Its Friiiiiiiiday! Are you as excited as I am? I have the day off of work so really Thursday was kind of my Friday this week but whose counting. 

1► Okay, so this wasn't exactly this week but last week. I went with my mom to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). It was pretty amazing. I've never been before. This is a picture of a stained glass piece from the museum. I'm a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan. They had some amazing pieces from the Frank Lloyd Wright collection in the gift shop but I couldn't justify spending $40 on a picture frame. 

2► I found the cutest book ever in Chapters this week when I was looking around. First I looked at it as a joke because its a HUGE coffee table book but I actually fell in love with it. I would have bought it but couldn't justify the $57 price. It had some pretty cool/artistic pictures of cats...I may be a crazy cat lady.

3► I got some new glasses this week! I love them so far. I've been looking for a couple months for a pair that I've like and finally settled on a pair. I love the design on the arms and the front of them is actually a deep blue colour.  

4► Did I mention that the DIA was having a big van Gogh exhibit?  They wouldnt allow any photos of the paintings in the main exhibit room (I tried to be sneaky and take a photo but my mom is the worst wing person ever to go to a museum with and likes to rat me out to the museum staff). Anyway, the painting they have on display is of his bedroom and is on loan from a museum in Amsterdam. I thought it was a great opportunity to see it!

5►Another pretty awesome exhibit from the DIA was these suits of armor.  There was an entire hallway full of them!

6► No...those aren't meatballs. That is my attempt at making "glazed donut" muffins. They turned out pretty well. Although, they do look a lot like meatballs if you do ask me. The recipe is on my Pinterest "Just Desserts" board if you'd like to try it out. 

Linking up with Lauren From My Grey Desk Blog

I apologize, I've really been slacking when it comes to blogging this week. I didn't participate in high five for Friday for the first time last week and haven't posted anything since Tuesday. I'm in the middle of writing my  entrance essay for grad school and it is kicking my butt. Also, I've been lacking sleep for like...ever. Really, I've been getting 3-4 hours per night for the past two weeks so if anyone has any tips on how to get a good nights sleep...please just let me know. Really, you think if I'm not sleeping I should have tons and tons of posts but I haven't been too productive. Look at me, queen of excuses...and not blogging!

via

I saw this earlier this week and this is something I'm definitely going to try. I'm not too hopeful. I mean I've been known to kill every houseplant that has come in to my home but this is pretty cool. 

via

Speaking of plants, I thought this was the neatest thing ever. I mean its kind of a mosquito breeding ground but I've heard if you add some gold fish to it, it can prevent that. I'm sure the neighborhood cats would love it if I added goldfish...This is a really cool alternative to a normal potted plant on my doorstep for the summer that I'm definitely considering. 

via

My all time favourite go to summer drink from Starbucks. I've tried to recreate it before...let me tell you, I was definitely not successful. I have the Tazo passion tea already so this is a must try on the first warm day (P.S. where is the warm weather?)

via

I am in love with this headboard...also the paint colour for the wall...and the throw pillows. Seriously though, the headboard is amazing. I love the detail and the contrast with the wall. 

This past week I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking (which I'll admit is kind of a rarity for me). Here are some kitchen inspired pins from my board "From the Kitchen...".  

When I moved in to my new house last year I had to start from scratch in terms of getting kitchen stuff. There are some great pins with some unique and creative kitchen ideas and products that I didn't even know existed.

via

I'm lucky to have a pretty great kitchen with lots of drawer and cupboard space and even a pantry (where I'm able to hide all my junk food). I love the idea of this for cutlery storage. Personally, I'm not a fan of the cutlery trays because mine seem to always collect crumbs and get dirty. Is it just me? This is definitely something that I am considering trying. 

via

This bowl is a perfect cherry bowl (one of my all time favourite foods). I think that I could probably live on cherries and cherries alone. No more problems with trying to figure out with what to do with the pits or having two separate bowls (I feel like I'm hosting an infomercial).

via

These Kate Spade dishes are amazing. I would love, love, love to have these and they can be yours for the low low price of $80 per place setting. I will just start saving now...

via

This is a contender for the best cookie jar ever. I don't know if I've mentioned but I have a thing for ceramic animals so this is right up by alley. I have the perfect place on my counter for this little guy. 

1\\ Three words- Strawberry. Riesling. Slushy. I posted the recipe earlier in the week (super easy) and highly suggest you try it if you have the chance. 

2\\ So sad that I'm back from my vacation from D.C. It went by wayyy to quickly. Here is a picture of the Jefferson memorial. Quiet artistic if you ask me. 

3\\ Crossed something off of my bucket list. I was able to see Vincent van Gogh's 'Roses' at the National Gallery of Art while in D.C. it was amazing.

4\\ Cherry blossoms. I was able to see the very beginning of the bloom of the annual cherry blossom bloom in DC. don't let this picture fool you, they most definitely aren't out yet. Out of the hundreds of trees there, about 4-5 had bloomed. All of the crazy tourists (including myself) were crowded around these few trees snapping pictures.

