pie makes everything better

Hannah is back in San Diego and while I had a very fun but somewhat odd time with her while she was here, the late late nights and the bars that still let people smoke inside have left me rather sick and exhausted.
I have been living off Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup (amazing) and orange juice to help keep whatever it is from getting worse.

There are times when I wish I was a bit more exciting and that going out may help me meet someone, but the experiences I had last week have not convinced me of that.
The guys I met were way too touchy, creepy and super drunk...I don't want a guy like that, no thanks.
Things got out of hand a few times, resulting in some verbal fights and threats and I don't want that energy in my life and don't want my friends to have to be in those situations.
I'll stick to coffee dates, netflix nights, board games, bonfires, shows, shopping, working out, hikes and the bark park...there has to be some single guys out there that enjoy all that stuff as well.

I still had good talks with three friends, all of which I don't see often enough and it all left me very happy and nostalgic for when I saw them all on a regular basis.

Starting Thursday I'm going to start moving things into the house and can't wait to be all settled in so that I can have a little gathering of my favorite people and dogs.
I never had people over to my last place because the neighbors were soooo horrendous and loud and to be honest, it was embarrassing for me and I just assumed no one wanted to come over.
Hopefully this house is not only a place where I am comfortable but my friends are as well, because I would really like to try to have a home for the first time since I moved out back in 2003!!

Yesterday after work I got coffee and pie with Stephanie and had good conversations. Plus, pie always makes everything better and by the time I was headed home I was feeling better than I have the past couple days.
I'm sooooo happy I'm going to be just five minutes away from her, Ravi, Sabin and all my other friends instead of 25 so that there can be more coffee and pie dates!!!

I'm still working extra hours at my job and am super happy about it, even though there is nothing for me to do besides knit people things for Christmas.
I just finished a scarf for my little cousin and am now making a coffee cozy!!

I know a lot of you girls are super crafty, are any of you making gifts for friends/family this holiday season?

moving

I got the house and after a few days of worrying about whether or not it was going to be the right move for me to make in my life right now, I decided to go for it.

A lot of things were said and happened this week with my friend in town and seeing other friends that I don't see that often, that made me see that either I just don't have the luxury of moving someplace new and expensive right now, or that my age shouldn't be as big as an issue as it is to me a lot of the time and that success and living your dream doesn't mean you have to leave the people and places that helped you get to where you are.

So all that plus talking about all my worries with Stephanie and getting my dad to go see the house and tell me its in good shape swayed me to take it. I've got the keys and can start moving stuff in and then officially move in/live there next weekend.

extra hours and out of towners

Lately I've been a mix of bored and busy.
And when I'm bored, I'm crafting and haven't been keeping up with my blog or the blogging world.

I have been having a fun time creating things though, none of which are 100% yet except for the infinity scarf I made my friend Hannah who is in town from San Diego for the week.
I decided to make something for her boyfriend too.
I'm not his biggest fan but I don't hate him.
Sometimes though I worry he hates me and this girl has been one of my best friends for the past 11 years so I'd like for him not to, so maybe a little handmade gift will win him over.

Tonight she and I are going out for drinks with another one of our long time friends.
Going out for drinks means they will get wasted and I will be the DD...fine by me since I don't drink anyway.
I'm excited to see her, she got into town Monday but went to Chicago for a day with her mom to do some Christmas shopping and visit a friend of hers, so I haven't seen her yet and the rest of her week is filled with family obligations.
I guess I need to plan a trip to San Diego if I want to see her more than once while she is here. (STEPHANIE, you should go with me if I ever go again. I always go to San Diego alone and I think it would be a lovely trip for us!! I'll start a savings for it.)

In other news, I worked a lot of extra hours/days this week which is awesome for me even though I was pretty bored most of the time.
The additional money will come in handy because I found a house to rent!!
It isn't perfect but I think I can make it nice and the pros outweigh the cons.
There are no closets except for a super small one in the larger bedroom (who builds a house with no closets??!!) and the yard is not fenced.
BUT there is no additional fee at all for Monty and a washer and dryer is included, so I will make due without closets.
I should find out tomorrow if I get approved (fingers crossed) but don't want to get my hopes up, I have a crappy crappy income and even though my parents will be co signing for me I'm still worried because I just took out a loan for my car so I feel like that makes me an even less desirable renter.
Oh growing up.

yay for new recipes!!!

Yesterday I spent the majority of my morning and early afternoon making a couple new recipes I found the other week and have been itching to try!!

The first is for a vegan friendly soup that is perfect for this time of year. I found the recipe on The Gluttonous Vegan, which is one of my favorite food blogs because not only is she super cute but she has the most amazing recipes like avocado fries?!!! I'm going to make them soon!!!!

