Poco-Cocoa

So we have a studio space on the east side now! We LOVE it. It’s hard to believe we somehow both worked from our tiny apartment for so long. (By the way, this isn’t a photo of the space, just a cool east side warehouse) 🙂

We share a huge, beautiful house with a few other lovely freelancers. We have a large room with a little patio and lots of windows, and now we have two big desks and shelves and a reading chair and SO MUCH SPACE. I had no idea that I was so cramped on my little home desk – now I spread everything out and it’s so much easier to get things done.

We’re starting to explore the east side a bit more, too. We’ve tried El Sapo (just snacks and drinks, though I’m interested in trying their burger), Haymaker (good for watching sports and eating pretzel bites and poutine), Dai Due (yummy gumbo), and Sawyer & Co. (we had a bad experience all around). It’s a lovely neighborhood for taking walks, and saying hello to people on the street, and enjoying the cool breeze.

Because fall is here! Today the high is 81 degrees F, which is just fine by me. Tomorrow it should get a bit chilly, so I have big plans for scarves and boots and hot cocoa.

Last night I baked up a sweet potato cake. I found a simple recipe for carrot cake, and I figured that carrot cake is just cake with shredded orange vegetable in it, so why not use shredded sweet potato? Success. It will be perfect with a cup of tea. I got the recipe from Short & Sweet by Dan Lepard. I stopped at BookPeople to buy another little book (I’ll tell you about that one soon), and came home with this one, too. It has so many simple and lovely recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I think I’ll be baking from it a lot. I’m super excited for his new book to be released, too. I somehow always fall in love with the writing and recipes from British writers! Ahem, Nigel Slater.

So I’m off to the studio to get some work done. Peace out.

What if I just randomly started blogging again? Let’s see what happens.

I think I’ve been in a funk for a very long time. And the world is so full of beautiful blogs, I’ve thought that mine is just not up to par.

But after all, this is my space, it’s not an advertising space or a competitive space or an internationally known space or a how-to space or food-only space or an arty space. It’s just my space. I looked back today on October posts over the last NINE years and it was fascinating to see how I have changed. Why not keep going?

So who am I now? How do I spend my time? What do I eat?

I am a business partner. I am a consultant. I am an event planner and website builder and photographer and writer. I work at a shared studio space with my love, I read books, I wish for turning leaves and rainy days. I wear all black, I pickle vegetables, I eat at restaurants. I am 36, but I don’t feel 36. I am happily married, I am loved, I am here.

That seems like a good place to re-start.

Just some photos from a plain-old Wednesday working at Métier…

This has become the usual start to my day: coffee and loading up the POS on the iPad.

We got a new shipment of books in! It’s always so exciting to see the books that I’ve ordered and place them on the shelves.

These knives came in, too. I keep daydreaming about the one on the left.

I brought my coworker J. a macaron. I had to get an Oreo one for myself.

J. is worried that I’ll drink his lemonade and get my germs all over it. So he labeled it. 🙂

More work at home, but this time with bubbly and a kitty cat to keep me company.