Decluttering Fails and Employing the Nuclear Option

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you. I use these funds to feed my cats. Thanks for the cat food. See my full disclosure here.  “Tidy a little every day and you’ll be tidying forever.” Marie Kondo writes this in her book, The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up, and boy, is it true. The traditional western advice for decluttering, “fifteen minutes a day keeps the clutter away!” has […]

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Sausage and Vegetable Sheet Pan

This is an easy and delicious meal I often make for my family. It’s very simple to throw together, and you can make as much or as little as you want without complication. You can also do pretty much any combination of meat and veggies, or you can go meatless altogether. My preferred combination is Smithfield Smoked Sausage, zucchini, mushrooms, and bell pepper. These delicious summer ingredients are inexpensive and are a great flavor combination. You can season with fresh […]

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Cozy Deck Herb and Flower Garden Tour

why you should plant a garden

This past spring I made a goal to beautify my living space. The last few years, while being in a busy season of life with pregnancies and small children, the yard work has fallen by the wayside. Now that baby #2 is much more independent I have the time and energy to work on some of the outdoor spaces. I focused on the back deck, which had been a bit neglected since having children. The catalyst was when my daughter […]

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Homemade Buttermilk Salad Dressing

homemade buttermilk dressing

I was grocery shopping the other day (wait, when am I not grocery shopping, I LIVE at the grocery stores…), and as it sometimes happens when I’m in an unfamiliar store with a fussy baby who I forgot to pack snacks for, I picked up the wrong thing. Like low calorie orange juice. Blegh. I also thought I was buying a glass container of whole milk, but instead I accidentally got buttermilk. All right, great. I hardly ever use buttermilk, […]

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How to Enjoy the Rest of Your Summer When You Want It to be Fall Already

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you. I use these funds to feed my cats. Thanks for the cat food. See my full disclosure here.  It’s about halfway through August, which where I live means god awful heat and humidity. Stores are teasing us by selling fall decor already, the craft shops are getting their Halloween fabric in (if only I had time to sew my daughter an […]

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Yes, I Have a Room of Crap… Part 3

Prior to doing my master bedroom closet clean-out, I did a large declutter of the Room of Crap. We got a sitter for the kids so we could move all the baby stuff to the attic. It was a lot of baby stuff. I’m talking boxes and boxes of clothes and large pieces of baby gear. (The pictures from after we moved it all can be found in the previous Room of Crap post.) Once the big things were out […]

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Pasta with Spinach and Artichokes over Tomato Cream Sauce

Today I have another delicious meatless meal for you. We try to eat meatless meals once or twice a week, and some of them are my family’s favorites. This particular meal is one of my husband’s favorite dinners – he even requested I make it for his birthday! I recently started making this with the fresh pasta from Whole Foods, but you can make it with any pasta (and any shape!). It’s also good over tortellini. The original recipe for […]

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What Does It Mean to Be “Well Dressed”? (and why does it matter?)

One of my biggest areas of interest is history and historical fashion. I’ve always loved learning about history, especially what people did day to day: what they ate, what they wore. I especially love looking at old photographs and seeing how people dressed and did their hair. My grandmother was always a smart dresser. She lived in a time when no matter whether it was a special occasion or you spent the day at home, everyone still presented themselves beautifully. […]

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Unicorn Cheesecake (no bake)

  This is a delicious easy-to-make dessert that is fun to make with your kids. I let my four year old daughter help me make it (which is why the pictures all look like a hot mess). I think she mostly helps because she wants to lick the bowls when I’m done using them. Adding the sprinkles at the end is her favorite part. The original recipe can be found here (it’s a 30 second-ish video that will give you the gist). […]

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Master Bedroom Closet Clean Out

Sometimes my idea of a good time is… a little different from other people’s ideas. For instance, this past Memorial Day, most people were probably hanging out with friends and grilling out. I decided that instead of doing all that fun stuff I would clean out our bedroom closet. (The weather turned out to be garbage that day anyway, so why not clean and organize??) I was really inspired by this closet clean-out video by Laura from How to GYST […]

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