always adore: love, sweet love

how long has it been since i've done an inspiration board? oh snap, FOREVER!

i forgot how much i love it. 

well, here it is. i'm jumping on the "another holiday is approaching so i better do a round up of all things related blog post" train and posting about some things i like to look at/ wear/eat/make for the particular holiday of Valentine's day. which has never held any special place in my heart, until i had kids and had another reason to decorate the house. 

No.1} if eyeballs could smile, this picture would make mine grin from ear to ear. what, that doesn't make sense... oh well. you get it. i like to look at these little vintage clip arts. you can download them free and have smiling eyeballs too. 

No.2} i may or may not make up a story about cupid eating one of our apples in the shape of a heart for my kids the morning of. 

No.3} heart garland. yes. 

No.4} i wouldn't mind looking at these pretty stacking rings on my fingers forever and ever. 

No.5} the perfect everyday necklace. 

No.6} i love these straws, but i would have trouble actually using them for fear of them getting damaged. oh no. i will be that old lady with plastic covers on her couches when i'm old. 

No. 7} dang. marbles red velvet cheesecake brownies sound like sweet sweet goodness to me. not even close to paleo. 

No.8} these Valentine's would be cute for my daughter to give her little friends. 

No.9} and i'm crushing over these Valentine's for my son to bring to all his friends at school. 

what? a box of nuts and chews from See's Candy didn't make it onto my inspiration board. well, that's a given. i will take a box, if you don't mind. then i will eat them all in one day and call it a cheat day from paleo. and i will go into a sugar coma with a smile on my face, while my teeth rot. 

do you have kids in school? what do you usually hand out for Valentine's day? i'm new to this and super exited... but don't want to go over board and make Big A be THAT kid whose mom made all his valentines. 

but i kinda do. 

kisses,

tara

found on Apartment Therapy!

so... remember how i have that other blog for my invitation design? that i never post on? that still has all my old blog posts on it? well, i recently started getting all kinds of action from the post about my repurposed crib bumper and after looking into my traffic sources i discovered that Apartment Therapy included me in their crib bumper round up.  

hahahaha, yeah! 

go check it out. 

tara

p.s. i also plan on posting 3 wedding invitation suites on that blog soon, so stay tuned. 

p.s.s. hope you're having a wonderful sunday!

paleo template weekly meal plan

prepare yourself for a really long post. it will have pictures, recipes, and long winded explanations. and links. oh yes... i will be adding crazy links. 

ready? no? too bad. 

there's been a lot of talk about paleo and the cleanse we did around these parts lately... and i've never really fully explained why, what, or how. and i figured i should. i've also got a couple friends that i'm trying to convince to go paleo, and part of my convincing is posting my meal plans and recipes online for their ease. (you know who you are...)

the why: one of the main reasons i even know about paleo is because my dad first introduced me to it. being the die hard health nut that he is, he is always doing research on what the best foods for our body are. several years ago he started eating differently, even for him, and we were all skeptical. but he stuck to it and looks and feels amazing. needless to say he got our attention. as a mom and wife i want to be feeding my husband and kids the best fuel for life and i truly believe this is it. after our 21 day cleanse of eating only poultry, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and minimal dairy... we just didn't want to go back. 

the what: read here, here, and here. 

the how:

weekly meal plan

i like to start the week out by poaching chicken breasts or boiling a whole chicken, shredding the meat, and keeping it for salads throughout the week. i also reserve the boiled chicken broth for my soups. 

{SUNDAY}

breakfast: egg muffins (makes enough for leftovers) & grapes

morning snack: ants on a log

lunch: fajita salad with lemon olive oil dressing

{lemon olive oil dressing}

⅓ cup fresh lemon juice (1 large or 11/2 small lemons) 

