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My Simplified Planner

January 10, 2017

I have learned in my adult life that I am not as organized as I always thought I was. In fact, I am scatterbrained, and despite my great efforts to remember things and keep track of sticky notes all over the house… that’s just not a great way to organize life.

My life got to the point my desk looked like annotations from high school lit. You know what I mean?

So last year, I decided it was my year to really get things together. It was time to grow up, stop writing my life on sticky notes, and (most importantly) I was going to make our marriage a whole lot more functional with my end being much more put together. Just being honest! We would literally make plans, and I would have completely spaced until the day before that I have something else at the same time. We haven’t had to cancel on anybody we love last minute because of MY scatterbrain in the last year. PRAISES.

So, after lots of research, I decided to purchase the Simplified Planner by Emily Ley. It seemed like the best way to organize my day to day. It is set up with the ‘always on the run’, busy woman in mind. For every month there is a monthly calendar layout for you to see a general overview, and then it is broken down to days with an hourly time schedule- sun up to sun down. I need help with organizing every hour of my day basically. And, y‘all, it was the best decision ever. I have owned so many planners over the years that barely ever got filled. That is not the case with this one. I wake up every single day and fill in everything from times to eat to tasks for the day, and I ALWAYS write in obligations and commitments the second they are confirmed.

If you are married- Paul and I share a calendar on the computer also, and we add things to it for each other (it’s color coded!). It’s so that we know things we need to be at together, AND so that we know when and where each other are at. If the calendar says I have a meeting at 2 PM with so and so, Paul knows not to call me and he knows that is something he can have intentional conversation about over dinner later.

How I Stay On Top of Things

1. Write out EVERYTHING- write out when you have your quiet time, workout time, eating time, tasks for the day, places to be that day, and goals to accomplish for the day. If it’s not in the planner, it likely won’t happen.

2. Every morning I do my quiet time, and then I do the above. I sit on my sofa, drink my coffee, see what is in store for the day, and then add my tasks. It’s incredibly satisfying to write out my goals for the day. Often this will be orders I need to fulfill for The Cake Shop, what time I will take orders to USPS, people I need to email, brands I want to reach out to/respond to, posts to edit and write, etc.

3. At the end of the day, if there are any tasks I didn’t complete, I circle them and put an arrow to the next day. I know in the morning those are my #1 priorities to do that day.

4. In the notes section of my day, I put what we are having for dinner & when to put out any meat that might need to defrost. I also keep running lists of things I want to accomplish for that month, quarter, and year. It keeps me focused and determined to rewrite them every day! I keep tee shirt ideas, phrases I think of, etc. down in the notes section, too.

5. The monthly overview of my calendar is just as important as the daily. Anytime somebody asks me to hang out or do something, I go to my monthly overview to see how filled it is. If I get overwhelmed by how much is filled in, then I suggest a date in a few weeks that will be less full and at which I will be more present/less frantic. Basically, using my “yes” wisely. (This has taken me a long time to master.)

I hope this helps you as you get everything together for the upcoming year. You’ve got this! Don’t go another year feeling like a chicken with her head cut off. This planner is seriously the answer to your problems. Plus… come on… they’re so pretty!

xoxo- Han

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

My Top 3 Resolutions with Aerie

January 7, 2017

This post was originally shot for and posted to Aerie as an ad sponsored by Aerie. #aerieREAL #AeriePartner

I teamed up with Aerie to share my top 3 resolutions for 2017 & they are as follows:

1. Live life at a slower pace

2. Bake more

3. Take myself less seriously

I feel like none of these are significantly life changing resolutions… but rather they are going to change how I do life. I am sick of living that fast paced, go go go, on to the next thing kind of lifestyle. It’s exhausting, and frankly is the saddest way I can imagine living. I miss so much when I run from one thing to the next. My focus is from point A to point B, but I miss all the in between. The angst gets real when I live fast paced, and the loneliness increases without even realizing it. You know what I mean?

