I’m so excited to be kicking off our first of many ‘No Fat Talk Tuesday’ posts. In the weeks ahead, women from all walks of life will be sharing their stories of learning to love their bodies and the importance of saying no to ‘fat talk’ in their lives. With that, I’ll hand it over to Stephanie… Take a gander over at my blog, Girl Versus Dough, and you might wonder what makes me an authority on anything related to … Read More

When Joey really likes a dish he eats at a restaurant, he looks at me and asks, “Can you make this at home?” And more often than not, I promise to give it a try. Sometimes it’s a hit right off the bat (Chicken Parm from any number of Italian restaurants) and sometimes it proves to be a bit more challenging (I’m slowly but surely mastering Texas Roadhouse’s rolls). But the first dish Joey ever asked me, no begged me, … Read More

It’s been almost an entire month since I started my ‘No Fat Talk Pledge’ for 2012, and I wanted to check in with an update. Aside from one major “my jeans are tight and my thighs are huge” moment a couple weeks back, I’ve been going strong. It’s not always easy, but in the last couple weeks I’ve found my desire to talk negatively about my body has significantly diminished. Every time I’m tempted to say something negative, I remind … Read More

  If you’re anything like me, I’m guessing that you are always searching for uplifting, creative blogs that leave you with a smile on your face. If that’s the case, then I highly suggest stopping by Natalie’s blog. She lives in California with her husband and puts together posts and inspiration for 20-something women, although I’m sure she would welcome women of all ages to pop on by. If you haven’t checked out Natalie’s blog, please stop on over and … Read More

A few days ago, Tanja put together a blog post about what her daily routine looks like. I’m always so fascinated by posts showing how everyone goes about their day-to-day, and I thought it might be high time to share a look into how things go down in our house.  {Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. And most of the time, Joey and I take time to have breakfast together.} A typical weekday goes a little … Read More

1. No ‘Fat Talk’ in 2012 Yes, you heard me right. I’m instituting a no ‘fat talk’ policy for the entire year. When the idea first came to my mind, I thought there was no way I could go a whole year without verbally saying things like “I look fat” or “my thighs look huge”. But as hard as it may be, I think it’s worth pursuing. That’s not to say that I’m planning on becoming complacent with my fitness goals. … Read More

{At one point in the evening, we were dressed presentably. However, it didn’t take us long to switch into sweats and our most comfortable tops. No sparkles at this party.} {Amber, Baylen and Jake enjoying appetizers at Lonski’s in Grinnell.} {Showing off Joey’s office space to our siblings. Since our apartment is a loft, it’s nice to have some work-life separation by renting an office space.}  {The soon-to-be newlyweds, Jason and Ali.} {Happy 2012!} As you can see, we laid … Read More

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got a chance to spend a little quality time with friends and family. Joey and I spent the last five days back home in northwest Iowa and packed in as much time with loved ones as humanly possible.  Maybe we spent a little too much time on the go, because this morning I woke up with a terrible sore throat and just felt pretty crummy overall. I’m hoping that a little extra … Read More

Today is a special day because my mom, Marilyn, has agreed to do a guest post for me! She worked a little Christmas magic in our apartment this year and was kind enough to share a little heart-warming Christmas story to celebrate the holidays.  How fun is this – guest blogging?  I love this time of year, and as followers of Espresso and Cream, I thought you might enjoy hearing how Madison and Joe’s loft apartment was decorated for their … Read More

Lately, I’ve been trying to do a better job about documenting how Joey and I eat together as a mixed vegetarian and omnivore family. With so few hours of daylight these days, there have been a lot of meals that have gone undocumented, since I have yet to master the art of photographing food in artificial light. That said, once in a while I manage to snap a photo of a lunch or dinner here and there. Last week this … Read More

Happy Friday, everyone! I don’t know about you, but I’m almost as excited about this weekend as I am about Christmas. Joey and I have been traveling on the weekends like crazy people – I think we’ve been gone five out of the last six weekends and a majority of the weekends this fall. So this weekend, we have a lazy weekend planned at home. We’ll also be hosting a pre-Christmas dinner party with some of our friends from Bible … Read More

I created these recipes a while back to share as part of a Christmas cookie exchange on Amy’s blog. Amy and I have a mutual friend: her cousin, Emily, happens to be a good high school friend of mine. When Amy asked if I would take part in her ’25 Days of Cookies’ I was excited to have another reason to bake and create something special. These cookies really do deliver on the special. Instead of making traditional sugar cookies … Read More