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Five on Friday

Happy first Friday of 2020!!!

First, thank you all for the planner recommendations! I seriously am the pickiest person ever when it comes to planners and have never found one that is truly perfect for how I use my planner. I think “planner” is the wrong word for the product I’m looking for because I use it for so much more than just calendaring things. I need lots of clean lined pages for my to do lists and personal notes, and I like pages for blog content planning. Oh, and bleed resistant pages is a must. All that being said, I went looking all over town for a planner before ultimately grabbing an Emily Ley Simplified planner similar to the one I originally wanted for $10 at Walmart (thank you to those who directed me there to look)…but don’t think it’s going to work out for me so I’m going to use it temporarily until…my Golden Coil Planner arrives!! I never thought I could be so dang excited about a planner until I looked at this company who many of you passionately (and successfully) convinced me this is the exact planner for me. I’ll share it when it arrives. 

Top 5 Planner Recommendations

For those who asked me to share the results, here were the top 5 planner recommendations I received from you all…(in order):

  1. Erin Condren Planners
  2. Emily Ley Planners
  3. Sugar Paper
  4. Plum Paper
  5. Golden Coil

Alright, on to my 5…

1. New Year’s Day Meal

According to my Instagram poll, only 34% of you said you cook a traditional New Year’s Day meal! Matt is very superstitious so I try to make all the good luck foods. For new New Year’s Day I made a roasted pork tenderloin (symbolizes progress), kale salad (symbolizes prosperity) and lots of veggies (because…Whole30).

2. Plaid Fit & Flare Midi Dress

As a redhead, I don’t own a lot of red clothing. And as a very short person, I don’t own midi-length! However, I thought I would give this pretty plaid midi dress a shot for the Christmas service at church — and I loved it. The quality of the material is excellent and I love that it’s a little fitted with some flare — very flattering. It comes in 9 colors and I really, really, really wanted the green (my go to color) but made myself step outside of my comfort zone with the red! Anyway, I highly recommend this dress for work, church, date night — wherever! Wearing size XS.

plaid midi dress | BOoties & earrings no longer available | lipstick (color #84)

3. Playhouse

It’s up!!! Matt and our favorite handyman Hector spent two full days (NYE & NYD) building the playhouse Santa brought for the kids! The first day it was completed the kids played so hard that Thomas fell asleep at 6:30 on the couch (this NEVER happens)!!!! They have gone down that slide 239483958403 times and I can only hope and pray that this playhouse doesn’t lose it’s excitement anytime soon. Isn’t it so cute?! We’ve still got a few things to do to finish it up the area (right now it’s just dirt — everywhere) and I can’t wait to plant stuff in the little planter boxes with the kids this spring!

4. Meat Mixer Masher Thingy

Y’all went crazy over this meat mixer kitchen gadget when I posted it on Instagram Stories this week. It works insanely well for breaking up ground meats — hello, taco night! I definitely need to include it in my most favorite kitchen gadgets.

5. An Organized Pantry

At the beginning of last year Minimized organized our entire kitchen for us — it was amazing. Throughout the year things were starting to get cluttered so Caroline and I took everything out of the pantry, trashed the expired items, wiped down all the shelves, threw out all the half eaten Larabars (ahem, Thomas), washed out the storage bins and organized every can, box and bag.

It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes when you throw out all of the stale or expired food…now let’s see how long we can keep it looking clean and organized!

Our Pantry Organization Items
 

Expandable Shelf: With three tiers of shelving, I can spot the cans I’m looking for so much quicker. The shelving is expandable so you can customize it for your space.

Storage Bins: I absolutely love these white containers. They are cheap, come in several sizes and quantities, and you can easily wipe them down if things spill or leak. 

Chalkboard Label Tape & Chalk Markers: All of the storage containers are labeled with chalkboard tape which comes in a 5 yard roll. You can customize your labels to any size you want and chalk markers are easy to wipe off when you’re ready to change your label!

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Hena Tayeb

Monday 6th of January 2020

Love that dress!!

Detroit Duchess

Monday 6th of January 2020

That playhouse is amazing! My dad built us one when we were little and we never stopped playing in it, they will have the best memories from that! Pantry organization is on my list. We have a pretty decent sized pantry but it is deep which makes it really easy for things to get lost in there. I think we just need to take everything out and start from scratch. I like how you keep things grouped in containers, that might help.

Sara

Friday 3rd of January 2020

I love, love, love that dress!! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the planner. I need to pick up one for this year myself.

Jen | The Lucky Lifestyle

Friday 3rd of January 2020

That dress is so cute! And that play set -- any kid's dream! We finally bit the bullet on a play set for our girls a couple of months ago and even in the freezing temps, they've been out playing on it. Can't beat it! Happy New Year!

Sarah

Friday 3rd of January 2020

You might want to take a stab at Buju for your calendar. It is basically a plain book of paper and you fill it in however you want. I have a page for each month and list out the days going down one side, then fill in with items we have to do every day. Then I leave a few blank pages for the rest of the month for lists and to do items. After spending money on planners and only using a few of the pages, I found this was the best solution for me.