A little heart sigh

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"This morning, with her, having coffee"

Johnny Cash on his definition of paradise.

*found via Meg Fee

Fill in the blank Friday

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1. The highlight of my week was being a social butterfly. Monday was a movie with my Mama, Wednesday was Mexican food and margaritas for a coworker's retirement, and last night was a cocktail (a cranberry old fashioned...yum!) and bacon-wrapped dates with Chelsae.

2. If I had to classify my interior design aesthetic it would be feminine eclectic. I tend to like specific pieces, rather than specific styles, but I do have a love for floral and chevron patterns.

3. My first vehicle was a white, '99 Pontiac Grand Am. I loved that car, and was heartbroken when she was totaled in an accident.

4. An item I need to have in my day in order to function is coffee or tea, which sounds like what I'm saying is caffeine, but really it's the comfort that comes from enjoying a warm cuppa while working or reading or sitting through a meeting.

5. My favorite way to waste time is by pinning pretty photos, tasty recipes, and clever DIYs (that, let's be honest, I'll probably never do) on Pinterest. I love Pinterest.

6. Right now I could really go for a nonfat cafe au lait and a scone.

7. This weekend I will be finally, finally, finally getting to see Corey (formally known as the Baltimore bestie, but no longer lives in Baltimore) and her handsome little boy, Landon for a shopping adventure. I haven't seen Corey and the little man since December and I need some bestie time in my life.

Happy Lately List

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1. Morning cuddles before tackling the day

2. Nonfat, no foam lattes

3. My favorite author referencing my favorite poet in each of her books

4. Disney movie dates with my Mom

5. Watching Merlin from the start on Netflix

6. Lunch dates with girlfriends

7. Positive feedback at work

8. Gelato

9. Getting back to the swing of things at the gym

10. Dad's homemade BBQ sauce

Fill in the blank Friday

I know I owe you all some serious updates, but it's been a little nuts around these parts this week and I just haven't been in a blogging mood. But, I will fill you all in soon (I want to gush about the new man) and until then, do you all mind settling for some more blanks? Thanks...ya'll are the best!

(via Pinterest)

1. My favorite new blog of the moment is Across the Pond.

2. Something I am thankful for is my job. There are days I would rather be anywhere than at work, but in the end I love the challenges of what I do, and I love the people I am fortunate enough to work with.

3. Something that made me laugh this week was any number of funny stories that are constantly passed around the office.

4. An item that is currently on my wish list is a new cell phone. I am still resisting getting a smart phone, but it is time to update my old clunker, even though I adore it!

5. I am excited about going to the Potters Guild show with my parents tonight and then spending the evening with the new man...handsome man and a home-cooked meal? Yes please!

6. If I were a color I would be green. I'm partial because green is my favorite color, but also because there are so many shades of green that can match up with just about any mood; it seems perfectly fitting to me.

7. My favorite way to spend a chilly fall day is by drinking lots of hot coffee and tea, indulging in cinnamon rolls, staying in pjs for the entire day, watching movies and reading.

Sunday Morning World



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Some mornings just call for lounging in bed while catching up on episodes of Dexter, season 5. The windows and patio door open, cool morning air chilling my room. A mug of hot, strong coffee sitting next to a half-eaten yogurt on the night stand. Autumn leaves and toasted hazelnut candles are lit in an attempt to will Colorado's crisp, Fall weather to town. Laundry needs to be started, packing needs to be done and there are friends to meet for lunch...but for now, this quiet, lazy morning is my world.

Happy National Coffee Day

Obviously, this day could practically be treated as a full-on holiday in my world.

Cheers to all of my fellow coffee-lovers!





  

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What's your favorite coffee drink?

Mine's a skinny flat white.  Seriously, yum!

One Week

The countdown has officially begun: in one week, I will be boarding a plane at LAX to spend an ungodly number of hours flying over the Pacific, on my way to AUSTRALIA!

In one week, I will be about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

In one week, I will get to spend 2 uninterrupted weeks with my best friend. This hasn't happened in over a year, and I am so excited.