3/4 cup olive oil

1-2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce 

2 large cloves garlic, crushed 

Fresh ground black pepper to taste 

afternoon snack: carrots & hummus (regular hummus is made with chickpeas, which is not paleo friendly. make a big batch of this for the week)

dinner: sun dried tomato bake with baked and shredded spaghetti squash

{MONDAY}

breakfast: no-oat oatmeal with chopped apples and raisins

morning snack: smoothie 

lunch: waldorf chicken salad

afternoon snack: apple cinnamon cookie with green tea

dinner: italian sausage soup (omit the beans)

no oat oatmeal

apple cinnamon cookie

{TUESDAY}

breakfast: chicken sausage & applesauce topped with cinnamon, fresh blueberries, and almond slivers

morning snack: trail mix

lunch: hard boiled eggs, carrots, and avocado

afternoon snack: banana & almond butter sprinkled with unsweetened shredded coconut

dinner: coconut chicken w/ fried "rice"

coconut chicken & fried "rice"

{WEDNESDAY}

breakfast: leftover egg muffins & oranges

morning snack: banana & almond butter sprinkled with unsweetened shredded coconut

lunch: turkey burger patty w/ avocado & carrots

afternoon snack: macaroons (scroll down for recipe) & tea

dinner: spaghetti w/ spaghetti squash

{THURSDAY}

breakfast: coconut flour pancakes

morning snack: ants on a log

lunch: italian salad

{italian salad}

serves two

four cups spinach

shredded chicken

kalamata olives

sundried tomatoes

mild peppers

afternoon snack: veggie chips & guacamole

dinner: mexican chicken soup (omit beans & tortillas, add 1 small chopped zucchini & 1 small chopped carrot)

{FRIDAY}

breakfast: no-oat oatmeal with berries 

morning snack: smoothie 

lunch: waldorf chicken salad

afternoon snack: thai banana tapioca pudding

{thai banana tapioca pudding}

3 cups water
1-11/2 cups small tapioca pearls
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 or 2 ripe bananas Asian bananas are sweeter but other work fine, mashed
crushed cashew
roasted seame seeds

boil water
while waiting soak tapoca in cold water, take out most of water
add tapoicoa to boiling water
simmer until tapioca is mostly transparent stir often to prevent sticking
add coconut milk, sugar, salt vanilla one at a time
add bananas and cook on simmer 5-8 minutes
if too thick add coconut milk or water

{roasted nut sprinkle}
blend nuts
add 1 tbsp coconut palm sugar
roast for 2 minutes

sprinkle over pudding

dinner: paleo pizza

paleo pizza

thai banana tapioca pudding

{SATURDAY}

breakfast: crepes with blueberries & decadent fruit dip

morning snack: trail mix

lunch: hard boiled egg, carrots, and avocado

afternoon snack: veggie chips & guacamole

dinner: roasted chicken & roasted broccoli

{roasted broccoli}

1-2 heads pf broccoli, cleaned and florets removed

toss with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper

sprinkle with pine nuts

roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turn half way through

whew. one more tip that i do always save the leftovers for my husband's lunch the next day. this has been working out pretty well for us... it takes a little creativity and i can find most things at a regular grocery store, trader joe's, or whole foods. 

let me know what you think! i would love some feedback on whether you used my print out, any of the recipes i recommended, or any changes you made. i'm always looking for new recipes and resources too so share those if you have them! 

also, i've been working on this all week to make sure it was ready in time for Saturday... when you might be grocery shopping for the start of the new week. because i'm OCD like that. 

have fun cooking!

tara

font love friday

NELMA

i've stumbled upon some typography that just made me gasp! this is my favorite font of the week. 

one thing you may or may not know about me is that i love typography. and by love i mean that it gives me a little personal high; like a giant cup of ridiculously good coffee that you sip slowly while chatting with your best friend that you haven't seen in a while, or that bread pudding that tastes like it was made with croissants, or when you were little being so excited the night before going to Disneyland that you couldn't sleep... you know what i mean? no? oh...

that is how much I love typography. 

and i figured since i love typography so much, and am an amateur graphic designer, i should start making beautiful prints with some of my favorite fonts to share with you. one of my best friend's gave me this great idea when she asked me to make namesake posters for each of her children. i thought, what a great idea! to personalize it based on the color of their room, or what toy they have obsessed about since they could grab something, or just the font that screams their name when i see it. 

when searching for new fonts i stumbled across this one and it immediately made me think of my own daughter... so i jumped on my first namesake design. 

not the best picture (or print, our home printer is broken and i would love to outsource this on a heavy weight paper)... but you get the idea. 

here is the jpeg of the design. 

what do you think? i love it. and i hope someday she will too! 

my daughter's namesake. it's a great one. with a great story behind it. i've told some, but not all. maybe one day i'll share it here. i look forward to seeing if it's true for her. 

love,

tara

what we wore wednesday

famiits actually Wednesday, and i'm posting about what we wore. miracle upon miracles. 

