Book of the Month: Safe Haven

I must preface this post by saying, it has been sitting in post vacation* for quite a few months... like maybe five (but who's counting). So, if you are thinking this seems odd, because the movie just came out on DVD, then that's why. Better late than never... that's what I say. :)

One of my goals this year is to get in one new book each month. You might be thinking, geez don't go crazy now with those lofty goals (hint of sarcasm). BUT, it is seriously a challenge to find uninterrupted free time where I can kick my feet up and do something just for me. Even showering (which I consider a basic right and quite mandatory) has to happen these days at night once the kiddos are in bed or super early before they wake up. So, the luxury of reading time is quite rare and something to strive for these days.

Well, the other day I saw a preview for the movie Safe Haven, starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel. I am a Nicholas Sparks fan anyway, but I got super excited and decided I would make that book my January read. I read it quite quickly because it was suspenseful and entertaining and kept moving at a good pace. It was also very fascinating to get the perspective and thoughts of someone who is abusive and of someone who is being abused. Creepy fascinating, but still very interesting. 

For those that have neither read the book or seen the movie (although both were basically the same, there were many small details that were different) the book is about a girl who is in a physically abusive marriage and finds a way to es-ca-p-e (pronounced like in Nemo) and tries to start over somewhere new while being haunted by her past life. I won't say much more than that, but of course it is a love story and the best part is the twist ending. I L.O.V.E.D. the twist. 

Did you read the book? See the movie? Did you enjoy the twist as much as I did?

-Lizzy

*Post Vacation = where blog posts go to get some rest and relaxation before they make an appearance. 

Try Something Thursday

I based last week's menu off of recipes I found on Pinterest, and I just had to share our favorite recipe of the week! Our favorite recipe came from:

greens and chocolate.

Southwestern Chopped Chicken Salad

 

This recipe was fresh, healthy and oh so yummy. I couldn't stop eating it! This is the perfect recipe for something light and refreshing and the best part is that it makes a ton, so you can serve a large family or have plenty of leftovers for the next day!

 

Thanks greens and chocolate, you hit it out of the park! 

 

-Lizzy

Valentine's Day Favorites

Valentine's Day (or Single Awareness Day) is right around the corner and it will be here before you know it. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays (I love anything to do with hearts and romance). I am excited to see Safe Haven (by Nicholas Sparks and Starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel in theatres on V-Day) and will be reviewing the book in a post this week.

 

I am a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and was so excited to find out that I would have an excuse like V-Day to use to convince my hubby to take me to see it. (He loves chick-flicks too, but he probably wouldn't easily admit to it.)

I put together a treasury last year with some of my favorite Valentine Day inspired items and loved it soooooo much, I just had to re-share.  

 

'Heart on My Sleeve' by LizzyandJanes

A collection of just a few of my favorite 'heart' inspired items.

nesting heart bowls in ... JDWolfePottery $36.00	Earring Studs - Mint gr... Dariami $18.00	Heart stacking rings se... ElliesButton $10.00	Wedding Gift, Personali... SuzyShoppe $75.00
Free shipping. Love Str... threebirdsdesi... $20.00	Un-break my Heart Hand ... twostringjane $62.00	Carved Heart Tree Perso... PictureItPerso... $34.00	Glitter Heart Cake Pick... moderncrush $6.00
Love art print poster -... RedLetterPaper... $15.00	wooden hearts shabby ch... OldNewAgain $28.00	Metal Art Geek Heart Em... KnobCreekMetal... $19.99	Heart Rainbow Cloud Mob... BabyJivesCo $49.00
Plantable Seed Paper He... KaBloomz $13.00	OVERSTOCK - 50% off - H... ChelseaVictori... $15.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

 

 

There are so many fun ideas for Valentine's Day floating around and I've collected more than my fair share on my Pinterest board, so I will try and share some of my favorites with you next week. Speaking of... I am in love with Origami Owl living lockets.

 

 

They have tons of adorable charms that you can choose from to customize something truly unique for your loved one (hint, hint). This makes the perfect Valentine's Day gift. Thoughtful, unique and fun!

 

And last but not least, I just have to share with you two great giveaways going on, on some of my fav blogs. (Yes, I already entered and there is nothing that says Valentine's Day more than 'sharing the love' and telling you about something I would want to know about if the roles were reversed.)

 

The first is from Pick Your Plum:

 

 

 

The second is from U Create and Fancy Pants Designs:

 

 

What are you looking forward to most for Valentine's Day?

Happy Wednesday!

 

-Lizzy



 

 

Can you ever just be whelmed?

I am excited to introduce you to my new bundle of joy. He shocked the socks off of us and came about a month early (I was due on Christmas day.) I had plans to get everything done for the holidays in advance and somehow I was still unprepared.

If you read about my Christmas Activity Advent, I customized it to work around us having the baby and then he came early and threw it off anyway, so we went with the flow and had fun anyway.

 

We wrote letters to Santa and took them to Macy's (they donated $1 for every letter recieved to Make-a-Wish.)

 

 

We decorated a gingerbread man.

 

We made cookies, went to see Santa (no pics, because it was a traumatic experience), drove around to see Christmas lights, read Christmas stories, opened a special Christmas ornament, and lots more. Christmas must have been a hit, because when I ask my almost 2 year old what kind of birthday party she wants, she says she wants a Christmas party with Santa bringing presents.

 

We made it through the holidays and as I've been recovering (worst recovery to date, not for the faint of heart) I have also been working on getting our house packed up for our big move into our new home (21 days... but who's counting). And if anyone has every packed with a toddler in the house it goes something like this... you pack two items into a box, your toddler takes one item out AND scatters the items throughout the house so you are more disorganized than when you started. Needless to say, the process is patience-inducing and taking a lot longer than originally anticipated. It's just a good thing that I am a super organized mover. In fact, next week I will be sharing some of my tips and tricks for creating an orgnaized move.

 

Between the two kiddos, interrupted sleep, packing for the move, keeping up our Etsy shop, taking care of my church responsibilities and handling my typical stay-at-home mom tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, bills, etc it can be a little overwhelming. It also takes some time to settle into new routines. For example, me showering has moved to nights after the kids are in bed.

 

So, as we get our routines established and join the outside world again, slowly but surely I will be getting back to a regular routine of blogging. Just when I was feeling super frustrated with everything, I was reminded by someone dear to me of why I love to do this, and that reminder was exactly what I needed to fuel me and get me excited to share all that 2013 holds in store for Lizzy & Janes.

 

So, thanks for hanging on with us through the good, the great and the overwhelming and happy (late, yes I know) 2013!

 

P.S. Shout out to those that think of the awesome movie quote from 10 Things I Hate About You when reading the title of today's post!

Free Printable: 2013 Daily Planning Page

Happy almost New Year! We have a free printable for you that we hope you love, or at the very least are inspired by. Enjoy!

I am a list girl. I love to work off of lists. I have several notebooks where I write tons of things down I need to remember (good thing too, because with a newborn and almost 2 year old, I am lucky if I remember what I had to eat for breakfast, that is, if I was lucky enough to get breakfast). Last year I created my own daily planning pages and had them printed and spiral bound.

This year, I put together a perfected version of my daily planning page and this time, I am going to put it together a quarter of the year at a time (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec). The reason I decided to do it quarterly versus yearly, is because life changes and your needs may change as far as what you keep track of at a certain time, and by doing it quarterly, you can customize it for your needs during that time frame. Plus, a whole years worth of pages is quite thick (about 2", double sided).

For Personal Use Only. Thanks. 

Last year I also inserted a weekly menu and grocery list into my planner. This year I plan on including a monthly calendar I can glance at for major events and important dates. The goal is to make it something that works well for you, keeps you organized and saves you time.

Happy planning!

-Lizzy

Leave us some love. We'd love to hear your tips and tricks on how you stay organized or plan to stay organized in 2013!