The soup is called, roasted broccotato soup with chickpea croutons and it is sooooo soooo yummy. I didn't snap any pictures of the process or finished product but there are plenty on The Gluttonous Vegan site. I changed a couple things, like using red potatoes and doing three cups of veggie broth and one cup of soy creamer instead of four cups of veggie broth. I made mine lumpy like she suggested and it turned out just like her pictures! Oh and the chickpea croutons are a great touch!!

The next recipe I saw on The Cooking Channel and is for Horchata. 

I've been wanting to try this drink for awhile now but have never made it to the restaurants that have it or found a recipe that didn't seem super complicated. 

This one was pretty straight forward and I was in a cooking mood so I gave it a go. 

The recipe calls for peaches however I left them out because I didn't have any and I wanted to try the original flavor of the drink first before a fruity version.

My blender sucks and I didn't want to add as much sugar as it called for so I don't think it turned out exactly right, but I will definitely give it another try sometime at a restaurant.

I had been in a cooking rut and am glad to be out of it because I really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. Have any of you tried new recipes lately that you would recommend?!

cute stores and ginko leaves

The weather has been soooo lovely lately and I feel like it is the one good thing I have going for me right now, so I have been taking advantage of it.

Troy is a pretty cute town and I would enjoy it so much more if it was a few exits closer to Dayton, had more diverse/veg friendly culinary options and if I had a friend here. 

I don't though so the only time I ever venture downtown or anywhere besides my gym is when I take Monty with me.

So the other day I decided it was time to get out.

We've been going to the bark park in the next town over but I felt like a change so the other day we switched it up. I think he enjoys downtown more than the bark park.

Our walk around town was nice, I enjoyed the nice weather and pretty ginko leaves that are covering the sidewalks and Monty had a blast doing what he loves to do sniffing and peeing.

I love that pretty much the only trees along the square (what we call the downtown area) are ginko trees. The leaves are so cute and the prettiest shade of green in the summer and then yellow in the fall.

My favorite shop downtown (even though I've never been in it) is this little old timey shoe repair shop that is tucked in a corner down one of the cobblestone alleys. 

sooooo cute!

We snapped some pictures, got asked about 5 times who was walking who and had three dirty/rude comments yelled at us from drivers.

I had enough of comments, so I got a soy autumn delight (coffee with white chocolate, cinnamon and hazelnut) from one of the coffee shops and we sat on a bench together and listened to the music they play through the speakers around the square until Monty fell asleep and my drink was gone.

Today is the last day of 70 degree weather in the forecast so I'm going to try and cram in as much out and about time as possible!!!

A teeny tiny post

I'm slacking at posting again even though I do have a couple things and pictures to post from the past week.
I've mostly been working, crafting, hanging out by myself or with Monty and watching lots of episodes of How I Met Your Mother which is so cute and I don't know why I never watched it before.
I'll make time for a real post tomorrow but for now I'm going to enjoy a cup of coffee and watch some more How I Met Your Mother.

yay for russian tea biscuits and sewing machines. boo for mean dogs and stolen ipods.

This week was just another week.
It had some ups and some downs.

I lost or someone stole my ipod and I have checked with every place I have been this week...but no luck.
I went through all the password changes, registering it as stolen etc. Its just scary and annoying to know someone has something with pictures of your life, emails, numbers, addresses etc.

Monty got attacked by a mean dog at the bark park and got his ear split open. It was pretty bad at first and bled all day after we got home. Its clotted up now and looking a lot better...thank goodness!!!

I got coffee with Stephanie one day after work, it was much needed...we hadn't been in sooo long!! Despite the fact that Starbucks has their holiday cups out, we both stuck with our soy iced coffees. I'll get a hot drink when there is snow on the ground. After coffee, I hung out with her and Ravi and they invited me to stay for dinner which was super yummy.

I drove all over the Dayton area looking for houses/apartments yesterday and found a few to call about. They were all nice, so I'm worried they'll be out of my price range.

I FINALLY started up my sewing machine and just practiced stitching straight lines, uhhh I did ok....practice makes perfect so I just have to keep practicing.

I came up with lots of cute ideas to make for Christmas gifts for people this year. My family outside of my parents are Debbie Downers at Christmas (actually all holidays) and don't do a gift exchange or anything, but I always try to have something for everyone because thats part of Christmas-sharing and giving.

A local grocery store, Dorothy Lane Market, had Russian Tea Biscuits in their bakery yesterday...they are sooooo good and I always forget about them because I try not to even look in the bakery! They just popped out at me as I passed by and it had been a crazy amount of months since I'd last had one, so I treated myself, plus they're sooo big that it lasts me a few days.

My macbook keyboard is messed up, it types G's with S's and W's with T's. I need to take it to get fixed before my warranty runs out, but the closest Apple store is an hour away, blah.

Time to practice sewing some more!!
Have a lovely Sunday!