theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for October 2017

#SPBoxSwap Reveal

filed under: fun!, linkup

I participated in the Sweet Progress Box Swap hosted by Ashley and Dean for the first time this month. I love the kind of swaps that result in putting something in the mail for someone to brighten their day.

Anyway, so the #SPBoxSwap. We were paired with our partners earlier this month and after emailing back and forth a few times to get to know each other and exchange some info on what we like and don’t like, we set out to do a little shopping for our assigned swap partner.

I was lucky that I got paired with Beth from thebethnextdoor.com, who I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know better in the last few months through The Peaceful Posse (a Facebook group for like-minded bloggers that are interested in interacting, engaging, and supporting each other). I’ve been reading Beth’s blog for a while now and have enjoyed learning about her life and little family. I had a lot of fun shopping for her and if you want to see what I put together for her, you should check out her #SPBox Swap reveal post today. While you’re at it, also see the other boxes that were exchanged.

But, let me now share the wonderful package Beth put together for me. She definitely paid close attention during our email exchange.

Untitled

She knew I was in dire need of some extra Halloween decoration and she picked out these two cute deco items for me (which now sit on our mantel next to the tiny pumpkins I bought as our only fall decoration).

Untitled

Beth also got me some nice (vanilla!) tea and a beautiful mug to drink it from. Didn’t I just mention that I love drinking beverages from pretty mugs? This one is going into my collection, it has a beautiful green fall color, too.

My favorite color is teal and Beth found this great Sally Hansen nail polish in teal and a little teal friend. The huge eyes crack me up, haha!

She also sent me this beautiful multi-color candle (which I will definitely enjoy lighting in the evenings this winter) and a box of mixed candy (including some licorice, that I love, and some candy corn, because I told her that I had never tried it before. Can you believe that? Well, I didn’t grow up with Halloween in Germany, so there also wasn’t any candy corn. Simple explanation.)

I couldn’t wait and had a cup of the black vanilla tea out of my beautiful new mug on Sunday afternoon. It was delicious!

Untitled

I had a great time participating in this swap and I loved even more getting to know Beth better and making a new friend! You should definitely hop on over to her blog if you are not a follower already!
Thanks so much, Beth,  for your thoughtful package and your sweet note! I loved everything!

**On that note, I’ve hosted a Secret Santa Mug Swap last year before the holidays and am thinking about doing that again. Would you be interested in participating? Let me know in the comments!**

Happy Halloween!

October Favorites

filed under: monthly favorites

1. Someone recommended the St.Ives Timeless Moisturizer for sensitive skin somewhere and I bought it on Amazon, because I was running out and needed a new one anyway. I love the texture and smell of this and it has really good reviews.

2. I really love working with Patons Grace Mercerized Cotton yarn, especially for my crochet items for my Etsy shop. Check out my new fall mini garlands where I used this cool rusty-orange color.

3. I never thought I’d say this, but I – the die-hard thin crust pizza lover – fell in love with Deep Dish Pizza. We gave it a try a few weeks ago when my cousin was here and I had to admit: it’s pretty tasty! It doesn’t really feel like pizza to me (more like an “open” pot pie), but does it have to? All that matters is that it tastes good and that it definitely does! J and I have had it twice since, he even requested it for his birthday dinner last week.

4. I am not much of a lipstick kind of girl, but this Revlon balm stain (color: honey) is a nice little touch of color and hydration for my lips without feeling like a full-on lipstick. I think I got it in one of my Target boxes a while back. 

5. My favorite candy to munch on? Licorice. I’ll take that over any gummy bears or chocolate. I found some salt licorice at Dean and DeLuca’s in Napa Valley a few week ago and then stocked up on Gustaf’s Dutch Licorice when I went to World Market. It’s just a nice piece to pop into your mouth to suck on. Beats gobbling up a whole bag of cheetos (which, I admit, is sometimes necessary, too. Ha!).

