LAFCO Love

There are a few things I have to have around the house, two being candles and beautiful scents. I am a sucker for any house that smells fresh, clean, and beautiful. If you come to my house there isn’t a room or corner that doesn’t either have flowers or candles. I am that obsessed with smell! During different seasons I become turned onto different smells: winter = pine, fall = spice, spring = floral, summer = clean/fresh. This “smell schizophrenia” can make it hard to accommodate but luckily there are brands like LAFCO who fulfill my needs.

I am embarrassed to admit I first heard of LAFCO or Luxury Articles & Fragrance Company, a handful of years ago while watching the documentary, The Oprah Effect. It was really interesting to hear the brands who grew exponentially after being mentioned on her list of favorite things. Since it was a company based on candles and scents I knew I needed to check it out. Luckily, Oprah was right! This place was a haven of beautifully curated smells. Everything from their lotions to their candles were perfect! Even better was that they had a wide variety of scents tailored for anyone’s preference.

Discovering LAFCO a few years ago was a game changer for my home! Not only do I have them in every room but I now am stocking up on their hand wash and lotion (Fleurs de Bais is my scent of the moment). My house is not the only one immune to all LAFCO products – I love giving them as gifts! Who doesn’t want a beautiful scent in beautiful packaging to fill their home? P.s. there are SO many ways to use their jars when you are finished – more to come on that!

For all of my Dallas readers who love LAFCO as much as I do, there is an event this Friday, May 2nd at the highland Park location! They are unveiling their new Santa Maria Novella collection. Santa Maria Novella is one of the worlds oldest pharmacies and was established by Dominican monks in the 1200’s and still resides in Florence, Italy. Seriously cool stuff! If you stop by be sure to let me know what you think!

Artizone Dallas Food Delivery

“What’s for dinner?”
“Uhg, I don’t know. What are you in the mood for?”
“Anything.”
“This is so annoying. Just pick!”
“I picked last time. You pick!
“I am cooking. YOU pick!”

Yes, this is embarrassingly how my husband and my usual conversation goes when we are deciding on what to eat. It is one of the only challenges marriage has brought this far – choosing what to eat for the week. Figuring this out, making the list, and then going out and buying the food for one person was always stressful enough, but two, I might as well be on a high does of xanax every Monday morning. I know, i know, this is totally a first world problem but for as much as I love food, I loath the process of buying and making it even more. Sometimes it is just too much work to come up with a list, buy the necessary ingredients, and make the dish that I get overwhelmed and just order in. I know it sounds ridiculous but I always say when I become fabulously wealthy the first thing I will have is a personal live-in chef who also does ALL of the grocery shopping! Want to know a secret to cutting out 2/3 of the work, basically having a personal shopper, and not having to be fabulously wealthy? Aritzone. Yes, miracle.

I can’t even begin to explain what a lifesaver Artizone is to any household. You can literally go to their site, find your groceries, and voila they are delivered to your door the next day. You can also shop by recipe which is a game changer! I used to stress about what to make and then making sure I bought all the proper ingredients but Artizone does it for you! If that wasn’t enough to sell you I have a few more points that you will love – not only are the products of the highest quality but everything is local! I.love.this. I absolutely love supporting small business and Artizone is a master at it. All of their products are hand selected from local stores which makes it feel like you are not only getting quality but also like you just raided your moms pantry. It all just feels so homey and yummy. My favorite discovery? Kulfi Ice Cream. My husband and I melt over these bars. They are made with four ingredients that you can actually pronounce and are only 140 calories. I am not an ice cream lover but these are unreal! Trust me on that!

Artizone is my new lifesaver and I hope you get to try them out because I promise, your life will be changed. You place the order in the morning and you get the food that evening or the next day. Andddd delivery cost is only $5. I know, I know. Insane! It is so stress free I feel ridiculous I ever worried about groceries before. So for the best part of this entire post – Artizone is offering my readers a 20% discount on their orders for the next week. Enter MAS20 at checkout and voila! life.changing. Even if you don’t buy for yourself it would make the perfect gift – making sure your husband eats well while you are away, sending to your elderly parents who can’t make it to the store anymore, or giving to your kids in college who are too lazy to go out and buy quality food. Possibilities are endless. I personally would have loved for my mom to send me some groceries when I was in college (cough, cough)…or now? Mom, are you listening? Helllooooooo….?! Okay so you aren’t reading but the delivery cost is so inexpensive I think I can handle this on my own. I hope you try it out and let me know what you think!

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enter code MAS20 at checkout for 20% off your order! Code ends May 6th

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scrolling image via Miss. Renaissance

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while this post was sponsored by Artizone – all opinions are my own

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Black + White Classic Combo

OtteNY Silk blouse, Lovers + Friends Perforated Leather Track pants, Sam Edleman Adora shoes, Ray Ban Black aviators

‘Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live.’ – Gianni Versace
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Amen Gianni, Amen! I used to love being trendy – I had to have the latest and wear the coolest. It was some weird sickness that consumed me but luckily I overcame it a few years after high school and have been in remission since. What I learned from that time in my life: 1. it is too expensive to keep up with 2. It is unflattering to always be trendy – figure out who you are and stick to that 3. It is unrealistic to think that this was sustainable. Let’s go back to number two, since three and four are quite obvious. In the words of Gianni, “don’t make fashion own you, but you decide.” When I was shopping weekly and spending countless dollars on items that in a few months would be obsolete, I was letting fashion own me. I was buying into what they were selling – that trends are everything. I always loved a classic piece – my mom tried to ingrain quality over quantity in my head but I was too stubborn. I loved color, pattern, high, low, whatever was cool, I liked! Now, I find myself with a few less dollars to just throw away on a trend and a little less moved by what the industry is trying to make me believe, ‘I need.’ Instead of finding a piece I love and trying to make it work with my body or around my style, I only buy pieces I know I will wear a million times over – even if they are a plain black top.

I used love finding a unique piece and would talk myself into buying by saying all the ways I would wear it. What happened in the end – I never wore it. It wasn’t practical. Now, a little older and a lot wiser (ha) I only allow myself to buy basic and well made pieces. So instead of going for that sleeveless patterned dress (when I hate sleeveless) I go for the basic, one color silk blouse that I will wear a million ways. It might sound boring to do this kind of shopping but a closet full of beautiful, basic pieces is a closet that will stand the test of time. I can’t say that I am 100% healed of buying trendy pieces, I mean, I am wearing white leather pants but the basic feel of them makes them very wearable. They have been one of my favorite pieces this spring along with my OtteNY silk blouse. Holy price per wear – unreal! My goal this summer is to fill my closet with classic pieces from places like Everlane, OtteNY, + Vince. Items I will be able to wear next month and in five years so hopefully I can save a few $$ and do more of this.

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