In one week, I will be exploring Sydney, drinking coffee and tea, eating fresh seafood at the fish market, sipping Australian wine and snapping photos at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Then I will be heading up to Townsville (near the Great Barrier Reef) to see where Jamie calls home, meet her friends, pretend I know how to drive a stick shift on the left side of the road and soak up lots of sun.

In one week, I will get a much-needed break from my life and hopefully come back refreshed and better in-tune with myself again.

"A woman can reinvent or erase her history entirely when she travels. This is one of the great benefits of leaving home."

-from Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Fill in the Blank Friday

1. I am currently obsessed with Cheetos. Honestly, I think it has something to do with my period (TMI?), but I crave them and pretty much want to eat them all the time right now. In fact, can someone make a bag magically appear on my desk soon?

2. Today I am chilly because it's snowing outside, and has been since 6 ish last night, and I am at work rather than reading in bed with a giant sweatshirt on, cocooned in several quilts.

3. The age I am is 24 and the age I feel is a bit older than that. I've almost always felt older than my actual age, and while I don't think that's a bad thing, I am aware that it can be to my disadvantage to not act my age. "Old Soul" is often used to describe me, and just yesterday my admin told me she's convinced I was born 35.

4. My favorite place is my apartment. It's my own little safe haven and I simply adore it.

5. Something I have been procrastinating is buying my plane ticket from L.A. to Sydney...apparently I am getting in touch with my inner frugal commitment-phobe. Awesome.

6. The last thing I purchased was a cup of coffee on my way into work. The above-mentioned snow made this a necessary purchase.

7. The thing I love most about my home is that it is so Erin. My apartment screams "Me!" and is an ever-evolving place because of that. I love it.

Happy Friday, lovelies!
ps- play along here

Fill in the Blank Friday

Hooray for the end of the week, gorgeous sunshine and Lauren's blanks!! I am done with being in a mellow mood, work is hassel-free today and I am practically bouncing off of the walls. Yea, my coworkers just laugh when they walk past my office...

Anyway, before I get all scattered and babbly on here, onto my favorite weekly feature:

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab my laptop, the old photos of my grandparents (this is several frames, but let's count it as one thing) and Perry, my trusty stuffed panda who has kept me company since I was 6. For the sake of the blank, I would like Perry to be draped in my grandmother's costume jewelry so I can save that from the fire, too. I have my clever moments...

2. A smell I really like is freshly brewed coffee, rain, lavendar and my rosemary-mint conditioner.

3. Something you might not know about me is that the caffeine in coffee doesn't affect me. This might have something to do with having built up a high tolerance (read: I'm a coffee addict), but nonetheless, I could drink a quad americano just before bedtime and have no trouble sleeping. But, give me a cup of chamomile tea and chances are I will be drowsy before I even finish it.

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are Anthropologie, Amazon (I'm constantly looking up books and new authors), We Heart It and I'm a Facebook whore.

5. This weekend I will probably play trivia with the boys tonight, possibly grab lunch with my Mom tomorrow and I'm sure I'll do the usual gym, errands, cleaning and cooking rotation that makes an appearance in most of my weekends.

6. Nothing makes me happier than starting a new book that hooks me instantly and makes me want to ignore the world in order to read all day.

7. A bad habit I have is not wearing my shoes when I'm at work. I tend to take my shoes off when I'm sitting at my desk and I rarely remember to slip them back on before wandering around the building. My coworkers have taken to guessing what color socks I'll be wearing on any given day. Oh, and this only applies to the cold months, otherwise I have sandals on and I leave those on even when I'm at my desk.

What a lovely weekend

I've slacked again on that whole post-about-your-weekend-at-the-beginning-of-the-week thing. Oh well, I'm pretty sure all of you lovely readers would expect nothing less from me these days...and I certainly wouldn't want to disappoint.

As compared to last weekend's cranky pants theme, this weekend was lovely. It was chilly, there were a few snowflakes and the air smelled like winter in the mountains. There's really no other way to describe the smell of approaching snow here in Fort Collins, much like the smell of Fall is intricately woven with the scent of aspens and the Rocky Mountains. That connectedness to the moutains is one of the things that I love most about my town. It's a lovely comfort to me. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but I hope it's painted a pretty picture in your mind. Come to Colorado! Get lost in the twists and turns of the mountains! You wont regret it.

