Little Bits of Granola

simple + natural living... one crumb at a time.

Winter Capsule Wardrobe

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Winter Wardrobe

I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve shared a winter wardrobe here!  I know it’s technically been winter for almost three weeks, and it’s felt like winter even longer.  I’ve just been putting off the wardrobe switch because of all the holiday craziness.  But now that it’s done, I’m excited to be wearing my winter wardrobe.

My wardrobe has been getting lots of major updates in the past few months.  It had been a long time since I really gone clothes shopping in a long time.  I was holding off because I kept getting pregnant and my size kept fluctuating (and let’s be real… I was also hoping to drop a few sizes before refreshing my wardrobe).

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2017: Year of Balance

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2017-year-of-balance-horiz

I continue to be amazed at the power of selecting a single word to focus and meditate on for the year.  This will be the third year I’ve done this, and I truly believe in the power of this simple little exercise.

My first year, my word was ‘Contentment‘.  I spent the year working on finding and cultivating contentment in my life and in my heart.  I worked on being happy today, rather than constantly looking to what will come.  At the same time, I learned how to have goals and dreams without letting the desire to reach them cloud out the good that is in the now.  I learned and grew so much that year.  I actually feel like that was a transformative year for me, one in which I really began to find myself.

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Simple Gifts with Personal Meaning

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This post is sponsored by Minted.com.

simple-gifts-personal-meaning-horiz

You know those people who are great at selecting just the perfect gift?  Yeah, that’s not me.  Gift giving is not my love language.  Maybe that’s why I feel like I’m not great at it.  Let me just say, I agonize over choosing the right gifts.

A bit part of the challenge for me is that I so badly want to be sure the gift I give will be loved, used, and appreciated.  The last thing in the world I want to give is something that will just end up being clutter.  Because I really hate clutter.  And I guess I project that feeling onto the people to whom I give gifts.  But what makes something clutter is relative, I suppose.  What you consider clutter, I may consider eclectic decor.  And what I call clutter, you may call necessity.  Like my sister and her bazillion beauty products.  To me, that’s clutter.  To her, it’s not at all.

So I guess the point is, gift giving really is about the person receiving the gift.  Not about the giver.  My exasperation over clutter doesn’t really matter.  What really matters is that the person receiving the gift feels loved.  And what better way to make a person feel loved than to take interest in their story.

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Maple Sugar Cookies

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maple-cookie-horiz

Y’all.  I love maple.  It reminds me of getting maple flavored Long Johns with my Grandma when I was a little girl.  Which I now realize was not actually maple syrup, but artificial maple flavoring.  The funny thing is that I actually hated real maple syrup until I was an adult!  I only wanted that fake butter flavored syrup.  When real food started to become a priority for us, I switched to real organic maple syrup and now I love that and can’t stand the fake stuff.  Isn’t it funny how our tastebuds change based on what we are accustomed to?

Well, if I’m honest, I do still love a maple Long John. 😉

These maple sugar cookies use real maple syrup, not the fake stuff.  And they are super delicious.  They are like a really great sugar cookie with the extra goodness of maple.  Baking them at a lower temperature lets them cook slowly so they stay nice and soft.  They have this wonderful light buttery flavor that goes so perfectly with the touch of maple.  Ugh.  They are seriously so so good.

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Fall Capsule Wardrobe

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My Easy Fall Capsule Wardrobe

Even though the world of retail seems to believe the first day of fall is September 1 (when everything turns into pumpkin spice), the Autumn Equinox is not until this Thursday.  So I’ve waited to share my fall wardrobe with you as my own little way of protesting season/holiday creep.  😉

I can hardly believe it, but it’s been a whole year since I’ve posted my seasonal capsule wardrobe!  Last fall, I announced I was pregnant.  And now my baby is almost 6 months old.  Where does the time go?

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