If you made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS!! We are on the tail end of the Whole 30, and I hope you have found the free printable Whole 30 calendar helpful so far this month. This is the last Shopping list for the month, however remember if you decide to continue, or need to modify any of these, I have many more ideas on my Pinterest board, and will be continuing to add to it! The end of this post will have your week 4 whole 30 shopping list, so enjoy and keep up the good work!
Week 4 Whole 30 Shopping List
Jan 23 // Salad with Compliant Dressing – Your shopping list tells you to get enough salad for a dinner and a side, and this is why. If you live near Trader Joes there are a few great options in the produce section.
Be sure to be following along with me on Instagram and let me know if you have any questions!! I hope you’re feeling great at this point in the month, and loving these recipes!!
Trying to finish up these Whole 30 shopping lists for you guys I have the 3rd weekly Whole 30 Shopping list ready to go. If you missed it, make sure you start on this post for your free printable Whole 30 Calendar that these go with. I will be following that calendar all month, and linking to each of the recipes per week with a free printable shopping list weekly.
Weekly Whole 30 Shopping List
This weeks list has a few notes, so make sure you check those before you head to the recipes!!
Jan 16 // (this is one of my own posts that I have made several times from a guest blogger!) Loaded Sweet Potatoes
Jan 17 // Coconut Curry Shrimp – THIS IS NOT A WHOLE 3O RECIPE, however I have made it so many times that I knew it could easily work. Sub olive oil for the butter in the recipe, and you can not use the honey. I added a couple of extra dates to the shopping list. You can blend those and add for sweetness if you need it, but you may be okay without. Serve over Cauliflower rice.
Jan 21 // Butternut Squash soup – I MAKE THIS ALL THE TIME. I personally always use frozen butternut squash because it is so much more simple. I make mine in my CROCK POT.
Print the list below and take it shopping. It covers all ingredients need for all of the recipes above. There is a section to add items for lunch/breakfast, and be sure to check what you have. Many of the spices have been used in previous weeks.
This post was sponsored by Zevo Bug Spray but all opinions are my own
Sam and I LOVE to entertain and have people to our home. In fact we host a bible study every week in our home, so we have guests in our house very regularly. I truly enjoy hosting and opening our home to others, but with that comes the stress, and pressure to keep your home ready. One thing about living in St. Louis, and particularly in the Midwest, is that we have SO MANY BUGS.
Well not just bugs but spiders, and that wouldn’t be a huge issue if we didn’t have kids running around all the time, and entertaining on the agenda frequently, but previously finding family friendly insect control we could use in our house no matter when it was was not easy.
I was so thrilled with Zevo insect control came to me to try out there products and am seriously blown away. We finally have a great option that is easy to use at any time and is effective!
Family Friendly Insect Control and Entertaining with Zevo Bug Spray
And aside from safety the smell is the other big thing to worry about. I mean I can-not be alone when I say that the idea of having a house full of people come over and my house smelling like a bunch of chemicals would embarrass me.
One of Zevo’s claims was that their sprays smell good but I will be really honest when I say I was apprehensive on that, so when I first tried it, I was honestly shocked by the good smell.
It literally has a mild room freshener effect when you spray it. This is also great living here because there are many times where we are entertaining and insect control needs to come out mid party.
One time during our bible study the men were downstairs playing basketball… I mean praying.. haha, and came upstairs to show us the massive spider they found. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but it was only me in town that week and I was pregnant with 2 other kids.
This was before we had Zevo, and honestly I was so stressed about it. I didn’t feel I could safely spray the basement with him out of town, and also didn’t want my kids down there if there were spiders present!
Fully Prepping Your Home for Guests
When I am entertaining guests, I tend to be an over preparer. I like to know our guests will be comfortable and have an enjoyable time, so for me that means prepping everything.
I know for me bugs and insects scare the crap out of me, so if I were at someone’s home and saw them I would instantly want to leave. Being able to spray, even last minute before guests arrive with Zevo is such a great aspect of the product.
Details on this fun TableScape
As well as being prepared, you obviously need to prep the ‘fun’ stuff like decor. We hosted a little New Year’s get together a couple of days ago, and I loved making a simple fun tablescape with some festive leftover ornaments from my Christmas table, and using festive gold glasses for our drinks.
If you want to see it a bit more up close, you can see the same tablescape in a more ‘colorful’ version here for Christmas. One of my favorite things to do when it comes to table decor is use items I already own, and this was no exception. I had a million left over Christmas ornaments, so decided to make them work for New Years!
I am always super conscious about products that are sitting out on a day to day, as well as while I am entertaining also fitting my “decor.” It is silly to think you’re going to hide everything all the time, so buying products like soap, cleaner, and Zevo bug sprays that come in simple, yet pretty packaging makes it so much easier to leave sitting out for use when needed, instead of having to hide them away!