I want to bake more. I have always wanted to be a good baker, that person who can whip up the best chocolate chip cookies by memory in a jiffy. But, that’s just never been me. Quite the opposite, I am that kid who made cookies often simply because I wanted the dough to nibble on (and it showed). I once made cookies with my best friend in the 4th grade, and I realized we were out of All Purpose Flour at the house too late… No matter. We still made the cookies, put them in the oven, and ran back into the kitchen five minutes later to a smoking oven with cookie dough dripping off the sides of the pizza stone and onto the bottom of the oven…

Again, I have never been a baker. I will never claim to be. I love to cook, but I want to take my baking skills from zero to at least notable this year. My sister is the real baker in the family, though. She always has been, and I tell you what, she is AMAZING. Emi made my wedding cake, and it was the talk of the wedding. SO YUMMY. She started baking fully homemade from scratch loaves of bread for our family when she was 12. I am not kidding. I will never hang with her skills, and I am totally 100% A-OKAY with that!

I asked for It’s a Pleasure for Christmas (it caught my eye at Anthropologie because of how pretty it was!). After I picked it up though, I realized this book was practically made for me. It’s gluten and dairy free sweets… THAT’S RIGHT. Ever since I got diagnosed with all my crazy allergies this past year, I thought maybe my dream of being a baker was never going to happen. It’s pretty hard to master specialty recipes for people like me… but I have no excuses anymore. I am tackling this book! I will keep you posted on my… progress. 😉

Taking myself less seriously… ugh can I get an amen? I think half my problems with anxiety come from the simple fact I care too much about what people are thinking of me. I can dissect a conversation in my mind for hours at night, and even with a clear conscience, I can convince myself of just about anything when I think about it too long. If I just cared less and had more fun in the process, though, life would be a lot more enjoyable and lived less in fear. I have found myself praying, “Help me care less, love more, and work hard always. Remind me that you are the only person who can create favor and success.” And then, I imagine me tossing my hands up in the air like I am throwing something haha. I promise… it works.

Cheers to being fearless this year!

I will be tackling the new year in these silk lounge bottoms because HELLO, they are the most comfy things ever. Also, Paul thinks they are highly attractive, soooo that’s a major bonus. I love the detail on this soft sweater- Check out the back! This hot pink bralette underneath definitely makes me feel on top of the world, too. I literally don’t wear anything but my Aerie bralettes anymore. I have 5 different ones I interchange. (I don’t wear my VS like… ever.)

My favorite part about Aerie is their mantra for life. Be real and confident in who you are. That is definitely a brand I can get behind, and it’s even better when their product is bomb.

Happy New Year, friendsies! What are YOUR top three resolutions? I would love to hear!

xoxo- Han

PSSSSS: The brand new first collection for 2017 of The Cake Shop is COMING SO SOON. I am SO giddy about it. I cannot wait to show you these two new designs, and then… of course… there is a couple of other items on the horizon. Thank y’all for your love and support, and let’s spread kindness like buttercream frosting in 2017. #LoveLikeCake

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

“Persistence”

January 2, 2017

The thing to do anymore is pick a word for your year.

It’s kind of silly, but I like the thought and intent of it. Last year, Paul and I defined our previous year as “Growth” and said we wanted 2016 to be the year of “Health.” It truly did end up being exactly that for us. I set up a doctor’s appointment in early May that I had put off for months with a crazy scientist doctor I had heard about from multiple people who happened to practice in Mckinney. The earliest he could get me in was November, but I got a call in July saying he had a spot open up for that night and I could have it if I wanted. I dropped everything I was doing, and found myself in his Bill Nye-esque office that evening. Literally magnets everywhere, test tubes of different ingredients spread out across his very dated shelves and cabinets.

I came in hoping for the best but because of the last 5+ years of my life seeing multiple doctors unsuccessfully… I had half-hearted expectations. I ended up leaving with answers that have completely changed my life.

