Our Daily Vittles to Battle the Bulge...week by week healthy meal planning

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you...I've chatted with a lot of friends, scrappy and non-scrappy ones, and one thing I hear over and over is that one of the hardest parts of their day starts to hit around 4:30 when they say, "oh no, I have no idea what I'm making for dinner". I know that has been true for me.

Here's what was happening in my house...

• Sometimes I had something in the fridge and/or pantry that I could throw together but it wasn't always the healthiest choice. At least we weren't eating fast food though, right?
• Sometimes my fridge was empty and any meat I had was still frozen and I'm so afraid of rapid defrosting and getting the family sick so off we went to a restaurant or fast food. We always spent more money than we needed to and oh, we still had to get back home in time to do homework, baths/showers for the girls, etc. Again, not a very healthy choice usually.
• Other times, hubby or I would run by the store on our way home and grab a rotisserie chicken, or chicken & apple sausage, or a frozen meal like Bertoli's or PF Changs, frozen steamable veggies, or whatever sounded good. This was a decent choice but who wants to go through this every day.

And then, the Battle of the Bulge started to set in. Da. Da. Daaaaaaaa!

So, we started weekly meal planning, which has been great but, and this is a BIG BUT, it included things like King Ranch Chicken casserole (using chips & canned soups), some creamy Pasta, fried food or meat & potatoes type meals. While these wonderful comfort foods are quite tasty and we enjoyed more meals at home, it did nothing to help me Battle my Bulge. It didn't help that I was eating the leftovers for lunch the next day either. I have no idea how many calories I was consuming but it was way too much.

I started reading about different healthier lifestyles, like Paleo, Clean Eating, etc.  You know what? My very picky kids, who I had to practically beg to eat every night, starting cleaning their plates with little prompting.  Great right?  Who would have thought they'd enjoy the healthier foods more than the comfort foods. But then life got busy and we fell back into our old patterns.

Well, with a 2 week trip to Hawaii coming up in July and just a general desire to eat healthier and teach my kids to eat healthier, I've finally gotten serious. I need to shed those extra pounds and we need to get back to eating healthier.

The point of the story...
So back to the chat I was having with friends about meal planning. Many people said, I just don't have the time to scour all the "skinny" recipe sites, Pinterest, etc. for meals that may or may not taste good in addition to planning our meals for the week.  How about I do that for you?  Since I'm already doing this for my family, I thought I'd share my weekly meal schedule with links to the recipes. I'll also share photos of what my meal looked like, if I can remember to take them and what the family thought of the meal. That means I'll be sharing what I made the previous week with you.

I'll post this on Saturdays so that you can take a look and do your shopping on Sundays.

I also started working out 4 - 5 days/week for at least 45 minutes. I'm taking classes at my local gym and I actually love them. They are fun! Maybe I'll list my workout for the day as well so I will stay accountable.

By the way, I started this last week. I didn't work out (for personal reasons) and I am already down 3.5 pounds. Yay me! The Battle of the Bulge has begun.

New Winner for the Scrapbook Circle Kit Giveaway

Well, Anelsie must have been feeling very lucky yesterday. She actually won my contest and Jenni's. Her kit is already shipping out to her for winning Jenni's giveaway so I am drawing another winner. Congratulations go to.....

Allie Stewart

Allie - please email your address to heather@scrapbookcircle.com and we'll get your kit out to you ASAP.

20% off code at Scrapbook Circle - Whoop, whoop!

Also, I posted the wrong discount code before. I thought it was for 10% off but it's actually 20% off. So....take a stroll through the Scrapbook Circle shop and/or purchase the new April kit, The Bucket List. Just enter discount code Heather20off during checkout for some great savings!

Here's another look at the April kit

Scrapbook Circle Kit Winner

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Scrapbook Circle "The Bucket List" kit giveaway here and on Instagram.  I'm posting the winner below but here's a reminder of what y'all were playing for...

Okay, since I was pulling entries from here on the blog and on Instagram, I put everyone's name in a hat. Some people had double entries, some did not. I marked whether they came from IG or the blog. The winner is......

Anelsie

Congrats!!! Email your address to heather@scrapbookcircle.com

I'll post the winner on Instragram too so we can track you down and get the kit right out to you!

If you didn't win, but want to buy a kit or other things in the Scrapbook Circle store at a discount, just enter Heather20off at checkout for a 20% discount. As far as I know, the code doesn't expire so keep it handy. 

LOVE this Sweet Face

I was soo excited when I saw the new dies in the American Crafts booth at CHA this year. I dusted off my Big Shot and I've been dabbling with the dies. I got a little crazy with the love die and created this layout.

Can you see them? Layered over each other on the left side of the page? Here's a stepxstep to re-create this layout.

