Geez, I kinda fell off the wagon with blogging there for a minute! I made it to and from Philadelphia successfully and even though it was still cold, it felt so nice to be in 40 degree weather with no snow in sight. (Plus we're going to Florida in two weeks, yesss!)
I'm watching United States of Tara and don't feel like trying to be witty, so here's the trip in pictures. Good night!
Before I had an Instagram I heard some people complaining that they didn't like when people posted photos of food. But I love food! And Instagram makes it so attractive. Here are a few shots!
My Olive Garden "dessert"
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookie dough. Should I post the recipe?
Indian food from a box, thanks to Target. The naan came separately.
Scrambled eggs with feta and hot sauce!
Jet's Pizza. Life is short, eat better pizza. Yum!
So, is the weather as crazy where you are as it is here? It was t-shirt weather here yesterday! (When you live in a cold place and then it's 55 degrees, you feel like it's appropriate for summer clothes). Anyway, supposedly the big freeze is coming tonight, so I hope I can make it into work tomorrow morning.
I'm super glad the week is more than half over, and I'm enjoying a night to myself while Andrew is at class. First I played with Stevie, then I did some dishes, and now I am updating the blog while drinking a Blue Moon. Exciting, huh?! Since I don't have much to say, here's a couple instas!
It's black coffee, if you were curious. Verona, if you're a Starbucks connoisseur!
Portrait of my main man
While we were listening to the story on the Nightly News regarding cats killing birds. "Who, me?!"
Enjoy your evening! P.S. - if you like the Strokes, visit this link to get a free download of their new song "One Way Trigger"! It's suuuuuper catchy! Let me know what you think: )
Instantly when writing this title, I realized that many of you probably live someplace warm, not caring for an instant about us northerners barely keeping it together up here. So if you are that person, please remind me that summer will be here...eventually. For the rest of you suffering through this horrid cold front, I want to know - how do you beat the winter blues? This is one of the blog prompts from the Better Blogger Network, and it's a great one. I definitely relate to feeling a little down during the cold months! I'll share my cures and please share yours in return!
Admitting that it's kind of gorgeous outside
It has snowed almost everyday since Sunday this week, and it's just so darn pretty outside! If you live outside of Michigan you probably haven't seen this astounding photo:
Coffee
I'm a barista so I know my coffee and I love my coffee. Whether I'm pretending the closest Tim Hortons isn't that out of the way or grinding up my own beans here at home to make an extra strong cup of coffee with my favorite Coffee-Mate flavors, I love a good cup of joe! It warms my soul.
Cats
As you may know, we recently adopted a cat named Stevie. He is a super sweet boy and luckily will sit with us and relieve our stress as he purrs and purrs. I'm assuming this is part of the reason I haven't felt as blue this winter as I have in winters past!
Friends
My friends always make me forget that it's dreary weather. We go to trivia at a local Mexican restaurant every week, have classic movie nights, play silly games, and we recently celebrated the inaugural cottage fest! What more could I ask for?
Films
Andrew and I have been watching all the movies up for Academy Awards - our favorite so far is Django and the only one up for best picture that we haven't seen yet is Amore. Has anyone seen that, by the way?
Naps
I used to hate naps, but you know what? They are pretty nice. Sometimes I get home and my extremities are so frozen that I can only get warm doing one of two things - taking a shower or taking a nap. Either way I feel refreshed and most importantly, warm!
And lastly, celebrating the fact that Justin Timberlake has FINALLY RELEASED A NEW SONG!!!!!
Thank the Lord and joy to the world. (Do you like it?)
Also, many of these aforementioned cures go nicely together: cats and naps, films and coffee, coffee after a nap? Get creative; )
So, what helps you get through the bitterly cold and decreasingly shorter days?
Andrew and I volunteered for the United Way 5K in downtown Grand Rapids the other morning. It was so hard to wake up after a long day of moving (with more moving to be done later that day), but it was so worth it because it was a gorgeous morning (and Starbucks was open early, thank goodness)! Here are just a few shots we took while waiting for the runners to race by:
Hey, it's not so cold out here! And have you tried the Anniversary blend? It really is kinda spicy!
