return from burnout

Helllloooo! Is anybody still out there? As you might have noticed, I took a break from the blog for a few weeks. The first week was accidental - I was sick. The second week was intentional - I was just not ready to come back. If any of you have ever tried your hand and this blogging thing, you know how much time it takes and how easy it is to get "blogger burnout" (a concept so real that even the New York Times has covered it). 

I admit, I was was a little burned out. It's funny how what starts as a hobby and a creative outlet can turn in to yet another obligation - another line item on a never ending to do list. And especially when I am by no means a full time blogger. I have a day job that often has me working 10+ hours a day. I have a few hours each week to produce this site and I'm doing it with out a photographer, graphic designer, social media specialist, etc. It's just me and my iphone and sometimes when I'm feeling really ambitious, my DSLR camera. It can get a little discouraging when you compare my my little one-woman operation to some of the larger, amazing blogs out there - so many of which inspire me and that I read daily.

During my two weeks off, I examined my goals and my time (because isn't time the culprit for most of life's complications?) and thought long and hard about if I wanted to continue to curate this little site of mine. And the bottom line is that I do want to keep The Rose Record up and running. 

I like documenting our life and sharing what inspires me. I've always been one of those people who feels better when I write down whatever is on my mind - and I think blogging does that same thing for me. And besides, I have two years of our lives journaled on here. I can't just stop. How will we be able to look back on the everyday memories I so often share (i.e. one thousand photos of Lily and me snugging). Not to mention the friends I've made and the people who have told me that they've tried one of my recipes, or bought something from one of my gift guides, or were inspired by something I wrote.

So that's it. I'm back. I might not be back as regularly as before since I'm still working out how best I want to spend my time, but I'll be here when I can and when I feel compelled to write and share. I was inspired by this line from a fellow blogger in response to 'blogger burnout'. It hits the nail on the head I think.

But if you forget to write from your heart, slow down and take a break when you need one and give in to pressure that encourages quantity over quality,  you’re guaranteed to burn out.      -Grace Bonney, Design Sponge

Thanks for sticking around and for coming back time and again to check out The Rose Record. It's nice to know I'm not just doing this for myself, but for you as well. 

And believe it or not, I've already got a few posts teed up and ready for you this week (that's also how I knew I was ready to come back - TONS of ideas coming to me now).  Tomorrow -a recap on what the heck we've been doing for the past two+ weeks.  See you then.

{image source}

dinner: the playbook

Make sure to read down to the end for a giveaway where you can win your own copy of Dinner: The Playbook!

I cook quite a bit. Especially during the week. I'd say I cook about four nights a week and we have one "leftover" night thrown in the mix. It's our way of sticking to our budget - by only dining out Friday and Saturday (especially with NYC restaurant prices - sheesh!). And while we've been eating at home five nights a week since we first moved NYC over six years ago, lately I've tried harder to make our meals from scratch. Less pre-packaged mixes filled with chemicals and preservatives, and more fresh foods prepared simply and smartly to allow us to eat fresh, healthy meals each week night.

Which is why I was elated when I saw on one of my favorite blogs, Dinner: A Love Story, that she had a new cookbook out (I already had her first book and use it weekly) that focused on preparing family meals that are fresh, fast, and easy. Jenny, the author, wrote on her blog that she and her publisher were seeking readers to test out her new book and do a "challenge" to cook at home more. I commented on the post and was chosen and shortly thereafter a "trade paperback original" copy of the Dinner: The Playbook was at my door. 

I devoured the book. It was like Jenny was up in my head writing out my thoughts on the family meal. Jenny writes, "Sitting down to a meal together had always played a disproportionately large role in my relationship with my husband, Andy". Yes! That's me and Al! Jenny goes through how she and her husband maintained their dinners through having two babies and eventually two slightly picky kids. There's more of there family story in her first book, but this book is set out as a real game plan. It's not just about the ritual and calming effect of family dinner, but about how some days (most days it seems), "dinner, more than anything, just has to be...done." 

...Make sure to read down to the end for a giveaway where you can win your own copy of Dinner: The Playbook!...

Some of my favorite tips and tricks from Dinner: The Playbook are: 

Plan, plan, plan! On the same calendar as your week's activities (especially critical for those with children in various activities), plan your meals. If you know you have a late meeting or a soccer game until 8:30, plan an easier meal that day. But no matter what, plan for the week and then shop for the week. It will make your grocery shopping much easier when you know what you'll be making. I used my planner and little tabs to mark the recipes for each day of the week. 

