Autumn Senses

Via

Pulling your love one a little closer to your chest.

Licking the whipped cream off of your amaretto hot chocolate.

Watching the flickering of candle flames.

Hearing the crackling of wood dancing with excitement.

Breathing in just slightest smell of cinnamon swirled with caramel.

Enjoy the autumn season!

Collisions

Words /// Picture

Drama-Free Workplace

A co-worker walks up to your office door and starts talking about an issue they have with someone else in the office. What do you do?

A. Take their open hand and accept the conversation.

B. Shove your hands in your pockets, giving an I don’t care attitude and just listen.

C. Slap their hand and say, I don’t think we should be talking about this 

maybe you should talk to the person you have an issue with directly.

How you handle the gossip being brought to your door will largely determine how much gossip is being brought to your door. The less you get involved with inter-office drama, the less likely people will be to keep on coming back, over and over to hand out juicy negativity.

So if C is your answer then you are correct. Gossip breeds more gossip, therefore getting the co-worker to address the person they have issues with directly is the best solution.

Wine Sealed Delivered

*Only because my mom is awesome and got me a case of wine on our trip to Napa Valley! 

Moms are the best!*

Emotions Flood the Soul

Photo Via

The Perfect Cheese Plate

The art of crafting the perfect cheese plate must begin with the following:

1.  A soft cheese, that can be easily spread on a cracker or bread. My preferred choice is a triple cream brie! 

2. A blue cheese, needs be added for color and musky taste that pairs well with fresh fruit.

3. A hard cheese, for texture and nutty flavor. For the hard cheese make sure you pre-slice at least 1/3 of the block to give your guest an easy go of the cheese for the first couple of bites. I prefer a gruyer over a cheddar for my hard cheese.

1. Fresh fruit is the best pairing for high in fat love cheeses. Figs are my all time favorite fruit to pair with cheese.

2. If you are feeling fancy then add some dried fruits or nuts to the plate. I personally like cherries and pistachios paired with blue cheese.

All Photos Via

 1. Pita chips or water crackers are always good safe bet for your cheese to land on point every time.  I prefer a mild tasting cracker so you are really savoring the cheese.

2. So it isn't exactly a cracker, but come on who doesn't like salami? I take a slice of salami and use it as a cracker for brie. It is mighty tasty.

I hope this helps on your journey to the most yummy cheese plate of your dreams. 

Pop open a bottle of cab sav and dive in!

Cali Trip: Day 4

Three different wineries were discovered today, 

including one the sold the most delicious sparkling wines.

Fabulous cheese plates, dinner plates, and window shopping

 completed another glorious day in California.

Cali Trip: Day 3

Don't you just want to sit down here and stay forever? I do. 

I just wanted to watch the waves crash over and over, and get caught in a beautiful trance.

My mom and I found the Pacific waters quite enjoyable around a quant town called Pacifica.

(I wonder how they came up with that one. Ha.)

Then we became a tourist for the day, traveling to a fat kids paradise, 

the more reddish tinted then you would have imaged golden gate bridge,

 and fancy architectured shops where my mom and I 

promptly bought each other fabulous Christmas gifts, 

that will never quite make it to Christmas.

All in all day three was fabulous, sans some traffic around San Fran. 

Today, more wineries will be toured and more vino consumed.

Cali Trip: Day 2

The castle, the great hall where private wine tastings are held 

and in the cellar where the barrels of wine are placed.

We got to experience the wine making process all the way down to tasting the wine from the barrel.

The gorgeous merlot grapes in Napa Valley! We throughly enjoyed our tour of Castello di Amorosa yesterday and these are just some of the many pictures from our day!

Cali Trip: Day 1

My mom and I decided to take a trip to California to see my cousin James who lives there, and to sneak in some trips to Napa Valley, tour San Francisco and eat fabulous food! I thought it would be fun to document my journey each day in picture form. So here we go:

Southwest was the airline of choice for the flight to Cali. Dead Fish was the first restaurant. My cousin James and his pups, Sergeant and Angel. Guess which puppy has what name! Haha I enjoyed day one!

Day Two, here we come!

Treat: Toasty Feet

Stuffing my feet under a pillow, blanket or other people in the fall and winter months is one of my favorite pastimes. I can't stand my feet being cold, and well they just never seem to get warm enough!

Some of my favorite things to keep my toes warm during the chilly nights, both indoors and out in the wilderness aka my back yard, are a multipurpose mexican yoga blanket (I take part in a yoga class every Wednesday), a fire pit (that I haven't purchased yet but am investing in soon), fuzzy socks with the grips on the bottom (extra important to have the grips so you don't spill your hot chocolate all over your rug), and by far my best Christmas gift to date has been my electric mattress pad. This mattress pad, unlike an electric blanket goes on underneath your sheets so you don't have to worry about it coming off. I just keep mine on my bed all year and just use it whenever I want! Totally worth the investment!

Keep your toes toasty my friends!

Mountain Day

This was an extra special weekend, because I got to see fabulous alumni from my college for an annual homecoming event called Mountain Day! Lots of laughs, stories and lack of sleep were had.

Then Sav, Glenn and I participated in the Sofa Shuffle! Sav is taking my sofa, and I got a new one and she is pictured above being a beast. That chick is strong! The last photo is from yesterday's tea party photo shoot that I was asked to be a model in. I loved the whole installation!

Happy Monday and stay warm out there!

Sweet & Sexy

Some of the girls that I work with and I wanted to do a little something for our co-worker Hannah, who is getting married this weekend! So after work today we went to Honeymoon Bakery and ate a sweet treat together. Oh and of course gave her something sexy, we did go to honeymoon bakery after all ;)

Treat: Flirty Floral

I am not a fashion expert, but I throughly enjoy trends of any kind. One of the most colorful forms of trends is clearly in fashion so for todays treat, I explored the trend of bold floral motifs. 

The inspirational picture comes from a fashion photographer and 

painter named Lillian Bassman during the 1940's-60s. 

1///2///3

The modern translation of the floral motif trend drops the traditional flower and 

blurs the lines between real and abstract.

What are some of the fashion trends that you have noticed flashing back?

Oh and a sneak peek at a floral pattern that might make its way into this weekends
tea party inspired photo shoot that I was asked to be a model in!

Clothing provided by Savannah's closet!

Treat: Falling All Over

quick treat 

Falling Pumpkin, Toasty Blazer, Teariffic Mug, Lighten up my life

Foodie Pen Pal- Swedish Edition

Another month has flown away with the falling leaves! I can't believe we are already into OCTOBER! What I can believe however is that my foodie pen pal for this month, Bailey sent me a lovely package with a few of her favorite things. Since she works at a Swedish store, she thought it would be great to send me some swedish food.

How the program works: In the program you get a new Foodie Pen Pal each month. So you get different treats from somewhere across the U.S. and you get to send a package of treats from your hometown to somewhere. It is so much fun! If you want to register click here.

My favorite thing in the package this month was the swedish form of granola with dried fruit! 

I am enjoying doing this program so much, and I would urge you to try it out. You don't have to be a blogger, you just have to be someone who loves food.

Enjoy the first day of October!