do, but hey- it’s a holiday!

What I’m Sipping with Easter Dinner: 

Kermit Lynch’s 2009 Clos Ste. Magdeleine Cassis Blanc
Mostly Marsanne, this white tastes of the sea air as it is made literally on the coast of Southern France in Cassis- a perfect pairing with seafood. I visited the winery last summer, talk about La Belle Vie- Wowzers. This place is the stuff of dreams churning out the nectar of the Gods.

Cin Cin and Happy Easter! How will you celebrate this weekend?

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I love the look of walnut and sheepskin together- warm and fuzzy while still modern.  Recreate the lok with Room and Board’s Soren lounge chair- a beautifully crafted nod to its mid century scissor-legged sisters and Ikea’s very affordable sheepskin. For a more affordable re-creation, look to craigslist for vintage mid century chairs. I scored a Cherner chair for $200 on NYC’s craigslist, a steal.

{Modern Chair Image: Rue Mag}

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That guy always does the right thing. He charms the ladies with his soulful ways, breaks up street fights by using good old fashioned common sense tactics, and stands up for equality. Just love him.

Rothko re-imaginied for Marriage Equality. I like it. This is a big moment for our country. Let’s hope our Justices step up to the plate and help to cement an equal rights world for all of our citizens.

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I recently had a delicious dark glass of fizzy Opera 02 Lambrusco with my mushroom burger and fries at Sonoma in Capitol Hill. Delish. Seriously delish. Sonoma is known for its impressive Italian wine list so some may scoff at my choice of its red bubbles. Lambrusco has gotten a bad rap in the past and I have written about it here before so let’s just move on and get with the program. There are lots of delicious old school lambruscos now being imported to the US for our drinking pleasure. It’s a fantastic pizza/burger/bbq wine, it’s rustic, it’s earthy, it’s bold with lots of ripe red fruit, a touch of floral if you’re lucky, and it fizzes. I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t like a well made lambrusco.

This one is divine. I found it at Planet Wine, one of my favorite local wine shops, for $16. Even better. Cin Cin ragazzi.

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The world’s most famous milliner up close and personal in a new Phaidon photo book.

If you live on this planet you most likely caught a glimpse of this:

If you hadn’t heard of Philip Treacy, the milliner to the stars, before Princess Beatrice’s appearance at the Royal Wedding in 2011, you were made acutely aware of him at that moment. Say what you will about her fascinator- a fallopian fantasy, an ovarian odyssey- perhaps, but Treacy is an artist who has stayed true to his craft throughout his career. His work has been prevalent in the fashion world for decades but Will & Kate’s nuptials really pushed him into the forefront of the public eye.

And now we get a backstage pass into his millinery madness. Photographer Kevin Davies provides us with an exclusive look at Treacy’s life and work in a new photo book by Phaidon Press, Philip Treacy by Kevin Davies.

All this talk of Easter and bonnets has got me wishing I could don a Treacy fascinator come Easter morning. I’m not sure it would be the right choice for our trip to Ticonderoga Farms with the bebes but it would certainly make a statement.

A few Philip Treacy standouts suitable for a fancy Easter outing:

Treacy in his workshop. I love this photo.

{Images: Kevin Davies, AP}

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Easter bonnets for me always conjure up that great Irving Berlin song from Easter Parade- “On the Avenue…”- and I imagine myself strolling down Fifth Ave. in a big pink and proud hat. I actually don’t think I’ve ever worn a proper Easter bonnet. Have you? In any case, here is a great little DIY for your littles so that they can do so via our Clever Girl’s paper bowl bonnet.

Clever Girl’s challenge: Make an Easter hat out of a paper bowl for her daughter’s school parade. Leave it to Natalia, mission accomplished. Her little one is decked out in her self-made bonnet. They had a blast making this together. How cute, easy too.

What You Need:
1. Paper Bowl
2. Pastel acrylic paints
3. Glitter
4. Ribbon
5. Styrofoam Disc
6. Store-bought paper flowers
7. Foam Eggs
8. Plastic Eggs
9. Pastel pieces of felt
10. Glue and/or Glue Gun
11. Stapler
12. Tape
13. Sharpie

How You Make It:
1. Paint both sides of bowl with paint and glitter
2. Tape foam eggs onto the rim
3. Arrange flowers onto the styrofoam disc and secure with glue.
4. Glue to top of bowl.
5. Design a little bird and bunny out of plastic eggs and felt.
6. Glue gun your woodland creations on to hat.
7. Staple ribbon to rim of the hat.
8. Voila- her very own Easter Bonnet!

She’s donned her bonnet and ready for her stroll down the Avenue. Check out Judy and Fred doing their dapperest:

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I love a tiny sandwich in my drink. We went to brunch this weekend at one of our local haunts, The Evening Star and this tiny sandwich with a side of bacon arrived in my Bloody Mary. What a fun surprise, it’s the little things… literally.

