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When I was growing up, my mother would always have us tidy up our rooms before the cleaning lady arrived. “Why do we have to clean up for the cleaning ladies?” I would whine. “Isn’t it their job to clean?” My mom would explain that while, yes, it was their job to clean, it wasn’t their job to put my things away.

Fast forward to the present. My husband washes the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. “Why do we have to wash the dishes before they get washed?” I whine. (Some things haven’t changed.) “Because otherwise they won’t get totally clean,” he explains. Bah! Just like cleaning ladies are supposed to clean, dishwashers are supposed to wash dishes! What a waste of time, energy and soap and water.

“Let’s do an experiment,” I suggest. “Let’s NOT pre-wash the dishes–especially this blueberry stained pie plate–and see how clean they get in the dishwasher alone. I bet they come out sparkling.”

“You’re on,” he says, his eyes screaming, “I’m going to win!”

We fill the Kenmore dishwasher with the dirtiest dishes that have ever gone in it, toss in a Finish Powerball Tab and hit start. A couple of hours later the machine goes quiet–the dishes are done. It’s time for the big reveal.

The first thing I pull out is the pie plate. The verdict? Totally spotless! I can see right through the glass baking dish. And the rest of the dishware came out just as clean.

The taste of victory is sweet–especially on clean plates.

We’re moving not once but twice in the next 30 days.

The first time will be this weekend to a friend’s house. She moved to the beach and is letting us stay (rent free!) in her house for the next month. Which includes access to her pool and extensive land with a lake (daily swims for the dogs!). This move requires separating everything we own into three categories:

• Things we will take to Nicaragua
• Things we will sell or donate - anything that doesn’t have real meaning to us
• Things we will store - one dresser, one side table, four chairs, one table, keepsakes, office supplies (paper, envelopes, printers, cutters, etc.), kitchen supplies.

The second time will be our move in late August to Nicaragua. Everything we need will be brought on the flight as cargo. We are taking the following:

• 4 lockers, measuring 32″ x 17″ by 12″
• 2 suitcases, carry on size
• 2 laptop bags

That is the sum total of all our necessary belongings for the next year. We ran into a problem when we realized the lockers (small enough to meet airline requirements) are too small to contain our printer. Which isn’t a true necessity (like, for instance, high thread count linens), but we really need access to a good scanner to transfer documents back and forth from the States.  Shipping is incredibly expensive (about $500 for the printer, not including customs). So we are trying to decide whether to buy a smaller model (really do not have the funds right now considering our vaccinations alone are $750, tickets are $1500, shipping the dogs is another $1000, emergency flights are $2000, medical flights are $1000…you get the picture), find a way to package it and pay for the extra luggage, or just leave it and take the risk that we can eventually pick up a suitable printer/scanner in Managua.

Oh, and I quit my job so our sole income is my husband’s graphic design business. Yay!

At the same time, we are meeting with a friend who is designing our future studio. Are we crazy? Yes! However, it’s really helping to have a short term goal (moving to Nicaragua) and a long term goal (building a studio and eventually a house). It’s allowed us to part with items that have no potential future use, and to truly appreciate the items we are keeping and/or able to take with us.

All I can say is that I am very happy to have read this book before the move, rather than after.

The hubby sent over a link (this is a common occurrence) for a device that blew my mind. It was part of the “Help for Harried Moms” gallery on This Old House.  It’s called the Smart Shopper, and it creates a printable list of groceries.  It’s magnetic, so you can stick it to your fridge.  Yay!

Smart Shopper

It’s kind of pricey ($150) but so worth it if your mom/sister/wife is a gadget freak like me.

I also saw this wall hook from Design Within Reach.  Um, fabulous?

Design Within Reach Hookbox

Who knew dog leashes could be so elegant?

All images via This Old House.

Photo by Jenny Ebert

This past weekend E and I made the trek up and over to NYC to meet up with 18 other wedding and style bloggers. The event was hosted by Anne from I Will to I Do and Vané of Brooklyn Bride. The ladies did a great job and it was so fun meeting a lot of our favorite bloggers.  We all connected and commiserated during a closed session at the Galapagos Art Space, eat food catered by Sterling Affair and wedding cake by Mark Joseph Cakes.  After the meeting, we headed over to Michele Preli’s, the editor of Brides.com, gorgeous Brooklyn loft for a wine tasting by Swirl Events.

