My cousin & I got together for her belated birthday last weekend. We hadn't seen each other... since last year! We're both either always busy working, sick, or it was snowing, lol. So it was nice to get together with her and have a girls day out. We took the train down to Center City Philadelphia so we could do some shopping on Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square. It was a nice sunny day even though it was a bit windy and only in the low 60's.




Another thing my cousin & I have wanted to do is try French Macaroons! You see them everywhere online, in blogs. They are always so colorful and pretty. But boy are they tough to find around here! We found out there's a patisserie & coffee shop down near 17th & Walnut Street. Miel Patisserie. So we were super excited to stop there and try some French Macaroons for the 1st time ever!

The shop is really cute. They serve coffee, some food items. They have gorgeous looking pastries and chocolates. And soooo many flavors of French Macaroons. I wish I could have tried every flavor! (They are $1.50 each). I ordered an iced coffee & a Cappuccino and Pistachio French Macaroon. My cousin ordered Blueberry Lemon & Salted Caramel.


Oh. My. Gosh. They were beyond what we both imagined. At first we were scared to try them because of all the hype and we were afraid they wouldn't be what we were thinking. But wow. French Macaroons are small, they have a crispy exterior, but when you bite into it it's more a chewy cake consistency. And the filling... oh my wow.... the ones I ordered had a very rich sweet cream center. The Blueberry Lemon one I tried of my cousins had the most amazing sweet blueberry center. They were so good we got some more to take home.

I've gotten some new polishes in the past few weeks, so I've updated my Complete Nail Polish Collection post. Here's some of my recent nail colors and designs.







Then another week, I did a tropical theme. I have Ninja Polish Caribbean Reef on my ring finger. (When my cousin & I visited Lush Cosmetics last weekend, I had 3 of the salesgirls trying to check out my nails when they were testing a product on me, lol!)

*All polish was purchased by myself.

Aspen passed away on April 16th, 2013. He was a few months past 3 years old. He was born sometime in 2010, though we didn't adopt him until April 2011 from Star's Rat Rescue of South Dakota.

He was also featured in my work's newsletter with his brother Curry who passed away Sept 2011 in an article about pet rats & rescues. Aspen was frail in his old age and had lost the use of his back legs due to Degenerative Osteoarthritis, but he still got around pretty well.

I still need practice stamping. But these still turned out cute, even though some of the designs didn't stamp on fully, and some smeared a bit. My left hand is more messy than my right hand in this picture.


Other Blog Posts:

Adventures in Nail Stamping...

My Complete Nail Polish Collection 

Also, I'm now obsessed with these iced & frozen cappuccinos from Wawa. They have a specialty drink bar now and you can customize your coffee drink. Soooo good.




 

After seeing these pretties on another nail blog I had to get them! :-)

5 years ago today.... (yes on St. Patrick's Day)... I started blogging...


I've recorded and documented so many things here on my blog. It's my space to just be me. To blog about whatever is going on in my life. It's been a space to blog about our long distance relationship, our marriage, our immigration process. My Pets, my nail polish obsession, sharing recipes, trips I've taken in the Philippines, Philadelphia trips, etc...

I've also made a lot of friends blogging. Like Shannon, and Patty, Karen, Jacki, Stephanie, Georgia, Shawna, (and other friends). New blogging friends like Kelly & Faith. I get to keep up with family & friends by reading their blogs, like my SIL, My cousin Katie, my childhood friend Leah. Thank you for letting me read about your lives too.

As everyone has probably heard, this week Google announced, Google Reader will be shutting down in July of this year. I use Google Reader to follow so many blogs I read, because it's a simple format and easy to use on my cell phone, tablet or computer.

There's a petition that has currently reached over 122,000+ signatures and counting on Change.org. 


It's been covered hundreds of times in media around the world. Google will be watching closely over the next few days to see if the story dies out or if it keeps growing -- and that's up to you. Sign the petition and please share it on Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully Google will see we don't want Google Reader to go anywhere!

But... if they still retire Google Reader, you can still follow my blog through BlogLovin. And you can import all your blog feeds from Google Reader to BlogLovin by clicking here.



P.S. I've started using The Old Reader. I think I like it better than Bloglovin because it's a very simple reader, like Google Reader. You can import all the blogs you follow too. :-)

I've made vegetable lasagna in the oven before many times. I just started making it in the crock pot last year. My recipe is loosely based on this awesome recipe.

Ingredients:

• Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles *(make sure the box says 'Oven Ready' noodles, these are noodles that are already slightly pre-cooked so you don't have to boil them).
• 1 jar of Tomato Sauce (I use Prego)
• Ricotta Cheese
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Spinach (Fresh or Frozen)
• 2 medium onions or 1 large onion
• 2 Yellow Squash
• 2 Zucchini
• Mushrooms (Fresh or Canned) 

Spices:

• Italian Seasoning
• Salt
• Goya Adobo All Purpose Seasoning
• Garlic (I use the diced kind in a jar)
  

Note: You can use whatever veggies you like. Sometimes I add Eggplant, you can add carrots, etc. (My husband isn't fond of carrots).

Directions:

I season my Ricotta cheese with the above spices. (I don't really measure, it's just to taste). Then I put a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock pot. Break your lasagna noodles to fit your crock pot, (it won't be perfect). Then some ricotta cheese, a little sauce and a layer of all your chopped vegetables in whatever order you choose. Then more sauce, ricotta cheese, sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese, then noodles again. Repeat until you reach the top. Noodles, sauce & the rest of the mozzarella cheese should cover the very top. Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Enjoy!

Note: This will be more like a lasagna casserole, that you can serve in a bowl. The noodles won't come out in perfect slices, but it still tastes amazing!

P.S. Someone buy me this Damask Crockpot, lol!

Friday afternoon my husband noticed Sweet Pea was off balance. When I got home from work, she was tilting to the left. When you would pick her up she would panic and start rolling over in my hands. Her balance was way off and she would even roll over on the bed. This really came on suddenly, as Thursday she seemed fine. Sweet Pea is a few months past 1 year.

We've got her in a little cage at the moment, which we call the "hospital cage" so she can't fall and hurt herself. Praying it's just an inner ear infection or some other infection and not a pituitary tumor... (which cannot be cured...) she's on antibiotics right now and praying we see an improvement by this coming Friday.

She can still hold food in her paws and is still eating & drinking. Today she was much calmer. She's still tilting to the left and when she walks tends to circle to the left. She really wanted to explore today but the tilting was getting in the way. Poor girl...


Updated: 3/16/13:

Sweet Pea has been on antibiotics & resting in a hospital cage for a week. Friday night she got to join her sisters back in the big cage. (Buttercup my territorial girl, gave her a hard time, after being gone a week). Her head tilt is extremley slight now. She's no longer dizzy or lethargic.She will still be on antibiotics for another week. She's really improved so much, compared to last weekend, when she could barely walk and kept walking in circles.

Here's an updated video from last night: