Beach Couture in Malibu

Beach Couture in Malibu from Coastal Living features the Malibu beach house of stylist Anya Sarre. Sarre shares seven easy rules of style. I especially love how she incorporated monograms into almost every room!

 Article: Steele Thomas Marcoux, Photography: John Ellis, Styling: Elizabeth Beeler

1. Accessorize Your Space: "The right accessories can make even the most practical look shine. So on the balcony and around the house, Sarre piled on pillows for style. 'They’re like jewelry for a room,' she says. 'No space is complete without them!'"

2. Add a Hit of Color: "Sarre introduced vibrant rugs and chairs that set the tone in an otherwise all-white room. 'The colors feel resort-chic and beachy,'"

3. Make your Mark: "To Sarre, monograms represent a preppy, feminine sensibility, so she had a blast incorporating them into the home’s design—from hand towels in each bath and artwork throughout to the barstool seats in the kitchen. 'They’re a great way to personalize a house,' she says. 'I love how they look.'"

Yes, those barstools are monogrammed!

4. Keep it Simple: "Sarre's home forgoes a lot of pomp and circumstance for a simple, chic aesthetic that keeps the focus on the home’s ocean views, while still having fun thanks to irreverent accents and graphic prints throughout."

5. Designate a Gathering Spot: "Despite the narrow dimensions of the living room, the homeowners still manage to accommodate a crowd, thanks in large part to a custom, wrap-around banquette, which has become a hot spot for guests. 'It’s comfortable and has a great view,' says Sarre. 'We love to open the windows and feel the saltwater breezes.'"

6. Embrace the Old: "While the louvered shutters and v-groove paneling in the house needed a little TLC, Sarre was adamant that they stay put as an homage to the home’s original quaint, coastal feel. She compensated for the vast white expanses in the master bedroom by adding punchy accents of pink, turquoise, and silvery gray."

7. Give Hand-Me-Downs a Pick-Me-Up: "Sarre outfitted her son’s nursery with a bassinet that her grandfather built for her when she was a baby. The dark wood piece is now painted white to match the room, with a custom bumper and cushion and a monogram decal at each end. "Making a few modifications doesn’t change the fact that heirlooms are still a part of your family history,' she says. 'They add so much meaning to a space.'"

Preschool Lunches Weeks 1 and 2

I finally uploaded the photos I have been taking of H's lunches. I started out using the Pottery Barn Kids storage containers and still really like them (easy to open, dishwasher safe, etc). But one day about a month into school I did an early pick up and the kids were still eating. When each child has multiple containers for their food it makes a LOT of stuff for the teachers (and kids) to keep track of. Everything of H's is labeled with his name (each lid and container) but it was just kind of chaotic when the kids were asking for help opening things and putting things back in the lunchbox. So I switched to EasyLunchboxes. They come in a set of four. One lid, three sections, dishwasher, freezer, and microwave safe. Plus I really like that just opening one lid he can see everything he has. Anything he doesn't eat is sent back home so I now have a pretty good idea of what he will eat and how much he will eat. His school is nut free so we use sunflower butter instead of peanut butter.

I roast vegetables in the beginning of the week in big batches (always broccoli and usually carrots too) and then keep them in the fridge labeled with the name and date. Easy to just put one serving into his box each morning (minus Monday which is when I usually go to the store). I also try to make healthy-ish muffins each week to have for breakfast, snack, lunch, etc. I keep half out in a bag and then freeze the other half. See below for those recipes.

Not pictured: one day a week I do either Trader Joe's chicken nuggets or Annie's macaroni and cheese in a thermos. I make it right before we leave for school and it stays warm in the Foogo thermos (for up to 5 hours). They have a microwave in the classroom but H says the food is warm enough to eat without heating it up again.

The first photo is using the PBKids containers, the rest are EasyLunchboxes

Grilled cheese with spinach (I just cut up a few pieces of baby spinach so he's getting used to "green" in his sandwiches/food), broccoli, banana

deli meat and cheese tortilla roll up, spinach cake mini muffin, peach

quesadilla, carrot coins, peach

hummus sandwiches, cheese and crackers (he didn't eat the cheese), peach

Sunflower butter and banana bites (banana dog bites), freeze dried mango, snap pea crisps

snap pea crisps, blueberries and raspberries, hummus sandwich

Deli meat and cheese tortilla roll ups, broccoli, raspberries

Sunflower butter bran muffins were AMAZING! H had these in his lunch on days I wasn't there in the morning. I had them and the parents had them too.

Spinach cake mini muffins are delicious. You can't taste the spinach. They are sweetened with applesauce (unsweetened kind) and vanilla.

Nautical Nails

Erica of Fashion Meets Food did a guest post on DIY nautical nails last year but I thought I would do an updated post with some other ideas I have seen.

Lilly Pulitzer Exhibit: Keni Valenti Collection

This past Saturday I went to see the Loving Lilly: Lilly Pullitzer from the Keni Valenti Collection. The exhibit is at the Palos Verdes Art Center and will be running through this weekend (last day is September 29). I met up with Tiffany, a long time reader (I even featured her nautical wedding on the blog). It was so fun to finally meet! We attended a Lilly inspired luncheon and trunk show and then browsed the exhibit.

Sign outside the exhibit

Vintage dress they raffled off

Lilly inspired cocktails: I had a strawberry margarita. It was almost too pretty to drink!

Trunk show for local Lilly retailer, Bella Beach

Lilly fabric samples from a local interior design company, Norman Design Group 

Now the exhibit!

It was actually cool(ish) so I wore a favorite Lilly seahorse sweater. Tiffany wore a nautical maxi dress

Paper lanterns on the ceiling

Closeup of pants from above

Tiffany in her nautical dress

Lilly wore this outfit to a party (I think it was her son's birthday). See photo below

Lilly wedding anyone?

Nautical Outfit of the Week: Bridgette Nicole

This week I am featuring Bridgette Nicole. I found Bridgette through her Instagram where she posts her adorable outfit of the day. She also has a blog. I have the same anchor shorts from Kohl's so it was fun to see how someone else styles them.

Outfit details:
Sweater: Forever 21 (similar c'est la vie sweater from F21 without the stripes)
Bow belt: Kate Spade
Shorts: Kohl's
Gold shoes: Target

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