5\\ The Metro in DC, although it is kind of stinky and dimly lit (you can't really tell very well in the picture) is a really cool place. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

I hope you all had a great week and enjoy your Easter weekend. If you want to keep up with me during the week you can 

Follow Me On Instagram. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

What is quite possibly the best summer drink in existence? (okay sangria is a close runner up). The answer in my opinion is a strawberry Riesling slushy. I will warn you, it does taste pretty boozy but, it is made up of mostly wine. I think when I first when to drink it I expected it to taste like a berry smoothie (because that's exactly what it looks like) It is super delicious!

Ingredients

-one bottle of Riesling (dry preferred) -750ml/25.4oz

-2 tablespoons of sugar

-1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

-2 1/2 cups hulled strawberries

What You'll Need:

-ice cube trays (two)

-a blender

1/ bottle of Riesling (dry preferably)         2/sugar           3/lime          4/ice cube trays

 5/ two and a half cups of hulled strawberries

Step 1- Pour one cup of Riesling from the bottle, cover, and set aside in the fridge. You will be needing this for a later step. In the blender add your remaining wine to your 2 1/2 cups of strawberries. Squeeze in approximately 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice and add 2 tablespoons of sugar. 

Step 2- Puree all ingredients together. It should look something like the above. 

Step 3- Pour in to ice cube trays and place in freezer to set. 

Step 4- Remove ice cubes from freezer once frozen solid (this takes a few hours). Add the cubes back in to the blender along with the 1 cup of wine that you had set aside earlier. 

Step 5- Puree the mixture again. Make sure all large ice cube chunks have been crushed. At this step you may want to taste the mixture before pouring it and can add more sugar or simple syrup if you wish to make it sweeter. I will you warn you, it does taste quite boozy. 

Step 6- The easiest of all steps. Pour and enjoy!

Adapted from the recipe at BonAppetite.com

It's kind of hard to believe that it's Easter already. I mean really, it's already the end of March? Here is what I've been pinning this week. It's Easter themed, with the exception of macarons.  

via

How cute is this origami bunny? I may be a tad biased though, I love origami. I'm sure if I tried to make it, it would look like a crumpled piece of paper. It's still cute though. 

 via

These are super cute. I realize they probably spell a diabetic coma for anyone who would ingest them but they are nice to look at. 

 via

I thought this was a really cool idea. Somehow I dont think that it would work out as well as they are showing it here. Very cool though!

via

I saved the best for last. This past week I tried macarons for the first time. OMG. They are seriously the best things ever. I am pretty sure they are near impossible to make at home and I'm not going to even look in to how to do it because I know if I figured it out I would gain at least 20lbs in a matter of weeks. If you haven't tried any you need to get some...like now. 

Trip to D.C.

Lobby of the W Hotel

The W hotel is the place to be on a Saturday night apparently! The hotel itself is located at 515 15th Street NW (which happens to be right beside the US Treasury building and the White House). It has some amazing views from P.O.V. rooftop bar and terrace that include the Washington Monument, the White House and the Treasury Building among others. Unfortunately,  I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures while we were up there for drinks. 

View of the Washington Monument while waiting for our table for dinner.

Dinner at J&G Steakhouse.

Dinner was delicious. I had crispy organic chicken with sweet potato puree and bok choy. The boyfriend had prime hanger steak and frites. When I asked him to describe his experience he said "it was good". What can I say, he isn't a man of many words. 

A picture I took after dinner of the White House. Not bad for being taken with my phone. 

The D.C. Metro: A Magical Magical Place.

In all seriousness, I love the Metro as much as one could love a dark dreary underground mode of transportation. And for the love of god people, stand right, walk left. If you don't they hate you. 

The first sign of cherry blossoms. 

The first sign of cherry blossoms spotted on the walk to the Zoo. So pretty and so exciting!

Flamingos at the Zoo

The National Zoo is easliest one of the coolest zoo's I've been too. I was a little skeptical in the beginning since I heard that they didn't have any penguins but once I was quickly won over by the sloth bear (seriously, its the coolest thing ever). If you are in D.C. I highly, highly recommend you go. 

van Gogh painting at the National Gallery of Art

One of the favourite museums/buildings I visited during the week was the National Gallery of Art, specifically the West Building. I have loved van Gogh since my first art history class in 9th grade. Seeing some real-live-in-person-van-Gogh paintings is something I can now cross off my bucket list!

Jefferson Memorial

Cherry blossoms

Don't let this picture fool you. The cherry blossoms are no where near in full bloom. Out of the hundreds of cherry blossom trees there (hundreds) about 5 were in bloom. I am not ashamed to say I was one of the many people crowded around these few trees snapping pictures. They report that the peak blooms should be sometime around the beginning of April. 

National Botanical Gardens

I was able to visit last time I was in DC but got there just as it closed this time. What I really wanted was to take a picture of the outside since sometimes its used in the cut scene for Bones. 

Oh, and one last thing... I hereby swear that no matter how old I get I will never ever be too old or get tired of looking out of the airplane window. It is always amazing.