Treat of the Week: "Mom's Apple Pie" from DAVIDsTEA

Treat of the Week is a new series I am starting in order to celebrate the simple indulgences in life. Each week, I will feature a favorite pastime, product, place, or project {alliteration, anyone?} that I happen to be enjoying at that given time. So, with no further ado, let's begin!

This week's Treat of the Week is the "Mom's Apple Pie" green tea from DavidsTea. I'm a little bit of a tea addict, and this one is perfect as we start to move into the nippy winter months. There aren't too many things I enjoy more than curling up with a great book and some warm and delicious tea. To me, this green tea tastes and smells like cinnamon and apples, sort of like a light apple cider.

{This autumn/winter flavored tea pairs perfectly with a big holiday mug.}

My collection of DavidsTea has slowly been growing over the past two years and I love them for their unique flavors and dedication to making a quality product. With the exception of a few NYC locations, DavidsTea has store locations across Canada, plus shipping to all of North America.

Story time: I definitely researched whether there were DavidsTea store locations in my new city before I moved. As the interweb told me there wasn't, I made a special trip before I moved to stock up. Flash forward to the night of my arrival in my new city. I'm driving through downtown and what do you suppose is the first store I see? Yep, you guessed it: DavidsTea. I have since come across two additional locations since being here. So what have we learned from this little story? Don't trust everything you read on the internet. {Except this piece about DavidsTea being delicious. Because that is a cold, hard fact.}

As a side note, I am seriously considering their 24 Days of Tea Advent Calendar as an early Christmas present for myself this year. I think it would be such a fun way to sample some new flavors! Plus, who doesn't enjoy an advent calendar in December?

Traveling times

{Reading materials, puzzles, snacks, and keys!}

{Coffee and The Zac Brown Band}

{Comfortable clothes for the long ferry line ups. Sweater & jeans: Gap, Top: Banana Republic, Boots: Steve Madden, Socks: American Eagle.}

{When I'm driving, cruise control automatically becomes my best friend.}

{A few more CDs in case I get tired of the music on my phone}

As I type this, I'm sitting on a ferry. I'm heading back to the mainland to attend my convocation ceremony at my alma mater and then up to my hometown for the weekend. I'm so excited to be able to visit my old friends from university and high school! Since work has been pretty busy as of late, I'm also pleased to have this mini break before we have our big push to the holidays.

As I will be both driving and taking a ferry to complete my journey, my bag is packed with reading materials and music. And snacks - you always need some good snacks on a long journey. I kept my outfit pretty simple and comfortable so as not to interfere with all the driving and the reading and the snacking and the singing-along-to-my-music-in-the-car that I'm planning on doing.

{The view from my seat}

On a related note, this ferry ride is beautiful - and so sunny! Who would have thought, considering the catsanddogs storm we've been experiencing since Saturday.

What are your traveling tips?

From the Oven: Spiced Apple Cider

First off, yum! I was so pleased with this recipe! I will definitely be making this several times before this holiday season is over.

Ingredients
5 cups cider
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 orange, sliced

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and stir. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat and let simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain {I placed cheesecloth over a strainer and strained the cider twice}. Serve warm, cinnamon sticks and brandy optional.

Recipe is a combination of pretty much every apple cider recipe I could find on Martha Stewart's website.

Count down

{Dress: H&M, Sweater: Propaganda via Plenty, Boots: Steve Madden, Tights: Gap, Socks and Belt: American Eagle.}

I was looking up when the first day of Winter was and came to a horrible and confusing conclusion: Winter doesn't start until December 22nd. Now, I don't know about you, but I find this strange. I mean, we've already started to see snow fall and you're telling me 'Winter' is still a month away? Okay. Suuurrre. In reality, I understand that the winter season is identified by the winter solstice, aka the shortest day of the year, but this girl doesn't care about all of that. This girl cares about when she can jump up and down and officially say "Winter has arrived!" which, apparently, is a whole month away. 

So, while I slowly check those days off my calendar, I figured I'd come up with a list of things I want to do this holiday season to help me make the most of it all.

Visit the gardens and walk around amongst all the twinkling lights.

Go ice skating.

Bake sugar cookies.

Walk around downtown {preferably in the snow} with warm apple cider in hand.

Deck the halls {including a tree!}.

Have a holiday movie marathon {Miracle on 34th Street has always and will forever be my favorite. Followed closely by Love, Actually}.

