Valentine's Day Gift Guide

Valentine's Day is just over a week away, so if you're looking for some treats, here are seven ideas...Silk flowers to look pretty on a desk all year, $20 to $24.


X-O temporary tattoo, $5.30, or sparkly heart temporary tattoo, $5, to wear all day.

Sexy grown-up lingerie, $130.

Morse code necklace or bracelet, saying "amore" or "love," $80.

Heart-shaped cheese that tastes like buttery Brie, $15.99. (They also have chocolate cheese!)

Wildflower candle to make your home smell like spring, $30.

Love-etched bottle to use for water every night (or lemonade in the summer). $24.

P.S. A kissing tip from Joan Rivers, and the #1 trick to make a date night sexier.

The Best (Rosemary Parmesan) Popcorn You'll Ever Have

What's cozier than curling up on the sofa to watch a movie with a big bowl of popcorn? And buttered popcorn is great, but other toppings take it to a new level. Here, Siri from Siriously Delicious shares her delicious recipe...
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Half-up braided crown

Whenever we did hair tutorials in the past, we got tons of comments requesting curly hair and short hair tutorials. So we've put together four new posts—two for curly hair and two for short hair. Thanks for the encouragement! Here, my hair-stylist friend Reagan, who has gorgeous curls, shows how to do a half-up braided crown. Here are her steps...Read More >

Everlane silk blouses

Do you remember Everlane, the California-based brand that sells perfect T-shirts for $15? Well, they now make silk blouses, with an easy fit and rounded collar. (My tomboy mom would have loved them:) I have the navy one and wear it constantly, and I'd highly recommend them if you're looking for a pretty shirt to wear this year!
P.S. I was wearing the blouse in this photo:)
P.P.S. My favorite shoes.

11 Nutella recipes

Today is World Nutella Day, which basically means you can eat as much Nutella as you want and it doesn't count. Here are 11 mouthwatering recipes (which would you pick?)...
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Motherhood Mondays: How do you prepare your older child for a new baby?

My one big worry these days is...
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Belly shots

This morning, Alex snapped a couple belly shots. It looks small in these photos, but I swear it's bigger in person!

A few observations about this pregnancy: I'm hungry like the wolf. And I go from zero to sixty—not at all hungry to suddenly in a blind panic to shovel food into my mouth. I don't remember that from last time! It's getting harder to sleep now, and I'm thinking of ordering one of these hilarious body pillows. My boobs are bigger! I'm more anxious than usual. Sometimes I know I’m being neurotic, but I can’t stop. And I discovered these chewable prenatal vitamins, which are awesome since the regular ones are like horse pills. Most of all, we cannot wait to meet this little one in July.

(And my belly was a little bigger after our Indian dinner on my birthday...:)
P.S. My belly shot last month, and my growing belly during Toby's pregnancy.

Monday Motivation

I'm skipping the usual Monday Motivation quote and posting Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime show instead, because what can be more motivational than a Destiny's Child reunion? 

P.S. I was tweeting about some of the Super Bowl commercials over on twitter, if you'd like to see.

Have a lovely weekend.

What are you up to this weekend? I'm catching up with a long-lost friend tonight, and tomorrow we're hoping to take Toby to see children's book author Mo Willems read at the MoMA store! What about you? If you're in a blog-reading mood, here are a few fun posts from around the web...

A song for your weekend.

Colorblock dress for the spring.

A furry friend.

Did you know about this street on the Upper West Side?

10 bizarre professions you didn't know existed.

Who wants to whip up a batch of these?

Ahoy tattoos.

A virtual tour of the Grand Canyon.

Is this art?

Lamb sliders.

Hair crush: the middle part.

Made me laugh.

Food valentines.

Johnny Cash gets his own postage stamp.

This wedding book looks good.

FYI, The Honest Company, which makes our favorite natural diapers, wipes, lotion, shampoo, soap, etc., is offering free shipping with the code JoFreeShip3, until February 11th. xoxo

(Photo taken at Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, Oregon, by Ralph Morse, January 1942; via Vintage Ski, via Snippet & Ink. Grand Canyon tour via SwissMiss; Mo Willems reading via StrollerTraffic; stamp via Snippet & Ink)

34th birthday

Yesterday was my 34th birthday, and, I have to say, it was one of my favorites. We just celebrated in a low-key family way, and it was so nice. First, on Wednesday night, Alex took me to see the The Book of Mormon. Our friend (who actually happens to be Mormon) helped us get discounted house seats through her friend who works for the play. When we showed up, we realized we were sitting fifth row center! We were so close, we could see the sweat on the actors' faces; it was crazy.
Look how beautiful the boxes were on the sides of the theater...
The play was absolutely hilarious, and the acting was fantastic. Jon Stewart said the play was "so f**king good it makes me angry," which seemed about right. We had smiles plastered on our faces the whole time.
The next morning, my brother and his French girlfriend Audrey came over for breakfast. She recommended Bien Cuit, a new bakery in our neighborhood...
...so we headed over there for delicious pain au chocolat and carrot bread. (Toby preferred the former:)
That evening, Alex and I went to Junoon, a fancy Indian restaurant in the Flatiron district.
The food was exploding with flavor. We had crispy cauliflower, fried paneer cheese and duck meatballs just to start, and then shared lentil-encrusted mahi mahi and lamb shank braised for five hours.
During dinner, Alex surprised me with a handmade Mason Pearson brush. I've wanted one ever since Caroline explained that the boar bristles evenly distribute your hair's natural oils to make it extra shiny. Plus, every woman in my family had one growing up—my mom, my aunts, my grandmother—so in a funny way, it feels like I've finally grown up. :)