I’ve had so many great blog post ideas queued up in my head:

• a special (and wonderful!) announcement/reveal
• that yummy Italian egg-bake – so perfect in the morning for busy people like us
• as well as several other tasty recipes

But, I just couldn’t wait to share photos of my shiny new planner!

See, I used to be a bit of a geek back in school. I actually always looked forward to the start of the school year and my favorite part of getting ready for the school year was always getting new school supplies – the fun folders, the colored notebooks/paper, and oh the colored pens! Those were my faves. Well, except for my maybe the thing that kept my busy school-life in order – my planner. I would always find the prettiest, cutest planner and used all those colored pens to coordinate my subjects and homework assignments. I was so on top of my game back then. lol At one point, I even used to write down what outfit I wore that day so I didn’t wear it again too soon.

Alas, over the years, I forgot about my beloved organization system. I never really found a planner that functioned like the ones I used in school. Eventually, I tried flying by the seat of my pants without a planner. At some point, I tried entering dates and to-dos into my phone, but it just didn’t have the same effect.

It’s only been recently that I decided I should give a paper planner another try.

So, I guess, with all that history, it should come as no surprise that I was excited about the purchase of my new planner in preparation for the organization challenge I’ll be running in September.

Shiny New Planner

I was so excited when I saw the box arrive in the mail.

Enjoy indeed!

I loved the TCL blue tissue paper, of course.

And I even got some freebies – special stickers for placing on gifts, etc. Some in this nifty giraffe-looking print and some to match my planner.

And for the planner – here it is! It’s the Life Planner by Erin Condren. See! Another super-cute, and this time personalized, planner. Hazzah!

I chose this planner because it’s organized by week AND month – exactly the format I used back when I was in school.

And this one has some other neat features – stickers!!

And tabs!

And just look at all those pretty colors. I just love looking at it, which is a good thing since a planner is most effective when you look at it often. Of course, hopefully, I’m not too distracted by the colors and I actually look at the content.

But what planner would be complete without colored pens? Ok, planners for most people would be complete, but not for me.

I wasn’t sure what colors I’d want to use, so I just picked up two sets on sale at staples.

I wrote with each color on some white paper to see what the ink looked like.

And I even tried matching the ink to the stickers in the back.

But, ultimately, I came up with 7 key categories/areas of my life that need to be grouped and assigned one color for each group, for example: purple-ish/pink for friends and family, green for Zumba, etc.

I’ve been using my planner for about a week now and will be giving more detailed updates with the organization challenge in September. Stay tuned for details on that soon!

And if you’re ready for a challenge now, you can jump into the August challenge – Project Think Positive. Start with any week, but click here for this week’s challenge – it’s a goodie and I think I’m already seeing good results from it!

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Road Trip Tips

So, on Thursday, Katie and I will embark on an epic road trip to the Healthy Living Summit. We’ll be driving almost 10 hours. Phew! So, we’ll need some good tips for staying sane during this long-long trip.

What are your road trip tips?

I asked this question on Facebook and here are your current suggestions:

• Music!
• Podcasts
• Books on CD/iPod/etc.
• Healthy snacks

Have one to add?

*Yawn* Getting pretty sleepy here at the Chic house, so I think I’m going to head off to bed. Be sure to leave some feedback or say hello in the comments! I love hearing from you guys. Bailey does too.

Reader question #1: Do you use a planner? Do you think they help you stay organized and on top of things?

Reader question #2: What are your road trip tips?

Cooking and organizing with sis continued right into Monday. I know most people like to do fun and relaxing things on their day’s off, and I do, too, but lately, I’ve been feeling so behind, I feel obligated to be productive for most of the vacay-day. Luckily, getting things done gives me a great sense of accomplishment…like checking something off of your to-do list. It’s stress-relieving and I actually enjoy it. And I do try to work some time for relaxing and fun into my days, by the way. I’m not all work and no play.

And just to clarify, being productive does include cooking up a yummy breakfast. I made my multigrain pancakes with easy raspberry sauce (click for recipe), except I used oat flour instead of white. (I’m already looking forward to raspberry sauce leftovers over oatmeal tomorrow!)

Clothes Organization – Part 1

I continued our organizing spree by taking a first stab at one of the bigger projects going on at the Chic house – my clothes situation. As some of my long time readers know, I used to be quite the shopaholic. I never needed an intervention or anything, but let’s just say I have more clothes than the average gal. (I know…I polled my fashion blog readers…whoops! lol)

When hubby and I moved into the Chic house back in fall 2009, I bid adieu to my giant walk-in closet and traded it for our first house – tiny closets and all. Our new house has such small closets because it’s never really had much of a renovation and it’s an older house. Since we’ve moved in, I’ve struggled to figure out what to do with all my beloved clothes. I like to purge my belongings regularly, so I knew that wasn’t the main issue, though I did try to go through them again. In my opinion, my primary problem area is organization tools.

Hubby and I poured all our money into our kitchen reno and when that sputtered out (unfinished), it left nothing for my clothes. I made do with what I already had furniture-wise – a strange assortment of various types of shelves collected over the years – but it wasn’t getting the job done.

Sis and I decided to take another look at my clothes to see if we could do anything with them without spending any money.

