day four: exploring #paris

Jan 25, 2015 By marissa in adventures, her No Comments Tags: art, canal saint-martin, daniel burren, palais royale, paris, paris opera, sacre couer, travel

i thought i would start this post with food–specifically croissants. nate was on a mission to eat at least one croissant a day–which isn’t hard to do. it’s funny because he is known by almost all our family friends as a total health freak, but his love for good croissants surpasses his need to be healthy it seems. i will share our favorite croissant in another post, but the bakery we frequented the most was called carton. one of the men at the hotel recommended that we grab croissants there and then sit at the little bar/restaurant directly across the way (cafe le conti) for coffees there. you can imagine how odd nate and i felt bringing in food to a restaurant, but the man waved us in as if it was done every day. #wheninparis!! its a good thing we tried our luck there because they ended up having the best espresso and coffee of any spot we visited in all of paris.

below are the famous columns on display at the palais royale–les deux plateau by daniel burren. ever since i have worked in the fashion industry these columns have always been a source of inspiration in collections. funny enough, i had not heard of them before then–and i was an art history major so i don’t think that says much about my education! there are 260 black and white marble pillars in the inner courtyard (cour d’honneur) of the palais royale. they were first installed in 1986 and created quite a stir of controversy in paris, but ultimately remained in the courtyard after much dispute–i am glad they did!

i have been wanting to visit the courtyard for years… so, i clearly had to make the most of the opportunity!

and then i made suzanne participate as well…

we spent our fourth day in paris wandering… we walked from our hotel in saint germain (5th arrondissement), past the louvre (1st arrondissement), past the paris opera (9th arrondissement, image above), past the moulin rouge (18th arrondissement, image below) and up to sacre coeur (18th arrondissement). it took about 2 hours, but we strolled, stopped, shopped, ate, etc. it was lovely.

i think we ate our way through paris… charcuterie et frommage platters were one of our favorites. seriously, what is not to love about this.

sacre coeur is one of my favorite spots to visit. not only does it have the most insane views of paris, but it is just so magnificent.

one of nate and i’s best paris memories–and one of his firsts–was on these very steps. alexa was 3 months old and i was carrying her in a little sling and nate and i sast just chilling on these steps, listening to live music and enjoying the sunshine with a beer in hand. we still talk about that afternoon as one of our favorite memories ever.

the place du tertre, in montmartre, is a must. it is a bohemian artist filled square full of liveliness, food and drinks. every time i have visited i’ve sat along the square and had drinks, unfortunately this time was a total zoo.

my recommendation to you should you head here around new years is go really early and leave early. it was seriously like mardi gras… too much. that said, we still had a take a photo and check it off our list.

i had to include this photo because our dear friend diego told me that i had to go here (image above) and visit his cool graphic designer friend who also happens to own this bar… i took us all on an adventure trying to find it just to find out it was closed that day. we were so bummed! so, since i don’t know when i will be back, i recommend any of you going to paris soon (and visiting sacre couer) to stop by les perches du chai for some drinks and snacks–it looked awesome!

since we wandered around and ate all day i didn’t take as many photos as i should have, but below are the spots we visited that evening in the area called canal saint-martin in the 10th arrondissement. it felt like williamsburg, brooklyn–it was totally hipster, but very cool. every spot we visited was so perfect. from a college style boozy bar to a swanky cool indian spot to possibly one of the coolest hidden bar/massive gathering spaces we have ever seen, every spot felt like the definition of “off-the-beaten-path” and we adored it.

lastly i had to share how nate and i’s night ended… hilariously enough we were trying to take a picture to send to nate’s older sister as a happy birthday photo, but it was a total bust. i am not even sure if we sent a photo–i obviously had a lot of wine at this point–but i just saw these pictures when i was pulling the blog post together so i had to include because its pretty hilarious.

stay tuned for more about paris soon! xx

shop my #TravelMustHaves

Jan 23, 2015 By marissa in adventures, fashion, her No Comments Tags: paris, travel, travel must haves, what to pack

for some reason on our trip to paris i did the best job packing… and i promise, i am not bragging… i am normally not a great packer. i am always minimal to a fault, i pack things that i don’t like and am super frustrated normally, but this time i got smart about it. i packed everything into “looks” (with the help of my dear friend megan who helped me determine what was really worth bringing–enlisting a friend’s help was my best move!).

i decided that i needed to document some of the crucial items so that i wouldn’t forget for my next winter getaway! this is a mix of some of my key carry-ons, beauty essentials, accessories and looks!

day three: the louvre #paris

Jan 22, 2015 By marissa in adventures, her, him No Comments Tags: l'hotel, louvre, notre dame, paris, saint germain

day three was literally jam-packed with action from morning to night.

