Browsing Tag:

slow living

Emotional Health/ FAMILY/ HEALTH

The Key To Waking Up Early In The Morning and Establishing a Morning Routine

 

I am now a morning person, but I have not always been. The key to waking up early in the morning for me has been simply this:

 

HAVE A REASON TO GET UP THAT IS MORE APPEALING THAN STAYING IN A WARM COZY BED

 

Yep. That is it. Sure there are tips and tricks that can help the process…but really it comes down to what you personally desire and what is most appealing to you at that moment when the alarm goes off.

On days that I repeatedly hit the snooze button (which is pretty rare), it is a sign that all is not right in my world and I need to look deeper and reevaluate. It is a personal heads up for me.

So what is more appealing to me than staying in a warm cozy bed?

Continue Reading…

RECIPES/ Seasonal

10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

10 Must-Try Slow Living Summer Recipes -- A collection of simple recipes to help savor a slow summer!

I recently looked at what posts on New Nostalgia were getting the most pins on Pinterest and noticed that many fell under the category of what could be called Slow Living Summer Recipes. It made me smile to see what was resonating with readers and what was being repinned. They are all my summer favorites!

I feel like I must thank you all for the inspiration to title and write this post. You show me what is most appealing to you by how you save and share posts, and it makes me giddy to see what we have in common.

Thank you for reading, pinning, sharing and liking. Without you, I could not do what I do!

10 Slow Living Summer Recipes

Slow living often inspires healthy living. It takes a slowing to be purposeful in how time is used and what is put in and on the body to create healthy living.  Slow summer living makes me nostalgic and I want to get in the kitchen and make everything homemade with simple, healthy ingredients. I don’t have the time to do this all day every day, so I’ve learned to collect recipes that have simple ingredients and are easy to make.

Healthy Fresh Lime Soda + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Fresh & Healthy Lime Soda

This Fresh & Healthy Lime Soda could not be more simple and is so refreshing. I love to sip slow while sitting on my porch swing. Even if it is just a few short minutes in the middle of a busy day, it always pays off take a few deep breaths and slow!

Delicious Baked Cinnamon Sugar Peaches + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Baked Peaches

Peaches scream summer. I just stopped at a local produce stand yesterday and bought the most delicious, juicy sweet peaches. I ate 3 already and am heading back to buy more today. They are so sweet that I may have to cut the brown sugar even more in this recipe.

These Brown Sugar Cinnamon Baked Peaches are simple but make quite an elegant dessert. Pick up and eat with your fingers when alone, or serve on a dessert plate with a mint leaf for added color when serving to guests.

Simple Tomato Salad + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Simple Tomato Salad

Tomatoes and basil are a duet of food that I just cannot get enough of in the summer. I love making this Simple Tomato Salad as a quick lunch or as a no-cook side at dinner. Add a small slice of toasted sourdough because, why not?

Blender Zucchini Bread + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Best Ever Zucchini Bread

I didn’t grow any zucchini in my square foot garden this year and now I’m regretting it! I will just have to take full advantage of the zucchini at our local farmer’s markets. My youngest daughter already has asked me when I’m making this Best Ever Zucchini Bread, she knows it is a tradition during the summer months. She also asked if it was “healthy.” Well, it DOES have a vegetable as the base, but I told her we put it in the dessert category due to the sugar in the recipe.

This recipe whips up so quickly in a blender. Make it and bake it. Grab a magazine and sit slow while it cooks and cools.

No Mess Oven Roasted Corn + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Oven Corn on the Cob

I picked up some corn at the produce stand yesterday along with my peaches and will be roasting them in the oven tonight. I LOVE this method of making Oven Corn on the Cob, you shuck the corn until AFTER it roasts. This makes for very easy removal of the silks as they steam and clump together for easy removal.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chia Oats + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

No Cook Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Oats

No Cook Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Oats can be thrown together the night before which makes your summer morning nice and slow. We love chia oats, especially in the summer when a hot breakfast just sounds too heavy. These are delicious, filling, full of fiber, protein, and omegas.

DIY Lemon Sugar Face Scrub + 10 More Slow Living Summer Recipes

2 Ingredient Homemade Lemon Face Scrub

How about a recipe for your face? This 2 Ingredient Homemade Lemon Face Scrub works! It has sugar and lemon in it and leaves the skin so very soft and smooth. The lemon has the power to lighten age spots and the sugar is a nice exfoliant. Don’t forget your lips! Mmmm…tastes like summertime lemonade!