Don’t get me wrong – the image below is DEFINITELY staged, and I am not actually decorating with bug spray…I hope you’re not either haha. But my point is that you don’t want a can of raid sitting out during a party.
I try to buy products that will be around often in decent looking packaging, because especially in an outdoor entertaining situation many times the bottle does stay out and handy. Having something that is less blaringly obviously a product of this nature is so helpful!
Do you plan ahead on things like this when you’re entertaining? If you give Zevo bug spraya try let me know what you think in the comments below!! I think you will love it as much as I do!
** as an update – it has been a year since writing this original blog post and we still very much so love Zevo. I keep it on hand at all times, and this past week my husband was traveling for work and I found a MASSIVE spider in our laundry basket.
My first inclination was to burn the house down, but I instead grabbed the Zevo bug spray and sprayed the crap out of that spider. Honestly I was a life saver in this situation because it was ON our clothes. I did double wash them just to be careful after, but regardless I wouldn’t have felt good spraying any other bug spray on our clothes.
The smell that lingered is not unpleasant at all, and most of all the spray was effective when it needed to be, so I still give this a big thumbs up!
Incase you missed the first 2 Whole 30 blog posts, be sure you check those out before you jump into this one. ( free printable whole 30 calendar // week one shopping list) My husband and I are starting the new year off with the rest of the planet making healthier choice, and for us that is doing the Whole 30 diet. I have a free Printable Whole 30 Calendar you can follow, but I also wanted to give you free Weekly Printable Whole 30 Grocery Lists. This list is for week 2, and contains links to the recipes.
A couple of things to recap
Many of the items especially spices you will have. (in fact most were on last weeks list!)
This is a dinner only calendar, however I have pinned many great recipes you can make for breakfast or lunch on THIS Pinterest board.
Jan 11 // Loaded Sweet Potato Fries ( there are items on your grocery list with a * – this is because the whole 30 ranch is optional so if you don’t want to add that to your fries or have on hand you don’t need those items!)
hopefully if you have been following along and sticking through this with me, you are loving this program. Be sure to check in on Instagram with me. I have a stories highlight, and would love DM’s from you on how you’re doing…or if nothing else, misery loves company haha!
If you missed my free printable Whole 30 Calendar post this blog post is probably a big confusing to you, so I definitely recommend you jump back there. Sam and I are doing the Whole 30 diet next month, and along with the free printable Calendar I also wanted to give you Weekly Printable Grocery Lists. This post will contain your Whole 30 week 1 shopping list.
Below you will find links and a shopping list for completing your first 7 recipes! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, and as I said on the first post, I haven’t tried most of these, so I am along for the ride with you all!!
Keep in mind this is a fully comprehensive list – so it looks longer than what you likely need due to spices and such. Some items that last a while might be wise to buy in larger quantities for multiple weeks such as onions and potatoes!
Hopefully you find this Whole 30 week 1 shopping list helpful, and if you have any questions please let me know! I would love to have you follow along on Instagram stories with me doing the month, or in the comments below!
Who is ready to start the new year off right? My husband and I have committed to the Whole 30 diet for the month of January this year, so I wanted to put together a free printable Whole 30 Calendar for any of my readers who want to join me!
This is not my typical blog post, but I love to share the in’s and out’s of our life, and for the first month of the year, this will be part of it. I have an autoimmune disorder that I hope to sort of see some improvement with by doing this diet…and ill be honest, I think my body and liver are dying for a break from all the unhealthy things the holidays bring.
This post contains affiliate links
A Break Down of Posts to Come
I am not an expert on the Whole 30 diet, so I suggest you check it out their site if you’re wanting to learn more.
This post will contain your free printable Whole 30 calendar, as well as links and resources to a few things that I will personally be getting ahead of time to last the whole month.
I am personally not adding lunches and breakfasts to this calendar because due to the nature of jobs and where you are, I know what you will want to eat for those meals will vary.
My Suggestion is to have some great options on hand for lunch or dinner, and if you are a leftover eater for lunch you will likely have plenty, or you can double the recipes. I have not tried many of these recipes, so I will be right along with you on this journey, and would love to have you follow along with me!
Weekly Shopping Lists
There will be weekly shopping lists you can print out. I will compile the ingredients from each recipe on the Calendar and the quantities needed for that week. I will leave blank spaces for you to add your breakfast and lunch items, and be sure to cross off anything you still had from the week prior.
It will be a comprehensive list, so you might not have to buy everything! Also if you’re doubling recipes, be sure to buy extras of those ingredients!
