Stella's

I was introduced to a killer place to grab a quick lunch today. It is a fun little grill/cafe on 900 E. and about 4100 S. in Salt Lake. It is called Stella's- the design is fun and the food was great! I had a portabella sandwich with a sweet little side pasta salad. It was so fresh and so delicious! I love finding new places to eat!

Missing the Sunshine. . .

Clay and I spent the weekend in St. George wearing shorts and T-shirts spending time in the glorious sunshine!!! It was amazing feeling the sun beating on your legs and reaching up to feel your warm hair on the top of your head. Just being outside put a smile on your face. I had many moments where I felt like the old me again! Happy and full of life, I felt like saying. . ."there you are old me! The girl that loves sunshine and spending every spare second outside. The girl who loves sunglasses and shorts and warm summer nights. Where have you been?!" And then I remember that the winter me is still in Logan buried under the snow and the smog, waiting for Spring. . .

Funny Blog

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com Check out this blog, it is kind of funny.

Menu Change!

Inspired by Holly, Adam. Kristen and Marshall - Clay and I have made a huge menu change around our house and we feel great about it! We are doing our best to eat all natural, non processed foods. That means cutting out all the high fructose corn syrup, the processed sugars, the hormones and the preservatives. Why? Check out these documentaries -

• Food Inc.
• Meet Your Meat (You Tube)
• King Korn

They all talk about the food industry and all the things we are putting into our bodies so the food industry can make a few extra dollars.

So what are some of the changes we have made?

• We also have switched a few staple ingredients to more natural things such as pure cane sugar instead of white refined sugar, grass fed and free range eggs, organic milk without any hormones, natural peanut butter (Adam's Crunchy!) and bread from a local bakery here in town.
• I found these awesome containers at wal-mart for $1.99 and I shop a lot from the bulk section at Smith's marketplace. Things are really cheap and all raw foods! Some of the favorites are: barley, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, wheat, flax meal, oat bran, pinto beans, rice, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, quinona, and raisins.
  
• We spend a little more time each week cooking dinner and preparing snacks and food for the week. Last Sunday I spend an hour making homemade granola bars and granola cereal.
• I recently was shown an article that talked about buying organic fruits and veggies - it talked a lot about how some fruits and vegetables are okay to buy non-organics such as bananas, oranges and avocados. However three things that you buy that make a difference organically are potatoes, apples, and milk.
• We are not eliminating meat but we are trying not to eat as much meat. We have realized that you don't need meat with every meal, pastas, beans and grains are delicious!

We have found a ton of great recipes and even had a little "foodie" party at Holly and Adam's house on Friday night where everyone brought a dish that was made of all real food. We ate a fine feast of turkey chili, roasted sweet potatoes, pesto pasta, barley pilaf, spinach salad and oatmeal cookies. We are not perfect and we still eat out on occasion and eat at other's homes but I feel we have made some good lifestyle changes that will pay off.

Career Change

If you had to change your career every year, what would your 2010 career be? I love design, don't get me wrong. But, somedays I wonder what else would I like to do? What other jobs are out there that would allow me to learn new things and to work with other people and use other skills. Sometimes I think about all the things there are to learn and do in the world and I really do wish that I could change careers every year. After all, I did change jobs once a year all through college - and what a great thing that was. Now only if that were more do-able on a career level. I think my 2010 career would be something medical. I have been watching my sister Megan go through Medical assisting and heard her stories of working in a Pediatric office. I don't think I could do it for the rest of my life, but for a year - sure!

One Minute Writing Prompt

What would you like to rediscover? I would like to rediscover my love for reading. All during high school and even my first few years in college I would always have a book I was reading. Even if I really didn't have a lot of free time to read, I would sacrifice sleep and stay up late reading my book. I loved it! Somewhere between then and now I have left reading behind. It now takes me months to finish a book and that is if I even have a book I am working on. So with that said, I am going to rediscover reading. Winter is such a great time to curl up on the sofa with a good book. Any good read suggestions?

Oh 2009 . . .

So usually for a nice recap of the year I turn to my journal where I am sure to write most of the important and significant events. However. . . this year I was the worst journal keeper which I must attribute to getting married and having all my routines fly out the window. Next year I hope to get them all back to some extent, atleast the good ones.

So for 2009, here are some of the highlights my brain remembers.

1. Clay proposed on February 7th

2. I started working in Logan at a Design firm know known as michele dunker interiors at the end of March.

3. Clay and I got married on May 9th!!

4. During May we went on two honeymoons due to the swine flu.

5. We went to PArk City for a mini vacation and a shopping spree for my birthday in July! I loved it!

6. We bought our first house in Logan at the very end of July!

7. August we spent moving in and organizing all of our things into our new house!

8. I know. . . a repeat. We went to Park city for a mini vacation for Clay's birthday.

9. September we also got to go to St. George with Jen and Dave and to Island Park for a Fight the New Drug Retreat! (We had to really depend on the nursery substitutes this month)

10. We helped out at the Human Race on Thankgiving Day in Draper. Next year. . . I think I will run it!

11. Christmas was so great! Two families to share the season with!

Happy New Year!

A few of my favorite things!

I was recently at a Target in line and the lady in front of me's grocery bill game to $48.00, she gave the check out guy a stack of coupons and brought her total down to $21.00! I said something to her like. . . wow, i need to use coupons! and she told me about this website. Utahdealdiva.com. I especially love the grocerysmarts link that shows you all the ads for the week and what is actually a good deal. I never know if a sale is a good deal so this really helps me out! I am really awful at grocery shopping but am hoping to get better at it!

The TONY Ikea Shelf! We recently painted our office one of my favorite paint colors - Benjamine Moore Lead Gray and we have been slowly adding these awesome shelves from Ikea to our wall! I just love the chrome brackets!

MINT.COM

Clay and I recently were told about mint.com and what a cool program it is!!!! We love mint and have all of our bank accounts set up through this website which allows us to set budgets and track every single thing we buy! Balancing your checkbook never was so easy!

I rediscovered my love for this Christmas Album that came out last Christmas by the Hotel Cafe. My favorite Song still remains "Winter Song" by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareillas (sorry about the spelling!)

I actually haven't read her book, but I love her website and blog. It is all about green living and eating organics and fresh foods. Clay and I recently were in a discussion at his house over Sunday dinner and decided to try and eat much less processed foods. We then watched the documentary "Food Inc." and we are defiantly sold on the idea of non processed foods.

Tinyprints.com is such a fun graphics website and they have some way fun Christmas Tags. Sometimes I just go here for inspiration for making my own things.