Naptime Lifestyle: Everyday Favorites for Everyday Life

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I wasn’t around here much because I unplugged a little bit. I spent most of the two weeks focusing on finishing up the manuscript for the next book and I finally handed it in (!!!!) It was just the first draft. But that draft took me nearly a year to write and I am so excited that the ball is really rolling. That said, my New Year’s resolution is to get back on my game here with social media! Between the book, the baby, and the move I haven’t been as present as I like to me and this year that will change. Let’s get started:

As we round out the week before Christmas I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things from around the web. I’ll be back next week with a few of my favorite last-minute holiday food ideas. Until then, here are so great reads (and eats!) that are making my mouth water!

Buying stuff for my little guy can be tough. He clearly doesn’t need anything and certainly doesn’t understand Christmas yet. However, Santa has not forgotten him and I’m sure there will be a few fun things under the tree!

This is my third gift guide of the season. As you can guess it is inspired by my young daughter. It is so much fun to shop for kids, I think. I am always on the hunt for toys and gear that will inspire and motivate her young mind.

This is the gift guide that mamas should forward to all the men in your lives. There a are a lot of kitchen and garden related gifts in here, but there are also a lot of fun items I just think are really great. Happy shopping!

This December I’m publishing four gift guides I’ve been working on all fall. I have so much fun collecting ideas all year long. There are a lot of kitchen and garden related gifts in here (naturally), but also some other items I think are great. I hope these inspire you while you shop for your loved ones this season!

I recently returned from the Pillsbury Bake-Off in Las Vegas (more on that soon!) rarin’ to go for the holidays. Being away from home for a few days gave me time to gather my thoughts for the upcoming season. It was just what I needed to get myself in the mood for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Earlier this fall I started working with a great team at iVillage on their Get Organized for the Holidays Community Challenge. I know it is not easy to do, especially when you are working, dealing with kids, and the like. The to-do lists and requests can easily become overwhelming! To help take some of the stress out of the holidays, and make them a little more fun, our team has been working hard to assemble awesome tips to get you organized this year.

Right after we moved my friends at T-Fal sent me a new Wolfgang Puck Oven for our new kitchen. I was so excited to try it out because I needed a countertop oven to help me with recipe testing. Plus, I like using countertop ovens to reheat food. The interesting thing about this oven is that not only can you bake small trays of cookies and reheat chicken, you can also use it as a pressure oven. I did not have a lot of experience with a pressure oven when I go it, but I do now and it is great!

With the holidays coming up I am starting to think about feeding a crowd in our new house. I like to try to make our festive meals from scratch and it is always a bit of a juggling act with only one oven. When I think about my dream kitchen renovation one of the things I want to build in is a double wall oven. I’ve never had a double oven and it seems like it would make cooking for a crowd a million times easier. How great would it be to be able to roast a turkey in one oven while baking all the side dishes in the other?! Two ovens would also make recipe testing easier. I could make dinner while still working on a new cake recipe. Here is what I am thinking:

There are so many things to think about for the kitchen renovation it is hard to know where to begin. Right now we are targeting summer 2015, but we will see where the wind takes us. In the mean time, I have been obsessing over countertops lately. Our current ones are hunter green faux marble tile and they just aren’t my style. Plus, they are pretty worn. Right now I am tied to the idea of using dark wood counters in the new kitchen. I love how they look polished, yet still a little rustic. I also find wood comfortable for food preparation and cooking with kids.

Yesterday I shared our new kitchen and today I am unveiling our new yard. We loved this space from the moment we saw it because of the huge gardening potential. I come from a long line of gardeners, and my husband has three different hedge trimmers, so we are equipped and excited to take on this challenge of making a colorful lush flower garden. In fact, we can’t wait! I can so easily envision the end result and it is gorgeous. However, getting there is definitely going to take a lot work. Along with my new kitchen series I will be starting the “Garden Idea File.” I’ll be sharing different ideas I have and asking for feedback. If you see my making mistakes please speak up – I’ll need the guidance! Since fall is here we are just going to clean up the weeds and take down a half-dead tree for now. Next spring the real planting will begin.

Today I am taking you on a little tour of our new kitchen. As you will see, we have a lot of work ahead. The kitchen will be gutted and redone over time. We want to hook gas lines into the house for a gas stove top, we need more space for food preparation and eating, and we need new appliances that will enable us to wash more dishes and hold more food for our hungry family of four. So, in truth, I am looking at this room as blank slate to shape into exactly what we want for the long term.