Melissa Gorga’s Green Floral Ring Maxi Dress

Real Housewives All Stars Fashion

Whether we’re talking about the brand of Melissa Gorga’s green floral ring maxi dress or how it looks on the model, things aren’t always what they seem. What I mean by this is A) This dress is definitely not by the brand I would have bet my life savings on when asked who designed it 2) It looks like a totally different dress the way it’s styled on the model (A+ to Melissa for knowing the way it looks best, BTW).

And while it’s still going to run you a pretty penny, whether you can afford it or not, I have a feeling my first Style Stealer will have people looking at you and thinking the price of your dress is definitely not what it seems.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to Shop her Bronx and Banco Tropics Dress

Photo: @MelissaGorga

Originally posted at: Melissa Gorga’s Green Floral Ring Maxi Dress

Melissa Gorga’s Melissa Earrings

Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 11 Episode 11 Fashion

Melissa Gorga’s “Melissa” earrings are one of those pieces that continue to haunt me. They’ve also been worn by Marlo Hampton and Robyn Dixon, and every time I see them I say I’m going to buy them—and I mean it—yet I haven’t. But as they say, third time is an earring charm, right?

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Also Seen on Marlo Hampton:

And Robyn Dixon:

Click Here to Shop her Jennifer Zeuner Ciara Earrings

Click Here to Shop her Pink Scalloped Dress

Originally posted at: Melissa Gorga’s Melissa Earrings

Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to travel to Versailles and experience its magnificent gardens. If not, I suggest you take a virtual tour of the Topiary Gardens of Versailles and treat yourself. So, what exactly is a Topiary garden and how can you have one?

Hopefully, I can help you understand its history and set you off on your own journey to add one of these magical mazes to your very own backyard.

What Is a Topiary?

Merriam-Webster defines a topiary as, “the practice or art of training, cutting, and trimming trees and shrubs into odd or ornamental shapes.”

A person who performs the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and planters to create a definite shape is called a topiarist.

Traditional topiary forms use foliage pruned and/or sculpted into geometric shapes, such as balls, cubes, obelisks, cones and tapering spirals. You might even see amusing shapes of animals or people.

Where Did the Art of Topiary First Appear?

It is believed that the practice of Topiary originated in Europe during the Roman Empire around 44 BC and spread from there around the globe. The Romans demanded order and structure in their society, and in their gardening as well.

The first tree to be sculpted was the olive tree. Shaping the olive trees provided a neat and well-maintained environment which the Romans insisted upon.

From Italy to France

It’s no surprise that the Sun King, Louis XIV (1643-1715) brought the first topiary to France in the mid-1600s. He was first exposed to “hedged art” while on a visit to the Vatican when he fell in love with clipping of the gardens. When Louis XIV returned to France and Versailles, he brought the idea there.

Upon completion of Versailles, Louis immediately began turning the gardens into both formal and fun spaces through Topiary horticulture. Even today, you can see Louis XIV’s obsession with the topiary style of gardening. Many of the plant-based sculptures in current private gardens in France are inspired by visits to Versailles.

What Are the Best Plants Used to form a Topiary?

I think most topiarist would agree that the Boxwood (Suffruiticosa and Morris Dwarf) is the most popular as a result of its small leaves and dense foliage, as are many other woody, dense foliage plants, such as Yews (Taxus x media “Hicks”) Bay Laurels (Laurus nobilis) Holly and Privet Hedge (Ligustrum valgare.)

And let’s not forget the beautiful herbal plants, including lavender and rosemary, that can be grown into splendid topiaries.

Home Grown

How does the home gardener start to make his or her quintessential French topiary garden, whether small or large? The following suggestions should help make the process easier and hopefully, more enjoyable:

Choose Evergreen Plants

Start by planting some type of evergreen (in the ground) or herb (in a pot). If you choose a hedge, remember the hedge will furnish a backdrop for geometric shapes and privacy.

Pots

Use pots to help define space; large pots are the embodiment of French garden style and may help to form an alleyway that leads the visitor to the topiary garden.

Same Plants

Use the same type of plants throughout the garden. Classic planting using the same, mirrored version of other plantings is suggested.

Think About Color

Use color with your evergreens – but use it sparingly. Red seems to be the most striking and will draw the most attention. The contrast with the red color and the deep green color of the evergreens will add a bit of whimsy to the garden. Consider adding a red birdhouse or perhaps red pots to bring fun to the garden.

Free-Flowing Plants

To soften the lineal lines and strong shapes of the topiary garden, you can plant free-flowing ornamental plants like lavender. Lavender placed at the bottom of the evergreen will not only provide movement, but a delightful scent as well.

I leave you with one final tip. Remember, growing a traditional topiary requires patience and a steady hand. Yes, it is true, modern day topiaries can be grown over wire cages, but what about you? Do you prefer the classic method of grooming your topiary one leaf at a time as the Romans did? I do. And why gamble with a sure thing?

While your topiary garden may not look exactly like those of Versailles, it will certainly add color and excitement to your home. Happy planting!

What does your garden look like? Have you tried to create order with love and care? Have you visited Versailles and strolled the amazing topiary gardens? If you don’t have a garden, do you use pots to create a natural feel to your space?

Plopping has been around forever but the curly hair hack has become even more popular as of late thanks to TikTok. Even those with only slight waves are plopping their hair to achieve their best, frizz-free curls. Since plopping involves using a T-shirt in place of a towel and you might not have one around you want to get dirty, Sun Bum created a T-shirt Hair Towel in collaboration with Daniella Perkins. This is the tee you’ll always use and have around.

