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September 19, 2018

Crispy Italian Fries

Want to impress dinner guests? Make these crispy Italian Fries! A combination of melted cheese and Italian herbs will level up your baked oven fry game. Recipe on Shutterbean.com!

Sometimes I take a look at the Recipes section of my website for meal inspiration and to see how far my photography has come since I started my blog in 2007.  A lot has changed over the years!

I went back into my archives and saw these Crispy Italian Fries.

HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THEM??!

I was on such a good streak of making them 9 years ago and then something happened. I forgot about them.  Maybe it was my crispy potatoes or my incessant love for tater tots that made me forget about them? I’m not letting that happen again.

Also, I am a much better photographer 9 years later so here we are.

DOES THIS ENTICE YOU OR WHAT??!

Big shout out to crispy cheese fans!

Want to impress dinner guests? Make these crispy Italian Fries! A combination of melted cheese and Italian herbs will level up your baked oven fry game. Recipe on Shutterbean.com!

These Italian Fries are something I am going to pull out for company because they are definitely a crowd pleaser.  That and the fact that my child doesn’t really like melted cheese (WHO IS HE?!!) or baked fries.

Want to impress dinner guests? Make these crispy Italian Fries! A combination of melted cheese and Italian herbs will level up your baked oven fry game. Recipe on Shutterbean.com!

Needless to say, my husband and I snarfed down this whole tray and a half.  I mean, there were leftovers but I ate those too. Bottom line: between two of us, this recipe lasted less than 24 hours at my house.

Make them. You’ll see why. They’re impressive.

CONTINUE READING

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September 17, 2018

Intentions for the Week

Looking to get your head in the game? Tracy from Shutterbean makes a weekly TO DO LIST called her Intentions for the Week. Here's what this week looks like:

Happy Monday!

We spent the weekend away for travel baseball.  It was fun and exhausting. I have some sleep to catch up on! We didn’t get the regular Sunday so we’ll see how this week starts. You know you’re routine is effective when you take it away and things fall apart!  Time to get my head back in the game by spelling out my Intentions for the Week:

Intentions for the Week:

  • unpack bags from the weekend
  • laundry
  • put together clothes for fall/put away some summer clothes
  • transfer photos to hard drive
  • passport photo
  • catch up on social media/blog work
  • bookkeeping work
  • paint fingernails/toenails
  • prep for conference calls
  • return clothes from GAP
  • make kombucha
  • make time for friends
  • workout at the gym
  • try to go to bed at a reasonable hour (we’re watching Ozark, so GOOD LUCK)
  • eat less carbs
  • drink more water
  • paint nails
  • oil change
  • figuring out packaging for Etsy stuff
  • clean out car – inside and out
  • water plants for friend
  • edit photos for OP/invoice
  • write letters
  • schedule haircut
  • work in new bullet journal

 

Last Week’s Intentions:

  • laundry (stay on top of it)
  • start season 2 of Ozark (still haven’t!)
  • recipe testing
  • catch up on social media/blog stuff
  • drink more water
  • get enough sleep
  • workout at the gym
  • go for a walk in the woods
  • write thank you notes
  • send out evite for birthday party
  • paint fingernails
  • catch up on emails
  • continue to clean up files on computer
  • catch up on accounting work
  • wear my Fitbit every day and track steps
  • watch classes on productivity/finance on Skillshare
  • passport photo
  • work on Etsy things
  • catch up with friends
  • put books away in office
  • edit calendar in procreate

Mantra for the Week:

Pump Song for the Week:

Don’t forget to write down your own Intentions for the Week. It helps hold you accountable!

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

And if you’re looking for inspiration on getting your head in the game, check out my post on how you can take bullet journal classes on Skillshare.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

xo

Tracy

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September 16, 2018

My Everyday Life: Week 37

Here’s what this past week looked like: My Everyday Life Week 37

We ended the week with some good clouds! There were some pink sunrises too!

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

You know how much I love clouds.

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

Wine + a movie with my friend Heather. We saw McQueen. It was full of eye candy and dark but good!

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

Cat bowl on my kitchen desk.

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

Look at this beauty!

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

Mac n’ cheese for One Potato this week.

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

My new favorite overalls.

