Good Morning everyone! Happy Saturday!

Ours is uhhhh, super dark and rainy per usual. Like really gross. I would cry about it but for the fact that I know we have one day of sun in the forecast for tomorrow before it goes back to another week of dark rain. This is literally the worst winter we have had that I can remember since the winter of 1998-1999. I know because I was a sophomore in College that year and it was baaddddd. But when I went to back up my suspicions, I found this article. I was right. It’s OFFICIALLY the WETTEST winter in Seattle HISTORY. EVER. How do you guys in the Northwest deal with it?

They better not hike up our summer water bills. There better be some perk to this.

Oh. Kind of a huge deal. I was nominated for a James Beard Award this week.

If you had asked me to make a list of 1000 weird things that could have happened to me that day, being nominated for a James Beard would never have been on there. I didn’t even know it was happening right now, I was completely oblivious to the process. I didn’t know that I was on the semi-finalist list (whenever that came out) and I surely had no idea that I would make it to the top three nominees.

Wednesday afternoon, as I was knee deep in cleaning out my closet (see below) I received an email from my agent with only a subject line that read: James Beard Award Nominee!!!!!!

And when I couldn’t get ahold of her I googled it. When I saw this I didn’t shriek with delight or laugh or jump up and down. I started crying. Like really bad, ugly, mournful crying. The gross kind. Pete thought something really bad had happened and all I could do was point at the nomination and howl.

I don’t know how to explain it- it was so cathartic and so deeply validating to be recognized for a piece of work that was so deeply, deeply personal. A piece of work that was transformative to me, my children and to the community that we have here on the blog. A piece of work that was meant to be a teaching tool to make people’s lives easier, better and more manageable. And also a piece of work filled with unconventional ideas and weirdo non-traditional ingredients and really controversial methods for achieving great health through food. It has been hugely overwhelming to say the least.

So I have to tell you one more thing about this and then I will move on. VISION BOARDING. I am a huge proponent of this. I am so over-the-top cliché Oprah on this topic, I can not even tell you. I have even spoken at conferences on this topic as part of my advice on goal planning. Goal planning is a major guiding light in my life. Do you want me to write about it here ever?

So I have had “re-do vision board” on my master to-do list since January, which is when I historically the month I update everything. I still had not done it. But in cleaning out my closet (see below!) where it lives, I decided it was obviously time. This was Thursday morning. I started at the bottom, unpinning everything and when I got about 2/3rds of the way up, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, was something that I never even remember pinning. Days later, I am still surprised that it was there. It was a James Beard Award Logo.

Vision boarding works folks.

OK, lets lighten things up here!

If you follow me on Instagram and watch my Insta-stories you will see that I had a coffee spill inside (and all over) my closet in the early morning of Wednesday which made me conclude that the Universe was telling me that it was finally time to clean out my closet. It took two days and I documented the whole thing. It is SO clean and organized and pretty now- it was deeply gratifying! I have since called to schedule a painter and am going to high gloss my closet some color in the aubergine or dusky lavender family. I will be sure to show paint swatches this week on instastories and see what you think.

Pete and I also decided last week that we were going to re-do the family room in the basement. It is lovely now, but a little stuffy and not as comfortable as we would like. Since Pia at 9, is showing all the signs of being a pre-teen (already) I told Pete that we have to make it comfortable so that she wants to hang out here in the years to come, not only at her friends houses (am I desperate or what?!) Then we are getting rid of the playroom in the basement (since they haven’t “played” in it in like 2 years) and are making an official home office. So we ordered new furniture and scheduled painters and basically I am looking at an epic x10 version of my closet cleanout. Do you guys want to see that process? Or does it just stress you out!!?

Oh! I must share with you my favorite new face cream. Because starting this last week, we are going to have occasional sun-breaks in the rain- that means we are going to start having more UV rays. When it is SO dark here for most of the summer, I admittedly ease up on sunscreen. I mean we literally have more days than not where there are almost or literally ZERO UV rays. (yes, it is that dark) I am sure that my dermatologist and my wrinkles would not like that I admit that, but so be it. Anyways, it’s time for sunscreen again. My biggest gripe is sunscreen that you can’t wear under makeup or that makes your face greasy or clogs pores or is too thick but not moisturizing enough- but I think that this new cream is great in every way. For now, I am a big fan of this Clinique Super Defense SPF 20. I think it is probably best for dry skin (of which mine is VERY!)

I am also really into this new Farsali Rose Gold Elixir, which is so beautiful! It’s a 24 karat gold infused face oil that I mix in with my foundation and it is sooooo fancy! It makes your skin all dewy and I am in love. I also love that this product is outspokenly vegan, natural and cruelty free.

Oh! I should mention that I am on DAY 20 of Whole30!!! You can read my Diary which I am still updating daily! Only ten more days to go guys…..

Here is a video of a dish I made this week which was SO GOOD and easy too!
Tune in to Facebook Live this Tuesday at 1pm PT (which I think is the best new time to do it!)