So those who know me well know that I constantly struggle with what to wear.

I did some googling and pinterest digging, but all I could come up with were too mom’ish, or showed me clothes from J Crew that I can’t afford. Having 3 kids and running my own business, I don’t have a ton of extra cheese to spend on clothes, so shopping and Nordie’s isn’t going to work for me. I also tend to get really overwhelmed when I go shopping and will just grab whatever without having any sort of plan. So plan I did.

I love trends! But in wanting to get colored jeans, I then had to get tops to match them. So, go with the trends, but make sure you have basics in neutrals to support them.

I personally prefer black over brown, so for all of my list and accessories are for a basic black based wardrobe for winter. Once you have your basics, you can build onto them with trend items, but get back to the basics so that you can have an awesome base to grow off of. Some of these you probably already have, so adjust the list based on what you actually need. Click on the image below to see my look book with pinned items from Forever 21 and UrbanOG.

Jeans – budget: 75

1 light wash – 19.80
1 black – 22.80
1 dark denim – 24.80

Skirts – budget: 30

tight black skirt: 12.80
flow black skirt: 13.80

Tanks/tees – budget: 50

3 tees
cute blank tanks (no beaters or camis with elastic straps) in grey, black, white

Blouses: budget 150

10 (wardrobe staple, this is where you go crazy, get at least one black top)

Dresses – budget: 75

2-4 cute dresses

Sweaters – budget: 200 (these are generally more expensive than blouses)

5-8
cardigans – grey, white and black or cream

shoes – budget: 75

black boots – 25.90
black heels – 27.90
black flats – 16.80

hosiery budget: 30

leggings – 2-4 pair
tights – 2-4 pair

accessories – budget: 40

brown thick belt
black skinny belt
scarves

jewelry- budget: 100

10 coordinating tiny  bracelets
gold bangles
14” simple gold necklace
18” simple gold necklaces (2-4)
24” gold necklaces or chains (this is your show piece)

jackets – budget: 100

black blazer – 24.80
black coat – 39.80

Total for entire new winter wardrobe – $940

Click here to download a printable spreadsheet checklist

Poop. Bloody poop. I wish it were the funny British cursing poop, but no. Real bloody poop. From my dog. In my kitchen.

That started by day yesterday. I rushed our 9 year old lab to the vet to find out she has an bacterial infection in her intestines and…wait for it…….Hepatitis. I’ve got to get her to stop sharing needles with the junkie dogs in our neighborhood.

It’s totally treatable. That’s the good news. And, we got a wellness plan which saved us a good 500$ yesterday. Also good news. That didn’t really stop my afternoon from being a complete wreck though. Walk through it with me for old time’s sake.

3:15 – vet calls with the news, lets me know I can come get her.

3:16 – Candice starts screaming. She’s tired! But the bus lets off at 3:45 and I don’t want to wake her up, so up she stays. She is visibly unhappy about this.

3:45 – Claire comes home off the bus. “Where’s Chloe,” I say? “Uhhh, I don’t know,” says Claire. Oh yeah – it’s Wednesday which means Chloe has nature club until 4:30.

3:46 – Candice starts screaming in earnest. I pack everyone in and drive to the school hoping (wistfully) that she’ll fall asleep in the car.

3:47 – Cue torrential downpour

4:30 – Nature club is released, but it’s raining. There’s a bush in the way and I can’t see Chloe, she can’t see me, so the teacher won’t let her go. I have no idea where she is, so I have to get out in the pouring rain leaving screaming baby in the car with 5 year old.

4:32 – Soaking wet, deep breath, drive to pet store

5:00 – pick up Lula, need to get her some different food and treats to hide her giant horse pills in. Chloe pushes cart with baby in it, I wrestle 88lb dog and try to read dog food labels

5:01 – Lula bloody poops a gallon on floor of Petsmart. I sheepishly apologize to a teenage girl that walks by who points me disgustedly to a pet mess station. Um, did you not see the GIGANTIC mess? And you want me to use single server paper towels and a poop bag? Classic. Claire happens to be standing in the center of said poop mess in rain boots and a rainjacket, looking around with saucer eyes like she’s in a mine field.

5:05 – After 10 trips to the poop station for supplies, a manager finally comes over with a ream of paper towels and a petsmart bag. He saw me and came to help – the little snatch that left me there with my three kids, a gallon of bloody poop, and a freaked out 88lb dog that my 7 year old was trying to keep in check, was no help whatsoever.

5:08 – Attempt 2 at reading dog food labels

5:09 – More poop. Ensue song and dance deux.

5:12 – Decide to get the $(*% out of Petsmart. I have to get the treats though or she won’t eat them. I’m sweating buckets that this point from stress.

5:20 – Kids, dog, meds and self are in car headed home.

5:45 – 7:15 – screaming baby

6:30 – 7:00 – fit throwing DivaClaire, sent to room, locks me out. Result: Claire no longer is allowed a doorknob.

8:00 – kids in bed, beer in hand, nerves somewhere on Mars.

Let’s hope today is better because more days like that and I may end up in a mental institution.

busy beavers

So I’m busy. Like, really busy. And so is Jeff. We realized about 6 months ago that we were wasting mad cash because we weren’t planning our meals. But we didn’t have time to plan meals either.

