Friday Favorites

This week our kids are out of school for Mid-Winter Break. Since we haven’t seen much snow this winter, we went east of the mountains to our favorite vacation spot for a few days.

There wasn’t much snow east of the mountains either, but that didn’t stop us from driving up as high on the ridge as we could and letting the kids sled down the road.

The air was cooooold and crisp, the sun was out each day and we had a great couple of days exploring the beach, hot-tubbing, playing games (this one!), eating out, being with friends.

On night one, the sunset was so gorgeous I asked my friend to take a picture of our family.

The original is actually the photo below:

Can you see the difference?

One of my favorite things is to slightly retouch photos from my phone to remove distractions. Here’s what I did to this one:

I use an app called Touch Retouch (here’s a post about my process) and it truly makes a difference in the end quality of a photo. Sure, it’s kind of cheating, but you can’t always get a perfect photo (aka avoid people in the background and messes on the grass) and I love the photo much more with our family and that view as the focus.

A few more favorites from around the web this week:

+ Have you seen the dreamy kitchen Studio McGee designed for Food Network? It’s absolutely gorgeous.

+ Food Network is giving away $250,000 toward a kitchen of your dreams (you better believe I’ll be entering regularly!). You can enter here. Also? Is $250,000 really how much people spend on their dream kitchens?

+ Audrey’s birthday was earlier this week. She asked for slime, ballet flats and these tiny socks (such weird asks!). I bought her this adorable dress and these leggings because she still lets me dress her and I’m taking full advantage.

+ We also gave her a couple of sets from the Target American Girl knock-off line. I know the quality is not quite as nice as American Girl, but the accessories are so much more affordable and they are darling! She got this school room set for Christmas, and this mini teepee set and crutches set for her birthday.

+ Have you been enjoying the Olympics these last two weeks? We have had the tv on SO MUCH trying to catch every event. My top moments: Shaun White’s amazing win (and his emotional reaction), the gorgeous Russian ice skaters dueling it out for gold and silver, Red Gerard’s gold-winning slope style snowboarding run.

+ Did you know that Red Gerard is the younger brother of the author of my current cookbook obsession?

+ This was a fun read: Ranking the Hardest Olympic Sports

+ Also a great read: Kelly Corrigan’s newest memoir called Tell Me More. I have been sick in bed since returning from our trip and read this one yesterday all the way through. So many wise/funny/poignant words about life, parenting, grieving, loving.

+ Since laying in bed is all I’ve been doing, I haven’t changed out of my pajamas. I have a few pair of these menswear inspired pajama sets from J.Crew and love them. They are sort of spendy, so wait for them to go on sale (like right now! Buy 4 items get 40% off with code ZMTWKIP)

+ If you need help finding four items to add to your cart, here are a few of my picks:

Ruffle Neck Pullover Sweater The reviews are very positive about the style and material and suggest sizing up.

Antique Gold Hoop Earrings My mom has these and they are perfect.

Demi-bootcut Crop Jean I feel like I’m ready to transition out of skinny jeans. This pair might be a good spring wardrobe addition to wear with flats.

Plunge V-Neck One Piece Swimsuit My friend and I ordered this one-piece (mine in navy, hers in red). It was terrible on me (I’m long-torsoed and flat chested and prefer a modestly cut bottom). HOWEVER, it looks so good on Erica. I’m jealous.

+ I laugh at every single thing he posts on instagram.

That’s it for today’s list. I hope you have a great weekend (and I hope I can get out of this bed sometime soon).