enJOY it

chocolate peanut butter rice krispie bars.

June 8, 2015
These no-bake chocolate peanut butter Rice Krispie bars were my absolute favorite treat growing up. When I knew we’d be in Sacramento for the weekend, I asked my mom to make them.

The recipe, from an old church cookbook, has definitely stood the test of time and I wanted to share it here.

You’ll need:
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C white Karo syrup
- 1 T butter
- 1/2 C peanut butter
- 4 C Rice Krispies
- 1/2 package (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 package (6 oz) butterscotch chips
In a large sauce pan, melt the brown sugar, syrup and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter until smooth. Add the Rice Krispies and stir well.

Spread the mixture into a buttered cookie sheet (ideally with a small rim).

In the same pot, melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips until smooth. Spread over bars. Stick in the fridge until they’ve hardened a bit and cut into squares.

Hope you enjoy! Thanks, Mom!
weekend links / 67.

June 6, 2015

some cool stuff for your weekend…

thanks for all the recs to make these rice krispie treats!

and yum.

on grief … beautiful thoughts.

the life-changing magic of losing sh*t.

headed to a wedding tonight and wearing this.

my downloadable quote cards were used creatively at this wedding.

amazing : double doodling.

what I'm planning to do with all the pallets from GTWB shipping.

"Nothing matches the feel and the smell of a book" …bookstores are hanging in there.

coloring books for adults!

a super cool creative office.

Ellerie and I are up in Northern California this weekend and so Monday's post will be up late. 🙂
around here.

June 5, 2015

In February 2014 when we baptized Ellerie, Paul and I were talking to the pastor (the same guy who married us four years prior) about how tough it was to "balance" work and parenthood. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of:

"I know. It always seemed strange to me that the decade where we are busiest at our jobs is often the same decade that we're starting a family."

"YES!" I remember thinking. "You get it!"

I wouldn't change where we are for anything. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't wait to start having kiddos until our "careers were settled." I wouldn't wait to dive into my career until my "kids were grown." Because first of all – I have no idea where my career is headed. And second of all – I am technically "grown" and my parents still help me constantly. Safe to say you can't "finish" either of those races. 😉

Which brings us to here.

Paul's finishing his final rotation of his second year of residency with a month of night and evening shifts. This is the year that I was warned about by one of the wives at the banquet last year. "Oh, second year… Not going to lie. That's the worst one." (Cut to me, chugging my cocktail.) During second year, the residents have a decent amount of responsibility but no seniority which makes for pretty intense shifts and pretty limited time spent at home. But we're at the end! Another few weeks and he's a third year. (Please tell me that means 1/3 of the work.)

Ellerie is amazing. Safe to say year two of parenthood blew year one out of the water (gross understatement). But the qualities that make her amazing are the same qualities that make her think climbing on the back of the couch is a great idea! I think she thinks her middle name is "CAREFUL!" As in "Ellerie!Careful!Getdownfromthereplease!"

I'm busy shipping and customer servicing and website updating and design planning and social media marketing and COOing. But it feels good. This whole process has felt like "hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait." It's fun to be in one of the "hurry up" phases.

So yes. All the things. Not the least of which is an 18 week pregnancy. I joked on Instagram that if you want your pregnancy to go slow, send your husband on deployment. If you want your pregnancy to race by, start a business venture (or just have a toddler). Last time around I was counting up the weeks a day at a time. This time around I look up and realize we're nearly halfway there.

'Tis the decade, I guess. I am so happy to be here.
2015 summer manifesto

June 4, 2015

Hooray! In my mind, June officially marks the start of summer which means last weekend we came up with our summer manifesto. It's a handful of easy, inexpensive activities that I would love to do one (or many) times these next few months. I love the idea of starting this tradition now and then eventually letting the kiddos(!) take over and come up with a list of things to make sure we do.

This will hang on our fridge until September. (Subtly reminding me to finally, finally hang those patio lights I bought last spring).

Happy June!
what to do when you have “too many ideas.”

June 3, 2015

I recorded a podcast episode on this topic last fall but some variation of "I have so many ideas, but don't know where to start" continues to be one of the phrases that pops up in my email inbox most often. So I figured I would write it out in blog post form. Sometimes hearing the same thing twice sparks something new, right?

I hear this said a lot. And it's never shared in an excited manner. Usually the person is very stressed out and unsure of the best place to start. They know they have to start somewhere… but with so many thoughts, where should that be?

Here's the good news: having many ideas is a strength not a weakness. But I get it, not knowing how to process those ideas can be very frustrating and limiting.

If you suffer from "too many ideas" I have an exercise for you that might help.

Gather a pile of scratch paper (with one blank side). Something big – like computer paper sized – you'll need room to write.

At the top of each piece of paper write down one of your ideas. Just one idea per sheet. Don't think about them. Don't worry if they're bad or good. Just get every single thought down that makes you think "I have too many ideas."

Keep in mind: this is NOT a brainstorming exercise. Think of it more like "rain collecting." You're not trying to come up with every possible idea, you're just trying to make note of all the current ones rattling around in your brain.

After you've written everything down, two things will happen. First, you'll realize you don't really have as many ideas as you thought. Maybe you have 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 but it's nowhere near the hundreds or thousands that you felt like you had before you organized them on paper. This is a good thing because right off the bat everything will feel more manageable.

Second, you now have every single one of your ideas written down. Hooray!! You no longer have to worry about forgetting them. You no longer have to reserve space in your brain for keeping track of them. This alone is worth a sigh of relief.

Now that you got all of your ideas down we move to the second part of this exercise (and this is going to take more time) – deciding which idea to start with first.

Grab a timer and your pile of ideas. Set the timer for 5 minutes. Then go through your pile of ideas, one page at a time. Use your allotted minutes to fill up each page with all the details and offshoots that you can flush out from each idea. This could be anything – product sketches, logo designs, to-do lists, color schemes, character names, people to interview, whatever. You're just trying to build out on each idea. Don't let yourself go past your 5 minutes on each page. When time is up, move on to the next idea and do it again.

The point of this is to figure out which idea it was that you didn't want to stop writing about. What was the one where you could have gone on forever? THAT'S your idea.

That's your Big Idea to begin focusing on today.

I realize that you may have another 30 ideas with some decent thoughts connected to them. That's awesome. You also get to hang on to all of those. They can't all be attempted today but that doesn't mean they're not going to work out six months, a year or even a decade from now. Save them. You've got them on paper now, so they don't need to be caught in your brain.

The value of this process is that you get to think through all the thoughts that are paralyzing you to find the one that you really need to be working on. This exercise can give you a place to focus your time and energy.

Now instead of telling people "Ahhhh! I have so many ideas!" you can tell people "Oh man, I have a killer idea."

the notebook in this book is the GET TO WORK BOOK. more podcast episodes here.
may on film.

June 2, 2015

Another month on film. Another month with my sunshine girl.

It's all about the hair, the whiteboard and the yellow boots around here.

And the magic light.

And the books. She wakes up and wants books. She goes to sleep and wants books. Books in bed please. And "read" mama.

She's busy.

And charming. And proud of her teeth.

Sometimes (most times) Paul and I look at her and look at each other in disbelief. How did we get so lucky? How did we get this sweet girl.

In 18 days we'll have circled the sun TWICE since she was born. It's amazing. Love you, Ellerie.

These photos are part of my "film project" where I take a roll of film of Ellerie each month. You can see all of these posts here. I shoot with an old film camera similar to this and this lens. I have been using Kodak Portra 400 film. I have my photos printed at Nelson's Photo Supply. These images are un-retouched digital scans of the film.
another great kale salad.

June 1, 2015
Yes another. (here's the first one.)

Sometimes you order a salad at a restaurant and it's just a pile of mixed greens with some vinegarette and shredded carrots and you're like…. "hmmmmmm." Other times, out comes an amazing plate of FOOD and you spend half your meal dissecting it and asking the server for more information about the dressing.

Last Friday night, Paul and went to Kettner Exchange and had the latter experience.

This is our take on their killer kale salad.

You'll need :
- 1 head flowering kale (also called red kale and shown above)
- 2 T grapeseed oil
- lemon juice from 1/2 of a juicy lemon
- 1 t sugar
- salt & pepper
- about 1/4 cup raisins (golden raisins are ideal because of the color contrast, but my local market didn't have those)
- 1 small apple (any variety, sliced very thin)
- about 1/4 cup slivered almonds (ideally toasted)
- about 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
To make :

Ideally, you'll want to throw that (rinsed and stems removed) red kale in a food processor to chop it up finely. I'm convinced that the tiny pieces of kale are what really make this salad work, but I always think that the smaller you get salad ingredients the better (more flavors on each forkful). Our food processor came with this attachment that worked great (after 5 years of never being used).

If you don't have a food processor (or don't want the hassle of cleaning it after) just chop that kale as finely as possible with a knife.

Mix the grapeseed oil, lemon juice, sugar and salt & pepper (a good amount of each) together in a small bowl.

Pour the dressing onto the kale and mix together with your hands. This is called "massaging the kale" and is totally worth the hassle to coat it well and soften it up a bit. I let it sit for a few hours in the fridge, but this is not a necessary step.

Add the remaining ingredients to the kale and mix well. The grated Parmesean should coat everything, making it taste delicious and hearty. It's possible after tasting, you may want to add a bit more salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

ps : more fairly simple recipes from the archives.
weekend links / 66.

May 30, 2015

here are some of my favorite finds this week…

good news for GTWB : in a digital chapter paper notebooks are as relevant as ever. (thanks, Kelly!)

a simple and high impact DIY for the win.

"career day" … what a fun blog feature.

I love this yearly kiddo questionnaire book.

for Ellerie's rainbow party!

“Is it really necessary for people to be on call 24/7? The answer is increasingly no" … it always comes back to work hours.

and also … three folks that have built a business that fits their lifestyle.

talk about a cool mural…

I'm 30 and I've read three of these. Lots of catching up to do. 😉

related to yesterday's blog post on packaging.

love how you photographed this post, Ann-Marie!

totally inspired by Cathy to set some summer goals by June 1.

Amy Tan did a sweet video review of Get To Work Book. Thank you Amy!!

…and just to make you smile.
let’s talk GET TO WORK BOOK packaging.

May 29, 2015

I am finally coming up for air with GTWB shipping. To say it's been intense would be an understatement. To say I don't love every second of it would be a lie. This sort of stuff – organizing, spreadsheeting, list-making, high-lighting, cranking it all out – is absolutely my jam. I signed up for this. Getting to (finally) turn my Big Idea into something real is great.

I wanted to talk a bit today about all the packaging pieces that go into getting each book out the door. Partly because this stuff is interesting to me and partly because I know there are a lot of folks who read the blog that are looking for small biz resources like this. I think most of what I'm going to mention has been linked before in this post but this will cover specifics.

Packaging is so interesting because function must come first. Who cares if your boxes are the perfect shade of "kraft" if they fall apart on arrival? Or who wants fun pattered tape that DOESN'T STICK? (No one.) So of course, the priority is that everything you buy works. But the next most important thing is that everything is on brand. If you're going to pay for it anyway (and believe me, you are), you might as well have it add to the customer experience.

I went with kraft box mailers from Uline to pack the boxes. I found these after a lot of pouring over the Uline catalog. What I love about Uline is that they'll send samples. So I would call up, request a few various sizes and types of boxes and then the next day, they arrived for me to try out and wrap around my books to be sure they were a good fit. I did this at least three times until I settled on my final mailers. Obviously there are price advantages to buying in bulk and so I crossed my fingers that our garage was big enough and went for it. (Sidenote : when all this stuff started arriving someone on IG asked if Paul was okay with me filling our garage with GTWB and I had to laugh. After all this time, Paul is completely on board with my small business adventures – he honestly doesn't bat an eye.)

