for the love of pho

It's probably a weird obsession I have at the moment.
It's probably a phase that I will move on from because I will be so sick of eating it, but for right now, I am in love.

In love, with pho.
A vietnamese style dish, which usually never comes vegetarian. Why? Because it is typically made in a beef broth, not very vegetarian of me. But I found a place, a place so wonderful it thinks of the small population of vegetarians, who want to try something oh so delicious without giving up our ideas. Vegetable broth! You have saved the day.

I finally found one which serves a vegetarian dish, it has a little section dedicated to us lowly vegetarians and I visit this restaurant almost once every other week. Like I said, obsessed. The employees even know when I come in there what I'm going to order, the only reason for me to look at the menu is to decide what drink I would like, if it's Tuesday. Two pho Tuesday!

And last, but not least, mochi. Oh mochi, mochi, mochi.
Red bean, you are my favorite. Taro, I wish you didn't come on the dish. Green tea, runner up to the best. You can almost guarantee that I will order dessert no matter how stuffed I am with food. It has to be frozen because if it's not, it's pretty gross. I'm also always afraid while in the process of cutting it in half, it will fly off the plate onto the floor. It has yet to happen and I'll keep crossing my fingers it doesn't.

Now that I have made myself hungry for it and regret talking so much about it, I am going to go back to studying! Enjoy the last World Cup match today and the last parts of your weekend!

back to the grind

I spent the fourth down in Florida visiting B for a few days and it was a nice getaway.
We spent most of the time taking naps and eating out. I am a huge fan of naps, eating out - not always. It has been my experience lately, his area is not keen on the vegetarian, mom-and-pop lifestyle that I love so much. It poses a problem to the future of me moving down there; I'm not sure I could handle that!

It was a good time overall and I was happy to spend it with him and his coworkers/friends. Being able to set off fireworks and not have to worry about getting into trouble over it was an amusing part of the process. I had never been into a fireworks store so it was crazy to see how much they spent. New Jersey has none and it is illegal to set them off, but so is Florida. I was most excited about sparklers because I'm about 10 years old, ya know? They're fun! You can't blame me!

I met one of his friends from college who brought his 6 month old with him and B takes the funniest pictures when holding children. We both have the same reactions to it, I think. He's much better than I am haha. One day I am sure I'll get better at it, but until then I'll stick to holding dogs and children that can walk themselves.


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Classes are almost over so I can't wait to have more time doing things! Like planning my trip in Europe! Woo! I will return with a bang when class is done and I've had a few ideas on wanting to change the look and updating more often. Let's cross our fingers.

the weekend | 02

When the weekend was approaching I would have told you it was going to be a relaxing, study for my exam type of weekend... I was wrong. But in a really good way.

Friday night was spent playing with water color and watching random movies playing on the television. I think it turned out pretty good, considering it filled up two frames!

This weekend was perfect for beach going and I took full advantage of it! I love the beach, it's one of my favorite parts of the summer and one of my imaginary "summer manifestos" was to go to the beach at least every other weekend. Twice this weekend makes up for any time I have missed. And spontaneous me, a friend of mine had an extra ticket to the Paramore/Fall Out Boy Monument Tour - VIP parking and a seat in section 102, closest I've ever been to the stage in a big concert like that. So excited. I loved Fall Out Boy in high school, loved Paramore as well, but FOB - it brings me back. The show was AWESOME. I could not stop jumping up and down and singing all the old school songs. I loved it. R and I have been friends for a long time so it is funny to look back on our history and see where we are today, friends. If you knew our history, you would ask the question: why are you friends with him? I get that a lot but to hold a grudge when you're already over it, it's useless. It was great. He even broke out of his shell and danced and sang along. Woah. Scratch one off my list. Spent the last day of my weekend at the beach with A. We had a good time, relaxing on the beach, falling asleep and wading around in the ocean, my fave. It's been a good time.

Meanwhile, B surprised me with beautiful flowers from a local florist where I live - he knows I love lilies and buying local and not from the "big chains." The only sad thing, I don't to see them for very long because I'll be visiting him tonight until Saturday! I hope they're still holding on when I get back. I love the smell of fresh flowers when I walk through the door.

Besides the exciting news, my plants are growing! My basil has some tiny mushrooms and I am not happy about that, I'm searching the web to get rid of them. Any ideas? The plant I have up there, I clipped some of those stems off of someone else's plant at work and it has been growing! I am so excited!! My green thumb isn't completely black, ha.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends.
I won't be around for the week so have a happy 4th!

And GO USA!

friday faves | 06

1 | My mom recently bought me these gummy bears, I think they're my new faves.

2 | I love these summer drink mocktails by ABM.

3 | Easy DIY cake toppers for the baby shower.

4 | My little succulent is growing a baby succulent, thanks to this.

5 | I need to make these vegan cinnamon rolls.

Enjoy your weekend all.

xoxo

baby shower mood board

If you know me well, you would know I am not a baby fan. I have never been the girl that was gawking over an infant and wanting to hold it (yes, it). They are too fragile for me to feel completely comfortable with holding a newborn; it makes me nervous. Is that weird? Probably.

BUT, my best fran, P, is having her first child this coming October and I will have to overcome my fear of babies. Yes, I realize how ridiculous I sound but shhhh. I am so so soooooo excited for her and her husband. I was lucky enough to take photos for her wedding day and I can't wait to take pictures at her baby shower in August.

It pains me to think how far away we are from each other and I can't be there to really throw her a baby shower. The distance has always sucked, but now it really sucks when there are such big events such as these. A friend of hers in NC is throwing the shower and I want to be apart of it so bad so I made sure to email her so I wouldn't be left out. On top of that, I spent my entire class searching Pinterest for baby shower ideas and created a mood board of ideas. Let's hope some of these can come to fruition.