• Identify a die that you think will look good layered over each other. I think shapes are a little easier. If it's a word, you don't necessarily have to be able to read it but you want to be able to identify many of the letters. 
• I must have cut about 20 of the words "love" out of black cardstock. You can use colored cardstock, pattern papers, vellum, whatever.
• Now for the layering...I started at the bottom left and placed the word "love" so that only part of the v and e would show. I also adhered them to that the top of the word "love" was hanging off the page. I then adhered "love" over and over up to the top of the page.
• For the second row, I used the full word "love". I placed the word so that it slightly covers up the 1st set of words, only the bottom of the word. I did that because I wanted to kind of flip the tops (you can see it in the photo below). Do this over and over the length of the page in however many rows you want.I did 4 rows.

• Next, when I was cutting the word "love" with the die cut, I set aside one of the negative cuts. I adhered bright pink paper to the back of one of them and then hand cut the outside outline. I placed it over one of the black words.

• Then I added 2 small strips of paper, the white and grey paper and another small strip of blue to complete the background of the page. And then I splattered some mist here and there.
• I layered papers around my page, added stickers, a brad and some flowers that I hand cut from a 12x12 sheet of the Plus One collection.
• The large pink and white "love" was also hand cut from a 12x12 sheet of the Plus One collection.
• To create the title, I mixed the word phrase Thickers and chipboard Thickers. 
• The mini hearts were cut using the geo tag die in the die cut kit.
• The upper right banners were created from scraps and a foam heart from the same word phrase Thickers.

This is one of my favorite pages that I've created lately. It's full of colors and layers and was just so fun to create.  I hope it inspired you to pull out your dies or your CAMEO and get scrapping!

Enjoy Today | It's Beautiful

I gotta shout from the roof tops just how much I LOVE the Simple Stories DIY Boutique collection. The colors are just so bright and fun and it has such a great mix of patterns, from stripes, to polka dots, chevrons, flowers, basics, you name it, it's there. And if you haven't learned yet...I love mixing patterns.

Let me walk you through this layout I created to document a day at the park with my littlest girl.
 

I wanted to pull out the yellow color in the tire swing so I chose to use the yellow and white polka dot paper as my background. And, I knew I wanted to use the floral paper because it matches my daughter's shirt perfectly. Third, I knew I wanted to use all those fabulous sticker, brads and enamel dots in a big way. First, though, I had to create a foundation for them so I stitched a strip of the red paper across the page and then folded the edges up, allowing them to tear here and there.
 
See? See how perfectly that floral paper matched my daughter's shirt. I couldn't have planned it any better. LOL. I added a multi-colored black polka dot frame over a section of vellum to help soften the floral pattern just a bit. I offset the photo to the left of my page. I used foam dots to adhere a couple of sentiment stickers.

 

To create this cluster of embellishments, I knew I needed to use at least 3 different shapes. I chose hearts, flowers and butterflies. I started by placing the largest shapes first and then the medium pieces. I tucked a few under my photo mats and let some hang off the left and right side of the page. Then the little bits filled in the gaps perfectly. If you look closely, you can see that I added 3 yellow sentiment stickers on the yellow paper. I like the subtly of it scattered here and there.

So, that's my layout today. I hope this inspired you to grab all your embellishments packs you've been hoarding and put them to use to create a fun little clustered embellishment page. I think that would make a great weekend project.

Thanks for stopping by today.

DIY Boutique Supplies:
6x6 paper pad | 5122Chipboard | 5128Brads | 5127Yellow Chevron/Dots | 5116Stickers - Boutique | 5141Enamel Dots - Teal, Red & Yellow | 5129Enamel Dots - Pink, Green & Orange | 5130Stickers - Icons | 5140Stickers - Words | 5142

She Loves Me in 24 Pieces?!?!

I've been wanting to scrap this story for some time now. I started telling my daughter that I love her to bits & pieces. I always proclaim that I love in her a million, billion, trillion, infinity pieces.  We would have a ton of fun counting up and up and up together, kind of like a contest.  Well one day, she decided that she loved me in 24 pieces and stuck to that. Every day...24 pieces. I'm not quite sure what to think of that but since she was only 4 at the time, I'll consider it super duper adorable.

I have been hoarding the wood veneer overlay from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer collection but couldn't decide what to use it for. Well, it finally clicked how perfect it would be to document this story.

I chose to back the wood veneer with a soft, subtle pattern. I didn't adhere it together until the last step. I then found papers that I thought would help me tell the story, like this text, and I added some rub-ons, like the flowers above. I stitched directly on the wood, using my sewing machine.

For several of the paper hearts, I simply cut them from a 12x12 sheet in the Day Dreamer and Plus One collections.

Remember how I said I didn't adhere the wood to the background paper? Here's why. I had to draw the others. To do so, I placed the paper under the wood veneer and traced it with my pencil. then, I cut it out about 1/4" inside the line I drew. The pink, scalloped one above and the polka dot one, that I used for my title, are perfect examples.

 Layers, layers, how I love thee. I just can't seem to add a photo to my layouts with layers. I added hand stitching to some of the hearts. I cut the hearts, hand stitched and then adhered them to the wood.

I cut this grey striped paper to use as a journaling spot.I stitched around it and then added my journaling. Last but not least, I stitched through a few of the hearts, right down the center and then popped the sides up with foam dots.

Now I have a sweet layout documenting this cute story. Can I toot my own horn for a sec? I uploaded it to Two Peas the other day and it was selected as the Featured Project. I was super duper excited. Thanks for letting me share the exciting news. Thanks for stopping by.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway in the previous post. You can win a Scrapbook Circle April kit, called The Bucket List. Good luck!

Scrapbook Circle Kit Giveaway

Hi friends. Have you seen the April kit from Scrapbook Circle? It's full of the latest & greatest scrappy favorites from Fancy Pants, Crate Paper, MME, Amy Tan and more....

Take a look and then check out my giveaway below for a chance to win one of the April kits, called The Bucket List.

I love that this kit can work with so many themes, from fancy-schmancy travels to everyday adventures. And you can't go wrong with the gorgeous colors.

Did you know that The Bucket List kit comes with EXCLUSIVE Scrapbook Circle wood veneer, a "Love This" stamp, tags and a printable?!?! You can't get those anywhere else and let me tell you, I have them and they ROCK.

There's also  two fantastic embellishment add-ons available this month: Things to Do and Places to Go.

If you're not familiar with Scrapbook Circle, here's your chance to win a kit and get to know them.

ABOUT | Scrapbook Circle has been delivering inspiration, ideas and boutique style scrapbook kits for seven years. They love putting together monthly kits that are filled with special products that they know will inspire. Each of their monthly kits includes a custom printable, exclusive products and they have now expanded their shop to included coordinating digital files. They strive to provide you with fresh products every month that inspire you to create.

This is a non-commitment club where you can buy just one kit at a time. If you'd like to give their kits a try, you can get 20% off by using my discount code, which never expires, by the way. Just enter Heather20off at checkout to get 20% off your entire order. Hey, even if you win, you can use this code to get the add-ons or anything else in the store, Just Sayin'. 

CONNECT | Shop | Blog | Ideas | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

GIVEAWAY

I'm offering a chance to win an April main kit, The Bucket List. Fun name right??? You have two chances to win. To enter, just follow me here on my blog (via Google Friend Connect, Bloglovin' or Feedly) AND/OR on Instagram. Make sure to leave a comment here on this blog post and/or on the Scrapbook Circle Bucket List giveaway photo I  posted on Instagram. You have until Saturday, April 5, 2014 at midnight CST to enter. I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 6. Good luck!

STITCHED Class Sneak and Oh So Darling with Gossamer Blue

I've been having so much fun the past couple of weeks playing with with my new Gossamer Blue goodies and creating a project or two for the new STITCHED class at Studio Calico.

Before I show you what I made using the Main kit from Gossamer Blue, I thought I'd show you a sneak peek at my project for the STITCHED class because today is the LAST DAY to sign up.  I've seen other sneaks of the projects and I can tell that this is going to be an amazing class. DON'T MISS OUT!

The class kit along with the stitching templates, digital die cuts, printables and embellishments is soo amazing. And Paige Evans is teaching the class and has lined up AMAZING contributors. What more can you ask for??? I hope to see you in the class room tomorrow.  Register HERE.

Okay, let's chat Gossamer Blue. The April kit is full of bright, gorgeous Spring colors. If you are thinking of getting their April kit and add-ons, run, don't walk, over there now because she is selling out FAST.

I couldn't resist scrapping this photo of my girls with these gorgeous Sunflowers.

This layout was creating using the Main Kit Only. The add-ons are incredible but I wanted to show you an example of what you can create with just the main kit. Not only that, but I created this one in just 50 minutes. That has to be a record for me. Ha ha ha...seriously.

I started this page by just layering the transparency and the green under the photo. The transparency wasn't showing through enough to I added a pop of yellow and a bit of black. I then decided that I needed some white between the green and the grey background and voila!, I had my layers. These are all from various American Crafts Plus One or Day Dreamer collections and Studio Calico Lemon Lush.

Once I adhered it down, I added the "darling" and arrow rub-ons and the "oh so" from Thickers, all from the American Crafts Amy Tangering Plus One collection.

The page needed a top and bottom border so I cut some very rough strips on blue, green and black and added my borders, topping the upper right corner with an embellished triangle.