Cozy Elegance Treasury by Classy and Sassy Charms

'Cozy Elegance' by classyandsassycharms

EASL BlitzMob #10 featuring Chocolatedogstudio.etsy.com !Come join us!www.etsy.com/teams/9712/etsy-artisans-success-league-easl

coffee cup cozy, coffee... ChocolateDogSt... $8.00	Christmas balls / chris... TaniaSh $15.00	Handfelted burgundy and... knitonefelttwo $59.00	Gold -n- Berry Bracelet... PasDeChat $65.00
Set of 3 - 3" Flow... LizzyandJanes $18.00	Wedding Guest Book - Cr... youruniquescra... $89.95	Handmade Burgundy and C... gardeniasgarb $7.00	French Horn and Holly C... HarpandThistle $31.00
Crochet infinity lariat... yarnisland $20.00	A Locket, A Pearl and a... InGodsHands $13.00	8 Cupcake Wrappers Wrap... PipingHotPaper... $4.80	Ruffled Shawl Maroon Mo... JasmineCreatio... $155.00
Christmas Bow Tree Topp... greentraderllc $19.95	SALE Vintage Pair of Ha... MrsPiggleWiggl... $18.00	20 Burgundy White Mulbe... thaipaperflowe... $4.50	Button charm bracelet i... AprilTuesdayDe... $13.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Christmas: Activity Advent

It is THAT time of year. My favorite time of year! The countdown to Christmas! Actually I love the whole time from Halloween to the New Year, but this time is particularly exciting and especially this year, because we are welcoming a new baby boy in three short weeks. Ahhhhhhhhh. Well, I wanted to make this year special for my little girl since these last few weeks leading up to Christmas are also her last as an only child. So, I decided it would be best to do an activity advent. After all, I just read today on a friend's facebook post the sentiment, "Collect Moments, Not Things". So we are going to enjoy these last few weeks and make sure to collect lots of new memories and moments with this activity advent. 

There are a billion and one ways to do this, and obviously I catered our activities to the events leading up to, on and after the birth of baby #2. Not to mention the fact that some activities are specific to our local offerings (although I am confident that your area probably offers something similar to most). So, I will share what I did and you can fine tune it to work for your family and area of residence.

I had a blank Countdown Calendar just sitting around in my craft room begging to be used and it even came with a template so I could quickly and easily cut out some festive scrapbook papers to Mod Podge on to the front. It also came with stickers numbered 1-25, so that made it especially easy on me. I stuck the stickers on my cute Christmas papers I cut out, then Mod Podged the scrapbook papers to the box fronts and let them dry. Ta-dah! That was the extent of it, and I of course had to plan out each activity and I simply typed out my schedule in a cute font (Christmas On Crack is the font I used, available from scrapvillage.com for FREE), printed it and cut them into strips. I then tucked each folded paper strip in the coordinating box. It was easy, cute and I am excited for my little one to be able to open a new box each day and even more excited to share these special moments with her before our world is once again turned upside down with the arrival of a little one.

Here are the activities I chose for our family this year:  

Christmas Activity Advent 2012

1st: Festival of Trees

2nd: Hot Cocoa & Cookies

3rd: Decorate the Tree

4th: Write a Letter to Santa

5th: Open a Special Ornament to Put on the Tree

6th: Decorate Sugar Cookies

7th: Buy a Present to Donate to Someone in Need

8th: Family Christmas Party

9th: Temple Square to See the Lights

10th: Family Night on the Nativity

11th: Unwrap a Christmas Book to Read

12th: Make a Christmas Craft

13th: Neighbor Gifts in a Jar + Christmas Music

14th: Holiday Lights at Thanksgiving Point

15th: Santa's Lantern at City Creek

16th: Family Christmas Movie Night

17th: Special Day with Mommy

18th: Special Gift from Baby Brother

19th: Special Day with Nana & Papa

20th: Special Day with Grandma

21st: Special Day with Daddy

22nd: Drive Around to Look at Christmas Lights

23rd: Make Gingerbread Houses

24th: Bingo for Prizes + Open a Present

On a side note... If you have a Macy's Department Store in your area, I would encourage you to take your letters to Santa (make a copy, if you want to keep one for a scrap/memory book), and drop them off there. They are donating a dollar for every letter collected to the Make-a-Wish Foundation up to a million dollars. Currently they have received 323,271 letters. Their instructions are to have them stamped, addressed to Santa at the North Pole and they will count them, donate on your behalf and then take them to the post office to be sent up North. :) So while you are helping the kiddos, write a letter yourself and make an event out of it. (We've made it our activity for December 4th, see above.)

Happy advent planning and enjoy each moment leading up to Christmas! 
- Lizzy