Prep, prep, prep! As soon as you get home from the grocery store, start prepping. This is where an extra 30 minutes to an hour can really pay off for the week. Wash your greens. Chop your veggies. Marinate chicken. Cook a side of barley or rice for the week. Got more time? Make your marinara sauce and dressings for the week. The more front-end prep you put in to it, the easier it will be that week.

^^ Weekend prep: washed and dried greens, homemade barbecue sauce, homemade marinara

Re-purpose, reuse, reinvent! When planning for the week, have your dinners and ingredients make sense and be reused from one meal to the next. So if you're making a batch of marinara for chicken parm meatballs, save some and use it for whole wheat pizzas. Jenny does a great job giving a few examples of this on pages 28-39 where she gives 10 weeks of meal plans. 

Get the whole family involved! Jenny uses this as a way to help picking eaters and get the family behind the idea of eating home-cooked meals each night. In my case, Al was my "kid". I'd have him come to the store with me and help decide the menus. We had plans for him to cook one of the easier meals (Shrimp Rolls page 74), but somehow that never occurred ☺. By getting the entire family - kids and spouses - involved it takes the pressure off of one person and helps create that ritual that makes family dinner so nice.

Recipe layouts! This is less of a tip or trick, but something I LOVED about this book. The recipes are arranged in an easy to read manner. Ingredients on one side, steps on the other. All on one page. And my most favorite part was little tips underneath each recipe for how you can get ahead for dinner that night. What you can do the morning of (as simple as setting out the pots, pans, and canned ingredients you'll need) to what you can do the weekend before (make your dressing or sauce). She also lists what sides (pages 154 - 162) go well with each meal.

And here are some of the meals we made from Dinner: The Playbook. Happy to report we added every single one to our "make again" list. 

...Make sure to read down to the end for a giveaway where you can win your own copy of Dinner: The Playbook!)...

 Grilled Thai Steak Salad (page 182)

 Cornmeal-Crusted Fish with Homemade Tartar Sauce (page 108)

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadillas (page 70)

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Spinach (page 80)

Chicken BLTs (page 110)

 Basic Barbecue Roasted Chicken (page 72)

Roasted Salmon and Asparagus with Spicy Mayo and Chives (page 66)

Sloppy Joes (page 98)

Chicken Parm Meatballs (page 134)

Dinner: The Playbook hits shelves TODAY! You must go get it. For all of you with kids that are just going back to school, what a perfect time to start your own challenge to cook meals at home that don't come from a box. And for those of us without children, the fall always gives me that sort of back-to-the-grind and set-up-new-routines feeling. A perfect time for The Playbook. 

And thanks to the lovely people at Random House, one lucky reader can win their own copy of Dinner: The Playbook. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post by clicking the comment link down there ↓. Tell me how you plan to use the Dinner: The Playbook, or a good tip for weeknight meals, or what family dinner means to you. Anything! Just leave a comment on The Rose Record between now and Monday, September 1st and you'll be entered into the drawing. The winner will be contacted on Tuesday, September 2nd.

Thanks to Jenny and the team at Random House for letting me be a part of such a fun experience. I truly stand behind the messages in Dinner: The Playbook - that family dinner matters and can be stress free and I'm happy to support it.

friday finds

via

↑ Ha! But really though, how in the WORLD is it July 18? I feel like it should be oh, April something. But that means it'd still be rainy and cold here. So I guess I'll take July 18 even though I have no idea how we got here so quickly. But enough rambling! It's Friday! Woop! We have NO plans! None. After 4th of July and then visitors last weekend, we need a few days to catch up on life stuff. I already have a 25 point to do list for the weekend that includes everything from editing photos to cleaning out Al's closet to washing my makeup brushes. The sad part? I'm excited for it.  You know things have been hectic when you look forward to a to do list on a Saturday.

Wishing you a productive weekend. My favorite finds from the web this week are below. ↓

••••••••••

Interesting read:  the rise of Instagram.

Amazing.

Cute swim suit alert (and finally, a reasonable price!) - fun fact. I ordered this. And accidentally shipped it to my mother's house...in Kansas.

My first reaction when I saw this -"ohhhhh yeah!". Yes, I ogle could soup.

Because I'm still not over Frozen (and probably never will be).

We're familiar with this.

I cried at this commercial. For real. Well done, Nike. 

Oh la la, Birch Box has a shop and it's real pretty.

Got my first fall jitters from seeing this.

Well this sucks.