My Everyday Life: Week 37 on Shutterbean.com

CONTINUE READING

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September 14, 2018

I LOVE LISTS

I LOVE LISTS // a collection of links from the 'net on Shutterbean.com

I LOVE LISTS

  1. Pizza pancakes. Can’t say I’m not curious
  2. Here are 110 free things to do in San Francisco
  3. These thrift store notes are hilarious.
  4. Hello, dream dress.
  5. I love when bloggers show their real-life messes.
  6. Why is college so expensive in America?
  7. Turning off push notifications will help your mental health.
  8. Pasta Fagioli soup was on our table this week!
  9. What goes down on your Nextdoor app says a lot about America
  10. This is the world we live in now.
  11. If you’re a Conan O’Brien fan…
  12. Jumpsuit love: one / two / three / four
  13. This is how they make cookie cutters!
  14. Stuff from the 90s you totally forgot about. I loved the Natural Wonders Store!
  15. Ahh! A Bill Murray documentary. DREAMS DO COME TRUE.
  16. I’ve always wanted to make flapjacks.
  17. I am black licorice.
  18. How to eat like a human when you work from home.
  19. What your bagel order says about you.
  20. This is perfection.
  21. I like how Bon Appetit blogs their recipes these days. 
  22. Photos of the inside of instruments. 
  23. RIP VW Beetle 🙁

And if you’re meal prepping this weekend, here are some of my favorites:

Hippy Banana Bread Shutterbean

Hippy Banana Bread

Mediterranean Pasta Salad is a weekly staple. Perfect for work lunches paired with extra greens. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Country Italian Salad 

Chicken Enchiladas with Cumin Crema is a snap to put together. All you need is a rotisserie chicken! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Chicken Enchiladas

Mint Iced Tea

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September 12, 2018

Bullet Journal Classes with Skillshare

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

It’s September and that means it’s time for me to start a new bullet journal!

A few years ago I introduced quite a few of you to how I effectively bullet journal with my favorite layouts and supplies. 

Today I am going to show you how I took Bullet Journal Classes with Skillshare and what I learned.

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

If you’re not familiar with Skillshare, it’s an online community for learning & teaching creative skills. Skillshare connects expert practitioners with students around the world who collaborate on everyday skills from culinary arts, photography to design.

They have kindly offered my readers TWO MONTHS free of Skillshare Premium!

In the photo above, these are the two journals I’ve used so far.  As I said, I am about to start a new one (I usually end up doing it during the new school year) so I went on Skillshare this month and watched a few courses on Bullet Journaling to see some new techniques and spreads. I love experimenting with my paper calendar/organizing system. Any chance to practice handwriting is fine with me!

Let me show you what you could work on if you want to improve productivity with Bullet Journaling. 

Over the past few weeks, I carved out some evening time and watched the following classes on Skillshare.

 

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

Bullet Journaling YOUR way, A Tailored to You Planner! Beginner’s Set Up

If you’re new to bullet journaling, this course will help!  I loved that you can get a peek into the teacher, Jessica Owinyo’s journal. You can see that she experiments too and her style evolves over the course of one journal.

As much as I like being super minimal in my bullet journal, I like to write big and go for a BOLDER approach than most.

This is my favorite way to map out the week in my bullet journal:

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

Although now I am ready to try some new things after taking the class.

I like how simple this week’s approach is. We’ll see how it works for me!

I do think I need to add a few habit trackers in there….

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

I need to be more proactive about using symbols and keys.

This class helped remind me of some good ways to mark off tasks.

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

After that class, I followed it up with:

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

Bullet journal Weekly Spread: Tips & Process to Make A Fresh Design!

In this class, I learned how to make/adapt this weekly spread. I really like the way the meal plan looks on the left hand side.  Having habit trackers like the Water + Workouts is super important. It’s definitely something I’ll continue on in my next Bullet Journal.

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

The following class was one of my favorites:

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

Bullet Journal / Creative Planner Hacks and Tips: Fixing the “Oops”

When I first started bullet journaling, I was so mad when I made a mistake.  I learned to change my mindset while working on my bullet journal each week.  My approach has been to futz with the system and make it work for/with me. aThis entire class is about problem-solving!  Jessica shows you how to turn a mistake into something else so you don’t freak out that your bullet journal is not perfect.  There are different ways to cut out pages and very clever uses of washi tape.  I loved this one because it’s so good to see other people being creative with their mistakes. We all make them!

 

 

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

 

How to Design and Create a Digital Planner / Journal on Your iPad in Procreate

I’ve been working on making my own calendar spread in Procreate this year. Even though I like using a real pen and paper, it’s been fun to watch how other people use technology to make their own systems on an iPad!  Since I am still pretty new to Procreate, it’s nice to be able to watch a teacher’s workflow. She also offers a variety of templates to help you get started.

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

In the process, I’ve learned a lot of tips and techniques with using Procreate. If you’ve thought about having an online version of a bullet journal, this course will help with that.

All of the posts in my Currently series have been made with Procreate this year.

Practice makes better! I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Currently: August 2018 on Shutterbean.com

I am also going to experiment with a new monthly overview system.

I think the one on the left is neat. I like how it’s separated into HOME/WORK.

The one on the right is how I usually set up a calendar.

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

As you can see, the ideas are endless.

And lastly…this isn’t a class about bullet journaling but one about time management!