Step 1: Identify Mini Project

The major change we identified was storage of fall/winter clothes. I’ve always had the space such that I never needed to switch out fall and winter clothes, so I’ve never done that before…ever. I think that puts me in the minority, because I’m guessing most people do switch clothes out for the warm and cold weather seasons. We decided to take my 3 sweater bins (the best way I’ve found to store sweaters so far – I used to line the bottom of my closet with them) and separate them in fall/winter and spring/summer.

Step 2: Get Started – Tweak As Needed

Remember in school when you’d dread the start of a new essay assignment? It was everything you could do to get those first words out, yet they’d flow pretty easy afterwards? I think sometimes the hardest part of organization is just getting started. Luckily, I had my sister to motivate me. We picked one bin and just started going through my sweaters one by one. What we found was that I actually had 3 types of sweaters – heavy, medium, and light weight. So, we separated the sweaters into 3 piles and decided to worry about folding later.

Step 3: Assess What You Have – Consider Better Solutions

My sister managed to fill 1 1/2 bins full of heavy-weight sweaters. But, we decided to keep the medium and light-weight sweaters out…at least for now. I definitely like the lightweight ones for layering, even in the summer (it’s still cold inside sometimes!). And I’m thinking I may wear the medium weight sweaters to work since they like to set their thermostat to “icebox.”

We decided that it would be best if we could fill the 2 sweater bins and move them to storage and do something with all the medium and light-weight sweaters we wanted to keep out. Sis noticed that the shelves in this storage cabinet (that I bought in college! can’t believe it hasn’t fallen apart yet) seemed like they could be used more effectively.

At the time, I had the following in it:

• T-Shirts (not fitting space well)
• Workout Clothes (pants ok, but tank tops hard to stack)
• PJs (not using space effectively – lots of lost vertical space)

I also noticed that I had a 4-box wire storage shelf (originally purchased for my craft room…back when I had one) that weren’t really being used. So, we decided to pull a switcheroo.

But not without making time to break for lunch. Hubby helped out by picking up food from Mellow Mushroom while we sorted away. We started with a tomato/mozzarella salad.

And cheese pizza.

With happy stomachs, we were able to dig in and finish our Mini Project – Sorting the sweaters.

We filled two bins of heavy-weight sweaters and a couple polar fleeces, and these will be moved to the basement for storage till cooler weather returns.

The third bin contains athletic cover-ups, polar fleeces, etc., which my sister folded and re-organized. This one will stay upstairs since I wear these a lot for Zumba and around the house.

We moved all the clothes out of the shelf system and into the fabric bins:

• Workout clothes
• Nice T-Shirts (to wear out and about)
• PJs (bottoms)
• Crochet Project (leftover from when it was in my craft room – the project just fits too nicely to move…lol)

Into the newly freed space on the shelves, we moved:

• Light-Weight Sweaters on top (left 2 piles are cardigans/cover-ups & right is regular sweaters)
• Medium-Weight Sweaters in middle (left 2 piles are cardigans/cover-ups & right is regular sweaters)
• T-Shirts on bottom (these are like sleep-wear t-shirts to wear around the house or in the yard – there are more than what’s pictured, but they’re in the laundry bin)

While the clothes-organization overall project is far from being done, I’m really happy with the progress we made.

Changes/Observations:

• Less-used items are in lower/harder-to-reach spaces – frees up room for popular clothes
• More-used items are in easier-to-access spaces – makes getting ready easier/faster since I don’t have to work as hard to get to these clothes
• Cardigans/sweaters are now visible instead of being piled in a bin – I forgot I had some of the items because they were so buried. Now that I can see them stacked in the shelf, I know immediately what I have and what my options are when I’m putting an outfit together
• Clothing groups are better kept together – makes things easier to find and keep organized
• More floor space – visually better already

We (I?) still have a lot of work to do with my clothes, but since I don’t have large chunks of free-time to pull from, I plan to tackle everything one mini-project at a time. So far, so good!

After wrapping up our organization project for the day and saying adieu to sis who had to return home, hubby and I went furniture shopping at a local consignment shop. We didn’t find anything we liked, but we did enjoy our visit. The inventory is constantly changing, so we know we’ll be checking back often.

Then, we hit up Earthfare to get goodies for dinner and for my next challenge for June – can you tell from the produce photo what it’s going to be about?!

And for dinner, I decided to try something I’ve seen at many restaurants -

A crispy onion topping. Why?

To put on this Earthfare burger, of course!

Hubby also requested pina coladas with the leftover fresh pineapple we had on hand thanks to the Pineapple Upside Down Cake Minis. I made ours using pineapple, coconut milk, sugar, and ice…and of course rum. I thought the flavor was ok, but it needs tweaking before I’m 100% happy with it.

But the burger! The crispy onion rings were perfect on the burger!

We also added leftover homemade-BBQ sauce on the burger, and the combination of it all was simply outstanding!

We also had kale chips, leftover potato wedges, and corn (that I made hubby eat since he put too much cayenne pepper on it – he likes it spicy!).

We enjoyed a casual and relaxing dinner whilst watching The Green Hornet. Nothing like a productive day followed by relaxing over dinner and a movie to cap off a fantastic day.

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And since this blog was for Memorial Day – Sending a special thank you to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our continued freedom.

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Next time on The Chic Life, I reveal the June Challenge (Hint: it’s related to produce!) and blog about a fun dinner double date with new friends.

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Reader question: How do you organize your clothes? Do you hang everything? Put sweaters in a special container? Do share your clothes-organization tips and ideas.