I feel healthier, I look healthier, I have nails again, my hair is growing. …Someone at church thought I had in extensions yesterday! THIS BLEW MY MIND. I literally have never had hair, it’s never grown, and it’s never been worth mistaking for extensions.This made my day, and it’ll probably last me in compliments for at least the next 6 months. 😉 HA

Paul’s story is his own to share, but in short he has not been able to eat dairy because of a weird allergy to casein for two years now. He went to my same doctor last month, and was told he CAN EAT DAIRY AGAIN. What the?! We are reintroducing it slowly, but we are so excited for him.

Health indeed was accomplished in 2016. We worked out consistently. Found our groove for eating before 10 PM. (AMEN TO THAT ONE!) And we are healthier today than we were one year ago- mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. Praise God for his faithfulness.

So new year, new word. What’s my word?

Persistence is what I have chosen to define my next year.

Persistence means running the race, and finishing it. It means consistency. It means fighting through even in the mess, fear, anxiety, and failure. It means when I fall, I jump back up with new lessons learned to keep fighting for the end goal.

Because of grace, we are allowed persistence.

Persistence is the key to bringing to life all of the things we may have on our “list of resolutions”, if you will, but it is so much more than that. It goes so much deeper. The Bible speaks a lot to endurance, fighting the fight, never giving up.

Perhaps you’ve heard this verse found in James 1:12,

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life the lord has promised to those who love him.

This is specifically talking about your purpose in life. How even when it is hard and makes no sense at all, we hold to the truth that Jesus is who he says he is and that we are in a constant process of sanctification thanks to the work done on the cross, so that when we die we will meet our maker face to face and receive the words “well done my good and faithful servant, welcome.”

I want to flesh this verse out a little more, though. How do I apply this text to my daily life? The perspective that if we are persistent in the pursuit of a relationship with Christ, always remembering that final day when we will receive our crown of life, then our daily trials of this Earth will be handled with more grace and endurance because we are becoming more like Christ. You follow me?

Our level of persistence to pursue all things we do on Earth with excellence is a direct reflection of our persistence in pursuing Christ. How is your reflection looking?

Applying this to our work and relationships means that in everything we do, we do it whole heartedly and with excellence. It means giving it all we’ve got, whatever it is that God has entrusted us to do. Remembering, of course, that the most important race of all, the one that defines everything in life, is the race of faith we are running. It’s not always an easy race, it’s not always fun, it’s not always satisfying, it won’t always give us the answers or responses we want… at least not immediately. But, again, the race of faith will always end well for the believer. Likewise, even when aspects of life might not look like how you thought they would, things are going to go well for you in the end.

Check this verse from Ecclesiastes 9:11:

I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to the learned. But, that time and chance happen to them all.

This is written by a king, Solomon, who seemingly had everything. The world convinces us “if I just had more money”, “if I just lived there”, “If I just could do that, I would be so much better off”. But, chance and time will take their turn for all of us, meaning the things of this Earth are fickle and will take whatever turns they feel like. And, even more so, absolutely NOTHING is promised to us. We are entitled to nothing. “The race is not to the swift”, the race isn’t won by the fast just because they are fast. We must work hard, and EVEN STILL the things we are fighting for might not happen how we wanted. Even when we follow all the “rules and steps” to success, even when we had everything theoretically working for us in our favor, it won’t always pan out like we thought it would.

But, God always will. Thank goodness that, as believers, we have one thing that is constant, good, and always will be what we wanted it to be in the end. We get to hold to that promise and celebrate it daily!

This is why our persistence, our endurance in the race with the cross is most important. It is in our failures, our less than perfect attempts, that our true heart is often exposed. And, it ain’t always pretty. Where do you run when things don’t look like you wanted them to? Do you fight harder for the world’s definition of success, or are you reminded that Jesus already accomplished everything worth succeeding in on the cross. And you get to fight your other fights with that battle already won.

I have seen where Satan attacks me most, and it is in my thoughts. Usually at about 1 AM. I experience the most warfare inside of my head. “You can’t do that. You’re worthless. You will never be ______.”

When I listen to these lies is when I back off and shy away from the dreams God has placed on my heart. That’s exactly what the enemy wants. This is why prayer and scripture is so important, a constant pursuit of Jesus. To counter the attacks of the enemy on our goals and persistence, we need truth. Real truth that is written on our hearts by a God who loves us so big. If we don’t have scripture, we start to believe the lies of the enemy to BE truth. You must know truth to believe truth.

