November 10, 2016

The Best Writing Pens (part 2!)

That’s right. Tracy, the pen enthusiast is back to talk about some of The Best Writing Pens!

I was super spoiled on one of my flights to Jamaica last week. There was an plug outlet in the seat in front of me AND TVs in the seats. I didn’t get much work done that flight, unless you consider watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians, work. Somehow I always seem to keep up with them while I’m flying over something. It’s their makeup. I’m hooked.

Then I went home from Jamaica and had a flight that sent me to Philly and then to CA. Instead of charging my laptop at the airport in Jamaica, I was like “Oh, I got this. They have outlets.” And then they did not.

I had a 6 1/2 hour flight home with:

30% phone battery life
30% laptop life
no TVs in the seats
no TVs at all
not even the music on the arm rest thing worked
ummm crap. are we slaves to electrical power or WHAT?!

That’s when I pulled out my pens and started writing. Somehow, way up there somewhere high in the clouds, I had myself a little pen party in the sky. It was actually really fun. I think I killed at least an hour doing it.

So, yeah. I’m that girl who brings out her whole bag of pens and starts playing with them on the flight. Yes, I’ll let you watch me write. I can already see your eyes on my page. Don’t act like you didn’t just pay close attention to how I draw my capital R. It’s cool as long as you don’t harumph when I ask to get by you to head to the bathroom (the only bad thing about the window seat for an introvert).

I wrote about my favorite pens in March and since then I have incorporated a few more into my arsenal.
HERE WE GO:

This is all fun until you do the title last and you screw up the capital R (someone was watching me!!!). Oh well. Not all lists are perfect.

Pentel Stylo up above. Never mind the sharpie bleed through. Those dang Sharpies!!!

Pentel Plastic Fountain Pen is really good if you are scared of metal nibs cutting through your paper…and you’re super messy with ink.

Pilot Dr. Grip – I honestly have no idea how this pen arrived in my life. Somehow…in the back of my mind I think that it was my dad’s pen? I dunno. It pleases my giant man hands. They’re definitely not surgeon hands. Any doctors care to weigh in on what grip doctors need when using a pen? Thank you in advance.

(I just read the description and it says that the design makes it so you don’t have to grip the pen as hard, alleviating hand stress!) I guess it’s like Dr. Scholl’s for pens.

Uni Jetstream 1.0 – Thank you, reader!

Tombow Hard All the heart eye emojis for this one.

Tombow Soft is my new lover. It’s what I used to make this list with.

Sharpie Brush Pen is so much fun!!!

Sharpie Chisel Tip is still my #1 Sharpie boo. Always + forever.

Be sure to check out my other post because THE MORE PENS, THE MERRIER!

THE BEST WRITING PENS- PART 1

What are you favorite pens these days?

I love it when we get all pen nerdy here.

recipes

November 7, 2016

Bread Sausage Apple Hash

I’ve made several hashes in my lifetime. Heck, I made a ton with I was on Whole 30! I was browsing through a Julia Turshen’s book- Small Victories Cookbook and thought this recipe for Bread Sausage Apple Hash would be the perfect thing to

break the whole30 with
whet your appetite for Thanksgiving meals
serve company for breakfast or breakfast for dinner!

So what’s a bread hash? It’s a lot like stuffing but a little less mushy.

This recipe has a sweet savory vibe. The sausage is balanced out with the tart/sweet apples and the flavors enhanced with a nice dose of sage.

Any excuse to have bread, sausage & eggs is fine with me!

my everyday life, Photography

November 5, 2016

My Everyday Life: Week 44

Here’s what My Everyday Life – Week 44 looked like:

Two big things happened this week- Halloween and a trip to Jamaica.

Early morning flight is only worth it for sunsets.

Rise above.

HELLO JAMAICA.

I am so impressed by the color of your water.

I especially love how dark the horizon line is. I couldn’t get over that shade of blue.

Pool glistens while Bob Marley plays in the background.

Repetition.

Beach hair, don’t care.

Synchronized swimmers out of water.

Prolonged eye contact.

This is Dalton. He supplied me with Doritos + gin.

He also asked me why I wasn’t leaving my room.

MIND YOUR BUSINESS. I WAS INTROVERTING.

Thinking about my family while I was gone.

November 4, 2016

I love lists

Welcome to I Love Lists. It’s Friday. Let’s surf the internet together!

This is powerful.
Our house is mostly this style- Rustic Modern
I need to do a life audit.
I’ve wondered about this as a lot of candy from my childhood tastes different.
Make your own coconut yogurt at home. I wonder if it’s any good.
Do you also wish you were married to Ina Garten? She’d make us apple pie bars!
It can totally wait.
Melancholy.
FOOD FACTS!
Martha + Snoop = AMAZING
Another leopard jacket I have a crush on.
This election is causing national anxiety.
Millennials hate groceries?
I love Bill Murray
Could use one of these in our house and all of these things. #homebody
My goal is to wake up early and do something like this.
Some of these things…. I’m still learning.
Wow. I didn’t know that was vegan.
Vulnerability is super important.
Listening to this mix as I type up this post.
Dentists vs. Halloween Candy
I got cheesecake. I don’t even like cheesecake.

Inspiration, recipes

October 31, 2016

Whole 30 Meal Ideas

OK. We talked Whole 30 Snacks last week. Today let’s talk about some of my Whole 30 Meal Ideas.

I have ideas for you. PLENTY OF THEM!!!

I’m pretty sure that if I do the Whole30 in another season, I’ll have a completely different set of options, but this is what I ate from mid September to mid October. One of the things that changed during this process was how I ate. Instead of having three decent sized meals, I preferred to have one really large meal and two smaller meals with a few snacks thrown in to tide me over. It was a big adjustment eating more meat (we have it like twice a week tops). The good thing about having more protein was that I was less hungry. Hence, the two smaller meals. Adjustments!

Here’s what a typical Whole30 meal looks like for me:

Meat, potato & greens.

Sometimes I just eat a bowl of greens.

my everyday life, Photography

October 30, 2016

My Everyday Life: Week 43

Here’s what this past week looked like

My Everyday Life: Week 43

Field trip!

This year the flowers were gorgeous at the pumpkin patch.

The weather is always like this when we go. The clouds threaten with rain but they back off.

There are pumpkins to be picked.

Don’t look inside the tunnel.

Met a goat. Had a hard time taking pictures of it. Mostly because I didn’t want to drop my phone in there. Petting zoos freak me out. But I like goats.