Enjoy some spiked eggnog.

Go see a play.

Give someone a secret gift.

Make peppermint bark.

Walk around the neighborhood and look at christmas lights.

Cinnamon hot chocolate.

Dress in red and green, just for fun.

Bake cinnamon buns from scratch.

Get myself an advent calendar.

Enjoy family time.

Marcel is Back!

a SECOND video?!

my day just got so great.

all he cares about is treats. treats and snoozin'. look at him.

guess why I smile a lot. uh, cuz it's worth it.

A little bit of Fam Jam time

{Sweater and Jeans: Gap, Shoes: Old Navy, Scarf: Garage}

Last night I had the privilege of joining some of my aunts, uncles and cousins for my cousin's daughter's 15th birthday. {Does anyone know what that makes her to me? Cousin? Second cousin? Cousin once removed? I just don't know. But she's family and it was her birthday, so that's all that really matters.} It was great to catch up with them and celebrate. Even though I live in the same city {read: retirement community} as them, I still don't get to see them as much as I would like, so evenings like that are always such a treat. Thanks for being such a wonderful bunch to get together with!

Also: This. On Repeat. All day.

Casual Monday

{Sweater and Jeans: Gap, Boots: Steve Madden, Bracelets: JCrew, Watch: Aldo}

It was so hard to get up yesterday morning. I blame a combination of sleeping in on Sunday {so I certainly was not interested in sleeping when I got into bed at 11:00 pm) and the plain ol' fact that it was Monday. Luckily, the dress code in my office is so relaxed that I can get away with wearing something casual like the outfit above without getting stares and judging looks. I actually feel that I tend to over dress for the office, but who cares?* I enjoy feeling a little fancy most days.

Yesterday, however, was not a fancy day. I needed comfortable clothes, stat, but without looking like a slob. And, voila! The Gap never disappoints. Especially not on casual Mondays.


*the answer to this question is: Nobody. Nobody cares that I don't wear jeans on the daily. Which is part of the reason why I love my coworkers so much.

Dusted Rose

 {Top: F21, Jeans: Big Blue, Shoes: Aldo, Necklace: Jacob}

As I type this, my NYC poster is slowly falling off my wall. I'm just sitting here, watching it peel off the wall. I suppose I should probably do something about it before it falls off completely and crumples on the floor.

I had the definition of a lazy weekend. I left my house only a handful (literally less than five) of times over the last three days, watched too much tv, slept in, worked a lot on this here blog, and ate breakfast for dinner at least twice since Thursday.

Okay. I should really go save that poster before it meets a wrinkled demise.

Hope you have a happy Monday!!

Just so you know...

... these are amazing.

Class it up.

{Dress: Jacob, Cardigan: H&M, Tights: Jacob, Boots: Roberto Vianni, Necklace: Kohl's}

How much do I love that we have moved into Christmas commercial season? As much as Santa wants a glass of milk and some cookies when he comes down the chimney, that's how much. I'm looking forward to putting up my very first, very own tree in my living room and rocking out to christmas tunes while drinking a little hot apple cider. {Confession: I've actually already done two of those three things.}

On another note, I thought I'd class it up today. I picked up this dress last week and I love it. I've been seeing so many lace dresses and skirts on pinterest lately and couldn't resist when I came across this little number. Speaking of little: it's a little bit shorter than what I'm typically comfortable in, but the tights help a little bit. 

Anyways, on that note, let the christmas season begin! {Yes, the world needed my declaration to begin...}

Stripes Central.

{Shirt: Gap, Skirt: Target, Scarf: American Eagle, Boots: Steve Madden}

I think I have an addiction. To stripes. I've been gravitating towards them like an albino zebra.
Begin planning my intervention now.

Moving on. I enjoy this skirt. A lot. It's long enough for me to not feel uncomfortable (I usually find most skirts too short, even when worn with tights). But not with this baby. And it's comfortable. And it was super cheap (thank you, Target). So all in all, it's a good skirt.

On a side note, I thankful to finally have something returned to me that was ruthlessly stolen a few months back. Yes, I'm talking about that one precious hour of time that has finally found its way back into my life. I was a mess when it first left. And I really do mean a mess. I felt jet-lagged for a week. I'm not kidding. I've come to the conclusion that I need to move to either Saskatchewan or Arizona, where DST doesn't exist.

Or Hawaii. I suppose I could just settle for Hawaii.

This is fall.

The best season has officially arrived.