i apologize...

...because I do not have children, and I cannot fill my blog with their latest isms, cutest sayings ever, recipes for making the best baby food, or how saggy my breasts are after nursing....and because stories about my dog fill the blog holes that should probably be filled with baby stuff at this point in my life as a woman.

because I am 25% crafty instead of 99%, so I cannot fill my blog with the things I D-I-Y every single day. Only the DIYs I'm inspired by once every couple months.

because I do not care about politics, and I cannot tell you what opinions you should have about such things.

because I am no longer "there", and my "here" stories must suffice, despite how seemingly boring America is (clearly...or else why would people only start blogs once they start traveling?...cough-me-cough.)

because I do not know have blog give aways...let's be real here...no one knows who i am right now.

because I post videos of taylor swift covers that I happen to be covering.

And so for now, enjoy my chatter of good music, good food, good people, and the good life. And sometimes - the not so good life. It's almost Friday, and that is very exciting.

A song for today:

as summer ends...

The past few weeks have been lonely. Not in an "awwwww" sort of way. It's creates a time of some reflection and lots of thinking. It also allows for enjoyment of simple things like pulling out sweatshirts again, the last few fresh tomatoes of summer, watching my broccoli babies become adolescents, cooler mornings, having options for what to do with my weekend afternoons but feeling very little pressure to start the day before I really want to. As I wait for my husband to come home from school, work, or DC Habitat, I get a chance to consider the following things:

• cooking full meals can be over rated.
• it makes so much more sense to get almost everything you own at yard sales
• if I had a bottomless supply of underwear, I might be completely happy.
• I will miss summer, but sights like these at the grocery store are still heart warming:

the one where I do something crafty

I think just like there's a time of the month for more chocolate than usual, there's a time of the month for craftiness. I don't know when that time is or what inspires it, but the last couple weeks, I've been tapping into the creative lobes of my brain. Most recently it came from a desire to have curtains and lamps that were cute and not expensive. So I dug through my collection of random linens and found a tapestry I once bought at Anthropologie to serve as a cover for my duvet when I was in college. After I got married, it was a nice tablecloth. But then I needed curtains to cover our very unsightly closet. So after choppin em up and yelling at my sewing machine for a good three hours, we have a couple nice panels that I can use for a closet now and one day for actual, real, non-basement windows. They aren't half bad. Philip likes them too, I'm sure, even though his first reaction was "this room is way too girly now..." Here is the process documented in case you'd like to see how it's done (note Mina's help):

reviews-day tuesday

Welcome to a new series. To keep Tuesdays alive and interesting and readers engaged. You want to know what is worth your time, money, investment. I can help you with that. And we'll try to keep it relevant.

Once in 12 stars, I get a free drink from Starbucks, thanks to my well-used gold card. Typically this means I buy the biggest, most delicious, recently-added drink menu item. Or sometimes I just go with my gut and get a venti iced coffee, unsweetened. Today though the PSL signs sparked my interest - just what we need in this life, another acronym - and although I did not desire a Pumpkin Spice Latte on this particular Tuesday, I did notice that a few sister drinks had been added to the latest and greatest Fall drink list. The one pictured above is a chocolate chai latte. Chocolate + chai + latte. Three words that seem like they should go together deliciously. Two of those, rearranged in two different ways, are two peas in a pod. Chocolate + latte (mocha) and chai + latte. Both drinks melt in your mouth, especially on cold days, but mixed all together (minus the espresso), the drink is less than impressive. I was disappointed, but not as disappointed as if I had actually paid for it. Stick with your chai or your mocha or your PSL or that other thing you get at coffee shops - coffee. Chocolate chai leaves much to be desired. Hence the half-full cup that got thrown away shortly after this picture was taken above.