I didn’t do any of my normal weekly features last week because…well…life happens, ya know? I’m still getting back into the hang of blogging on a regular basis, and I’m still figuring out what features I want to stick with, and which ones aren’t that important to me. I am always stumbling onto new ones (like this one – Just Write – LOVE!), so I have to take things one day at a time! I mean, it’s not like I have anything else to do.

Also, I’ve been busy with real estate this past week. I took a new listing and have a closing scheduled for tomorrow (hopefully), so it’s been a little chaotic. Add to all this the whole mommy/wife thing, and I’m just plain exhausted.

Did I mention I’m also working on a line of sewing patterns for cloth-diapered babies? Yeah. I know. I’m crazy. Luckily, knitting has hit the backburner for a few weeks. Whew. Deep breaths.

Anyway, we did manage to snap a few shots of our outfits yesterday. Harper had a playdate with Grayson so Scott and I could go out to dinner at The Atlantic. I got her all dressed up for her first Valentine’s Date (haha), but I actually changed her into comfy play clothes after we took these photos. I guess the practical side took over. It happens.

Speaking of practical…I haven’t been able to resist buying baby shoes lately. I bought her two of the cutest pairs, one in a size 2 and one in a size 3. She outgrew the size 2′s in a day…but it didn’t matter, anyway. She won’t keep them on, and she likes to try to eat them.

On Harper:
Dress: Circo, thrifted
Bodysuit: Carter’s, Babies R Us
Tights: H&M, gifted
Legwarmers: Hand-knit by Mommy (free pattern here)
Shoes: (the only pair she will keep on) Deer Shoes, bought at Fashion Place Mall kiosk

On Mommy:
Scarf:  mall kiosk (bought about 8 years ago)
Cardigan:  Banana Republic (bought about 3 years ago)
Sweater:  thrifted for $.99!!!
Pants:  Dickies (bought about 6 years ago – they used to be flare-leg, but I altered them)
Shoes:  Kate Spade (bought at Nordstrom Rack about 3 years ago – these have been through the ringer!)

Harper is getting dangerously close to pulling up and standing on her own. She can even hold onto something like her crib and use her other hand to grab for things. Crawling? Ha! This girl is too good for that!

She wants to go go go!

She always has her eyes on something she wants to grab…and eat.

I turned the camera around for a couple daddy/daughter shots. These two are so adorable.

100% daddy’s girl.

Other than Harper’s cute smile, I think my favorite thing about these photos is MY HAIR. Do you see THAT HAIR? It was still wet in these photos. As in, I didn’t do ANYTHING to it. I didn’t even comb/brush it. But I looked in the mirror and loved it, so I went with it. I kind of love it.

In other news, Harper is going through this thing where 1) she won’t sleep in her crib and 2) she won’t sleep anywhere other than nestled under my chin. Not naps, not overnight. And unfortunately, even if I do manage to get up after I’ve gotten her asleep for a nap, I don’t feel comfortable going too far away when she is lying on the bed. I kind of love it and hate it at the same time. Cuddling with her is just the best, but then I get all grumpy when I don’t get necessary chores and/or fun things for me done.

I guess this, too, shall pass? I hope so…and then again, I don’t.

I have this bloggy fried, Janel. She has this awesome blog, Run With Scissors. She and her husband have been going through the adoption process for several years now, and they finally got THE CALL.

THE CALL. (!!!) The one where they found out that their dream is becoming a reality.

In just three or four short weeks, they will be parents. Can you imagine that ?! I mean, when you’re pregnant, you get a full eight-or-so months to get ready for and plan things. But these guys…they barely got a month! Sure, they’ve known they would be adopting for a while, but all of the sudden, it’s a reality.

The other reality is THE COST OF ADOPTION. I had no idea it was so expensive, but apparently they are going to have to cough up $25K…yes…25 THOUSAND DOLLARS…in just a few (very) short weeks.

So, I’m asking for your help on their behalf. If you have a few spare dollars, please go and donate it to the We Heart Amelia fund (Amelia is the little girl they are adopting). Seriously…you can pass on your morning coffee for a couple mornings to donate $5 or $10 to these guys, right?

PS – I know I haven’t blogged in over a week…I’m not dead or missing…just busy! I have some seriously awesome things in the works though.

NOW GO DO IT!!! NOW! And while you’re there, subscribe to her blog. I seriously get a kick out of it every day. Janel is a super creative and fun gal. I have really enjoyed seeing her adoption story unfold.

