June 29, 2017

Currently: June 2017

I am currently typing this with headphones on. I’m listening to the Big Little Lies soundtrack while my child sits next to me with poison oak all over his face. It’s swollen. He’s miserable. Husband has a nasty cold but is also working on a house project that will hopefully be done soon. My garage looks like a tornado it it and laundry keeps coming at me left and right. Just when I finished all of the laundry from camping, I had to wash EVERYTHING because of poison oak. I would take that any day over lice… Sorry to be all June gloom on ya. That’s just how some months/weeks are.

Other than that, June was filled with fun family visits, a Father’s day get-together, a live Kenny G performance with my dad, baseball camp, a camping trip, and a trip to the city via ferry. Throw a few heat waves in there and we have JUNE!

Inspired By:

Mostly the letters I’ve been receiving. Thank you to everyone who has sent me mail. I have a lot to catch up on!!! I put most of the postcards up on my wall in my office so that I could look at them and smile.

Tracy Shutterbean

P.O. Box 604

San Anselmo, CA 94979

I also created a little workspace to assemble all of my shipping supplies for selling prints.

Having this space means I have new rules for myself.

This is the space I do most of my writing/computer work/art in.

That means I don’t have all of my crap all over the house anymore. YAAAAAAAAY.

My guest bedroom is still a guest bedroom!

Inspiration, recipes

June 28, 2017

Camp Meal Ideas

Someone asked me if I’d write a post about Camp Meal Ideas and I thought I’d take a stab at it. Everyone has their own approach to camping. Mine? I like to add little comforts of everyday life into our camping lifestyle. I’ve never done one of those backpacking camping trips where we live off of nothing but what’s on our back. Although I’m tempted to try a minimal camp experience, I’m more of an air mattress/good food/booze lady who likes to have as many luxuries from home that I can fit in my car.

We just went camping up in Manchester over the weekend (which is probably why I need a cleanse right now). One of the reasons why I like our site is that there’s a grocery store not too far away. There are so many things to remember when it comes to camping, that it’s nice that we can buy things like meat and other perishables when we’re up there. Plus, it means we have less to pack. I try to keep things minimal, but it never works out that way.

On our Two Nights/Two Breakfast camping trip we ate:

Our Camping Meals:

tacos
burgers
breakfast burritos (both days)
hippie banana bread
coffee cake
s’mores galore

Inspiration, LISTS

June 26, 2017

Intentions for the Week

Happy Monday! We spent the weekend camping and OMG I HAVE SO MUCH LAUNDRY TO DO. We can definitely cross CAMPING WITH FAMILY off the list. My father-in-law is visiting this week from CT. He and Casey are working on some projects around the house. I am hoping I can have him help me with some landscaping. We’ll see! Cooper doesn’t have camp this week so things should be crazy around my house 🙂

Intentions for the Week:

empty car/clean it out
follow up on shipping
oil change?
dentist/annual exam <—- PUT ON YOUR CALENDAR, TRACY
deep clean fridge
deep clean kitchen
LAUNDRY like a mofo
work on my June Currently post
get up-to-date on bookkeeping
transplant succulent from the front yard into a container on the deck
yoga if I can
schedule a date night
do a drawing class online with Cooper
Cooper haircut
move files over to hard drive/ delete photos a LOT of photos from phone
work on house cleaning list
eat outside as much as possible
catch up on letter writing (I have so many international ones to do!)
be mindful of what I’m eating – perhaps see how many days I can track my food? (I use MyFitnessPal on my phone)

Last week’s intentions:

~~clean out the fridge~~/do a deep clean (hopefully, I’ll have time to deep clean this week)
make a master cleaning schedule for my house (started one online)
research dentist/make doctor appt for physical (I need someone to Mom me)
~~meal prep~~
~~figure out which prints to sell next~~ (doing a flower series of 5 prints stay tuned!)
~~clean up my workspace/put books away~~
~~make a batch of kombucha~~ (made mango pineapple)
~~LAUNDRY~~
move files over to hard drive (I moved over some)
~~make it so I have two eyebrows and not one~~
get Cooper a haircut (totally behind on this) THIS WEEK I SWEAR
~~yoga x 2~~ and maybe a hike if I can (did plenty of hiking while camping)
~~make a list of camping supplies/packing list~~
~~catch up on social media~~
do some solid stretches (my body is feeling STIFF)
~~prep guest room for company~~
~~catch up on writing letters/mail letters + thank you notes~~
~~make a pasta salad recipe for the blog~~ (you can see it here)
~~shoot apron photos~~
shoot ice cream floats (working on that this week)
trip to the dump? (maybe we will go this weekend)
~~EAT OUTSIDE as much as possible~~ (we camped, so YES WE DID)
~~leisure reading if I can (currently enjoying Theft by Finding by David Sedaris)~~

What about you?

What are you up to this week?

Let’s see what you’ve got planned!

my everyday life, Photography

June 24, 2017

My Everyday Life: Week 25

Here’s what this past week looked like- My Everyday Life Week 25:

Summer Bucket list item CHECKED OFF. Trip into the city on the ferry.

The sun goes down. We watch the waves.

It’s always fun to see the action of city life.

Dinner at Tosca Cafe with Uncle Ryan and Cooper.

The commute home. He was so excited about an ice cream sandwich we got at the ferry building.

The view was beautiful on the ferry. I just wanted to Windex the windows SO BAD.

He brought money so he could buy candy.

We celebrated DADS this week!

My mom made an amazing salmon dish. I should make it on the blog because it’s so good.

It’s an Ina recipe of course.

SO GOOD. She also made a chocolate mousse that was so good I, ate it and didn’t take a photo of it.

I brought the cheese plate.

Making a new arrangement on my parent’s deck.

LISTS

June 23, 2017

I LOVE LISTS

Welcome to I LOVE LISTS. Here’s a list because I love them!

What’s up with all of those detox diets?
This blew my mind.
I like this professor.
Upgrade tips!
The best of green beauty products
Am I the only one that’s disturbed by this??? also THIS
Good food product design
The perfect summer dessert.
You may have to sit down for this.
Laughter Yoga is a thing.
The robots are already taking over.
Annoying things are annoying.
I love how wildly random these prints are– especially this one.
I’ve always been fascinated by courtroom illustrations.
Can Amazon help Whole Foods fix itself?
Why make regular s’mores when you can make banana oatmeal cookie s’mores?
Some truths if you need to get your SH*T together.
How to host a relaxed dinner party like an Italian.
Waffle Corn Dogs. YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY.
Beach cover-ups: one / two / three / four
Seriously though, these tops are annoying.
These photos please me so much…they make my brain tingle.
For a mental break: watch this!

recipes

June 21, 2017

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Pasta salad is a big part of my meal prep rotation. It’s something we eat year round because I have the muscle memory to buy all of the ingredients at the grocery store every few weeks. Also, it’s PASTA SALAD. It’s salad that is PASTA BASED. How can you not like that??

Pasta salad is part of my rotation because it can easily be fortified. Throw some on a bed of arugula and you’re golden. Add fresh tomatoes and chopped cucumbers and you’ve got yourself a little Greek feast. Heck, I even threw some avocado in there today for lunch because WHY NOT??

Really, the tang of the vinegar, the green of the pesto and the sharp salty bites of the feta and olives will keep your attention. That is until you finally tell yourself to have some DANG self-control. Meditteranean Pasta Salad is coming to a picnic table near you!

Meditteranean Pasta Salad is coming to a picnic table near you!

Inspiration, LISTS

June 19, 2017

Intentions for the Week

Happy Monday, friends! It’s been hot here in the Bay Area (102F!) and I don’t want to do A THING. I just want to sit on my couch and eat an ice cold cantaloupe with a fan pointed at my face. I have to remind myself of some snack dinners that might get us through this heat wave. Gotta push on through the week!! I didn’t post an Intentions for the Week last week (I opted for my Summer Bucket List) and it threw me off. That’s a good sign that showing up and writing down what I want to accomplish HELPS. Right? Time to clear my head and get it all out there: