Weekly Intentions: September 30

• Finish the Twins blankets
• Prepare poetry on demand booth
• Finish the Alaniz's Baby Shower Gifts
• Get started on the Ideal Bookshelf gift for L {inspiration}

• Start planning Bianca's Shower
• Update our living growing family scrapbook
• Finish the Ingram's wedding gift

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends (January 3, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0312641893
ISBN-13: 978-0312641894
400 pages
Ages 12+
Buy Here for $10.98

My Rating: 5/5

Menu Plan: September 24

Asian chicken

Lasagna

Tacos

Homemade pita Pizzas 

Chicken Piccatta w/ Pasta

Slow Cooker Goulash

Fall into my Sweater Clogs

So I know that they are considered a mega frump fashion item, but I can't help but adore sweater clogs. I have been in love with them since I was a kid in New England. I remember envying all the popular girls in school with their cozy Steve Maddens. It actually wasn't until last fall when I snagged myself a pair finally and I wore them every. single. day.

Fall Intentions - 2012

{source}

So Fall is upon us. This has always been a much loved season for me. Especially back when I lived in beautiful New England. While we don't get the pretty scenery here, it's nice to have a break from the heat. I have decided to start setting a mini goal list for each season. I like the idea of breaking down my goals into 3 month deadlines. I will use this list to build my weekly intentions and scratch off 23 before 23 goals. Here is what I would like to accomplish this Fall...

• Finish reading The Money Class and TCOYF
• Go camping
• Reread through my Purposeful Conception notes
• Start a Frugal Dinner Club {inspiration}
• Launch Poetry on Demand
• Buy 10 matching pillow cases and 2 fitted sheets for our bed
• Design and order my AdoramaPix books by the end of October
• Post items to sell on Threadflip
• Spend 30 minutes everyday cleaning some part of the house. This needs to become a routine. On "at-home" days, I will do it when I wake up and on "service" days, right before bed.
• Design a pretty cover for my new european travel notebook
• Make some 4x6 envelopes for Art Walk poems {inspiration}
• DIY my own thickening hair treatments
• Work on the final projects to finish the kitchen (install light, fix under the sink shelf, install last doors, hand pallet shelf and cube)
• Get started on our new sectional
• Build "the wall"
• Start planning Bianca's Baby Shower
• Organize my closet and update my wardrobe
• Design the Ideal Bookshelf gift for L
• Blog about each of these intentions

DIY Lace Headband

This is such an easy project and I absolutely love how this headband turned out! It will literally take you a matter of minutes and depending on your craft stash, you can make it for free :)

The 5-minute Beehive Tutorial

As promised here's an easy tutorial on how to achieve this beehive hairdo in less than 5 minutes. Literally this took me 2 minutes and 12 seconds according to the time stamp on my pictures. That's the only way I could get Luke to take the pics for me :)
Full instructions after the jump...

Savings Goals: European Vacation

{source}

So I mentioned not too long ago that one of our savings goals with Luke's new job is to go to Europe. I initially just put the goal figure of $3000 on that trip. Luke thought this was a gross under-estimate, but I wanted to at least have some figure to work towards in the meantime.
During my most recent library haul, I picked up 4 books on budget European travel. I have barely started on the first, Let's Go 2009 Europe (Let's Go: Europe), but have already found it very informative.

Menu Plan Monday - September 17

Last night as I was menu planning, I was so stuffed from lunch still that nothing sounded good so it took me way to long to come up with this list. But here is what we are having this week:

Tortilla Soup

Recipe from my friend Lyzette: Bring to bowl chicken broth, 1 can of black beans, 1 can of corn, Rotel, and cooked shredded chicken. Serve with cheese, chips, and avocado.

Grandma's Pork & Cabbage

Dad requested this recipe this week so I had to ask my aunt for it. You chop the pork up in bite size pieces. Brown them in a skillet. Then chop the cabbages into chunks and place on top. Also chop some onion if you want. Cover and let steam till cabbage is translucent and pork is cooked. Then shake in some Worcestershire sauce and that about it. Serve over rice.