Just as I thought my work schedule was starting to calm down a bit, it’s actually going to get worse than ever…at least for a little while. Even still, I’m going to try even harder than ever to work some time for organization into my already-hectic schedule. Over the last year or so, I’ve sort of let my schedule get the best of me lack-of-organization-wise, but I function best when there is order around me. So, I need to put some attention to getting a handle on a few house projects. Lack of money is also an issue, but we’re going to make the best with what we already have and what we can afford.

I considered putting together an organization challenge for the month of June. I started to plan one today and began jotting notes down on different categories. What I realized is that there are far more categories and topics than there is time in the month of June. So, instead, I will have a different June-challenge and I will work on mini-organization projects throughout the year!

Any guesses what the June challenge will be about? Hint: it’s related to eating healthier. No cheating twitter and Facebook friends!

Anywho, as far as organization, some of ours crosses into the decoration realm. Either way, check out this new clock we got at Crate and Barrel for the kitchen area. Hubby put it up this weekend, and it’s already made such a big difference. No more squinting at the microwave (which may be getting it’s own “organization” soon).

And since we have more projects than time/money, Sis suggested we stick to just one. We wrote down and reviewed several and decided that the patio would be the easiest and wouldn’t cost anything.

First up, we swept all the leaves away.

And then we organized my herbs. I told my sister that I wanted to put a shelf on the porch somewhere so I could get my herbs off the ground to help protect them from pests. We actually had a small shelf on the porch already but were using it to store garden supplies, citronella candles, and other yard randomness. We re-organized some of the tools to the garage and cleared the whole thing off. Then, we moved it closer to the natural sunlight and placed the plants on it.

I still have some temporary plastic pots that need to be replaced with nicer ceramic ones, but it looks a lot better already.

Bailey even got to hang out for the cleaning action.

And then hubby played frisbee with him and chased him around with a sprinkler.

Run!

Bailey!

Run!

After a quick breather and lots of water, we got started on dinner. First up, Sis and I worked on a new Cake Mini flavor – an idea we came up with together.

And we also worked on something fun…

Homemade BBQ sauce! We used this version, which came out pretty tasty.

I’d really like to test out a few different ones and then figure out our own special formula. This was a good start. Do you have any BBQ sauce recipes you recommend?

We ended up inviting the neighbors over for dinner. It was awesome having the porch all nice, clean, and ready to go. We just had to add food!

We made grilled BBQ chicken breasts using our homemade BBQ sauce and Earthfare chicken.

Hubby has come up with his own grilled potato wedge recipe! I’m so proud. Once he perfects it, I’ll help him write it and publish it here on TCL so you guys can check it out.

We had quite the feast.

We had the chicken, potato wedges and also corn on the cob and steamed broccoli.

And as for those Cake Minis…we made…

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Minis!! Aren’t they cute? The pineapple rings are almost the perfect size for the 3 inch ramekins I use. The recipe will be publishing soon. I think so far the Carrot Cake Minis are my fave flavor, but there are lots of fun ones ahead!

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Lookie! I’m organizing the blog, too. I’m making TCL easier to use!

I’ve added a list of my 5 most recent recipes where you can get the newest TCL recipes. You can find the others on my Recipes page.

I’ve also added a archive calendar for searching for old/archived blog posts. It will display whatever the month is for the current post you’re viewing (so if you’re viewing a post that was published on 2/20/11, it will display February 2011). You can click on a particular day to see a list of posts published on that day.

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Like this post? Then click here to get free updates!

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Next time on TCL – another mini organization project (on clothes!) and a preview of the June Challenge.

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What are your organization strategies? Do you use any particular plans, guides, checklists, etc.?

First up, I just want to send out a big WELCOME with a giant hug to all my new readers and blog friends. I’ve been seeing a lot of new commenters, twitter followers, and Facebook friends. I’m not always the fastest at replying to comments and stuff, but I did want to say that I noticed you’re here (and you too seasoned readers!) and your comments and tweets mean the world to me! It’s so nice to have you here!

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Did you guys like my teaser photo yesterday?

I guess it was pretty obvious what I made – Strawberry Shortcakes! I made them with the strawberries I picked on Sunday! Details in a minute, but first…

Another teaser photo! This one from my recent Crate & Barrel shopping spree. You can see a couple more photos on my Facebook page.

After strawberry picking…I got my living room organized. The furniture is a little awkward in here, but it will do till we have money to buy furniture for the space.

This stuff has been with me since my last 3 homes (2 apartments and 1 townhome!). The sofa and table set was one of my first big “adult” purchases after college.

I especially love how the desk is so nice and clear now. My desk top tends to get cluttered with random papers (which I use to jot down ideas, blog post thoughts, zumba playlists, and other randomness). Right now it looks clear and clean!

I was excited about using my farmer’s market veggies in a stir fry Sunday night.

In the mix are organic bok choy and snap peas from the local market.

I’ve never been big on adding snap peas to stir fries, but boy were they amazing in this one! They added a sweet, bright flavor and plenty of crispy crrrunch!

Hubby and I enjoyed movie night in the newly organized living room. We saw Tangled! Have you seen it? I love a good Disney movie. I thought Tangled was super cute.

And then there was dessert. I knew it had to involve some of those fresh-picked strawberries I’d just gathered earlier in the day.

