Latest Posts

Entertaining

Last-Minute Gift Idea: Custom Gourmet Baskets

I LOVE this. For a last-minute holiday gift, for a hostess gift, for a just-because gift…for anything. And for fun - because it is so much fun, both to put together and (presumably) to receive (I gave these baskets to the friends who stopped over on Sunday afternoon for some cookie-decorating with their kids).

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Makeup & Beauty

Easy Holiday Hairstyles

My default look during the holiday season: relaxed waves. Mostly because they look pretty as is, but can also be easily transformed into a ton of different looks…so I can switch up my hairstyle from event to event without spending a ton of time fussing around in front of the mirror.

Here’s the starting look, which I think is perfect for anything from a cocktail party to a dinner with friends to Christmas Eve.

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DIARY

Work It Out

Q. Jordan,

How do you handle childcare for your son and working from home? I am expecting my first child, and own my own business. I have a home office but spend about 15-20 hours a week out and about meeting clients. Also, when I'm working from home, I actually need to work, of course.

I'm feeling like I will need full-time childcare in order to get everything done but also feel like there should be some benefit to owning my own business/working from home that I could get away with less. I'd love to hear how you balance things?

Anonymous

My Looks

Beginning To Feel A Lot Like

Last weekend, we put on hats and scarves and headed over to Nyack in search of Christmas ornaments, because we only have a couple of weeks to go and I wanted to jump-start our family into a holiday kind of mood. We bought sparkly owls and ferocious lions, and then went home and hung them on our tree, and it was lovely. Not Christmas, exactly, not yet...but almost.

The thing is, these past few years I've had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. Of course the magic you feel when you're a kid dwindles away once you get into the whole Life As An Adult thing, that makes sense: but still...a little would be nice. The heart-flutter you get when you come down in the morning and see a lit-up tree. You know what I mean.

When I was a little girl, I'd spend the days leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas morning trying to be as good as I possibly could. It started out because I didn't want to risk Santa making a last-minute snap decision that I wasn't deserving of that Garfield phone...but even after I began to suspect that the magical red-suited man might be a bit of a ruse, I kept on doing things like giving my mom hugs just because on Christmas Eve. Feeding our ten thousand animals before my parents got up on Christmas morning, so they wouldn't have to jump into chores right when they came out of their bedroom. Bringing my dad coffee to try and put him into the best mood possible before he opened his stocking. Not because I was a saint of a child - I wasn't - but because I think as I grew up I started to realize just how tenuous the magic is, just how easily it can fall to pieces completely. And I didn't want it to.

Makeup & Beauty

Simple Holiday Beauty Updates

There was a time in my life when I went to parties wearing things like clip-in hair extensions and eyeshadow with enormous glitter-flecks in it. Heels that I couldn't walk in, because if I fell it didn't really matter (because I probably wasn't carrying a child). No coat, because I would rather freeze while waiting for a cab than deal with checking it.

That time in my life is more or less over; even on a big night out, I still want to be...you know...kind of comfortable. I'd like to look like me; just a slightly more dialed-up version of me. And I'd rather not spend more than about fifteen minutes on the whole getting-ready process; I'd like to just get there, please, because mama wants to dance.