Hats, Hats, Hats

In Minnesota, when people talk about hats, they usually mean "of the winter variety." Hats that are meant to protect your head and ears from the cold, the snow and the driving wind. But, with a mild winter that is very much behind us, apparently it's now Spring hat season! I know in other parts of the country, women wear hats to dressy events, like Easter brunch, other church services, or derby parties. I'm sure there are some women in Minnesota who do this too, but they're seriously underrepresented. Those dressy hats are marketed alongside sun hats, which are important for Minnesota girls who are headed to the beach or out into the garden!

Recently, I found myself with friends hat shopping in two different stores on two consecutive days. Here are some of the highlights!

Here's a cute straw cowboy hat. This hat wouldn't do a very effective job of keeping the sun off your face, given the open mesh weave, but it would be a great accessory for a country music festival!

I think this one would be good for a derby party, or some other outdoorsy event where you need a hat to jazz up the outfit!

This hat would be perfect for gardening. It actually reminds me of the gardening hat worn by everyone's favorite children's book character, Linnea! I think this would also be good for the beach, especially if you had a black swimsuit.

Here's another one that's definitely ready for the beach. I like the pink and I think it would warm up the skin tone of the wearer!

This one is also perfect for the beach. This photo doesn't really do the hat justice - we're looking at it upside down and from the back. Ginny actually selected this one for her upcoming trip to the beach in California and I think it will be perfect!

I also like this one for the beach. While the big leather strap might have to go, the golden flecks in the weave make this one a little more special than just a plain straw hat!

I also spotted these, which are definitely meant for dressy wear. They were NOT very flattering on me, though Daisy was with me and they worked better on her!

These ones were definitely shiny! Never having seen any of the women in my family wear a hat to dress up, it's a little hard to take these seriously!

There was also one dressy hat I found that I really liked. Though I've never even considered wearing a hat like this, it was pretty much love at first sight!

I'll have to keep this mind just in case I get invited to the next Royal Wedding or something equally fancy!

Amenities Everywhere!

I recently read a post over at Apartment Therapy about a tour of a home on a TV show: Tom's apartment from Parks and Recreation. I have only recently begun watching this show on Netflix, and I'm still in the first season. Here's a clip of the tour - sorry that it appears to be someone literally aiming their cell phone at their television set!

A quick run down of the amenities listed: multiple blankets in each room, an entire shelf in the fridge for coconut water, a cheese plate with Adriatic figs that never seems to disappear, the temp set at a constant 80 degrees, unisex cologne and designer eye cream, and a Sudoku book in the bathroom. As Ann explains, there are just amenities everywhere! (For a more complete list of Tom's amenities, you can review the slideshow NBC put together here). Tom's place sounds pretty wonderful to me!

This got me thinking about the "amenities" where I live. To a certain extent, this hit a little close to home because there are some amenities that Tom has, as a joke, that I couldn't live without! These include:

• Blankets everywhere! I have probably 5 in my living room. 
• Bath and Body Works hand soap
• All episodes of Friends, on DVD rather than DVR

As is even present in Ann's comments during the tour, it would be extraordinarily expensive to make sure your home has all of these all of the time. At Apartment Therapy, they also noted that it would be damaging to the environment, particularly when considering the high thermostat setting and the "freshly shower-in bathroom" effect, which is achieved by running hot water for 5 minutes and dumping a bottle of shampoo down the drain once each hour. There are certainly some things I would pick to add to the atmosphere at my place, if neither the cost nor the environment were a concern:

• Heat constantly set at 70 degrees - it has to be cool to enjoy those snuggly blankets! 
• Subscriptions to several news, fashion and home design magazines 
• Self-refilling reed diffusers in delicious scents in every room
• Fresh flowers for each room, replaced every couple of days
• A cheese plate and cookie jar that are never empty!

Maybe someday I'll be invited to visit a place with as many amenities as Tom's apartment! And in the meantime, I'll remember that some of these amenities are available on a smaller scale. Just because I can't have fresh flowers in every room all of the time doesn't mean I can't pick up a bunch every once in a while and really enjoy them!

They're back!

I have a love-hate relationship with most yogurt. Sometimes, I really like it. Sometimes, I can't stand the thought of it. But, there's one yogurt I always like: Whips! This yogurt is from Yoplait and has a mousse-like texture so it's nice and light. It's a great sweet treat that makes a good, light, dessert. They sell it in a chocolate flavor, which is good. But, even better is the lime flavor! It reminds me of a lime jello "salad" my mom has been making since I was little that combines lime jello, cottage cheese, whipped cream and pineapple - don't judge me! Recently, I haven't been able to find lime Whips at my usual grocery store (Super Target) or even the ordinary grocery store that is so big it usually has better selection (Cub Foods).

