Here’s another favorite by Lao Tzu I wanted to share with you before beginning another busy week. Hope you all had a great weekend!

A friend of mine asked me how do I manage to cook healthy meals while working what seems at times 2 full-time jobs. Simple. It’s all about the planning. First thing I do is either make meals the night before or early in the morning.

Tip: If you wear contacts, put them in prior to cutting onions and garlic. It will burn your eyes. I learned that the hard way Ouch!.

Next I use the personalized weekly dinner menu to plan our dinners for the week. Typically I’ll sit down Saturday or Sunday morning with a cup of coffee before the crew gets up and flip through my cooking magazines, cookbooks, and websites to search for meals that satisfy 4 criteria: easy, delicious, healthy, and can be tailored to Kendall’s allergies. I’ve gotten creative over time searching for alternatives. One of our favorite dishes Wayne and I enjoyed pre-Kendall was Spaghetti Bolognese, but I never made it again once we found out Kendall was allergic to dairy. But recently on a shopping trip to Whole Foods I found dairy-free cream cheese. Spaghetti Bolognese is back on the list and the menu for next week. Yum!

Some of my favorite go-to cook books are Express Lane Meals by Rachel Ray and Giada’s Family Dinners by Giada De Laurentiis. I’ll use recipes from Rachel’s cookbooks during the week because they only take only 30 minutes, for the most part. Honestly you need to have everything prepared for it ahead of time to really take 30 minutes, but they are still quicker than most recipes. I’ll use Giada’s recipes more on the weekend when I have the time to really tend to the meal. Recently though I’ve been using Cooking Light’s magazines and website. Their recipes are very healthy and typically are already allergen-free or easily substitutable. Our favorite is the barbeque chicken with mustard glaze. My next cookbook I hope to get I found in the Parenting magazine. In her book The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book, Kelly offers allergen-free recipes for baked goods. I have a feeling this will go over well in our home.

So after making the menu I’ll create the grocery list. This not only saves time while grocery shopping, especially if you have a child with a short attention span, but saves money too. I’m less likely to have impulse purchases because I get what’s on my list and leave. But don’t get me wrong, I still buy those chips or chocolate bars that didn’t make it to the list but in my shopping cart. Hmmm…how’d that get in there?

What are your favorite go-to recipes or cooking resources? Any tips for making quick and healthy meals on a short amount of time?

While planning our wedding I came across a lot of traditional difference between my friends getting married in Connecticut and those getting married in the South. In the South it’s tradition to have bridal portraits taken a month or so prior to the wedding, but not really up here. But I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to get all gussied up in my wedding dress and get my picture taken. No way! So off I go with my heavy wedding dress in tow onto the plane. Paranoid as ever I try to get the stewardesses to put my dress in first class. It worked on the first leg but not so much on the second. So I lay my dress down as carefully as I could in the overhead compartment and pray that no one puts their luggage on top of the dress. Let’s just say that was the longest flight to Texas I’d ever been on.

Here’s a tip: if you’re flying with a wedding dress, call the airlines ahead of time and see if they can accomodate you. Sometimes they will and sometimes they will have you just talk with the stewardess upon boarding the plane and see if there is any room in first class.

Shipping was another option but I was way too paranoid to let that dress out of my sight.

The portraits were taken on location of our wedding venue, the Annabelle Mansion. It was a spectacular 3-floor white mansion with gorgeous grounds which included a pool, lake, and swans. I chose the downstairs lobby, formal living room, and upstairs master suite where the brides get dressed on their wedding day. And our photographer, Edward, had a little say in location as well.

Do you remember taking a picture when you were younger in your soccer uniform and a ball on your knee? Ha!

Wayne took a boys trip out to London this weekend to see Arsenal play. The boy was in heaven. I received many texts letting me know how much fun he’s having. He so deserves it.

