Over the past few months, I have been working hard to simplify my daily life.  One key has been that I cut my grocery shopping down to one big trip, normally on Monday, and a second, smaller shop later in the week.  Now, this may be the norm for most of you, but there was a time when I was a DAILY grocery shopper.  Seriously.  I'd figure out what we were having for dinner, go buy the ingredients and whatever staples we needed that day.  It's amazing how much time and running around this has saved me.

Another thing I am trying to do is make meals in advance.  This is a bit trickier for me.  We aren't big casserole eaters and I really like fresh produce.  So, this week I bought a family pack of chicken thighs and made a double recipe of chicken taco meat in the slow cooker.  We ate some of it last night and I used the leftover meat to make empanadas.  Rachel's empanada dough was super easy to make and it made 12 individual meat pies which will cover three meals for us.  Sweet.  I also made a double batch of marinade for tuscan lemon chicken.  I put the chicken in ziploc bags, poured the marinade over it and put it in the freezer.  That's two more meals done. (Both the chicken taco meat and tuscan lemon chicken recipes are in this post).

I'm also back on the bread baking train.  I pulled out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and made a batch of dough.  We really enjoy the peasant loaf that has whole wheat and rye flour in it.  I cut off one hunk and baked it on Tuesday.  I'm pretty sure there will be another loaf in the oven tomorrow.  Nothing is more satisfying to me than freshly baked, homemade bread.  The house always smells good too - bonus.

Dinner is coming together faster on our busy days thanks to these little steps.  I'm always looking for more ideas so if you have something to share, please do.

Last thing I remember, I wrote that I was going to make an effort to be more present in this space and then I disappeared for a week.  Nothing earth shattering kept me away.  Life happens and I am happy that I have been busy living it.  I don't imagine that will change anytime soon.  Unpredictability suits me at the moment.

I've also been knitting.  And keeping all fingers and toes crossed that my one last skein of yarn will be enough to finish the sleeves.

Have a great day.

I made these t-shirts for the last local craft swap of the year.  I used a kit from EZScreenprint that Amy recommends in her newest book, Bend the Rules with Fabric.  (Fantastic book, by the way!)  I wanted to make embellished t-shirts, similar to the ones I have seen from J. Crew.  I doodled a bit and came up with a design.  I burned my screen in the sunlight (really!  so easy!) and then used it to print on t-shirts.  After the t-shirts were dry, they sat around my house for a few weeks until the day of the swap when I got busy embellishing. 

My vision was an all over beaded design like the one above.  That didn't happen because this one shirt took me 2 hours to bead.  2 hours x 6 shirts = way more time than I had.  I changed course and ended up embellishing the centers of the flowers/stars/snowflakes (really, whatever you want them to be).  They still turned out cute - no picture, though.  It was dark when I finished.

I have one shirt left to embellish - it's for me.  I'm looking forward to sitting in front of a movie, with needle and thread, and beading.  I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed hand sewing and beading together.  Who knew it would be so relaxing?  Once I get the shirt done, it may be time to make one of these.  I think I have everything I need on hand.  Perfect for a day when you don't want to leave the house.  And it fits in well with one of my goals this year:  sew more clothing for me.

Happy New Year!

We are back from the mountains, trying to settle into some sort of a routine.  School started back this morning.  The girls had a really hard time getting out of bed.  It wasn't so easy for me, either.  And I have coffee.

Over the past few days, I've read lots of blogs with year-end thoughts and resolutions for the new year.  I, too, have been thinking about how to re-cap the last year and wondering just what I want out of 2010.  That is as far as I have gotten.  I'm still thinking.  I am sure that some coherent thoughts will emerge out of the percolating that is going on - I am beginning to sense a few themes.  As it becomes more concrete, I will share some bits and pieces here.  I do know that I want to be more present in this space.  I am really going to try posting with some kind of regularity.  I also know that I need to keep up with my household chores.  That means lots of closets will be cleaned and lots of stuff will find new homes.

So, accordingly, I'll be back tomorrow.  Right after another cup of coffee and the laundry is finished.