My favorite thing to do with fresh strawberries is make short cakes!

Remember that time I made shortcakes for farewell pot luck at the KERF house? Meeeemories!

I used to use the Bisquick recipe for short cakes, but now I try to avoid boxed mixes. I like mixing my own ingredients together!

I even thought this recipe was better than the Alton Brown version I did for the KERF party.

Multigrain Shortcakes

These shortcakes are light, just chewy enough, and plenty tender. They’re also Not So Sweet, since you get most of the sweetening from the strawberries and whipped cream. I used 3 types of flours in my recipe, but you can use whatever flours you want or 100% all purpose. Spelt is the key to keeping the fluffy texture, but All Purpose would work, too.

*Vegan options*

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (I used 1 cup spelt, 1/2 cup whole wheat, and 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance (I used it cold – straight out of the fridge) or butter
• 2 tablespoons All Vegetable shortening (I used Spectrum brand, which is made with organic palm oil)
• 3/4 cup milk or non-dairy milk
• extra sugar for sprinkling on top of shortcakes, about 1 tablespoon

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour(s), sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together.
3. Cut in Earth Balance and shortening into the flour mixture using dough cutter or forks until Earth Balance and shortening are pea-sized.
4. Gently stir in the milk/non-dairy milk until just combined (careful to not over-mix, but do ensure all flour combined into dough).
5. Separate into 6 portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown on top and cooked through (if a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean).
7. Allow to cool to room temperature.

How to Make Strawberry Shortcakes

Strawberry shortcakes are an insanely forgiving recipe. The tough part is just making the shortcakes and that’s a piece of cake…err…shortcake! Here are some non-recipes to get you going (because you don’t need full recipes for the berries or the whipped cream). I made mine Amaretto-spiked! You can make yours plain by leaving the Amaretto out.

Strawberries (use about 1/4-1/2 cup per person, depending on how much you like strawberries!): Remove green tops (hull if you want) and chop strawberries into small pieces 1/4 to 1/2 inch large. Place strawberries in a bowl. Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice or add a drizzle of Amaretto and add a sprinkling of sugar. Stir mixture and allow flavors to combine (a pretty pink juice will form) while you make the shortcakes (or at least 5 minutes).

Shortcakes: See recipe above. Allow to cool.

Amaretto-spiked whipped cream: Pour whipping cream into a bowl (about a couple tablespoons per person). Using handheld mixer on medium high speed, whip cream until it just starts to thicken up, just a couple minutes. Add in some powdered sugar (about 1 tablespoon at a time). Mix in. Taste test. Add additional sugar as needed. Continue whipping until mixture is fully whipped (it should have the texture of whipped cream and hold its shape fairly well). Stir in a drizzle of Amaretto to taste.

Assembling: Cut shortcakes in half, top bottom half with dollop of whipped cream, top that with a spoonful or two of strawberry mixture, add shortcake top. Add additional whipped cream and strawberries as you wish. Garnish with mint (you eat with your eyes!).

Enjoy!

Reader question #1: What would you spike your whipped cream with if you were having strawberry shortcakes?

Reader question #2: How often do you organize particular rooms. I used to have a schedule, but now I just kind of do it as I have time. What about you?

More Time Management fun ahead friends!

And before we get too far, did I mention I have a Facebook page with exclusive content? Yep, that’s right! Click here to check it out and hopefully like my page!

I’m going to talk prepping for the next day. But first…

A fried egg and half a blueberry muffin from Amelie’s (an extra I snagged last night).

I had another hectic work day and came home to get hubby for a special outing. But not before taking a few minutes to organize my shiz.

One of the key’s to successful time management is planning ahead. This sort of almost crosses over into the realm of organization, which I may be doing next month for my monthly challenge. But, by being organized and prepared for the next day, you’re efficiently using your time and are sure to make the next day more stress-free.

As soon as I got home, before changing or getting lazy on the couch, I got stuff together for teaching Zumba tomorrow. It only took me about 5 minutes, but I feel so much better about tomorrow morning already! No more rushing around throwing random things into a bag and potentially forgetting important items.

I packed my Zumba instructor essentials like class cards, forms, etc.

I picked out an outfit and got all the clothes together I’d need.

My hair poof kit.

My Project Get Glam kit (lots of sparklies in there!)

Hubby and I headed out to Cowfish to meet friends (Caitlin/Kristien, Brittney, Michelle/Ben, Kelly, Katie/Stew, and Jeff) to celebrate Jen’s birthday.

We got a fabulous seat near the fountain outside.

They ran out of martini glasses at the restaurant, but this is a pomegranate martini (and very strong as my twitter friends know).

Hubby and I shared an appetizer and a salad.

Deconstructed crab ragoons.

Spinach/bacon salad.

I got my fave – the Bento box for dinner. One of these times I will do a custom roll, but for tonight, I wanted the burger of the week – a mini burger with boursin cheese and apple smoked bacon. Nom!

After a couple mixups with our meal, Cowfish graciously comped our meal. Aww. I love a restaurant that still knows the value of good customer service. Thanks Cowfish!

We had some of the tastiest cupcakes ever – and they were VEGAN too! I wonder what they used for the frosting. Earth Balance maybe? Whatever they used, it was super tasty!