So, here’s to 2017. Here’s to persistence in my relationship with the Lord. Here’s to persistence in the dreams he has laid on my heart. I cannot (and will not) have the second without the first. I am cheering you on in YOUR dreams you’re pursuing this year. Be persistent, don’t feel like a failure when you fall. Work hard, learn from it, and move forward.

And when you start to hear those whispers of lies, tell Satan to ‘back off, bro.’

‘Not today, Satan, not today.’

‘Just beat it.’

And then moon walk off.

Love y’all so big.

xoxo- Han

Donuts with Chocolate Icing

December 29, 2016

Y’all, one of my resolutions for 2017 (more on them to come!) is to become a better baker.

Your feedback has already been great, and I promise to keep you updated on my progress. 😉

For Christmas, I got a cookbook I had on my list called “It’s A Pleasure” by food blogger Virpi Mikkonen. Last night I tried my first recipe from it, and am SO EXCITED about how they turned out. We first off didn’t have an actual donut pan, and the store we went to for one didn’t either… so we bought a mini bundt cake pan and it did just fine. We chose the caramel donut recipe from the book, but made the avocado chocolate icing recipe for topping. Y’all… we ate all but 4 of them. They were AMAZING.

I have so many recipes dog-eared from this book to test out, and I have a couple other books I will be diving into this year including my sweet friend, Jenni of The Urban Poser’s Paleo Patisserie book. It’s amazing!

I have some of my favorite kitchen items linked below for you (including these ADORABLE mason jar measuring cups), my apron, and more.

xoxo- Han

Looking Back with Gratitude, Looking Ahead with Anticipation

December 27, 2016

2016 was unpredictable, exciting, fulfilling, satisfying, adventurous, and so much more.

The days after Christmas are quiet and slow, a complete change of pace from the month and a half before of “the holiday season”. The days after Christmas are a juxtaposition of being both depressing and joyful. I hate taking down Christmas decorations, but I look forward to setting goals for the days to come and reflecting on the year past. If I had to pick, I think I would actually put this past year as a top 5 favorite years to date. Paul and I have so much to be grateful for every single year. We truly do have so much to be thankful for, and I know more often than not… we take that for granted. But there was just something different about this year, and I could feel it. I saw it, and I was so aware of it. We made strides in our careers, moved forward with confidence in our marriage, made hard decisions, encouraged big changes, and continued to build the foundation to our future home & family.

We celebrated more, fought less, and laughed a lot.

So much happened this year, and it was all so thrilling. I feel like Paul and I were cheerleaders for each other, high kicking with pom-poms from the sidelines… okay, maybe just me in that specific mental picture… but you get the idea. It is so fun to be married young and grow up together. So many say we are crazy, a minority of people naive enough to believe we could actually find someone we want to be with forever at 19 years old, and that the chances of staying with someone when you get married at 21 are not high. You won’t “find yourself”, your independence is stripped of you, and you will never fully thrive as an individual… yet, I have found marriage to be quite the contrary. I believe in marriage, and I believe that two hearts beating with the same fire is stronger together than separated. I believe in the sanctity of marriage, I believe in the covenant. I believe it’s more than the “old fashioned way” to do things, but truly what we are called to do if we find someone we love and want to be with. And listen, marriage isn’t the end all, be all. It really isn’t. Paul says in the bible that we are better off NOT married. (There’s a lot of meat to why he says that.) But, should we find someone our hearts beat with passion for, we are better together than apart. Marriage isn’t everything. If your timeline doesn’t look quite like you always thought it would, I promise that life is just as full for you. Don’t let the world tell you something is “off” if you aren’t married by age ______. Frankly, as someone who got a lot of crap for getting married at 21… it feels a little like “danged if you do, danged if you don’t.”

