hello friends! today, i’m guest posting over at a creative day! eileen has asked me to be a part of her she’s got style blogger series. please join me as i talk about trends – what works, what doesn’t and of course my personal favorite – mixed prints! here’s a little sneak peek…
xo,
paige
*hello, friends! i’m in chicago! please enjoy this guest post from my dear friend, Sarah. she’s probably the sweetest girl I know AND she’s a phenomenal writer. please check out her blog – reverie.
I’ve been reading Paige’s blog for a long time. In the beginning, we would comment back and forth, for a while. Then we started emailing. Now we even text and call and vent about the frustrations of mommyhood and the Internet and the world. I’m so happy to consider her a friend.
And the thing about Paige, the thing I thought even before I knew her personally and saw her only as a popular blogger, is that she’s always been so real. In some ways she’s like me and in some ways we’re totally different, but it’s always been just that. Laid out, plain as day. “This is who I am.” That’s an inspiring woman to get to know. It’s inspiring in fashion and in living a cute life. It’s an inspiring and encouraging thing to find in a friend, for sure.
But more than anything, for me, I’ve been inspired by the realness with which Paige takes on being a mom. We’ve seen her handle the pre-teen years with grace; we’ve watched Zoey grow from a fluffy newborn into a perfect nearly one-year-old; and all the while, Paige has remained herself.
I’m always amazed by how some people—people like Paige–just take things in stride. I’ve never visited this blog and been tricked into thinking that Paige somehow has a perfect life that’s only cupcakes and vintage bikes. (Though when she has pictures of those things, to die for, right?!) No. This is a woman who has to go to a job and who sometimes has to get up far earlier than should be humanly allowed to tend to a baby and who even sometimes can feel a funk like all the rest of us can. She’s shown us all of that. But how Paige just keeps her cool about everything, that’s what I love. She seamlessly morphs from one facet of life to the next, calling it what it is, and then just doing it.
You see, I’m a wallower. And I’m a processer. And I’m an over-emotionalizer. And sometimes I let those things get in the way of everything: of trying to be myself, of being a good mommy, of finding my sense of style and who I am. That’s why being friends with Paige is so refreshing. She gives me something to aspire to! And while I probably will never be able to always keep my cool and while I probably will always struggle with hiding pieces of myself, I take pride in knowing someone as cool and confident as Paige.
And I just thought she should know that.
Outfit Details:
Top: GAP maternity
Shorts: Motherhood maternity
Shoes: Target
Necklace: Silver in the City boutique (in Indianapolis)
Couch (because I always get asked): Macy’s
hello lovelies!
the fam and i are currently in IL visiting friends and family for the thanksgiving holiday…yay!
i have lined up a few fabulous bloggers {and friends} to keep you entertained in my absence.
today’s guest blogger is bekah of my little loves.
enjoy!
Hello everyone! I’m Bekah, I write over at My little loves.
hello lovelies!
the fam and i are currently in IL visiting friends and family for the thanksgiving holiday…yay!
i have lined up a few fabulous bloggers {and friends} to keep you entertained in my absence.
today’s guest blogger is amanda of off of broadway.
enjoy!
hi! my name is amanda from off of broadway. i’m so happy to be here filling in for my girl paige as she’s off enjoying thanksgiving with her family. is there anything better than that? i mean, i guess i’ve been blessed with an AWESOME family so i’m always pretty pumped to hang with them. and when you add great food in there?? double awesome.
so my sweet little town, nestled in the foothills of the ozarks, really goes all out for the holidays. they put up cute lights all around the downtown area and we have a fun parade to ring in the season. it’s so festive!! and there’s kinda nothing better than light up snowflakes, plaid, and sweaters to get you in the holiday spirit. am i right? i’m more than a little giddy about it this year. it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas!
great post, amanda! you’re totally putting me in the holiday spirit!i can’t wait to get home and start decorating.
{and of course, i love that skirt!}
thanks so much for helping me out.
for more of her thrifty style, visit amanda on her blog – off of broadway
and stop by her vintage clothing shop on etsy – amandromeda
paige
hello lovelies!
the fam and i are currently in IL visiting friends and family for the thanksgiving holiday…yay!
i have lined up a few fabulous bloggers {and friends} to keep you entertained in my absence.
today’s guest blogger is laura of sweeter salt.
enjoy!
Hi everyone! Thanks to Paige for allowing me to share a new holiday recipe with you all. The holidays are my favorite time of the year, thanks in part to the copious quantities of champagne, cookies, rich appetizers and other not-so-healthy goodies that appear at every party. On my blog, sweeter salt, I talk about affordable fashion and healthy food. One of my favorite things to do is “healthify” recipes that may otherwise be heavy on the fat and calories. That being said, I don’t believe in stripping out the fun and flavor of food. We only live once, so it is all about simple swap outs and compromises.
