Knitting is the new Nintendo

It's time... it's been plaguing me for a while, I need to do something about my closet. I've got way to much and yet not enough. So I'm taking action! I've found a couple of minimalism fashion blogs which both have tons of great info on how to have great style with less.

It was actually last summer that I came across the concept of the 'capsule wardrobe'. It's basically a closet filled with a limited amount of items (for example 37 - all inclusive of tops, coats, bottoms, and shoes). The idea is that you will have less to choose from, but all pieces that you love - the 'less is more concept. When I came across it I was so convinced I wanted to try it, but when I actually started to empty my closet I got extremely overwhelmed and discouraged because of the sheer amount of clothes I had and how many I'd have to wade through and choose only a few. (Sad I know, first-world problem...) So I didn't end up creating a capsule wardrobe then, but I did purge bags and bags of items which I donated and that felt good.

This is a fresh year however and I have a new determination to do this. I've done more research and am going to start slow to ease into the idea of a smaller wardrobe. Currently I'm doing a 2 week program to kick start the upgrade. Through this process I'm looking to identify better my own personal style, learn how to shop better and more intentionally, and eventually pair down the number of clothes I own. I'm not going to provide you details on how to do this because I'm not the expert, but as I go I may update you on my progress :) Like me, if you are having wardrobe woes, do check out these blogs, I'm sure you can find something of use there. I have! Also follow my Fashion Things Pinterest page, where I'm pinning the articles I'm finding the most beneficial and interesting. Happy Friday!

a minimalist fashion blog

Not too long ago we had a chili cook off at work. It's been an annual occurrence for almost 10 years! This was the first time I participated and it was a lot of fun!

The chili's were lined up on the table and had small jars in front for anonymous voting. Each individual was given one dry bean as their vote. Fun!

I've only made chili a handful of times in my life, to be honest I never used to like beans, but in chili they are okay. I quite enjoy making chili though and another confession, each time I make it I use a different recipe! The cook off was no exception, I had the attitude that I was participating for fun and if I won great, if not, it was fun to try (an ancient family recipe wasn't a stake here haha).

And in fact I got 2nd! (out of 5) The man who won last year won again this year. It was good chili I'll admit, but I've got a plan now and I'm in it to win next year!

If you'd like to know which recipe I used I'm going to share it! I made some adjustments from the original as I doubled it to feed more as well the grocery store didn't have all of the exact ingredients I needed. I also took a tidbit from another recipe I read and incorporated it in. But hey, it's chili and the greatest thing about that is it is completely flexible and fairly forgiving :) That's my kind of cooking!

Enough talk, let's cook!


Chocolate Bacon Chili

Ingredients
-1 package of bacon
-2 pounds ground beef
-1 onion, chopped
-1 tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
-1 tbsp ground cumin
-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-Two 15oz cans Home-style Baked Beans
-1 tsp dried oregano
-One 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can red beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can diced tomatoes
-4 cups tomato sauce
-2 cups beef broth, low sodium

Directions 
In a large fry pan cook your bacon. Fry it fairly crispy, but not burnt. Set it aside, but leave the bacon grease in the pan. On medium heat add your ground beef and brown it. Drain off the fat.

In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, stir together your ground beef, onion, chili powder and cumin. Next add the cocoa and garlic, mix together and cook for 2 minutes. Next, add the home-style beans and oregano and cook for another minute. Add the black and red beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Lastly, crumble up the bacon and mix in. Cover your chili and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

I love to eat my chili over nachos with sour cream and cheese, delicious :) 

The trophy - next year!

The competition!

When you double a chili recipe it make for a lot of cans!

3 Tier Diaper Cake

Supplies:
1 package (84) of size 1 baby diapers
1 round base (I found a cardboard cake base at the dollar store)
1 small package of multi-sized elastic bands
1 paper towel roll
A hot glue gun
2-3 rolls of ribbon
3-6 baby items to decorate (baby utensils, socks, pacifier, hair brush and comb, hair bow, etc.)


Directions:
1) There are two methods to assemble the diapers to create the cake tiers, I used both. The first way is to roll each individual diaper. I did this for the base and top tier. For the base layer I used an elastic to hold them in threes around the paper towel roll, and I did enough to cover the entire cardboard base. The second way is to stagger layer them one on top of each other (does that make sense? see the picture below if you're not sure.) Once you've got the entire layer done you'll use 1 or 2 very large elastics to hold it all together.
As you can see above I didn't start with the paper towel roll in the middle, but I realized part way through assembly that it would be extremely beneficial to keeping the 3 tiers together!

2) Once you have the cake built, it's time to jazz it up! Use the ribbon to conceal the elastics. (It also helped cover the faint blue bears on the diapers in the middle row!) Use the hot glue gun to keep the ribbon in place.

3) And now the best part! Decorate with all the baby items you collected. There should be space enough that they rest easily on the different levels of each tier. I used a hair clip as the bow at the top and I didn't glue the items to the cake because when stationary, they seem to stay just fine.

This cake was obviously for a baby girl, but I've seen some just as cute for baby boys, plus you could just as easily create a gender neutral cake if the sex is unknown at the time you're making it. Just let your imagination go!

That's right, you read it correctly, Mini Egg Cookies!

There are so many different recipes out there for scrumptious cookies, and I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of putting mini eggs into cookie form, but I would like to say I did come up with these on with my own imagination before I was able to 'Google' or 'Pinterest' anything :)

It's super simple:
1) Take your favorite choco chip cookie recipe
2) Smash up some Cadbury Mini Eggs and use them instead of the chocolate chips.
3) Enjoy!

Here's my recipe!

Mini Egg Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups whole Mini Eggs

Directions
First combine the margarine, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Next mix in a larger bowl the baking soda, salt, and flour. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir. Now the fun part! Place the Mini Eggs into a large Ziploc bag and smash them up to your hearts content (you may like bigger chunks or smaller pieces, its up to you)! Stir the smashed mini eggs into the batter. Drop by teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 min at 350F. Makes about 2 dozen.

You really can't go wrong with this one, a super soft and yummy cookie, perfect for Easter :)