The page just needed a bit more happiness so I added mist splatters using Studio Calico Taxi and Bonnet Blue. Then I did the unthinkable (to me). I pulled the centers off the Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer wood buttons and used them like enamel dots on my page. You can see the wood around the "2" in the top photo and how they look peeled off in this photo.

Beauty in Bloom

It's Spring time on the American Crafts blog. I created this layout for this week's theme and I had so much fun creating it. The Texas wildflowers are blooming and the butterflies are starting to make their appearances. I thought it would be fun to sprinkle flowers across the layout.

I started this page enamored with the lovely little banner floating in the clouds. I knew I had to use it for this sweet photo of my littlest. This photo was taken right before she took off running in the bluebonnet fields. 

I used a two of the alphas from the Day Dreamer collection and then I wrote the word beauty in my handwriting and then cut it using my CAMEO.  You can download the "beauty" Silhouette file HERE.

Next, I cut some flowers from both a 6x6 paper pad and 12x12 papers to create a cluster of flowers border. I sprinkled in pinwheels, buttons, brads, die cuts, rub-ons, enamel dots and other embellishments to add variety. 

I saved my favorite bit of the flower cluster border to use an an anchor for my photo.  I took a wood veneer bit that had the outlines of flowers and leaves and I painted them with water colors. I had to be a bit careful during the painting process because I knew that it might bleed on the wood grain. So, I always started in the center of the flower or leaf I was working with and filled it in carefully until I got to the edge.  I set it aside and then added it to the layout once dried.

Oh and if you look closely at the blue paper behind my photo, you can see that I used one of the new embossing folders from the Day Dreamer collection to tie it back to the "lovely" banner at the top.

I hope I've provided a bit of inspiration for you today.  Now, take a look at the American Crafts blog because I also posted a cute little Spring themed butterfly card. 

#heatherhitsitalysolo2014 Part 2

So I have a confession: I didn't really do Italy completely solo. I mean I did but I didn't. After Day 1, one of my co-workers had arrived so we hit the city together. I had asked my Facebook friends where to go and Stephanie said I had to see Como so... when I told my co-worker that I was planning to take a train to Como, he was literally onboard to join me. We took the train from Milan to Como Nord Lago. We knew we wanted to take a boat ride around the lake and a tram to the top of the mountain but we had no idea where to find these things.

We got off the train, we didn't know whether to go this way or that way so we went that ---> way When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a gorgeous lake surrounded by villas, boats and lakeside restaurants. It took my breath away.

We strolled down the path along the lake until we got to that wall you see in the middle of the photo above. We walked out there and just admired the scenery.

Next, we kept on strolling until we got hungry. We settled at a lakeside restaurant for some pizza and pasta. Oh and some Marc Jacobs custom designed Coca Cola light (Diet Coke). (I was there during Fashion Week) And look at that view. I decided I could get used to having a view like this every day.

As we were eating lunch and enjoying the beautiful weather, we noticed that the entrance to the tram was right next to our restaurant. The stars were aligning! So we went up and up and up...

and up

and up

and up

 ...until we reached the top. We walked around and found the perfect spot to snap some photos, like this one.

We stayed up there for quite a long time, enjoying the different views of the lake as well as some businesses and homes that were at the top of the mountain. 

We spotted a beautiful church while we were up there and added that to our list of things to do. So, we took the tram back down the mountain and started walking in the direction of the church.

This photo above shows the beautiful steeple that attracted us to the church from high on the mountain. It's actually the back side of the church.

This is actually the front. It's soo pretty with a beautiful courtyard that I imagine lots of kids run around before and after church get all their energies out.

I didn't get too many photos on the inside and those that I did get, aren't that great...

After the church, we walked out and back towards the lake and whattaya know, the boat for the lake tour was right there. We got in line to buy tickets when I really large group of school kids, probably on a field trip, joined us in line. As much as I love kids, I really wanted a quiet, peaceful ride around the lake. We got out of line and went to the gelato shop across the street. Yummmmo! Once the kids were on the boat, we got back in line for the next one.

And off we went....

Hey! There's a view of the tram tracks going up the mountain.

Check out these mansions. I noticed that many of them had their windows boarded up, assuming they had winterized them since these are probably 2nd homes for the summer. 

Oh, the views were soo beautiful!  I was sad that I didn't get to stop in to say hi to George Clooney. The darn boat turned around before we made it all the way to his house. Sigh....

After that, we headed back for the train to Milan. I had to be back by 8 to set up for the event the next morning. 

On the way back to the train station, I saw this sign. COMO viva - enjoy COMO. I thought it was a perfect farewell for my time in this beautiful town. My co-worker must have thought I was crazy taking soo many photos. I spared you of them all and just showed the highlights.

Next stop, Helsink Finland and then South Africa. I'll blog about those trips soon.