confession… that was totally my fault. i am one of those people who, when traveling, feels the need to fit in as much into one day as possible. i think i warned our friends who were traveling with us (the prescotts), but i don’t think they really knew what they were in for. oops. lets just say, i found it necessary to make it to claus for croissants and coffee at 8am–when they opened and when seemingly no one in paris is awake.

we were heading to the louvre after that and i think that once they saw the lines at the louvre they weren’t too mad.

reflections of la pyramide du louvre

les jardins du tuileries

la pyramide du louvre

#GroupSelfie in the pyramid… suz and i climbed up to get a shot inside the pyramid and almost got sick with vertigo. eek.

i love the entrance the the louvre… it is pretty impressive.

i remember the first time i walked through the louvre and first encountered the winged victory. it is as if it was always meant to be in the very spot it is in within the louvre. i could sense the excitement within myself to see it again after over 10 years, but i was even more excited to share it with nate, ryan and suzanne since it was their first time seeing it. i guess no one will love it as much as the art history geek in me does, but i think they were pretty impressed nonetheless.

nate captured this shot of me… this is probably what i looked like the entire time i was in the museum. completely in awe.

should you be traveling to paris in the winter… above are some of my picks to stay warm!

spoiler alert: in case you haven’t seen the mona lisa… this is how it goes. i mean, imagine a really small incredibly famous painting hiding behind a big sheet of class and a barricade and a hundred people gathered around it. sounds dramatic, but its true… and its almost worse now with all the iphones sticking up in the air.

i wasn’t kidding. that said, its still pretty impressive to see in person.

seemed like a good photo op, right suz?

what i didn’t remember about my previous visits to the louvre was the views out the windows.

or the views from inside!

isn’t this amazing? so breathtaking.

i think you would literally need a couple days to see everything in the louvre… and maybe a week to actually be able to digest it all. if you are only there for a short while i recommend either getting a guide for a specific area of the louvre for a couple hours, or just make a point to see the big hitters–the latter is what we did. honestly, there is something just utterly rewarding about simply walking around the halls of the louvre… its like walking through moments in history.

ryan and suzanne had the genius idea to re-enact art… i think they did pretty well.

group shot love. can i just throw in here that of all the things we did in paris for 5 days the boys said that the louvre was one of their favorites. suz–i think we have some winners on our hands :-)

notre dame is magical anytime of year… but the holidays is especially spectacular.

mid day we moved from our hotel in the marais to l’hotel in saint germain. this hotel was phenomenal. nate actually said we are only ever staying here from now on–i didn’t fight him on that and i love change. it is a quintessential spot on the left back (rive gauche) and happens to be where oscar wilde spent his last days–in room 16! aside from being in the best location it is utterly charming and unique. the bedrooms are small–but most are in the best hotels in paris. one of our favorite parts was the hamman–an underground private pool that you can reserve for an hour at a time. it was utterly romantic.

for dinner i had been told that no matter what we had to eat at la relais de l’entrecote. there is no menu, only the set meal for 26.50 EUR. for that price, you get a salad and 2 servings of some of the best steak and fries in the world. seriously it was so delicious. their first seating starts at 7pm…. we ended up waiting an hour, i think if we had gotten there at 6:30pm we would have been seated in the first seating. the cool thing was that it wasn’t just tourists waiting… there were locals raving about it too. if people are willing to wait outsite in 30 degree drizzly weather it has to be good right? one of the great parts was that it was just so effortless. order wine and desert… everything else just comes. the fact that you get second servings of steak and fries is pretty awesome–especially for the boys. i love LOVE steak… and i like it pretty rare so i was in heaven too. :-)

here are the details for all of our spots for the evening. be sure not to miss bar du marche for drinks and people watching or cafe de flore for drinks and food at anytime of the day–its a classic!

i’m not sure you could enjoy a day more than we did… but i hope you try! go hard… go all day… make it magical.

paris, day two: versailles

Jan 14, 2015 By marissa in her No Comments Tags: le marais, paris, travel, versailles

i’ll never forget the first couple times i visited versailles. the first was with my mom when i was 18 years old. i was blown away as any 18 year old girl obsessed with history and romance might be. my obsession continued to grow year after year after that–i was a history/art history major in college and the more i learned about the history of europe the more enraptured i became with each visit. my other favorite visit was in 2007, just after sophia coppola’s marie antoinette came out in the theaters… i remember walking up to the palace gates and listening to the marie antoinette soundtrack imagining myself back to that time. i’m clearly totally fine with confessing that i am a total romantic and history nerd. i probably should have been a historian.

clearly on our trip to paris, i had to take a day trip with nate outside the city to visit versailles once again. this was my 4th time visiting versailles and it never gets old. nate had never been before and i knew he would enjoy it from an architectural and artistic standpoint, since he is not as into history as i am.