Free Printable Whole 30 Calendar
Print out your calendar HERE, and use this through the month. If you’re not doing this in Jan of 2019, don’t worry about it, just follow along the order of dates for your 30 recipes! Also – Note that I am starting on Jan 2 in order to not start on a holiday. That was just personal Preference for us!
Staples to Buy Ahead
There are a few things I would stock up on ahead of time if you’re planning to do the Whole 30 diet. One of the biggest for me is going to be creamer for my coffee.
Lara bars or RX Bars – you can decide on your own if you think this is a good idea. They are compliant but not recommended, however I know for our lifestyle, having them on hand will be needed.
So we will be buying some. READ YOUR LABELS – you can not have all flavors of these bars.
Now that you have read all of that HEAD TO YOUR WEEKLY SHOPPING LISTS & LINKS TO RECIPES
**as a disclaimer…please note that I am not a doctor, and am simply sharing something I am personally doing with my husband to kick off the new year. If you have questions about this doctor, consult a professional…that I am not HA!
This post was graciously sponsored by Scotch™ Brand, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I know it’s no shock to you if you read my blog posts or follow me on Instagram that I have been doing all things ‘Merry and Bright’ this holiday season, so I obviously needed that to extend into the presents under my tree … even if Walker will likely pull all bows off well before Christmas ha. This was such a fun blog post to put together because wrapping the perfect merry and bright presents actually allowed for me to be much more creative than you normally can be with gift wrap. Check out this post for some of my tips on what I used for wrapping my presents
Wrapping the Perfect Merry and Bright Presents
When it comes to Merry and Bright gift wrap you get to use a lot more freedom than other decor styles, so my number one thing I will say in this post is to just make them look how you like, however I will give you some tips for ways I try to make things more cohesive.
Picking the Wrapping Paper
Make sure when you select wrapping paper you get some crossover in your choices. For me that meant bits of gold and white through all the papers and only a couple of really ‘wild’ papers that were mostly chosen knowing my kids would LOVE THEM. Zebra’s and Unicorns always win in our house, and those will be Santa gifts…so lucky for me not too much of that super wild paper will be under the tree before the big day ha!
Use What You Have
For my embellishments on the presents I used lots of leftover aspects of my decor. I used the felt balls that were on my DIY Stockings and made a couple of extra yarn pom pom’s too. I love that this made them really tie into the decor I already had and cost me no money.
Make Things Simple
I am not about trying to wrap my presents “perfectly” where all the tape is hidden. That is so difficult, and there are so many great products out there these days that help make wrapping easier. I used Scotch® GiftWrap Tape to wrap my gifts this year. I love this product because it became basically invisible on the boxes without having to fold over and “hide” the tape!
Another fun way I added to my gifts this year that was SO SIMPLE, yet made a huge impact was using Scotch® Expressions Tape for my ‘labels’ as well as to add embellishments to some of the gifts and bags. It was such a fun way to add to the gifts and gave me a flat surface that I can write on!
I found that using a good pair of scissors for cutting the paper, ribbons and such made this process much easier than in previous years. I personally used ScotchÔPrecision Scissors and they worked amazing. I also made sure to have Scotch® Double Sided Tape on hand for a few of the embellishments that looked better with fully hidden tape – Such as the black ribbon in the photo below.
Repeat / Mix and Match
Merry and Bright gift wrap was fun, but also can become REALLY busy really fast. I tried to use similar embellishments across the gifts so that they looked cohesive, as well as colors that carried across all of them. I loved that the gold bells, the felt balls, and the little unicorn and reindeer tags were fun ways to make the bright and fun gifts look like they belonged together in a group. Whatever that aspect is for you, find a thing or two to carry across many of the gifts!
This was such a fun blog post to put together because wrapping the perfect merry and bright presents actually allowed for me to be much more creative than you normally can be with gift wrap. According to a recent survey from Scotch™ Brand, 41% of moms say they’ll be wrapping more gifts this year than last year so check out this post for some of my advice on wrapping tips and supplies.
Do you have any questions for me on how to go about wrapping the perfect Merry and Bright presents? Are you jumping on that trend or sticking more traditional? Be sure to pin the image below in case you need inspiration later, and of course leave me a comment with any questions! I love to hear from you!
This past weekend I hosted a really fun girls morning with some ladies from my church full of great food, good friends, and a fun little craft. It was such a fun way to get in the Christmas spirit, and I wanted to share a fun idea for a unique, festive holiday mimosa recipe you can serve at an event this holiday season…or to get the holy jolly spirit going on Christmas morning!
