New from the Nest, January 23

Good Morning!

We enjoyed a lovely cold and rainy Sunday yesterday. It was just miserable outside, which made it all the cozier inside. I do love a rainy day!

🥰🥰🥰🥰THANK YOU to everyone who took the time out of your busy day to answer my survey last week! WOW! Your responses were so positive and encouraging, but also very insightful. They will help me make this a better site for you. 🥰🥰🥰🥰

As an update to my bread baking, I don’t quite consider myself a master baker yet…but…I’ve made a few loaves of this perfectly crusty on the outside, chewy and flavorful on the inside sourdough bread. And I’m pretty damned proud of myself! I’ve got another loaf in the fridge right now that I’ll be baking today to take to mom.

Our challenge now; how often do we really WANT me to bake this bread? We REALLY enjoy it, but our willpower is quite frail when the house is full of the aroma of just baked bread, and one of these beauties is sitting on our kitchen counter.

new on nourish + nestle

This simple Insalata Mista is the perfect accompaniment to the Tuscan White Bean Soup we published last week. We enjoyed this salad, with an equally simple red wine vinaigrette, alongside our meals when we traveled to Italy last year. There’s also a bit about olive oil in this post.

I also published a tutorial on the seed stitch. I’m slowly building up a knit stitch/stitch pattern library, and if there’s a stitch you’d really like me to dive into, please let me know! You can leave a comment at the end of this post.

the declutter challenge

Since you can join the 2023 declutter challenge anytime, we may all be in different places in our decluttering journey. Even though I thought I had decluttered my laundry room, I realized that in my box of lightbulbs, I still had lightbulbs that were for fixtures that we no longer have. And I had several dawn-to-dusk adaptors which I no longer need since I’ve switched all my lights over to smart plugs.

I’ll add a line for lightbulbs/etc… to the declutter checklist. These are the things that those checklists are for; things you may overlook and can discard without ever missing. Every little bit helps!

These will be going to the ReStore this week.

I’d love to hear any thoughts you have about the 2023 Declutter Challenge! What is working for you? What could make it better? Any successes you would like to share?

a podcast that really made me think

I binge-listened to the Morally Indefensible podcast yesterday. It’s the story of the relationship of journalist Joe McGinnis and Jeffrey MacDonald, who was accused of killing his wife and daughters. The podcast prompts a really important question to which I haven’t figured out my own answer.

you deserve a treat!

This crispy & crunchy brownie brittle recipe satisfies those of us who prefer the crunchy edges and corner piece of a traditional brownie… you know who you are! And not for nothing, it’s quick and easy to make.

good indoor weather projects

• Hit up your local seafood store for their discarded oyster shells to make this Oyster Shell Mirror. To this day, it remains in the top five of projects that turned out better than I had hoped! While these mirrors sell for hundreds of dollars, you can make one for the cost of the adhesive and the mirror by using a discarded piece of wood and oyster shells.

• Once you have the oyster shells, use the remaining to make an oyster shell cluster.
• Spruce up a bedroom before spring comes by sewing the simplest, most adaptable bed skirt out there.
• And while you have your sewing machine out, sew some Euro Shams for the bed.

• Mend any holes in your sweaters.
• Put together an indoor paint kit and tackle the marks on your walls.
• Organize your circular needles
• Organize your table linens
• This kitchen drawer organizer is so easy and customizable.

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a few favorite finds

• These slimline, bendable outlet adaptors fit close to the wall, eliminating having to keep your furniture out from the wall because of bulky outlet adaptors.

• Who knew that the ‘right’ wine opener really mattered?! After YEARS of breaking corks when opening wine, Terry received this nicely-priced wine opener in his stocking. In his words, ‘it’s a game changer!’

• How’d you do with your kitchen decluttering? Does your spice cabinet need a little sprucing up? I love these labels!

• And these spice jars!

the ‘library’

Just a reminder that as subscribers, you have access to all the printables and patterns in our library. The library is password protected, but you can find the password on the bottom of the email I send every Monday. To access the library, click on ‘Subscriber Library’ at the top of every page.

Some of my favorite finds in the library are:

• I honestly check this Measuring Equivalents chart multiple times a week. I laminated it and taped it to the inside of one of the cabinet doors in my kitchen.
• These Travel Checklists (one for him, one for her) are printed off each time we take a trip and help ensure we don’t leave anything important behind.
• All the Knit Patterns are there! As of this writing, there are twenty-nine knit patterns there. Hands down the pattern you folks LOVE the most is this Daisy Knit Washcloth. It is closely followed by this Hand Knit Washcloth (the one that started it all!) and this Diagonal Basketweave Blanket pattern.

Well, friends.

It’s Monday!  It’s a new beginning, a new start, a new day; make use of every moment. Have a fantastic day.

Hugs,

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!