{ME}

dress old navy / belt target / leggings target / boots gifted bandolino via macy's / purse steve madden via tjmaxx / what i did tried to run errands, only made it to target before having to carry my screaming daughter out of the store and discipline her in the car. good times. later i will attempt to make paleo lemon curd to put in my paleo crepes tomorrow morning. 

(can we all just take a moment and recognize that i'm not dressed Target from head to toe for once? thank you.)

{Big A}

hoodie target / jeans quiksilver via nordstrom's rack / slip-ons gifted via children's place / what he did was too cool for school... at school. 

{little a}

dress gifted belle dress via the disney store / shirt carter's pajamas via macy's / tights walmart / glitter slip-ons gifted / what she did acted crazytown all morning long, then took an early nap

xoxo,

tara

thrift store score

here are my latest finds from the local thrift stores. 

my MIL gifted this beautiful vintage hat to me, found for $11.50. i snagged the bowl for $3.50 and salad servers for $1.50!! i'm pretty excited about this purchase because i've been using Party City salad servers and a mixing bowl for several years. i am officially a grown up and will be proud to bring my salad to bible study tonight. ha! the lunch trays were found a couple weeks ago when i had a rendezvous with my dear friend Cherish at Salvation Army. 3 trays for $2.10. not bad. they are currently spread around my living room with various plants on top. 

have you found any sweet scores lately? where do you like to go? i''d love to hear about it. 

happy monday!

tara

what we wore

{ME}

hat target / hoodie Hume SD / shirt hand-me-down / jeans levi's 524 / shoes asics / what i did power walked (i don't run) Big A to school

{Big A}

jacket old navy, gifted / flannel thrifted / jeans levi's 510 / boots target / what he did rocked the lumberjack look at school

{little a}

jacket old navy, gifted / dress misha lulu, hand-me-down / leggings target / shoes high top converse / what she did playdate

kisses,

tara

my man's birthday and a bunch of paleo recipes

last week was my amazing husband's birthday. he unfortunately had to work a 12 hour day so i had to make sure that his short time with us in the morning was extra special. 

remember when i told you my hopes for 2012? a part of those hopes were doing a 21 day cleanse, and my sweet honey's birthday was right smack dab in the middle of that. we decided after the holidays were over that a cleanse for us would look like a Paleo template eating only poultry and no dairy cleanse. (we did allow ourselves green tea as a substitute for coffee, and also minimal eggs.) so i had to get a little creative with special birthday food. 

earlier that week i found a recipe for no-oat oatmeal. it is the bomb.com. i'm one of those people who could eat the same thing for breakfast everyday and there was a period in my life when i did, in fact, eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast. it lasted several YEARS. now that we are trying to adhere to a paleo template and also doing a cleanse, we haven't had oatmeal in a while. my husband loved it (he actually requested it for his birthday breakfast!). 

it was early, but he was excited for oatmeal! 

• {NO-OAT OATMEAL}
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 2 Tbs ground flax seed
• 1/2–1 tsp ground cinnamon
• dash of freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 Tbs almond butter
• 1 banana, mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (add more if desired)
• 2 tsp pumpkin seeds
• 1 handful of fresh berries (optional)

1. Add walnuts, pecans, flax seed and spices to a food processor and pulse mixture to a course grain (make sure to stop before it is ground into a powder). Set aside.
2. Whisk together eggs and almond milk until the consistency thickens and becomes a loose custard.
3. Thoroughly blend the mashed banana and almond butter together and add it to the custard, mixing well.
4. Stir in the course nut mixture.
5. In a medium saucepan, warm the mixture on the stove until the “no-oatmeal” reaches the desired consistency; this should only take a few minutes. Stir frequently.
6. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds and berries on top. Add more almond milk if desired.

