Style Inspired by Key Lime

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Raise your emoji hand if you like key lime pie. I DO!!! Raise your hand if you like chocolate. I do, especially while pregnant! Did you know that Lindt makes citrus Lindor Truffles? Yes. Yes, they do, and I am very thankful because they are a little slice of heaven during these hot summer days.

Lindt asked me share some outfits inspired by their indulgent truffles, and what better choice than a citrus inspired palette for summer?! It tastes like melt in your mouth white chocolate with a key lime filling, so I chose white skinny maternity jeans from H&M with a graphic pattern halter top from Alixandra Collections that incorporated lime green along with a beautiful aqua and, everyone's favorite color, black.

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I love that women are embracing the color white. Just have a gallon of bleach near by, and don't worry too much if you spill something on your pants. Halter tops are a shape that many designers are using this summer. In general, plan to expose those beautiful shoulders of yours with off-the-shoulder tops, strapless tops or halters.

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If you're nervous about incorporating bright colors such as lime into your wardrobe, pick a print that incorporates it. Prints are also great for disguising a large mid-section (you can't even tell I'm pregnant from the front).

Get the look: Hat from Alixandra Collections Sunglasses from Target Top from Alixandra Collections White skinny jeans from H&M Black mules from Shoe Dazzle

Photos by Gina Meola

This post is sponsored by Lindt.

L.A. Vacation with Airbnb

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School is out and summer vacation season is upon us. Where are you going this summer? If you live in Arizona there's a good chance that you are planning a weekend getaway to the California coast. A six hour drive from Phoenix to L.A. is easy as pie, but what happens when you get there?

In years past we have gotten an inexpensive stay at a hotel, but then we spend the rest of our trip completely relying on Yelp and Google to find the top eats and things to do. Though we have always had fun, the places that are usually recommended to us are tourist spots.

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I would consider Ryan and I foodies. He loves craft beers and I love locally roasted coffee. He loves good bourbon and I love obscure food pairings. We also enjoy modern architecture and interiors and we have never been able to afford a hotel that meets our design taste. With the help of Airbnb we have found some seriously awesome modern homes to stay for families of all sizes, and with the help of Pinterest, I've put together a one-stop-shop experience of places to eat, shop and stay with a click of a button. Check it out, click here. I've also included some of my favorite travel bags, snack recipes and travel tips.

I hope you enjoy, and definitely let me know if there are other L.A. spots I should add.

L.A. photo by Super Duper Brick, Laguna Beach, Alfred Coffee,

Front Door Makeover

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Earlier this week I shared with your our backyard makeover, and now I'm going to share with you our front door makeover. When we first bought our bank owned property our front door had a security gate on it, which wasn't attractive at all. Also, our front door wasn't even a REAL front door. It was an interior door that had been kicked in at some point in time (oh yeah, baby).

The front yard looked like old people lived there with randomly placed bushes and pale green paint to "match." Oh, that paint! The red brick with the green color just made me cringe.

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So, we changed the exterior of the home by painting it gray, and adding a pop of color with a "grellow" front door. We bought a door light kit on Crestviewdoors.com and then we purchased a solid wood door from Home Depot. With the help of my father-in-law we were able to install the light kit and add some shiny new hardware to make our home look more modern.

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I highly recommend door light kits over buying some expensive new door. It doesn't take more than a half a day's work to create a statement for your home. Not to mention, the inside of our house is filled with so much more light.

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Now we just need to do some more landscaping to make the front have more curb appeal.

Photos of the new exterior by Gina Meola.

Backyard Remodel

Ryan and I bought our home in 2011. It was a bank owned property that had been neglected for almost a year. We didn't have too much money, and we couldn't afford a move-in-ready home in the middle of the city, so we bought a little ranch fixer upper, and when I say fixer upper I REALLY mean it too.

It had what you would call "good bones," but it desperately needed some TLC as you can see. The whole backyard was a mess of dead oleanders leading to an alleyway for the trash. Our view was less than stellar to put it nicely.

So, more than giving our house some extra curb appeal, we decided to remodel our backyard.

We hired a landscape architect to draft some plans for us. I HIGHLY recommend talking with a professional. We chose plants that weren't water suckers, we put in a drip system, we re-graded the yard, built a new block wall, added a pergola, and resurfaced and extended the patio. We also put in a new gate separating a grassy area and pool area to make it safe for Elle to run around outside.

It was so worth the investment because we're able to enjoy the outdoors so much more! Just anticipate the process of overhauling your yard to last two months or so. Eep!

I'll be sharing more before and afters or our home in a couple days. Wait until you see the front and inside of our house...Let's just say our front door used to be a kicked in door from the inside of the house. EEK!

Baby Gender Reveal

Three years ago we announced we were having a baby girl with Ryan's favorite food in the world - ice cream (see here). It was a personal and perfect way to tell our friends and family. As we thought about how to reveal the gender of our second child we couldn't think of anything better than ice cream, so we decided to do it the same way again except this time Elle would help us. After all, ice cream is Elle's favorite food in the world too.

We went to Churn for ice cream, and ordered a strawberry cone and a blue vanilla cone (we put blue food coloring in it). Elle was in HEAVEN!

Can you guess which color remained?

We are having a little boy!!! Though Elle's favorite color is pink, she had a lot of fun eating the blue ice cream, and we're so glad she got to be a part of the experience too.

Ryan and I can't wait to experience what it's like to have a little boy. I have ZERO little boy experience, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. haha. Any advice is welcome, and now begins the hunt for fashionable boy clothes...YAY!

Photos by Jay & Jess.