Not long ago, I went to Kowalskis, which is a fancier grocery store right around the corner from my apartment. It's a great place to shop and is a local company, but I don't typically do my shopping there because the selection is pretty limited and the prices are a bit higher. However, I drink a pretty specific brand of coffee which they sell, so I go there every couple of weeks to pick up another bag.

On my most recent visit, I wandered down the dairy aisle and found LIME WHIPS! I enjoyed one just last night!

Hooray! I'm looking forward to enjoying this light citrus taste all summer long!

Everyday Dress-Up

It's a sad fact of adult life that what I used to consider "dressing up" is now what I wear every day. Maybe some of you love it - looking for beautiful, fancy things to wear each day to work. I'm learning to enjoy it, but when I think of "everyday" clothes, I'm still thinking of t-shirts and jeans. I guess I still have some growing up to do!

Recently, I spotted a co-worker wearing these beautiful bracelets to work. (This coworker, who is about the same age as I am, is one of those girls who loves that we dress up every day now!). I was inspired and took a look at my own bracelet collection to see if there was something dressy and neutral that I could wear with my work clothes that would look nice but not attempt to steal the show. Since I didn't have anything that quite fit the bill, I decided to make something.

I think these two as a set will do the trick. Here are some closer-up shots:

This is the detail on the clasp. I got these a while ago when I spotted them in a clearance bin. What a neat idea to write messages on them! And I like that they're subtle enough that I won't spend the whole day at work answering the question, "What does it say on your bracelet?"

And here's a detail on the beads. The silver beads, which make up the entire elastic bracelet, were really a find. I love the design, make me think of Norwegian folk painting, though they also look like something paisley. What a treat! Now my wrist is ready to get dressed and go to work!

Mmm... Broccoli

I might be one of the few people out there that's actually a broccoli lover. It's definitely my favorite green vegetable, and given that it's high in iron, I try to keep some around the house at all times. I like to dress it up or prepare it in different ways, just to create some variety when I keep eating the same vegetable over and over again. Here's one of my favorites!

Broccoli Palomino

Where does the name Palomino come from? From the fabulous restaurant that used to be located in the LaSalle building in downtown Minneapolis. A couple of times, during a summer I spent working downtown, I went to lunch with coworkers at Palomino. While the restaurant is typically out of my price range for dinner, lunch there was quite reasonable. (Happy hour was also, with cheap mojitos, but alas, those days are over as well...) My favorite thing on the menu was a salad with spring greens, goat cheese, toasted pumpkin seeds, olive oil and a lemon wedge. I made something similar to that at home for myself several times over a bed of lettuce but eventually I decided to try it over broccoli. It was a miracle!

To make this at your house, these are the ingredients you'll need. I substituted pine nuts for the toasted pumpkin seeds, mostly because they're easier to locate. I also added the croutons for some crunch. I sometimes use a squirt of lemon juice, either from a lemon or from a bottle, depending on what's around. Last night, it was a lemon-free version.

The directions are simple: prepare the broccoli however you want to. I buy it already in the bag, chopped up, so I steam it in the bag based on the package directions. Steaming or boiling it on the stove or in the microwave would be fine. I wouldn't recommend using sauteed broccoli because I think this tastes better with something a little softer. I then add the ingredients in this order: nuts, cheese, croutons, oil, lemon juice. I make sure to do this when the broccoli is hot so that everything gets a little bit warmed up: the cheese melts, the nuts soften and the croutons get just a bit less crunchy. Enjoy!

Birthday! (Part Three)

After awesome celebrations on Friday and Saturday, I was pretty worn out. But, there was still one day left of this marvelous birthday weekend! On Sunday, April 29, it was also my mom's birthday. Since she had been out of town over the weekend, we arranged to celebrate both of our birthdays together as a family that evening. Since the plan was to get together at my place, I had to spend some serious time cleaning up on Sunday. While this was a little bit of a chore, it was nice to enjoy my place perfectly clean as part of the celebration. I had the chance to look at all of the wonderful cards send by friends and family:

 I even received one very special homemade card this year from my favorite five year old!

I also spent some time on Sunday getting Mom's present ready to go!

I wrapped it up in the cutest wrapping paper I had - with the green card, it looks a little bit preppy, right?

We decided to eat dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Good Earth. After dinner, we came back to my apartment to watch the season finale of our favorite show, The Good Wife. Ahhhh! Cliffhanger!!! We also enjoyed the cupcakes from Cocoa and Fig that were a gift on Friday.