So, the weekend? Right, back on track...

There was some definite shopping, both for myself and for Christmas gifts. I found the perfect ornament for the lovely Micaela for her ornament swap! I had an idea in mind of what I wanted for her and was lucky enough to find it. I'm still looking for another thing or two to complete the package, but soon it'll be on it's way to lovely Virginia...I hope she loves it! This weekend also involved a few glasses of zinfandel. Cold winter nights call for a glass or two of red wine, don't you think?

I picked up my glass snowflake ornaments and LOVE them! You'll have to excuse how dark the picture is, but it was the best way to show off the iridescent quality of the glass. So cool! I was worried that I'd be disappointed by the final results, but I'm delighted. One or two will go to good homes as gifts, but I think I'm going to have to be greedy and keep the others for myself.

I had a lovely father-daughter date on Saturday. These kinds of afternoons are extremely rare, but lovely when they go according to plan. Dad and I went camera shopping, got hooked in by e-readers (worth it's own post) and finished off our date with frozen yogurt. We both have major sweet tooths and I had owed him a fro-yo date since Father's Day. And even though it started to snow while we were eating our frozen treat, there was a fire going in the shop and the flakes were those gorgeous, fat ones that look very poetic as they fall to the ground.


There was also quality mother-daughter time this weekend in the form of wandering around Old Town, browsing the stores' Christmas displays. While Mom didn't partake, I snagged a hot cup of coffee to keep my fingers warm while we explored (naturlich). I was anti-jacket, because obviously a cardigan is all one needs, right? Hmmm, maybe a coat would've been a good idea...

And, to top off the weekend, my friend Lisa and I met up for a movie Sunday night. She snuck in Starbucks for us, I smuggled in candy (what else are giant purses good for?), we both wore our lounge clothes and we had a great time! I love dates with Lisa!

Fill in the Blank Friday

Happy Friday, everyone!! I am in an annoyingly chipper mood, which probably has something to do with the excessive amount of coffee in my system, the possibility of some cuddle action tonight and the general fact that it's FRIDAY! My poor coworkers don't quite know what to do with all of my energy this morning. I think I'll channel some of it into Lauren's blanks this week!

1. The first thing I do in the morning to start my day is make my bed (Courtney, I know you're on the same page as me with this one), brush my teeth and take off my makeup, grab a cup of coffee and check the weather so I can ponder my outfit while I shower.

2. Today I wish I was curled up on the couch at my favorite coffee shop, sipping on an americano, munching on a pastry and reading...in yoga pants, of course. Who, honestly, wears real clothes on cozy days?

3. If I had an extra $100 in my bank account today I'd splurge on a couple of nice bottles of wine for the weekend and let the leftover money hang out in my bank account.

4. Tomorrow needs to involve homework (writing a paper...ugh) and cleaning, and possibly catching up on DVR'd Fringe episodes.

5. Two things that don't go together are naturally flat hair and humidity...because I love when my hair is plastered to my head; it's oh-so-attractive.

6. Something I can never pass up at the grocery store is a new tea that catches my eye. I have so many boxes of tea in my house it's ridiculous! But, in my defense, I do take it to work with me and I usually have a cup or two of tea at night.

7. The last time I tried something new was when I did yoga a few weeks ago. I'm dying to go back, but between dog-sitting, being in Michigan and my currently injured ankle I haven't made it back yet...next week!

After the productivity runs out...

Do you ever have one of those days where, by the time you're leaving work or finishing up with classes, you're completely spent? That was me yesterday. I was my usual bundle of energy for most of the day, and was insanely productive at work, which must've been leftover from my insanely productive last week, but by the time 4:15 rolled around I was TIRED. I didn't want to do anything that required me to expel too much energy.

