A Few of My Favorite Things

The past few days have been relatively uneventful. Kind of the same old, same old. We got to reconect with our friends Ala and Nina, and that was wonderful. We made an unexpected trip to Warsaw Monday morning and I got to visit Ikea for the first time (I have mixed thoughts about the store....but I did buy a pair of kitchen shears, which gives me much joy!). We went to Olsztynek and Jemiolowo and Waplewo and all went well (we didn't go to Platyny because Marcin was out of town for a meeting and didn't think we needed to go there without him...good call). We've nearly gotten blown away by some seriously strong winds. We watched a movie that Amber rented and downloaded from itunes (on a side note: it worked awesome, but took 9 hours to download. You definitely have to plan ahead for that one!). Hmmmm...well, as you can see, kind of a slow week for some blogging fun. SO, I decided that I'd share with you all some of the things that I'm loving right now. Yes, I know...shallow and really pretty boring for both of my readers, but what they hey! Here we go...

...from left to right:

-my FatBaby boots. I love them. They are comfortable, even for walking long distances around here, warm, dry, and just so darned cute! They are well worth every penny spent!

-my new pink ipod arm band holder thing. This was part of Kyle's Christmas gift to me and I've used it several times to run already and it's great. The whole reason I needed a new MP3 player for Christmas was that I dropped my previous one while running! (have I ever mentioned that I'm not very graceful?)

-my "winter" Polish pottery mug. It makes me so happy to drink tea and coffee from this mug. I bought it back in November anticipating many winter nights, sitting around sipping a hot beverage, as the wind and snow swirled about outside. Still waiting on that one.

-that little slip of paper is a pierogi recipe a friend of ours gave us. It's actually her mom's recipe and we tried it out this past Saturday. They turned out pretty good. Lots of work (at least for a rookie such as myself), but we think that next time, we'll try using some fresh fruit. The potato filling was good, but it won't be long until fresh raspberry season here and that would be delicious!

-the "It's a 10" miracle hair product from Lori. Short of having a personal hair assistant to do my hair every morning, this is the best thing that has happened to my hair in a long time. My hair is very happy.

-the purse Amber gave me for Christmas. I smile every time I sling it over my shoulder. I just love it!

-my copy of Lord of the Rings. This wouldn't have ordinarily been my typical choice in reading material, but a friend suggested it and it's so good! I've read The Hobbit and am almost finished with Lord of the Rings. Definitely enjoying it.

-Good Earth Red Tea. Wonderful. Fabulous. A party in my mouth. A celebration of taste. I could go on, but I will just say that Alethea introduced me to this tea, and upon tasting, I quickly ordered some online, had it sent to my parents, and had them send it to me. If you like red hots in your apple cider, I think you will like this tea. Just a hint, if you ever try some, taste it without sugar in it first...I personally think it doesn't need any, it's great just as it is.

-my bottle of Mountain Mourning body oil (ok, it's actually massage oil, but I call it body oil). My friend Brandi gave me this for Christmas and it's been wonderful for the dry skin. It's from a company in Fremont, Ohio called the Not Just a Soap Company. The oil smells like patchouli, which is one of my favorite scents...even though someone once told me I smelled like a Grateful Dead concert. You just keep on truckin' man, and I'll keep wearing my patchouli.

As I was piling my favorite things onto my "bed" for the photo shoot, I thought to myself: "self, people probably don't know exactly what you sleep on and what it looks like". So, I put my self to work and took a "before" and "after" shot of my "bed". (that was a lot of quotation marks). This is what my bed looks like from roughly 7 am until 11 pm...

...and this is what it turns into as darkness falls upon Olsztyn. A couch by day, a bed by night. Tricky, eh?

Before I go, I feel the need to apologize to anyone still reading this post. I have wasted several valuable moments of your life. But, hey, these are the things you do to entertain yourself when you live in a foreign country. Enjoy =)