My journey to “clean beauty” was not a drastic moment of change — I didn’t dump out my makeup bag one day and replace every single item at once. It looked more like a long and winding road, because to start, I never really considered myself much of a beauty person at all. Up until recently I’d had nearly the exact same makeup routine since high school, and my skincare routine was almost non-existent (more on that later). I’ve also never been into the clean-eating trends (oh boy, you can keep your kale, I looove myself a bag of Cheetos every once in a while). But here I am, sharing how I started to educate myself about what was in the beauty products I was using, began to make small changes and swaps in my makeup and skincare, and ultimately got on board with a brand I have been using since — Beautycounter.
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We have had a lot of drastic makeovers in our house since we bought it and oh man, I love a good ‘before and after’ post to show how far we’ve come. A few years ago we did a major overhaul on our master bedroom (like major-major: there used to be a kitchenette in our bedroom!) which was a makeover for the ages. Off of our beautiful new bedroom was a secret little sunroom that needed some love — outdated carpet over even more outdated linoleum floors, dark brown wood paneling, and an eyesore of a 1970s ceiling fan. I’ve been saying I’ll tackle it for years, but we just never had the time so the door remained shut and the space went unused and frozen in the ’70s — out of sight, out of mind! Then in March when it looked like the stay at home order was about to start, I realized I might finally have all those free weekends I needed to finally give this room the makeover it deserved. 
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Let’s have a little Earth Day chat about a topic I’ve become pretty passionate about over the last few years: reducing food waste! There are a lot of reasons to be conscious about reducing food waste, for me the lightbulb went off when I read that the EPA estimates about 22% of trash in landfills is food waste — more than any other single material in our everyday trash. And when food decomposes in landfills the nutrients in the food never return to the soil — the wasted food rots and produces methane gas. Being someone who writes about food for a living, I had a major realization that I was wasting a LOT of food. My fridge was a graveyard of uneaten leftovers and excess ingredients from photoshoots, and I knew I had to take a look at ways to majorly reduce the food waste I was creating at home. 
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Last year around this time, I embarked on my first ever foray into gardening. I started with pretty low expectations since I’ve never been able to keep a house plant alive, but I wanted so badly to give it a try and see if I could make it work. We built raised beds, we filled them up with a variety of seedlings, and we started to watch it grow. By the end of the summer I had a bustling veggie garden with some big successes (more tomatoes, lettuce, and jalapeños than we knew what to do with), and some failures (basil that bolted, cucumbers that were stunted, and squash that never produced). More than anything, I grew a totally new, bustling love for the garden and an eagerness to do it all over again bigger and better this year.
My favorite resource for figuring out what do to next in our garden is Mary Buri of @MarsKitchenGarden. I was first introduced to Mary’s wealth of vegetable gardening knowledge through my cousin and I instantly became hooked on the treasure trove of tips and tricks she shares on her page. Mary recently launched a garden coaching and design service, on top of being a mom to 4 kids, and somehow also managed to say yes when I asked to her to do this interview! I’m constantly learning from the information she shares in her instagram stories, and am so inspired by watching her business and garden grow — I hope this interview helps spark the same excitement in future veggie gardeners: read more
Whenever I get super overwhelmed, I find that writing usually helps me feel better. I’ve been writing this blog for over a decade, but long before that I used to keep hand written journals. I find it gets all of the jumbled mess out of my brain, helps me organize thoughts, clears the slate. I think it’s safe to say we’re all feeling it this week as we roll through the first handful of days of social distancing. Even if no one reads it, open a journal or a word doc, get it all out on paper — I find it really helpful. This post today is just that — a release of all.the.feelings — emptying my brain, a little writing therapy, and sharing what’s helping us stay sane.
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Cheese plates are kinda my thing. After a few years of working on my #DomestikateGrazingBoards series, I’ve acquired quite the collection of cheese plate accessories. From marble slabs to cutting boards to tiny dishes for honey and jam, I’ve got it all. Cheese knives are among my prop-hoarding-collection, and I have a few go-to knives that I use on almost every single board. On a recent afternoon of cheese plate assembly, I rifled through my kitchen drawer and stopped to think about all of the different kinds of cheese knives I had, and what exactly each one of them was for. Truthfully, I knew which knives I paired with certain cheeses, but I didn’t know what each one was actually designed for — so I set out to research it and share my new wealth of cheese knife knowledge with you, in this Cheese Knives 101 overview!
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I’m excited to be partnering with Little Leaf Farms this year again on some tasty recipes – their lettuce mixes are grown locally in a greenhouse facility in Devens, Massachusetts. I kicked off the year with a post about my sustainability goals, and I love that the Little Leaf Farms brand is aligned in those efforts –from collecting rainwater to use in their greenhouses to reducing the distance our food has to travel by growing year-round here in New England. My first recipe with Little Leaf Farms is Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza – with football playoffs and that big snack-fueled football fest at the end of the month, I’ve been thinking about some new game day bites to add to my menu.
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I’ve always been someone who gets hyped over the new year. I love a fresh start, I love clean to do lists, I love resetting goals and the whole clean-slate thing. It usually gives me so much energy and momentum, but man this year has not been that way! I have been sick, Jane has been sick, we’ve been operating in a cloud of sinus infections, ear infections, and general exhaustion. I even had to cancel plans on my birthday so I was in a reallll cranky spot! Over the weekend I rallied for a girls night out with my best friends’ and today is the first day since the start of 2020 that I’ve felt like I can breathe (literally and figuratively, ha). So I’m trying to get back in the game — a little bit slower in my start than I anticipated — but with lots to share.
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I have a pretty strong track record of being super organized around the holidays, especially when it comes to gift giving. Some years I’ve started a “gift idea” list on my phone as early as June. This year though, we’re doing a little bit less gift-giving with our family and instead focusing more on experiences, so my to-do-list looks a little bit different this time around. I’m still trying to keep everything in order though, marking things off the list one day at a time to make the most of the holiday season. My friends at AAA Northeast shared a fun, quick online quiz with me to help me find my holiday saving personality and use my #AAADiscounts to save this season as I tackle my holiday errands!
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When we moved into our house we upgraded our bed to a queen size and I ran out that day to grab some plain white sheets to use. They were fine — it was just a simple set to hold me over until I found the perfect new bedding to design a room around. I hunted and hunted for inspiration and never quite landed on a look that I love, so I just put it off — for FOUR YEARS. Until recently when our duvet cover started to rip (like, it’s been washed so many times it’s basically disintegrating) and I realized it was probably time to get that hunt started up again. My friends at Serena & Lily (who just opened the most gorgeous store in Boston!!) offered to help me with a big bedding refresh and I jumped at the chance to finish what I started 4 years ago.
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