So that left Kendall and I to fend for ourselves. We took full advantage of having the house to ourselves to be lazy. Today we lounged around in our PJs until 3pm before leaving the house only to go to the grocery store. Yesterday, however, was full of activities. We went to story time at our local Borders and much to our surprise they were celebrating Elmo’s 3rd birthday. So we stayed a little while longer to attend his “birthday party.” I don’t know if Elmo made an appearance or not as I spent the entire time running my child down as she ran through the aisles playing hide and seek. Let’s just say we left earlier than planned.

Later that day we had a play date with a friend and her 1-year old to Kid City museum. This was a lot of fun and tiring. I really appreciated the antiques they used to deck out the place. Old cash machines, school desks, even kitchen appliances. There were so many rooms and places to get lost in that it will take a few visits to get a good lay of the ground.

What did you do this weekend? See any good movies?

Lately Kendall’s new obsession has been the youtube video of the chipettes singing “All the Single Ladies.” She has the ability to find our iPhones, locate the television icon, and search for the video. Not to mention the many crank calls she makes to loving family members during the wee hours of the morning while we are busy getting ready for the day. See the second picture? She can even do it with her eyes closed!

However her curiosity and knowledge is starting to expand from the latest gadget to her body parts. This was our conversation one morning last week while getting her dressed:

KB: Mom, what’s dat? while pointing to my face
Me: That’s mommy’s pimple.
while pointing to her chest she says:
KB: Pimple mommy!!!!
Me: No honey, that’s not a pimple it’s your nipple
KB: NIPPLE! NIPPLE! NIPPLE!

I thought I had awhile before I needed to explain this??

Some of you have noticed the changes that have been going on around here. You might call it spring cleaning, a little house keeping so to speak. But in reality my vision and voice for this little business became clear. I came to a cross roads not to long ago and had to make a decision: do I continue Perideau Designs as a hobby or do I take it to the next level and follow my dreams. I decided to take the second path, but not as I have done in the past. Before I would have made a decision and then just run with it, without a second thought. This time I let things mature organically and although frustrating at times for someone who has patience of a gnat I let it go. And the outcome was clear, I needed to look at what I was doing and not what everyone else was. My best seller has been the personalized giraffe prints and from that came the ‘mascot’ and logo for Perideau Designs. And the new colors? Well the name perideau originated from my birthstone, peridot which is a lime green. After many takes on color schemes came the muted and soothing green you now see in my banner. It just all fell into place and I couldn’t be more happy.

After I established my brand I needed some guidance on taking it up a notch. After pouring over Meg Ilasco’s book, Craft Inc., in the bookstore, I decided to purchase it since it was full of so many great tips from setting goals to how to become a wholeseller. Now that I have a game plan and timeline in place I can confidently move forward with my new e-commerce website which will debut later this year. I needed a way to ease the transaction process and become more efficient and with all the personalization options I offer, it was needed. So I hired the lovely team at Aeolidia and the timing of this post couldn’t have been better because this morning I received my first draft of the design and I couldn’t be more ecstatic. I even did a little yelp out loud.

And one last thing before I go, I said before that I needed to be true to myself on this blog. Well, as you can see, I’ve also taken that beyond the blog and applied the same philosophy to my business. But here on the blog you will see more about me, my life, my family, and the in’s and out’s of running a business. I tried dishing out hot topics and news, but frankly that’s not me. I’ll still show you products and people/businesses but it won’t be in the form of a series but more free flowing.

So there you have it. However, if you know me at all, this isn’t the end. I still have more up my sleeve.

On Saturday I went out to dinner with the fabulous Alissa Harvey of Mew Paper Arts. It was our first time meeting in person but if you saw us that night you would’ve thought we were old friends. The wine and conversation never stopped flowing. We met at 4:30 and didn’t leave until 10pm!!! One question Alissa asked was why I never shared any pictures of my wedding. I had no answer other than good idea! Because our photographer was awesome and took oodles amount of pictures I’ll split them up not to overwhelm you. Ready?

