November Inspirations

A few days into November and it's already shaping up to be a busy month that already is busy as a lead in to the holiday season. I'm moving to a new apartment and packing up my old one, and getting a roommate, work is picking up now that I've been there a month, Thanksgiving/heading home for the holiday, birthday parties for friends, college football heading into the final stretch, cold weather; its just a busy month. I can't even believe how fast October went by and this month seems like it will be just as busy!

Here are few things that are inspiring me this November.

Music: Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" and Darius Rucker's "

I'm constantly listening to both these albums on my iPod at work. Love them both, even if Taylor's bitterness at such  a young age is slightly disturbing. Its funny to listen to the songs and try to figure out which "boyfriend" she's talking about.

Fashion: Warm, cute pea coats.

I recently purchase an amazing Calvin Klein pea coat from Lord & Taylor (the best store for coats, in my opinion). I'm not 100% sure if this is my coat, because mine looks lighter/longer in person, but I LOVE MY PEA COAT. It has pleats in it, which I think is adorable. I took inspiration from watching endless reruns of How I Met Your Mother, where Cobie Smulders wears an amazing trench coat (I just googled it, it was Burberry). I only wish I could have found a coat like this, but my Calvin Klein one suits me very well and I love it. Nothing better than bundling up on a cold morning and walking to the metro to head into the city for work.

The most beautiful coat

Food: Making my own Chili 

So far, I've tried one recipe that my Mom sent me via BBM. And WOW Chili is SO easy to make, and you can make lots of it at once. Its warm, delicious, filling, freezes well, relatively healthy. What more could you want in a meal? I'll be continuing to experiment and try new recipes throughout fall/winter.

Drink: Anything warm and pumpkin flavored.

 

I've NEVER liked pumpkin anything until this year. Now I brew Pumpkin Spice Dunkin Donuts every morning, and am making pumpkin spice muffins. So delicious and comforting with the cooler weather.


These are just a few things "inspiring" me this month! What are some of your inspirations?

Starbucks goes digital?

As an (admittedly self-proclaimed) caffeinista, it's only fitting that I should mention the recent announcement of Starbucks' new Digital Network. I am quite curious about this, and am considering a weekend trip to Starbucks with some reading and my laptop to check out the program for myself first hand.  While it definitely sounds impressive, I'm leaning towards agreeing with Mashable's beliefs that they may simply be offering too much information all at once, to the point where you'd be overwhelmed at where to even begin when they open the network.

Personally, I would use it to read all of The New York Times content for free, as well at least see what types of books and ITunes apps they have available. I get that Starbucks' is trying to emphasize the fact that many college students/working milllenials already use Starbucks as a place to have casual meetings/informational interviews, or sometimes (at least on my college campus) full out interviews. Therefore, having LinkedIn extras makes sense. I just am not sure I'd ever grab my coffee from Starbucks just to use this service.

The channel I'm most interested in checking out is the "Neighborhood"one, because you can check out restaurants and events in the area.

Unfortunately, in efforts to save more than $25 a week, I've all but cut Starbucks out of my budget (MAJOR sadface, considering my love for Starbucks' lattes). If this had came out while I was in college still; well I never would have gotten any paper writing or studying done while doing my daily hours of work at my local Starbucks.

So, thank you, Starbucks for waiting until I safely graduated and did not have this amazing program that epitomizes procrastination, begging me to waste time on it.

Thursday Thoughts

1. The start of hockey season makes me happy - The Wings home opener is tomorrow, and I desperately wish my slingbox was working so I could be able to watch all of my games. This will my first hockey season not home, and I'm kind of sad about it. I may have to get into the Capitals, at least it's not Pittsburgh!                                                                                                                                    
2. I've really started to enjoy tea - I've NEVER been a tea drinker; my life runs on coffee & caffeine. But an (expensive) stop into Teavana resorted me in me purchasing my own personal tea maker and some really yummy raspberry/lemon mixture of tea. HOLY COW, I am a tea convert. I still love my coffee... but tea is pretty great too. 
3. The breast cancer awareness thing on Facebook, where people state where they like to put their purse, really creeped me out at first. My mind automatically went to *ahem* "other things," when I see my Aunt and 15 year old cousin state they "like it on the floor."
4. I am so freaking excited for the Michigan/Michigan State football game this weekend. I'm praying its on TV here, because if it is not, then I will be upset. This game will be EPIC. Too bad all my MSU friends have left DC for the weekend so I have no one to make fun of!                                           
5. Grey's Anatomy is back! I'm so happy that this season is looking up after last season was so horrific. Keep it coming, and show me some more Avery! Also love seeing Derek's sister (I know she's on Private Practice? I should watch that again...)
6. Recent online buzz suggests that the iPhone may soon be coming to Verizon. Should this happen, I'm in trouble! I definitely would convert from the Blackberry if this is the case.

Okay, enough of my rambling. No cooking stories to share today, although I DID watch a ridiculous amount of cooking related shows today.. almost all dessert related. Now I just need to learn how to make fancy cake....

BlackBerry and Coffee go hand in hand

I love my BlackBerry. I love coffee. I've wasted far too much money since my freshman year of college fueling my caffeine addiction and heading to Starbucks. Actually, if I think about how much money I've spent, I'll probably want to faint. That, however, is besides the point.

When I saw that Starbucks created a BlackBerry application, I thought it was genius. I'm also ecstatic that it didn't exist before because I would have spent more money. It annoys me how many reward cards I have in my wallet, to the point where it's busting at the seams, and love that this can just stay on my phone, so I wont lose it.

Blackberry and Coffee - two necessities in my life. I'm glad that they have teamed up to make life easier.