I’ve realized the more I eat sushi, the less adventurous I become. I think this may be opposite from most people, but I can’t help myself. The adventurous eater in me may have gone away with the deep fried shrimp head dare. But I guess that’s another story for another day.

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Anywho, I feel so much more prepared for tomorrow now that all my Zumba gear is ready to go! This is going to make tomorrow morning so much more of a breeze. Yesssss! Hopefully my 5 minutes of invested time today pay huge dividends with a stress-free start to tomorrow.

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How do you like your sushi? The more adventurous the better or do you play it safe with simple and/or cooked items?

Happy hump day Chic-lets!

Can you believe I haven’t picked up my DSLR at all today!? Yep, this post will be 100% iPhone photos…thus the not so stellar quality. Sorry!

Hubby and I headed out to Noda tonight for a relaxing dinner out.

I love the artsy feel of the Noda neighborhood in town. The buildings are painted in various hues and there are random acts of art all around. There are so many free spirits walking around, too. Noda also has quite the eclectic mix of people – from men with crisp hair in business suits to hippies with long beards and colorful clothes.

We hit up Revolution Pizza, a local favorite pizza place. We purchased a Groupon for Revolution pizza just a few days ago and decided to go ahead and cash it in.

It was way too dark to take decent photos (though I did try!), so I’ll just say that we had a really great dinner. Our server was top-notch – kind, patient, and very helpful. He even offered good beer suggestions. In case you didn’t know Revolution has quite the beer selection, so hubby and I tried a couple local brews. Hubby had a black ale and I had a Diana-sized (half-pint) ale.

House Updates!

Hubby and I finally have a couple exciting updates.

1. We got our air ducts and vents cleaned. Our previous home owners were smokers, and though we went through extensive measures to get rid of the smoke (cleaned walls, repainted walls, refinished floors, removed all carpet and curtains, and cleaned/re-painted anything else we could think of). However, though we did all that work, the inside of our house was still tainted with smoke. After saving up some funds we finally hired someone this week to clean our air ducts and vents. I definitely notice a difference in the air quality already. Yay for fresh air!

2. We’re purchasing some remnant carpet, which we’re going to turn into a rug for the basement.

Now hubby’s man-cave will be even more comfy.

And I forgot to blog about this interesting find from the other day – PowerBar Energy Gel Blasts.

I was feeling really hungry and tired on Tuesday before Zumba, but I forgot to pack any snacks. So, I swung by a CVS in hopes of something decent in the way of bars (why can’t everyone sell Larabars and other whole food snacks?!). I found these PowerBar Energy Gel Blasts and decided to give them a go. I ate half of the bag (though I believe the suggested serving was the whole bag).

These Gel Blasts taste like gummy bears. The gel inside wasn’t very noticeable, but tasted good. I didn’t like all the crazy ingredients in these things, but I do think they gave me some energy for Zumba, which was good. So, I think they work ok, but since I try my hardest to avoid eating foods with weird ingredients, I probably won’t make these a staple.

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Time Management Challenge – Activity #1

If you’re just catching up, I’m kicking off a Time Management Challenge for the month of March. I posted my problem areas and goals on yesterday’s post (click).

Besides tips and other related info, I’m planning to blog throughout the month about my personal journey as I try to improve my Time Management skills and get my schedule under control for a stress-free-me. I’m also assigning myself little activities now and again to help out with the challenge. You’re welcome to join in if you’d like.

Activity #1 – Track your daily schedule.

On a recent post where I blogged about why I need this challenge, I also outlined an average schedule for me:

Many of you may have a schedule that is the same every day, so this will be easy for you. My schedule is pretty much different every day. I would say my schedule is sometimes less a schedule and more of the things happen around some-scheduled-things. I follow a bit of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-approach to making my way through the day, which may be one of the main causes of my crazy schedule.

Either way, you may think you know your schedule, but without tracking your schedule in detail, you won’t be able to as easily note problem areas. Without pinpointing the problem areas, you won’t be able to as effectively fix your schedule. For my first activity, I’m planning to track my actual schedule, every day.

Homework:

• Write down your schedule every day for at least one week (similar to the photo above)
• Track time in 15 minute increments
• Note any problem areas (for example, I know I hit the snooze button way longer than I should)

You’re welcome to adapt this to your liking, but this is what I plan to do.

Reader Question: Is your daily schedule organized or do you follow a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-approach to your day?

Happy Tuesday friends!

I hope everyone’s week is off to a fabulous start. Can you believe it’s March already? I feel like it’s still 2010. Time is flying by so fast!

I haven’t been eating much oatmeal over the last several weeks, so recently I’ve really been craving it.

This morning I had carob oats with a sliced organic banana, organic coconut, and sliced almonds. Yummers!

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One of my goals for 2011 was to have a new monthly challenge for every month in 2011. In January, I put on my second annual Eat In Month challenge, and I was so thrilled so many of you joined me. It was so cool hearing about all the positive affects the challenge had on you guys! In February, I didn’t quite get around to doing a challenge. Whoops! And now we’re at March. I actually have ideas for enough challenges to last all year, but I feel many of them fit different times of the year best.

Many of you probably read my post “Is My Schedule Making Me Crazy?” With my scheduling feeling a bit out of control lately, I think it will be best to get started on a challenge that will help me out in this area of my life. My next challenge will be…

A Time Management Challenge!

