Back in October, I had the opportunity to take an interesting class at Society of Grown-Ups about creating spending plans that aligned to our values and priorities. The class gave me some great tools to help with planning for our finances, but it also did something else: challenged me to actually think about my values and priorities. On our road-trip down to New York this past weekend for Thanksgiving I was tired and opted to close my laptop, ignore my inbox and to-do-list, and crack open a new book instead – Emily Ley’s Grace, Not Perfection. Digging into this fresh read brought me back to that Society of Grown-Ups class in the early-fall, discussing a lot of the same topics. Between the start of the holidays, a busy period at my day-job, the busiest time of year for my blog projects, and oh yea, an impending baby on the way in just 6-weeks, this topic felt so timely and important during a hectic period of life. It gave me a little spark of inspiration to take a moment to reflect on just that: gratitude for what matters most to me.
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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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I’ll admit, I was a little bit nervous when I posted my first entry in this new series. I wasn’t sure how people would react introducing this new part of my life into the content here. I did notice a few followers drop off from Instagram when I jumped into the topic, but overall I found it was some of the most engaging conversations I’ve had on blog posts in a long time! So, the verdict is the bump diary posts will continue — both for my own love of recording all of phases of life (seriously, I found a box of dozens of my journals in my parents attic when they were moving houses this summer!), and for the every so helpful advice and comments I’ve gotten from sharing my pregnancy journey here and on social media. The past five weeks have zoomed by faster than I can could have imagined, which brings many new changes and updates on my ever-growing bump! 
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Valentine’s Day is just a few days away! I always seem to come up with homemade present ideas a day or two before the actual holiday comes around, leaving me a short window to actually grab supplies and make it come to life. That’s why I’m excited to share this Valentine’s Day DIY concept today — it’s inexpensive, simple to make and a great idea to have in your back-pocket for last-minute gifts because all of the materials can be found at your local grocery store!
I repurposed a cardboard egg carton and gave it a quick layer of craft paint in a pink tone. Then I popped a dozen mini-cupcakes from the grocery store bakery section into the egg carton once it dried, and glued a hand-lettered message to the inside of the container that says “Happy Valentine’s Day, Cupcake!” It’s a great way to gift sweet treats without having to bake them yourself — repackaging the items makes them feel special.
To help celebrate Valentine’s Day, Rich Products is helping me give away a $50 gift card so you can treat your Valentine (or yourself!) to something special. To enter, follow the instructions below: 
Giveaway Details:
- To enter to win leave a comment below to share how you’d use your $50 gift card to treat your Valentine (or yourself!).
- For an extra entry, LIKE the Domestikatedlife Facebook page and leave another comment below.
- For an extra entry follow @domestikateblog on Instagram and leave another comment below.
- For an extra entry, share a post with your own gifting ideas using the hashtag #givebakery and include a comment below with your post.
- This giveaway will end at 5:00 PM EST on Friday, February 13th and is open to US residents only.
Please note: This post was sponsored by Rich Products Corporation, all opinions, ideas, and DIYs are my own.
The 30 before 30 list! Now that I’m officially a lady of her thirties, I’m looking back on the list I wrote over two years ago of thirty things I want to accomplish before I kicked off this new decade. It’s crazy to think what has changed in that time. I married my best friend, I changed jobs, I traveled to some pretty amazing places and had more fun writing this blog and planning events than I really ever dreamed possible. I think a lot of those great moments were supported in part by this list because I put a pen to paper and made a plan for the things I wanted to do, see, feel, and be. So I feel I owe this little list a bit of my attention and recap where I’ve been (26 completed!) and where I’m headed next (4 that I’m still making happen!). Some of them were silly, some of them were thoughtful, and some of them were big stuff! Let’s start-off with the ones I completed:
- Buy a ‘grown up’ piece of furniture. What were the requirements for it ‘grown-up?’ …. basically just a single piece of furniture that wasn’t a hand-me-down or Craigslist score. I’m proud to say that Mike and I invested in a brand new couch that greatly improved our living space — I love it! Another piece we added to our collection was a hot pink bar cart, more on that later in the list…
- Read 10 books. I definitely completed this task by the hitting the numbers but looking back I realize my goal was to read more consistently and I’m not sure I did that. I read most of these books in short bursts around vacations and really lost my rhythm for reading consistently on my commute and at night before bed. Note to self: Making it a 2015 goal to read at least one book a month and already quite the stack to work through (recommendations are welcome!)
