disney eats.

Remember when I said we ate and ate and ate on our little trip to Disney?

Well I wasn't over-exaggerating, it felt like we were constantly stopping for food. And there were no limits on the type of food or time of day; cookies for breakfast, ice cream before dinner...anything goes here, it's all part of the wonderful Disney experience. We didn't have any reservations or really even any sit-down meals. Everything we ate was on the go; that just works for us.

We spent the majority of our time in Epcot. Here I introduced the family to the idea of a food crawl; trying and sharing different foods from the different countries. It was fun and we ate new foods that we never normally would have. I highly recommend trying it!

And of course we ate plenty of delicious sweets during our visit. If I had to pick favorites, I would say the paw print brownie from Kusafiri bakery in Animal Kingdom (it is a brownie topped with ganache and buttercream, what a combination!), Dole Whip in Magic Kingdom, and the chocolate carmel apples are my favorite take home treat.

One last recommendation... make sure to visit Spice & Tea Exchange in Mickey's Pantry in Downtown Disney. This store really caught my attention with the corner of amazing spices, sugars, and teas.  The selection is incredible and the products are all natural. I picked up the Sweet Onion Sugar, Pinot Noir Salt, and Black Chocolate Tea. I am so excited to try them out!

I just love trying new places and foods with the special people in my life.

xo

a little vacation.

I have been away for a few days. My family and I went to Florida to visit the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. We had the best time...

We stayed at a beautiful hotel and had an awesome royal room upgrade.

We observed all the beautiful floral displays and themed topiaries.

We rode our favorite rides. 

(Mount Everest and Space Mountain being the top two)

I got nervous waiting on line every time. Never fails.

We laughed and reminisced about past Disney trips.

We ate and ate and ate.

And walked so much that we swore we burnt off all our food.

Which is highly doubtful.

We went to bed at 3 am every night.

Sister rocked her Minnie ears while I stuck with braids.

Mom and Brother got to wear birthday pins.

And we all agreed it was a fantastic little getaway. 

xoxo

a floral friday.

5:11 am.

That was the time my brother knocked on my door yesterday morning.

I am not a very good morning person and I can't say that being funemployed helps. Nope, not one bit.

What it has helped is my want to do more, see more, and spend more time with others that I don't normally. And so when the opportunity presented itself to join my brother and his college horticulture club to go to the Philadelphia International Flower Show, I took it.

And I have to say that I really loved this day. First of all, it was quite inspiring to be around so much natural beauty. It's unbelievable how the flowers were so fragrant and vividly colored. I loved being there for fun, just taking in my surroundings, and photographing my favorites. This wasn't college when visiting a trade show was all about a project. I spent the day with my brother and his friends, the kids with the-world-is-their-oyster spirit that I once had (and slowly getting back). Even if I wanted to really participate in their interesting conversations, I couldn't because I do not speak horticulture. Long scientific names would fly out of their mouths every time we approached a new display, it barely sounded English. But they impressed me; they truly love what they study.

And who could blame them?

Now for the food. We walked across the street to the Reading Terminal Market, which is definitely worth checking out when in Philly. It is filled with so many food vendors and there is certainly something for everyone. It was packed of course; the cheese steak line was so long that the whole group passed on it. Instead my brother and I tried The Original Turkey and I am so glad that we did. We split the turkey cranberry sandwich, which was simple but perfection. Fresh soft bread, perfectly cooked turkey, and a great cranberry sauce, it totally hit the spot. It was enough for us to split and I have to mention that he made me smile when he apologized for wanting white bread. 

My siblings know me so well.

He also didn't think twice when I asked him if we could visit the cookie stand that we passed while scoping out the place. How could I not buy a baked good while in a different city? Especially when the word famous is in its name? Exactly. So we headed over to Famous 4th St. Cookie Co. and I bought chocolate chip cookies to take home. I must say I was surprised how pricey they were because they are sold by weight. But they were worth the try. Even when we ate them when we got home hours later, they were perfectly moist with just the right amount of melty chocolate. It was a really good cookie and I am ashamed to admit that I ate all of mine for dinner. whoops.

I also brought home these babies from the show, the orange for my mom and the little white one for yours truly. Brother helped me pick out the best ones of course, a tip is to look at the stem and the one with the most buds is the best fellow for you. growth potential!

Oh and one last thing. I was obsessed with a wall in the convention center that was completely covered in coffee cups, saucers, and spoons. Here is a close up..

buon weekend :)