Currently // 3

eating // burgers. Not sure how it happened, but I've had more burgers in these last few weeks than I have had all year. I had a burger with some beers one night when we didn't want to cook, and it was so good that the next day I wanted another for brunch. Later in the week, there was the weekly farmer's market down the block and the most amazing smell was coming from a burger food truck. Had to. 

drinking // gin. If you're not a gin fan, I'm thinking that all you've ever tried is London style dry gin. A bartender suggested I try Counter gin (sleek bottle with a dapper dude on the label) and it changed how I appreciate gin. It tastes like the most wonderful botanicals.

practicing // french. The Dou Lingo app is amazing (and free!) and great to practice my ever disintegrating French. A friend also showed me an app called HelloTalk which allows you to text others across the globe and practice a language with them! I can practice French while helping my new French friends practice English. It's like a pen pal in my pocket. 

learning // how to tell stories. I follow a travel blogger and storyteller on the blog Fevered Mutterings. He wrote an e-book, a five-part newsletter, and does consulting all on storytelling. So I'm learning how to be a better story teller. It's not just for my blog, but also for the content managing I do on the side. A great point that this blogger makes is that stories can be persuading, and the word for that is advertising. Changing the way people think and controlling their behavior through storytelling? That's power.

celebrating // Mordechai's birthday! He turned 4 earlier this month and we celebrated by taking him to visit his old friends at the adoption kennel. He also got some leftover pasta for dinner that night ;)

reading // so many books. As per usual, I'm in the middle of a few books. I'm currently reading: Kelly Cutrone's Normal Gets You Nowhere, a feel-good non-fiction book; The Blue Train by Agatha Christie which is the first murder mystery I've ever read, and it takes place on a  train through France (intrigue!); and lastly, I'm in the middle of The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall which was recommended by the blogger of Fevered Mutterings (^see learning section), which currently serves as my informative non-fiction book these days when I need to feel inspired to write. 

enjoying // our home. These days, nothing makes me as happy as coming home to cuddle on the couch with Mort. I even love when I am cleaning up around the house and he follows me from room to room like a little shadow, seeing if I need any help. 

listening // to Purity Ring and Braids' new albums because I'm going to see them in May in New Orleans! I've been looking for an excuse to take S to New Orleans with some friends and this is the perfect opportunity. We're going to stay in the same old carriage house in the quarter that I stayed in last time and I'm so excited to eat and drink and explore! I have a feeling I'm going to be spending every night at the Frenchman Street jazz bars. 

dreading // the pain of a sternum tattoo... eek!

wearing // my blonde streak again. I had a blonde streak of hair in high school and a little into college. I covered it up a few years ago and now that I have it back, it feels like it was meant to be there all along. 

cooking // recipes from Mimi Thorisson. Last weekend we had a really beautiful, sunny day so I took my blanket to the backyard, my Food and Wine magazine, and my cookbook by Mimi and read in the sun. I was flipping through the latest issue of F+W and stumbled upon an article with Mimi; it was like F+W knew exactly what I was in the mood for. Her recipe in the magazine that caught my eye was steak with shallots and red wine sauce. Oh. My. Guh. Per the recipe, the steak came out perfectly medium rare, the sauce was deliciously decadent, and the red wine that I paired with it was all that I needed after a warm day laying in the sun. Are you hungry yet?

travelling // or not. Tomorrow I was supposed to fly to Washington DC to visit a friend and see the cherry blossoms but unfortunately she has had a family emergency and I had to cancel my flight. Our schedules are so busy, even well off into plans through October and we cannot find another weekend that I can visit. It has really bummed me out, I miss my friend so much.

smelling // essential oils. I haven't purchased candles for a while now and instead, I buy various oils and mix them in an oil burner. My favorite combinations are ambergris and musk, almond and vanilla, and bergamot and lemongrass. I can burn the lemongrass and bergamot in the laundry room and it's so potent I can smell it in the living room! Candles can't match it's power. On days I'm sitting on the porch, I'll burn citronella to keep the mosquitoes away. The combinations are endless and I've loved burning oils so much lately that I bought a second oil burner so I could have one scent going in the kitchen and another in the living room. 

feeling // good. I got an email from the adoption kennel where we got Mordechai and they were asking for volunteers to bathe the greyhounds up for adoption, so I signed us up! We cleaned their ears and massaged them while giving them a shampoo. When I was a hairstylist I used to shampoo people all day, so I'm pretty much a pro. I really loved spending time with the hounds, even the shy ones, and I felt so good about doing the little that I could. Other volunteers were cleaning the hound's crates and replacing their blankets with clean ones, mowing the lawn of the outdoor pen, and even building a shaded structure next to the kennel. The few hours we were there we were able to bathe about 10 or so greyhounds and there were still plenty that needed to get a bath! Volunteers put in so many hours and it's really nice to not only help out the greyhounds, but to help alleviate some of the other volunteer's of their duties too. 

I originally saw this currently feature on Joy Felicity Jane.