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Makeup & Beauty

Personalized Skincare Suggestions From Simple

I've been incorporating Simple Skincare products into my daily skincare routine for almost a year now, and have seen some pretty fantastic results. I rarely break out the way I used to, and my skin just feels generally calmer and more stable. But I still have skin issues - persistent dryness (that eases up a little in the summer, but is still there all year round), undereye puffiness, and fine lines (especially around my eyes).

And it's spring, and spring is all about starting fresh, so I took a minute to revisit my skincare routine and see if I'm using the right products for my specific issues, and what (if anything) needs to be added or taken away.

Simple recently developed Simple Sense, an interactive skincare tool that considers each person's individual skin triggers, lifestyle, diet and well-being in order to create a detailed skincare routine. I took it yesterday, and was blown away by how extensive and personalized the advice was. And it's so nice! Seriously, when it gets to areas that you could maybe improve a little on, it basically gives you a hug and says "That's OK, we all struggle with this stuff sometimes." Lovely all around.

Lifestyle

Question For You: What Is This?

These red-stemmed (and pretty large) plants just popped up in my backyard last week, in an area that looks vaguely as if the previous owners might have used it for a vegetable garden. To me it looks a tiny bit like rhubarb, but I Googled and...not exactly.

Tell me I might be making pies this summer?! Also please tell me if this is, like, a shih-tzu-eating Audrey 2 or something.

Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

All about peony pink this spring (pictured above is a T.J. Maxx blazer that I paired with T.J. Maxx sunglasses, an Ann Taylor tank, a Swati Jr* necklace and a tote c/o Alexandra Satine for yesterday's meetings in the city).

Speaking of pink...next week I'm wearing one of my favorite-ever dresses for a shoot with Elle. (I love it so much I just picked up a second version in neon yellow to wear to our friends' upcoming wedding).

Spending a weekend at a friend or family member's place and in search of a nicer-than-your-average-candle hostess gift? Try these rope servers.

My Looks

On The Bright Side

There are rules that you're supposed to follow if you want to wear denim-on-denim. I've even written about them; they include things like making sure the denim pieces are different weights and colors, breaking up the look with pops of color, et cetera et cetera.

But honestly? To me, the key to this look is dealing with the fact that you're wearing head-to-toe denim and maybe overdoing it just a bit. Nothing wrong with that.

How I broke up this particular denim-on-denim look: with brown leather accents (and a touch of floral), and - most importantly - a shot of neon. Ooh, those heels.

Home

Getting My Garden On

All weekend I wandered around in this sort of happiness-haze, wearing garden gloves and scooping dirt and saying things to Kendrick like "Who KNEW? I mean really...who knew?!" And he was sort of confused by my need to announce (over and over) how amazed I was by the fact that I was enjoying something that was way, way outside the realm of anything I would have ever thought I'd enjoy...but seriously.

WHO KNEW?

I never in a million years understood why people liked gardening. I was like, "OK...so you spend all weekend hunched over on your hands and knees digging in the dirt, probably encountering things like insects, and at the end you get...something that you could probably just go pick up over at CVS? Cool, guys."

But it's so satisfying. And the results are so gorgeous. And there's something really incredible about standing back, looking at your yard which was once one thing and is now another thing entirely, and thinking I did that.

Love

In The Blossoms

I don't sign up for e-mail lists.

I mean really: who does? You get so much junk mail anyway, there's no need to add more.

I do make one exception, though, and that is when I visit charming orchard-type places within an hour's drive of our home; of all the email lists that exist in the world, that's the one I definitely want to be on.

So when Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard - the North Salem, N.Y. farm that we visited for pumpkin-picking last fall - sent out an email blast saying "Come check out our Apple Blossom Hayride this weekend!" it got opened...

Love

Weekend Snapshots: Mustaches and Mussels Edition

One of the best side-effects of moving has been that we've made a whole bunch of truly wonderful new friends. Pre-move I remember worrying about that a lot, actually - wondering whether I'd make friends who I just hung around with because...I don't know, we were on the same local committee or something, not because we really had anything in common. Worrying that the years when you bond over the things like enormous life questions and crazy experiences were behind me.

Worry that I wouldn't make friends who - for example - might enjoy a good mustache photo op quite as much as I do.

As it turns out, new parenthood leaves college in the dust when it comes to things like enormous life questions and crazy experiences.