Fast-Paced to Relax-Paced: Starting to Enjoy the Everyday

For the past two years, I've lived in Mankato, MN. During that time, I attended Graduate School full-time, worked 20 hours per week as a Graduate Assistant, interned and volunteered in various capacities, and worked part time as an AmeriCorps member (year 1) and as a front desk greeter at a gym (year 2). In addition, a country separated me from my fiance and many of my lifelong friends and family lived 10+ hours away. Despite the challenges of living far from those that I love and general struggles as a graduate student, I prevailed and even made Mankato my new home.

*1st week of Grad School, August 2012                *Graduation, May 2014

In the weeks leading up to my graduation, I was a mess. I was uprooting myself from my new home, familiarity, new friends, and comfort. I became a new, stronger, better person living in Mankato and leaving felt like leaving a part of myself. I was leaving to move to Florida for a bit of time with my fiance then the two of us would be moving to Eastern PA to embark on a new life together. Although my fiance had a job lined up in Eastern PA after Florida, nothing materialized for me yet and this scared me. Although this new adventure and state of transition intimidated me, I knew deep down that it would be good for me and much needed after working non-stop, 60+ hours a week for two years.


How good would this fast-paced to relax-paced transition be for me, though? It has only been 10 days since I crossed that Minnesota state line into Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania...but I'm already taking time to stop and smell the roses, actually complete the pins I've pinned on Pinterest, wake up with absolutely no agenda, start my massive "After Grad School" booklist, and take time to create amazingly delicious vegan recipes...and much more. This blog is dedicated to enjoying the everyday, finding pleasure in the simple things, and trying new crafts, recipes, local places, etc. Don't worry, I'll be sure to share most--if not all--of these with you my blogger followers.



So, here's a recap of the fun, everyday adventures, crafts, recipes, etc. of the past few days/week: 

Current Pool-side Read: Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Current Craft: Handmade Thank You Cards

Most Recent Vegan Find: Go Veggie! Mozzarella Cheese = now Vegan! Huge win after discovering that Trader Joe's discontinued their vegan mozzarella shredded cheese, which was fabulous on pizza and as an Alfredo pasta sauce. Go Veggie! definitely tastes yummy on pizza, but the verdict is still out on the Alfredo sauce. 

Most Recent Pinterest-Inspired Try:

Coffee Sugar Scrub: 

When we had some leftover coffee that we didn't like, I turned to Pinterest for ideas to use the coffee beans. Then, I remembered that I was out of my beloved The Body Shop body scrub. I searched on Pinterest for Coffee Sugar Scrub Recipes and adapted the ingredients to ones I actually had on-hand. Because it isn't the prettiest scrub, no pictures attached. *Also, you will need to wipe down your shower once using this, as it does leave a brown-ish color on the tiles. It comes off easily, though!

Coffee Sugar Scrub Ingredients: 

1/2 cup coffee grounds 

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp olive oil (you may need to add more)

Directions: 

Mix all ingredients together in the order above

Add olive oil until the mixture is completely wet

Put in airtight container and enjoy!

New Beers to Try: One of our favorite things to do is try new beers! Going to the beer store to discover new beers is always an adventure and often leads to, usually, good discoveries. I like to find the most obscure, fascinating labels. I know you shouldn't "judge a beer by it's label" but the ones with sweet-looking labels often win my purchase decision. My fiance often chooses our beer selections more critically, based on the brewery-description-style-etc. We usually end up compromising, choosing 1 badass label and 1 critically analyzed brew. This one, though, was a combo...the awesome goat riding a bike caught my eye but the fact that it was brewed by Southern Tier and had a great description and style sold us! The verdict of this brew? Very aromatic and smooth with hints of banana. Great choice!

Wanna try it?

Southern Tier Brewing Co. (Lakewood, NY)

Goat Boy (Imperial Weizenbock)

Finding Our New Local Stops: Finding our new local places was very important to us in our soon-to-be-local. While looking for a place to reside, we took some time to venture around the town. We ended up finding a new, fabulous specialty coffee/tea shop (that also had vegan treats!) and tasty, Chipotle-challenging burrito shop (with way more vegan options than Chipotle!) So, what makes a good local place for me? Friendly employees--eager to share interesting conversations, tasty drinks/food--with at least a few vegan options to choose from, and a comfortable, low-key environment--that doesn't want me to rush out right away.

                   Fog & Flame Craft Coffee...                             Ready Go Burrito