Photo by Jenny Ebert
(me, Jen and Kristina)

It was so very lovely to be surrounded by girls who had the same frustrations and dreams! Here’s who I got to meet:

Kristina from 100 Layer Cake
Liene from Blue Orchid Designs™
Vané from Brooklyn Bride
Anne from From “I Will” to “I Do”
Jen from Green Wedding Shoes
Luzel from iDiY
Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper
Emily from Once Wed Blog
Anne from Perfect Bound
Kelly from Santa Barbara Wedding Chic
Janice from The Bridal Wishlist
Janie from The Bride’s Cafe Blog
Courtney from The Little White Book
Amanda from Vintage Glam Weddings
Bee from Weddingbee
Christy from What Junebug Loves!
Darci from With This Ring
Maria from {ritzy bee blog}

I’ll post more this week about the lovely gift bags (my suitcase was filled to bursting and an unnamed blogger bought a cooler to bring hers home) and what I learned from the meetings.  Until then, you can read more about our adventures on The B List blog and on the individual blogs!

I’m fighting off a cold, hoping it doesn’t get the best of me before my flight to NYC this evening.  E and I are on a super secret blogging trip, we’ll post all the details on Monday.  In the meantime check out these really cool door use ideas from Chez Larsson.

We’ve added a few features over here that will hopefully allow you to get to know our fabulous (if we do say so ourselves) bloggers just a little bit better!

Over on the right sidebar you will now find a section showing all of the regular contributors and our photos.  Clicking on any of the photos will take you to that author’s posts.

Another new feature: when you click into a post, the full bio and photo of the writer now show up at the top of the right sidebar.

Last but not least, the profiles in the byline on the blog front page are still there, but they are now showing on hover instead of on click.

Hopefully you like these little additions to the site and it helps you to keep up with us a little bit easier!

A simple and organized kitchen, just how I like it.  Found on Apartment Therapy.

A representative from Breville emailed last month and asked me to review their iKon Multi-Speed Juice Fountain. As I have wanted a juicer for several years, I immediately said yes yes yes! You know we’re eager to review great products here at EAD, with the condition being that all reviews are completely unbiased and truthful.  If we don’t love a product, we’re going to tell you.

First, the machine is huge!  It takes up most of our counter space.  If you don’t have a lot of room, I would highly recommend getting the compact version instead.  You lose a lot of the features, but it doesn’t take up as much room.

Second, the juicer is incredible.  From the packaging to the scrub brush everything is perfectly made and well put together.  They even have recipes in the operations manual!  I cannot rave about the quality of this machine enough.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

When Courtney from Courtney Khail Stationery emailed us to let us know about her GORGEOUS note cards and wedding invitations, we knew we had to immediately share.  Not only was her product fantastic, but her email was very heartfelt.  You can tell she really believes in what she is doing.

“After designing my wedding invitations this past year, I realized there were relatively few places to get custom hand painted invitations or stationery that wasn’t letterpress and I really wanted to change that. I wanted to offer a place where people could get a product that truly represents themselves and that was created especially for them. Whether it’s from my gallery or custom done, each piece is hand painted and printed by me especially for my client.”

“With my note cards I hope to bring a little piece of art to each of my clients and in turn let them share small works of art with their friends and family. Artwork that not only held a note, but could also be framed and hang on someone’s wall for years to come. I believe there is nothing more special and thoughtful than a handwritten note, and what is better than seeing something besides the cable bill waiting in the mailbox? I also tried to keep in mind that these are still hard times, so I worked to keep the cards in my gallery reasonably priced. With the cost of most grocery store cards being around $5, for just a little more I created cards that are unique and hand crafted, and really reflect the sender.”

You can find her work on her website and blog.

Thanks for sharing Courtney!

It’s Spring Break in our neighborhood, and that means P-A-R-T-Y! The weather got the message and has been sunny and mild for the past few days. Everyone is spending their evenings at the park with their bicycles and dogs, music is blaring loudly from open windows and grills are rocking. We took our dog to the park on Monday night to enjoy the people and fresh air and he managed to almost kill himself.  Imagine a 65 pound two year old who can run faster than the speed of light.  Now imagine that being running (thankfully avoiding his head) straight into a cement pole.  An unmoving cement pole. That’s Jesse, our youngest. On top of all of this, my day job did not receive the “Spring Fever” memo.

Spring Fever + Heavy Workload + Dazed and Confused Puppy = Late Posts.

Your reward for waiting? A post full of paint inspiration. Sources are below each group.

Red Walls

{1, 2, 3, 4}

Blue Walls

{1, 2, 3, 4}

Green Walls

{1, 2, 3, 4}

{Read the rest of this entry…}