6. This is Life with Lisa Ling is back on CNN with its 4th season. I’ve mentioned this show on here before and I am still as excited about new episodes as ever. She touches on such interesting (and controversial) topics and it’s more interesting than ever during these weird current times.

Currently | October

filed under: currently

loving the current fall weather. It’s still pretty warm during the day, but the evenings and mornings are cooler and we haven’t used the AC much anymore, but also haven’t needed the heater. I love this time of year for running and walks and not the least because our energy bill is lower, ha!

eating turkey meatballs (and ground turkey in general). It’s so versatile and such a light meat option for a ton of different dishes. I’ll share some of the recipes I’ve been making with ground turkey with you in November (for NaBloPoMo).

drinking my first cups of hot tea this fall. I’m on a peppermint kick right now. Yum.

listening to a new podcast, “The Move with Joe McIntyre”. If he can’t get me into podcasts, nobody will. Haha.

excited about a new coffee mug. I was out shopping for my #SPBoxSwap partner Beth last weekend and came across a mug that I just couldn’t walk away from. As previously mentioned, I have a bit of a mug addiction and I believe drinking coffee (or tea) out of pretty mugs makes every beverage that much better, am I right? Well, and this mug was just so different and unique. (I should get rid off some old mugs, though. Seriously.)

reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I am again on a slow reading path this month, but that’s ok. This book is worth my time though.

working on some crafty things. I am trying to find some time to prepare for the holidays and crochet some new garlands and make some more cards for our Etsy shop.

wishing and hoping for my bff’s cancer treatment to be effective. I cannot – and will not – accept anything else. She just finished her first round of chemo and I can’t help but being reminded of what a strong woman she is to go through all of this again.

bummed that the Red Sox didn’t make it to the World Series this year (but thrilled that at least the Yankees also got kicked out by the Astros!). The Red Sox had such a good season, but oh well. That is what happens in sports. You win some, you lose some.

looking forward to Halloween. I am not much into scary movies, but I’ve caught part of Hocus Pocus already (which always makes me happy, ha!) and I love that we get trick-or-treaters at our house now. When we lived on a 2nd-floor apartment in a fourplex, we never had trick-or-treaters.

What’s going on with you currently?

Recap | 2017 Napa Half Marathon

filed under: running, USA

A month ago, I ran the Napa half marathon with my cousin B + his girlfriend  M.

We signed up on a whim. I hadn’t really planned to run another half marathon after my half in SF earlier this summer, but I had dared my cousin (and his girlfriend!) to run a race with me, after I got them both to start running over the summer, so I joked that we could run the “Napa Half” when they are here in September.

I mean, what a perfect opportunity to run a race together. Running in wine country and getting a bottle of wine at the finish line, besides the usual t-shirt and medal, were some extra perks.

I only half-expected my cousin to jump on the idea, but he instantly did! And M had to go along with it. So, I guess I was going to run another half in September after all.

I knew B was going to be much faster than me (he’s 26, physically fit, and a guy, so…!), and since this was going to be his first half marathon, it was going to be an automatic PR. First, he had offered to pace me, but I know and understand that you also wanna give your best at your first race, so I told him to run his own pace and get that (real) PR! M, who had just started running this last summer, was ‘only’ going to run the quarter marathon, but still that was going to be a huge accomplishment in itself!

So I decided to just have fun and do my best at that half that I didn’t really prepare for. I had kept up my running schedule after my half in July, but I also didn’t specifically train and also didn’t taper right for this race (due to our travels), but I knew that just having this experience together was going to be worth it.

We left Sacramento at 5:45 a.m. to make the 50-mile drive to Napa. Luckily, Sunday mornings around that time, the I-80 is pretty empty (usually not the case!) and it only took us an hour to get there. We had more than an extra hour to spare before race start, which was kind of nice.

We used the port-a-potties (twice), had our bananas and some water and then got warmed up just in time to head to the starting line.

