Pretty Food

I find so much inspiration in food.  I'm not sure if I've ever shared this on here before, but I did a one-year Culinary program at our local community college straight out of high school.  Three weeks after graduation from that program, I married my bestie.  The program could use improvement, but it did give me a certain love for food.  I worked in a few different food industry jobs before Ziva was born.  One being an artisan bakery.  We crafted beautiful, beautiful, delicious breads every day.  We had a top of the line espresso machine.  We made pesto from scratch for our sandwiches.  I used a sheeter to make sure our homemade pastry dough had 88 layers of butter and dough. 

Anyway, yeah that was a delicious job.  Oh and just so you know, I'm drinking Pumpkin Spice coffee right now, which probably deserves a post of it's own, but "oh hey, September!" =]

Working the dough daily (my job was to refresh the starter - feed it flour and water - before I went home {they were mostly sour doughs}, then in the morning I mixed the doughs, let them rise most of the day while I worked on other projects, shaped the loaves, and put them into the fridge to retard so the night baker could bake them in the wee hours of the morning and they'd be fresh for customers at 7am) gave me a love for good bread, and a real sense of how the dough is supposed to feel/look/sound when it's slapping against the mixer bowl.  I learned so much there.



I try really really hard to make our breads at home now, because I have that skill.  It doesn't happen 100% of the time, but I do try.  I have a go-to whole wheat bread recipe that I generally stick to because it comes out good and we like it, plus of course it's healthy!

What keeps me inspired to do this stuff?  Pretty food.  Clean kitchen.  Full fridge.

We have our local farmer's market on Wednesdays, where we pick up our CSA and buy our raw milk.  We also happened to get groceries yesterday.  (I don't have a specific day of the week I always go, it's just kind of whenever we start to run out of food.  lol.)



While putting away all the food, I just couldn't help myself.  I had to grab my phone and start taking pictures.  I love it when my fridge is full of healthy, delicious food, and it's what inspires me to feed my family well.



Food hangs out in various areas of our small, apartment kitchen.  And seeing it out in the open is a happy sight too.




{oh, hey there!}


{rolled oats, raw almonds, ground espresso, steel cut oats, quinoa and evaporated cane juice}

Another thing that helps me to feed my family well is prepping things.  Before I put away the kale and swiss chard from our CSA I chopped it and put it in bags.  That way it's easy to prepare, and I've found it stays fresher that way.  I like string cheese for a good protein filled snack, but I'd rather buy the block of cheese with the cheaper unit price.  So when I open the cheese I'll slice the whole block into sticks or slices, then keep them in a baggie or sealed container so they're easy to grab.  Just a couple things I do to encourage us to eat well!

What do you do to keep your family eating healthy food?

style

I'm feeling pinspired lately.  I'm finding a lot of style blogs and outfits through Pinterest.  The good thing is, that I'm not (yet) going into want.want.want mode.  So far, a lot of the blogs I'm looking at teach you how to take basics (that you might already have in your closet) and wear them a million different ways!  It may seem like a no-brainer to you, but sometimes I need a little help!

I stay at home with Ziva everyday, but I still like to dress fashionably.  It helps me feel good about myself, and I like to look cute for the hubs when he gets home.

I'm having fun compiling a flickr album of outfits to use as reference so I can't say, "I have nothing to wear!"  Idea from here.

Another awesome blog post from Putting Me Together, is Building a Remixable Wardrobe [...]

There are definitely some new clothing items I'd like to have, but these techniques are really helping me to feel content with my wardrobe.  I'm even wearing things I thought I didn't like, just in a different way!

What's one item you'd really like to appear in your closet?

(Mine's a striped boatneck tee!)

AND... what's one item you already own that you find super versatile?
(Mine's my brown maxi dress! Worn with a tank layered on top in the flickr screenshot!)

How to Cook Rice Perfectly

Making dinner tonight, I thought, "Hey.  More people should know how to do this!"

I cannot make rice on the stove top.  It always seemed to boil over or not be done when the water was gone, or stick to the bottom.  Once I made it in the microwave, and when I lifted the cover I got a nasty steam burn!  Oh it was bad.  And we don't have a microwave anymore, so, not an option.  A friend taught me this fool-proof method for rice cooking a few years ago.

Here's how I cook my rice!

::Boil water in your kettle or a pot.

::Add rice to a oven-safe dish (I use a 9x9 pyrex).  Tonight I did 2 cups dry rice.