FINALLY I think I have fixed my camera’s bum lens. Errrr, actually, what happened is that I pulled out the instruction manual and figured out what I’ve been doing wrong for the last, oh, three years that I’ve owned the thing. Apparently I’m really good at shooting still objects using a tripod and shutter mode, but not so much at shooting moving things in aperture mode. I blame a little thing called USER ERROR.

SO, Harper and I got all dressed up on Saturday for Miss Maggie’s birthday dinner at Red Iguana, but none of the photos turned out. Then last night, I stayed up until 2am trying to figure what the hell was up with my way-too-expensive-to-be-effed-up camera. It worked! Today’s outfit photos were MUCH better – especially considering most of them were taken by me with a remote control at high noon.

This blue wall is at an adorable consignment/vintage shop down the street from my house. Harper and I stopped by on our way to pick Adda up for lunch at B&D Burgers (our Sunday afternoon ritual). We were freezing our butts off (again), but I think the cute photos were worth it. Oh, and I really hope no one saw me as I was backing up while holding Harper and a million other things…and I tripped on a pile of trash next to the dumpster behind the store. I fell flat on my butt, and since I was holding Harper, I couldn’t catch myself. Luckily, we landed on a pile of corrugated cardboard and hurt nothing except our pride.

On Harper:
Shirt: Old Navy (thrifted)
Bodysuit: Carter’s (Babies ‘R Us)
Jeans: Big Butt Baby Pants by Rae (Sewn by me)

On Mommy:
Sweater: Tweeds (thrifted)
Scarf (worn as belt): Brand unknown – it has a little “J” on it (thrifted)
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Frye Villager (bought about 8 years ago at Nordstrom)
Purse: Thrifted

This sweater is absolutely, without-a-doubt my NEW FAVORITE CLOTHING ITEM. I got it for $.99 (yes, that’s NINETY-NINE CENTS) at the annual Thrifttown Sweater Sale on Friday. It is perfect in EVERY way – fit, softness (100% Merino wool), color, ease of care (came out perfectly from the wool cycle on my HE machine) and comfort. Oh, and I LOVE the mother-of-pearl buttons on the cuffs and think it looks quite nice! If I ever get around to doing Nina’s Design-a-Sweater Class from Knitpicks, I will probably use this sweater as my knitting template.

A little money-saving trick I use for Harper’s clothing: buy short-sleeve shirts about 6-months too big for her (this one is a 12-18mo size) and put them over a long-sleeved bodysuit in the winter. By the summer, they will fit her perfectly without the extra layer underneath!

Harper is wearing size 18mo bodysuits now (even though she’s only 8-months-old) to accommodate her cloth diapers…and because Adda demands we get her clothing two sizes too big. He insists that it’s the most money-wise purchase choice. He is right, I know… Girl grows like a weed!

If there’s any clothing item for which a splurge is totally justified, it’s Frye boots! I have never seen a pair that wasn’t worth the marked price. These cost me around $200, but that was 8 years ago. They’ve been re-soled, re-heeled, re-insoled…you name it…but they just keep on keepin’ on. Plus, the lace-up style works great with my skinny legs. I occasionally find these at thrift stores, but they’re never in my size. They also have decent deals on them at the Sundance Outlet in Salt Lake City.

After our little photo shoot, I whipped up Fannie Farmer’s Classic Baked Macaroni & Cheese and headed to the Webers’ with Harper and Scott for a fun-filled evening. Super Bowl? What Super Bowl??! Today was Harper’s 8-month birthday! We celebrated it in style.

How was YOUR weekend?

So, a couple quick announcements, and then some fun photo action!

1. I added social media icons to my left-hand sidebar. Once upon  time, I had hundreds of Twitter followers and lots of Facebook fans, too…but then, I got frustrated with the interwebz and deleted it all. Don’t judge me for my low numbers. I am slowly putting my toes back into the social media quicksand water. I would love for you to follow/like/fan/subscribe/whatever! YOU EARLY ADOPTER, YOU!

2. Um, I guess that was it. On with the photos!

1. Sweet girl | 2. Dinosaur! | 3. Her favorite object, the living room light fixture
4. Thermarest play mat | 5. More dinosaurs! And cheeks! | 6. Best thrift store find, ever
7. Putting the moves on | 8. Reading about baby animals | 9. Adda’s hair or Amma’s?

We hope you’re having a great week!

This is the follow-up post to my guest contribution on TheProjectGirl.com. Be sure to check out my original post on her site, Capsule Menu Planning!