There are a lot of ways you could be familiar with actress Daniella Perkins. The 20 year old starred in the Nickelodeon series Knight Squad, as well as guest spots in Girl Meets World and Legendary Dudas. And if you haven’t seen any of those shows, there’s a good chance she’s popped up on your TikTok For You Page considering she has a whopping 2.3 million followers. Here she shows off her cute style, beauty faves and curl routine. She’s the perfect partner for Sun Bum’s curl collection.

Source: Instagram

Though, it hasn’t always been easy breesy. “My curl journey has been a long one and I’m still on it! You’re always learning with curly hair,” Perkins tells STYLECASTER. “It went from healthy to damaged to a little bit healthy back to damaged and now it’s on its road to recovery for the past two years.” She admits that she hasn’t always loved her natural texture.

“I didn’t always love my curls. I wanted to be one of those girls with pretty wavy hair that you can put up in a ponytail and take out whenever you want…brush it whenever you want to,” she says. “When I was about 14, I would literally go in the shower [and] spend two hours curling my hair with my finger, and as soon as I got out of the shower would take a straightener and put it to my wet hair so I could get that ‘wavy look.’ It never worked.”

Source: Instagram

She admits it’s all a bit of a bummer. “An ex of mine would always say ‘Oh, I wish you had straight hair so I can run my fingers through your hair,’ or people always want to touch it and act like it’s some crazy thing to have,” she says. “But I realize my curls are beautiful and I shouldn’t try to change my hair texture for anyone. It’s hard finding your perfect hair routine, but once you do, loving your curls becomes a little easier. I never want any little girl to feel like her hair isn’t beautiful. Because it is beautiful.”

Sum Bum.

Sum Bum.

Perkins says one of the reasons she had trouble embracing her hair was because of the lack of representation in media. “I never saw anyone whose skin color or hair looked like me on TV,” she says. “When I was 10, I wanted to be Hannah Montana so badly. I went to the Disney store and my aunt bought me a blonde wig. I lived in that wig. I wanted to have straight blonde hair for so long.” Luckily, there are a few things that can help you love your curls. One is really nailing that routine.

“It takes a minute but once you understand your curls, you can become a master at it,” she says. “To help with frizz, I have been loving the Sun Bum T-shirt Hair Towel for drying. To get the bounce once my hair is dry enough for me, I flip my head over and I take a toothpick comb and just go to the places where my hair kind of sinks down a little bit.”

Sun Bum.

This “towel” is actually a cute T-shirt you can wear and then use to wrap your hair sans frizz. It’s all part of the curly girl routine. The super-soft, absorbent cotton will cut down drying time and keep hair smooth.

Sun Bum.

Meeting Zendaya helped Perkins be more confident and even inspired her future roles. “The first thing [Zendaya] told me was, ‘Don’t ever let them touch your hair. Protect your curls,’” she says. “That stuck with me. That’s why when I booked Knight Squad my curly hair was a big part of that character.” She’s gotten incredible feedback from young fans and their mothers about her character’s natural hair.

“I actually had the most touching experience at a Nickelodeon meet greet,” she says. “This little girl saw me and started crying her heart out. She told me she was so happy that she saw someone who looked like her on Nickelodeon. That shows you the lack of representation. I’m so glad things are changing. We’re definitely nowhere near where we should be, but we’re getting there.”

“I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.”

There is more to this poem, The Dash, but I will stop here.

How Are You Living Your Dash?

Does knowing there’s an end point guide you towards living well? As a society, we don’t talk much about death. Yet if we did, perhaps we’d live better. Many feel it is morbid to think about let alone talk about. I have a friend who upon her birthday always says, “One year closer to death.” We laugh. The brazenness of the statement is almost funny as it is so stark and true.

When my middle daughter went through a medical crisis, in a drug-induced coma and hooked up to a ventilator and many life-saving tubes for four months, I witnessed the fragility of life and came to fully comprehend how all of our lives hang by the thinnest of threads; and that the end will be upon us all at some point.

With every beep and bleep of machines, I hoped and prayed hers wasn’t at its end at the age of 19. Miraculously, she lived and fully recovered, and I went on to live with a greater appreciation and zest for life and a great sense of urgency in living life to its fullest, opening up to possibilities and opportunities. The world became my oyster.

Dr. Irwin Yalom, a renowned existential psychiatrist, quoted a patient in one of his books: “What a pity it is that I had to wait till now, till my body was riddled with cancer, to learn how to live.”

Do we really need to wait until that near catastrophe happens to begin to really live? The fully conscious acknowledgement of the finiteness of our lives could be the brightest light in illuminating our path towards living that rich life.

The Awareness of Death Can Help Us Savor Our Lives

Death can sit upon our shoulder as a compass, accompanying us on our journey, always pointing us towards living with fervor, intention, vivre and full engagement.

Otto Rank, an Austrian psychoanalyst said this very powerful statement, “Some refuse the loan of life to avoid the debt of death.”

We’re all on loan here so why wait, put off, procrastinate. Why sit back; this is it, our one chance at life. Death is happening anyway so why take the passive route and simply hang on till the end. Might as well make the journey as meaningful and enjoyable as possible.

We all have regrets and those can be very painful. We obviously can’t go back and redo them, but we can go on with new possibilities, new growth.

Make a New Beginning

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” —Maria Robinson

Though the impermanence of life can be anxiety-provoking and sometimes melancholy, let’s open up the conversation around the reality of our death and live better.

And by the way, there are death cafes all over that meet once-a-month. Sounds strange? Maybe not. The conversations can be very enlivening.

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” — Norman Cousins

How do you view death? Is it something you talk / think about? Does the awareness of it make you live differently?