- Host a dinner party. When I wrote this list, throwing a dinner party felt daunting because our apartment is pretty tiny. But a small apartment makes a great space for a small dinner party, and I made an effort to invite friends over in smaller batches when entertaining for a sit-down dinner. I also hosted some bigger events at home — like our annual New Year’s Eve celebrations and a baby shower for my blogger bestie!
- Hang a gallery wall. Why does that darn Domino Magazine always make this look so easy? Spoiler alert: It’s not. I think I added this to my list because it forced me to be intentional about what kind of things I wanted to surround myself with in our home. I just completed this recently after collecting the perfect pieces for my gallery wall over the past two years, and I’m so happy with how it turned out (see a picture on instagram!)
- Learn calligraphy. Done and done! I took an awesome calligraphy class with Lettering by Liz. The class was great and it gave me a huge appreciation for those that have the talent. I’m not sure it’s something I have the time to practice consistently but I’m really happy I tried it out.
- Catch up on the most ‘classic’ movies. I feel like I can mark this one off the list — I finally saw Casablanca, caught up on my Hitchcock movies, and even watched National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation (I know, how had I never seen that before?!). I do have one big movie on the list I didn’t get to — Gone with the Wind — so I’m keeping that in my back pocket for a snow-day this winter when I have a free 4-hours.
- Grow something from a seed. I think that a few of my friends laughed when I added this to me list — for all of my domestic-prowess in the kitchen and with a glue-gun, I fail hard at gardening. A black thumb is not even a strong-enough term for my lack of skills but last summer I hit the hardware store and picked out my seeds and set out to grow something (ANYTHING!) from a seed. The tomatoes died and the peppers never even sprouted but I did get some chives and basil to pop out of the dirt for a few weeks. The chives were the only thing that semi-lived all summer (I assume this means they are technically some kind of a weed?), but I did it!
- Go to more concerts. I love love love live music, but time and budgets always seem to get in the way of grabbing concert tickets. I tried to plan out some big shows I knew I would remember forever (Jay Z and Beyonce were epic!). I was lucky to have a few impromptu concert experiences too — last-minute tickets to a Counting Crows show that we scored online the day of the show, and a weather-related detour on our road-trip Honeymoon itinerary lead to a surprise visit to Red Rocks where we were able to see the Alabama Shakes and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (which I can say was one of the most fun concerts and tailgating experiences ever). Note to self: this makes you really happy, do more of this.
- Get my 401ks in order. This was a pain-in-the-butt, but man did it make me feel like a grown-up to finally figure it all out, merge accounts from previous jobs, and sit down and talk with my husband about how we can save for our future. So not fun, but I’m lucky to have a smart guy like Mike in my life to help figure it all out.
- Pay off (at least one of) my student loans. Ugh, this was another not-so-fun-one on the list — the pain of signing over bonus-checks and blogger-dollars to chip away at that looming stack of student loan bills. I’d like to say I felt really accomplished when I paid off one of my student loans, but the truth is I just started to think about the remaining ones that are left. I just tell myself that it was all worth it when I think of meeting my best friends and husband at college — they’re certainly worth every single penny (oh and I guess the education was pretty good too, ha!).
- Take a cooking class. I killed two birds with one stone here and took a cooking class where I learned to macarons from scratch. Ever think to yourself, why are these tiny little airy desserts so darn expensive? Because they are a pain in the butt to make! The best part of the class was taking it with my sister and her friend — baking is better with buddies!
- Bake macarons from scratch. See above! I took the class and even made them at home on my own afterwards (and thanks to my sister for gifting me all of the fancy tools to do so!). One batch came out terribly, another was pretty good — practice makes perfect.
- Enjoy a long stroll through an art museum. In my mind I had a trip to NYC planned for this item on the list, and planned to hop from museum to museum. But every time I make a visit down to see my family in NY we usually get distracted by eating and shopping, oops! I did have a great afternoon at the MFA with my dear friend Taz where we took in the Mario Testino exhibit and relived our days of taking art history classes in the museum halls during college. Note to self: make that NYC trip happen! You’ve never even been to the Guggenheim! Who are you?
- Find and stock a bar cart for the apartment. My bar cart quest was always focused on a shiny brass vintage bar cart that I had hoped to find when antiquing with my mom. I never did find that vintage bar cart, but a brand new bar cart fell into my lap when I won an instagram contest held by Society Social. And just like that, my hot pink bar cart found its way into our kitchen and has been fully stocked ever since. To say I adore this piece of furniture is an understatement.