::Add 2 parts boiling water.  (So I added 4 cups)

::And a good drizzle of olive oil or butter.

::Salt and pepper if you like.

::Cover with aluminum foil, stick in an oven preheated at 350, and come back in an hour! 

::(Brown rice takes an hour, but white rice probably takes about half as long.)

::Remove from the oven and check to be sure all the water has cooked into the rice.  Fluff with a fork and serve!

We're enjoying our rice over yummy beef & broccoli tonight!

Knitting + storage

I almost titled this post knitting + sanity. Which is basically a synonym of storage, no?
 
When I'm knitting something I don't always print out the pattern. I have a smartphone and the hubs has a kindle so it's super easy to just pull it up on there for reference. When it comes to more complicated patterns say, with lace repeats, it's nice to have it on paper.

I (try) to store all my printed patterns in a 3-ring binder. Not gonna lie, some of them are just stuffed in there all willy nilly. However, some do make it into page protectors. The reason why I put some in page protectors and not others? Page protectors work as an awesome dry erase surface for pattern repeats!

As I complete a row I cross it off with a dry erase marker. Then when it's time to start the pattern again I simply wipe it and I'm ready! So much better than trying to erase pencil or printing a new one, I do believe!

This has really helped me figure out where I am in my knitting and saved my sanity at times!

Got any knitting (or other craft) shortcuts to share?

Project Simplify: Weeks 3 & 4

So as you saw from last weeks posts, we had gorgeous, warm weather here in Maine.  All week.  80s.  Craziness.  You better believe I wasn't staying inside to clean. =]

I didn't do a whole lot for week 3 (Countertops, drawers and closets) but Ben did!  He got into this cleaning mode one night while I was doing up the dinner dishes and he just cleaned until it was time to put the girl to bed!  It was awesome!  I helped a little when I was done with dishes but he did the majority.  A few "hot spots" he worked on were;

-The countertop next to our back door.  It has a little serving tray type thing that we painted at Color Me Mine, that collects randomness.  I think the original reason we put it there was to hold keys and outgoing mail, that type of thing, but it's a junk collector and will probably always need purging... =]

-Top of the fridge.  We don't have a ton of counter space, so up there is our spice rack (which was insanely dusty), a bolga basket that we usually keep bread items in, olive oils, and maybe a few others things had made their way up there.  I think he mostly dusted and organized.  We're not very tall so we don't see up there.  lol.

He might have done some other spots.  I'm drawing a blank right now.

Week 4 is Pick Your Own Adventure.  Oh boy.  We have an adventure for sure. 

We live in a 2 bedroom apt and with that apt comes a medium sized, cage-like, basement storage unit.  We're tackling it this week. We actually started it last night (while my sis and BIL watched Z), and worked for about an hour and a half.  Rearranging boxes, opening them up and wondering "WHY in the world did we move this with us??!!" (1.5 yrs ago) Lots of donations, lots of recycling, lots of trash.  Some hemming and hawing over certain things.

We've already arranged for my parents to watch the girl this evening so we can finish up.  It's hard work!  Especially when you come across the sentimental stuff.  I've found I'm a lot less sentimental about stuff though, since I've read Organized Simplicity. 

As I've mentioned before, my mantra of sorts is now, "Is it useful to us?   Is it beautiful to us?"  If the answer is no, it's gone.

One thing I'm really happy about is that our storage area is starting to look like it's actually being put to good use.  Storing things that are actually useful, just not at this time.  (Outgrown baby clothes, toys, pack n play, etc.  Camping gear, Christmas decorations, etc.)  No more storing useless junk!  And absolutely no moving of said junk next time we move!

If we finish this tonight, I may do some more projects this week.  I'm thinking of weeding out our CD and DVD collections and selling what we don't really care about.  There are some we love, and some that just sit there, so rather than letting them create clutter in my home, why don't we let them make us a little cash? =]

Kudos if you read this whole thing - I'd love to hear what everyone else is working on in their homes!

so truth is...

I'm a big slacker when it comes to posting blogs/pictures about Project Simplify.  But rest assured, I am doing the work.

