Friday Favs #4

Its the weekend, weekend. Phew!

Who is ready for Saturday morning sculpt, family dinner and down time? This girl.

This week brought a weird mix of events and I am ready for a wind down.

However with the weird also comes the good.

Linking up with Katie, Heather and Claire for Friday Favs!!

1) With this weeks amazing (yes I mean 35 degrees!) weather, I went on a 1.9 mile run outside. Yep I just said that. Me, the “I hate running, maybe ill try it next year, I’ll stick to the elliptical”, self just said that. Mom, dad, are you on the ground right now in shock? Want to know what’s even more shocking? I liked it. Yes, liked it enough to agree to a 5k. Funny the things or people it takes to push you out of your comfort zone and try something knew 😉 Couch to 5k here we come.

FullSizeRender (69)

 

2) New fur friends. My friend Jen shared her lady crushes this week, and I’m hopping on the bandwagon, fur baby style.

FullSizeRender (68)

Best buds. Big and Little.

3) Disasters in the kitchen. Yes, disasters…. I do not recommend this “healthified” curry, whole wheat, all veggie mac n cheeses, not one bit. Though I still think in concept, it sounded delish! I love a good chopping\mixing/experimenting session in the kitchen…. even if it didn’t work out. Who has an actually good version of this veggie curry mac n cheeses?

FullSizeRender (72)

4) This bottle of wine. Pinot Noir like I like my Pinot. Full bodied but not too heavy…. 🙂 A 2012 Vaughn Duffy. Someone tells me there were only 99 cases made. Which totally means I’m headed to France 44 to purchase the remaining bottles. If you see these somewhere else, buy it! If not for you, for me…

FullSizeRender (71)

5) And as you read this, we are officially one week away from Vietnam! The bucket list trip is on the horizon and I’m ready to go!

Happy Weekend! What are your plans?

Heartbreak Hotel

Well Hello Monday, you came faster than preferred…. 😉

Nothing like a weekend recap to beat the Monday blues.

Only two words are necessary to recap my weekend.

SAM. SMITH.

FullSizeRender (64)

Yes, the king of all things heartbreak, love and the search for the elusive future love, was in town on Saturday.

If anyone has ever experienced the breath taking, stomach pain, nightmare inducing type of break up, you understand Sam Smith.  Or rather, he understands you.

If you are on the seemingly elusive search for future love, his words speak to you.  If you hold on to the hope, that you will find that which you seek, the lyrics most likely hit a cord.

He’s open about pain, about joy and future certainty that despite the journey and the stumbling blocks, the love he seeks will be found.  At least, this is my interpretation of what his music is all about.

A number of his songs speak to emotions or experiences from my past, (which I’m guessing many of us can say) and seeing him in person was a romantic and hopeful experience for me.

Go see his show!

And because this post may not have been quite an uplifting Monday experience, here are cupcakes!

FullSizeRender (67)

Who doesn’t like cupcakes?

FullSizeRender (66)

Uplifted yet?

FullSizeRender (65)

How was your weekend?

Unplugged

Could you do it? Could you go unplugged for a day?

Unplugged, as in only using your phone for calls and texts. You could take pictures, but not upload them; to ANYTHING. No social media, no games. Unplug, to purely the “dumb” functions of your phone.

I found myself wondering this same question a few weeks ago. I feel the need to on the regular, tweet my random thoughts, visually get lost in Instagram and constantly scroll Facebook for updates.

My hand almost itches to grab my phone every five minutes. That cannot be normal.

So when Alyssa reached out about the Unplugged campaign, on behalf of Creative Expressions, I said yes! (Creative Expressions is a women owned Utah business, specializing in promotional products. Check them out here.)

The challenge: to unplug for one day. To live one day without accessing social media, email, games, etc. To experience that one day with family/friends and not be distracted by my phone.

I have friends who live one day a week with “no internet day.” I’ve wondered for quite some time if I could do it… and here was my chance 🙂

Heres how I spent my day, resisting the urge to grab my phone every 5 minutes. First Stop, IKEA! The roomie and I have been meaning to go for quite some time, say like since September?!

Shameless Selfie in my Unplugged T: my skeptical, will I make it face?

