Life, Lately - Entry No. 1
Late April/May recap: new hobbies, trying all sorts of ways to drink matcha, spring activities, and a playlist!
I’ve started a garden for the first time in my life!
I love plants and flowers but I’ve killed every single one I’ve ever owned 🥲 These have all been indoor plants however, and I recently took it upon myself to learn to garden when a neighbor offered one of her tomato plants. We have raised garden beds on the back patio at my apartment complex. So I took one, planted the tomato plants (with my neighbor’s guidance since I was clueless!), and also planted some cilantro seeds. Now I also have a jalapeño plant (I’m thinking salsa!) and a variety of flowers.
It is nice having a hobby that forces me to go outside, and it’s exciting when I see everything growing. My tomato plants have tiny yellow buds now and it’s delightful.
Each spring I look forward to the cherry blossoms.
For the last decade I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest where I get to experience all four seasons! That’s a big deal to me since I’m from Los Angeles where we have summer and mild summer. Spring is one of my favorite seasons and cherry blossoms take the cake.
Speaking of cherry…Starbucks’ cherry cold foam!
This year Starbucks added cherry cold foam to their menu and I was here for it! I tried the cherry cold foam chai and while it was ok, I’m not really a chai person. So I had to try the cherry cold foam with their brown sugar shaken espresso and also tried it with a matcha latte. Both delicious! Plus the pink cold foam on the green matcha was so pretty.
Matcha, matcha, and more matcha.
I LOVE matcha and am practically obsessed with the iced lavender cold foam matcha from Starbucks. So sad it’s only seasonal. A friend of mine is now also hooked and we’re convinced we need to learn to make them ourselves. I’ve had lavender matcha lattes from other coffee shops and there are a couple of good ones, but for me the Starbucks one is the prettiest and pretty freakin’ tasty, too.
I made a strawberry matcha latte at home that was sooo fresh and just screamed spring.
My New Yorker Mag tote bag brings me joy.
A while back I fell in love with The New Yorker Magazine logotype and had been wanting one of their classic tote bags. Now I have one and it’s just SO GOOD. Feels super high quality, too! I have to admit, I’ve never actually bought one of their magazines 😂 I’ve just read a few articles. I mostly love the magazine’s cover art and have a whole Pinterest board dedicated just to New Yorker Mag cover art! Check it out here.
Celebrated a friend’s birthday with some tea (& scones) and watercolor painting.
It was a very relaxing, lovely afternoon and my friend was so happy. I love that I have friends I can do things like that with!
Visited the Portland Art Museum and saw Monet’s Waterlilies.
Monet is one of my favorite artists so it was a treat seeing one of his works so up close. It was beautiful. I could’ve studied all the brush strokes and subtle color shifts for hours.
I made keto mascarpone pancakes.
This was a delicious (mis)adventure. Because these were supposed to be keto, I used a bit of almond flour instead of AP. The pancakes, although delicious, took a bit of time to properly set before I could flip them, and well….I got impatient. You know what they say about the first pancake. I think next time I will add a bit of coconut flour in addition to the almond to try and improve the texture. But as far as flavor…I loved them. Definitely want to try mascarpone pancakes again and even using mascarpone in more ways.
This playlist I made on Spotify has been one of my favorite things lately.
Songs from some of my favorite English artists for a chill breakfast vibe.
I got the new matcha Kindle. Look at it! It’s adorable!
This is one of my favorite colors so it’s perfect. I really enjoy reading on my kindle since it is SO lightweight and easy for me to hold. And no blue light since I always keep the brightness all the way down so it’s more like I’m reading a physical book <3
I hope you enjoyed this monthly recap and found some amount of joy or inspiration in it!
