Our hope at plj is to share positivity and inspire a smile. We like to think you’ll feel lighter and more invigorated after spending a little time with us each month. Cultivating joy and bringing out the goodness in each other is a wonderful way to enhance our community. And this month, we’re turning outward. With spring’s longer, warmer days in full swing, we have so much to look forward to! Garden planning, flowers galore, the beginnings of the new season’s fruits and vegetables, picnics, Easter festivities and plenty of other activities and gatherings both indoors and out.
Refresh, Reset, and Renew
Seasonal transitions are a wonderful time for renewal, especially if you make sure to take good care of yourself along the way. We’ve put together two wellness essentials lists to use as a guide just for you! These are our strategies for staying centered and energized as we spring forward into the bright warm months ahead.
Five Ways to Invigorate for Spring
Six Essential Skin Care Tips for Spring
Energize and revitalize for spring and browse our wellness collection for an array of candles, beauty elixirs, body butters, and our must-have rose hydrating facial spritz or signature hand cream to take on the go! Shop our wellness collection
Spring Spruced! Design Notes
Bring in the Spring Cheer
April is tulip time! Cut fresh from the garden or pick up a bunch from your local market—a lovely way to bring a little spring into your home. Take advantage of those early-budding cherry branches, too. Place a blossoming branch or two in a tall cylinder vase indoors for a dramatic display in your entrance or sideboard table. Also bring in the spring green by treating your home space to a few new houseplants. Pro tip: this is a beautiful season to capture family photos—freshly blooming branches make a splendid and creative backdrop.
Refresh your Outdoor Space
With the planting season on the horizon, get a jump start by planting a kitchen herb garden to add freshness to all your spring recipes. And let’s get ready for one of our favorite dining options—outdoors! Sharing a meal alfresco changes the entire experience, don’t you agree?
Fresh air is invigorating! Depending on your climate it may be a little cool to enjoy outdoor evening dining, but spring is prime lunch alfresco season if you get sun on your outdoor space. Create your own outdoor cafe terrace to enjoy lunch, brunch, or a morning coffee after an outdoor yoga class or bike ride. Don’t forget a few cozy, comfy throws to keep handy—the only thing you can really count on with spring weather is its unpredictability! Let your flower arrangements be inspired by what’s in your garden and on the branches overhead. It’s almost time to fill your planters with beautiful new blooms!
Set a Spring Table
Think simple and inviting when you’re choosing your tableware. Mix and match whites with light spring tones, including fresh linens and woven textiles. Cluster vases of varying heights with bunches of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths or create a spring tabletop garden with our woven planters filled with fragrant herbs or tiny plants—perfect to bring outside as the season warms.
Springtime means accessorizing your home with light textiles— our Belgian linen and cotton tableware, olive wood trays, serving utensils and brand new napkin rings perfectly complement a seasonal table. Our favorite woven home accessories—planters, candle holders, bowls and baskets—bring eye-catching accents to all your gatherings. Shop our home collection
Delightful Spring Styles
We’ve got super cute spring dresses, sarongs, and accessories to reset your spring style. Pair a fitted white linen blazer with your favorite denim or over a dress and accessorize with our woven totes, beach bags or seasonal jewelry and you’re set for the season. Shop our chic style collection
Spring Happenings
Easter Gathering
Host a festive Easter brunch or dinner—plan a prep day to dye eggs together for table decorations. Teach little helpers about nature’s incredible color palette by using natural dyes made from common pantry and grocery items, including onion skins, turmeric, beets, red cabbage, and coffee! Prepare an Easter egg hunt to bring spring joy to the whole family. We love filling decorative clear jars with pastel-coated candies, jelly beans, and various chocolate confections. A chocolate bunny adorned with a personalized ribbon for each guest also makes an adorable addition to your holiday table. For spring menu ideas when planning your brunch or Easter dinner, see our April epicure section.
Host Spring’s First Picnic
Sip our Prosecco Spritz with a friend and plan a picnic-style menu with family to welcome in the start of spring. Keep your menu simple and bright, with our Truffle Grilled Brie Cheese with Fig and our Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup—a fresh spring twist on the classic soup and sandwich combo! Weather permitting, is it time for the first barbecue of the season? Let the sunshine inspire you to gather and celebrate the season with fun, no-fuss joyful moments together. A catch-up walk and tea or a turmeric latte with a friend is a great way to brighten the day!
Earth Day
Every day should be Earth Day, but April 22 gives us a special opportunity each year to celebrate our planet, take joy in its beauty, and renew our commitment to preserving the ecosystems that sustain life as we know it. This year Earth Day falls on a Saturday, so you can go all out on organizing a weekend of fun, planet-friendly activities! Plant a garden or a new tree, hang a bird feeder, take a hike or pack a picnic and enjoy some time in a nearby nature reserve, national forest, or park. There are many ways to celebrate Earth Day—volunteer opportunities abound and most of them involve getting you and your family outside for some fun and fresh air while doing something good for the planet.
Why Not Wednesdays
We’ve touched on this theme before, but we think it's certainly one that bears revisiting. Does “I’m just too busy for that” sound familiar? Time doesn’t stand still, and we lead busy lives and have many responsibilities, so we tend to put off the activities that bring us joy, or schedule them later. Well this is where Why Not Wednesdays comes in! At partager la joie we’ve been reflecting on this tendency to postpone and compartmentalize our joyous moments, which diminishes them—and us. Putting off things we love to do until someday… doesn’t really make sense, right? How about setting aside one day of the week when you’ll choose to prioritize the things that bring you joy? On Wednesdays (or whatever day works best with your schedule), find ways to deliberately or spontaneously make time for the things you really love. Give it a try, and it might spread to other days of the week, the whole year round!
Epicure
April’s menu is all about zesty, refreshing takes on comforting favorites. Nothing will put spring in your step like starting each day out with an immunity cube tonic tea. Later on, wind down with friends over our refreshing Prosecco Spritz. Easter season couldn’t be complete without a nod to our favorite brunch food, Eggs Benedict (and a wonderful twist on the classic brunch beverage, our Mango Mimosa!), or an Easter family dinner classic, Spiral Ham. Grilled cheese and soup get a spring makeover in this month’s recipes. Squash Blossoms are a delicate seasonal showstopper, as is our Spring Couscous and Vegetable Lasagne. Sweet and tangy are in harmony in April’s sweets, whether you make a Lemon Tart or wow them with a Roasted Pineapple (perfect compliment to that spiral ham).
Mango Mimosa
Classic Eggs Benedict
Grilled Cheese with Brie and Fig
Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
Squash Blossoms
Spring Couscous
Greek Chicken Bowls
Spiral Ham
Spring Vegetable Lasagne
Quiche Lorraine
Roasted Pineapple
Lemon Tart
Prosecco Spritz
Immunity Ice Cubes
April Inspiration
Live this month in the spirit of optimism—the cleansing renewal of this time will bring out the bloom in all of us. Take joy not only in the day-to-day (why not, even when it’s not a Wednesday?) but in anticipating what the coming months will bring. We are focusing on the meaning of the word inspiration this April—which is literally about breathing in and stimulating the creativity that lies within ourselves. So with this in mind and with positivity as our guide, slow down and take time out to appreciate the feeling that breath brings. We hope you’ll find that joy will evolve from a fleeting moment to a way of thinking to a way of life—the joie de vivre we’re always searching for. This month, let’s consciously widen our circles of inspiration by taking better care of nature, of the planet, and of ourselves and each other.
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