Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 242
Monday, August 30, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 241
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 240

Want your own? You can find it, and other goodness, in the Sugar Fresh Etsy shop.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 238
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 235

Monday, August 23, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 234

Every once in a while I get to spend a Monday afternoon hanging out with Lindsay and Karaliese, and their two adorable babes, Cash & Maddy. I love these days because I get to get to ask about things like childbirth, breastfeeding, circumcision, placentas, etc. Half of you probably just flinched even reading that sentence, didn't you?! Ha! That's the great part about hanging out with these two--I can ask anything, and they're so different that they always have great individual perspectives. And it's still so fresh in their minds! It's awesome to have friends like that.
And the fact that I get to kick it with their adorable (highly mobile) babies makes it even more awesome! Thanks ladies!

Sunday, August 22, 2010
I have a Closet!


The way I currently have things organized I do have some dead space, so I may consider asking the hub to install a couple more shelves. We still have a plastic drawer unit that won't be living in our closet space anymore that's full of little stuff (gloves, hats, scarves, and Raf's snow gear), so we do need to figure out a good way/place to stash that stuff .
The 365 Project: Day 233
The recipe I used can be found on the $5 Dinners blog. A couple modifications--the batter turned out REALLY runny. I needed to add a few heaping spoonfuls of flour to keep it from running off the skillet. Also, 2c of blueberries was probably more than necessary. But other than that, they were light, fluffy and tasty! And made entirely of ingredients I already had at home, so I didn't even need to dent the food budget.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 232

So, I'll share some cardmaking goodness instead. I finally visited the card table a couple times last week and made the executive decision to focus on quantity over creativity. I just need to get back in the groove! So I stuck with one style--a little paper, a little embellishment, a sentiment, and white bases. Easy to do, easy to love!






Friday, August 20, 2010
Making Me Happy.
A Food Challenge
We use Mint.com to budget and track our spending. One of the nice things about Mint is that you can set a monthly budget for a specific area of your spending (Food), and Mint will send you email alerts if you've exceeded your budget for the month. I logged on for the first time in a while yesterday to re-categorize some recent expenses and noticed that we're already at $505 of our $600 monthly food budget! Eek!
First things first, I know plenty of you are reading this thinking "holy F, they spend how much on food every month???" We think that too. It's the one area that we're constantly frustrated with. We eat out too much. We go out with friends a lot. And groceries aren't cheap, especially when we try to purchase quality ingredients. I don't think I'd be as irritated if we were spending that much and eating the way we aspire to, knowing that we're spending on quality and to support our local food systems. However, that's not the case for the majority of this amount, so it's constantly irritating. (However, before you think we're too crazy, I would encourage you to sign up yourself and track every detail of your budget for a month or two. I bet you'll have some surprises of your own!)
So anyway, we have quite the challenge in front of us: to keep our August food spending to the already outrageous $600 limit. That means we need to spend no more than $95 on food over the next 13 days! Some challenges I foresee:
- We're going to see Still Time in SF tonight: booze and 2am burritos both count on the Food budget!
- We're making vast quantities of guac and 2 salsas for the annual Sand in your Shorts party tomorrow.
- I may be going to visit Dad next week: 12 hours of eating on the road, and typically lots of meals out.
Some things working in our favor:
- Raf has begun the wildness of quarter-end, which means Oracle will be feeding him most nights.
- I've had a crazy lunchy luncherson schedule out with friends for the past couple weeks, but have nothing else in iCal at the moment.
- We've done a ton of grocery shopping this month, including a bulk stock up at Costco, so hopefully with minor supplements, we can work with what we already have on hand.
That final point really sums it up. We need to make meals for the next 2 weeks based primarily on what is already in our cupboards. Novel concept, eh?! We started with dinner last night, and we did a pretty darn good job! The photo at the top is Avocado Pasta Salad via The Food in my Beard. It was SO yummy! As in, so yummy I wouldn't let Raf take the leftovers to work today (and I hate leftovers). We added some feta to this recipe, and Raf used red onions rather than scallions. Definitely a keeper in the tasty, simple, summer recipe department. Oh, and Israeli couscous (sometimes labeled Middle Eastern couscous) is a new favorite--we both loved the consistency of the larger pellets.

I figure if I'm in town and we're doing well on the food budget front at the end of the month, I'm going to go splurge at the Eat Real Fest in Jack London Square. Because, really, if I'm going to spend money on food, it might as well be awesomely tasty and in a festival environment, right?!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 230
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 229

It was fun to catch up a bit--I hadn't seen either of them since they got engaged earlier this summer (YAY!) And chatting with Ramy is always good times, especially when he's busy coordinating a wedding. Well, technically an engagement first. Then an engagement party. Then a wedding. Then a green card. Or something like that.
Doesn't Griff look excited to be 30?? Ha! Happy Birthday, guy!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The 365 Project: Day 228
Sadly, pregnancy exhaustion got the better of me and we didn't make it to the summer cinema showing of Twilight at Wente Vineyards. Bummer. It's crazy how fast the I'm-so-tired-I'm-dizzy exhaustion hits when you're growing a little person.
It's an Addiction.


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