taking the train from paris to versailles is super easy, it takes about 34 minutes tops! go early though, we hopped on at 9am and it was packed!

over the course of our trip nate captured about 100 photos of me on my phone. ha. truthfully, i was either reading about where we were going next or reviewing photos i had taken, but its pretty hilarious nonetheless.

it was SO cold that day. i thankfully–for the first time ever–packed perfectly for our trip. my day one “winter in paris” must-haves were: a cashmere beanie, a wool coat, a fur neck cowl, a wool sweater, a leather skirt, open knit wool tights (for a playful twist) and knee high boots.

by the way, one of my new rules for traveling to paris–buy tickets ahead of time. seriously. we did this for versailles and all the other historical/museum spots we visited and it easily saved us an hour of time.

i couldn’t help but include these photos because nate perfectly captured how utterly happy i was… even though we were standing in line AND it was freezing. i was still in complete bliss.

one thing i hadn’t noticed about versailles, prior to this trip, was the chandeliers. nate become obsessed with taking photos of them… after looking up in every room we went, i could see why.
i had also forgotten that beyond just being a palace, versailles is just as much a museum full of incredible art.

it’s hard to imagine that this would be one’s view from their bedroom window. we see a parking lot from our apartment windows–and we actually have a pretty nice view compared to all of our past apartments!

throughout all of my upcoming paris posts you will see a theme–wallpaper and wall colors. i managed to fall in love with the colors on the walls everywhere we went. i don’t think i ever noticed it before, but after working on the design of our ivanka trump offices and the design of our home and how the color in a room relates, i had a whole new appreciation. from versailles, to the louvre to musee rodin… the color palettes were incredible.

my home decor taste is a bit more simplistic than this (thankfully), but isn’t it just stunning nonetheless.

one of the most impressive rooms in versailles has to be the hall of mirrors.

(in my happy place)

… because obviously you need to take a #selfie when in the hall of mirrors.

as one would expect, marie antoinette’s room was enchanting. its no question why print on print is a recurring theme in the fashion industry–so. so. chic.

this shot is from a window inside the petit trianon, a small palace getaway on the grounds of versailles given to marie antoinette by king louis vi.

ok, so one more #selfie! this was marie antoinette’s room in the petit trianon. by the way, i am not sure how anyone slept in that bed… it was too small for even alexa to fit in?!

so, a funny sidenote about this photo. nate and i are HUGE fans of woody allen’s movie,“midnight in paris.” there is a scene in the movie where the actors (owen wilson and rachel macadmas) walk past this very spot… anyway, when we got back from paris we watched the movie again and got excited pointing out all the spots that were from the movie that we visited as well.

i almost forgot to mention–before we left on our trip i surprised nate with the polaroid cube. its this tiny little cube that takes high def video with just the push of a button… and its magnetic so you can clip the cube on anywhere. for a lot of the trip nate just stuck it to the top of his camera and documented some of our journey. the fun part was we couldn’t replay and see what he shot until we downloaded it onto our computer… its funny how that has become charming, but it has! i’ll eventually get to editing all of it and making a little paris film. considering how long it is taking me to do these posts though it may not happen till summer! eek!

so, i have been trying to figure out how best to package up the spots that we ate and drank at… because food shots can be just “ok” …. so, i thought i would list them in a way that is fun and shareable. i’ll include a guide to eats and drinks in every post. enjoy! x

paris: our first evening

Jan 8, 2015 By marissa in adventures, her, him No Comments Tags: chez robert et louise, hotel du petit moulin, paris, travel

i’ve anxiously been waiting to blog about paris since we got there–seriously… maybe even since before we left! for those of you that follow nate and i on social media you know that this trip was in celebration of our 10 year anniversary. its funny because we had originally planned to go to africa, but that was before we had two kids–all of a sudden africa seemed a little too far away and a bit ambitious. so, since paris is possibly my favorite city in the world… and happens to be incredibly romantic, it seemed like the perfect destination. nate and i had been to paris together once before with alexa when she was a baby–for me, this was going to be my 7th time in paris, but that almost made it that much easier–a low stress trip of wandering, eating, drinking and just enjoying ourselves.

i spent a lot of time getting recommendations from friends who have lived in paris or travel there often and ended up with a list so long i could be there for a year and not see everything or eat everywhere that was recommended. that said, i think for 6 days we did extremely well and loved each and every stop we made. here is the beginning of our journey… i hope you enjoy all the posts about paris… if you need any extra tips after i finish blogging about all of our adventures, let me know! x

cafe la perle feels like a true local’s bar tucked away on a corner in the marais… we stayed at the hotel du petit moulin which was just around the corner. cafe la perle also happens to be the spot where a certain fashion industry icon fell from grace (read here for more).

something about this shot seems so magical to me… a bit of mystery and romance. i might have to blow this one up for our place.