Last week was the kitchen.  While I didn't overhaul my entire kitchen, I did focus on the cupboards that store pots and pans, plates and bake ware, cutting boards and the like.  I took everything out of the cupboards, put back what we really use, put the seasonal (mostly snowman-themed) stuff in the storage unit, and put the rest in a box for goodwill.  It feels great to have just what we use/love in the cupboards.   All pans containing teflon are gone.  Things I got as bridal shower gifts (nearly 4 years ago!) that I never use are gone too.  (I was going to post a picture, but I thought people might recognize things they'd given us and get offended...)

I love this. 

I love taking loads of unused stuff to goodwill.  I love the absence of clutter in my cupboards.  I definitely won't miss the disorganization and the pots and pans crashing down with I try to pull one out of the mess!

This week's project is: Closets and Countertops and Drawers (oh my!).  I haven't decided exactly what I'll be doing for this.  We've cleaned out and organized closets recently, but I do have a drawer or two and a countertop area that seem to collect random things. =]

Next week's project is big.  And scary.  And my husband has already offered to help.  We'll talk more about that later.

On an unrelated note - SPRING is officially tomorrow, and it is actually warm here in Maine!  Unfortunately I can't find my sandals.  Any of them.  And that is related to next week's project. =]

Weekend Recap

How was your weekend? I wasn't in this space much.  I had some great family time.

The hubs was let out of work early Thursday afternoon and had the rest of the weekend off. We spent Thursday running errands, Friday visiting our friends and their new baby at the hospital, (the hat actually fit!!), Saturday morning at the library (a few more errands along the way), Saturday afternoon reading, and Sunday at church, then spending time with family and friends.

I do believe my week tends to be more relaxing than my weekend at times! :)

I love having extra time with Ben at home but I seem to let the housework and general routine of the day go when he's home. This includes blogging. Thus, Friday rolled around and you got neither a {this moment} nor an update on Project Simplify.

Last week's project was Kid's Stuff. Like I mentioned, Ziva doesn't have a lot of stuff... I did go through her drawers and clean out what she's outgrown and what just plain doesn't get worn. Let's face it, if you know us in real life (or look at my blog for that matter), you know I dress Ziva in basically the same 3 or 4 outfits...

Another thing I did in her room recently was round up all the stray cloth diapers and pack them in a plastic tote. This little lady wears undies to bed and everywhere we go! While looking over the (large) array of diapers we accumulated over 2+ years I have to say I was really only pleased with the appearance of the prefolds! I do believe you can do almost anything with a prefold. Diaper a baby, dust your dresser, I've even seen a picture of my baby sister wearing one fashioned into a sun hat. (Kudos to my dad for such ingenuity! ) I had to replace all the elastic in the pockets at around 18 months and replaced Velcro with snaps before that. I had stinky problems for a little while and let me tell you, prefolds can take a beating.  I scrubbed my pockets with a toothbrush a couple times to strip the detergent buildup. Not fun. I've toyed with the idea of selling everything that's not a prefold or cover. Then I've said no I'll just keep what I have - but I don't really want to replace elastic again... I don't know what I'll do, but I do know that living in Maine, our babies need to wear clothes over diapers most of the time so the cutesy factor isn't a good argument. For goodness sake can someone please send me a link to this post next time I get pregnant?? (Before I see the latest, greatest, cutest new diapers, please!)

Also?  There's nothing much cuter than my Z at 6 months old in just a prefold and an amber necklace! =]

Getting back to Project Simplify - This week's project is in the kitchen.  Which I'm very excited about.  I know I'll be getting rid of lots of unused mugs (why do people have so many mugs????), and cheap pans we bought at walmart as newlyweds needing to cook in something.  I'm really just hoping to get down to the bare essentials, and the rest of the clutter will be off to goodwill.  I'll probably have a wishlist after this... because sometimes my $10 yankee swap blender just doesn't cut it.  (Is it bad that I'd rather mash chickpeas with a fork than use my blender?)

I can't wait to share my before and after pictures - please leave a comment if you're cleaning out too!

Simplify, simplify, simplify!

This has been my mantra as of late.  I've been on a huge simplifying kick ever since reading Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider.  One of the biggest things I remember from the book is this quote;

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." - William Morris

   I am on a quest to make this statement true in our household one room at a time, and this month over on Tsh's blog Simple Mom, I'm participating in Project Simplify.  It's a big group of people doing spring cleaning together and sharing before and after pictures on Fridays! 

This week is Kids' Stuff.  This one isn't too overwhelming for me as Ziva is only 2 and we haven't allowed her to accumulate much extra stuff.  There is some, however!

