Fresh Ground Coffee

Saturday morning was the calm before the storm.  And by "storm", I mean "dishwasher weekend from hell".  But we don't need to get into that.  As I was saying... Saturday morning was calm.  We slept in, relaxed, and eventually decided to make some coffee.  Instead of using our ground coffee, we decided to use the fresh coffee beans we just bought from Trader Joe's.  We were gifted a coffee grinder from Brett's parents for Christmas and couldn't wait to use it!  Let me just say... fresh ground coffee is FAR better than brewing pre-ground coffee.  Let it be known!

It's unfortunate that we don't have the time in the morning to grind fresh coffee beans during the weekdays.  But then again, it's fun having a sweet little something to look forward to on the weekends.

I . love . coffee .

Hazelnut Coffee & Christmas Music (Shh!)

Shh, don't tell Brett...*

but I started listening to Christmas music in my car this morning!!

It was so chilly outside...
I went to Panera and got a hazelnut coffee,

then got back in my car,

and just couldn't control myself...

I mean, the coffee cup was basically telling me to!

I put on a Pandora Christmas station

and cruised down the road,

sipping my warm coffee and humming along.

It was a woooonderful drive to work :)

 

(*Brett claims that it is illegal to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. PSHH!)

Christmas Vacation Recap

So, you would think having 10 days off of work would mean that I would have more time to blog... WRONG! I had all intentions of doing multiple blog posts throughout my Christmas break, but that did not happen (with the exception of my Merry Christmas and Happy New Year posts). I thought I was going to have a lot of down time, but I ended up keeping busy pretty much the entire 10 days... hence the lack of blogging. But that's okay because I was busy doing lots of fun things... let's recap, shall we?

1. Starting break off with rock climbing & $2 pint night at Rock Bottom!
2. Had a nice dinner in before the craziness of Christmas with our families began
3. Painted my nails sparkly in honor of Christmas
4. Brett & I celebrated "Christmas Morning" on Christmas Eve morning and gave each other our gifts then. Brett got me 2 more nutcrackers to add to my collection (Pirate & Cowboy)
5. Eating breakfast off the new Pfaltzgraff place settings Brett got me to add to my collection
6. My hubby enjoying breakfast :)

1. My penguin gift wrapping
2. Drinking Bailey's Irish Cream in my coffee Christmas morning at the Heher's in Erie
3. Playing with our nephew, Bradley all day (aren't his eyes amazing?!)
4. Uncle Brett & Bradley
5. Aunt Anna & Bradley (he loves us, I swear!)
6. Back down to Pittsburgh for Christmas #2 with my family: taste testing Georgetown Cupcakes!
7. Dancing in the kitchen with Mom
8. We wore matching dresses :)
9. My cute little owl that I got from my parents (This is as close to a real pet as I'll get...)

1. Spotted some penguin ice sculptures downtown in honor of the Winter Classic
2. Found my G-Pa's name in front of Heinz Field: John H Harris
3. Went to the Carnegie Science Center to see the AWESOME train village
4. Pretty winter sunset on my way to Rollier's while Brett fixed my parent's back door
5. INSTAX MINI!!! Gift from my parents for Christmas! I have been wanting one of these for a looong time
6. Some of my polaroids on our Christmas tree

1. On the road to our New Years Eve ski trip in Ellicottville, NY
2. Adorable little ski town at night
3. Blueberry beer at the Gin Mill (where we may or may not have eaten lunch AND dinner in the same day...)
4. Darren & Brett at the Gin Mill
5. Lee & Josh playing pool at the Gin Mill
6. Me, Jess, & Jenn at the Gin Mill
7. Jess, Dale, & Jenn at the Gin Mill
8. Snowy New Years Eve morning before skiing
9. My sweet ski hat... mind you, this was my first weekend skiing EVER
10. The views on top of the mountain were AMAZING
11. Rum & diet to kick off New Years Eve at the Ellicottville Brewing Company (I know, I am pathetic for not drinking BEER at the BREWING company... but I was full!)
12. Ellicottville Brewing Company growlers... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!*

1. Recovering from New Years Eve with more beer?
2. Delicious cinnamon muffins I made
3. Mmm, muffin & coffee... heaven
4. Being a big time fashion DON'T at the grocery store... sometimes I just don't care, but Brett decided to get this one on film
5. Brett and his homemade cheesecake (I asked him to give me his best smile & this is what I got...)
6. Brett's tasty homemade general tso's chicken stir fry... SO good

So that's how I spent my Christmas vacation. It was a much needed, awesome 10 days off. Now it's back to the grind. But Brett and I are starting to plan our potential Spring beach vacation to use up our flight credit we got from United Airlines! So that is definitely something to look forward to!