- Visit Nantucket for the day. I guess somewhere around my 28th year on this planet I realized I hadn’t been to Nantucket — which is basically blasphemy for a preppy New England gal like myself. I added this to my list and brought it up with friends at dinner one night over the summer and we made an impromptu decision right there at the table to make a trip to the island the very next morning. I jokingly refer to this as the “best day of my life” — because it was perfect (see below for notes on my actual best day ever). It was spontaneous, it was gorgeous day with perfect summer weather, and it was filled with music and drinks and great seafood and my very best friends. It was one of those days where I had to pinch myself to believe it had all worked out so perfectly and been so very fun. Note to self: you’re due for another trip and a cold Cisco Brewery beer this summer.
- Get wedding photos published in a magazine. I will admit, this was a lofty goal to put on here, but I had confidence that with the hard work and heart (and amazing wedding vendors!) put into creating a unique experience for our friends and family at our wedding that we’d end up with a magazine-worthy affair. I’m so grateful that Bliss Celebrations felt the same way — it was such an honor to get to relive the best day of my life when I opened up their magazine.
- Chop hair off for Locks for Love. I really wanted to do this knowing that my mom had gone through the struggle of losing her hair when she had skin cancer. While it can be a little scary to do that giant-chop, it is extremely gratifying to know that it’s going to make an impact on someone who is going through that struggle — it’s more than just hair, it’s your self-confidence. Having seen cancer impact other amazing women in my life, it seems like such a small, simple thing to do to help. I’ll definitely do it again when my hair gets long enough.
- Go on a fabulous picnic. This item gets a funny little short story about my picnic #fail. As we have no backyard in our city apartment, I conjured up a grand plan last summer to cook a big picnic meal for my friends and cart the food, dishes, table decor, and drinks around the block to our neighborhood park. There is a big picnic table and a bocce court at this park and it is always empty — I’ve never seen anyone use it! I packed up several tote bags and boxes to bring my supplies and my husband walked ahead of me to bring the first box over before our friends arrived — only to find a massive children’s birthday party that had taken over every.single.picnic.table in the park. So we didn’t get our park-picnic, but we did eat the meal picnic-style squished onto our tiny apartment balcony with all of our friends, that counts, right? (Also, we did finally get a real picnic in later that summer).
- Go to a movie in the park. Our neighborhood hosts an outdoor movie series every summer, and each year I make it a point to print out the schedule, note the dates on my calendar, and make it a point to go to the showings. I finally made it to a showing on the very last week of the series this summer (we watched Mystic Pizza, I mean, how cute?). It was so much fun and I instantly regretted not going every single week. Note to self: try again this summer, clear your schedule, and do this more often with you girlfriends!
- Bake an amazing birthday cake for someone. Guys, I baked my own donuts and put them on a birthday cake. If a donut-covered birthday cake doesn’t warrant a big giant check mark next to this item on the list, I don’t know what does.
- Establish a gym routine that works. Holy moly I hate working out sooooo much. Shedding for the wedding kicked my butt into high gear and I really did establish a routine for the very first time in my life that involved me going to the gym more routinely. I hired a trainer to help me out and it was totally worth the investment — she taught me how to exercise properly — something I never really knew how to do before (I was a card-carrying indoor kid when I was growing up). I also owe my newfound interest in being healthy to my very dedicated husband that started his own very regimented routine of working out every.single.morning. and eating well — he has rubbed off on me (a little bit) and I really appreciate that. Note to self: keep this up, you’re in your thirties now, health matters!
- Send someone a surprise in the mail. I would argue the person who most often is the recipient of surprise mail is my little sister, because I know like me she really appreciates a good surprise treat. I took it one step further over the holidays this year and sent a little note and some confetti poppers as a New Year’s wish to several of my close friends and inspiring creatives that I’ve been lucky to meet through instagram and this blog over the past year. It feels so good to send a little unexpected cheer someones way. Note to self: keep this up, you’re in your thirties now, unexpected cheer matters!
- Learn to shuck oysters. This just seemed like something a New England girl should know how to do, right? I love to eat oysters so very much, so I should know how to open them! If you’re going to learn, it might as well be from the best. I was super lucky to get invited to tour the Island Creek Oyster Farm in Duxbury, MA (I mean, these guys are like the rock stars of oysters) and learned all about oyster farming and how to shuck ’em.
- Get a blog feature in a magazine. I get all kinds of warm and fuzzy thinking that this goal was achieved, because it seemed so far off and unrealistic when I first wrote it down. But this little ‘ol blog graced the pages of Family Circle Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, The Boston Globe, and Mingle Magazine.
- Collaborate with a national brand. That same prideful feeling falls right into #25 on this list too when I think about how much of a stretch it felt like when I first wrote this list that I would get to work on events with some of my favorite brands like West Elm, Wayfair, and Jonathan Adler.