 

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

 

Real Productivity: Create Your Ideal Week

Who isn’t wanting to be super productive? Skillshare’s co-founder and CEO Michael Karnjanaprakorn will show you how.  I took this class mostly because I want to see how someone else uses technology to structure their time. Working from home has its challenges and I’m always looking for a better way to run my google calendar.  I really enjoyed watching Michael talk about his work week and how he breaks down his timing realistically. It’s all about timeboxes! And breaking up how you plan to accomplish a task.

His core principals are:

Take Bullet Journal Classes on Skillshare. Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares her favorite classes!

I work a lot on the planning & doing but not so much reviewing. Time to change that because it will help me manage my time more efficiently when I evaluate how I used it.

This rule of threes makes me excited. I have a TON of things I want to accomplish in a week so maybe breaking them into chunks will help?  Celebrating the wins for the week is another good habit to get into.

I’ve already got some good color coding going on in my calendar this week.

 

Want to see more of what you can do with Skillshare? Check out some of my favorite posts:

And don’t miss my posts on:

 

Bullet Journal Supplies

Bullet Journal Layout Ideas

Watercolor classes with Skillshare- Shutterbean.com

 

 Skillshare is offering Shutterbean readers TWO FREE MONTHS of Skillshare Premium!

Watercolor classes with Skillshare- Shutterbean.com

It’s an amazing deal and they have a variety of classes as you can see!

I’ll share more from my new bullet journal sometime in the next few months. I definitely need to figure out which of these new layouts are going to keep me productive. I hope this inspires you to carve out time to learn something new!

Happy bullet journaling!

A BIG thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

 

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September 10, 2018

Intentions for the Week:

Looking to get your head in the game? Tracy from Shutterbean makes a weekly TO DO LIST called her Intentions for the Week. Here's what this week looks like:

Another Funday Monday!

Hello friends! How’s it going today? This weekend started off with a bang and then chilllllled out! We had a nice family dinner with steaks & Manhattans in the city. Baseball Saturday with housework and movie night. We watched Castaway with Cooper. I worked around the house. Went for a walk. Fun family times.

Our bathrooms are clean. Donations have been dropped off.

Upstairs has been vacuumed.

Laundry was folded and put away while we watched a movie (multi-tasking champ!)

Meal prep is done!

This is what we are starting the week with in our fridge.

Here’s some MEAL PREP ACTION for you:

Shutterbean Meal Prep- Shutterbean.com

This meal prep includes:

Feels good to have a few things done before we head into a new school week.  Now it’s time for me to type out my Intention for the Week. Here we go!

Intentions for the Week:

 

  • laundry (stay on top of it)
  • start season 2 of Ozark (still haven’t!)
  • recipe testing
  • catch up on social media/blog stuff
  • drink more water
  • get enough sleep
  • workout at the gym
  • go for a walk in the woods
  • write thank you notes
  • send out evite for birthday party
  • paint fingernails
  • catch up on emails
  • continue to clean up files on computer
  • catch up on accounting work
  • make car appointment
  • wear my Fitbit every day and track steps
  • watch classes on productivity/finance on Skillshare
  • passport photo
  • work on Etsy things
  • catch up with friends
  • put books away in office
  • edit calendar in procreate

Last Week’s Intentions

  • clean up files on computer/ go through Dropbox files
  • edit photos/post/invoice
  • dinner with the family (we had quite a few!)
  • visit Candytopia
  • Mom’s night out at school
  • stay on top of laundry so it doesn’t get out of hand
  • make car appointment
  • sort through emails
  • return Stitchfix (get $25 off your first box with this promo)
  • work on new recipe
  • passport photo?
  • work on Etsy things
  • watch classes on productivity/finance on Skillshare
  • make kombucha
  • wear my Fitbit every day and track steps
  • drink enough water
  • get enough sleep
  • drop off donations
  • finish commissioned lettering project
  • start Ozark season 2 on Netflix
  • clean up inbox

Mantra for the Week:

Artwork for I LOVE LISTS // shutterbean.com

PUMP JAM for your WEEK:

 

Don’t forget to write down your Intentions for the Week! It will help you be more productive.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
I’m rooting for you!
xo Tracy

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September 9, 2018

My Everyday Life: Week 36

Here’s what this past week looked like – My Everyday Life Week 36

Adventure to check out Candytopia this week with my friend Larkin.

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

It’s a fun adventure in the city if you’re looking for something sweet!

All the art is made out of candy. It’s very impressive.

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

I just realized right now that that cloud is a thumb’s up.

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

WILLY WONKA

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

 

UP CLOSE.

I miss braids.

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

“This is got to be the male equivalent to twerking.”  – Larkin

My Everyday Life: Week 36 on Shutterbean.com

Look up.

CONTINUE READING