Warm Rain

I love warm rain. Love it. Sometimes I really enjoy rainy days and today is one of those days. It's warm, a little humid, and rainy with thunder and lightning. I just love it. I'm sitting at my table with a cup of peppermint tea (more on this later), with my windows and my balcony door open to take in all the glory this storm has to offer. Plus it's cooling down outside and I'm happy. I'm not ready for 80s and sunny and humidity just yet. Perfect.

I slept in today, which was divine. I was going to force myself and go to yoga or to the gym but as I was chatting with the yoga studio owner yesterday she said I should always listen to my body and this morning when my alarm went off my body sternly said, "Let me sleep, please." So I did and I'm so glad. I brought my car in for an oil change, which was a bit of an ordeal. I don't like dealerships and the only reason I went there is because my car is under warranty. The people there are a little snooty and a tad rude. Not a fan. Plus the girl at the service desk gave me attitude when they checked my filter and it was dirty. She made a point of even showing me, like I did it on purpose!!!! Ok, I admit she probably just wanted to show me to prove that I really did need a new one, which I agreed, but, do not speak to me like I'm an idiot or a child. Replace it and get me out of here. Geez. 

After that I decided I was going to browse Home Goods for fun. I love this store. It is such a good store for kitchen stuff and home decor, and for incredible deals. Then I went to World Market for the first time ever. I wasn't impressed until I got to the food section, of course, and then I was overwhelmed (in the best possible way) and delighted and excited and my mind took off with fun things to cook and I was beaming with happiness. They even carry Ghirardelli chips in 30oz. bags!!!! SCORE!!!! I almost bought some but then I realized I had just replenished my jar and my freezer stock so I'm good to go for a bit. Here are the treasures I found today:

Brown Jasmine Rice

Red Curry (which I will eat over my jasmine rice with shrimp)

Butternut Squash sauce (I'm thinking I might pour this over gnocchi tomorrow)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a steal of a price!!!

Dried red chili peppers (I'm building my supply of herbs and spices)

Dried rosemary

AN ORANGE TEA KETTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A yellow cup (which I have designated as my tea cup because everyone must have one. I don't drink coffee so I don't have a coffee cup and I feel left out. Until now!)

Cucumber and Olive Oil soap (the fragrance is incredible and I had to have it)

I'm not going to lie, this is my favorite purchase of the day. I think it goes nicely with my persimmons KitchenAid, don't you agree?

And despite the fact that it might be a tad warm for tea, I had to test out my cheery new kettle and teacup. Please note the steam-cool huh??

I love days like today!

Burn Baby Burn

I'm glad I moved last weekend because New England apparently got slammed with snow.  It's 67 degrees here and my windows are open. Haha suckers!! (yes that was necessary)


So the only "eh" thing about my apartment is that when I walk in it smells like a hotel room and I think one of my neighbors either next door or below me smokes because sometimes it permeates in my laundry area. NOT a fan. So I bought a pumpkin spice candle and have been burning it every day for hours to try to get my place to smell like a home. Well that wasn't working. The candle, try as it might, wasn't potent enough.  So I decided I needed to bust out the big guns:

Yankee Candles

I googled the closest Yankee Candle Store (here on after known as the YCS) and found a bunch of wholesalers but that wasn't good enough. I want the store. I want my olfactory senses to be overwhelmed with ALL of the delightful scents YC has to offer. I know, I'm demanding. Plus I knew they were having massive sales so I had to find a store. Well, ladies and gents, let me just digress for a hot sec and tell you that one of the best things about where I live is I am near EVERYTHING. The mall: 4 miles. The Tangor Outlets: BOTH are a few miles away. The ritzy Market Commons: down the street (I LOVE Market Commons. It's like my Newburyport. Well, not really but close enough). My hospital: 13 minutes. The ocean: 5 miles. Wal-Mart (eh...): 3 minutes. Grocery store: 3 minutes. A bajillion FRESH SEAFOOD restaurants...minutes. So imagine my giddy delight to find a YCS in the mall 4 miles away. Yesssssssss! Hopped in my car and headed that way where I popped into Sears to get some new pillows for my spiffy new bed and whadda ya know they were having a sweet sale! Check that off my list. On a tangent, can I just tell you how odd it is to have a queen bed? I've never had a bed bigger than a twin and now that I have a big bed I find I still curl up on one side of the bed. Hmm. Odd. Anyway...