Simple fill your bottom of your glass with the seeds. I froze mine for a colder drink. Then add one sprig of rosemary for the red and green color combo and poor in your champs! Super simple recipe, but really good, and a fun way to make your typical mimosa look a bit more festive!
For the details on the rest of the party check out this blog post showing all the details, and taking about the perfect pairing for a mimosa – an avocado and ricotta toast bar!! It was seriously delicious and SUCH a hit. And if you’re looking for some fun decor to go with this fun recipe check out how I decorated my bar this Christmas for a fun EASY decoration idea!
Like I have said in MANY of my previous gift guides this season, I wanted to compile all of your gift guides into one place for you to find, so if you’re shopping you can more easily find what you’re looking for! So if you’re looking for the the Best Christmas gifts 2018 then you have come to the right place!! Happy shopping, and please let me know if you have any questions!!
If you have questions on any of these gifts or guides please let me know, and hopefully you love this round up of the best Christmas gifts 2018 while you do your shopping!
One thing I love to do when I am giving gifts to kids is find something unique that mom and dad maybe wouldn’t think of. Plus whats a better way to woo your niece or nephew, or other little one in your life than by getting them something they will get throughout the year. This post is a great list of unique subscription gifts for kids, so make sure you give them a try while shopping this year!
This post was graciously sponsored by Scotch Brand however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Do you throw your kids a Santa brunch on Christmas, or before? It has become one of my favorite traditions for my kids, and this year I have a really fun, easy DIY wall backdrop that will add to the magic!! Follow along to see what you need to throw an Easy Kids Santa Brunch complete with the perfect photo wall that everyone will love.
Easy Kids Santa Brunch Backdrop
If you follow my blog then you might have seen Avé’s pink puppy party this past October complete with such a cute, fun photo backdrop, that I knew I needed to do something similar for Christmas. This backdrop literally only requires 4 things – paper, Scissors (I used the ScotchÔPrecision Scissors and they worked amazing!), Scotch® Wall-Safe Tape, and Scotch® Double Sided Tape.
I personally cut each of the shapes out first. I found for the reindeer if you find a picture online and trace it for the first one it will go much smoother. Once you have your base cut, use Scotch® DoubleSided Tape to add all the other layers (like the eyes and bows). When I did Avé’s puppy party I used hot glue, and let me tell you, using the double-sided tape made this project so much more enjoyable, and easy!
Once you have your desired number cut out simple use Scotch® Wall-Safe Tape to hang them on the wall. I loved that with this tape I didn’t have to worry about it ruining my paint, and it becomes nearly invisible, so it made for super easy hanging of a little project like this!
Santa Brunch Food
I always go simple with food for these brunches. Typically, a fruit, sometimes a fun drink like chocolate milk or hot chocolate, and then an EASY breakfast that they don’t get often. My go to is donuts because I can buy them and not have to prep in the kitchen early in the morning, and they think it’s an amazing treat. For the Santa brunch I added some fun little extras like candy canes to make it extra special.
Throwing your kids a Santa brunch doesn’t have to be a stressful addition to the holiday season. Buy a few little props, take an evening to make your decor so you’re not adding to all your holiday expenses, and let the simplicity wow your kids! All of the Scotch® Brand Tape I mentioned above is great to keep on hand for parties, gift wrap, and basically any other holiday needs you might have, so I totally recommend grabbing a couple of extra rolls to have them when you need them!
If you have any questions for me on how I did this or need help with anything please feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email, and as always remember to pin the image below so you can find this post later!!
To round off the last of my Merry and Bright decor blog posts for the season I wanted to show you guys what I did in my Dining room and give you a simple idea for merry and bright dining table decor. I wanted this room to be slightly more ‘mature’ looking due to it being the formal dining room, however didn’t want to spend a fortune in decorating it. Over all the room was really simple to put together, and I do try to keep it easy for weekly dining due to hosting a bible study.
For the rest of the room I did some very simple touches. The shelves I never change too much unless needed because they are so small that to me they look best neutral. I added these little reindeer to the cabinet top, and typically they had a more traditional ‘sash’ that I added last year, but I changed that out to some pink tassels and pom’s. I love the tiny pop of pink they added to that corner. Otherwise I just added our little dining room tree that I love!!
I had a hard time getting the tree to fit in a basket until a friend of mine, Jamie (who has an amazing blog – check it out!), suggested that I take the tree out of the stand, shove pillows around it and then top with the blanket – or in this case faux fur fabric. It worked amazing!! I added some simple tassels to the tree instead of ornaments to keep things SUPER simple, and that was that.
Overall I love the simplicity of this room, and some of the bold over all decor choices make it easy to decorate minimally. If you’re looking for more merry and bright decor make sure you check out my bar area and living room tours here! If you have any questions let me know!
