The Best Ideas For Getting Organized
Because I'm all about reducing physical and emotional clutter in life (I'm even speaking about this topic at BlissDom next month), I'm thrilled to join Asha Dornfest of Parent Hacks and Meagan Francis of The Happiest Mom to host a conversation on The Best Ideas For Getting Organized at The Motherhood. Join us tomorrow -- Monday the 23rd -- from 1-1:30 pm EST to chat about simplifying and streamlining your home, schedule, and life. No complicated technical know-how is required to participate in the chat -- it's basically like commenting in on status updates. You will need a logon at The Motherhood to participate, so hop on over and register now. You can also submit questions in advance if you like.









I had a fantastic time experimenting more deeply (i.e., beyond the IKEA runs I've used the service for in the past) with TaskRabbit as the Boston spokeswoman for their
It's been two weeks since I embarked on the
Hello friends! Per usual, the web was replete with interesting tips and inspiration this week. Here are some links that I thought you'd find interesting -- enjoy!
I recently saw Jennifer of
I consider myself a total eco-geek, but clearly you can never stop learning. I picked up tons of
Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be a bit quiet this week. It's my first school vacation with Laurel and Violet and I'm excited to spend some time relaxing with the girls. We're planning on seeing friends, climbing trees (I'm actually thinking about trying it), finding crazy ways to wrap presents, making the best lemon cake ever for my mother-in-law's birthday, and probably snuggling a lot while reading piles of books (Violet's proven an impressively captive audience so far). And if there's any time leftover, I hope to get a handle on some client work and do a little
I had a fantastic time chatting with Paige Lewin of
Words cannot sufficiently express how much I adore Liz Gumbinner and Kristen Chase. These ladies are smart, funny, and have fantastic taste -- and they share all of their favorite picks via
Today's
Whether you're early or late in your pregnancy, read on for my thoughts on
Well, friends, my due date is St. Patrick's Day, but clearly, I'm not going to be the only lucky one. I
I carry reusable totes everywhere; our car is loaded with them and I always have one scrunched up in my bag du jour. But my collection is getting rather tired so I was thrilled to learn about
I'm not sure whether it's due to our full docket of holiday entertaining over the next couple of weeks or pure maternal nesting mode, but I've been tackling a lot of home projects lately. And last weekend, I became obsessed with the need to repaint a console table that, ironically, I last painted when I was pregnant with Laurel. And given that I'm
If you didn't have a chance to watch
Hands down, my best investment this year has been my
Last week I had the pleasure of being in on a joint blogger interview with the talented (and adorable)
Wow, I truly cannot get over the awesomeness of
Do you -- like me -- enjoy taking pictures but want to take your photography to the next level of awesome? Then tune in to
I'm super excited about tomorrow's episode of
Today,
Today, a handy tip from
Laurel started attending day care part-time when she was 9 months old, and a large part of the communal learning environment since then has -- to my initial chagrin -- revolved around labeling her things. But oh do easy to use labels (read: no sewing whatsoever) make all the difference. Once I started using
Even though we've been in our home for two years, we're still not completely settled, and one area of the house that troubled me for a long time was our dining room. We have one big wall and I had no idea what to do with it. A single sideboard seemed pricey while not filling the space and what I really needed was a lot of storage to accommodate the contents of Laurel's open bookcase (that was exploding with art supplies), and other platters and vases and things. I recently hit on the perfect storage solution and several visitors have since asked me for the specifics about our setup so I thought I would share it here.
I recently started helping my web savvy friend
Today,
As much as I love shopping for pretty new things for Laurel, I'm also keen on finding pretty used things for her, given my eco and
Today,
And
When I was a kid, yard work always seemed onerous because all we did was remove stuff -- weeds, leaves, cut grass, etc. But oh the joy of adding. In alignment with Earth Day, today's
This past weekend when Laurel and I hit the hardware store to pick up some final flood cleanup supplies, she immediately headed for the seed racks. Though we lack the garden space of our previous residence to
Spring has sprung! And today,
Because I'm obsessed with compactness and efficiency, I am immediately drawn to all in one anything, especially when it comes to tech matters (because really, who doesn't want less cables and blinking lights in their office?). So how's this for cool? As part of my Giveaway Goodness series,
Though I always remember my reusable totes when I hit the grocery store, produce bags are another story. I save plastic produce bags with the best intentions, but they never make it back to the store with me. Solution? The pretty, fabric trimmed, cinch-top produce bags by
Probably not unlike many of you, at any given moment, I'm overwhelmed by errands. In addition to the length of my laundry list, I'm short on hours, and also wheels, given that we're a one car family and Jon has the car most weekdays. So I was thrilled to discover the excellence of
Today,
I adore Gabrielle Blair; I first met her at the inaugural
My respect, admiration, and affection for Liz Gumbinner and Kristen Chase of
I feel as if I've known Kristin Brandt and Erin Kane of
One beautiful thing about graduating from early parenting -- during which time I toted way too much stuff in an enormous diaper bag -- was the return of handbag use. Only problem? Laurel and my stuff got jumbled together and swapping handbag contents always was a nuisance, with some critical item (usually hand sanitizer) forgotten. Solution? The
April Paffrath is one of the most devoted foodies I know. No taste is too simple, no ingredient too humble. And when you read her writing, you can tell how much she relishes preparing, tasting, and writing about food. April is a regular contributor here on Boston Mamas, but today I'm thrilled to introduce her via her voice on
From our very first e-mail -- back when I was just starting out and she was very much established already -- Asha Dornfest of
Today,
Last week I attended a media event hosted by
Last month I guest posted about
If you're like us, you're overrun with Halloween candy. I subsequently was thrilled to read
Today,
Per my role as a
Whether you've experienced data loss directly or have heard about hard drive crashes (and precious family photo and video loss...) from friends, clearly it's important to protect your files. Today,
No matter the size of one's home, I believe in maintaining a minimalist, small space mentality given that the less you have, the less overwhelmed you'll be by your stuff. (I chant the mantra "one thing in, one thing out.") In my latest
Despite my attempts to simplify and streamline life, I still have plenty of errands to run. And the other week, when I couldn’t rally Laurel to get excited about the pile of returns I needed to take back to Target (tantalizing, I know...), I queried on
Laurel starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks but I haven’t been sweating the preparations due to a minimalist approach on the material side (the emotional preparation is another story...). In my latest
Given Laurel’s volume of clothing and my distaste for ironing, the fabulous no-iron clothing and shoe labels from
Today,
I’m forgetful about plenty of things these days, but one thing I’m reliably mindful about is recycling and toting my reusable bags to market. And if you need to stock up on eco-wares, check out
Today,
Today,
One of the things I love about weekends is restoring a sense of order to our home after a busy (typically rather untidy) week. And purging is one of my favorite mechanisms to achieve said order. Appropriately then, for the first installment of my new
Today,
Today,
Today,
Today,
I’ll be the first to admit that cleaning is not among my top priorities these days, but hand me new eco-friendly cleaning products and I'll roll my sleeves right up to start scrubbing, hoping upon hope to discover that the eco stuff can live up to the non eco stuff. And this was, in fact, the case when I got my hands on
On Laurel’s first birthday my friend Anne gave us art supplies and a box of
If you’re like us and live amidst a landslide of kiddie artwork, here’s a clever solution to preserve and share those heartstring-tugging gems. Locally based
I’m well aware that my passion for preserving and sharing memories – via photos, videos, and on paper – is related to the fact that I have very little documentation of my own childhood (other than school photos, I have about a dozen baby pictures, all shot on the same day). And as someone who relies on technology (both for work and said memory preservation) yet desires simple spaces and clean lines, I’ve long felt defeated by the battle of cords and cables. So it’s no wonder that I am totally in love with the ridiculously easy to use, blissfully cord-free
I’ve
One of my favorite time and energy savers these days is store-bought rotisserie chicken. I don’t need to remember to prep and bake it (perfect, since there’s no way I’m turning the oven on today…), my kitchen is saved from pan dripping smoke, and the chicken is ridiculously versatile. Today, I’m sharing our latest favorite usage of rotisserie chicken: fast and fantastically yummy chicken pesto salad.
If you love the ease of boxed cake mixes and desire all natural ingredients, fear not - you can have your cake and eat it too. Today,
Here’s a handy household tip from
Today,
Let go of mom guilt with
During this seemingly endless winter, why not think green thoughts? And tomorrow (Thurs., March 5), you can think and learn green at
Perfectly timed for yet another snow day, today,
Now that our
Despite the disaster that is my inbox, clearly my mind is elsewhere on domestic matters. Here’s what caught my eye around the web this week – interesting for those who enjoy pets, baking, gardening, and/or not getting sick - per Love These Links!, where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas. Enjoy!
I adore clever green solutions, and here’s a fabulously chic pick to encourage shopping local.
I’ve recently become obsessed with spring cleaning, and if you’re similarly ready to shake the dust from your closet, head over to
Today I’m sharing a bit of a hybrid link post; including posts that caught my eye per Love These Links! (where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas), plus links from my style blog Weekly Web Roundup partnership. Enjoy!
It’s been a crazy, crazy week, but apparently there’s always time to surf. Here’s what caught my eye around the web this week, in my 2nd edition of Love These Links!, where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas. Enjoy!
I used to have a love-hate relationship with laundry, but these days it’s all love thanks to
I’m always looking for ways to improve our green living practices, and was pleased to see Bon Appétit’s February 2009 feature on
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
Short on time this holiday season? Today,
Today,
Tired of tripping over strollers in your foyer? Today,
As someone who strives for streamlined living and working, I’ve always loved the concept of multifunction machines, but until recently, I had yet to find one (on a reasonable budget) that really and truly did what it was supposed to do. That is, until I tried the
In these challenging economic and environmental times, consider
Today, Heather reports on her daughter's fabulous experience with
Everyone’s heard of, or experienced firsthand, computer crash (with no backup) horror stories; tearful, frustrated tales of valuable work lost and precious digital family photos and videos never to be seen again. Thankfully though, the onerous nature of backups is a thing of the past thanks to the ridiculously easy to use
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
In chatting with other parents about how to handle post-Halloween candy distribution, my blog buddy Isabel Kallman over at
As someone who loves and relies on the convenience of online shopping, it’s probably surprising that grocery delivery isn’t part of our routine. But following my post about
One of my favorite perks of traveling in creative circles is meeting truly inspired and amazing innovators, and I was honored when Melissa Massello and Meghan Udell - the savvy and stylish local brains behind
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
Today,
Today,
Here’s an event that eco-parents will want to try to attend: on Tuesday, Oct. 14 (6-7:30pm),
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners:
Today,
On a regular basis, I begrudge the absurd amount of time and energy we spend on grocery shopping. To get everything we need, we typically hit 3-4 stores, and I have talked to countless moms who share this inefficient routine. So when
It can be challenging for busy parents to pull together paper invitations in advance of events. And the next time you find yourself in this boat, consider sending a pretty e-card.
As an avid list maker, I start each day by jotting down 1-2 major and several minor (read: easy) to do items for the day. But I used to do this on envelope backs or scrap paper; basically, on sheets that quickly got buried under other things on my desk. That is, until I discovered the perfect solution in
Thinking about finances can be intimidating, but having tips and information laid out in simple, tangible terms can help enormously. Today, the producers of
For the past year we’ve been sharing in our neighbor’s