(Forgive me for the selfies, if you are familiar with these parts, I never take them. So I had to include a classic bathroom selfie :))

FullSizeRender (55)

And another one: this is my, get me out of IKEA face, with my sanity still in tact. Seriously, who goes to IKEA on a Saturday morning?! Bad decision. The line for daycare was out the door.

FullSizeRender (56)

I finally found new throw pillows….  Yes mom I gave in to my pillow problem again 🙂 Confused? See here.

FullSizeRender (57)

Next stop, the Weisman Art Museum at the U of M, with Jen. It was here I struggled the most with the challenge.  I arrived early and could not play around with my phone. I could not scroll through Insta, I could not upload the gorgeous pictures of the view behind me…

FullSizeRender (63)

And I most certianly could not tweet about the woman walking around in numerous, almost uncountable furry items. I mean, I know it was cold, but she was almost unrecognizable as a human. Yogi the bear would have been a better descriptor.

My fingers were just itching to tweet something sarcastic.  Instead I enjoyed the comedy in that moment and had a good laugh to myself 🙂 People were probably wondering who the strange lady was, laughing to herself in the museum….

FullSizeRender (60)

 

FullSizeRender (61)

I would like this lady in my apartment please 🙂

IMG_1392

(Photo cred Jen)

FullSizeRender (59)

How gorgeous is Minneapolis?! As I couldn’t upload these to anything, I spent more time standing and taking in the view, focusing on what was right in front of me, instead of finding the perfect filter….

FullSizeRender (62)

Overall I think the challenge was more difficult for me than expected. My phone/social media habits are quite apparent now, it was a very eye opening challenge 🙂

 Tell me in the comments how you would spend your day Unplugged and a randomly selected comment will win your own Unplugged T 🙂

Friday Favs #3

 Happy Happy Weekend! How in the world does 5 straight days of work feel so long? I guess thats what a faux-vacation will do to a girl.

So now, a roundup of my favorites from the last week.

Linking up with Katie, Heather and Claire!!

1) Oysters and Champagne- with friends in town and tastebuds numbed, salty foods are a girls best friend. Have you been to the happy hour at The Lowry?

FullSizeRender (50)

2) Introducing out of town friends to Punch Pizza. Because, you know, its accross the street and happens to be in my mind, the closest Neopolitan pizza I’ve had since moving out of Florence.

FullSizeRender (48)

3)Friends who come to visit and yet make you breakfast in the morning. And not just any breakfast might I add. CREPES. Homemade crepes. They were delicious, from what my numbed tastebuds could taste 🙂

FullSizeRender (49)

4)More dinners in.  With these frigid temps and wind chill nightmares, the last thing I want to do after work is head out to dinner.  Give me a bottle of wine and the fuzziest blanket please. Add my sweats, slippers and puppy on my feet to keep me warm.  Or fleece lined leggings, but I’ve totally been wearing those to work this week as tights……

FullSizeRender (51)

FullSizeRender (52)

FullSizeRender (53)

FullSizeRender (54)

 5) Friends who drive five hours to see you. And put up with you blowing your nose every 2 minutes, leaking tissues out of every pocket and sounding like a very hoarse man. 🙂

What was your favorite from the week?

Spoonful of Crudo

Hello Blog. Long time no see.

With Christmas, a faux-break from work, and being doused in cold meds for the last few days, this little space has been a bit neglected.

No fear, I am back…… though quite possibly still in a medicated state.

A few weeks ago I somehow got into Spoon and Stable, the new, everyone-wants-in-place. My actual reservation isn’t for another couple of weeks, (which I made a month ago!) However, during the middle of the week, we were able to grab a table in the bar. With the ability to order both the bar menu and the dinner menu here, I was delighted, feeling as though I had magically skipped the reservation waitlist. Almost as if I had won the reservation lottery.

Have you ever felt that way?

The restaurant deities were looking over me that night.

GET THE DAYBOAT SCALLOP CRUDO. Do not leave without it. It was the highlight of my meal and a dish I still dream about. I may order three of these next time…

Go with someone who wants to explore the menu.  We picked from multiple of the menu categories, though did not explore the options from “land” or “sea”.  Next time 🙂

FullSizeRender (45)

FullSizeRender (46)

FullSizeRender (47)

Have you been yet? If not, do not forget to order the scallop crudo….. otherwise those restaurant deities may come after you.. Be warned 🙂