- Establish Domestikatedlife as an LLC. A real life company, can you believe it? I put this on the list because I wanted to this blog to a place where I could grow it into a business and hopefully someday a full-time career. Big steps can make things feel a little scary, but I know it’s the right step in the direction I want to be headed. Fist bump!
Now, let’s talk about those pesky four items that I just didn’t quite yet finish:
- Ride a horse. This is silly. It was a childhood dream to learn to ride a horse and now that I’m a grown up and can do what I want, I should do it, right? Why didn’t I work on this one? One: I was a little scared! I’m super clumsy and uncoordinated — risk of falling down is a real thing for me every day. Two: I got too busy and didn’t prioritize it as something to do for myself. I’m adding this one to my next list and hope to tackle it in the spring (friends who ride horses, bring me with you! Make me stick to it!)
- See a movie by myself. Oh gosh this one is silly too. I’m so freaked out by the idea of doing something social while alone (confessional moment: I never ate alone in the cafeteria through all of my college years — and high school too! — I would wait and wait and wait for someone to go with me before I would go in alone. I just prefer being around people!). I plan to mark this one off my list in the next few weeks though. I’m currently reading Wild and can’t wait to see the movie, so I’m going to be brave and see it by myself in the theaters once I finish the book.
- Organize blog with categories & write a new about page. I’m working on it! I started to make some small updates here and there but I’ve just outgrown this design and site layout. So a full blog redesign is in my future and these updates will be part of it — I’m so darn excited to get started on it and feel like it’s going to bring things here to the next level.
- Open a shop. Speaking of the next level, this was always my ‘stage 2’ goal for the blog — to open an online shop that featured entertaining goods that I would design and sell and use in my content here on the site. Time is a pain in the butt, man. There’s just not enough of it! With a full-time job, planning events and managing the community for Boston Bloggers, and creating content here for the blog — this idea just hasn’t been given the energy to get off the ground yet. But hey, there’s always next year!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my 3000 word essay about a little bit of everything from the last few years since I first thought up this list. It feels really good to look back and reflect on accomplishments and good memories — it has energized me for what is coming next. Thirties, you ain’t looking’ so bad. Bring it on.
This weekend I made it a point to go check out the Eat Boutique Holiday Pop-Up Shop in Fenway, in an effort to keep my shop-local spirit alive! The pop-up shop is run by the lovely Maggie Battista and the whole space is beyond darling — I gasped a little bit when I saw the gorgeous lettering on the windows right outside the shop. They’re fully stocked with delicious artisan food gifts — everything from cookbooks to simple syrups, tasty jams and baking mixes, and even some fun party supplies from The Flair Exchange and Knot & Bow. I was lucky enough to stop in while Apotheker’s Kitchen was doing a tasting of their honey-sweetened chocolate covered marshmallows and had to bring home a few to add to my obligatory tree-trimming hot cocoa! The Pop-Up will be open Thursdays though Sundays until the 21st, so be sure to go check it out (and don’t forget to take a look at the jam-packed line-up of special events each day so you can join in on some tastings and demonstrations!).
As I pack up for Thanksgiving this week I’m including a few favorite kitchen tools in my overnight bag — totally normal, right? You see, I’m really quite particular about the tools that I use – which makes my family really laugh when I pull my own tongs out of my purse — but the right pieces can make all of the difference when making a meal. And after years of living in apartments with teeny-tiny kitchens, combined with a real love of cooking, I feel like I’ve honed a pretty well-curated collection of just-the-essentials kitchen tools.
It hit me that maybe this list of kitchen items (that I so passionately feel the need to pack in my suitcase) is something worth sharing with my readers as you prepare for the holiday cooking season. Check out the list below for my top 10 basic kitchen tools: 
- I have tons of knives, but I always keep going back to this simple 8″ Calphalon chef knife; it works for most tasks, has a good grip, and bonus: this knife isn’t going to break the bank.
- The Ikea Tekla dish towels are maybe the greatest deal on earth — at less than a dollar a piece I don’t ever worry about them getting stained or ruined. They’re also a staple ‘prop’ and tend to end up in a lot of my blog posts! I’m also a big fan of Williams-Sonoma classic dish towels for bigger clean-ups, they’re super absorbent and come in a really nice range of colors — shown here in the background.
- We registered for our wedding at Pottery Barn and were gifted tons of their Great White dishes — the dipping bowls are probably my favorite item from the collection because in addition to being great serveware, they also make the perfect prep bowls to mix up spices, portion out ingredients, and bring things like butter up to room temperature; I grab these all the time when I’m prepping a recipe.
