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One of the reasons why I blog is simply to have the space to write: getting things “on paper” helps me to process my feelings and organize my thoughts. I also love having a record of my life over the past few years: a place that holds all of my stories, my photos, the ups and downs of travel. But sometimes, I also just want to remember and share the little things that brought me day-to-day joy. Every Friday, I’ll give you a peek into the book I currently can’t put down, a great restaurant discovery, a fun new product or an inspiring quote: a few things that I think you might enjoy before we all take off into the glory that is the weekend!   At least once a quarter, I try to schedule a Blue Apron week: essentially, it forces me into at least three quiet nights at home. I have a grand tendency to over-schedule myself: while it’s all fun stuff, I ultimately end up exhausted. So I love weeks like this: I had three glorious nights of coming home straight after work to drink a glass of wine, cook and eat a delicious meal, watch an episode of The Good Wife and go to bed. I really love hanging out in our apartment and wandering around our neighborhood, and weeks like this rejuvenate me for all the activities ahead!Streets

I was biking back from Manhattan earlier this year and I spotted this colorful wall still under construction. I snapped a quick photo and took note of the cross streets (Vanderbilt and Flushing Ave in Brooklyn), and put it on my list for a bike ride destination once the weather warmed up. It’s right next door to the Parlor Coffee Roastery and Tasting Room, so we were hoping to check out the public cupping (only open Sundays from 12-4pm) but it was sadly closed for Easter. We’ll be back! 

Blooms

SPRING HAS ARRIVED IN NEW YORK CITY. Highly possible that there will be nothing but blooms and blue skies on my Instagram feed for the next month.

Eats

My friend Danielle always knows the best places to eat: she worked at Bon Appetit and now she’s an editor Afar, and her Instagram feed is full of scrumptious food photos. Although she lives in San Francisco, she was in NYC for work this week and we met up for breakfast at High Street on Hudson: cue me devouring the most delicious (and rich!) breakfast sandwich ever. 

Reads

I’m currently reading Pitch Anything, which is very specific to sales and pitching and whatnot. Not exactly a leisure read, although I’m sure I’m learning things! That said, I really liked Nomadic Matt‘s tip in this BuzzFeed piece on how to become a travel blogger: “It always amazes me how little this industry reads. There are hundreds of extremely valuable business, marketing, and development books out there. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn how other people succeeded and copy them.”  Definitely trying to take all of these sales tactics and figure out ways to apply them to this blog and beyond. 

Words

“Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a large unexpected cheque in the post, to beat finding yourself at large in a foreign city on a fair spring evening, loafing along unfamiliar streets in the long shadows of a lazy sunset, pausing to gaze in shop windows or at some church or lovely square or tranquil stretch of quayside, hesitating at street corners to decide whether that cheerful and homy restaurant you will remember fondly for years is likely to lie down this street or that one? I just love it. I could spend my life arriving each evening in a new city.” -Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe

This weekend, I had high hopes for bike rides and flower adventures, but I’m not sure if the weather will cooperate! If not, I have grand plans for rainbow bagel dates, stage 2 of my spring clean slash massive decluttering, and plenty of reading the New York Times while drinking tea on my couch.