Bargain Hunter

Hello hello!

I wanted to share an exciting purchase with you, because, well, who doesn't like a good deal? As sad as I am to graduate, I am incredibly excited to have my own place at some point. You know, after I live at home for a while. I'll get there eventually. Anyway, I love looking at all the homey things: decorations, furniture, even paint color, garden things, but I really love all cooking and kitchen things. Anyway, here's the big reveal. I got these beautiful bowls, and hey even better, I got all four for $12. 

Blend It

So in the description of this blog I did promise you recipes, which have - up to this point - been nowhere to be found. Well, I bring you recipes! Kind of. I'm going to start things off extremely simple: smoothies. I can't really give - alright PAUSE, I need to interrupt myself for a moment here. I am currently lying on my bed with my laptop propped against my bent knees. I'm typing away, and our cat Una, who was featured in a previous post, hops up on the bed, climbs onto my stomach, and curls up on my chest.  So I am continuing my typing very carefully as I must maneuver around a very sleepy, very cuddly purr-machine. Not complaining. Okay where were we? PLAY. I won't give measurements and specific recipes for smoothies because they're just unnecessary. Instead I'm just going to give you some ideas. Smoothies are great. You can put whatever you want in them and however much of that whatever as you want. You can make them more into a meal by adding oats or more into a snack with just some fruit and milk, maybe some yogurt. I once made a smoothie with vanilla greek yogurt, milk, applesauce, and cinnamon. It tastes like apple pie and vanilla ice cream. In a cup. Can't get much better than that. You have all the freedom in the world. Yes, the world. You better believe it. 

Okay, so here's a smoothie I made the other day. I started with these ingredients.

Frozen strawberries, banana, ground flax seed, vanilla bean Greek yogurt, spinach, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk

I threw everything in the blender. 

Then I poured this in a cup and added a straw. You can't drink a smoothie without a straw. It's true. 

So when I was getting all my things together to move into college this year, my mom told me that there was a blender in the basement that I could take. I was pretty excited about this because, as you can probably tell, I love smoothies. I'm not sure how old this blender is, but it must have been around for a while. I can't run it for too long because it starts to smell like it's burning. I swear if I leave it on for too long one of these days it will just burst into flame. Luckily, no smoke yet. 

Well, It's About Time

Hello friends, strangers, readers,

I just wanted to quickly tell you about a movie I saw a few days ago. It's called About Time. Yes, it's a romantic comedy, but it's more than that. I don't want to ruin anything, but it had some great messages about recognizing and appreciating every day that you live. So, if you like adorable love stories, meaningful life lessons, and British humor (which is just great if you ask me), I think you should give this movie a chance.

Click here for the trailer!

And in the theme of appreciating every day, here are three good things:
One: I went to Barnes & Noble today and bought myself three books. I really shouldn't be allowed in any bookstore. I don't think I can leave without purchasing at least one. I love love love books.
Two: I got my hair trimmed. Exciting, right? (Yes, that's sarcasm.) Barely got an inch off, but it really needed it and it feels so nice. 
Three: I met my boyfriend for lunch at Chipotle when he got out of his internship today. It was completely unplanned and a nice little mini-date. 

Well, that's it for now. Happy Wednesday!

Easter Eggs & Spring Flowers

Happy Easter!

So, our family does easter eggs a little differently. Typically, eggs are dyed and then displayed, right? I assume anyway. I don't actually know. But we just draw on them with markers and then just eat them right afterwards. As you can see above, I was inspired by my coffee mug. 

It has been a beautiful day, sunny and pretty warm. I even put on shorts for the first time this year! Although that felt a little strange when my mom and I went into town to rent a movie...that's its own story entirely. But when I was walking around in my shorts, it felt like I had forgotten my pants. Clearly I'm not used to warm weather clothes yet. It's always a weird transition. But I welcome it! 

Anyway, brief story about renting a movie. My mom and I have been wanting to watch "Saving Mr. Banks" for a while now. (My sister and I have watched "Mary Poppins" countless times. Countless.) So we went to the Redbox in the town over from ours, but it was out of order...of course. So then we had to go to another town, and we literally went to three Redboxes where the movie was unavailable until finally at the fourth one, we got our hands on it! A quick drive that should have taken 30 minutes turned into a wild goose chase that took over an hour. But we got our movie! And that's all that counts. Plus, Pepsi (my dog who is featured in a beautiful picture in my first post) got to come along for a car ride. Lucky girl. Oh why not, here's another picture of my sweets. (Warning: I have an absurd number of pet names - pun not intended - for my dog...I'm sure you'll hear most of them. Give it time.)

My Old Girl.
She may be eleven, but she is sprightly.

And some spring-y pictures for you. It's on its way, my friends.

The day lilies are coming!

Vermont Weather

So, remember in my last post when I mentioned that it had been raining all day? Well, at around 7:30 at night that rain turned into snow. Yes, snow. Let me also remind you that the day before it had been about 80 degrees. Uhm, Mother Nature, are you okay? Oh right, I live in Vermont. She's just fine. And to add to this madness, the 10-day forecast shows day temperatures that don't dip below 50. You would think I might be used to this Spring chaos after living in Vermont for 20 years, but nope, it's just not something you get used to. 

This is what I woke up to.

Thankfully, most of the snow had melted by the end of the day.


Also, I realized today that one of the happiest things you can see is a cat basking in sunshine. I mean, look at this little love bug and tell me she doesn't put a smile on your face. I doubt she could be much happier.

Belly rubs

And hey, why not? Here are three good things:
1. My sister visited last week and then continued on to New York to visit her fiancé's family. My friend was going to take them to the airport yesterday because I was in class, but then their flight got rescheduled to this morning. Because of all this, I got to see my sister and almost-brother-in-law today. Granted, it was only for about 20 minutes, if that, but it was still nice. 
2. Ever since freshman year, one of my friends and I have had Friday afternoon coffee dates. We finish our classes, treat ourselves to coffee, find somewhere to sit, and chat about life. It's a nice little tradition to look forward to throughout the week. Anyway, due to vacations and various trips home and whatnot, we haven't had a quality coffee date in quite a few weeks. No, today is not Friday, but we have a long weekend because of Easter, so my friend was headed home today. We finally got to have a good, and very long overdue, coffee date.
3. The sun was shining all day today. How could you complain?

Three Good Things

It's been a while. I am so sorry. Life just kinda gets in the way sometimes...especially as a college senior.

But now, I'm going to tell you about an exercise called Three Good Things. In a few of my classes that discussed positive psychology, I learned about this. It's very simple. Essentially, you should take the time every day (or when you have time - trust me, I understand) to reflect on your day and write down at least three good things that happened. This is supposed to help you appreciate the little things because even if you had a horrible day, this exercise forces you to recognize the good things. Also, the physical act of writing your list down helps increase your gratitude, hope, and optimism.

April 15th
1. I had a presentation in my first class this morning, and I feel that it went pretty well. People seemed interested and asked questions.
2. I switched presentation times with a classmate for another class so now I will be done with all my work on the Monday instead of the Wednesday at the end of the semester. Also, this gave my classmate almost an extra week, so I'd say it was a win-win situation.
3. It has been raining all day and compared to yesterday when it was close to 80 degrees, this could be kind of disappointing. But I love the smell of rain. So, it's not all bad.

See? These good things really don't need to be exciting or amazing or impressive. They're simple, but that doesn't make them any less important.

What are some good things that have happened to you today? Take the time to think about it.