- The Oxo y-shaped peeler is one of those items that makes you realize how terrible your old cheap kitchen tool was before you replaced it. I tossed several broken peelers before finding this great version; the shape of the handle and the grips on each side make it so much easier and faster to peel veggies.
- My Kuhn Rikon garlic press is probably the biggest splurge on this list, but I can not stress enough how amazing this thing is — it just works so well. You’ll get much more garlic out of a single clove with this tool, and the way that the press pieces separate make for a really easy clean up (something that was so annoying with my previous garlic press!). I can’t recommend this model enough, as someone who cooks with a lot of garlic, this has changed my life in the kitchen!
- If I could choose just one item in my kitchen to work with everyday, it would probably be my Oxo 9″ tongs; I use them pretty much every time I cook. They snap open and closed really easily and they’re the perfect length — not too big!
- I don’t love using too many silicon kitchen tools when I’m cooking with heat, but I did need a solution for avoiding scratched pans. So a few years back I purchased Pampered Chef bamboo spatulas that I use all the time for moving things around the pan. Bamboo doesn’t transfer much heat so I always find that these are a good tool for forgetful folks like me that leave them sitting on the edge of the hot pan.
- The Kuhn Rikon fish spatula is designed for flipping fish but I actually use it for a ton of other cooking purposes. The spatula is just flexible enough that gives you some great leverage and maneuverability for flipping delicate foods like pancakes, but is sturdy enough to handle something as substantial as burgers. I’ve had this one for years, it might be one of the oldest items in my kitchen from this list!
- Similar to my notes above about using bamboo spatulas in lieu of silicon, I always grab my Williams-Sonoma Olive wood spoons – they’re perfect for stirring up a pot of sauce and sneaking a little taste test. Olive wood is really dense so it doesn’t absorb flavors or smells from the food, and they’re pretty darn good-looking.
- On the rare occasion that I’m putting on my baking hat versus cooking something, I grab my Williams-Sonoma spoonula – it’s got all of the functionality of a great spatula for scraping the sides of the bowl, but the slight curve gives it utility as a spoon too (and I’m all about multi-purpose tools in a small kitchen like mine).
This listen isn’t completely comprehensive, but these are my go-to items that I use every week when cooking. A few other favorites include a good cast iron skillet, an all-clad stainless steel fry pan, a quality whisk, an olive oil drizzle bottle, my marble pastry board, and glass tupperware. Okay now spill, what are you essential kitchen tools?
I dove head first into holiday festiveness this weekend. I finished my Christmas shopping and set up what looked like Santa’s workshop in my kitchen to wrap up all of my gifts. I addressed and mailed out a huge stack of Christmas cards. And celebrated the holidays with all of my best friends with perhaps one too many glasses of champagne on Saturday night, followed by a very chilly home through a snowstorm. If that whirlwind of holiday cheer didn’t get me into the Christmas spirit, I don’t know what else would! And now I’m cruising through the work week and counting down to some much-needed time off to close out the year. 
I know that this is a major faux-paus, but while everyone is excited about decorating their tree, my mind zooms straight past Christmas and to my favorite holiday: New Years Eve. While my annual New Year’s shindig may be a month away, I already have my wheels turning gathering inspiration for some fun little touches. Tinsel and drink toppers are on the DIY to-do-list, and I’m seriously eyeing those numbered rocks glasses — aren’t they cute?
Sources: countdown glassware, curly-q DIY, caspari party crackers, tinsel drink stirrer, party hats
As promised, I have a few pictures of my New Years Eve decorations to share today. I know lots of people hate on New Years Eve because it’s usually expensive, cold, and overhyped… but I have a hard time hating on a holiday that celebrates with cases of champagne and sparkly tiaras.
My color theme for the party was bright pinks and jewel tones, and I got to use some of the gold polka-dot glasses that I received as a gift to hold clusters of carnations. Then I used remnants of Ikea fabric to cover the bar and whipped up a banner out of leftover felt from my tree skirt projects.
And I made another sign for the living room, also with leftover felt. Plus I got some festive confetti balloons from the party store — I thought they were part of the plastic but later realized when one popped over my head that they were in fact just clear balloons filled with real confetti!
I also repurposed my felt garland from the Christmas tree and wove it around tables and hung it from windows and picture frames, it was worth all of the tedious cutting and sewing now that they’ve been used for multiple events!
Overall the night was a success! How was your New Years Eve? Did you play hostess too?
