#2879 three things: coffee at home, a new toy, and forgetting about time

 

1. Coffee at home. You know I love me some coffee. I will try pretty much any type of coffee drink at a coffee place, and there are some I like more than others, of course, but I can't think of many times that I couldn't drink whatever I ordered. Over the weekend, we went to Starbucks, we had coffee at the Solano Baking Company, I had coffee at Press in Battle Mountain twice (dirty maple chai for the win!), and I tried a place in Elko called Mudd Hut. They are all great, and I enjoyed the hell out of each delicious beverage I had at those places. 

Today I worked from home, and as I usually do, I made a pot of coffee. I used Caffe Ibis Hawaiian Hazelnut. I like a glug of milk and a couple of little spoons of Sugar in the Raw (granulated brown sugar) in my coffee. I brought the mug upstairs to my office, fired up my computer, and took the first sip while the computer booted up. That coffee, even the first sip which is sometimes bitter to me, was decadently delicious. I just had a couple of cups before I switched to water for the rest of the day, but those two cups set me up for a pretty dang good day. 

It's probably the combination of working at home in my cozy office space, classical music softly playing in my ears, the dogs gently snoring on the floor next to me, my soft comfy sweats and warm socks keeping me relaxed and calm along with that great cup of coffee that makes my morning feel so good. Whatever it is, I'll take it. Sometimes you cannot beat having a cup of coffee at home.

2. A new toy. I  wanted to create a travel journal during my trip to Paris and Catalunya. I envisioned filling my new sketchbook with sketches and paintings and words while I was there, but each day was so full that I didn't have time to do any of that. I did make a zine each day, and those little mementos are really fun, and I am so happy to have them.

Basically, I came back with an nearly empty sketchbook, and I decided that I would go ahead and create the travel journal after the fact. Then things got a bit out of hand last summer, and my sketchbook remained empty, waiting.

Finally though, after a creativity workshop with Jill the Artist in which the topic was procrastinating, I decided to just jump in and start. It is not a day-by-day accounting of the trip; I've decided to create pages based on when memories pop up or when I a photo (I look at them often) moves me to tell about it. 

To that end, I bought myself an HP Sprocket printer. It prints 2 x 3" photos on special paper, kinda like Polaroid paper, except it comes out of the printer fully printed. An extra cool part is that the paper is a sticker!!! The photos I printed yesterday came out really nicely, and I had a great time writing about the time we spent at Palau de la Musica Catalana.  I'm excited about my new toy!

(Yeah, I know. That top sketch is a little scary.)

3. Forget about time. I saw this really cute graphic on Pinterest from ourmindfullife.com.

The last one on the list, "Do more of what makes you forget about time," has stuck with me. I find that when I am writing, drawing, and painting, I get lost in it and time slips away. It's so cool! Sometimes forgetting about time happens when I'm scrolling through my phone, too, and it's fun, but it isn't as fulfilling as spending the time creating. Have you found something that makes you forget about time? 

Kind of a bummer part of forgetting about time and getting lost in the flow is that I tend to go to bed later than is good for me. When I do get to bed, my mind is still humming from the buzz of endorphins brought on by doing something I enjoy so much, then it's hard to slow my mind and get to sleep. The extra bummer part is that I am really and truly soundly and happily asleep when that blasted alarm goes off  in the wee hours before dawn (5 am). Maybe I need to set a timer so my phone can remember the time and tell me and the muse when to shut it down.

Enjoy the rest of the week!