How Many Blog Posts Can I Make About Spring? Oh, Thousands.

I was walking through campus the other day when I saw this beautiful flowering plant!  At first I thought it was a daylily plant, but now I'm not so sure. Google tells me its a red amaryllis? I'm such a disgrace to my mother the gardener.

I took this with my janky, old phone camera but it still captured the gorgeous colors of the flower's petals!

I wish I had an entire garden filled with various types of amaryllis and lily plants.

It's Spring!

It's officially spring and it feels so good...for the next week or so. It's already reaching 86F in the afternoons here, which I actually kind of love. I like when its hot out, but once the temperature gets past 90F, I'm not here for that. I am a total Floridian though, I'd much rather be sweaty than freezing.

In honor of the first day of spring on Tuesday, I made a light dinner that featured my favorite spring veggie, asparagus! I could probably eat them with every meal. Must be the German side of me.

 This seriously took five minutes to make. I already had the rice cooked, so I just heated it up, sauteed the tomatoes and chicken sausage, then sauteed the asparagus in a little butter and garlic. Voila! A one skillet dinner.

Sun, Sun, Sun: Here it Comes

Spring break is such a tease. I'm officially ready for summer (but not graduation...eek) and I have to somehow make it through 6 more weeks of school. I know that's not much, and once its over I'll wish I was back in school most likely, but right now it feels like I have a soggy Panera bread bowl in my head where my brain should be.

Tomorrow I may need to have a library date like I've been saying I'll do all week. But this time I need to actually go to the library instead of taking a 2 hour nap.

Switching gears a bit, last weekend I spent a day in Sarasota and it was beyond gorgeous! I'll be going back this weekend for a little family reunion and I can't wait!

What a chic shot. It totally doesn't look like I took it through the porch screen because I was too lazy to go downstairs and go outside...

 I've been going to Siesta Key every winter/spring for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my grandparents used to come down from Niagara Falls every winter and stay there, and now my aunt and uncle spend a little winter time in the same complex. It's still as beautiful as I remember it being when I was 8 years old.

Spring Breaking

Next week is Spring Break! I can't wait. My friends and I have plans to go to the beach and go to a spring training game between the Yankees and the Rays! The Rays go to Port Charlotte for Spring Break (about 3 hours away from here), but Tampa has been the spring training home to the Yankees for years, so we made plans to see the Rays play when they come back to Tampa. I'm excited! I've missed baseball so much.

I've also missed home. Specifically, I've missed living with cute animals. My apartment at college feels too still without pets. One of our cats, Marshmallow, is my girl. She loves to sit in the bathroom and wait for some unsuspecting soul to walk in and then she'll cry for water until someone turns the faucet on.

She won't drink from a water bowl. She's weird.

This month, the rescue where we adopted Marshmallow from is holding a contest on Facebook. The cat's photo that receives the most "likes" wins two tickets to the local big cat rescue sanctuary (I've always wanted to visit there). I entered Marshmallow mostly because I think she's the cutest cat ever, but I'm pretty biased.

If you'd like to, you could go vote for Marsha here! God, I feel like a mom on Toddlers and Tiaras. Someone stop me.

In the mean time, I am so ready for a week of relaxation. And by relaxation I mean filling out job and internship applications with a never ending supply of tea. This graduation deal needs to slow its roll a little bit.

Valentinis and Cupcakes!

Well...I am crap at blogging while in school. It's official. Granted, I was pretty much living in the theatre building for the last 3 weeks so for once I've been doing more than just procrastinating on homework!

Anyway, last night for Valentine's Day some friends and I had a night full of Dance Moms, cupcakes, grapefruit martinis (aka Valentinis, as they were christened the other night), and Ryan Gosling. Because really, what else does one need on any day of the week Valentine's Day?

If you'd like the recipe for the cocktail or the cupcakes, visit my friend Rhiannon's new baking blog! She makes amazing cupcakes and other desserts, so you'll definitely want to try out some of her recipes.

Some cupcakes fresh out of the oven! We made a chocolate cinnamon cupcake and frosted it with an almond and cinnamon buttercream frosting.

I love them! Rhiannon also taught me her secrets to piping on icing. They look so festive and also like roses so I mean, I'm clearly going to love them no matter what at this point.

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

 

They Say It's Your Birthday...

Well, as of Tuesday I am officially 22 years old. It's a bit weird to think about that. I know that in the grand scheme of things, 22 is still super young, but when I was younger, I saw it as the year I would become a real adult because I always associated it with The End of College. 

When I was nine years old, 22 seemed ancient. I remember one day when I was in 4th grade, all of the girls at my lunch table were saying how old they wanted to be when they got married (because, y'know, that's what nine year old girls do around the lunch table, apparently). 

Multiple girls said 22 because they thought that was "soooo old." Like, in our minds 22 was the new 40. Not kidding. Some of my friends are engaged now, and its wonderful to see them getting ready to start that part of their lives. For me, I can't imagine being married anytime within the next...five or six years, let alone now. I mean, I could (and probably will) change my mind about that in the near future, but for now 22 just seems...awkward. It's time to leave college, find a job, and do other worldly/adult things like go to the bank by myself and do laundry more than once every three weeks. 

In the mean time, though, I still feel like an awkward 14 year old most of the time. Not sure if I'll ever grow out of that. However, I had a lovely birthday, and I'm so glad I have such wonderful people in my life to thank for that. Look, I got a miniature cake and cupcakes this weekend, so I pretty much feel like I won the sweets lottery at this point.

So now I'm off to have a cup of tea and read before bed...like an adult. Because 22 is soooo old.

I Feel So Hi-Tech Right Now

Im currently typing from my kindle fire right now! Its an early birthday present and a wonderful surprise! I'm still trying to figure out how everything works but I managed to stumble onto blotter so that's a small victory! I promise a proper blog post soon but for now I couldn't resist the urge to blog from this thing!