Each book is wrapped in 24 inches of 12 inch tall bubble wrap. Uline sells huge rolls that were thankfully for me cut to the right height and perforated ever 12 inches which made it easy. I went WAY overboard on bubble wrap (1500 yards or 15 football fields worth) but slowly (slowly) I'm getting through it. At this point about 700 books have landed at their destinations and so far I have only heard from 2 folks that had books damaged in shipping. Obviously no packaging issues is the goal, but so far, so good. (Though PLEASE email me – elise@gettoworkbook.com – and give me a chance to make it right if you have any problems at all.)

The bubble wrap is held in place with a simple circle sticker from Sticker Giant. These came on a roll and feature the ever over-used (by me) check mark. The sturdiness and sticky factor is perfect. I've used Sticker Giant for years and always recommend them.

Into the box, on top of the book goes a thank you card and business card. My thank you cards this time around are 4×6 postcards from Overnightprints.com who I use all the time. EDIT from October 2015: I have recently had issues with Overnightprints.com and my most recent order of business cards from them was printed poorly. The backside features all the illustrated graphics from the book (that were created by Jolby & Friends). The front is a simple thank you note. All of these paper pieces were designed by me using Photoshop Elements.

I've said this a million times, but my goal is to create a paper promo that resonates and you want to keep. The patterned backside of the thank you note is something I would want to tuck onto my bulletin board and so hopefully at least some folks will too. Like always, I ordered the 15pt satin matte card stock.

I went with UPrinting.com for my business cards this time because I wanted a square card and that was considered a custom size with overnightprints.com. Again, I am thrilled with the quality and highly recommend if you're looking for a square business card. They are 3×3 and on the back share the important info but on the front have a graphic that ideally you'll want to hang or save. These were the 14pt cardstock gloss but really don't feel that much different than the thank you cards.

The box is secured shut with custom packing tape that (to me) was probably the most important part of the whole thing. It took a long time to get this order and then thanks to some confusion on my end, it was delivered without a shipping notification while we were in Hawaii and then was (very sadly) stolen off our doorstep. I ended up finding it thrown away (tossed, literally) on the side of the road by a park near our house. It had rained that week and it was totally destroyed. Getting it stolen sucked. Finding it just tossed (but really why would they need it?) somehow sucked worse. But thankfully, Uline delivered wonderful customer service and got me a new supply very quickly so I was able to use it for the boxes. I wondered if all the hassle would be worth it and so far, I think so.

If you're looking for custom tape, these are the specifics… I went with 2.5 MIL polypropane tape with black ink on white. The minimum order was 36 rolls. This tape is not the thickest tape I have ever worked with but it's thick enough that it doesn't tear or act annoying. It's also opaque enough and sticks really well. I'd recommend it. I would also recommend this tape gun. It's a necessity with the rolls!

Last, a label with shipping info and paid postage goes on each box (remember these are the best priced labels I have found). Labels are printed through paypal or stamps.com depending on if your domestic or international and when in the cycle you ordered. I've printed all the labels on my go-to office and photo printer, a Canon Pixma MG7520.

The only thing I have yet to order are a few custom stamps (the checkmark for sure and then something big that says "GET TO WORK BOOK"). Sometimes I have to include a note or message and I wish I had a cool way to do that. Stamps are my favorite inexpensive branding trick.

And that's it! I hope if you're looking to grow your business and needed some packaging resources this is helpful! I hope if you've ordered a book, it arrived (or will soon arrive!) safely and packed up well. (If not, remember to email me – elise@gettoworkbook.com – and I'll get you sorted quickly.) If you'd like a book, you can order here and yes, yes, yes, there will be a 2016 version (and a 2016-2017, and a 2017, and etc.).