Here are some areas I’d like to focus on:

• Overall schedule
• Work schedule
• Blogging schedule
• Planning ahead
• Better to-do lists
• Saying no (or better prioritization of new/additional tasks)
• No more procrastination
• Be more aware of time

Here are some of my goals:

• Get to bed at a reasonable hour
• At least 5 minutes of me time every day
• No more rushing everywhere
• Reduce stress overall
• Be more efficient

Unlike my previous challenges, this one doesn’t really have any rules. I just plan on taking you along my little journey towards a stress-free schedule and better time management skills. I’ll be posting tips, challenge/success stories, reference suggestions, and all that good stuff. I welcome you to join in and definitely encourage you to add your tips to the daily topics. I think my readers (that’s you!) offer a wealth of knowledge, so I’d love to hear from you!

Reader Question: What time management challenges do you have? Anything you’d like to see me tackle with this challenge? Are there any subjects that would help you?

Firstly, I must thank you all for your supportive comments, Facebook comments, tweets, IMs, and emails. I’m blown away by how supportive everyone has been about my most recent post, Is My Schedule Making Me Crazy? I really feel like I’ve gotten one big, giant, bear-hug from all of my virtual and real life friends. I don’t think I can say thank you enough, but I’ll try. THANK YOU!!!

Besides all the encouraging notes, I also received some fantastic time management/schedule tips. I’ve been reading through them all and am trying to figure out which ones best fit my lifestyle and when they can be applied.

So, many of you were probably wondering…will she blog tonight? Obviously, you’re reading this post so the answer is yes. lol. I’m not planning on giving anything up immediately. For now, I plan to continue my life style the way it is and observe. I don’t think I can really correct things until I pinpoint what’s not working. I do like the idea of cutting back on blogging, whether it be with shorter posts, scheduled posts, or blogging on less days, but…we’ll just have to see how things pan out.

I wasn’t sure what to eat for breakfast but was really craving oatmeal and whipped up a quick bowl.

I just did a simple AB + J bowl with chia seeds, almonds, Barney Butter and Bonne Maman strawberry preserves.

Now, about those house frustrations. I’m planning to put more attention to some of my frustrations with the house so I can really make this “house” into a “home.” One thing I’ve been consistently frustrated with is our kitchen. Long time readers may remember the kitchen renovation we did on our house between October 2009 and roughly January 2010. You can click here to view some of the “before” and “after” photos of our kitchen.

At a high level, we did the following:

• Repainted the cabinets white
• Removed a roughly 8ft section of wall between the kitchen and living room
• Installed an island
• Installed a pantry
• Replaced countertops with granite
• Painted window frame
• Moved door between kitchen and dining room
• Replaced wood paneling with dry wall
• Replaced large, bulky overhead light with recessed lighting
• Replaced 3 layers of linoleum floor with tile
• Installed pendant lights over island

As you can see, we did quite a bit of work and think we just sort of burned out both time wise and budget wise. Now that we’ve had some time to save, we think we’re ready to finish. Our contractor joked that the last 5% of a project takes 95% of the time. This is at least true for us.

We really don’t have much left until I’d consider our kitchen finished:

• Install backsplash
• Add hardware to cabinets
• Add curtains to window
• Paint walls
• Finish small details, like transition pieces and borders under cabinets
• New appliances…though we will probably wait until the ones we have go kaput

So, I’m making it a priority to try to get this finished. We’re so close to the end of this project…I just want to cross that finish line!

My friends recently ordered a new backsplash and let us borrow their tile samples they ordered online. The one pictured in my hand is the current front runner. It looks like my signature TCL turquoise, no?

Really, I like this one because it looks like the tile in Giada’s Everyday Italian kitchen, and many of you may remember that I was trying to basically replicate her kitchen in my house.

Anywho, I went ahead and ordered 5 more similar samples today so we can be extra certain we get the right color.

I’m just thrilled we’re finally making progress on the house again. Hazzah!

I know you guys probably think I’m crazy, but with all the madness of my schedule I ended up subbing a Zumba class for a fellow instructor tonight. I went straight to a second dance class afterwards (it’s kind of a secret, but I’ll explain later). This put me leaving my house at around 8:45am this morning and returning at about 9:30pm…but hey, at least I had take-out pizza in hand.

***

One lifestyle/schedule change I’m hoping to effect immediately is one I’ve been trying to do for awhile – make some “me time” in my schedule every day. I’m hoping to spend at least 5 minutes per day doing something I want to that relaxes me. Tonight, I read a home style magazine for about 10 minutes and took a couple deep breaths. It felt good. Really good. I’m definitely looking forward to more of those!

I’m not sure if anyone is interested, but it did seem like others were having similar schedule challenges. Perhaps I can pick one change to focus on every week and encourage others to do the same?

If you’re interested, then this week’s challenge is “5 Minutes for Me”. Try to carve out 5 precious minutes of your schedule to do something you want that makes you feel better. Read, take a bath, whatever. Make you a priority, even for just 5 minutes, every day.

***

So, another long day in this TCL life, but I must say, busy as it was, I’m really feeling good about the progress I’m making towards a more organized and balanced life. Cheers!

I had so much fun reading the comments from yesterday’s posts. I loved reading about the different things that have astonished you lately. And if you’re feeling uninspired and sad that you haven’t been able to look at things as though you had the wonder of a child in you, don’t fret. Make a conscious effort to allow yourself to open up to every day beauty. Here’s what I posted on my Facebook page:

Notice the small things today. Allow yourself to look at things in wonder. Be astonished by everything.