Cheesy Tortelinni Crockpot Soup + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes

Cheesy Tortellini Crockpot Soup

I love to get my slow cooker out in the summer. The oven stays off, the kitchen stays cool, and I can find some moments to relax while dinner simmers away unattended. This Cheese Tortellini Crockpot Soup is very popular with my readers and on Pinterest. It has been shared over and over again!

30 Minute Sloppy Joes + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

30 Minute Sloppy Joes

During the summer months, I often will keep dinner super simple by making one main item, like these 30 Minute Sloppy Joes, on the stove. I then turn off the stove and oven and keep side dishes fresh and raw, like cucumbers and hummus, cut fruit and a green leafy salad. 30 minute meals are GREAT for giving more time to enjoy those long summer evenings.

Honey Lime Glazed Fruit Salad + 10 Slow Living Summer Recipes From New Nostalgia

Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Glaze

Fruit is so refreshing in the summer, and the perfect item to include in a summer picnic! Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Glaze is really beautiful and delicious. The glaze gives the fruit amazing shine and the little specks of lime zest give a pop of fresh flavor to the fruit and is super pretty! This salad is great to take to summer parties and potlucks.


So there are 10 of my Summer Slow Living Recipes. Let me know in the comments which ones look good to you!

What are some of your favorite summer recipes?

What are some of your ways to live slow in the summer?

Christmas/ Holidays/Parties/ HOME/ Simplifying

How to Slow Down & Cozy Up While Online Shopping

Ways to slow down and cozy up your space while online shopping

I have a cozy chair in my bedroom that I have found myself sitting in quite a bit lately. It is a new experience to be sitting so much during gift-giving season, but online shopping has given me the gift of slowing down and cozying up in my chair, while buying for those I love. It has been so wonderful!

You would grin at all the things I surround myself and my chair with while I shop. The chair is up in our bedroom and my Todd will peek his head in and just smile at me sitting comfy in my chair surrounded by all the things I love. He knows I am all about marinating in good atmosphere!

Ways to slow down and cozy up your space while online shopping

{view from my cozy bedroom chair}

Ways I Slow Down & Get Cozy While Online Shopping

~comfy chair (of course) with feet up

~twinkle lights hung on our bedroom window, lights low so they can show off

~a small table next to my chair to hold all- the- things within arms reach

~a bluetooth speaker for ambient Christmas music

~a warm drink by my side, always!

~an electric mug warmer to keep my drink warm – a birthday gift from my Avery and I love it!

~ journal & favorite sharpie pen to jot down notes & check my Christmas list

~my laptop

~ phone close and on the charger, to keep the world at my fingertips

~ a soft, fuzzy blanket & fuzzy socks on my feet!

~my favorite new diffuser from Frankie & Myrrh to bring a calm scent to the room.

Ways to slow down and cozy up your space while online shopping

Online Shopping with Frankie & Myrrh

I generally buy gifts for others while online shopping, but I did find just a couple for myself along the way! One of my favorite purchases was from a little shop called Frankie & Myrrh. How great is that for a shop name?

They are a small business who is known for ‘aromatherapy made fun.’ Yes, they know fun and showed on their website, in their products and in the packaging. I am just now getting into aromatherapy, so I just couldn’t resist making a purchase for myself.

a·ro·ma·ther·a·py | əˌrōməˈTHerəpē | noun. The use of essential oils and natural plant essences to achieve balance, harmony, and psychological and physical well-being.

essential-oils-frankie-myrrhh

Products

I bought their Bamboo Diffuser and 3 Essential Oils –Cinnamon, Serenity Now Blend, and Frankincense.

I sprinkled some of the cinnamon essential oil on pinecones in our enclosed porch, to welcome my holiday guests. It smells so festive! ‘Serenity Now’ is a calming blend that has spruce, orange, and frankincense is amazing when diffused my new Bamboo Diffuser and makes our home smell like Christmas! I’ve been mixing the Frankincense oil with some grapeseed oil and using it on my face as a moisturizer. I love it!

Frankie & Myrrh  have what they call ‘rollies’ (essential oil mixed with a carrier oil and in a small glass jar with a roller–so convenient to just roll on!