Next week is Kitchen/Pantry (which I'm psyched about!), then Closets, Countertops and Drawers, and the last week is Pick Your Own Adventure (which will be our basement storage unit, and the hubs has already volunteered to help!).

Another reason why I am actively simplifying lately is because we are anticipating a move.  Last time we moved, we didn't go through a lot of stuff and we ended up throwing random odds and ends into boxes which just got stuck in, you guessed it, the basement storage unit, where it still is. =/  I don't want to bring this stuff with us next time we move.

We'll go through and ask, "Is it useful?  Is it beautiful?"  If the answer is no, it's gone!  Yippee!

So, what say you, blog friends?  Want to join the fun?

Simplifying Life: Toys

{This is what our living room looks like when Z is asleep. ;)}

Kids have toys. Most kids have so many toys that they don't even play with them all.

Ziva has her fair share of toys, and having her birthday a little over a month before Christmas it seems like she gets all her new toys at once! She has a very generous family, and we are so very thankful for all they give her, but sometimes the toy factor can be a little bit overwhelming when you're trying to keep a tidy house.

Last night I decided to sort out Ziva's toys to rotate. What this means is I chose a few toys and books to keep out in our living room and put the rest in a box in the closet. I'm planning on rotating out different toys weekly or biweekly, whatever feels right and replacing what's in the living room with a few things from the closet to try to renew her interest in them.

I also decided to move her toys from a basket, to a small bookshelf. This way she can easily see what she has there to play with and not just see a big overwhelming basketful of toys. With just a few things on the shelf, it's super easy for me to keep it looking neat and tidy, and to teach her how to keep it tidy as well!

{Top Shelf: Melissa & Doug Stacking Train, Plan Xylophone, stuffed animals.
Middle Shelf: Books, wooden puzzles.
Bottom Shelf: Drawstring bag, mini disc golf frisbee, old cell phone, balls, M&D alphabet blocks.}

I'm really excited about the fact that I'll be able to clean up the living room at the end of the day, and with hardly any effort it will look organized. There were times when the basket was overflowing with toys and books and stuffed animals, and even though everything was picked up, it looked anything but organized. I find it so much easier to relax with the hubs in the evening when my relaxing space is neat and tidy. =]

Thrifted

Sooo I'm trying to simplify our life by sorting through and donating things we don't use or need. I took a bunch of bags of clothing to Salvation Army yesterday which felt awesome, and I came home with less than I brought. I know, I know, I'm trying to get rid of stuff, but these things will be useful. =] (And loved!!)

Linens
The floral ones on top are 2 pillowcases I snagged for 1.99 (see what I'll do with them later!)
The ruffled one on bottom is an adorable crib skirt that was 4.99. The only problem is that Z's crib is on the lowest setting so it's too long... but I have an idea in mind. =]

Kettle
To replace my old one that was getting all rusty where the bottom joined the dome part. See? This one's all one piece, and it was only 2.99.

High Chair
I adore this chair. I love it's home-y country look. I love it's vintage-ness. I love that I had a brown one just like it when I was a baby. I love how easy it is to clean. I love that it was 6.99

Frames
(Well, one is a mirror.) To start our family photo collage. I have big ideas, folks. These rang in at (l-r) 3.99, .79, 2.99. Oh, and the one on the far right was originally light rose. I painted it to match our coffee table. (Pics to follow - it needs another coat!)

Diaper Repair

Simplicity is important in this family. We don't want a bunch of extra unnecessary objects and we try to be as frugal as possible with our money. So we don't really want to go around replacing things all the time, if it can be repaired and reused, we do it!

We've been using cloth on Z since we brought her home from the hospital, and we use a lot of one-size diapers. Z is now 18 months old, so said one-size diapers have had a lot of use and started to wear out, mainly the elastic that goes around her legs. (And we all know we don't want anything coming out of those leg holes!) I didn't even really realize that the elastic was all stretched out until I bought a few brand new diapers and they were sitting next to the old ones, there was a big difference!

I'm a crafty gal, so I set off to google a bit about replacing elastic in cloth diapers. I found this great tutorial and I've been slowly going through and replacing elastic in old diapers this week.


You can see how stretched out the elastic was! This diaper has been in rotation for about 15 months, and it's one of our favorites, so it's used quite a bit. Now it's like new!! Hooray!

Spring is My Muse

There's something about spring that inspires me.