I’ve been working very hard lately to streamline my housework and do things as efficiently as possible. One of the ways I’ve done this is to prepare my ingredients for the week’s recipes in advance. I can’t take credit for this idea – in fact, it was my husband (the engineer, of course) who made the suggestion.

I love making kind of intensive dishes – things that involve lots of ingredients, steps, stirring, etc. etc. However, those types of dishes aren’t exactly the easiest to compile when there are cloth diapers to be washed, a little mouth to be fed and 18 loads of laundry to be folded. (And I only have one little mouth to feed – I don’t know how those of you with more handle it all!)

This little predicament is what prompted me to start being my own sous chef. A sous chef is an assistant to the executive chef in a restaurant. Typically, she is the one who prepares the ingredients for the dishes and shadows the head chef to prepare for later becoming the head honcho.

How does that translate to my personal kitchen? By being my own sous chef, I take some time (an hour or two on a Sunday afternoon, usually) to get all my ingredients chopped, washed, measured, etc. and put into plastic or glass containers in the fridge. That way, when my husband gets home from the gym on Wednesday night and is READY TO EAT RIGHT NOW, I can just throw a bunch of already sliced peppers and onions into a frying pan…and Voila! Fajitas! (Or whatever. )

Or, if I’m occupied with a little human attached to my chest, it’s easy for Scott to pull out the meal plan binder (learn more at TheProjectGirl.com), grab the already-prepared ingredients and work on things while I’m taking care of the babe.

Here’s how it works:

1. Prepare your meal plan and get all the groceries you need for the week. For more information on this step and some awesome, free, editable and printable menu planning forms, check out my guest post on TheProjectGirl.com.
2. When you have an hour or two to work on preparing your ingredients (while the kids are playing outside, the baby’s napping, etc.), grab the binder and go through each recipe for the week to see what you need. (This is why it’s helpful to have all the recipes for the week at the front of the binder as I mentioned in my original post.)
3. Slice/dice/wash/measure all the items that you’ll need for the week. There are certain easy tasks that I don’t do in advance like grabbing a handful of cilantro to throw into a dish. I don’t like to cut up things that tend to wilt or go bad quickly. More obvious and easy things to knock out are things like cutting up bell peppers or onions or washing mushrooms.
4. Put the prepared ingredients into sealable plastic or glass bowls, and toss them in the fridge.
5. If you have kids who take their lunches to daycare or school, you can go ahead and prepare their meals, too. Put apple slices into containers, grapes into baggies, etc.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a bunch of expensive containers. You can also use upcycled Indian takeout containers (like I used above for the peppers) if that’s all you have.

If you ARE in the market for some snazzy new containers, opt for ones that are BPA-free and have measurements on the side. This makes getting the right proportions super easy while you’re cooking!

Ahhhhhh. Isn’t it nice to have everything ready-to-go? It’s like pre-made meals…only, you made them. And they’ll taste good. And be good for your family.

Another great thing about preparing your ingredients in advance is that you only have to clean up the mess once. Just one big pile of stuff to go into the compost, just one time scrubbing the cutting board and just one time wiping down the counter. It makes cleanup much easier on the nights when you’re actually cooking the meals.

Now, I am a total over-achiever and like to make my family’s sandwich bread from scratch. Crazy, right? (It’s actually quite easy, especially if you have a stand mixer.) I like to get my dough rising while I’m preparing all my ingredients so I can sit back and enjoy the amazing smell of the bread baking when I’m done. I do two loaves at a time so I can put one in the freezer and not worry about bread baking for a couple weeks.

If you are one of the lucky people who has a deep freeze (I am not one of them), you can take this idea to a whole other level. You can actually prepare many meals in advance and freeze them. Then, when you’ve had a long day of shlepping the kids around and taking care of the house, you can easily pull something out and have a gourmet dinner in the time it takes to warm the dish. Even if it’s something like lasagna that needs an hour in the oven, you just pop it in and go do something else while it’s cooking.

(The paragraph above was a hint to anyone…Scott…ahem…who might be wondering what to get me for my birthday this year.)

Finally, if you have any veggies left over at the end of the week, toss them all into a wok with some brown rice and soy sauce for a tasty (and easy! and healthy!) stir-fry. ISN’T BEING YOUR OWN SOUS CHEF GREAT?!

There you have it! Oh…one final note…

I cannot stress enough how much it helps to have a cute, one-socked assistant. It is totally optional but highly recommended.

What do you do to make your family’s meal preparation easy? I would love to hear your ideas!