This recipe features my favorite fall and winter flavor – pumpkin. I love pumpkin cheesecake, but my goodness it is so bad for you. Here I swapped neufchatel cheese for the usual cream cheese, which tastes exactly the same, just with 1/3 less fat and calories. These little guys are also portion controlled, just a couple of bites each, instead of a big wedge of the usual cheese cake. To give them a little color and zip I added a bit of cranberry sauce to each one, which makes them a little sassy (yes, desserts can be sassy).
They’re also super easy. I mean, come on, we’re all really busy this time of year (slash occupied with watching Elf and sipping hot cocoa). These come together in a snap – just a quick whir in the food processor. I made my own homemade cranberry sauce, but you definitely don’t have to. The cookies are store-bought, so no worries about burning the house down.
So, if you’re invited to a holiday party in the next few weeks and want to bring something a little different, give these a try. Sweet tooths will be satisfied and guilt levels will be kept down. Plus, you need extra room to scarf down that spinach artichoke dip anyways.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites with Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
Box of small ginger cookies (I used Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Cookie Thins)
Cranberry sauce (here is my recipe: Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Red Wine)
1 cup of prepared pumpkin puree (not the sweetened kind)
1 8 ounce brick of neufchatel cheese (you can also use regular or low-fat cream cheese)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
(you can also use 1 tsp. of prepared pumpkin spice)
pinch of salt
1.) In a food processor, combine the pumpkin, neufchatel, maple syrup, brown sugar, spices and salt. Blend until the mixture is totally combined and smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
2.) Lay out the cookies on a serving tray. Top each one with one teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture. Then, top each with 1/2 teaspoon of cranberry sauce.
3.) That’s it! I told you it was easy.
yum! this looks amazing, laura.
thanks so much for helping me out!
paige
hello lovelies!
the fam and i are headed to IL to visit friends and family for the thanksgiving holiday…yay!
i have lined up a few fabulous bloggers {and friends} to keep you entertained in my absence.
to kick things off, today’s guest blogger is rebecca of howd.i.y.
enjoy!
hola fellow bf+v readers…
a little bit about me
my name is rebecca.
i live in australia.
i do digital marketing.
i work in the music biz.
i attend an obscene amount of concerts.
i’m obsessed w/ all things craft.
i’m a tech geek (& former product of silicon valley).
i grew up with our dear friend paige back in the corn fields of illinois. while i disliked the chick when I first met her, by 18 we’d been voted “best friends” by our classmates and we were inseparable. we were fearless + fun individuals.
flash forward 13+ years and we are still the best of buds, now just living 8000 miles apart. due to the distance – we treasure texts, emails, phone calls & our yearly visits. i love this girl dearly.
as paige has mentioned before, i run a little craft blog called ‘howd.i.y.‘ (pronounced like the synonym for “hello”) where i post about diy, craft, handmade, local & design. in addition to my blog, i also have a little etsy shop called ‘everybutton‘ where I make bracelets, earrings, rings, etc… out of new + vintage buttons .
when asked if i’d do a guest post while paige is back visiting our homeland, i figured the topic of fashion+diy was a must.
sound good to you all?
when it comes to style, i’ve gone through my fair share of trends, dos & do nots. however – for the past 7 or so years, i’ve stayed pretty consistent to my bohemian, rustic and comfy style. the staple item in my closet is undoubtedly a pair of frye campus boots that i purchased new in 2005. i c.a.n.n.o.t. live without these bad boys. (pic: my move to AU in 2009 + the boots i love).
being a lover of frye, today’s post was a natural must (as the project was recently demoed at their flagship store).
before we get started, how many of you have heard of ‘p.s. – I made this…‘? if you didn’t raise your hand, brace yourself because it’s fashion diy goodness. ‘p.s. – i made this…’ is a blog (and now book) created by erica domesek which features easy & creative fashion you can make at home. ‘designer diy’ as she calls it. and today’s post is just that!
inspired by the frye shop in NYC, this project takes a cord + some leather to a whole new level… outfit changing in fact.
check out this o.p.p. (other people’s projects) below…
found @ p.s. – i made this…
what: leather necklace
where: http://psimadethis.com/post/12976757840/dont-you-wish-every-day-could-be-a-frye-day
photo: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luvbe7cBFK1qzymieo1_400.jpg
for more projects like this, check out www.howdiyblog.com.
thx for reading!
until next time,
rebecca x
bec, great post! thanks so much for filling in.
i must admit {as i hang my head low}, that i’ve never heard of p.s. – i made this…
i’m excited to check it out!
and her book is a great gift idea!
for more awesome d.i.y ideas – visit the howd.i.y blog
and don’t forget to visit rebecca’s etsy shop – everybutton
{tons of cute items!}
paige
hi there! i’m veronika from tick tock vintage. when paige emailed me about guest blogging, i jumped at the chance. i adore her fabulous style and hilarious posts. she gave the theme of “holiday related”, and i immediately thought of the crafting insanity that takes over our house during the month of december. when i first moved into my home, i found it very difficult to decorate for christmas; i didn’t like the decor that i found at target or other mass retailers, and what i did like was way out of my price range. this meant that i’d have to find a way to DIY the decorations for my house, which was a-okay with me! not only would i save lots of moola, but i’d be sure to get exactly what i wanted.
