It’s Sunday! And you know what that means? If you’re me, you have a huge term paper due 2 days and a huge group project due in 3 days. For that reason, the blog will probably be pretty quiet this week. I’ll try to get some outfit photos up around Wednesday or Thursday.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with “Black and Gold” by Sam Sparro. According to wikipedia, it “explores the relationship between reason, spirituality, and love” but I just think it has a funky cool grove that I like. Plus, it’s about love and I’m all about love songs!

This Week’s Top 5 Things (that make me happy):

1. Gingerbread lattes with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Ok, let’s be honest, when I have my way with it, it isn’t just a sprinkle of cinnamon, its like 2 tablespoons! I love the spicy flavors of ginger and cinnamon together. The Pumpkin Spice Latte ain’t got nothing on this!

2. Excellent group members. Grad school is notorious for goup work. When I was still employeed and told my coworkers that I was going back, they told me all about the joys of group work. Luckily, I have AMAZING group members. We work incredibly well together and are really good and bouncing ideas off of each other until we come up with awesome work. And that makes me happy.

3. Shrimp tacos and sangria. Seriously, after a long night of classes, you just need a pick-me-up. Mine is delicious shrimp tacos and sangria from my favorite Mexican restaurant.

4. Snow. Y’all, it SNOWED in my neck of the woods on Tuesday. Can you believe it? I’ve lived in NC my entire life and it hasn’t snowed in November in as long as I can remember. Then it was back in the 70s by Friday. Craziness.

5. Warm socks. Remember how it snowed? Yeah, I’m glad I had on warm socks! I hate cold feet.

Photo of the Week:

This is the snow that had accumulated on my car when I got out of class Tuesday night. I was so excited that I snapped a quick pic as soon as I got in.

Salutations!

For today’s Sunday Morning Serenade, I’m sharing the song I’ve been listening to on repeat all week: “Stay the Night” by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams. Seriously, I’ve been listening to it over and over and, somehow, I’m still not tired of it. I love the line,”Don’t dull the sparkle in your eyes” because I think it’s great advice.

This Week’s Top 5 Things (that make me happy):

1. Autumn. It’s my favorite season and it’s finally here in full swing. There’s a constant chill in the air and I can comfortably wear a blazer all day. There are leaves and pumpkins and apple cider. Lots to love this time of year.
2. Booties. Yes, it’s finally boots weather. This year I’m embracing booties/ankle boots in my wardrobe. Up until now, I’ve owned one pair of gray booties that I’ve only worn a few times. I got two new pairs over the weekend so don’t be surprised if you see them on the blog very often.
3. Clean sheets. Really, there’s nothing better than clean, warm sheets on your bed. Maybe it’s just my imagination but I think I sleep better when the sheets are fresh out of the dryer. Mia really likes them, too, because she curls up right in the middle of the pile before I even have a chance to make the bed.
4. Long walks. At least once a week we try to take the dogs for a long walk around the neighborhood. Not only is it good exercise for them (and us), but it allows Nick and I time to contemplate life choices and have great conversations that we’re sometimes too busy to do during the week.
5. Mexican food. It’s at the top of my list of my favorite foods (second only to Sushi) and we just discovered a new Mexican restaurant that opened up near our house. We had dinner there last night and it was delicious. The gorditas were authentic and the pinto beans were so flavorful. It might be my new favorite place.

Photo of the Week:

Look at this beautiful sky! How could one not love nature?

The Sunday Morning Serenade series is where I present you with music and a list of happy things to help start your week off on a positive note.

Happy Sunday!

Today’s serenade is “My Favorite Book” by Stars. I think it was this song that gave me the idea to begin this series. My favorite line is, “And to this day, when everything breaks, you are the anchor that holds me. And that is why we’ll always make it.” Not to get all mushy on you, but Nick is my anchor.

I’m going to try to improve my Sunday Morning Serenade series by including a list in each one of 5 things that make me happy.

This week, my list is going to be mostly about school-related things because that’s what’s on my mind. In case you’re unfamiliar, here’s the background: I live in one city and commute about two hours to attend graduate school in another city during the week. On the days I have classes, I stay with family to make the commute a little more bearable. That means I’m only home on the weekends and am away from my husband and dogs during the week. So, keeping that in mind, here are 5 things that make me feel happy:

1. My dogs. Being away from them all week is really hard because they’re the loves of my life. But seeing their wagging tails and getting bombarded with puppy kisses makes coming home the best feeling ever.
2.  Getting good grades. I’ve been out of school for about 6 years and, although I was always a really good student, I was a little worried that it would be hard to get back into the swing of things. Luckily, I was wrong and I’ve been making really good grades so far. It’s a huge relief.
3.  Cooking with Nick. It’s really hard to cook for one person and, considering that I spend a lot of time on campus without microwaves or refrigeration, I eat out a lot. So, as you can probably imagine, getting to cook and sit down at the table with Nick on the weekends is a happy thing.
4. Date nights. Again, I’m gone during the week so I don’t get to see my other NCsquared half as often as I’m used to, which was every day for about 6 years. We’ve started having regular date nights as a way to ensure we get to spend time together and that we can just be near each other. They make me warm and fuzzy.
5. Coffee. I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was about 25 and spent about nine months commuting about an hour to my job. In order to avoid heavy traffic, I would get up early and leave early. I’ve never really been a morning person so I started drinking coffee to wake me up and now I’m hooked. What started out as one cup a day has gradually grown over to 2 or 3 cups each morning. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Sunday Morning Serenade series is where I present you with music and a list of happy things to help start your week off on a positive note.

Good morning!

Today’s serenade is “You Make It Real” by James Morrison. It’s mellow, soothing, and is an overall beautiful love song. Enjoy!

The Sunday Morning Serenade series is where I present you with music I think would be perfect for listening to while curled up with a hot cup of coffee on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Happy Sunday morning!

Today I’m listening to Brett Dennen’s ‘The One Who Loves You The Most’. It’s a sweet little love song that should be perfect for lifting your spirits a bit. Enjoy!

The Sunday Morning Serenade series is where I present you with music that I like and think would be perfect for listening to while curled up with a hot cup of coffee on a beautiful Sunday morning.