*some links are affiliate but not the uline stuff.
summer capsule wardrobe.

May 28, 2015
Back again with another capsule wardrobe. This is my fourth time through and I've learned a lot. Mostly that it takes very few items of clothing to keep me dressed and happy. And also that there is no reason to make this more complicated than it needs to be. This time around, I built a capsule to ideally get me from June – August.

If you're unfamiliar, here are my autumn, winter and spring capsules.

Couple things to note :
- this is a maternity friendly wardrobe. I am 17 weeks pregnant today and will be 30 weeks at the end of August when this capsule ends. That's a huge jump in size for one season. I kept this in mind and some of the pieces (like the chambray) will most likely not be used by the end, while others, like the maternity dresses won't add to the rotation until early July.
- I've said this before but my daily life is very casual and so I dress for that. If I worked in an office that required more formal business attire, I would most likely build two capsules: one for work and one for weekends.
- there are more pieces this time around than usual. Again, this is to account for the fact that I'll be growing a bit, but also because our weather has been insane lately. It's May Gray (followed by June Gloom) in San Diego which makes for some cooler evenings and mornings. I can't get by with just tanktops.
- still not a lot of color. I prefer neutrals mostly and very simple patterns for everyday wear.
- not a lot of new pieces this time around. In fact, you are basically looking at my spring wardrobe with some maternity pieces thrown in. I have a few new items that I picked up for our trip to Hawaii that made it in, but not much else. Everything with an * is new.
- last month I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and thanks to that book, I no longer am storing un-seasonable clothing in bins. Everything is hanging in my closet / in my drawers but my capsule takes up one side / one drawer.
Let's get into it.

TOPS AND DRESSES : loose-fitting white dress from madewell last summer (similar), white "workshirt" (similar), madewell v-neck, everlane vneck, casual white tank, everlane drop shoulder tee*, mama bird tee*, xhileration kimono*, chambray pull-over (super old from j.crew factory), denim vest, fox print dress, madewell v-neck, gray t-shirt dress, gray maxi (similar), gray cardigan (similar), american apparel v-neck, old navy gray tank, alternative apparel baseball tee, gray tank maxi* (same dress in wrong color), liz lange tank dress*, striped maternity dress (similar).

More tops and dresses this time around because I want to account for the weather and size changes. Most of this stuff should work. Layers are great and helpful with maternity (or at least they were last time). I remember wearing a ton of Old Navy tanks because they were a great stretchy fit and I liked that they were long. Oddly though, I don't like them when I am not pregnant because they are so clingy.

Only wildcard this season is that white kimono type top. I bought it as a coverup for Hawaii, but it's actually pretty cute over plain dresses. We'll see if I wear it enough. That fox print dress I bought late last summer and love! Hope it works for a bit with a bump.

BOTTOMS AND SHOES : old navy maternity shorts (similar), longer gray khaki shorts (similar), brown shorts, patterned pants, red alternative apparel maxi (various colors), gray alternative apparel maxi, black maxi, rainbows, tan sandals, gold sandals, leopard print slip-ons (same style, different pattern), sneakers (similar).

Not too many choices here… mostly just maxi skirts and a pair of shorts that still fit plus a pair of maternity shorts from Ellerie's pregnancy. I wear a lot of dresses and maxis (on that alternative apparel maxi be sure to size up for better fit) so I am hopeful this is enough to get by. Shoes are the same old, same old, casual flats that I wear constantly. I threw in my sneakers to round-out this one. Hoping to get a lot of walks in again.

Every time I get dressed in the morning I am reminded why I do this … it's so nice to put on clothes that I know I like and that I know will fit. In the past, getting dressed has been an exercise in "ehhhhhh" and I wind up with four discarded outfits on the ground. Now, my choices are limited, but all of them I like. I know it's going to fit. For the most part I know it's going to match. Win. Win.

Anyone else changing up their wardrobes this season?

links throughout are affiliate.