So, in honor of being tired, but not wanting to just head home, I did some lazy wandering through a few stores. First, I met my mom at JoAnn's Fabrics where we were on the hunt for just the right cotton knit to add to a dress that I bought this past weekend. I bought the comfiest maxi dress at Old Navy (for only $11!!) in a lovely shade of royal blue, but the low V-neck in the front and back (nobody needs to see my bra closure) needed a little work. Now, I have a chest that is proportionate with my body and I like it, but I swear my boobs don't like each other. They each do their own thing, regardless of what type of bra I wear, and because of this I am a tad self-conscious. Granted, most of this is probably in my head, but whatever...it's my hang up so let's all just roll with it. Obviously, I could easily just wear a cami and call it good, but Mom offered to help me find some fun fabric and just sew a little into the front and back of the dress so I don't have to wear a cami if I don't want to. I was sold! Anyway, we found some fun yellow fabric that will really pop off of the blue and add just the right amount of pizzazz to this uber-comfy dress! I can't wait to wear it!

After JoAnn's I meandered over to Hobby Lobby on the hunt for a wire hanging basket of some sort. I want to create my own outdoor chandelier of sorts for my patio, and in order to do this, I need just the right wire basket. I found a pretty rectangular wire basket on clearance that may just work, but I need to see if the size is big enough for my space (my patio isn't huge, but it can handle a fairly good sized "chandelier") and I'd like a 2nd or 3rd opinion on it. We shall see if my thinking was correct yesterday, or if I was totally off my rocker.

And finally, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Hobby Lobby is TJ Maxx, so naturally, I had to stop in. I wasn't on the hunt for anything here; I mostly just wanted to wander a bit. I have a thing for kitchen supplies, so you can normally find me in the aisles containing bakeware and serving platters, most likely picking up everything because I feel the need to touch whatever it is that I'm interested in. I restrained myself from too much platter fondling, but I did spend an unnecessarily long amount of time in the coffee and tea and aisle...2 of my favorite beverages. After smelling just about every flavored coffee they had (I was specifically looking for Paramount's Southern Pecan, but they were out) I finally settled on Mudslide; a tasty drink that smelled good in coffee form. I also hummed and hawed over several teas, but opted for just the coffee this time around, which didn't disappoint when I brewed a cup later that night.

I topped off my night with a fairly good workout, an amazing salad with tilapia, my book and I watched Life Unexpected and Gossip Girl, both of which were good last night! Not too bad for a Monday...

Fill in the Blank Friday

It's that time again...time, for Fill in the Blank Friday, that is! I look forward to this all week, and am always excited to see what Lauren's questions will be.

1. Today I'm wearing a raspberry-colored cardigan with jewel buttons over a black cami, jeans and cozy boots to keep my feet warm in this snow.

2. My favorite childhood food was pizza or cookies and my favorite food now is simple pasta with lots of veggies (and still cookies)!

3. A day that I'm too busy to have a conversation with my Mom and/or best friends is a day that I'm too busy.

4. The last movie I saw was: Remember Me, which was wonderful and the next movie I want to see is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus or The Last Station.

5. My favorite smell is lavender because it's peaceful, lovely and fresh.

6. A weird little quirk I have is preferring to take the 2nd or 3rd item from the shelf when I'm purchasing things in a store. There's something about taking the first item that I don't like. This is especially true with books; I like to hunt towards the back of the stack for my chosen copy.

7. When I take personality quizzes they always say I'm a nurturing ambivert who likes to be in control...and I think that's pretty spot on.

Wine + Pizza + Good Friends + Coffee

Mondays are always a little rough...the weekend is over, the real world is beckoning you to join it again, work is anxiously waiting for you in the morning and there's the over-arching knowledge that it's only Monday. Yep, Mondays can be a shock to the system.

Well, this Monday my friend Chelsae and I decided we would combat our cases of the Mondays (and her jury summons) by meeting after work for wine and pizza. A local restaurant offers $5 wine flights on Mondays and half-price pizzas before 6 pm. Perfect!!

After enjoying our wine selections, inhaling our shrimp and artichoke thin crust pizza (so good!), chatting about that baffling thing called "how boys think" and laughing like the crazy gals we are, we paid our bill and walked across the street to one of our favorite coffee houses. Neither of us were quite ready to head home in order to tackle homework and/or the gym, so coffee and more gossip seemed like the best choice. I mean, you really can't go wrong with a soy latte to top off the evening, right?

This was one of the best Mondays I've had in a while! I hope everyone else's weeks are off to as lovely a start as mine.