You may not see it at first, but keep looking. It’s there. I promise!

Here are the new workout clothes I purchased yesterday. A local store, Asana Activewear, is sadly closing. I loved shopping there when I could afford it because they had some really cute clothes and sold Margarita athletic wear (one of my fave work out brands when I’m not in Zumbawear).

I had a Living Social deal to the place, so I decided to hurry in to cash in my deal before the shop closed forever and to give one last browse. Everything was 50% off with the exception of the jackets, which were 75% off.

I ended up getting:

• a green light weight jacket
• a black sweat-wicking jacket
• 2 boxer bottoms (to go under pants)
• and a really pretty sports bra

After the discounts and Living Social deal, my total was about $80. I consider that a real steal, especially since one jacket was full price $95!

The spree savings were bittersweet since it was really sad to see the store close. Asana was a locally owned company, and as someone with an entrepreneurial spirit myself, I find it especially hard to see someone’s dreams and hard work go under. I wish the store owners the best of luck in their future endeavors.

I really been craving oatmeal for the last couple days, but when hubby proudly came home last night with a box of “healthy” waffles and real maple syrup (he prefers Aunt Jemima), I couldn’t turn down his waffle breakfast suggestion.

There are a handful of new froyo places getting ready to open up around town. I mean, literally, there are about 4 or 5 new businesses about to open.

I decided to hit up the latest – The Frozen Isle.

Lucky me, Brittney was able to meet me last minute so I had fabulous company.

I tried the California tart and blueberry tart. I thought the California tart was just ok. I think I expected it to taste like Yoforia, and I really shouldn’t have had those expectations. It’s like when you accidentally drink soda when you think you’re drinking water. It’s just not what you expect, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Now, the blueberry tart is another story altogether. That stuff was freakin amazing! More? Yes please!

I worked till 6pm today before heading home. Hubby and I had a Groupon to a local noodle shop, Noodles & Company, so we decided to hit them up on our way to Lowe’s for some house shopping. Unfortunately, I guess we went to the wrong noodle restaurant! The Groupon was actually for a different restaurant. Doh!

Anywho, I had the Trio – with tomato basil soup and whole wheat linguine noodles with veggies and organic tofu.

Nom!

And look at this crazy little guy.

I mean…seriously…I sat down on the couch and he literally crawled into my lap. My WHOLE lap! I don’t think Bailey knows he’s not a lap dog! lol

***

Is My Schedule Making Me Crazy

I’ve been hesitant to say anything about this on the blog, because I wasn’t sure how you’d all react. But, thanks to some inspiration from a fellow blogger…here goes nothing…I’ve never said it here on the blog before, but every once in awhile, when I’m blogging at 1am and I have a big day at work the next day, and I’m stressed and tired…I start to wonder…why am I doing this? Btw, this = blogging. I spend a large portion of my day blogging and since I work a 40+ hours a week job, and teach Zumba, and have a husband and dog wanting my attention, I don’t exactly have a lot of free time. I usually come to my senses and remember how much I just LOVE blogging and snap back. But, I know I’m not the only one who shares similar thoughts.

Brittany of Eating Bird Food recently wrote a fabulous blog post titled, “Is Blogging Making Me Unhealthy?” (which you should totally read!) She posted her daily schedule and talked about her own frustrations with blogging. I thought it would be fun to share my schedule with you guys. My schedule is actually pretty much different every day, but on average, it looks something like this:

As you can see, it’s pretty jam-packed. It’s also not my ideal schedule. Sometimes I wonder if my schedule is making me crazy?! It would be easy to point the finger to blogging and say it is the culprit, but I think my time issues are greater than just blogging. And beyond schedule constraints, general lack of time, and blogging at the middle of the night, I have other frustrations. I normally like to keep TCL a positive place and not talk about “negative” subjects. But, at the same time, I think that if I can fix some of my frustrations, and take you guys along my journey, maybe I can turn these negatives into positives and “make lemons out of lemonade”? I mean, I can’t be the only one who’s frustrated once in awhile, right?

Life isn’t a constant. Life is full of change. And I think it’s necessary to change with life instead of trying to fight against it. My schedule from college won’t work for my schedule now. When you find something that works (from planning, to scheduling, etc), you may find that it no longer works based on other things that change in your life over time. I think it’s important to observe, evaluate, plan, and execute change. I like to take a look at things around me – what’s working, what’s not, and change what I can. And I don’t mean just scheduling. Work load, organization, and other areas of life can be changed.

Right now, I’m at the point where I’m seeing that things in my life aren’t working, and I’m trying to make plans for improvement.

For me, the first step is identifying the issues.

Schedule/Time Frustrations:

• Feeling like I’m rushing around all the time
• Blogging after 11pm (hey, it’s only 10:20pm right now…not too shabby!)
• Not having time to read
• Not spending as much time with hubby as I’d like
• Not spending as much time with Bailey as I’d like
• Working through lunch and eating it at my desk
• Not taking breaks/breathers during the work day
• No time to paint nails (not enough down time to wait for them to dry!)
• Being so busy that when I finally have down time, I get extra lazy and forget about some easy to-do’s I could be tackling
• Lack of me time
• Lack of QT with friends
• Lack of relaxation time

In general, my schedule is nowhere near as organized as I’d like it to be. I always feel pressed for time and never make time to relax. I would like to get more organized, balance out my work-life and spend more time with hubby and Bailey.

