Spring Fashion: Lightweight Ice Cream Sweater

I shared on Instagram last week that one of my potentially "unpopular opinions" is that I prefer Spring over Fall. I know, I know...I'm crazy ;) But there's something about everything coming back to life that is just so good for my soul. My favorite season of all is Summer, but Spring is a close second and I'm so glad it's here. 

It's finally in the 50's and 60's here in Michigan, which means it's time to switch out our wardrobes again. I love light sweaters for this time of year and I recently found the cutest one, which really catches the vibe of spring and summer. See it?! They're little ice creams! I'm in love ;) 

I love a front tuck, and this slightly shorter sweater cut is made for it.

Are you all on the mules bandwagon yet? This is my first pair and I really like them! These are from Target and they're surprisingly comfortable and easy to walk in.

Photos: Ashley Slater Photography

DETAILS | ice cream sweater / jeans / mules / similar purse (major sale!)
Here are some other favorites:

What's your go-to Spring look?!

Have a great week!
Michaela
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How to Host a Flower Arranging Girls Night

The week of Easter I had a couple friends over for a girls night. We made centerpieces for Easter and decorated eggs! It was so much fun, so I thought I'd share how I put this little evening together so you can do it for your friends, no matter the occasion! 

THE FLOWER BAR

To create this, I just went to Trader Joes and our local wholesaler. But if you don't have a wholesale license, going to a grocery store like TJ's or Whole Foods will be perfect! They'll have all the flowers you'll need. Between the 4 of us, we made 5 arrangements and I asked each girl to contribute $20 for the arrangement so we had plenty of flowers! 

The flowers we got were:

+ ranunculus (usually in stores right around Easter!)

+ stock

+ eucalyptus 

+ spray roses (great bang for your buck since each stem has multiple blooms)

+ small hydrangeas

+ lisianthus 

+ flowering branches

This is Lisianthus and I love them! They have a couple blooms per stem usually, so they're a great option, but they are a little pricey depending on the color and variety. I'm so glad we were able to get them though!

I put each variety in its own vase and set them on my dining room buffet. My house smelled like a flower shop-- it was heavenly!!

I know Easter has passed, but I thought I'd share what we did for the egg decorating craft because they turned out so cute! If you're planning a girls night and it's not around a specific holiday (although, this would be so fun for Valentine's Day or Thanksgiving!), you could always come up with another craft. Otherwise, the flower arrangements could be enough of an activity for the evening!

For our eggs I just got some watercolor and acrylic paint. We used watercolor on the real eggs and acrylic for some white wooden eggs my friend brought. Those will be fun since we'll get to put those out again next year! You can see my finished product below, but I just did really simple floral shapes.

The day before this get together, I had baked and decorated easter sugar cookies, so I put those out with some drinks for our treats!

This was my finished floral arrangement. My friends' turned out so pretty, too! 

Here's how my eggs turned out. I was happy with them! So much more fun for me to do little florals than the normal dip-dying process. And no smell of vinegar ;)

For some floral arranging tips and tricks, check out my Flowers For Your Home posts here.

I hope you can host a sweet little girls night soon!xoxo



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The Monthly Edit: April

Happy April! I hope you had a lovely Easter! We enjoyed a nice, quiet day just going to church then out to brunch at one of our favorite places. The weather was so beautiful, which was a nice surprise!!

Today is our Monthly Edit post and I had so much fun rounding up some pretty things that caught my eye!

Enjoy!

1. Seagrass Pouf: adds so much texture to a space! I love the unique shape it has.
 2. Wave Sandal: I'm all about the slide sandals these days! This is a design I've never seen before...so cute.
3. Nail Polish: this is my new favorite cleaner nail polish option! It's 7-free, sold at Target now (yay!), the application brush is AMAZING and the polish lasts for so long. It's so great!! And the top coat is amazing.

 4. Blooms Print: my friend Jill created a beautiful Spring line of art prints, mugs, and more. It's so lovely, I hope you check it out!
 5. Round Purse: such a fun accessory for the spring and summer months!
 6. Tortoiseshell Sunglasses: such cute, affordable sunnies.
 7. Monogrammed Ginger Jar: this is a beautiful statement piece that I've been wanting to add to our home sometime soon! Maybe for my next birthday ;) Lauren makes them all in her studio and there's tons of gorgeous designs, styles and sizes in her shop.
8. Beaded Bracelet: I love the chunky texture on this bracelet and I love that it's a neutral, it'll be so versatile!
9. Clean Deodorant in Rose: my go-to deodorant! It is clean, smells amazing, lasts all day, and has a refillable cartridge, so when you run out of deo, you only have to buy the refill the next time. 
 10. Doormat (on sale!): after the year we've had, I'll be excited for this phrase to be something we say a lot more regularly! 
 11. Midi Dress: there is not a more "me" dress out there right now ;) Florals, ruffles and bows at the shoulder. Yes, please!


What are you loving this month?xoxo


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PAST EDITS:
February

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Decorating Easter Sugar Cookies

With Easter this weekend, I wanted to think of a couple ways to welcome the special holiday where we celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection, offering us all eternal hope! One of the things I came up with was decorating cookies and the second is having a couple friends over tonight to decorate eggs and put together Easter floral arrangements. 

My friend Ashley and I got together yesterday to decorate some sugar cookies! I used the recipe my grandma always used (I'll share it at the end of the post) and then we iced them with Ashley's frosting recipe, also below.

For the icing, we start by outlining the cookie to create a border for the color, then filling in from there. The top of this cookie is what it looks like when it's done and smoothed out with the tool (see below) and the bottom is what it looks like after outlining with the frosting and filling in with the color inside the boundary before smoothing it out.

We used this little tool to smooth the frosting out. 

I had to show you this adorable little chick cookie!

Isn't she cute?!

Here's another example of outlining with the frosting first...

Then filling in roughly with the frosting...

This is what it looks like after smoothing it all out!

THE DETAILS:

After the first layer of icing is dry, you can go over it with another layer of outlining to add some texture and dimension!

Another fun thing you can do to fancy up the cookies is adding a gold sheen by mixing the gold powder with vodka to create a little gold paint. When it dries it gives it a pretty sheen!

Here are some of my favorites from our day! They're really yummy, too :)

Old Fashion Butter Sugar Cookies

Sift together:
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt​

Cream:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
3/4 c. sugar

Add 1 egg to creamed mixture until incorporated
Add 2 Tbs cream or milk
Add 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture until the dough begins to come together. (Don't over beat)  Divide in half and shape into a round disk (approximately 3/4" thick) Wrap in saran wrap.

Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out to slightly less than 1/4" thick.

Use your favorite cookie cutter and place cutout onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with colored sugar (unless you plan to frost the cookies) and bake at 400 degrees for about 6 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Icing:
3 cups confectioners sugar1/4 tsp cream of tartar1/2 cup milk
Mix together in a mixer, you can add more liquid or more sugar depending on the consistency. 


Of course, you can make this recipe for any holiday or special event. And I have to say, they're yummy without frosting, too!

xoxo



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