Mix and Bite

Image via

With summer entering into its end phase — sorry kids, time to start thinking about school — this is the time I really enjoy time outside. July is always so hot and unbearable, but August and early September are so pleasant, particularly the evenings. 

Question: Is there anything better than spending a summer night on the porch or an impromptu picnic with your friends absentmindedly biting at yummy snacks and sipping on delicious mixed drinks? Answer: No. There is nothing better. Throw in some music in the background and thrilling conversation, you've got a pretty solid setting. 

Please note that I am not talk about hardcore chowing down. While I am totally behind al fresco dining, I am talking about some proper midday-late night adult snacking. Easy access snacks like pretzels and popcorn are honestly the best, and they aren't LOADED with calories so you can snack guilt-free. Though, I always snack guilt-free ... Own your snacking!

But snacking is only truly great when it's paired with the best beverage, and summer offers such a great menu of cocktails. SkinnyPop has sportingly provided a handy guide for your snacking/drinking needs. Just the thought of indulging in a blueberry mojito with some salt and pepper popcorn has me wanting to call off work to initiate an early happy hour.

Honestly, as my week stands, nothing sounds better than a margarita (make it a size large!) and a bowl of pepper jack popcorn.

 - Ashley

What is your perfect summer snack/drink pairing? 

I Woke Up Like This

 

Image via

You know those articles that pop up all over the web? Those articles that make you feel like a lazy slug because of your morning routine? I know you have seen them...they are everywhere.

Now, I don't want to totally tear them apart. I understand and appreciate what they are trying to convey. We have to work hard to maintain healthy and balanced lifestyles, I get it. However, can we please acknowledge reality for a second?

Are these kinds of morning schedules truly attainable? Not for all of us.

I applaud the women who find the strength within them to wake up with enough time before work to get in a workout, eat the healthiest breakfast you've ever heard of, do some light reading, catching up on the news, and finishing their first cup of coffee (whaaaat?)

I'm gonna be real. I do not wake up energized. I wake up tired. I wish I could be one of those people who just wakes up a morning person; one of my roommates in college was that person. Unfortunately, my timing still isn't great on matching up my alarm with my REM cycle, but I'm working on it. Note: that's sarcasm. I'm not working on it. I have other things to do.

I would love to get in a morning run. It's nice and cool in the morning, a great time to clear my head and begin the day. However, that would mean getting up at 5 am — considering I would need time for a quick shower. Also, I can't say I would feel totally safe running before the sun is up. But I do try and get a morning run in when I am working from home or on the weekends.

But I do try to make my morning a good one, because I do believe that it does set the precedent for the day. I can't have a long leisurely morning and stroll out calmly for work; I would get lazy. So I wake up, giving myself between 1-1.5 hours before I have to walk out to catch the train.

The night before I will have thought about making my lunch, but I will not have made my lunch, so I will throw a salad together while the kettle boils for my coffee. In the four minutes that it takes the coffee to do it's thing in the press, I put together my breakfast: yogurt and berries, Cheerios (always the OG) and berries, or a breakfast sandwich.

I allow myself to catch up on my late night show clips and any breaking news from the night since I do my reading on the train (great way to get through the 45 minute commute!)

Compared to the morning routines in these articles, mine certainly probably seems a bit lazy, but IRL it works for me. I don't feel sluggish during the day. Sure, I get kinda tired around 2 pm, but then I get up and take a walk down to the riverfront to breathe in the fresh air for 15 minutes before I head back to finish the day.

Morning routines aren't one-size-fits-all. Never let one person's productive morning make you feel like you aren't doing enough...it's quite possible you are.

- Ashley

How do you spend your morning?

Week Links

 

Image via 

If you have been on social media in the past few days you probably read about the Ta-Ta Towel. While I appreciate its mission...not quite sure how I feel about it.

McDonalds has a lobster roll? Has anyone had this? Please provide thoughts if so.

