FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. I am trying to get back in the habit of healthy eating after my trip to Italy and been scouring Pinterest trying to find some inspiration. Tonight for dinner I am either making this Harvest Chicken Skillet or this Paleo Shrimp and Grits!

   

2. I’ve been intrigued by the celery juice trend that seems to be everywhere these days. I am obsessed with my juicer and would like to get into a better routine of using it several times a week. One of my favorite tricks is to use the plastic bags that I use to buy my vegetables as tiny trash can liners.
3. I am in the market for a new yoga mat. I’m looking for something that will be good for hot classes and that has a lot of cushion to protect my knees but not too heavy since I normally walk to and from class (~1 mile each way). These are the current front runners: (1), (2), (3). During my search I found the Stella Collection by Gaiam, I think I’ll have to buy a few clothing items too :).
4. Very excited to read the upcoming book, Work Wife, by Claire Mazur & Erica Cerulo, the ladies behind Of a Kind and one of our favorite podcasts. 
5. I’ve been trying to be more consistent with taking vitamins and finally committed to Care/Of and their little packs of daily vitamins. I tried them once before but wasn’t great about remembering, now I am using their app to help push reminders and it is helping tremendously! I am on a 10-day streak!

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. I had a joint baby shower with my sister-in-law last weekend that was such a blast! Definitely made this whole baby thing feel all the more real. My SIL is having twins and her last name is Behl, so I surprised her with these matching “Babybehls” onesies that I made.
2. I’ve been waiting for Mrs. Frugalwoods to weigh in on wedding culture for some time. Seemingly one of the least frugal aspects of this Pinteresty, Instagrammable life we lead, I loved reading through the many reader suggestions for keeping costs under wraps for such a big life event. I think I did a decent job at keeping our budget in check last year, but definitely would redo a few things after all those suggestions!
3. My husband is a big reddit reader, and while I usually shy away from that particular social network, he has introduced me to two subreddits that I can almost always find something to laugh at on: Shrimping and What’s Wrong With Your Dog. We’ve definitely gone down the reddit rabbit-hole in those two for more time than I’d like to admit…
4. In the quest to get ready for our May arrival, we’re trying to finish a few different spots in our house, one of which is our laundry room. We stacked our washer and dryer (all by ourselves! using this crazy contraption!) more than a year ago, but then abandoned any more changes. It really needs some sort of shelving system, so I’ve been using Ikea’s “Eket” planning tool to try some different scenarios out.
5. I’m also trying to nail down my maternity leave dates. Even though the United States is the worst country in the developed world as far as parental-leave goes, California is one of the best states to be in of that worst case scenario. I’ve had this blog post bookmarked for a while to help me spell out all the different acronyms I can cobble together to take some time off.