It feels like the holidays are so far away, but Thanksgiving is only two weeks away, and Christmas is creeping up right behind that! I’m feeling a bit of that holiday spirit today as I flipped open the holiday issue of Family Circle and saw an entertaining piece I worked on with them sharing some easy tips for hosting during the holiday season. Check out the new issue to catch all of the tips and start getting ready for your own holiday hosting plans! 
With the weather getting cooler, the holidays inching closer, and my pregnant silhouette getting bigger and bigger by the day, all I really want to do on the weekends now is cancel plans, hibernate by the fireplace, and indulge in some rich, tasty snacks. Those savory appetizers that can almost replace a whole meal have been front of mind for me, and I got an idea for this one after Family Circle Magazine asked me to create a holiday dish that featured California Walnuts. Their nutty flavor paired with crisp diced apples that are cooked down with sugar and spices and drizzled over the warm brie for a sweet and savory appetizer that will impress your guests this holiday season! Check out the write-up in this month’s issue of Family Circle Magazine, and access the recipe below: 
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Last week I shared a little recap of our babymoon getaway weekend. Before we decided to spend a weekend on Nantucket for some R&R pre-baby arrival (and the madness of the holiday season), I was doing some research on babymoon destinations and felt like there weren’t many resources out there for this type of a trip. The babymoon concept has gained more popularity in the last few years, and up until recently most people I knew that took one ended up going somewhere warm and tropical. It wasn’t really an option for us to pick a destination that required plane tickets or tons of time off (and sadly, with the spread of the Zika virus, my doctor cautioned us against traveling anywhere too far south). Those factors kept us in the New England travel radius, and helped me narrow down a few key places to consider going. We ended up picking Nantucket because it was just at the edge of the off-season and neither of us had been there for more than a day trip before.
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It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some house updates! In general a lot of our home improvement projects slowed down after I got pregnant — not being able to paint has put a damper on some of my DIY abilities. One room that has gotten a bit of a makeover since we moved in that I’m excited to share today is the dining room. We painted the dining room, and removed all the doors that close it off from the kitchen and living room only a few months after moving in. After that, we just popped in some hand me down furniture and craigslist pieces from our apartment and walked away. With the holidays coming up, I really wanted to “finish” this space and have it be a place where we could entertain friends and family. Of course no space is ever really finished, but we did tackle a few improvements to give it a fresh look.
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Leftover from my early-pregnancy period of morning sickness is a bit of a distaste for vegetables at the moment. I’m trying my best to eat healthy, but sneaking in veggies has been a challenge. So I’ve been trying hard to find any flavors of vegetable that sounds moderately appealing to me, and go full-force packing those into my diet. Butternut Squash has such a sweetness to it, that I can almost trick myself into thinking it’s less veggie and more like a treat! This weekend I experimented with a homemade hearty butternut squash soup packed with tons of vegetables and autumnal flavors. I hid a few carrots in there, and an apple and shallots for even more flavor. Some salty roasted pepitas and crusty bread make it a perfect chilly fall day meal! Full recipe below:
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Almost a week later, a little recap of our babymoon adventure on Nantucket seems fitting, because I’m heading into this weekend thinking about what an amazing relaxing time we had and how grateful I am for the getaway! We were lucky to catch some unseasonably warm weather last Friday, paired with a few crisp cool fall days the rest of the weekend — the best of both worlds! It gave us some time to stroll out the beaches and lighthouse, while bundling up in our autumn-best for an awesome off-season day at Cisco Brewery. Pregnant lady at a brewery you’re wondering? With live music, bowling, pumpkin carving, and a BBQ pig roast going on, I almost didn’t miss the beer tasting (almost!). 
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I’ve purchased a car, I’ve purchased a house, and yet the research I feel like I’ve done for purchasing baby products has seemed to be one of the more daunting grown-up tasks. When it came to looking for a car seat and stroller I was super intimidated and overwhelmed with all of the information out there! After tons of research and “test-driving” some of the models in person, we ended up selecting a Chicco Bravo Travel System. A big priority for me, being super-petite, was a system I could easily fold-up, carry, and feel comfortable pushing around. I also really liked the idea of buying something that was one full-system so that everyone worked together seamlessly and grew with the baby over time. 
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The high of the baby shower is starting to fade (can we do that every weekend?) and I’m currently staring at a large wall of boxes and gifts bags filled to the brim with baby gear, clothes, and gifts that I’m trying to figure out where we’re going to put! Registering was so much fun for the baby, but admittedly a little overwhelming too given all of the choices out there! While the experience is still fresh in mind, I thought it would be helpful to share a few thoughts on the various places I considered building our baby registry, and where we ended up registering. There were so many pros and cons to each site, and I ended up being happy with our choice to put the majority of our registry items on Amazon, with a few speciality items on a universal registry service like Babylist. 
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I had a celebration-packed weekend as some of my closest friends and family showered Baby B with gifts and treats at our baby shower! It was such a special event, and I loved that so many people who are close to me were involved in contributing to making it an awesome day — my two friends Navya and Taz hosted it with the help of my mom and sister, and lots of girlfriends and family lending a hand to help! Everyone added their own special touch from handmade gifts and party favors, baked treats and my favorite sweet snacks as far as the eye could see, and darling pink decorations and bright colorful flower arrangements that a party-fanatic like me really appreciates! I feel so grateful for all of the work that these ladies put into making the event special, and for all of the amazing gifts that everyone brought (this baby will likely never have to wear the same outfit twice!), but at the end of the day what I was most grateful for is that our baby girl is going to have so many awesome, thoughtful women (and men!) in her life growing up! 
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When I was in NYC at a blogger event a few weeks ago, I had the best time chatting with fellow bloggers about all of the ups and downs of blog-life. Whenever I get the chance to network with bloggers I have the best time — it’s a rare chance to get to pick the brains of others with similar challenges in writing content, making it a business, and figuring out how to manage it all with the other parts of our lives. One topic that we were discussing was all of the different ways we plan for our blog content and after hearing ideas from a few other creative ladies, I realized that this just might be a topic worth sharing here with some of my own tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over almost 8 years of blogging (yikes! I’m a blogger dinosaur!). Stay with me guys, it turns out I had a lot to say on this topic! 
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