Asian Chicken

A friend gave me this recipe in a fun swap game. All it requires is 1 part peanut butter and 1 part soy sauce that you coat over chicken pieces. Cook the chicken and I serve it over those Asian noodle kits you can buy at Walmart.

Stove Top Easy Chicken Bake

Bobbies aka Thanksgiving Sandwiches

We first had these at DOMA and they are amazing. Just make a sandwich out of turkey breast, stuffing, and cranberry sauce stuffed into a big hoagie roll. So yummy!

The Smart Phone Diet: September Update

So if you have been keeping track in my weight tracker header, I have officially lost 12 lbs and am a 1/3 of the way to my goal :) I think that is pretty good, considering we have gotten pretty bad about keeping up with the accountability aspect of our diet. But I have not gained anything back so far, and it's a new week and a new opportunity to start photographing meals.
I wanted to check in today with a progress photo...

Preserving Photo Memories

*Warning: Heavy photo post to follow*

So I love to take pictures of everything. My external hard drive is filled with thousands of photos. I once took 8GB of photos on just one Spring Break vacation. Now that I finally have a smart phone, I'm finding myself taking even more photos then I used too. And love being able to look back on all those great memories. For years, I was ok with just seeing them on my computer. But in the last couple, I decided I wanted to preserve my favorite in print.
I love the concept of scrapbooking and have made some very lovely conventional and digitally designed ones. But scrapbooking just isn't very practical for someone with a busy lifestyle. So over the last 2 years I have perfected how I preserve my photo memories via photo books and our living growing family scrapbook.

Memory Bank

Speechless Studios Memory Bank - $65

A few months ago, I saw this cute idea of keeping a memory savings bank on Apartment Therapy. They featured this snout-less piggy bank you could by and while I loved the idea, I honestly think that bank looks a little creepy :-/
But I keep coming back to the thought of a little ceramic storage place for our favorite memories. I think this is something I would really love to do for 2013.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Harlequin UK Ltd Mira Ink Imprint (October 5, 2012)
ISBN-13: 9781472000613
272 Pages
Age 12 +
Buy Here for $11.55
My Rating: 3.5/5

The Last Bag You Will Ever Need - HP + Project Runway: Laptop Bag Design Competition

Here's a little known fact about me...
As a child I used to dream of being a fashion designer. I was constantly sketching outfits and by my preteens having my mom actually sew my creations. I ended up with some very beautiful dresses over the years and to this day I enjoy coming up with innovative outfits for special occasions.

Insurance Reassurance

For as long as I have had my license, I have been insured by State Farm. It was an automatic for me since my family had been with them for 4 generations. And even when I started on my own policy and price compared they had the lowest rates around.
But financial advisors always say to check prices with other companies every once in a while. I don't do this very often since I couldn't imagine paying any less than we do. For instance, when we got married, Luke was shocked that we were paying less combined with State Farm than he paid at Farmers. I know part of this is because of some crazy loyalty discounts I get so that was another reason why I never really shop around for insurance.
Well today I decided to give it a try. Progressive quoted me at $541 for a 6-month premium of the exact same insurance we have now. That was over $100 more than the $435 Geico quoted. And still we are paying $40 less than that a year. Not huge savings, but reassuring that we are with the right company for us :)
What have you guys found from insurance comparisons?
This post was not sponsored by Sate Farm and all opinions expressed here are 100% my own from personal experience.

WhimseyBox Review

When I first heard about WhimseyBox, I was very excited about the whole concept. I knew it was the company I wanted to go with for my first subscription box purchase.

Unfortunately, they didn't live up to their gorgeous marketing.

Menu Plan Monday: September 3

This week we will be noshing on...

• Potato soup in homemade bread bowls
• Spicy Amish casserole

• Crock pot beef and broccoli

• Summer Pasta
• Jambalaya
• Breakfast for Dinner

Don't these sound so yummy? :)

Weekly Intentions: September 2

Because of the schedule shift last week with Luke's new job and the end of the service year, I didn't set any intentions for myself other than survive :) But here is how I did with my intentions from the week before...