one of my favorite christmas projects is wreath-making. this year, i bought a pre-made live wreath from a garden center. i dug through a box of vintage christmas ornaments and picked out all of the shiny balls and wired them with floral wire. i also scrounged up some pinecones; i used craft glue and superfine gold glitter to add some sparkly detail to the edges of the ‘cones. i then arranged all of the pieces on the wreath and secured everything down. very easy, and it looks great on your front door!
one of my biggest projects this year was our stockings. i knew i wanted to use a variety of cream, tan, and silver fabric and trim. i headed over to jomar (one of the best kept secrets for cheap fabric!) and bought an assortment of different fabrics: brocade, linen, chenille, and a very thick cotton. i also went little crazy in the trim department and bought a plethora of silver and ivory trims. i wanted the stockings to be on the large size, so i drafted a pattern that would make them about a foot and a half long. i used this same pattern for all of the stockings. for stocking #1, i simply attached the trim horizontally, then sewed both sides of the stocking together. the dangly silver trim was sewn inside of the cuff, and then turned right-side out. i then attached the whole cuff to the stocking and added the straps. for stocking #2, i simply added a rope trim in between the two halves of the stocking. the cuff has jute trim and pompoms. for stocking #3, i cut out the shape of a christmas tree and simply appliqued it on the brocade. i then attached the fringe between the layers and sewed everything together. the cuff was attached last.
i DIY-ed christmas cards for the first time this year, too. i used a gocco, which is a japanese screenprinting system. i first drew the text and mittens on paper and traced everything in sharpie. i scanned the image onto my computer and cleaned it up in photoshop and adjusted the size. in order for the image to be burned on to the gocco screen, it has to be carbon based. to do this, just make a copy on copy machine! then i could burn the screen and start printing. the “happy holidays” ink has a slight sheen to it, which i tried to match with the gold lettering on the envelope.
i hope you enjoyed the crafts! i’ll be posting a detailed picture tutorial for the stockings on my blog sometime next week. happy holidays!
Good morning dear friends of Paige! My name is Emily and I am your substitute blogger for the day. I blog over at Tomorrow Never Knows and I have a small etsy shop where I sell vintage clothing and accessories. When Paige and I found each other, we shared a love of vintage, getting dressed, sharing with complete strangers over the web and the enjoyment of coworker comments on our outfits. She is a delightful lady that I cannot wait to meet (unfortunately we live in different countries and she’s on the opposite coast – minor details).
I thought my work Christmas party pictures would be appropriate as Paige asked us to blog about something to do with the holidays. Christmas has changed a lot since I was a kid (I no longer have a bedtime – WOO) but its still the same in essence. Here are a few things that make my Christmas special:
Too many presents and not enough floor | Last minute present shopping at the gas station | Fighting over who sleeps in a bed and who sleeps on the floor | Staying up talking way too late & getting up way too early (7am) | Playing holiday music REALLY loud to wake up those who are still sleeping | Instant pancake mix & real maple syrup (we’re Canadian – we don’t mess around with maple syrup) | Spending over 36 hours in PJs | Too much food | My crazy family and all the sarcasm that oozes out of us.
What makes your Christmas special?
Now let’s talk about this outfit. I bought this dress last year planning on wearing it to last year’s party but it ended up being delivered a few days after the party. Bad news for 2009, good news for 2010! I meant to do things like put nail polish on but then I got home and had 30 minutes to get ready after work so this is what happened. Not too bad, eh? That’s just what happens when you chop off all your hair.
assuming that you’ve noticed, i’ve been MIA.
in-person connections are what i’ve been craving as of late.
plus, i’m going home! yes, that’s right…we leave for IL tomorrow.
my cousin is getting married and his fiance asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. i am so freaking excited to spend the next several days connecting…in real life! as opposed to via my wireless connection….
family, laughs, drinking, music, dancing, getting all gussied up with the wedding party, putting on a pretty dress, snapping photos, hugs, yummy food and desserts, toasts/tears, slow dancing with MP (yes, he’s headed back too!), the electric slide with my younger cousins, seeing taylor in a suit (complete with vest and bow tie!), hugging my mom and taking in that “mom smell” (is that weird? my mom has a mom smell), playing in the snow, meeting up with my bff from high school (who happens to be visiting from australia!)…home.
i.can’t.freaking.wait.
while i am away, i have 4 lovely ladies to entertain you…
emily of tomorrow never knows
veronika of tick tock vintage
lisa of archives chicago
morgan of morgan and lua
stop on by, as they will be sharing their favorite christmas/holiday memories (or recipes or funny stories or whatever!)
not sure when i’ll get back to regular posting…
so until then…happy holidays, friends!
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a year ago, this week - quick recap
(a recap of last year’s trip to NYC)