The Apple iOS11 update will include a screen recording function. I feel like this is one that will get people into some trouble.

Have a great weekend!

-Ashley

Travel Far, Travel Wide, Travel Smart

Image via

It seems that once I graduated and got my job, everyone wanted me to come visit them or wanted to organize trips. I've booked two flights and one hotel for three separate adventures in the past two months! For context, I have flown a grand total of once in my life and it was with parental guidance. 

Don't get me wrong, I am very much looking forward to the trips I have set up. I'm excited to see the mountains of Colorado for the first time visiting family there. I can't wait to fly up to NYC for a weekend to hang out with some friends from college. And of course, I couldn't be more amped to take a trip back to Pittsburgh with my mother for a weekend of college football and Steel City fun!

While I can pride myself on finding cheap plane tickets and reasonably priced rooms downtown for a holiday weekend, the actual air travel part is new to me. Like I said before, last time I had responsible people with me, and now I have to find my own way between gates and understanding flight etiquette.

But a few things stick out in my mind as the go-to tips that I definitely think are applicable to all forms of travel (just call me the queen of roadtrips!)

Keep it to a carry on. As a young person with very little to her name at this point, I am not a fan of spending money where I don't have to. For a four day trip you can expect me to cram MY LIFE into a carry on and my personal bag. It helps that my only suitcase currently is a small rolling bag that definitely falls in the carry on category. I have perfected the art of tightly rolling pieces that can be worked into at least three different outfits and sliding shoes along the edges. It is both an art and a science.

Travel comfy. I've book flights on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. My trip to Colorado will be long with tedious layovers — who needs to spend three hours waiting in Atlanta?! — while NYC is thankfully a single, straight shot from D.C. Either way you can expect to find me in leggings, a loose t-shirt, with a light sweater since being a comfortable temperature is not a luxury I can expect in any space I enter into.

Have all the entertainment. Books, mags, music; I've got it all. If you don't have a window seat you need to keep occupied, and people watching gets creepy after awhile. #lessonslearned

Stay organized. You probably know this. This note is mostly for me, when it's travel day and I go to look back on this post. For the love of all that is holy keep all tickets, passports, essential travel docs in one accessible pocket of your bag and avoid the, "Hold on, I swear I have it right here...nope..." moment in front of everyone who is already pissed they're waiting in line.

Look at me pretending like I'm a guru because I managed to book seats. :) I guess I could have worse reactions to performing adult tasks.

- Ashley

What are your biggest travel tips?

Hello from the Other Side

Image via

I don't know what it is, but I am very excited about everything right now.


So excited that I've managed to find the motivation to resuscitate the blog that hasn't been updated since June 23 — sorry 'bout that!


There's a lot I'm excited about: the brief bout of comfortable weather, my really trendy outfit today, the fact that my Netflix calendar seems doable, I've found a farmers market near work that has decent produce (rant post about quality of grocery store produce south of PA to come at a later date.)


I finally feel at peace with my job. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found the first month(s) of a job difficult to adjust to. But I finally feel like I am overcoming the MOUNTAIN of mistakes I found myself making constantly.


So since I feel real life balanced, I think it's time that I can put my mind to focus on this blog again. There is so much to talk about in this world that isn't politics — Buzzfeed covers that forest fire better than I ever would!


There is so much that I have learned about myself and how I operate independently in the last few months after getting my first job and moving away from home, and so much that I know I want to experience. I look forward to discussing all of that here again.


While I do intend on improving the look, unlike the last time I disappeared from the blogosphere, I won't be changing up the entire branding of the blog — RIP All That Glitters, Long Live Sunday Brunch — as Sunday brunch is still an activity I enjoy in this new chapter of life and still produces the best conversations...but so does Happy Hour. Note: Since I'm now in D.C. I look forward to sharing all the best brunch spots with you; though I am skeptical given that I'm a slave to my college PGH brunch spots. :P


- Ashley


How have you been since the last time we chatted? ;)