Mom opened up her book and says she's excited to learn more. I hope that's true! I also opened the presents my parents had brought for me:

Two books I really wanted! One about a twenty-something who'd read the Little House series as a kid (sound familiar?) and goes back to visit all of the sites. The other about a fruit and vegetable stand located in my home town that used to be surrounded by farmland and is now surrounded by suburban development. Does this stack make me look like the Midwesterner that I am? Check!

And then there was the big one, the birthday present I really, really wanted! Dream come true!

Yay! A new camera!! As I'm sure you can tell from this blog, this isn't my first digital camera. I got one as a birthday present right around the time I graduated from college in 2006. That camera has been with me through lots of ups and downs and plenty of travel. It has never taken very good pictures indoors. I realized that maybe it would be possible to upgrade when I got a new Android phone for Christmas and noticed how good the pictures it took were. (Most of the pictures on this blog were taken by the Samsung Exhibit II phone, which has performed admirably!) Seeing the difference in quality got me thinking about whether it might be possible to get a digital camera that performed better. I spent quite a bit of time this spring doing research online about what kind of camera would take good indoor pictures and this is the one I picked! I'm so lucky that my parents decided to get it for me! I'm looking forward to taking better photos with it and sharing them on this blog!
All in all, this was a terrific birthday. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

Birthday! (Part Two)

On Saturday, I woke up bright and early because I was so excited! I spent the day working on projects around the house and trying to take a nap to get ready for the evening (which I wasn't ever able to do). On Saturday night, I was invited to Ginny's house with my friends Magnolia and Daisy, along with the husbands and the kids, for a barbeque. The weather was cold and drizzly, but the guys made the burgers on the grill and they were delicious as usual!

A few weeks before, I had decided I wanted to make bracelets for Ginny, Magnolia and Daisy. Just call these Grown Up Friendship Bracelets!

I saw that Michaels had strings of pearls on special in basically every color of the rainbow and decided to choose one color for each girl. From left to right they're for Magnolia, Ginny, Daisy and me. Here they are all packed in their little gift boxes:

So, while I know that bringing party favors to a 28th birthday party might not be routine, I also didn't think it would be polite to bring just the bracelets for some of the guests. Favor bags for all!

I chose pink cellophane bags with yellow ribbon. The name tags are on the right in the picture above, which are white paper with pink writing. I added fruit snacks to bulk them up a little bit, along with caramel Dove chocolates and Cookies and Creme Kisses. For the kids, I got board books and window clings and for the guys, I got miniature Slinkies. I was a little worried about whether the guys would think they were cool, but they turned out to be a huge hit.

In the early evening, I went off to the party where I had a blast. The kids - Miss I, Mr. O, and Baby M - were their usual, adorable selves. They were very excited about the whole thing! Ginny made a delicious dinner - as she always does! - that included the burgers cooked by the guys, homemade sweet potato fries, and salad with strawberries and goat cheese, which is my very favorite. Miss I selected a cake for me and even had my name written on it! I wish I'd thought to take any photos, but we were having way too much fun. Maybe next year! My lovely friends also brought gifts for me, which was so very sweet of them!

Magnolia and her husband, Larch, brought this cute set of red bowls and some delicious smelling hand soap. I didn't realize until I unwrapped them that each of the bowls was a little bit different!

 Red color + hobnail detail = Perfect! These lovely objects also came in this reusable tote!

LOVE Vera Bradley! And while I don't do a good job of taking reusable bags with me when I go shopping, I do love having them around to carry all of my belongings - I'm not a light packer, wherever I'm going.

Daisy brought this printmaking kit from Lotta Jansdotter. I'm not terribly familiar with her work, but I'm excited to make some prints! She also brought the "cupcake" in the foreground, which is a trinket box, swirly notepad and flower magnet wrapped up together. The last time Daisy and I saw each other before my birthday, she asked what I wanted. I told her she certainly didn't need to bring a present! She joked about bringing this cupcake notepad set, which is what she gave Miss I on her birthday back in March. While it's silly that a five year old and I have the same taste, I really do like the cupcake!

And even though Ginny and her family had done something super nice for me already by hosting the party, they also gave me a present. I'm so spoiled!

Look at these gorgeous candle holders. They might be familiar to you - as I featured them on this blog here. Yay! Now they're part of my collection.

Here they are with the delicious-smelling candles that came too. Yummy! After I opened all of these presents, I got to distribute the favor bags I'd made. It was really fun to see everyone so surprised! And I was so glad that I could bring something to make them feel special too. I was so excited about each of these gifts. It would be hard NOT to have great style with friends like these!