And, for the record... now that the holidays are over, can we just skip this whole cold weather thing and go straight to Spring weather? Who's with me??

Happy Wednesday!!* Half way through the work week already!

Christmas Time is Here...

It is officially Christmas season (has been for a while now...)! I love this time of year. Everything is so cozy and beautiful... and you get amazing coffee cups like these! I am smiling every time I take a sip. Just wanted to pop in real quick and say hi. Things are really busy lately, but that's what you get with the holiday season!

Hope you are having a wonderful day! Shine on!*

banana man, lobster claws, pumpkins, and candy!

ok, let me get this out of the way first...
these were the sights i saw on saturday:

banana on a bike

ummm, lobster vending machine?!?!?!

ok, now that we've have our daily dose of weird,
onto halloween weekend!

we had a fun, laid-back halloween weekend.
on friday, brett & i went out to the bar
with a bunch of our friends from upj and had a blast!
then on saturday, we went to the pitt game,
then spent the night in doing halloween things!

our mini pumpkins & gourds.

does this gourd not look like a watermelon?!
(this may or may not have been the reason i bought it...)

dinner consisted of a variety of "appetizers"
on our 3-tiered serving tower (a wedding gift)
brushetta, stuffed peppers, and potato skins

then it was time to carve our pumpkins!

before

during

after!!

my happy pumpkin,
our dogfish head pumpkin,
and brett's southern tier pumking pumpkin...
we are pretty proud of these!

sunday morning was heavenly...
we slept in,
then made pumpkin spice coffee & pumpkin spice pancakes!
since it was halloween!

so delish...

and here is all my candy for the trick or treaters...
and we only got SIX KIDS!! :(
i was soooo excited to pass out candy.
oh well, at least we got 6, better than none!

and of course, i had to watch "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown!"

here's what the outside of our house looked like last night...
i was trying to lure the kiddies in with our lit-up pumpkins.
clearly, it did not do the trick.

better luck next year!

oh, and brett & i also decided that we want to dress up next year
and go to some halloween parties!
this year was low-key and relaxing,
so we're due for some craziness next year :)

so now i sit here, it's the afternoon
and i'm sipping my hot mixed berry green tea.
and i realize that it is
november 1st.
when did that happen??
this year has flown by...
next thing i know, it will be christmas.
which reminds me...
now that halloween is over,
that means i get to start listening to christmas music... right?!
;)

honeymoon!!

soo... it's the end of october.
and we went on our honeymoon in august.
and i am just now getting around to blogging about it...
better late than never, right?!

we went to california
and it was the best, most magical and fun trip ever*
i present to you,
our honeymoon via photos:

we were in california for 11 days, 10 nights.
we flew in and out of san francisco,
rented a car,
and went on a little roadtrip!
here is our adventures in a nutshell

1st stop:
sausalito
we stayed on a houseboat
and it was seriously awesome!
it was on the san francisco bay
and literally rocked back and forth.

2nd stop:
sonoma valley
we went wine tasting (and beer tasting).
we went to 2 wineries:
ravenswood winery
&
sterling winery
(amazing air ride up to the winery on the mountain!)
then, bounced to 2 breweries:
lagunitas brewery
&
russian river brewery
(super awesome band was playing)

3rd stop:
yosemite national park
we spent 2 days hiking,
seeing gigantic redwoods,
amazing waterfalls,
and incredible views.
pictures don't do this place justice!

4th stop:
pismo beach
got upgraded to the ocean front suite = amazing
learned how to surf!
saw a whale in the wild!
ate amazing italian

5th stop:
santa cruz
home of the craziest people i've ever seen.
stayed in a cute little cottage!
went ziplinging on top of the redwoods!
ate tasty mexican food,
and went to see SambaDa!
(really fun latin band)

6th stop:
san francisco
did lots of touristy things, so fun!
went to the top of the coit tower,
saw the golden gate bridge,
saw the painted ladies,
walked down lombard street,
went to some breweries,
met up with frank & amanda!

then after a fun-filled 11 days of pure romantic honeymoon bliss...
it was time to come home.

california is a beautiful, amazing place!
i know we will travel back there some day!

and that, my friends, is our honeymoon in a nutshell!
:)

(we already have the travel bug again...
...slowly planning our next trip!)