They also have aromatherapy sprays with really witty names like:

“Serenity Now” with frankincense, spruce and orange for silent, restful bliss

“Study Buddy” a peppermint and rosemary spray for mental focus

“Hello Sunshine” a citrus and rose -a feel good spray

Their shop name and fun product names and offerings had me, but when the box came in the mail the packaging make me fall for them even harder. This is something I love about a small business shopping. Their attention to detail and their appreciation for each and every costumer really is priceless. This sure was the case with Frankie & Myrrh.

Ways to slow down and cozy up your space while online shopping

{HOW DID THEY KNOW?! (snicker)}

Packaging

I opened the box and the sticker on the bubble wrap made me laugh. It said “Reduce Your Stress, POP ME!” I then saw a note that was signed by hand. While I was admiring the note, a wonderful scent hit me. I pulled a little sachet full of dried lavender out of the package, a free added touch that made me so happy! Everything in the box was packaged carefully and cute; it just felt so personal. The labels on each essential oil made me smile, as did the witty little suggestion on their bubble wrap. All of these touches made me eager to send an order from Frankie & Myrrh to one of my friends so they could experience all of these touches, too.

Frankie-myrrh-lavender-package

PayPal

Frankie & Myrrh made it super easy to shop them. One thing I’m always looking for when online shopping is PayPal paying option, and of course, Frankie & Myrrh had it. They seem to think of everything! When I’m online shipping, the last thing I want to do is get up and get my wallet or credit card, so I especially love it when small businesses offer PayPal.

PayPal has an option called One Touch that allows you to pay for items in your shopping basket without having to enter credit card or billing details. Do what I did, and activate it here, then you won’t have to get off the couch, out of bed or out of your own comfy chair to find your wallet!

My Todd and I have been using PayPal for years now. It is easy to use, fast, painless and has always been a safe way for us to shop online, send money and receive money. We love it! PayPal always goes the extra mile–example? This holiday season, PayPal is offering free return shipping called Return Shipping On Us on its up to $30 for up to 11 purchases. So convenient!

frankie-myhhr-aromatherapy

How About You?

Did you do your Christmas shopping online? Do you have any small businesses that your love to support? Did you buy anything for yourself? Have you tried aromatherapy? Are you a PayPal fan?

Share with me in the comments!

easy-online-shopping

{FOR YOUR PINNING PLEASURE!}

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

FAMILY/ Gardening/ Kids/Family/ Uncategorized

Embracing A Small Yard & Making It Cozy

Outdoor-Slow-livingOur spring here in the midwest seemed to take forever to behave and warm up.  The last couple weeks are finally warming up and I’m loving every second of it.

Our yard is quite small which honestly I have grown to love and appreciate.  Keeping the yard looking nice is quite a chore, so I could not imagine having a big yard!  My mother-in-law loves the outdoors and has a huge serving heart, so she has been over many days the last few weeks getting weeds out of the rock area of our play set and in all our planting beds around the house.  She is amazing! Thanks to her work I have been super inspired to get out there and add my own touches to making the yard great.

I have embraced the tiny yard size and have been taking steps over the last few years, to making it a great family space, one with lots of atmosphere and coziness.  It is working, as our family is finding ourselves out their together more evenings than not lately.  This is such a great reward for me personally, as it is what I have dreamed of as I have slowly added elements to draw my sweet family outside to enjoy!

Here are a few things I have done over the last few years to make it cozy:

Water Feature– we had a bit of landscaping done when we moved in over 5 years ago.  I knew I wanted a small sitting area and I have always loved the sound of water.  I asked our landscape guys if there was a simple, inexpensive way to add a water element to our small backyard.  They knew just the thing and made it happen within hours.  Basically, they dug a 2×2 ft hole that was about 18-24 inches deep.  They lined it with thick black rubber lining & added a water pump in it.  They put a metal rack over the hole, so the pump stuck out of the top just a bit.  They covered it with 3 large stones and then scattered slate-colored river rock around those large rocks.  We had our electrician put an electrical outlet close to the fountain, and now all we have to do is plug it in.  I add one anti-algae tablet to the water each spring when we first start it, and that is it.  It is the most loved feature in our yard and makes the sound of a running brook.  I love the natural look of it, & I love how low maintenance it is. You can see it if you  scroll down to the image of stringed lights, it is in the left bottom corner.

{my 2 youngest  back in 2009 dancing and singing in the rain.  This video shows the chairs I talk about below. I talk about the pots and my love for funky plants here.}

Lots of Chairs–we bought a bunch of chairs at Target during one of their end of season sales.  They are a neutral color which I love because I can add any color pillow to them for color.  I bring color to my yard with pillows and flower pots.  We bought about 10 of them, knowing there would be times we would want seating for friends.  I made sure they stacked nicely before purchasing because our storage is limited and our garage is just a single car size.