IMG_3028

The race was medium-sized (600 entries), so there were no corrals or anything. Everybody just started running at the same time. Since we were all running ‘our own races’, we headed out and settled into our paces.

B was gone before I could even attempt to keep up for a little while, M started somewhere behind me.

The course was hilly, but not terribly so. For every incline, there was an equal decline, which felt nice. I settled into a good pace and kept plugging along. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to hit the < 2 hour mark (which honestly I wasn’t even attempting), but I was still on track for a decent race. Cramping in my right calf hit me during the last 2 miles of the race, which I had never happened before and it sucked. I still managed to snag a PR though. Boo-yah! I didn’t really expect it, so this was awesome.

Especially because this meant I got a PR and B + M also got PRs (since it was their first official race) that day.

B ran an awesome race in 1:45:07 (7th in his age division (20-29)). He got an official shoutout on the website, too, because he (and M) were one of the few international participants!

I finished in 2:06:58, which shaved over 2.5 minutes off my previous PR (6th in my age division (40-49)). M finished her first quarter marathon in 1:13:43 (18th in her age division (20-29)).

We collected our medals, t-shirts and wine bottles, took an obligatory picture in front of the ‘race wall’, got some drinks and snacks and then got in line for a massage. We all needed one :)

IMG_3090

After we recuperated for a bit, we decided that we deserved brunch at the Fremont Diner * again. We had been there the previous day on our Napa Wine Tour, but heck, we were so close, why not go there twice. We did a quick FaceTime call with my parents and when my mom offered to sponsor the brunch, it was decided.

We headed over to the Fremont Diner proudly showing off our medals and rewarded ourselves with a pre-brunch milkshake while we were waiting for a table. Perfect post-race refueling snack, am I right?

IMG_0604

I opted for yogurt, granola, and coffee, B and M had the Farmer’s toast and a side of bacon. Yum. After we filled up our bellies, we headed home. We were all ready for a nap.

IMG_0610

I wasn’t kidding when I told B + M during our planning phase that we should keep Sunday afternoon open for recuperating. We were all beat.

So, yeah, that was the Napa half marathon in September… aka “that time where I just wanted to have fun and ended up with a new PR”.

I am linking up with Erika, Patty and Marcia  for Tuesdays on the Run.

* On a site note, I am so happy to report that The Fremont Diner was not damaged in the Northern California fires. They got pretty close, but luckily never reached the diner!

Apple Hill + a birthday

filed under: USA, weekend

We can’t go through a fall season here in CA without a trip to Apple Hill. Everybody knows that. Last year was special because I got to spend a day there with my Mom. Just me and her. I never get that anymore.

This year, we decided to make the trip for J’s birthday. Ok, well, his birthday was during the week, so we postponed the trip to the weekend. 

We headed up into the Foothills in the early afternoon. Traffic was not too bad, luckily, but Apple Hill was busy – which was to be expected. We still had no problem finding parking.

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

First, we checked out the pumpkin patch. Obviously.

Then we were going to get an apple fritter, but the lines were insanely long and so we talked ourselves out of the necessity to have something super-sweet and sugary the size of our heads (kinda ridiculous, I agree).

We walked around instead, looked at all the different things you can make from apples, and did some apple tasting. There is only a handful of varieties that you’ll find at the supermarket, but there were so many new ones to try… have you heard of ‘Pippin’, ‘Honeycrisp’, or ‘Goldrush’?

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

We then drove over to Placerville and walked around this old mining town. It was nice, because part of the main street was blocked off from traffic for a wine and art festival that night, so we were able to walk around freely on the street. We got some coffee at a little coffee shop and then later grabbed dinner at the Buttercup Pantry. It’s a similar place to Mary Callendar’s, not anything fancy, but we have good memories of going there for breakfast a few years ago.

Dinner was good. They had a great soup + salad bar that I got to enjoy.

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

It was a beautiful fall day and I am so glad we got out for a few hours!

Did you do something fun this weekend?