We found our fabulous photographer, Edward Ramirez back in 2005, through a bride, Sara, who also got married at the same location as we did. A little background, we got married at Annabelle Mansion in Burleson, Texas. Wayne and I living in Connecticut made it difficult to plan from far away so I relied heavily on www.theknot.com for resources. Sara, who already was on www.theknot.com, was getting married at the same location as Wayne and I. So we instantly connected and became great friends, still to this day. She referred me to Edward who did an amazing job capturing all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with a Texas wedding, because it’s true, everything is bigger in Texas.

We first met Edward during our engagement shoot that took place in downtown Dallas. I wanted something different and urban and Edward didn’t disappoint. Check out some of the great photographs he took on that hot and humid Texas day.

Check back next week for more!

I use quotes all the time to really inspire me when I’m in a rut. One of my favorite quotes is by Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” Found via Sasha, one of my BYW fellow classmates. Today I stumbled upon the above quote over here that struck a strong cord with me. I am guilty of impulse purchases and buying just to have pretty shiny new things. But as I look at my daughter imitate every move and sound I make, it got me thinking. Do I want her to take after my bad habits of shopping just to shop? Buying just to buy? Thoughts like these aren’t learned in books about parenting. It just hits you one day and you start to look inside and re-evaluate your priorities, your decisions, your every move. Who am I? Who do I want to be? And how can I guide this impressionable young mind? The thoughts that are swimming through my mind…

Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share? How does it inspire you?

That’s right, I said it. A bathroom towel ring can be used in a kitchen. I got the idea while watching 5 Ingredient Fix on the Food Network and in the background above the kitchen sink was a towel ring being used to hold a dish towel. Ingenious! An inexpensive and stylish way of getting your dish towels off the counters, sinks, and ovens.

Ever felt love at first sight? I did when I received a message from Michelle on twitter. Michelle, along with her husband Conrad, recently opened a shop in Montreal dedicated to handmade headboards. I would describe their style as modern, sophisticated, and refreshing. And what sets them apart from other shops I know is they not only share their processes but their mission is to educate the consumer and teach them how much love and hard work goes into every piece. So let’s meet the sweet couple behind Holley & Gill, shall we, eh?

Tell us about yourselves.
I’ve been a graphic designer and illustrator by trade for over 10 years but needed a wider outlet for my creativity. My husband who works in business development and marketing supported and helped me with realizing this new venture. We opened up our Etsy store in December but have been building Holley & Gill up for the last year. When I say “we”, I do mean myself, Michelle, and my husband Conrad. We live in Montreal, Quebec but Conrad is originally from Hampshire, England. With two young children, we strive to always push ourselves outside of our comfort-zones. Holley & Gill is an ongoing project that allows us to follow our dreams, become better parents and hopefully use this as an example to our children that they should never let anything hold them back.

What do you specialize in?
We specialize in designing original products for the home that are environmentally conscious and have a story to tell. Each and every piece we have made and will make in the future will have some unique quality in the craftsmanship and design. We also collaborate with artists who compliment our design and production process resulting in a vision that we can be proud to put H&G’s stamp on.

How did you come up with the name Holley & Gill?
Holley is my grandmother’s maiden name and Gill is Conrad’s mothers maiden name, so naturally it provides a great basis for a family partnership.

Why do you share your process?
We want to make products that evoke curiosity. Our customers want to know when it was made, who made it and how it was made. Sometimes we will make a new product and just let it sit in our studio for weeks before we decide on whether to go ahead and put it out there under our banner. Other times, we just get pleasure out of making something even if we never sell it. We share our process to emphasize that all of our pieces are designed and made in Montreal, Qc. It also gives us complete control over every stage from conception through to creation. For us, it’s about a quest to offer the finest in quality, design and style combined with product provenance; “The purpose or history behind the design of the product.”

What are your hobbies?
Having two young children certainly keeps us busy! However, we always surround ourselves with hobbies that revolve around our passion for living with design. Whether it’s surfing the web on our favorite blogs or simply seeing the beauty in nature on our family walks, our hobbies always lead us to people or places that inevitably inspire.

Thank you Michelle & Conrad!
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