Fire Pit–I’ve pinned a bunch of fun fire pit ideas on Pinterest, but have never gotten around to any DIY fire pit projects.  A year ago my daughter and I took part in Black Friday shopping at Target, and they had a crazy deal on fire pits that I could not resist.  I’m so glad I didn’t.  We have had many fun family nights sitting around that pit, roasting marshmallows for apple s’mores or just using it to warm us up on chilly spring or fall evening.

A Place to Set Our Drinks–I’ve dreamed of a table and chairs for us to eat outside as a family on, but that is just not in the budget or practical in such a small space.  We do have a single driveway connected to our backyard, but now it is used as a basketball court and a table and chairs would just get in the way.  I have let go of my dream for now, although I do have my eye out for a foldable table to set out on the driveway with an umbrella and foldable chairs.  Something we could store away easily and only bring out when we want to eat as a family outside.  For now, I make do with a small table used to set beverages on.  We often eat outside, just with our plates on our lap or on a spread blanket picnic style.

TikiCollage3

Hanging Lights--these are another fav touch of mine.  There is something so whimsical about a string of lights and the glow they bring.  It adds an instant atmosphere!  I just bought one set, but would love to add more!

Tiki-Torch-Flame

Torches–We have one table top torch that found at a garage sale, and my favorite torch sculpture that I wrote about here.  I love them both.  I keep oil on hand, but they really only need filled once a year.  We light them any evening we are out there.  Tiki makes a citronella oil that works really well to keep the mosquitos away, and the element of fire always bring coziness.  I love that I don’t have to make a pit fire every night to have the element of fire.  I have had to replace the wicks about once a year, but they are so inexpensive (less than $2!) and can be found at any hardware store or garden center.  I stocked up and always have them on hand.

Cozy Blankets— I have 2 blankets used only for outdoors.  One is a white, thick comforter that I use to lay on the grass.  It never fails, if I lay it out, within minutes there is someone with a book laying on it.  It is also great for when my niece and nephew come over to play.  We just lay there and look up at the leaves in the trees or gaze at the clouds.  I have another lightweight blanket for those nights that are chilly and the fire is not lit. I’ve been eyeing this great picnic blanket made for the outdoors with a waterproof bottom to keep you dry.  I love the colors in it.

Funky-Plant-3

Potted Plants &  Flowers–I keep this simple and minimal. Years ago I spray painted some cheap plastic pots with Hammered Black Spray Paint by Krylon-made for plastic. They are lightweight and look great. Right now I fill my pots with annuals every year, but I am wanting to take a couple and put some perennials in them.  I don’t like spending cash on flowers that are going to die every season, and if the majority of my pot is made of a perennial, then I can add a touch of color with some annuals which will really cut down on the cost each year.

Playset{the only photo I could find of our swing set, from last year}

Swingset--we have kept our swing set even though it takes up the majority of our yard.  My 11 year old still plays on it.  Just a couple weeks ago she and 4 friends had a fun picnic up in the tower of it.  I also have a 1 1/2 year old niece and a 4 year old nephew who adore it , and even the sand box gets used when they come over.   I even find my big girls sitting on a swing while on instagram or reading their kindle, so it is worth it.  We paid a pretty penny for it over 12 years ago when Teagan was a young.  It has held up beautifully over the years and I am glad we invested in a quality set. (Childlife Playsets)

Unknown

Basketball Hoop–I know, I know, the sound of balls bouncing isn’t quite cozy, but this hoop definitely has added to the coziness we feel as a family in our back yard.  Maybe coziness is not the best word.  Maybe togetherness is better.  Regardless, even though we didn’t have a huge driveway and a bigger space would be ideal for basketball, we make do with the single car driveway and it has worked out just fine.  I have you all to thank for our hoop as it was purchased with money I made last year from sponsored posts.  If you all didn’t support this blog by reading it, we would not have a hoop!  Thank you sweet readers.

———

As you can see, even in a small yard it takes time to make it what you want it to be.  Each spring season I try to add a little something, always keeping in mind to keep things simple and meaningful.  When I invest into our little yard to make it cozy, I am investing in an area where slow living as a family can take place.  THAT, my friends, is priceless!

Top