The article describes Warm folk as people who “worry about clutter and organizing, and who tend to obsesses (sic) much more about their homes and love The Container Store. They are often personally warm as well, being friendly, generous and extroverted socially. Their demon is excess and attachment to things and people.”

In contrast, Cool people “do not broadcast their issues as much, partially because they are far more private and far more embarrassed about the failures of their home. More highly strung by nature, cool people are seen as sharp and smart, and they tend to delegate their problems to others if they can, because they feel clumsy dealing with the physicality of their own home. They do not feel great attachment to objects, and are good at avoiding clutter. Their demon is excessive thought and over attachment to ideas, while losing touch with people.”

I tried to place me and The Husband, and honestly I feel like I am a bit of both, but about 95% Warm: I love the Container Store (thank God we don’t have one I’d be REALLY broke) and I like the thought of organization. I do obsess about my home, and I am a quasi-hoarder with catalogs and magazines. I can’t bear to throw them out because, well, what if y’know?

I look at this and I go "ooh! How fun!" (Source)

The Husband however leans more Cool – not too inclined to hosting get-togethers too much, when he has an idea he is determined to follow through with it (one of his strengths that I find so sexy), and he’s a killer de-clutterer. He’s all about eliminating the stuff we have but don’t need and he’s all about the “weeding.”

This is also appealing, very ideal but not as realistic for me as it is for The Husband. (Source)

Apartment Therapy recommends that Warm people weed and that Cool people should plant and I agree – I need to be better about letting things go and sometimes I do wish The Husband were more receptive to hanging out with friends we’ve lost touch with a bit more on top of spending time with the ones we see regularly.  That said, I do feel like we make a perfect combination because he reins me in and I force us to be more sociable and it’s a wonderful balance.

Now that I’m more conscious of this I’ll need to harness our strengths and work on our decor more. My goal is to maintain the order in the house so we can have people over on a whim and not frantically throw things into our bedroom if the occasion arises!

This is what I feel is a good compromise of a room - not too many knick knacks, and not too sparse. (Source)

Worth a shot right?

My dream is to do this full time, to contribute my passion and experience in the wedding industry to help brides and to be a good resource for information. To do so, ABG needs to grow.  With nominations such as this little online award, we’ll reach more brides in other cities and hopefully become recognized as a solid, great resource regionally and eventually nationally/internationally.

So today I ask you to please help us win Best Regional Bridal Blog on The Wedding Channel’s site. Ashley deserves this win – she’s put so much hard work and heart into this site over the past three years, and now she’s including me on this terrific journey and I am eternally grateful.  Winning this could mean so much more for her and, as a result, for me as well so it would mean a ton if you could follow the link and vote for Ashley’s Bride Guide to win Best Regional Bridal Blog.

Thank you!!!!

Well something has happened in my backyard.  Something dreadful, something I never ever imagined would happen in the town I’ve come to call my American home.  After a weekend of torrential rain and heavy flooding, thousands of people in Tennessee are without homes, with a rising death toll currently at 27.  This is happening in my town, and I am disappointed and furious that attention has been focused on an incident that “could have been” vs. getting the news out and sending help and aid to one that has occured.  It took two whole days for national news agencies to even give us a decent headline.

Better late than never I suppose.

Please help – You can text “REDCROSS” (no quotation marks) to 90999 to donate $10 to help those who have lost their homes.  This isn’t just about people whose homes are flooded, people have literally lost their homes – their houses were swept away by floods. Some caught on fire and exploded. People have lost loved ones.

The flood is supposed to subside by tomorrow night but the destruction caused will take a long time from which to recover.  My heart goes out to the people in Bellevue and the areas that were hit the worst.  Send prayers and hope to those who need it most in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. To see the latest information and find out how you can help the updates are pouring in on Twitter with the hashtag #nashvilleflood or follow the lovely ladies who run @nashvillest.

Picture source

All this stress hit me about 3 weeks ago.  On Tuesday I got a voicemail from one of my sweet friends, The Thirty-Something Bride and she has been going through some rough waters lately but I think things are starting to calm down gradually (she’s a fighter that one).  In her message, after describing all that’s happened, she said “So somethin’s just got to give!”

Boy. Howdy.

Life’s still heading in the direction I want it to but I’ve had to sacrifice some things to avoid bumps.  I haven’t been to dance class in ages and I miss my hip hop buddies.  I haven’t been to yoga as regularly and I miss the familiar adrenalin of healthy blood pumping and sweat beading down my back.  As a result, I’ve also missed sleeping soundly so productivity in the day is at a vicious low.

This stress is something I can overcome, I just know it.  This series of events? It’s a wretched cycle and I need to break it. Something has got to give.  I started asking myself what that could be, I mean I sure as hell don’t want to give up Bikram yoga. I don’t want to stop dancing yet. I love what I do for work in the evenings.  So what’s left to whittle away? What is the one thing in my life I could really use less of?  And then it hit me – I could cut out the fat that I don’t like.  The hydrogenated bits of my life, if you will.

Not entirely though because there are some perks but let’s just say the action was taken and starting soon (but not soon enough) I will get my sanity back.  Just taking that step has done wonders for my mood. My skin is starting to clear a little and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my waistline goes down back to normal before long.