I don’t know why I just went off on that tangent, but I assume it’s because someone out there needed to hear that. So, soak that in. Love where you’re at, and praise God in all things. We all have things that we definitely didn’t imagine would be the way they ended up panning out. That’s life. And I choose to praise Him still.

Just the other night during date night while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights, Paul said he loved growing up with me. That line melted my heart. It was also kind of funny coming from someone who is about to turn 27… but it’s so true. We met when we were just babies. We both are changing constantly, taking risks and leaping for the next goals. But, how fun to do that with your best friend by your side? For better or for worse. We get to choose daily to keep loving the person our spouse is morphing into, supporting them and fighting for their dreams with them. Paul and I are both entrepreneurs at heart. We have to force ourself to stop dreaming up new business ideas and building things. One of my Christmas gifts on Christmas morning sent me into a whole new idea for The Cake Shop, and we started coming up with plans for it over our Christmas morning coffee, snuggled up on the love seat. (It’s kind of a problem… ha) But I couldn’t have asked for someone better to walk through life with me. He is truly the best support system, and believes in me way more than I do myself.

If you would have told me this time last year that I would finally start The Cake Shop for The Cake by Hannah in 2016… I really don’t think I would have believed it. I would certainly hope for it, but probably not see it as a reality. The Cake Shop has been a dream of mine since two Christmases ago when I first launched my blog. I really wanted to launch it WITH The Cake Shop, but God’s timing to be able to was way better than my own. So, here I sit almost two months since launch, and completely blown away by all of your support. I thought surely the only people who would be my first customers would be family and friends, but you all have shown me I was so wrong. I cannot say enough how grateful I am for each and every one of you. You have truly made my dreams come true- to create community and positivity in my own little corner of the internet. Together we can make a movement, change the world, and #LoveLikeCake. We can spread goodness across the earth through everything we do. We can spread kindness like buttercream frosting, thick & generously, without reserve.

2016 I tackled things I have been so afraid of for so many years, and all the while I battled the worst anxiety I have ever had in my entire life. Funny how that works. I entered back into giftings of mine I never thought I would pursue again, and I look forward to all that 2017 has to offer specifically in that arena. I stood up for myself in ways I never thought I could, I battled lies in my head about who I am and what I am worth. Most importantly, I laughed a lot, danced in the kitchen more, and stopped taking myself so seriously all the time. (I am still trying to get better at that.)

I am so grateful for you all, and I can’t stinking wait to show you what all I have been dreaming up for 2017. For The Cake Shop, it’s gonna be all new products, new types of items… and some seriously amazing tees and clothing items. You made the soft launch of my shop better than I could have ever hoped for. I wish I could bear hug each and every one of you. The launch of my site was way less than perfect… like, a semi disaster. And STILL you poured in your love and support, and sent me sweet messages. AND, the best part, you bought my product and loved it. The best thing ever has been watching you post photos in your tees and sweatshirts. I have cried multiple times at your posts, just being blown away that ANYBODY would care to join me in being kind and support what I am doing other than maybe my mom. That ANYBODY would care to follow my life, my wardrobe, my marriage, and my struggles… like, that is crazzzzaaaaay but I am so freaking thankful. As I have said so many times, I pray that you never just see me in anything I do. I hope you see that what I love, talk about, and even wear!- it’s all a reflection of how good the God is that I believe in, know personally, and see work in my life daily.

As for the rest of 2017, there is so much to be excited for. Our dreams of buying a house were set back (that was on our list for 2016), but we are believing in being debt free for 2017, and purchasing our first home. I can’t wait to see what all God has for us. What all we will accomplish and get to cheer one another on in.

Thank you (again), every single one of you. Thank you for following The Cake by Hannah, for reading my posts, and for being such encouraging people. I am forever grateful.

Infinite x’s + o’s- Han

All photos by Cottonwood Road Photography for The Cake by Hannah

You can shop this ADORABLE ensemble at Landry Kate. The long duster and green peplum top are both from there. I am so obsessed with both. This cup of coffee is from my favorite little coffee shop on the Mckinney Square, Snug. (They have the BEST daily flavored drip!)

#TheCakeatKate