Thursday, January 24, 2013

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:

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

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

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 ...
$36.00
Earring Studs - Mint gr...
$18.00
Heart stacking rings se...
$10.00
Wedding Gift, Personali...
$75.00
Free shipping. Love Str...
$20.00
Un-break my Heart Hand ...
$62.00
Carved Heart Tree Perso...
$34.00
Glitter Heart Cake Pick...
$6.00
Love art print poster -...
$15.00
wooden hearts shabby ch...
$28.00
Metal Art Geek Heart Em...
$19.99
Heart Rainbow Cloud Mob...
$49.00
Plantable Seed Paper He...
$13.00
OVERSTOCK - 50% off - H...
$15.00
 
 
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

 
 

Friday, January 18, 2013

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!