House Frustrations (so embarrassing!):

• Not having any finished projects in the house from when we moved in over a year ago!
• Not finishing the last 5% of our kitchen renovation (we just need a backsplash, hardware, curtains, and paint – the heavy lifting was done around this time last year and it looks the same!)
• No curtains in most rooms…still
• No art or photographs on any walls
• Disorganized linen closet
• General disorganization

In general, I feel like I haven’t paid any attention to my house in the last year. I’ve always had some other project to work on or something else to do. I’ve neglected my poor home, when there’s been so much I could have been doing. I want to make my house a “home.”

The next step is to make a plan on how to correct/improve these frustrations.

So, is blogging making me crazy? Maybe. But blogging also helps keep me sane on many levels. Blogging is not only my creative outlet, but has become a way of finding fun, inspiration, and friends – near and far. So, if I’m not willing to give up blogging, what then happens to my house? To Zumba? To Bailey? To Hubby? The truth is…I don’t want to give any of them up, but I don’t want any of them to suffer by me being pulled in so many directions.

The solution is…well…I’m not sure. But, I think better organization, prioritization, and time management will help. Really, only time will tell. I’m hoping to make some changes, see if things are working better, and just keep living my life.

Are you experiencing any frustrations recently? What are your tips for organization, time management and balancing out your life?

By 3pm today, I had completed several kitchen projects:

• eggs + biscuits for breakfast
• chai tea infused caramels
• pot roast (prepped and in the slow cooker)
• butterscotch oatmeal dough balls
• chai tea infused granola

Phew! It was a busy Sunday! As a 9-to-5 working woman, most of my kitchen projects get squeezed into the weekend, so I have to make the most of my free time.

Most of my goodies were centered around this – chai tea, but there was a lot going on in the kitchen in general today.

I had Ball Jars cleaned and drying out.

Mom’s pot roast (click for recipe) prepped and in the slow cooker.

A new dough ball flavor chilling and waiting to be baked.

Baking sheets waiting for those dough balls to be ready to bake.

Chai tea infused caramels cooking stove top. (I found out later the caramel was hard! Boo…guess I’ll have to try the recipe again and cook for less time?) Does any one know what causes hard caramel?

Chai tea infused granola slowly turning golden in the oven. (The recipe needs tweaking before I share it here on the blog)

As I’ve mentioned many times before here on The Chic Life, I am trying to move away from using plastics.

I’ve been trying to move towards using glass.

I wanted to get some of those glass containers with the flip-open top and silver lever that you press down to seal. However, those aren’t nearly as cost-effective.

So, I got some quart-sized Ball jars a la Emily and will be moving some of my grains and dried beans around. So far, so good!

But here’s what I’m guessing you really wanted…

oh yes…a new dough ball flavor! I actually have two to share with you, but first…

Butterscotch Oatmeal Dough Balls! I actually had one failed batch before I found success with this flavor. Substituting oats for flour is not an easy thing when you’re going for a particular texture. My first attempt turned out like regular (delicious, but flatter) cookies. But, today I found success! Hooray!

Butterscotch Oatmeal Dough Balls

Inspired by Annie the Baker

Makes 14-18 (depending on how you size them)

Be sure to check out my chocolate chip dough balls (click for recipe)!

Ingredients:

• 1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 stick butter, softened/room-temp
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg (or flaxseed-egg)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, mix sugars and butter till creamy. (I used a handheld mixer, but you could probably just use a whisk). Add egg and vanilla and mix till combined.
4. Mix wet into the dry. Note: it will appear there is not enough liquid for the amount of dry ingredients, but continue mixing. It will form into a dough, it will just be a firm dough. Careful to not overmix.
5. Gently fold butterscotch chips into the dough, without overmixing.
6. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (yes, more than the chocolate chip dough balls) before using a small sorbet scoop to scoop out dough into small mounds. Roll each mound into a ball and spread evenly on a baking sheet, leaving roughly 2-3 inches between each ball.
7. Bake balls for 10-14 minutes, depending on how set you want your centers. If you use egg, and you’re paranoid like me, you can use a meat thermometer to ensure the centers of the balls are at least 160 degrees F, which many web sites say is the safe temp to eat eggs.
8. Let your dough balls rest on the baking sheet to cool at least 5-10 minutes.
9. Enjoy!

These may be more irresistible than the chocolate chip version. I can’t tell. Can you?

***

Anywho, after my kitchen fun, I headed out for an afternoon session of Zumba! I was late for class (I was just attending…not teaching) but still had an awesome time. I left with such a great Zumba-high. You may have seen the following Facebook update on my TCL FB Page or on Twitter:

I came home, twittered with some friends, took a shower, and made mashed potatoes to go with the delish pot roast.

By the way,I’ve been working on an “Artistic Alcatraz” set of photos to share with you guys, which I’ve created using photos I took when I visited Alcatraz a couple weeks ago. The photos are looking really cool, and I can’t wait to share them. Here’s a sneak peek.

I’m off to watch some football with hubby and cuddle with Bailey before bed. I have a short work week ahead, so I’m excited! Hopefully a lot of people will be out of the office, too, so things will be nice and quiet. I am ready for some easier work days…and holidays!