#Blogmas Day 17: Kate Spade "All in Good Taste"

I can't even explain how much I need this book. I just...there's a deep history of how much I love Kate Spade on this blog. I basically worship at the temple of the religion of Kate Spade. And not just because of her gorgeous clothing, or her statement handbags. The real reason is because I find her attitude completely celebratory of all things womanhood! While she's obviously an incredible tastemaker, I also firmly believe she is truly in touch with the modern woman who might not be perfect, but isn't trying to be! Her life is one big party with champagne and glitter and bows on everything, and frankly I want to jump inside her world and never leave. So when I saw that this book "All in Good Taste" was coming out, I knew I had to have it. In fact, skip the Holiday wish list and I think I'll just celebrate my own womanhood and pick it up on my way home from the office!

I want to get lost in the art of assembling a vibrant guest list, trying new recipes, raising a toast to myself frankly. It's been a long year, and a very tumultuous month. But I can firmly say that I'm even more proud of the woman I am today than I've ever been. Cheers!

#Blogmas Day 13: Short Stack Editions

My best friend Cate shared these super cute cookbooks from Short Stack Editions with me this past week, and I was totally inspired. They include recipes centered around a specific ingredient which would be perfect for someone with a favorite food (did someone say broccoli?) or for people with a CSA box who knows without a doubt that there will be tons of surplus fruits and veggies during various parts of the season. But most importantly, the covers on these are beautifully illustrated. I would love to have each and every volume in my kitchen, but could easily pick and choose the ones that will work best with my own cooking lifestyle. These are one of my top gift ideas this season, and super affordable at $14.00 each! How about you guys? What's your favorite food to cook with? Leave a comment below!

1  Eggs  |  Volume 1

2  Buttermilk  |  Volume 4

3  Lemons  |  Volume 13

4  Prosciutto de Parma  |  Volume 14

5  Brown Sugar  |  Volume 12

6  Corn  |  Volume 10

#Blogmas Day 11: Holiday Wish List - 2016 Planners

It's that time of year where you really start to wrap your head around the fact that it's about to be a new year. Whether you start getting your resolutions ready, or you at least try to get your affairs in order, a new year totally feels like a new beginning. And sometimes even just the feeling of a new beginning is important for keeping things in a busy, overwhelming life feel fresh, new, and fun. This also happens to be the perfect time to start the new year right with a planner. In the digital age, I know my phone and computer calendars keep track of my appointments and office obligations, but there's just something so charming and fun about keeping personal plans, birthdays, and other fun fetes in a beautiful agenda book. And why stop there? There are meal planners, diet planners, grocery planners, even content planners for bloggers and vloggers and people who work from home. I put together a few planners that I either have and am currently using, or have had my eye on for a while now. They would make excellent holiday gifts for someone special who's looking to grab 2016 by the horns and live their best-ever life!

1  Kate Spade 2016 Planners  I'm currently using the gold polka-dotted planner and it makes me so happy to look at it every day.

2  Skinnytaste Meal Planner I've blogged about this before, and I'm loving using it to plan out my meals (and grocery shopping/cooking schedule) for the week.

3  The Erin Condren LifePlanner This planner has a huge cult following on the internet. People create products specifically for it, they blog and vlog about it in Plan With Me videos on YouTube – it is kind of like the Rolls Royce of agendas.

4  Ban.do 2016 Agenda  These are so cute, and the design is flawless. I love the look of these planners, and they come with super cute stickers. This would be an amazing gift for someone in high school or college, but hurry because they are selling out fast!

No Takeout November | Skinnytaste Meal Planner

Hello, November! I can not believe how quickly time is passing these days. Sunrise/sunset... Okay, moving on. I have a friend who's doing a No Spend November and she is basically my hero. If any of you have done something like this successfully, and saved a quick and easy thousand dollars in the process, my hat's off to you! Truly, I think I would die. But the idea inspired me to take an honest look at where most of my money goes each month (cough, cough, takeout/restaurants/bars) and I've isolated something I can SAVE BIG on without going berserk.

No Takeout November, for a New Yorker, is definitely still a sacrifice in order to save big. I typically buy breakfast, lunch, and usually dinner from various restaurants ranging from Dunkin Donuts (coffee + breakfast at work), to my favorite local Mexican restaurant (a dinnertime favorite), to Domino's Pizza (yes, I am the worst New Yorker ever...my boyfriend will be the first to point this out). Hear me: It is ridiculous to eat 3 meals out every. single. day. And, trust me, it adds up fast. Also, when left to my own devices and spur-of-the-moment decisions, I am just NOT a healthy eater. So cooking healthy for myself is a secondary benefit!

My go-to website (and cookbook) for healthy, easy, delicious recipes is skinnytaste.com and so imagine my surprise when I found that she recently released a companion to her amazing cookbook that was a tool specifically for meal-planning and calorie/activity tracking. Enter The Skinnytaste Meal Planner. It seemed like perfect considering my No Takeout pledge.

