The Best Defense is a Good Offense

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No I’m not talking about football. Please! I couldn’t even tell you who was playing if it wasn’t for my New York Times push notifications. No, I’m talking about that pesky flu. It swept through our office over the last two weeks and I simply refuse to be sick.

My strategy? Juicing.

Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a medical professional nor a nutritionist but I am one hundred percent obsessed with food. I’ve been a vegetarian for almost two decades now and eating a plant-based diet has so many benefits. The more I read and the more documentaries I watch (check out A Place at the Table and Food Matters) I know that you really and truly are what you eat.

About two years ago Jared and I bought a Breville Juicer. Juicing is one of the fastest ways to get nutrients into your body and all those yummy vitamins that will boost your immune system and help fight off those nasty germs.

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I like to try different variations but I almost always incorporate kale, cucumbers, and herbs. And my favorite ingredient for sweetness is beets. They also turn the juice a lovely purpley red rather than the orangey green you’ll see with this concoction.

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After smooshing everything down the juicer shoot, you are left with a lot of clean up. After dissembling the pieces, each bit needs to be scooped out and wiped down and the strainer needs a little extra elbow grease with the help of a special juicer brush.

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But the juice is mighty tasty and honestly, it is a powerful potion. I feel invigorated when we juice in the morning. An extra boost of energy. My skin is brighter, my eyes are whiter. It really is amazing what happens when you actually give the body what it needs.

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And BONUS: no flu yet! <Knock on our lovely wood counters!> Stay healthy!

Wired

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When you have a husband that loves electronics you inevitably live among a variety of wires. And as a neat freak, nothing bothers me more than unruly wires.

Take the back of our TV for example.

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Look familiar?

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HDMI, ethernet, power cords, the Roku box, and I don’t even know what else. So it was time to get these under control. I called upon my arsenal of clips, zip ties, and labels.

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Honestly, wire organization is not a quick fix. I spent about an hour crouched behind the TV coiling wires and clipping them behind our console. The 3M Command clips worked perfectly to set the power strip cord along the baseboard.

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With all cords zip tied together, labels at the plug are essential to know what’s what.

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A little camouflage with pillows and throws left all those pesky wires out of sight and out of mind.

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The Week in Review | January 13-17

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How was your week? Getting use to 2014 yet? I’d say it’s turning out to be a good year. Now let’s recap the week in blogs…

Week in Review

  1. Coco + Kelley’s Room of the Week is this cozy California home. Wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee on that banquette admiring the Pacific Ocean right about now!
  2. Emily A. Clark has been clearing clutter starting with her lovely piano top. What is it about January that makes people organize?
  3. The Brown’s from Seventh House on the Left added a little bling to the dresser in their guest room. Sometimes a little goes a long way on a furniture makeover!
  4. I’m completely jealous of this lovely work space that Laura at Bright Bold & Beautiful put together. You might say it’s bright, bold, and- well, beautiful!
  5. Jennifer at Rambling Renovators spotted some trends for the year including Black and White. Hmmm, reminds me of someone’s mudroom…

More Mudroom Planning

Our mudroom is currently “the room with the treadmill” but eventually we will add storage solutions to make this an uber functional space.

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That wall to the left of the window in the photo above is the perfect spot to tuck away some free standing closets. If you remember back in November I talked about the need for closets in the mudroom here. So here’s what we’re thinking.

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These PAX cabinets from IKEA are just perfect for the space. I love the shaker style fronts and the slate grey color. We could devote a single door closet to my cleaning supplies (vacuum, Swiffer, various bottles and sprays) and a double door closet to off season clothing like the bulky jackets and boots that are currently taking up half of our closet space in our bedroom.

Have you visited the IKEA website to design your own PAX Wardrobe? Select your size and doors and then the inside combinations are endless! Your can insert drawers, shoe racks, boxes, bins, you name it! It’s the perfect storage solution for any room without closets. Happy storing!

Pop a Squat

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Great expression. And now you can! In our mudroom! This new bench came fully assembled from Home Decorator’s Club and we love it. It’s the perfect fit for this wall and the perfect blend of colors and textures.

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We plan on adding a rack for hanging coats above our new bench. There’s plenty of space.

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Maybe something like this shelf from Pottery Barn. Although I’d like to have more than three hooks and a shelf like this seems more like a dust collector in such a functional space.

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We’ve talked about doing something funky like a piece of driftwood with hooks to play up the greys in the slate and add something fun to the room.

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Whatever we decide, we are enjoying the fact that we can take our time with it. Our renovation was a mad dash to get my impatient butt moved into our house. Now that we’re in, I can’t tell you how nice it is to make decisions and say, “Yeah, let’s sit on that. Something will either come along or we can order that whenever.”

I’ll share our “whenever we get to it” plans for the rest of this room tomorrow. Until then, pop a squat and I’ll catch ya later!