After hearing about the Capsule Wardrobe concept for months and months, I decided to bite the bullet and do it. What is Capsule Wardrobe? This post is a great explanation (although a bit long-winded), but it boils down to this: You select 37 items (including shoes) per season, clear the rest of your closet out (either store or donate), and rotate the 37 items to mix and match outfits. The reasoning behind Capsule Wardrobe is that, since your choices are limited to what you truly love and actually want to wear, getting dressed is less stressful AND you end up more stylish.
My closet looked like this prior to Capsule Wardrobe… AHHHH!
So I pulled everything out and dumped it on the floor…
Some things were easy to eliminate from my Capsule Wardrobe. No need for sweaters or heavy jackets right now. The seasons really shift at the end of October here, so I’ll probably need to revamp my Capsule Wardrobe in a month and a half (not the typical 3 months).
I put everything that didn’t make the cut into garbage bags… I plan to sort and donate when this Capsule Wardrobe is up.
It was actually pretty easy to whittle my closet down to 37 items! I tend to wear the same favorites over and over again and everything else, I just push past and never put on. I love how airy and open my closet looks now. Much more functional!
Here’s what made the cut…
2 sandals, my grey chunks, a pair of boots, a pair of flats, and wedges
Four dresses
A navy blazer and a faux leather jacket
Black jeans, dark wash jeans, gray jeans, black moto skinny jeans, fleece leggings, dress pants, and 2 shorts
I’m actually a little under 37 items because I think I may need to add a piece in as I go through the process.
So fun, right? I absolutely love it. It’s so much easier to get dressed now!
Want to add a few lovely pieces from the incredible White Plum to your wardrobe? Who wouldn’t?! You can enter to win a $100 gift card to this beautiful online shop filled with vintage-inspired pieces (and the best leggings around!). Use the widget below to enter.
How’s your “Add, Not Subtract†Week going? I love that so many of you are participating in this philosophy this week – it’s all about adding healthy things in, not worrying so much about taking unhealthy habits out.
So far, so good. I feel like this mindset is so positive that it never feels like a chore – and little efforts count, too. I’m pretty busy with work this week and haven’t had a lot of time to make it to the gym for intense workout sessions (sadly), but I have managed to go on a one 2.2 mile run (my favorite loop) and lots of walks with the kids.
When I walk with the kiddos, I do a ton of walking lunges! This is one of my favorite workout “tricks†– it really takes the intensity of the walk up a notch and allows me to squeeze in some strength training.
Haha. Claire’s face!
Other little changes – lots of water. Isn’t it amazing how much better you feel when you make an effort to hydrate? And (slightly more) sleep. BOTH of the children entirely slept through the night last night, which was a miracle. Claire has fallen into a pattern of a 4:30 AM nursing session, which I cannot seem to get her to drop, and Henry was acquired that toddler habit of coming into our bedroom one…or two… or three times a night. Ugh. So an entire night of uninterrupted sleep was blissful!
Reading 52 books this year is probably not going to happen. I’ve accepted that my New Year’s Resolution is not going to be “completed,†BUT I am proud to say that no matter what my grand total is, I will have read more books this year than any other year! I haven’t done any Book a Week reviews lately because I’ve had 5 or 6 books “in progress†at the same time. I’ve never read books like that – it just kind of happened because of the nature of many of the books. I recently wrapped up three – here they are!
This is a photography book – I absolutely love the Humans of New York Facebook page. This is the first HONY book, and you can tell how the longer interviews were still evolving in Brandon’s mind. Most of the book is photographs with single sentence or two ‘mini interviews’ with some of the subjects. Not the longer interviews you see today (which are so popular and I love). I really loved the book, and some of the photos and blurbs really did move me to tears, but it doesn’t have the same emotional impact as the FB page currently does. There’s a new HONY book coming out in October, and it promises longer interviews, so if that’s what you love about HONY, I’d say to hold out for that. But still, this is a beautiful book, fun to flip through, and would be a great coffee table or guest room book!
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars. Amazing, but I was left wanting more.
This book is written by my friend, Brittany of A Healthy Slice of Life! I bought it after Claire was born because I wanted to refresh my mind on Baby Led Weaning (a style of feeding where you let babies self-feed instead of using purees). Brittney is well-known in the blog world for her creative kid meals, so I was excited to read this book.
This book is GREAT for someone who wants to be introduced to the concept of BLW. It’s rather short, but the information is concise and well-written. It gives a lot of information on how to get started with basic BLW principles and answers many of the common questions and concerns about the method. I think this would be an ideal book for a new parent or would be a nice shower present in conjunction with some baby bibs and sippy cups! I wish it had more recipes, but I know that you can find that at Brittney’s blog!
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. For what it is (an introductory guide), it’s perfect. I would be even better if it had more recipes or more information about transitioning BLW for older babies. I liked that it was written by a mom who uses the method with both her kids, as it felt really relatable.
Here’s a fiction book that I just read! This book was HAUNTING and SCARY and really engrossing. Here’s the Amazon plot summary:
In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City’s Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans. But when she turns fifteen, she runs away to Colorado hoping to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.
Though Rachel believes she’s shut out her painful childhood memories, years later she is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Solomon. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveal to Rachel the complexities of her own nature. She realizes that a person’s fate—to be one who inflicts harm or one who heals—is not always set in stone.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. The reality of life for the orphans in the 1920s was so scary, so terrifying, and so disturbing that I almost stopped reading – super trigger-y, especially for a mom of a little baby girl. But I’m glad I plowed through because the end of the book was great – there’s a big plot twist that is unexpected but satisfying.
What have you been reading? How’s Add, Not Subtract Week going? Anyone else working on their New Year’s Resolutions?
Seriously – where did the summer go?! It was SUCH a good one. I’m sad to turn my calendar over to ‘September’ and say farewell to our summer fun. I think of all the great things that we did as a family this summer, the Fourth of July race + kids’ race with our friends was my favorite!
Seeing Henry dash forward with such determination and grit will definitely rank high up there in my 2015 memories.
And… now it’s time for back-to-school! And that means back to packing lots and lots of lunches. Here are some ideas for mix-and-match meals that Henry loves. Every now and then, I throw in a special surprise like cinnamon applesauce, trail mix, or chocolate-dipped apricots. These fun new Del Monte Fruit & Veggie Fusions, which are bits of fruit packed with real vegetable + fruit juice, are also a fun choice. <—More on those, plus an awesome giveaway, below!
Fun flavors, huh?! These are a huge hit with the kiddo.
Strawberries, tomatoes, edamame, pizza.
Tomatoes, blueberries, cashews, crackers, and cheese.
Blueberries, raspberries, chickpeas, cucumbers, and cereal.
Some thoughts on packed lunches: I try to pack a variety of stuff because it’s SO hit or miss. That’s one of the reason that I like the bento box – it encourages me to put a little bit of a lot of stuff in there. One day, he will eat raw broccoli and tomatoes with gusto and the next day, he will eat nothing but crackers. You know? But I figure, the more often I put food on his plate and the more he sees it, the more likely he is to eventually eat it. Also, at his school, nuts are okay in most classrooms, which I’m thankful for because we eat a lot of nuts. I make his lunches a little small because he has a healthy snack an hour or so before. And although it’s fun to get creative, we also do a lot of peanut butter sandwiches – a lot!
To celebrate the Fruit Fusions, Del Monte is giving away some SUPER prizes. Fellow parents – Tweet or Instagram a picture of your super kid with the hashtag #ShareTheSuper. You could win weekly prizes, including a grand prize of $2000, a custom backpack, and more! You can learn more about it at ShareTheSuper.com.
What was the most super part of your kids’ summer?
This post is sponsored by Del Monte. Thanks, as always, for reading sponsored posts. I appreciate it a lot.
On Saturday, we put in our dues at Henry’s school and scrubbed bathrooms, painted hallways, and wiped dried glue off little chairs for three hours. Whew. It was actually pretty fun – afterwards, the parents and kids came together for a big pot luck! I brought Santa Fe Casserole, of course.
Then, I took the kiddos to “pirates day†at a local museum with Brandi and her kiddos. It was all fun and games until the musket demonstration left a significant number of the kids in tears – hah!
Chipotle afterwards because it’s rare that Brandi and I do anything together that doesn’t end in tacos.
Most exciting was the purchase of our NEW CAR! Wahhhhooo. I was said to see my beloved and well-worn Pacifica go, but it’s been making all sorts of interesting clunks and squeaks lately and didn’t feel as safe as it should for a family car.
