The Link Up: Emily’s $18 Parenting Hack, Jess’s Secret Cocktail Tool, and Some VERY Cute Denim Shorts On Sale

Good morning Sunday blog family. Welcome to the link up. It’s been a wildly hot week around here in LA, and our fearless leader, work mom, and design blogger extraordinaire, Em has been busy packing because she’s about to make the big Portland move next week (AH!). So please enjoy our last link up while we’re all living in California (we promise the move won’t change things around here at all but we like to celebrate milestones). Okay now onto the links…

This week’s home tour is brought to us by Domino (thanks, D!). If you have always secretly dreamed of living in London –– I mean who hasn’t –– then this apartment is NOT one you want to skip. It’s full of English charm and is a real lesson on how to do maximalism in a small space. Oh, and by the way, designer Cath Beckett, will absolutely make you want to paint your living room walls pink & go for a bright, bold bathroom tile. Let us know what you think of this space in the comments! xx

From Emily: Hot parenting PSA. As I’m packing for our move this week we are prioritizing bringing the toys that our kids play with ALL THE TIME. A friend got our kids these construction straws for Christmas and at least once a week they pull them out and play for an hour or two. They make massive sculptures (like cars they can get inside of, or elephants) and it’s not even very messy. It’s engineering + creativity + imagination, a true STEAM toy that both our kids love equally and they love building things together with them. It’s one of the best $18 toys I’ve seen out there, and while it does involve some clean-up it’s so much easier than a lot of the arts and crafts that we do because there are just two parts (the straws and the connectors).

From Jess: I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to talk about my electric juicer! To be honest, I mainly got it so I could juice grapefruits for my Paloma cocktails because you truly haven’t had a Palmona unless it’s been made with fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Here’s a recipe I’ve used but instead of club soda and Sprite, I add Spindrift Grapefruit. Anyway, it’s just a $20 magical machine that’s almost too easy to use and makes me look like a mixologist to my friends

Also From Jess: One of our old office building mates and wonderful person, Alexandra Cadiz, just launched a new podcast called Attuned. It’s all about releasing your old self, talking about mistakes in real-time, and generally just how to tap into listening to what we actually need for ourselves. The first episode hit me hard because it was such an important reminder of where I was about 6 years ago. Afraid to let go of what I always said I wanted to do/be versus what I was actually being called to do. Spoiler Alert! It was design and my god am I grateful I made that leap. Anyway, have a listen because regardless of where you’re at in life I think this podcast will really resonate:)

From Mallory: You’ve probably seen this lamp before, so it might be nothing new, but I had been dreaming about it for MONTHS and I finally pulled the plug after my last payday (yay!). She’s prettier in person than I could have ever imagined and I get SO many compliments from people that walk into my apartment. I never thought this guy would be such a conversation starter but there you go! Worth the splurge IMHO.

Also from Mallory: I’m a big fan of Madewell shorts and I realized that these are only $44 right now (originally $74) so if you’re in the market for some cute cutoffs check out these puppies! Oh and these popped up on my suggested and I guess are always $44 so if you’re looking for a longer short or darker wash these are also great!

From Caitlin: I have been finding SO MANY good affordable vintage decor shops on Etsy and wanted to share a few of my favorites! I love this one for its wooden vessels and decor, this one for its glassware, this one for its vintage porcelain and milk glass, this one for tiny tchotchkes, and this one for brass bowls, urns, planters, and statues. Does anyone else have any favorites that I can start following?

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading and see you lovelies tomorrow!! Xx

Opening Image Credit: Design by Cath Beckett | Photo by Matt Clayton | via Domino

The post The Link Up: Emily’s $18 Parenting Hack, Jess’s Secret Cocktail Tool, and Some VERY Cute Denim Shorts On Sale appeared first on Emily Henderson.

from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/best-kid-toy