I saw through following the owner of Project Life’s facebook that she used e-mealz, which is a meal planning website.

E-mealz -Here’s how it works

Subscription is 5$ a month which gets you access to their weekly meals. You can choose from various lists (safeway, walmart, vegetarian, meals for 2) and every week you get a menu with instructions and a grocery list. EASY!

the only problem

The meals were totally hit or miss.

Sometimes the meals were great. Sometimes the recipes were jacked up and I ruined dinner. Most of the time, the meals didn’t coincide to use the same ingredients. Sometimes there was way too much food. Sometimes there wasn’t enough. They say on their site that groceries for your weekly recipes should be 85/week. We were spending about 120. And, there were only about 5 real dinners per week, plus a lunch and a breakfast. I don’t really ever want to cook lunch, or one of their breakfasts. Also, I couldn’t choose what I wanted, or recall any other recipes.

relish relish.

Then, Jasmere ran a deal on a meal planning site called Relish. I so  jumped ship because we were so sick of the meals with e-mealz. Here’s the rundown:

Subscription is 7/mo
You get 15 recipes to choose from to add to your weekly list (as many as you want)
There are also 15 freezer recipes to choose from (set it all up, stick it in the freezer, cook when you want)
Once you move the recipes into your list, you can print up a grocery list and your recipes
You can set how many servings you want (2-8) so the recipe is automatically adjusted to your family size
Each recipe gives you a rundown of calories, protein, sugar, etc as well as WW points
You can save your favorite recipes and add them back into your list whenever you want
The recipes are DELICIOUS
They have real instructions (e-mealz is one short paragraph, typically as long as your ingredient list)
Groceries for a 6 dinner week was 94$ last week
The ingredients coincide through the recipes
They have other lists you can access at any point (like kid friendly, vegetarian, various holidays, etc), as well as all of their past recipes
The meals generally take 30 minutes or less to make
All of the recipes I’ve had so far are pretty low carb (e-mealz: just about every meal had pasta, rice, or garlic bread in it)

Can I tell you that I LOVE THIS WEBSITE. Love. It not only makes my life easier, but it’s saving me money and getting me excited about cooking again. I used E-Mealz for about 6 months, we’ve been on relish for a few weeks now. There’s really no comparison. Relish is amazing and full of really delicious recipes. Every week they have a theme too, like last week was pineapple. They had me making pineapple mango salsa, grilling amazing marinated pork chops with grilled pineapple, etc. This week it’s jamaican, several of the recipes have chimichurri or jerk flavors. The other night, we had lasagna spinach roll ups with a salad with homemade buttermilk cucumber ranch dressing. DROOL.

Go give it a shot, you’re not going to be sorry. Click here to go to Relish and get your grub on.

get dressed, lazy.

Working from home it’s easy to get into a rut that involves sleeping until you want to and working in your pj’s or yoga pants all day. FYI – wearing yoga pants is not equivalent to getting dressed! At least, I tell myself that or else I’d wear them every.single.day. All day.

so what did I do about it?

My biggest issue is how to get  motivated to get dressed and put a spot of makeup on so I don’t feel like a slag come 5pm. So I decided to take a picture of myself every day at 9:45 am. Either I was going to look cute, or I was going to look a wreck. I opted for cute. And, for accountability sake, I’m posting them here. Talk about motivated!! I’ve gotten dressed every day. In real clothes. Complete with a little lip gloss.

how to make it realistic

I’ve been taking a shower at night and blowdrying my hair before bed so I don’t have to do it in the morning. If I have to shower in the morning, it’s going to take me 45 minutes to get dressed and get on with the day. Yesterday, it took me 12 minutes to throw on clothes, foundation, blush, mascara, and a little lip gloss. And brush my teeth. Don’t forget that.

did it work?

You bet. It’s made a huge difference in my attitude, my productivity, but best of all, my self esteem. I didn’t realize how crappy I felt at the end of the day when I was in the same thing I went to bed in the night before. I was amazed at how quickly I got dressed and put a smidge of makeup on. Do you have 12 minutes every day to get presentable? I found the time and am so much happier for it. So is my husband

The first few months here haven’t been so bad. I’ve been skyping, texting, calling friends from back home and it hasn’t really felt like I’ve been gone. Until recently.

get out of my butt

That’s what Parrish said (with her mind) last week after I was constantly hounding her about…well…everything. Like I needed to call her every time anything happened, or I saw something that made me think of her, or wanted to talk to ask her how to do something (like paint furniture, or really anything – she’s like a hipster martha stewart). And then I realized – I need some friends here.

meeting moms

This has to be one of the hardest things to do without joining a mom’s group. So I joined a mom’s group. I actually thought I gt rejected because it took a few days to get approved. sad face. Was super stoked today to get APPROVED (say it like the Target lady!) – am going to the first event next week. happy face! I’m way too excited about it – which tells me again that I really, really needs me some friends!

To all of you out there (hi mom! Actually, I don’t even think my mom reads my blog haha), I hope you have a happy holiday weekend full of sparklies and yums and good times.