Mustard.

No, not the condiment. (I actually really dislike mustard-the condiment.) I'm talking about the color. The rich, yellowy, beautiful color mustard. It's currently my favorite. I know, I know... it's in right now, so I'm not alone, but gosh I love this color.

Today I was browsing Etsy and almost all of the showcased items on their homepage were mustard. Talk about temptation. I couldn't resist it... I bought the card pictured above. Do you really think I could withstand a $3 card that is mustard AND has a tree on it (and bonus: a kite!). I don't think so. I also ended up purchasing a purse that I've been debating over for about a month. After months of dreaming and drooling, I have finally made my first purchase(s) from Etsy. Woohoo!

So while my bank account and responsible part of my brain are kind of disappointed in me right now, my mustard loving heart is full of joy. So I guess it's ok...

The Bright Side Project.

The other day I came across a website called The Bright Side Project. I found it because Sseko Designs (where I got my sandals) announced on Twitter that they were giving away a free pair on the site. It's a great site... I could explain it, but I will just let them explain it. Here's their mission:

"The Bright Side Project is here to bring you sunshine every day with themed, daily giveaways. We hope to inspire you to stop for a second and remember life is (still) beautiful and there is goodness in the world."

How great! Another place that's all about pointing out the fun, cute, beautiful, etc. things in life. Their approach is a bit more "things" oriented, but I'm not complaining. :) I was tempted to not blog about this... because the more people that know about the site, the more people that put their name down for the giveaways, and the less of a chance I have of winning anything. But you're worth it. You should check their site out. Now.

Perks of waking up early.

This morning I had an earlier start than normal... I woke up at 7:30. Now I know... a lot of the world has to be in work by 8:00 so that's not that early... BUT, it was earlier than normal for me. Anyway, two great things happened out of this early morning:

1. I walked the dog (it's not actually my dog, I'm housesitting for some people with a dog) and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. The sun was in the process of rising and it was foggy outside... a little chilly, but only enough to make you appreciate it, not resent it. It actually looked a lot like the scene in Pride & Prejudice were Darcy and Elizabeth finally decide they love each other.

2. I woke up early enough to grab coffee and a bagel from Panera. I shouldn't have... with the diet and all. But I went for a french toast bagel and honey walnut cream cheese. A-mazing!

3. (I decided there was a third great thing about waking up early.) I'm blogging and it's only 9:00 in the morning. That's great!

Dear Spring, Please come faster.

The sun hadn't shown its face in about a week... until this afternoon! It was glorious! Today I found out that I need a $500 car repair and was a bit bummed... but the instant the sun came out it was like I didn't have a care in the world. I'm amazed at what a mood-lifter a spotting of the long-lost sun can be.

So the sun came up, the temperature rose a bit, thanks to daylight savings time the moon didn't appear as early as it had been... I was over at some friend's for dinner and we went outside and played basketball at dusk. It was wonderful! Today was a glimpse of the spring to come, and I loved it.

The calendar says that spring comes in 4 days. (Although as I was typing that I'm recalling a debate that I had with some people about the true first day of spring. Does anyone remember the verdict?) Anyway... I'm ready for it: the flowers, and warm breezes, and longer days, and the list goes on and on. But especially the flowers.

Love Happens.

I watched the movie Love Happens with Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart last night. I decided to stop by Red Box on my way to the place where I'm housesitting. It randomly became the winner because I was in the mood for a chick flick and it was one of the few that I hadn't seen. It was good... a bit cheesy at times, but it's a chick flick... so what are you to expect?

The movie wasn't quite great enough to blog about (although now looking back on it, I enjoyed it more than I realized) but its soundtrack was amazing (for a chick flick). I was pretty surprised that it had the songs that it did being the type of movie it was. It had The Postal Service, Helen Stellar, Explosions in the Sky, and a song by this girl named Priscilla Ahn that I'm currently obsessed with.

Anyway, I was just impressed with the soundtrack and really liked this song, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Today's post brought to you by...

The letter A! (Please tell me you remember how they do that on Sesame Street...) Joel posted recently about Letter Cult, a blog about custom lettering. They are doing this thing called Alphabattle where they have artists submit original letter designs for each letter of the alphabet. They are going through the alphabet so they, of course, started with the letter A. A just happens to be the first letter of my name, so I was pretty excited. I loved looking through all of the designs and seeing how each person's creativity inspired them to create totally different designs for a single letter.

I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with for B... and the rest of the alphabet. It's going to be a long time waiting for them to finish all 26 letters but I'm pretty excited. I've posted a few of my favorites of the letter A.

Lemons.

I love lemons. Ok, well, that's a false statement. I love the flavor of lemon... (I've never actually eaten a lemon.) I feel like it's either a flavor you love or you hate. I lean on the love side... the rest of my family not so much. I think it all started with my love for lemon drops and the times that my friend Mary and I would walk across the field to the nearby gas station to get them. I remember my mouth would be raw in no time with the combination of the sugary coating and citrusy juices... Anyway, the other day I was perusing Martha Stewart's website and saw one of her feature stories was on lemon desserts and it inspired me to bake a lemon cake. Talk about amazing! (I used her recipe. It and others like it can be found here.)

Many great things came out of this baking experience. One being I found a wonderful, moist, lemon cake recipe. (Tonight I used the same recipe to bake some cupcakes... We'll see if they turned out as well as the cake.) Two being that for the first time I successfully made a fluffy/meringue-y frosting. A while back I attempted to make a frosting and it never peaked or whatever and I've never tried again out of fear of failure... until the other day. This time it peaked and I was ecstatic. (Although I was successful, I think I still prefer butter based frosting recipes. It was still an accomplishment.) Mmm... I just love lemon!