I thought it was a cute idea especially for brunch gatherings. Stick a little mini grilled cheese in your guests’ Bloody Mary and add a side of bacon for the meat eaters. Who wouldn’t love that!

Cin Cin!

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It’s still a little chilly here on the east coast to feel much like spring but I’m off to tackle some spring cleaning in the spirit of the season. My friend and Volatizing’s Clever Girl, Natalia sent me Jessica Alba’s new book, The Honest Life and I’ve been thumbing through it this week for some toxin-free inspiration (so has Gigi, above). I read Healthy Child, Healthy World a few years ago and it set me on a new path to clean living. It is a bit overwhelming though. I have to admit that after reading it, I was a little panicked about the level of toxins in our everyday environment and my lack of control over it. I think her take is a more simplified and easier to digest version. Kudos to her for having the courage of her convictions to create The Honest Company and spread the knowledge.

Each month we receive our little cleaning bundle full of honest goodies, which I LOVE- especially the shampoo/soap and the laundry pods. Her partner, Christopher Gavigan, is the former CEO of Healthy Child, Healthy World so that adds some serious street cred to the mix. She comes across very real and cool in her book and has filled it with some great recipes, diy makeup and style tips to boot. Sure life’s a bowl of biodynamic pesticide free cherries when you’re a movie star, but it’s actually not so hard to make a few adjustments and live a little cleaner. We’re not exactly camera ready in this house as clearly illustrated above and while our home doesn’t look like Miss Alba’s on an ordinary day, and I lament that I will never be as organized as her, her book is still chock full of great insight. I recommend.

P.S.: How To Be A Perfect Parent in 5 Easy Steps… Or Probably Never: this is HI-Larious!

P.P.S.: We’re drinking rosé full tilt right about now whether spring is here or not. We popped open this bottle tonight, one I had been saving since a trip to Provence two summers ago. While there, we toured a few small wineries in Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Chateauneuf du Pape with Olivier Hickman, a British expat now making his home and living as a winemaker in the Rhone Valley. If you find yourself in the Southern Rhone, I highly recommend Olivier as a guide for a fun and inspired day of wine tasting. Back to the wine at hand- my glass was a deep strawberry, ruby red with bright red fruit and beautiful herbal notes of wild garrigue with a grounded earthiness. Not to be a tease but this bottle is not available in the states. Michael Skurnik imports Domaine la Garrigue’s wines but not this one. A crime since it is absolutely heavenly.

What are you up to this weekend? What will you be imbibing to celebrate spring? Enjoy and Cin Cin!

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Last up in my weeklong mini course in movie musical love, The Frug.

If you have not seen Fosse’s Frug, please treat yourself to this viewing. From Sweet Charity, this is true mastery at work- such a gem of a piece. If you love fashion and/or film, you will love this. Inspired by Fellini, you can clearly see the Italian auteur’s influence at hand. This is 60s mod fabulousness meets Fellini’s freaks. L.O.V.E.

Ok, so to roundup my top 5 (or 6) favorite movie musical numbers of all time, we have:

“There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This”- Sweet Charity
“Cool”- West Side Story
The Barn Dance- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The Studio Scene- Swing Time
The Gotta Dance Dream Sequence- Singin’ in the Rain
“The Rich Man’s Frug”- Sweet Charity

Your turn. Please share your favorite movie musical moments. I would LOVE to hear them. I hope you enjoyed movie musical week- thank you for playing!

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Gene or Fred? Gene or Fred? It’s really the most ridiculous question, almost as ridiculous as Beatles or Stones? BOTH is the correct answer. How can you have one without the other? You can’t, so today I had to pick 2 favorite numbers. I tried really hard to stick to 5 but I just can’t choose between Gene and Fred, so I’m not going to.

There are so many ridiculously mind blowing numbers that these two created, choreographed and perfected on film that it’s tough narrowing it down. I could go with Fred’s and Gene’s iconic numbers, “Puttin’ On The Ritz” and “Singin’ in the Rain” which are perfect and swoon-worthy but I love their female counterparts too much, so I’m going with these two:

First up, this little diddy from Swing Time. This number needs no introduction, Fred and Ginger are the epitome of effortless perfection- love the ending!

And next, the dream dance montage from Singin’ in the Rain with the incomparable Cyd Charisse- only my most favorite female dancer of all time. This sequence is wacky and random at times but I just love it, I could watch it over and over. Unlike all of the other numbers I chose, this one does not forward the plot of its story in the slightest as it is literally just a dream dance thrown in for theatricality and spectacle. Because of this, it doesn’t really qualify as a great number but it’s just so great that I can’t help myself. I couldn’t find the whole thing from start to finish, so here is a clip:

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