ivanka actually shared the recommendation with me to stop by place des vosges in the marais and have a drink at cafe hugo (which happens to be near the home of victor hugo). it was a lovely spot.

along our stroll to dinner we came across this charming little photobooth on the side of the street… it felt like a midnight in paris movie moment. so fun.

a came across this little restaurant, chez robert et louise, on instagram, a french photographer that i follow posted it and i was so charmed by the image that i had to visit. its funny how social media can effect so many decisions these days. the restaurant feels like you are in someone’s home kitchen… someone who happens to be serving up escargot and deliciously seasoned t-bone steaks. they do take reservations, but i think you can just walk in as well. a great little neighborhood haunt.

after an amazing dinner, we headed back to our adorable little hotel (featured below) and got some much needed sleep… our next day was a biggie… we were headed to versailles! stay tuned for more!

happy new year

Jan 5, 2015 By marissa in holiday No Comments Tags: happy new year

i feel like its been ages since i have posted… and sadly, i am not going to do a full post quite yet. we just got back from atlanta this morning and i went straight to work and now i am back home watching celebrity apprentice for work and about to go to bed! i am so excited to post about our adventures in atlanta and in paris–especially paris! stay tuned for lots of posts coming up soon.

hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and happy new year! xx

a wintery sale. #JacadiParis

Dec 26, 2014 By marissa in little ones, trends No Comments Tags: jacadi, kids fashion, sale, winter

day after christmas often means more shopping right? so funny how it never seems to end in december. its either time to return, exchange… or shop sales! in this case, i suggest shopping sales because jacadi has a pretty great one running right now! here are some of my favorite pieces… happy shopping!

1. denim smock dress 2. bird motif sweater 3. corduroy shorts with a bow 4. bow-trimmed hat 5. decorative two button sweater 6. stretch twill cotton trousers 7. polka dot bow trimmed shirt 8. pleated skirt 9. ribbed knit tights 10. wool blend toggle coat

1. cotton camera graphic shirt 2. stretch cotton twill pants 3. shawl collar cardigan 4. denim jeans 5. nylon puffer jacket 5. waxed cotton parka 6.cable knit pom pom 7. cable knit mittens

i love some of these looks from the jacadi look books as well–how utterly charming!

a beautiful floral printed shirt (different print)

a down puffy jacket fit for a snow queen!

happy SALE shopping at jacadi!
(click here for the adorable sweater above!)

just like his daddy

Dec 25, 2014 By marissa in fashion, little ones No Comments Tags: camera, kids fashion, photography

people are always saying that the kids are mini versions of nate and i. it’s pretty much true. sometimes its eerie how similar they are to us. the other day nate and the kids were just hanging out and hayden grabbed his toy camera (which used to be my awesome diana camera that is now broken thanks to him!) and started taking pictures of his bike. i mean, how cute is this?!!

one little side note. for those of you on the hunt for cute pjs for the kids that aren’t ridiculously expensive, try leveret pajamas. i am a big fan of striped two piece pajamas for the kids (crewcuts, hanna anderson and pj salvage make some cute ones too!)

shop some of my favorite pajamas below!

pour la nuit. #paris

Dec 15, 2014 By marissa in fashion, her No Comments Tags: date nights, datenight, packing, paris, travel

i can’t believe we leave for paris next week!! all i can think about is packing and i haven’t even gotten the chance. i’m already dreaming of date nights every night… so, clearly i am stressing about what i’ll wear. here are some of my favorite looks pour le nuit.

1. alyssia open knit wolford tights (on sale!) 2. lace jumpsuit 3. thea mini bucket cross-body bag 4. isabelle paillete cocoon coat 5. paneled fit and flare dress 6. fur funnel 7. the duchess sandal 8. double-breasted wool cape 9. davinic open toe sandal 10. jovana earrings by dannijo

shop the post below!

lighting the tree

Dec 15, 2014 By marissa in holiday, little ones No Comments Tags: christmas tree, dumbo

its been a pretty hairy couple of weeks for me… you know how they say things happen in threes… well, you could say they happen in sixes for me this month. i won’t even get into the details, but its been rough! thankfully, among the hard days there are little beacons of light and one of those was getting our tree!

amongst the towering buildings in dumbo pops up a little tree farm in december with beautiful tall and lush trees from vermont! so magical, right? this is the most convenient tree shopping experience hands down! i mean, grab a tree, a wreath and a bottle of vermont maple syrup and cross the street to our place–yes please!

hayden gets to put the star on the tree this year!

since alexa let hayden put the star on the tree this year she got to turn on the light! i’ve noticed that in debating who gets to do what she has started to get very strategic. you could tell she knew turning on the light would be the coolest part… sorry hayden, but you are in trouble with this smarty pants big sis!

happy holidays everyone! xo

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