Purge. It feels good. 

Have you ever felt like your possessions are growing like weeds and choking the life out of you or your house? Have you ever looked at a pair of shoes and forgot that you owned them? 

When I was in my twenties I had this though--What you love truly owns you.  I don't want ANY possession to have a hold on me so strongly that it gets in the way of what is really important in life.  I try to live by the motto that I will own nothing that I am not willing to give away (*not that I am perfect at this but I try to filter my possessions through that motto to see where my heart is). 

I got a hold of a really awesome book called, "Organized Simplicity: The Clutter Free Approach to Simplified Living" . I have been slowly working through it and I have to say I am buying it as gifts for people! It has some great and practical tools on taking inventory of your life values and applying those values to your living space and each item that you own. (This book is a MUST read for moms--it has all kind of practical/organizational momming stuff that I would want to read if I had kids and I felt stressed out). 

Today I started in on my closet--we had a large pile at the foot of our closet growing into what we called, "crap mountain". I filtered each item in the closet (and in the pile) through a couple of questions, "Do I love this?" and "Do I wear this?". My third filter was Travis, who got to tell me if he liked it--if he gave it a thumbs down it was an automatic garage sale item. We went through his clothes with the same system. Once in a while you will run into an item that you feel guilty for wanting to get rid of (most often a gift from someone you care about), I say if the item is not adding value to your life be thankful for that gift and then let it go. When my sister and I give each other gifts we always attach a guilt free clause to the item by saying, "When you are done with this, feel free to give it away."  

After I was done carrying a large bag of clothes, shoes and socks out of my room--it felt awesome!  *Here to making more room in our lives for people, meaningful experiences and a less stressful life. 

 I am from Portland--home of some of my favorite Thai food on the planet.  I love flavorful soups and I have made this Red Curry Peanut Chicken Soup three times in the last 10 days---we love it! 

Ingredients: 

3 chicken breasts 
3 cups of water or chicken broth
2 cans of Light Coconut Milk
2 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 diced onion  
1 cup corn 
1 cup shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups broccoli 
1/4 cup of nutty peanut butter 
3-4 tablespoons of red curry paste 
2 tablespoons of lemon pepper
2 teaspoons ginger powder 
2 tablespoons of Liquid Amino Acid or soy sauce
3 teaspoons of basil
1 fresh squeezed lime
                                                                                                               1 tablespoon of sugar 
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Boil Chicken breast in water until they begin to cook. Remove chicken from the water and chop into small pieces. Use 3 cups of that water to start the soup base or pour 3 cups of chicken broth into a medium sauce pan to begin the soup. 

Combine all ingredients except the lime into sauce pan on Medium-High heat.  After the soup begins to boil, turn the temperature down and allow to simmer for 35 minutes. Add fresh squeezed lime and Garnish with parsley. 

Note: Later in the week I made the same same soup without chicken and it was still amazing. You can mix different veggies in and it tastes great. 

My mom has a tradition of making a family cook book every few years and I have been cooking some of the recipes out if it this week. These easy no bake cookies were a staple in my home growing up and they are tasty! 

Ingredients: 
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup milk 
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3 cups of oat meal 

Note: You can substitute one cup of the oatmeal with any combination of ingredients like coconut, nuts, seeds, wheat germ or bran. I used 1 cup of shredded coconut in place of 1 cup of oat meal. 
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Boil sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a saucepan for about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and add peanut butter, oatmeal and salt.  Drop spoonfuls onto wax pater and allow to cool for 30 minutes. 

Have a friend on a wedding budget?  Making a bridal bouquet can be really easy and cheap!  I have to make them for photo shoots on the fly and often use what I can find on hand.  The average bridal bouquet cost between $70 to $300. This one was made for free with a few supplies I had around the house, including hydrangeas from mom's garden.  When I don't have flowers on hand, I go the the local farmers market and buy a few varieties of fresh flowers ($6-8) or buy 2 dozen roses from costco ($12).
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Cost: Free-$12 
Supplies:
*Ribbon or strips of coordinated fabric 
*Buttons 
*Twisty ties (or rubber bands) 
*Scissors 
*Hot glue gun  
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1. Cut flowers so that stems are about 8 inches from the bottom of the head of the flower.

2. Starting with one flower or a small cluster of flowers begin to add flowers one by one in a circular pattern until you form a nice bouquet. In this case I used hydrangeas which had really big blooms so I only needed 3-4.  After you have gathered the flowers nicely together and are holding them tightly-- fasten them together with twisty ties or rubber bands.

3. Take your strip of ribbon and hot glue the edge about 2 inches under the flowers. Use this as a starting point to begin to wrap the stems with the ribbon or fabric.  Wrap them tightly.  (I used a matching scrap of fabric for my ribbon)

4. Leave a 1-2 inches of stem showing at the bottom of the bouquet and glue the end of the ribbon to finish off wrapping of the ribbon. 

5. For a quick finishing touch, I hot glued mix and match buttons onto the ribbon. You could use vintage brooches to dress it up a little bit more. 

6. Trim the stems evenly about 1 1/2-2 inches from the bottom of the ribbon edge.