Our mission at partager la joie is about helping you find creative and meaningful ways to share joy with the ones you love. However, we’re well aware that the world can be harsh and that finding joy in dark moments is difficult. The ability to cultivate joy and find the goodness in humanity helps us to navigate the unimaginable circumstances that plague our world. So with this in mind, our own small but meaningful purpose, in hard times of war and continuing pandemic, is to share positivity, make you smile, help you feel lighter and more invigorated…
Five Ways to Invigorate for Spring
Design Notes
Bring in the Cheer with Spring’s Bountiful Blooms.
April is tulip time! Alone or arranged with other flowers like hydrangeas or daffodils, tulips are stealing all their scenes. Take advantage of those early-budding cherry blossom branches, too—clip and place them in a tall cylinder vase indoors for a dramatic display in your entrance or sideboard table.
Spruce 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. Let your flower arrangements be inspired by what’s in your garden and on the branches overhead, which are changing every day! 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 walk with a friend. 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!
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—to be brought outside as the season warms.
Spring Style It
It’s officially Dress Season! We’ve got super cute spring dresses and accessories to help you set your style. You’re going to love our new soft pastels and florals for the beach, lunch with friends, or a night out. Pair with our woven beach totes and raffia earrings and you’re set for the season. Shop our chic style collection
Add a bright, clean touch of spring to your home with our Belgian linen and cotton textiles and tableware. Our woven home accessories—planters, candle holders, and bowls—bring eye-catching accents to your centerpieces. Freshen the air with spring-themed candle fragrances for your home and bath and revitalize with our lavender neck wraps and eye pillows, along with an array of beauty elixirs, body butters, and our popular rose hydrating facial spritz to take on the go! Shop our home and wellness collections
Learn more about our Inspiration Workshops here
April Happenings
Easter Eggstravaganza—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 for little (or big) ones for maximum springtime joy. 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 epicure section!
Host a ‘Spring Has Sprung’ Style Gathering—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 with small sips and bites like 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? Be inspired to gather small groups to celebrate the season with fun, no-fuss joyful moments together, occasions as impromptu as the sun coming out from behind the clouds.
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. Pack a picnic and enjoy some time in a nearby nature reserve, national forest, or park. Find out what’s afoot in your community to celebrate Earth Day—volunteer opportunities abound and most of them involve getting you and your family outside to enjoy each other’s company and some fresh air while doing something good for the planet.
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 invigorating glass of Green Juice. Easter season couldn’t be complete without a nod to our favorite brunch food of all time, Eggs Benedict, or that Easter family dinner classic, Spiral Ham, along with our Spring Couscous for a new twist. Grilled cheese and soup get a spring makeover in this month’s recipes. Squash Blossoms are a delicate seasonal showstopper, as are Spring Vegetables to accompany a perfectly roasted chicken. Sweet and tart are in harmony in April’s desserts, whether you make a Lemon Tart or wow them with a Roasted Pineapple.
Grilled Cheese with Brie and Fig
Roasted Chicken with Spring Vegetables
Refresh, Reset and Make Room for the New
Spring is the season for new beginnings
Learn something new this month. Start learning a new language, or learn a new sport, creative process, or culinary skill. Any of these can be done through video tutorials—for maximum accountability and fun, plan some in-person learning or classes with a group of friends. Learning something new, no matter how small, gives a sense of purpose, satisfaction, and joy. And if you choose them right, those new skills could really come in handy!
Why Not Wednesdays
We’ve touched on this theme before, but we think it's certainly one that bears revisiting. Time doesn’t stand still, and we lead busy lives and have many responsibilities, so we’re not suggesting you just drop everything but we tend to put off the activities that bring us joy, or schedule them later, because “we’re too busy”—sound familiar? 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 finding ways to redistribute the things we love, in spontaneous yet deliberate ways, throughout every day?
You can start Why Not Wednesdays on a Wednesday or any other day you please. Consciously choose an activity—or two—that relaxes you, invigorates you, or brings you joy, the kind of activity you’d normally save as a weekend or special-day reward for getting everything done that needs doing. Maybe it’s lunch with a friend. Maybe it’s a half-hour in the middle of the day with your journal or a good book and a cup of tea. Maybe it’s a workout or even a massage. The key is not to put it off until “everything else” is done, because guess what: it’ll never be done. Why Not Wednesdays is about living as though today is your reward, your special day—every day. Because why not? You deserve it (we think so too)!
Before you know it, these Why Not moments will happen naturally without even needing to plan them. And you’ll find that this kindness to yourself, this insistence on living in the moment, will do wonders for your productivity and set a positive example for everyone around you to reexamine their own daily priorities.
April Showers
Whether or not you live in a climate where April showers bring May flowers, as the old saying goes, 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?) but in anticipating what the coming months will bring. Positivity sparks joy, and sharing that joy only renews your own store of it. You’ll find that joy will evolve from a fleeting moment to a way of thinking, a way of life—the joie de vivre that the French have aptly put a name on, though they certainly don’t have the only corner on that market! This month let’s consciously widen our circles by taking better care of nature, of the planet, and of ourselves and each other.
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