It’s happening!
Finally, the warm weather is just about here. But while most of us are certainly ready to embrace the sun’s rays in spirit, we (meaning me, as you can see here) could still use a little prep work before we start skipping off in shorts and skirts with our winter-pale skin out for all to see.
To the rescue: the perfect self-tanner application.
Today's NBC segment, in which we talk simple beauty routines…and the one thing you actually need to look like a human being in the morning.
Product rundown after the jump!
{ Everlane Tote; Zara Dress; Ann Taylor Blazer }
Where I'm headed today: to the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center to film a NY Live interview about my book (and give some new-mom beauty ideas). And this is what I'm wearing.
I've been doing a whole bunch of these segments lately, and while they still make me kind of nervous (albeit less and less with each one that passes), I've been having so much fun getting dressed for them. Mostly because my life doesn't usually involve places to which one needs to wear things like sheath dresses and blazers and pumps (at the same time) - even if I'm headed to a meeting, it's usually a pretty informal event where the person I'm meeting with cares more about what I'm saying and what I *actually* look like (which usually means jeans, a t-shirt and too much jewelry) than that I'm dressed Like A Professional. Which is my kind of meeting.
In need of some home organization inspiration? Above, some of my favorite (affordable) picks if you'd like to try adding a tray (or three) to your decor.
I have an "actual" home office, you know. Or…I did have an actual home office. Now I have a nursery-in-progress, and a corner of my attic where the desk that used to sit in that room is now wedged underneath a coat rack that also used to sit in that room.
But it doesn't matter: I don't love working at desks, anyway, and on a day to day basis my dining room table functions as my primary workspace. The only problem with this: the dining room table is right there smack in the middle of our house, clearly viewable from both the kitchen and the living room…and mess makes me crazy. And yet work yields mess (papers, pens, random to-do lists, et cetera).
What to do?
Exhibit 54,736,839 in Why One Should Not Go To The Grocery Store While Hungry (Or Pregnant)
And lest you think "Oh, she just bought a marshmallow pie, big deal"? Nope. Bought a box. Yarrr. They taste like pillows wrapped in cardboard and I love them.
P.S. That's my Easter manicure, except it has nothing to do with Easter (I'm not really a festive-nail-colors type of girl) aside from the fact that it is pastel. Very into pale shades that are more "nude" than "pink" these days, and this one is kind of perfect. It's a gel color, alas, so I can't link you to the exact shade I used, but this is basically it; so pretty.
Course #2 of our Passover Dinner (the first I've ever made on my own) was yet another dish that's brand-new to me: brisket. But I was excited to add my aunt Debbie's recipe to my repertoire, because I have a big thing for inexpensive cuts of meat that you cook on low heat for ever and ever: I think they're just incredibly flavorful and delicious, and love how virtually unscrewupable they are. I also love the fact that you start them in the morning and then basically forget about them all day long, and then poof: dinner is ready, and you barely did a thing.
This dish easily serves 4-6, and makes for some seriously good leftovers (try putting the meat between slices of white bread the next day, oh my god yum). You can also try making this in your slow-cooker; just remember that you'll need about 8 hours of cooking if you do it that way.
(Click here for Course #1, Matzoh Ball Soup)
In today's interview with the very awesome Jill Cordes over at Parents.com, I talk the hardest parts of motherhood, the difference between Pregnancy #1 and Pregnancy #2, and "finding the time" (hint: constant, overwhelming anxiety is involved).
Check it out here.
I mean, I'm afraid of lots of things surrounding the family expansion that's on the way. I'm afraid that I won't be able to find the time to do my work (which does not involve maternity leave). I'm afraid that I'll be so overtired and stressed out that I'll take it out on Kendrick, and that our baby's first months in the world will be full of yelling rather than joy. I'm afraid that I'll be so busy and worried about everything that I'll forget to notice what's really happening, which is that my daughter is right there in front of me, learning where her fingers are or how to reach for a toy, and then it'll be over, and I'll never have a baby again, and I'll spend ever day for the rest of my life wishing I had just stopped everything to be with my child and watch her watch the world.
I'm afraid of all of those things.
But right now, right this moment, what I'm afraid of is this: nearly every new parent I've spoken to has told me that part of how you make it through those first few months with a toddler and an infant is basically by dividing and conquering. I've heard from more than one new mom of two that - in the beginning, at least - her partner is generally the one "responsible" for the older child, the one taking him out, playing with him, feeding him, heading out to the park with him, while she stays home with the baby (because, of course, there are some things that Dads just can't do for a newborn; breastfeeding, for example). I've also heard that the moment your new baby arrives, something changes in the way you see your first child: they seem so big, all of a sudden. So capable. And that's wonderful, and also a loss: where did my baby go?