We got a 2012 Chevy Equinox. I was torn between that and a 2015 Dodge Journey, which almost won out because of its third row and second row air vents. The Equinox, while still practical, felt like a more luxurious and less utilitarian choice (it has a back-up cameras and a killer sound system). Plus, the Equinox was so highly rated. I didn’t realize how much smaller it is than my Pacifica until I got it home and parked it in the garage – I hope we can still fit our life into a smaller SUV!
As a side note, I’m trying to overhaul my parenting techniques… This is enough for a blog post of its own, but I’m trying to be less authoritative and more – I don’t know the word for it… respectful? I had been yelling WAY too much and don’t want to be a yeller. I’m also trying to eliminate time outs, which I think can be used well but are really not working for Henry anymore. I’m switching to more of Janet Lansbury’s techniques (reading her books right now). So far, I have noticed a HUGE difference in behavior. In fact, we got through a 4 hour car buying experience with no meltdowns – that’s saying something, right?! Honestly, it’s really hard to do this overhaul because my reactions are so ingrained at this point, but stuff like this really makes it feel worth it!
Alright, so onto Add, Not Subtract… This has long been a healthy living philosophy of mine. I’ll sum it up below with a few paragraphs from the original blog post.
I thought about doing a ‘clean eating’ challenge this week. You see, I’ve kind of fallen off the healthy livin’ wagon. Traveling messed up my eating – my meals were super sporadic and definitely lacking vegetables. I drank way too much coffee, too much wine, and not enough water. I slept odd hours (really odd hours) or didn’t sleep much at all. Basically, I woke up on this glorious Monday not feeling very hot.
So I thought, “Let’s do this! A challenge! No more processed foods. No added sugar. And definitely no booze. None of this, none of that.†But then I thought… “Mehhhh, but what about my coffee creamer? I probably shouldn’t be drinking coffee at all on a clean eating week…†I started to waffle. Not too many things can motivate me to give up coffee.
Instead of thinking of all the things that I don’t want to do this week, I’m going to focus on ADDING things in. Isn’t that a better what to think about healthy living, anyway?
So, basically, I’ve fallen off the wagon in a lot of ways and want to get back on. But instead of ELIMINATING stuff, I’m going to add stuff in. Here’s what I’m going to add – I can bet you know what it will be since I always struggle in the same areas!
Sleep: In bed by 8:30 this week to read or color.
Water: Actually drink it instead of just living on coffee.
Exercise: Actually do it instead of not. I have really fallen off the wagon since my triathlon and have basically done nothing for the past two weeks.
Eating: Don’t skip meals or rely on snacks because I’m too busy to make and eat meals. Plan ahead! Get it done!
Want to join me on Add, Not Subtract Week? What will you add in?
First of all, I have a MILLION Books a Week to review for you. Okay – not a million. If I had a million, I would be far past done with Book a Week! But I do have a few completed books that have been gathering dust on my nightstand, and I owe you reviews. So – stay tuned for that.
For now… let’s talk about CHOCOLATE.
I have been making “homemade chocolate†for a while now, and I feel compelled to share this AWESOME recipe. I was originally introduced to the concept of blending coconut oil, cocoa powder, and a sweetener last year by a friend, and I’ve jazzed up the basic recipe to make it even better. This Coconut Oil Chocolate is crunchy, peanut buttery goodness.
And there’s almost no added sugar, so it’s pretty healthy, too! You could probably make this recipe with NO sugar (check the peanut butter – a lot have sugar added) and it would still taste good. But I find just a drizzle of honey takes it to the next level.
Since coconut oil goes soft at room temp, you must keep these in the fridge. Eat them right after you take them out of the refrigerator… which shouldn’t be a problem!
Coconut Oil Chocolate
Ingredients (for 10 chocolates):
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tablespoon honey
Directions:
Set out 10 cupcake wrappers on a plate.
In a microwavable bowl, scoop in coconut oil and peanut butter. Microwave for 30 seconds or until coconut oil is melted. Mix well.
Mix in chia seeds, cocoa powder, and honey. Mix well.
Pour equal amount into the cupcake wrappers. Place plate in freezer. Cool until hard. Transfer to a sealed container and store in the fridge.
