A little bit of everything...

 

 

Greetings from my couch!



Gosh, there is something so wonderful about taking a hot shower after a long day and crawling right into comfy clothes and more importantly, fuzzy socks. Mom, I realize these socks are yours. I apparently hijacked them last time I was home. Oops.



 

In sticking with the pink theme, I chose this sassy spring nail color at the salon the other day. You like? Yes, I have to take a picture of the hand with the ring. I still get all excited when I look down and see that sparkler! Anyways, I have to admit that after the long, freakishly cold winter we have had, there's something about these pink nails that make me think spring is on it's way! I mean, I'm just hoping that my bright nail color and spring-like outfits will lure some permanent sunshine and nice temps our way.

I usually don't pose and post, but speaking of wishing for warmer temps,  I was kind of diggin' my springy fashion today and wanted to share! EVERYTHING on my body (except my undies!) is JCrew Factory. In fact, my entire closet is pretty much JCrew Factory come to think of it. If  you haven't heard of JCrew's more affordable factory store, check out the website. There are site wide sales constantly, and the prices are pretty decent to begin with. I honestly haven't noticed a difference between the factory quality and that of the regular JCrew. The only major difference is the price, and I don't know about you, but I'm all about saving a few bucks! A little fun fact about me is that I refuse to buy any article of clothing at retail.  Of course there is the occasional exception, but generally speaking, I buy on sale. Purchasing clothing full price is like buying a brand spankin' new car- that sexy ride depreciates in value the second you drive it off the lot. Same thing with that cute blazer you just had to have RIGHT. THIS. SECOND.  If you take deep breaths, that bad boy will likely be on sale for half the price in a week. I know I'm not alone in having an extra skip in my step when I feel great in a piece of clothing that I scored for a great price.

I have a couple fun things to share. Monday evening, I was asked by my favorite little Greek, Valentine,  to see The Most Deserving. It was a pretty hysterical play, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Prior to the play, we went to Radiance Teahouse for a little bit of chit chat, tea, and soup. We only had about 30 minutes, to sip, chat, and chow before the play started, but I would LOVE to go back to this sweet little spot and just hang out. The tea was awesome, and we both ordered the miso soup, which I have to say was probably the best bowl of miso soup I've had to date.

Random pic, but while I was retrieving my car, I saw these two dolls munchin' on some yellow stuff in the parking garage. Only in NYC would you see horses hangin' in a garage.

There was also some yoga this week. Thanks to my darling friend Katie for my amazing yoga meditation book and eye pillow! What a thoughtful and perfect belated birthday present :) The eye pillow makes shavasana feel  a little bit like night time which has resulted in me catching a few post-yoga ZZzzz's. No complaints here; I do love my beauty sleep.

Food has been yummy the past couple of days. Yesterday for lunch, I enjoyed a spicy chickpea salad wrap with chard and avocado. SO GOOD. I have never made chickpea salad, but after trying the one you see above, I think I will be factoring it into the weekly lunch rotation. Yummy, filling, and a little spicy.

Chipotle Chickpea Salad

(adapted from clean eating veggie girl)
Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 stalk celery, finely diced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely diced

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbs vegan mayo ( I don't like regular mayo AT ALL- but vegan mayo is actually pretty delish! )

1 to 2 tsp sriracha sauce (start with 1 and add more to your liking- I used 1 1/2 tsp)

Directions

1. Using a fork, mash chickpeas in a medium bowl until mostly pureed with some small chickpea pieces remaining.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients.

3. Refrigerate for at least one to two hours, or until chilled.

4. EAT!

Last night for dinner, I had another pretty rockin' meal. I made this farro and mango salad with creamy avocado dressing. I grilled up some shrimp to put on top, which I must say complimented this rather springy dish perfectly. I jumped the gun and ate a few shrimp off my dish before I photographed. They looked too good.  I had to adapt the recipe that I used because I was missing some of the ingredients, so I  subbed in what I had on hand. It still turned out delicious.  A couple of notes if you are going to make this dish: the recipe recommends using 2 medium mangos. I used 1 large mango and it was more than enough. They also call to include optional diced avocado which I left out and was happy that I did. My recommendation would be not to add additional avocado as it I think it would be overload with the avocado dressing. With that said, if you're an avocado freak, go for it! I highly recommend making this!

Alright, kids. That's all she wrote. I'll leave you with a little story about this picture of my beautiful tulips. I came in from work today and all of the flowers except two were hanging down around the vase. Frankly, they looked dead. Womp, Womp.  When I left my little beauties this morning, they were in their full upright position blossoming away. I was kind of bummed to see this sad sight since I only got them on Sunday. I  picked up the vase (aka beer mug that they are in) and realized ALL the water was gone. Thirsty little buggers. I refilled the vase, put the flowers back on the side table ,and went into the kitchen to make dinner. How excited was I when I came back into the living room 40 minutes later and to my surprise saw my flowers had come back to life (except that one sad straggler in the back) ?!  Then I started to wonder if I sat and watched the flowers for that 4o minutes,would I have been able to see them come back? Hmmmmm.....

Anyways, the point is that sometimes in life you may get a little "dehydrated" and keel over. Sorry, but I think it's safe to say that it happens to the best of us. What's important is that we have those people in our life who don't give up on us and know exactly what we need to "come back". A sprinkle of love, a dash of belief and a little bit of patience does wonders.

Love and Hugs!

Sarah