Image from Kittsona

It's got a spread at the beginning of each week to plan your meals, which I'm using to establish which nights of the week will be "cooking nights." Since I am still as busy as I ever was, and life doesn't take a back seat to my No Takeout plans, I will try to keep these to 2-3 a week, maximum and try to knock out the bulk of my planning and shopping on Sundays.

Then for each day of the week, there's space to track everything you eat (amazing if you're trying to be cognizant of that) as well as a cute space for activity tracking! Sure hope I manage to do more of that as well, but I also know the importance of focusing on one goal before conquering another.

I'm very excited about this No Takeout November project, and will definitely let you all know how it goes! Wish me luck!

JSQ in the Kitchen: Southwestern Black Bean Salad

In keeping with my Resolution to cook more, I whipped up one of my favorite recipes last night and can I please just tell you...Skinnytaste.com NEVER LETS ME DOWN. Every recipe is amazing, and Gina (who I just fangirl over constantly on this blog and on Pinterest) lists the Weight Watchers points and calories for every meal.

While this Southwestern Black Bean Salad recipe is totally more of a Summertime hit, if you're craving protein-rich beans, sweet corn, or avocados (which is every day of the year for me) this salad is super easy to whip up on a weeknight. And if you're cooking for one like I am, it also stores well in the fridge for a few days so you can nibble on it all week. Personally, I use 1 cup of it (4 Weight Watchers PointsPlus) as a salsa (I double the amount of tomato in the recipe to achieve this effect) that I pair with Original Flavor Pop Chips for a touch of saltiness (and only 3 more PointsPlus). This is quite honestly my favorite snack, and today I even brought it for lunch!

NOW, Skinnytaste is even a cookbook. I obviously own a copy that I bought the day it became available at Barnes & Noble, and even gave a copy to my mom for Christmas. If I really wanted to learn to cook, I could just cook my way through the Skinnytaste cookbook a la Julie & Julia...Totally kidding, but actually 62% serious. Bon Appetit! 

The Joy is in the Journal

You guys, I seriously love journaling. I have since I was a kid, when I would keep these elaborate notebooks filled with my pre-teen thoughts and Cosmogirl magazine cutouts. And then, of course, there was the early high school LiveJournal era. Oh, to be young again! Now I can't say that I've got tons of time to devote to channeling my innermost thoughts...but I do make time to use this nifty Q&A a Day 5-Year Journal that I picked up at Anthropologie last year. In fact, it's the last thing I do every day before I go to bed, and I highly appreciate the prompt so I never have to dig deep about what to write about!

Here are some other journals I'm loving, all of which can be found at Urban Outfitters. They would make wonderful gifts for friends, family, or yourself. Hope you like! Do you keep a journal, or have one of these? I want to hear about it!

Our Q&A a Day  |  The same journal I have, but for couples!

What Did I Eat Today?  |  Perfect for dieters, or foodies, or both!

Dream Journal  |  I am very into dreams, and drawing. Love this one!

Every Day  |  A 5-Year memory book for the freeform writing lover!

Travel Listography  |  Great for the traveler, and the lover of list-making!

Living Well One Line a Day  |  Great for tracking healthy lifestyle choices!

Let's Go Skiing!

I have to say, the Winter Olympics in Sochi have given me the itch to ski. Luckily, it just so happens that my annual trip to the mountains is only a couple of weeks from now! Though, I must confess you won't be seeing my in the Olympics any time soon...I happen to prefer cruising along at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sights and sounds and smells. This year, we'll be traveling back to Sugarbush Resort, which was an ideal place to get away from the city for a long weekend.

And with skiing on the brain, my friend Cate shared with me these gorgeous vintage ski-themed posters from the book The Art of Skiing: Vintage Posters from the Golden Age of Winter Sport on the blog Brain Pickings, which I am absolutely obsessing over! I'll be sad when the Olympic flame goes out later this week, but at least I've got my own semi-athletic pursuits on the horizon. Hah! Enjoy!

All Poster Images via Brain Pickings / The Art of Skiing

June is Bustin Out All Over!

Forgive the "Carousel"/Leslie Uggams reference, but I am so thrilled that Summer is here! Well, sort of...New York City has been experience some fairly heinous weather lately that has felt a bit more like October. But I have decided not to let that cramp my excitement!

With the start of my second summer here in the Big Apple, I wanted to share with you some of my summer favorites that I've been reading/listening to on my commute.

The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton 
This old New York story is full of lust, scandal, and impropriety all wrapped up in a 'Society' package.

New York Diaries | Edited by Teresa Carpenter
This compilation of journal and diary entries, each written on one of the 365 days in a year, spans four centuries of New York life.

No One Belongs Here More Than You | Stories by Miranda July
This book of short stories are conversational and thought-provoking and I enjoy Miranda's quirky take on subjects from the mundane to the self-actualizing.

The Heavy: a Mother, a Daughter, a Diet | Dara-Lynn Weiss
This book has been the topic of much debate, especially when it comes to parenting and dieting/relationships with food. But I ultimately admire this mother's choice to put her 7-year-old daughter on a diet after reading this insightful book.

All of these tunes can be found on my Spotify playlist Perfect Summer, shown below. Give it a listen and leave a comment listing a few of your favorite reads and tunes this summer!