We were stationed at the Sixth Street Bridge. Not really an area of GR I have been in, but so pretty!
Pretty city.
Hey, cutie pie.
When I told him to smile.
When I tried telling him to frown. Look at the pretty fall tree!!!
Boy band wannabe.
After a day of moving, no shower, not enough sleep. Rejuvenated by the beautiful morning: )
Happy Wednesday! They are just about to talk about women using Old Spice on the Today Show, which is what I use! Women's deodorant doesn't cut it for me: / Now I don't feel so weird!
9am: Enjoying a cup of coffee to start my 24th birthday off right!
10am: Andrew made me Nutella-stuffed French Toast!!! It was soooo yummy!
11am: Andrew gave me a Kate Spade watch that he knew I wanted because of Pinterest! So excited! Then the tweet made it even better!!
Noon: We stopped by the Eastown Street Fair. I wanted the black cat named skunk. Gaby and I had cute outfits on, and the weather was so beautiful, so two pictures were necessary here!
1pm: We just barely made it to the Team Trivia tournament. No one on our team could go, so Gaby joined! The questions were ridiculously hard.
2pm: Half time at the Team Trivia tournament. Probably the easiest question we had.
3pm: Finally leaving the tournament. Gaby asks us questions we might actually have a shot at knowing.
4pm: Nap time!
5pm: Checking facebook for happy birthday messages!
6pm: Cleaned up the house for guests/preparing to go out for dinner!
7pm: High-fiving the mural before dinner.
8pm: Our soft-core veggie pizza from Brick Road Pizza! Yummy.
9pm: Pretty accurate group shot post-dinner with Andrew, me, Gaby, Erika, and Ryan.
I had such a nice birthday! Andrew did a really great job of making it all about me. So it was perfect! It's not pictured, but we have some serious ice cream cake from Coldstone leftover as well. So so delicious! Hope you're having a great weekend!
so i don't really know what kind of a blog i want to have, but i've just been so inspired by some of the other blogs i've been following that i know i want to try and keep it up! since nothing totally exciting has happened since the gala (except our trivia team came in first on sunday with a near perfect score of 85!) i thought i would share one of my collections with you. since i am a barista, and i love coffee, it's only fitting that i have a much too large collection of coffee mugs! i have several of them stowed away at my parents' house, and some of them packed away in the attic because our kitchen isn't ideal to display allllll of them. but here are some of my most prized!
my go-to mug these days. this morning it holds my gevalia french roast and hazelnut coffee-mate creamer.
the above mug is from the very talented etsy-ist MaidOfClay, who custom made this true blood mug for me! (i found her through a similar one by her on pinterest that drew me in, btw) i love love it, but i keep it up on my desk because i don't trust anyone and i don't want it to be lost or broken. if you haven't seen true blood, listen to the theme song and you'll understand! the fang marks on the rim are the best part: ) the front says "i wanna do bad things with you."
this mug has sadly been worn out since this photograph. one scary similarity is that this photo was taken the night my two front teeth were chipped and alas, the mug is now chipped. it still sits on my desk because i love it too much to say goodbye.
this is one side of my vintage owl mug that i found at my favorite big rapids thrift store, the wise shopper. i hope nothing bad ever happens to this lil guy!
found this cutie during our stop at minty keen the other day! the year on it says 1956, and it's just adorable. if you're in grand rapids, you must check out this shop: )
i love my south dakota mug. not sure why, i guess because i like that it's kind of etched and not just printed on. makes me want to visit one day, for sure!
if you haven't been to tim hortons, GO!
self-explanatory!
this tuesday i have work and trivia, or that is the plan. and i've been missing the sun, so hopefully it makes an appearance today. i also have to announce that today is exactly one month until our trip to croatia!!
what have you got goin' on? do you collect anything? watch for owls, mushrooms, and pin-back buttons at some point!
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