let’s recap this month:
worked on replenishing our emergency stash + finally wrote about our prepared-ish home
worked through our january routines
see how I create my list of monthly and yearly routines here
discovered THE perfect tee. perfect for jeans, perfect for leggings, perfect for knotting, perfect for wearing as-is, perfect for pregnancy, perfect for non-pregnancy, perfect for EVERYTHING. promptly bought four.
bought several of the long-sleeved version, too.
also bought a few floral tees on Etsy (here, here, and here, if ya wanna twin) and I loved how pretty they made jeans or leggings or sweats feel
ALSO couldn’t resist this florist sweatshirt
started a tradition of monkey bread for new year’s morning, reflected on our favorite traditions, brainstormed what new traditions we’d like to start this year - see instagram post here!
here’s our full list of our traditions, if you’d like to brainstorm, too!
talked about the teeny, tiny changes that truly helped us live below our means
if you have any questions about our budget that weren’t answered there, feel free to ask in the comments of this post and I’ll answer!
announced a few times (in hopes most would see it) that I miss a lotttt of DMs — I love chatting with y’all (y’all that are kind, that is), but between taking care of KK and taking care of my own needs, I try to take breaks from Instagram. And I’ve had Instagram notifications turned off of my phone for yearssss, so I miss a lot of DMs. But I know you lovely humans have questions, so I try to share past posts (and blogposts like this one I’m writing) that have a lot of answers. And, and! I try to answer any questions left on instagram posts for two reasons: 1) they’re easier for me to see and 2) they’re public, so both your question and my answer might help someone else. :)
revealed my broken (but still favorite) couch + why we won’t be getting a new one + how routines that take care of our home help
finally found jeans for brett. BLESS. i’ve known him for over ten years, and THIS IS HIS FIRST PAIR SINCE HIGH SCHOOL. (to be clear, he hasn’t been his high school weight since high school. thank goodness. all that to say he’s been without jeans for all that time, so this is long overdue.)
created KK’s January bookshelf
updated my baby amazon board with a few of our current favorites
finally anchored our big ol mirror in our dining room
explained our beloved whiteboard system
I swear this whiteboard and frequent walks are the key to our happy marriage
shared how I cut citrus
continued KK’s exposure to solid foods - SO much fun!!
ordered + LOVED this turquoise headband
I only wear turquoise jewelry, explained here
searched Poshmark for some specific pieces Brett could use in his wardrobe
decided what we eat every Friday is the best thing to come out of 2020
wrote a quick post on how I’ve decided through the years (and through different seasons) how I’ll meal prep that week and the questions I ask myself to pinpoint what would be most helpful for Future Haley.
(so this post is especially beneficial for those of you that ask me how to start meal prepping.)
realized we LOVE build-your-own dinners like this and this
currently brainstorming more ways we can do this
and apparently we love tacos. and anything in the tacos-family, like wraps.
thought I hated jeans. turns out, I was just buying the wrong jeans. thank you, madewell!!
had my wedding bouquet turned into a beautiful piece of art and now it’s my favorite area of our home
HOLY MOLY we forgot how much we love this dinner
announced that IMO fruit is always an acceptable - nay, perfect - dinner side
bonus points if it’s 1) whatever fruit you have laying around (yay less food waste! less grocery money waste! because grocery store haley is always wayyyy overambitious about the amount of produce we eat, so using whatever produce we grabbed copious amounts of for dinner sides solves this debacle perfectly) or 2) fruit you prepped during meal prep sunday.
finally answered all those towel tuesday questions, like how my whites stay white
drop any other questions you have in the comment section of that post!
shared my three go-to dinner strategies here, and one of my favorite dinner formulas here
now that you now them, you’ll notice them over and over
shared my new blue and white front door hanger, how I budget for home decor, the list I have that makes decorating SO EASY, and why I don’t do a lot of seasonal decor here
also in that post? how I budget for traditions/holidays/celebrations, and the four lines in our budget that reallyyyy help us
as always, leave any other questions you have in that post! i’m happy to answer.
brought back naan pizza PRAISE
solved the issue of our standard poodle obsessively drinking water then throwing it all up
appreciated this thing I did while pregnant. thank you, past haley!!
also hung our ironing board using this YAY
added more of these awesome bookshelves to Brett’s office and another small, unused wall. which is perfect, considering my dream was to have a house full of books and comfy seating. check and check!
shared a quick post on alllll the reasons a weekly Snack Dinner Saturday really works for us
finally got doormats!!
finally loved our gift wrap situation
okay, i might be weird here, but I really don’t like reusing gift bags. and I haaaaate going to the store just to buy an overpriced gift bag. strictly because I love taking a sharpie and hand-lettering the recipient’s name, so novelty/themed gift bags removes alllll joy for me. (when I find myself with a ton of gift bags I’ve received, I list them on my neighborhood’s “buy nothing” page.) so we hung a door rack on a closet door, and I bought a few of my favorite gift wrapping staples. and while this might seem trivial, whenever I do need to wrap a gift, I’m always so happy to have done this.
these, these, and these gift bags (I also use these for my business)
plain wrapping paper like this (could also be used for future crafts, projects)
note: I keep our Christmas wrapping paper in this organizer in our attic with the rest of our Christmas stuff.
(this ^^^ is an excerpt from my new blog post our prepared-ish home)
talked about how my love for photos influences our home, our budget, and our routines - see this post for our photo book routine reallyyy works for us! a gentle reminder to get those precious photos off your phone and into your home. :)
shared how we celebrate Valentine’s Day and what I changed so that I learned to love this day
making baskets with KK for her aunts/my sisters? Starting a Mr. Valentine tradition? Making something special for Brett? Eating special food? I’m SO excited. See post for these explained!
ordered white baskets from Target that would work for both Mr. Valentine baskets and Easter Bunny baskets, year after year. we’ll store these baskets in our seasonal boxes.
See y’all next month! See you on Instagram in the meantime. (And, fingers crossed for a newsletter soon.)
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