I want to get this (seriously) after reading this. Awful! "People who engage in an hour of moderate-intensity exercise –running is considered vigorous exercise–fare much worse. They lose 16 percent of their workout gain from each hour of sitting."

Leighton Meester's spot-on op ed. You go Blair Leighton!

So true. Especially #9 and #10 for us.

Al sent this to me. I can't imagine why ;)  (but really, do you wanna get a flatbread?). 

YES!

••••••••••

Have a good one loves!

P.S.  I spent the morning helping out my friends at PureWow shoot a segment about white jeans for Good Day New York. Check it out here. So much fun! And go check out PureWow's 30 ways to wear white jeans for more styling tips. 

new look

Notice anything new? No, I didn't get my haircut again. (That's always Al's first guess when I ask that question.) It's better than a haircut. It's a fresh new look for The Rose Record.

If you're reading on a feeder, click on over and take a look at the pretty new space.

The new look is courtesy of the talented (and very patient), Kelly Brito from Pink + Lola. Kelly took one tiny inspiration photo (and my many comments) and crafted it into what you see here. I love the new look. I wanted something that was cleaner, brighter, and a little New York-y. And I think we achieved that. 

My starting point was this photo.

(source)

And Kelly turned it into this inspiration board.

Which became this new site! I love the black and white with just pops of red (my favorite color).  And the lay out is much more simple. 

Over on the right hand menu bar you have a wide variety of tools to help you navigate. A drop down archive bar, a search bar, and categories. Don't forget to click the social media icons to follow me on twitter, instagram, and facebook.

Up there by the header you can see I now have pages to take you to some of the categories most commonly written about.

And don't forget to read the new about page for more about me, why I curate The Rose Record, as well as some tidbits about Al and Lily.

What do you think?  You like?  Are there any helpful tools/widgets you'd like me to add to the right hand menu bar?

I think this new look is just the sort of thing I needed to recharge and keep me from neglecting this hobby of mine. Look for some new great posts - tons of fun ideas for content this summer!  Anything you all are dying to know or want me to write about? Let me know in the comments.

focus what? process what?

Race home from work - an hour later than I told myself I'd leave. Remember half way on my way to the subway that I need to pick up flowers so the blooms will be open in two days when we have people over. Go back up to ground level, grab the last five stems of peonies and head to the train. Just miss my train by two seconds. Allow myself to enjoy the time standing on the platform reading. 20 minutes later, I'm at home. Take Lily out for a walk, change clothes, make bed (if I didn't make it in the morning I have to make it before I get in it), start dinner. As dinner cooks, take out my computer and start working on writing and my blogging "to do list". More like "WANT to do list".  Just as inspiration hits, dinner is ready. Al comes home, we eat, do dishes and then the distractions really set in.  

I sit down with my computer to write. But first, I think, let me add the ingredients for that recipe I want to cook on Sunday to my Fresh Direct cart. As I locate recipe, I get distracted on pinterest which leads to me to old recipes from Food & Wine I forgot I pinned. Make a note to look at them this weekend when I do the final week's menu plan. Decide to email myself the recipes to make sure I don't forget. Notice two new emails on my iphone (the recipes I just sent myself, duh). Also see that Piperlime Sale email I saved from earlier. Browse Piperlime for half an hour and decide that I could be a Birkenstock girl (again). But still unsure about the mules. Decide to start a polyvore for the finds I like on Piperlime. Clip three images, but then get distracted with some Bravo reunion show. Realize I'm wasting my life on Bravo and go back to the post I was originally inspired to write. Realize I never edited photos for accompanying post so decide to forgo it and just do the Piperlime bit. Then decide there's more to me than clothes, so reconsider going back to writing something thoughtful. Take a break to take Lily out. 

Realize it's now 10 o'clock. Check my work email. Start thinking about what I have to get done first at work the next day. Remember I have a work event the following evening. Ponder what to wear tomorrow to work. Need to find something that won't be too wrinkled by end of day for the work event. Write down on my drug store list to get more wrinkle release spray. Check instagram. See other blogger's adorable photos and posts from the day. Remember I'm supposed to be writing. Go back to the Piperlime post, since it's late and I have to finish SOMETHING for tomorrow. Start falling asleep on couch. Al wakes me up to go to bed. Head hits the pillow while thinking all at once about work, The Rose Record, eating, clothes, Lily, Al, and whatever miscellaneous thing we need to remember to do tomorrow, and promising myself to get up and work out in the morning.

read more...