Could you wear just six pieces of clothing for four weeks? I don't know if I could, so I'm about to find out. I'm issuing a Mindful Consumption Challenge: 6 for 4 this May, and I hope you'll join me.     The goal? To reduce impulse purchases.   The 2014 6 for 4 Challenge has ended. Join the 2015 8 for 4 Challenge !  

Everyone can use a vacation, but not everyone has a bank of PTO or vacation. The answer? A hometown mini-staycation. Earlier this month to celebrate Opening Day, cubes and I played hometown tourist. Our destination for our adventure was AT&T Park by way of Fisherman's Wharf. Our transportation? One of Gates' favorite animals: a duck! It's been awhile since cubes and I took a day. The last time was in August right before Burning Man; it began with such promise, brunch at Mission Beach Cafe and ended with an ER visit. In October, we had planned two days to ourselves to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary; instead we spent our anniversary at UCSF Parnassus. So, when I was offered an afternoon on The Bay for Opening Day, I jumped.   Well, first I asked cubes if he'd be up for the adventure. cubes is not a sports fan (hockey excluded) and definitely not a baseball fan. Somehow, when we were first dating I had gotten the idea he was a sports fan and more specificall...

Any parent will tell you: savor these moments, they pass all too quickly. What moments? Those spent with little ones. (I'd argue that everyone, parents or not, should be savoring these moments. Parents are lucky in that we see how quickly time passes, and can appreciate it--specifically the lack of it--more fully, but that's another post.) I can't believe that 24 months ago, cubes and I were just leaving the hospital with a newborn baby and now we have a two year old.   Gates continues to spend four days a week with my parents and one day a week with me. I didn't realize how much I missed having an entire day to spend with Gates until we started hanging out again. (Don't get me wrong, it's the most exhausting day of my week. Keeping up with a toddler, planning educational and fun activities to engage her mind, preparing and serving meals she wants to eat, remembering not to apply judgement--positive or negative-- to her actions, and redirecting her energy into...

Have you been following along or participating in the Elevate the Ordinary Instagram Challenge ? We're just over half way through 30 prompts inspiring us to examine the ordinary--those little things in our lives we often take for granted. The challenge is about looking at own lives from another perspective. That introspection is why I ask others to share their definitions of The Good Life; I want to apply a different lens to my life. This month Conni Jespersen of Art in the Find talks about her view of The Good Life.   Conni and I met virtually through #AltChat, a weekly Twitter chat hosted every Wednesday at 9:00AM by Alt Summit . Like me, Conni is a California native. Her blog "was created out of a love of sharing what [she finds] with others. [She believes] there’s an art in the find. Art in the Find is a place where you can find style inspiration, the occasional DIY idea, features on small businesses & my recommendations for fun places to eat, stay, and shop! Pleas...

Grocery shopping in San Francisco brings visions of endless circling of too small parking lots looking for a space. Checkout lines as far as the eye can see. And, no guarantee what you need will be there when you are. That's why grocery shopping is one activity I've delegated.   The other day, I realized I was out of a few ingredients necessary for making my Thai-flavored Vegan Broth . No problem, I thought! I had enough time to pop out to the market, pick up the ingredients and still videotape the segment. Wrong.   I forgot it was Monday and most markets haven't restocked from the weekend. The shelves and produce aisles were striped bare. While they didn't have everything I needed, luckily they had workable substitutions. And, that's why I now shop almost exclusively online, with services like Good Eggs and Google Shopping Express .   How We Started Using Grocery Delivery Services Before we became a family of three, cubes and I would spend one or two eveni...

Grey stormy days can get the best of us down. Unexpected niceties from strangers or surprises from friends can do a lot to brighten one's spirit. A snailmail package brightened my day and will be brightening the days of five other people in the future. Early this week I was struggling with my schedule, focusing only on what I hadn't gotten to instead of on what I'd accomplished. My day hadn't been as productive as I'd have liked it to have been and I was beating myself up. And then, the mail arrived.   In the middle of a rare for Northern California downpour, our mailman delivered a drenched package from Olive Box. (A brief aside, I don't know if Olive Box chose their packaging with weather in mind but it survived without any damage. I absolutely love their font and color selections.)   Once the box dried out a little, I opened it to a note from Bing: Thanks for being awesome! xo #thanksBing   And I smiled. Yes. I am awesome.   And, I thought. So are yo...

A lot goes into perfecting a moist, delicious cupcake, brownie bite, or muffin. Especially those that are dairy-free. (Many butter and milk substitutes don't have the same fat content.) Toss in dairy-free AND gluten-free and well... Most offerings are little better than cardboard. But Sweets Simply has nailed it: dairy-free, gluten-free, AND refined-sugar free. Besides exploring space, Gates loves throwing tea parties. And when it comes to food, she's very social and very inclusive. She doesn't like to be the only one eating and will share so that no one goes without. So we try to serve our meals family style. (This approach doesn't always work, but it does result in less leftovers or composted discards.)   After a picture perfect, gluten-free peach galette turned out to more closely resemble salt dough than an edible pastry, I haven't tried my hand at gluten-free, dairy-free desserts. For one, mistakes are very expensive. Second, accidental cross-contaminatio...

We're often quick to frame a pleasing-to-look-at shot on Instagram and hit Share without much thought. But, it is not until we learn to look--really look--that we can appreciate what's right in front of us. That's the premise of this month's Elevate the Ordinary Instagram Challenge: Reframing Your Perspective to See (and Attract) the Positive.   " Photography is about vision -- real or perceived. Before we take the camera out of the bag we must first learn to look at what we are seeing, and to see at which we are looking. " -Dale Wilson, " For Beginners - Learning to See "   Looking requires us to break down our surroundings into fundamental shapes and colors. To abstract them from expectation. To observe from all sides: above, below, under, next to. And to re-envision them.   This is the approach I take with both my My Ordinary 365 and The Scene Today Instagram Series. And why I'm challenging you to join me this month for 30 Days of Elevati...