I'm inspired by the blogs I read, to do more blogging myself. I don't even care if anyone reads this. I just love to flip back through the pages and reminisce. I'd like to say that I keep track of everything that's going on in Ziva's scrapbook, but I don't. =/ So here I am again, blogging for myself. I'm not promising to blog everyday, but I'm going to aim for at least once a week. Fridays to be exact. =] I've learned that some of the best blogs aren't overly wordy, and since I'm doing it for myself anyway, sometimes a picture and a sentence will suffice.

I'm inspired by apartment therapy to purge and organize my home. Living simply is important to me, and unnecessary clutter is my nemesis. I'm taking our home by storm and purging and organizing one area at a time. (Why oh WHY do I still own Claire's brand jewelry from when I was 14? Yeah - crazy.)

I'm inspired to do more crafting. We had a bit of a crafting lull in the B house. But lately it's been rainy here (read: for the past week and a half...) and crafting has been revived. Knitted photography props for a cousins business, fun little signs to make doing the dishes more entertaining, new elastic in cloth diapers that makes them work again.

Fresh, new.

Spring.

Stay tuned for more inspiration!

Living Simply

I love to make things. (Could you tell?) While recently chilling pool-side with some friends, the kiddos were snacking on goldfish crackers. Which reminded me that I had bookmarked this recipe and I decided it would probably be cheaper and healthier.

My take:
The cheese puffs only have a few ingredients, which makes them really great. I used colby-jack cheese, and they came out really yummy. Two of my siblings and I ate half a pan when they came out of the oven. =] The hubs loved them too. Ziva took one bite and threw hers on the floor - but maybe she'll like them next time. ;] I think I added too much water, and may have rolled them out a little too thick because I was hoping they'd be crispier. Next time I'm going to try making them with some whole wheat flour which should help to dry them out a bit. =]

Being Green =D

I thought I would take some time to share some products our family uses and different ways that we consider ourselves to be "green" or natural. I'm just going to list some things and possibly talk about them a little bit.

**I will add more to this list as I think of things or as we do more to be green!**

-Reusable water bottles. We use either stainless steal or BPA free plastic.

-Stainless sippy cups. Z doesn't use hers yet, but we have one!! =]- Dr. Brown's bottles. These are made of BPA free plastic. Z is exclusively breastfed, but she take the occasional bottle of breastmilk if I'm not able to be with her for a feeding.
-Reusable shopping bags. When we get groceries (or anything), we use a giant LL Bean canvas tote, and then the store reusable bags for everything that won't fit.

-Reusable Produce bags. (Which we fill with locally grown & organic produce as often as possible!) I purchased ours from AMK designs and they're great! No more plastic bags to throw away when we get home!
- Cloth napkins & towels. We don't buy paper napkins or paper towels.

-7th Generation Dish Soap.
-Planet Laundry Detergent.- We recycle. Everything our transfer station will let us. Plus we save #5's for the 'Gimme 5' program at Whole Foods.

- Cloth diapers. We use cloth diapers full time. Even at night and when we go out!- 7th Generation Baby Wipes. We had previously used cloth wipes, but switched to 7th Gen when our little one's diaper rash appeared to be going away when we used them.

- CJ's BUTTer. We use this on Z's bum at every diaper change and as a moisturizer all over. You can read the review I did here.

-Burt's Bees baby wash.- Burt's Bees Shampoo & Conditioner for me.-Dr. Bronner's soap for me. (And occasionally Z.)

-Tom's of Maine toothpaste.

Simplifying Life 2

Now that the holidays are over, and the baby is a little less *new,* I'm starting to look around this place and really just want to clean out.

We have so many things that we don't use or don't need, and I know that if I tackle a little at a time I can clear all the extras out.

Tonight I started by cleaning out a utensil drawer in our kitchen. It was one of those drawers that is such a mess that once you dig through it to find what you want, you can't close it. And 1/2 the stuff in there we don't even use! So farewell, Ben's old bachelor cheapo kitchen stuff! You won't be missed.

I can't wait to kick all this extra stuff to the curb!

Simplifying Life

Clearly my sanity is fleeting lately. So coming up with ways to simplify life is somewhat vital to my survival. My latest way to make life a little easier is wearing a bracelet. Huh? Yeah. Rather than letting my child scream while I sit and ponder to myself, "Which side did I feed her on last time?" I simply glance down at my wrist, and see that the side I'm wearing it on, is the side I need to start on.

Genius? No. Simple? Yes.