so good! go make it now. 

one of my husband's birthday traditions is to get a Mrs. Field's cookie cake....but all those traditions were shattered when we started the cleanse so i was on a mission to recreate a paleo version. 

dang. doesn't that look good. can't believe its paleo.

first, i had to make my own homemade paleo chocolate chips. here's the recipe:

{HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHIPS}

1/2 cup cocoa powder

*1/2 cup coconut palm sugar 

1 cup coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla

1. i combined the first three ingredients in a double broiler and stirred frequently until combined and most of the sugar granules had melted. (i don't think they completely melt, at all) 
2. add the vanilla.
3. spread onto parchment paper lined 9x13 pan and refrigerate for an hour. 
4. coarsely chop. 

* might not be "paleo standard" so don't quote me on it. i have seen several paleo websites use it though

for the cookie dough i was inspired by this recipe, but changed a few things. i doubled the recipe, added my own chocolate chunks, and added an egg. here is my recipe below. 

{PALEO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE CAKE}

2 1/2 cups finely ground blanched almond flour (i used Bob's Red Mill, against the original recipe's recommendation and it turned out great)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup raw agave nectar

1/4 cup grape seed oil (i couldn't find macadamia nut oil)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup homemade chocolate chunks

1 egg

1. heat oven to 325.
2. grease 9" round pan.
3. mix dry ingredients. 
4. in separate bowl mix wet ingredients. 
5. combine wet and dry. 
6. add chocolate chunks and pour into pan.  
7. bake for about 40 minutes, checking to make sure it's not turning to brown. if it turns to brown, cover with foil. don't worry if the center doesn't look set or if your knife inserted into center doesn't come out clean. i found that letting mine sit and cool finished the process and we ended up with a nice chewy cookie. 

let me just say... HOLY MOLY. this was freakin good. even my husband was happy and he's a super Mrs. Fields cookie cake snob! (and i mean that in the most loving way.... he won't eat any other cookie cake.)

so the birthday was a success, cleanse and all! 

i should be posting more recipes from the cleanse and info about it soon. it's been pretty awesome. we all feel great and think we're gonna stick pretty closely to this plan as a lifestyle change. 

more on that later. 

let me know if you try these recipes and how yours turned out!

love, 

tara

P.S. babe, i hope you had a great birthday and felt loved by your little family. we adore you and pray that God will bless us with a lifetime of your presence. to be joined with you on this journey through following God, serving His church, raising children, and honoring Him with our marriage is the greatest gift. i love you. 

Living Room Tour

a while back i told you i would be giving a living room tour, after i finished my curtains. well... i finished them last week! and with my in-laws coming into town i also hyper-cleaned the whole house and seized the opportunity to take pictures for you. 

the most major changes since this old living room would be: 

No. 1} the flat screen TV mounted over the fireplace (gifted from my sweet in-laws for Christmas (shout out to my in-laws!)) which not only allowed us to get rid of the crazy old school TV sitting on top of my favorite desk but also to FINALLY anchor the furniture arrangement. we all know how my OCD gets out of hand and i have to rearrange the furniture every month. part of the reason i would get all antsy was because i hated the TV. there is no real spot for it in this living room. so, i was always trying to find a better spot for it. which didn't exsist.

No. 2} taking above said favorite desk and ACTUALLY using it as a desk. OMGAH. its life changing. we got rid of the leaning wall shelves/desk and now the desk area isn't the focal point of the room, it's an after thought. it's tucked in a little corner behind the couch and allows us the ability to have a small but fun workspace even though we don't have an office, per say. 

No. 3} wall gallery. it's still not finished but its giving the room a little more umph. it needed it. 

No. 4} sofa table. this allowed me to have a storage area for the kids crafts. we had them in the garage for a while, which didn't really work because they were out of sight, out of mind. they were also on the dining room floor for a long long time. which gave my husband headaches. now... we can craft our little hearts out all the live long day. 