I popped into the YCS, called my mom to get her expert advice on a potent candle and one that she burns/reminded me of home since she is a loyal YC customer. Plus, since infancy my mom has burned candles or something so home always smelled wonderful. I will carry on the tradition. Anyway, OH my lantus they were having a 50% sale!!! I got those two large beauts and saved myself $30. Dang I love sales! I'm burning Autumn Wreath and it is scrumptious! 

Also on my list of things to purchase are two massive jars to hold my sugar and flour for baking. The first Wal-Mart I went to did not have them stocked but another one only had one jar left so I snatched that up and viola!

Now I'm on the hunt for another one for my sugar and some more flour so the jar doesn't look so lame. 


I also bought myself a DVD player. It's amazing the things you take for granted when you live with your family or with roommates who have these things. But I got a cheap one at Best Buy and since there is also a Red Box about 57 seconds down the road, I'm going to watch "The Help" (and then my favorite TV show at the moment "The Big Bang Theory"...bazinga!) Did you read "The Help?" If not, you should.  I could not put it down. It's fabulous.

The Move South

As promised, here is a recollection of the move.

First of all, I had to pick up my 10ft U-Haul on Thursday evening. I was a little nervous about driving it because I've never driven anything that big before. I really wanted my mom to come with me so that I could secretly have her drive it back to the house to load it up but she couldn't so I took my brother and he would drive my car back and I would drive the U-Haul. Drats. Now, in reality the truck is not that big or long but I was pretty sure that I should probably have a CDL to drive that beast around and the little trailer hooked on the back to pull my car. So what I'm really trying to say is that I felt like I was driving a bus. Great. Basically all I was imaging was the MASSIVE semi-trucks and how tricky it is for them to make turns. You know what I mean--when they are turning towards you and you are certain that they are going to hit you straight on and then all of the sudden they straighten out and you remember to do that important thing called breathing? Yes, I had these irrational fears zipping through my mind. Not to mention I knew I would have to drive on I-95 through Massachusetts---hello aggressive drivers--and THE BRONX--hello rude, impatient drivers--with this beast and I was psyching myself out. And as I was driving home after picking it up, I was panicking about whether or not the parking brake was on because the stupid beast kept making horrible noises. No the parking brake was not on, I was again just being silly, and unbeknownst to me, large trucks just make lots of scary and odd noises. 

So we set out at 4am Saturday morning. I decided to let my mom sleep and I took the first, and what would become the only, shift. Since this was my move, I decided it would probably be best if I actually womaned-up and took control. Plus, driving the U-Haul and trailer was actually quite simple. It helped that on a Saturday traffic was pretty light. 

Mishap in The Bronx: Come on you knew it was coming. Three lanes of traffic in the heart of the Bronx and all of the sudden I find myself in the wrong lane because a small van has broken down. Trying to switch lanes proved rather difficult since NO ONE would let me in. Oh and don't worry that the semi-truck about 7 cars behind me was literally lying on his horn. Geez. Because clearly you know that someone intentionally decided to just stop in the middle of I-95. Don't worry though. Massachusetts drivers had prepared me and aggressively I pulled myself into the other lane. Whew. Driving over the George Washington bridge with a view of Manhattan was gorgeous. Sorry no pictures, I was driving.

We stopped in Jersey to get some gas and had the breakfast of champions (true Therese and Gabe fashion): TCBY frozen yogurt! Yummm! So mostly we drove and talked and laughed. When we hit Virginia my mom decided to hunker down and practice her texting. She's not a texter. The best she can do is "ok." But by the time we had passed through Virginia she was well on her way to becoming a pro-texter. In fact, my brothers didn't believe it was her texting because it was so good. I'm so proud.

We made it to Myrtle Beach in 16 hours and then I got lost trying to find my apartment, but after calling Lisa twice, we got in and collapsed into a delightful slumber. Sunday it was in the upper 60s and we were getting sweaty unpacking--I guess it may also have to do with carrying boxes and furniture up three flights of stairs. Done and done!

Now, as requested, here are some photos of my purchases from yesterday:

Isn't this timer cute???

Fun story about the plate in the above photos. I purchased an incomplete antique dish set about 3 or 4 years ago in an antique store in Exeter, NH, which unfortunately is no longer there. I love the dishes because the design is simple and the color scheme includes black, white, yellow, an orangish-red, and some green which gives me great flexibility in adding to my dish collection and in decorating my current and future kitchens. Brilliant!