Summer + Lilly Pulitzer.....some things just go together.

Ever since we lived near Palm Beach,

the land of Lilly Pulitzer,

I've been a fan.

Every year for Easter, I bought matching dresses 

for me and my 2 girls.

And now that one of my daughters hopes to work at Lilly this Fall,

we are once again in full Lilly mode:)

It's just HAPPY...and we like happy stuff! 

Lilly Pulitzer passed away last year,

but she left quite a "colorful" legacy with her beautiful designs.

And she was a fun lady, if the books are accurate, 

and I believe they were.

Speaking of books, if you like Lilly,

you simply must add these two books to your home. 

 Full of stories, fashion, family photos, anecdotes and recipes.......

they're awesome!

Here is an example of a few recipes.......

CHIPOTLE SLIDERS

This smokey mayo looks divine, but we can’t help wanting to add a little slice of avocado. You know how we are about pink and green!

1 cup mayonnaise

2 chipotles in adobe

1 tbsp adobe sauce

1/2 lime, juiced

salt and ground pepper

Sliders: 

1/2 to 1 pound ground chuck, 80/20

salt and ground pepper

cheese slices

mini burger buns

Grill and assemble sliders, serve with chipotle mayo, pickles and red onion slices.

_________________________________________________________

PINK LEMONADE

2 cups white sugar

9 cups water

2 cups fresh lemon juice

1 cup cranberry juice

In a large pitcher combine all. Stir to dissolve sugar.

See?????  Buy the Books! :)

Then there are her amazing fashions.

Fun, fresh, colorful, feminine, cool.......they're perfect for summer.

Or if you live in the south like I do, they're great year round.

 You just can't be grumpy when you wear cute, happy clothes like these:)

Yep, summer and Lilly just go together.
And as Lilly herself said,
"Wear PINK and make the BOYS Wink" :)
xoxo
Suzanne

Vintage Vavoom...

I just checked this book out of the library and it is amazing! It's full of little ideas for that vintage/shabby look.

In fact, it inspired me to do a little shopping at estate sales and vintage shops today. Taylor came with me and we found some of the coolest things and had a blast going back in time.

First of all, I have a partial set of my mom's china that is pink and so shabby sweet.

I have been trying to buy odds and ends pieces to go with it in a vintage mismatched way and look what I found...

8 bowls of the china but in blue. SWEET!!!

We also bought these 2 albums for cheap, which is perfect since Taylor has been wanting some old album covers for her room.



On to one of my favorite vintage/consignment stores, Audrey's Attic. Taylor had a blast looking at all the old prom dresses and other stuff. Here she is modeling a few. Sorry for the photo quality...we were literally in the attic of the store playing dress-up so the lighting wasn't good and all I had was my phone.

First up...Taylor in the biker chick boots...

Here comes the bride...


Ooh lala...what a divine robe!


How embarrassing...I had an outfit like this...HUGE shoulder pads and all. Can you say "Dynasty"????? hahaha


Last but not least, meet my southern belle...


We ended up buying this cute little sweater for Taylor that is so her...my chic vintage girl:-)


She also got an adorable Lilly skirt too...and finding a deal on Lilly is always a good thing, right?

Guess that's it for our vintage Saturday.
Hope your weekend is just as nice!

A Happy, Rainbow Cake...

My daughter had a friend visit over spring break and to celebrate,

Taylor made the coolest cake I have seen in a long time.
It is totally wild...just see for yourself!



I first saw this cake idea on lillypulitzer.com
from there, you can find a link to the step by step procedure
and a recipe for cake using a box mix and adding sprite and a few other things.
We didn't follow this recipe, instead just making the recipe on the box,
but I will tell you how we did it and if we can do it... you get the picture:-)

First of all, we used 2 round cake pans and 2 boxes of french vanilla cake mix.
(If you don't double the recipe, the colors don't pop
as much since the layers are thinner but you can use one if you like.)
After mixing the cake batter, seperate into 6 bowls and add food coloring. (we used red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple.)
By the way, the gel food colorings work much better when you want bold colors
...and this cake is bold!!!:-)
Add a color to each bowl. In the center of the pan, scoop one color batter (approx. 2/3 cup) in the center. Then, you add another scoop of a different color in the center of that batter,
so your pan will begin to look like this.
We baked it as directed, checking it after an additional 5 minutes to see if it was done.
(You have to bake it a little longer than you would if using one cake mix.)
We then used a family recipe for frosting that we love but you could use anything...
even whipped cream. I'm telling you, the girls are CRAZY over this cake!
Kids and adults will love it.
How perfect for a retro-60's or 70's party, too.
Or now that I think of it, you could make one with softer, Easter pastels.
(Another cool thing to do for little kids is ask your bakery at the grocery store
to dye the bread rainbow. I used to do this for our preschool
and make mini sandwiches.
I think the kids ate just because they had rainbow sandwiches:-)
Happy Monday!

Orange Blossom Moments...

...and random thoughts.

This morning, when I went outside to take my dogs out for a walk, the scent of orange blossoms was in the air. I just stopped on the stairs and breathed in one of my favorite scents. I remember as a kid, when we came to Florida from Michigan at Easter, smelling the orange blossoms. I used to love to get some scented oil in a little orange shaped container and that (as well as Love's Baby Soft) would be my perfume for the year:-) Now that I live in the south, I consider it a good day when I smell the orange blossoms! Hmmm...all this talk about orange blossoms makes me hungry for orange cake, my all-time favorite:-)

To all Lilly Pulitzer fans...today is the day Lilly takes over the Martha Stewart show. Should be lots of fun...and plenty of pink and green to go around! I'll be watching, I think it's impossible to live for any time in the Palm Beach area (we were there 13 years) and not love Lilly.

My husband has to run a disaster drill at the hospital today. He says he is going to channel his "inner Jack Bauer". I just hope he doesn't get carried away and actually torture anyone!!!!! You laugh...but I bet he has a few employees who think it could happen. hahaha

Look at these new Tracey Porter dishes. I LOVE THEM!!!


Maui, my goldendoodle, woke me up at 5:00 today. My husband apparently got up early and closed off the hallway door to my girls rooms, where Maui now likes to sleep. He is 70 lbs and could easily push the doors open but at 9 months, he's still a baby and hasn't figured out just how much he can really do.

My girls are taking their state tests (FCAT's) this week and next. They usually do school from home but go to a public school for the tests. They are both bright and do well, but am I the only one who is not in love with these tests? I actually think they are depriving the kids from so many things they could be learning about, because teachers are under such pressure to "teach the test". And for those kids who don't "test" well, I feel so sorry! The funniest thing is they have to wear khaki pants and a polo shirt...tucked in. They are far more upset about this than the test. Apparently, tucking in your shirt is for NERDS! They won't even let me take their picture for fear it will end up on Facebook or something horrifying like that. LOL

My sister told me about a new book by Debbie Macomber..."20 Wishes". She so loved it and immediately wrote me to tell me to pick it up. When someone finishes a book and can't wait to recommend it, sign me up! She said it is a light, easy "beach" read and there is an idea running through it about making a "wish" journal. I absolutely LOVE that idea!!! As soon as I finish it, I'll let you know what I thought.

Guess that's it for now but I do have a few other things I want to post sometime today. I'll leave you with this great quote...

"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough
problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you
had last year."
-- John Foster Dulles