No. 5} CURTAINS. i think they are my very most favorite part. they just bring so much color into the room. my husband was against the fabric at first, being that they are very floral and have BUTTERFLIES and PARROTS on them... but i seriously fell in love at first sight. then i was wise enough to lovingly share my deep abiding love with him in a very non-naggy way, for reals... and being the wonderful man that he is saw my love and let me get them. because he loves me. HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT!?!?! mmm. i just love that man. (wow... there's a lot of love happening right now. i need a new adjective.) now the only trouble is that i don't have curtain rods yet, so they are all ghetto on the rods that came with the house. as soon as we save our pennies for rods i'll hang them at ceiling height. and it will be a utopia. in my living room. 

No. 6} taking our old bedroom side tables and creating a media stand. its all about repurposing, people... 

so basically i love this living room now. it makes me happy and i'm pretty sure it makes my husband happy. even the butterflies and parrots. ok, probably not. but i'll just pretend they do. just bury it deep down inside. and never think about it. 

because it's utopia. 

xoxo,

tara

thrift store score

my in-laws are in town and we are enjoying every minute with them! they were only supposed to stay for two nights but their transmission broke so now the trip has been extended. 

darn.

i took them to a couple of my favorite salvage warehouses and rummage sales and we found some great stuff. 

how's your weekend? 

kisses, 

tara

What we wore Wednesday

Um, for some reason my start up disk is full on my computer (prob cause it's a dinosaur!) and I can't upload and new pics. So I'm doing a what we wore Wednesday post from my phone. 

I'm wearing old navy shirt, jacket, and shoes, seven for all mankind jeans, and my new Steve madden purse from tjmaxx. 

Hope this works!

Love, 

T

p.s. please excuse my crazy hair. i'm trying to figure out a way to tame the mexican in it and wear it naturally. um, it's not going that well!

(see full image)

Sent from my iPhone

HOPES for 2012

i've never really been big on New Year's Resolutions. i tend to set goals, get paralysed, never achieve them, then wither away in discouragement and failure. (drama) 

so i'm gonna call this my list of HOPES for 2012:

No.1} read my Bible for 10 min. everyday

No.2} maybe start a journal. i'm thinking i'll just sit with a pen in my hand and blank paper in front of me and practice listening to God's voice. if i hear something i'll write it down. no pressure. 

No.3} i would LOVE to start waking up before my kids and getting myself ready. i am disillusioned into thinking that my life would become a utopia if only i could just rise before the dawn. heh. it's worth a try.

No.4} write out a daily routine for the kids and i. our chores, room time, TV, video game schedule. that we can always refer back to it in times of disorder. (ie: i can REMIND the kids what we should be doing right then, and they can also feel more secure over the days activities.)

No.5} making a chore chart for the kids. they really want to do chores. and they really want a chart. which means i really should make one.

No.6} chore chart for myself. i used to have one but never really stuck to it. i wouldn't mind trying again.

No.7} take better care of myself. you know, like shave my legs regularly and put lotion on. 

No.8} 21 day food cleanse. starting today. 

No.9} limit the time i waste on my iphone, checking facebook, instagram, email, pinterest.... i'm convicted it's interfering with my intentionality with the kids and disconnecting me from life.

the fact that i don't have 10 is making my OCD flair up. but i'm just gonna deal with it.  

also, Colossians 3:12-14 convicted me today.  {¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.}

i really want to focus on the whole patience thing. i feel God is pushing me to work in that area of my life. with the kids, specifically. 

oh look, number 10!

what about you? do you set goals/resolutions/make a list of hopes? 

i hear its good for you.

well see. 

tara

p.s. i also HOPE you all have a wonderful 2012. if you don't know Jesus, you should. He doesn't promise utopia if you wake up before your kids in the morning, but he does promise peace that you will never understand. and as crazy, OCD, impatient, disillusioned, or as much as i feel like i failure, He is always there to remind me that i am not and i have peace in the midst of it all. i've lived a crazy life and had some insane experiences... and i promise my life is immeasurably better with Jesus in it. 

oh crap. that's 11...