I guess my point with this post is that we have become such a multitasking society where we take on more than we can handle and we don’t realize till it’s almost too late.  It’s so important that we find time for ourselves too and to maintain balance because without it everything, not just our mental states, will be off kilter and that will ripple out on to everything you do.  We need to stop, breathe and catch ourselves before that happens.

At this point, I think I’ve caught myself. Honestly things aren’t horrible and they could be much worse but you know what? They could also be much better and that’s what I’m striving for.  Something’s going to give. And it’s going to get better.

Recently some friends and I participated in the Martha O’Bryan Center‘s “Miss Martha’s Kitchen Throw Down,” an event to raise funds for the center and to raise awareness of a growing problem in many areas in Nashville – food deserts.

If you’ve never heard the term, just take a minute to think about it and visualize it and you’ll get a good idea.  Food deserts affect mostly lower-income areas of a city, where neighborhoods lack the means to get fresh food.  A lot of times what’s around the corner is a convenience store that offers only canned goods or non-perishable items that, let’s face it, also contribute to poor health and dietary habits.  But it’s not like the community has a choice – that’s what is accessible.

A quick history – the Martha O’Bryan Center offers youth development programs and activities to (according to their mission) empower children, youth, and adults in poverty to transform their lives through work, education, employment and fellowship.  With the growing issue of food deserts, the center is also helping families who have no cars or means of transport to full-service groceries outside their neighborhoods by providing a shuttle service to take them to a Kroger or Publix or Aldi.

The Throwdown was an Iron Chef style competition where each team had to come up with a dish based on a food box they were randomly given.

1. Emergency Food Box
-Meat: 2 cans tuna, 2 cans beef
-Soup: 2 cans chicken noodle, 2 cans cream of mushroom
-Vegetables: 2 cans ea. green beans, baked beans, pork and beans, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, diced tomatoes; 1 jar tomato sauce
-Fruit: 2 cans fruit cocktail
-Pasta/Starch: 2 boxes mac & cheese, 2 packages ramen noodle, any flavor
spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes; 1 box ea. dry cereal, grits, packaged seasoned rice
-Nuts: 1 jar peanut butter
-1 pint of 2% milk
-1 box of crackers – saltines or graham crackers

2. Middle America Box
-Meat: 1 lb chicken breast cutlets, 1 lb ground beef
-Vegetables: 2 cans ea. white beans, canned tomatoes, canned tomato paste; 1 head fresh
romaine lettuce, 1 green pepper, 2 zucchinis, 1 cucumber, 1 package of button mushrooms
-Fruit: oranges, pears
-Pasta/Starch: 1 lb ea. spaghetti and cous cous, 6 pack of flour tortillas, 1 box of rice and
beans
-Dairy:1 container plain yogurt, 1 lb. shredded mozzarella, 1 lb. shredded cheddar
-Nuts: sunflower seeds, almonds
-1/2 dozen eggs

3. Top Shelf Box
-Meat: 2 medium salmon filets, 2 medium beef strip steaks
-Vegetables: 1 jar ea. sun dried tomatoes and olives, 1 bunch ea. fresh arugula, spinach,
parsley and cilantro; 6 shallots, 1 red onion, 1 package ea. of prepared pesto and hummus
-Fruit: 2 avocados, 1 bunch grapes, 1 grapefruit
-Pasta/Starch: 1 lb ea. penne, cous cous and polenta; 1 box of quick-cooking brown rice
-Dairy: 1 package ea. goat cheese, feta
-Nuts: 1 small package ea. pine nuts, walnuts

We were also given a secret ingredient  which turned out to be apples.  Each team had access to a shared microwave and hot plate, but to cook with, we had only a George Foreman grill and a burner.

Take a good look at the Emergency Box – this is what a lot of people in food desserts have as their options (for the most part). Can you imagine living on that everyday and still being healthy or in the pink of health?

As for the contest, I’ll spare you the details but we drew the Middle America box which one of my two awesome teammates had planned a Mediterranean menu for (kafta, a tzaziki sauce, cous cous and a side salad). And yes we knew beforehand.  if you think the actual Iron Chef contestants go in blind, well… good for you, you just keep on thinking that.

Anyway! We ended up coming in 2nd. It was SUCH a fun activity and, the event raised more than half the money needed to fund the Food Desert initiative!!!! (Article here)

Disclaimer: That’s what i’m calling it, I don’t think that’s the official name.

I’ve been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, keeping up with blogs about organic food and living well and ever since I heard the report on food deserts on NPR, it’s really made me appreciate what I have at my fingertips.  We take for granted our resources and we (I) make sweeping criticism of people who don’t eat healthily.  Truth is, a lot of people can’t help it and it’s organizations like the Martha O’Bryan Center who are trying to make that difference.

It’s such a worthy cause, I’m so proud to have been a part of that fund raiser, and I hope the center manages to raise enough to get that shuttle going more than once a week! Oh and they’re having an ice cream social on June 13th and you can take part in the ice cream contest! Details here.

Or if you’re interested in helping on a regular basis, you can volunteer or donate.  Here’s to everyone getting a chance to live well.