But I'm back to the blog! And I'm back with a mission. Besides blogging about my baby, life, crafts and my business, I want to use this platform to make myself accountable for something I want to tackle: living minimally (my version of minimalism)

I started off this post touching about the burden I felt/feel every day to just keep up with things: work, design, spending hours with my baby, connecting with my husband, staying in touch with friends and family, taking care of my pets, and CLEANING THE HOUSE.  We are always, always cleaning the house and doing laundry.  It drives me nuts! Why can't the house stay clean?

A few weeks ago I started reading blogs about families who live as minimalists. I forget how I stumbled into that world, but once there I found it facinating. One family of four has a total of 33 articles of clothing! What?? I am not interested in living that extreme of a minimalist lifestyle, but wow, it did sound peaceful to have less crap in your life.

These are the three problems in my family's life that I need to solve:

1. My husband can never find anything. He has a bad habit hiding things from himself and his hiding spots are terrible (just this morning he accused me of throwing away his phon screen protectors.  You know where they were? In the mailbox.)

2. My husband and I can never find anything - there is just stuff on every single surface of the house. Mail, keys, vitamins, candles, remote controls, wires and cords (so many USB cables!), and baby bottles.

3. We are forever needing to clean or cleaning or just cleaned.  The last thing I want to do when I come home at 7:30pm from work is clean the house, but I'm always tidying for an hour or more. My husband will do some big cleaning during the day (bathrooms, kitchen, laundry), but there is always hours of tidying to be done (folding laundry, picking up baby items strewn over the house, several days worth of shoes by the front door, piles of mail to file and bills to pay).

And I realized that all those problems could be helped, if not solved, by us just having less stuff. Ok, maybe less stuff won't make Abe stop hiding things, but at least we would have less places for him to use at secret spots. And money isn't a huge problem for us, but we live on a fairly tight budget - buying less stuff will definitely be an added bonus to our bank account.

(Wow, I don't think I've ever written this long of a post. I hope you're still with me because I'm about to get to the fun stuff: making it happen!)

All the blogs I've read have said to start small. Last week I took the liberty of throwing out Abe's gross old white undershirts and ripped boxers. And late last night I completed a satisfying purge of scarves, hats, belts, shoes and pants. Then I tackled the bathroom and threw out hotel shampoos and old makeup.  Nothing sentimental, but we're taking baby steps in this process.

My goal for 2013 is to create more open space in our home, buy less of everything, and just live more practically. I don't want to become a minimalist - I make things for a living, I love having things and decorating, and I just have too much attachment to inanimate objects - but I think we can make some drastic cuts and simplfy our life.

bag o' things to be donated

Image above, clockwise from top: Gray and Buttercup Yellow Dopp Kit, $18 | Gray and Orange Dopp Kit, $18 | Turquoise and Orange Dopp Kit, $18

When I was in college, part of my studies included working in the Child Development Labs - pretty much a dream day care center for infants to kindergarteners. We had to track the feedings, diaper changes and bowel movements of each baby to communicate with the rotating student teachers and to the parent(s) at the end of the day.

I've been thinking that this kind of chart might be helpful for Abe and me.  I know from experience with our dog that we're pretty good about talkin' the poop, but it's easy to lose track of time/schedule when we're both running around during the day. I'm sure there's an iPhone app we could share, but I usually find a piece of paper to be way easier to update and read.

All of this to say that I've created a *cute* baby diaper change chart (cute is crucial when we're talking b.m.'s) that you can download and print out at home.  It's a PDF and should open in your browser if you click here, or right click on the link and Save As to your desktop.

And if you have trouble describing what you see in the diaper, here is a visual guide from Baby Center.

Happy crapping!

I added a big down pillow covered with Michael Miller Sorbet Spa Geo Coral fabric to lean on when nursing or rocking the baby (I also have a nursing pillow), and draped over the back of the chair a faux-sheep skin rug I got on clearance at Target.  I've always wanted a sheep skin rug, but I always felt gross when I saw the big bin of them at Ikea, so I was psyched to find an animal-free version for $20.

The stool I got for $4 at a yard sale about two years ago. It's been sitting in the basement since then waiting to be cleaned and re-laced. Buying new twill tape was expensive (I bought 22 yards, used about 20), but worth it to get the exact colors I wanted. I sanded the frame and stained it with a teak colored stain/polyurethane.

The dog peeping was also pretty great, Lily got to sniff some very interesting dogs (her words, not mine) and she zonked out in the backseat as soon as we started driving home.

Multi-Colored Christmas Tree Ornaments

Pretty Ribbons in Pink, Red and Green

Holiday Folk Flower

Blackbirds Baked in a Pie

Cyndi Lauper walked by us in the lobby as we waited to go into the studio. Sometimes celebrities look different in person, but Cyndi Lauper looks like Cyndi Lauper, and Cyndi Lauper looks awesome.

This is not Cyndi Lauper. This is me, 7 mos pregnant, on the set of Watch What Happens Live!The guests of the show were Cloris Leachman and Jeff Lewis.  Cloris stole the show with her long-winded, bizarre stories and her requests to repeatedly kiss Jeff and Andy.  Towards the end of the show the fire alarm started going off and they just plowed through since it's a live show.  Normally there would be an after-show taping, but we had to cut it short as we were evacuated from the studio because of a fire!

Cloris comparing kisses from Jeff and Andy.But here is when Meredith climbed the ranks to #1 Best Friend in the Entire World: she had an invite for a press event at Martha Stewart's offices for a cooking lesson with Martha to promote her new show, "Martha Stewart's Cooking School", which will debut on PBS this fall. The show sounds great - something for every home cook no matter your skill level.

Since I was sleeping over, and Meredith knows how much I love Martha Stewart, she managed to snag me an invite as well. So Wednesday morning we hiked over to the west side, ate an amazing breakfast (eggs from Martha's farm and with homemade fruit jams made by Martha), and then sat down for a cooking lesson with Martha. 

If you want to read more about the event you can visit Martha's blog (and find me in photos 5 & 7)

And here is something awesome Martha demonstrated - how to peel garlic in ten seconds (video not of Martha):

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

I was not looking forward to flying being that I'm 7 months pregnant, but the flight from JFK > LAX was remarkably comfortable. I had an aisle seat - easy access to the bathroom and to walk around, our seat neighbors were really nice - one couple from Brazil and another couple travelling with a 5 month old baby, and I had the entire season 1 of Game of Thrones on my laptop.

The flight back was not as sweet, but I blame it more on being a red eye than anything else. Even if I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't have done well on that flight.  Lesson learned, no more red eyes.

Trip Highlights (aside from seeing family, old friends, and the marriage of two wonderful people):

• Survived an 3.2 earthquake
• Amazing home-cooked meals by Elise & Alex, Cheryl and Leah
• Lots of beach and pool time
• Meeting new dog friends

First thing off the plane? Hit up In-N-Out Burger.

faux trees at The Getty

cousin Elise, Abe and me at The Getty

Chelsea and Sam's wedding was at a vineyard so they incorporated wine into the ceremony.

I spent a lot of time here.

Chelsea the bride - straight out of an Anthro catalog

Third Trimester!

Beachin' it in Marina del Rey with Leah and Jon.