I love Mother's Day: Etsy Gift Guide Edition.

Obviously, the card is one of the most important parts of your Mother's Day gift. It's the first thing she opens so it's gotta be heartfelt and make her want to cry a little. Unless you're me. Then you want to buy her a card that makes her smile but isn't too cheesy. I think this card definitely does the trick and at least makes her feel like I'm implying that she can be considered awesome. 

Mugs are always, always, always a safe bet for moms. All moms drink coffee or at least...right? If not, hopefully this mug is cute enough to make your mom want to start drinking coffee/tea. You could fill this with candy (my signature gift for anyone - all gifts have to somehow include candy of some kind) or a gift card! 

If your mom is like mine, she likes (a lot of) rum and she pretends she doesn't like sweets and says they're "too much" for her. I highly doubt she would be able to say "no" to these. They're Captain Morgan whoopie pies! 

Moms love decorative pillows, right? I feel like that's what advertising has told me. This one is perfect and timeless and true! If I'm being completely honest, I'm hoping my future children somehow find my blog on the internet and buy me this pillow for Mother's Day.

I am 98% positive that the only people that truly, really care about whether or not people use coasters are moms. I'm also 98% positive that most moms actually are superheroes. So these cute, colorful, fun coasters are a 98% win and great for summer! 

And to use on those coasters (see above), moms who like the O's and the Ravens obviously need these stemless wine glasses to get their drink on this summer. I'd suggest buying a bottle or two of wine to go with these with some flowers and you're set! Again - pssssssst -future children who are reading this, I want these. 

Just like mugs, candles are always a good gift for moms, in my opinion. As long as they're cute and unique and smell good. Bears, honey, and hugs are also great gifts. I imagine this cute little Bear Hug candle smells amazing! Mmmm.

Another good treat (for anyone but specifically moms) -- chocolate peanut butter cupcakes in jars. Moms need chocolate at all times and this is 100x better than a box of chocolates from the grocery store. So Pinterest of you to make cupcakes in jars. These really look like you made them. But you didn't. Someone on Etsy did and charged you a little bit more than necessary but it's so worth it. 

I love these things: Etsy edition.

I like to pretend that I have a few hobbies (if any). One of them being baking. Another one is finding-and-favoriting-and-possibly-buying-things on Etsy. I like to think I have an eye for favoriting great things on Etsy. I guess that's more of a talent than a hobby but I still want to call it a hobby so I feel like I have more than I actually do. 

Here are some of my recent fave favorites that I think are worth sharing (and buying!). 

Black and Orange O's shirt

Opening Day is tomorrow @ OPACY. Baseball is here! Hopefully baseball brought baseball weather with it because it's hard to wear t-shirts like this when it's snowing. The best thing about Etsy is that there are things on Etsy that are 100% unique that you can't find anywhere else. This shirt is an awesome example of that! You won't be seeing anything this great on in the O's shop online (and for only $12!).

Personalized Stemless Wine Glasses (with lids!)

I'm always looking for a new way to get wine into my life/mouth. I've been known to spill alcoholic beverages onto my Macbook Pro and almost completely ruin it and then pay $800 to get it repaired. So...I think it goes without saying that when I'm looking for a new way to drink my wine, I need that new way to have some sort of lid on it. Ideally, I'd like an adult sippy cup. These stemless wine glasses meet all of my qualifications - lid, cute, I can put wine in it. I'm all about them and want to buy some soon! 

Here's a Huge Hug Card

"Who doesn't like getting cards/letters/packages in the mail?" - things I tell myself as I'm "building my greeting card collection" aka have 5 cards in hand @ Target. I've recently decided that it's fun and it makes me feel well-prepared for any birthday/get well soon emergency to have a greeting card collection. In my mind, I have to have as many as possible for any situation. You NEVER KNOW WHAT COULD HAPPEN and you want to have a card for every situation, haha. I'll probably be buying this one in a few days when I have an Etsy binge. It's so cute and simple.

Red + White Polka Dot Swimsuit

Minnie Mouse life. Those days when I wake up @ 5:35am and I'm struggling to make myself get on the treadmill, I like to look at this swimsuit because I think, "I don't know. Maybe if I get on the treadmill and run a little bit, I'll be a little bit closer to being able to wear this in real life in front of other humans." It's perfect. It has polka dots. It's red. There's a bow. Ugh, need. Also, again, Minnie Mouse life. 

Aqua Polka Dot Dog Collar

Etsy not only nails it at having the best human things but a lot of sellers sell things for cute little nice doggies. You can't really find adorable collars like this at a pet store or Target even (gasp)! I think Sasha wants this one. She likes to be fashionable and this is totally her color. Maybe for her half birthday in June! ;)

I love things lately.

Okaaaay. The title of this post isn't entirely true. The past week and a half have been a little bit on the rough side. If I'm being real, last week may have been the worst week I've had in years - so that was fun. Really great times. Luckily, this week is better and the good news is only two days until the weekend!

Instead of whining (and trust me, I could do it) about how incredibly annoying things/events/people/life was/were last week, I'm going to update you guys on some of the positive things that have been going on! 

I enjoyed Paul's birthday. I think he probably did too. We went out to his favorite restaurant - the fancy, magical Olive Garden - but went to the new one in Owings Mills which was surprisingly amazing. It's so new and nice and our waiter was kind of an a-hole but I didn't mind because he just did his job and didn't try to be too obnoxious - and I respect that, haha. Other than dinner, we didn't do a whole lot on his actual birthday - Sunday. Mostly just hung out with Sasha - which is enough fun on it's own, haha. We could have just done that the entire day. I love birthdays. Mine's next! Can't wait.

The weather has been amazing. I wish I had a better word to describe it but I don't want to go to thesaurus.com to look for another word and end up using something cheesy. I'll just stick to amazing. Traffic has been a hot mess (infuriating) disaster the past week and a half which is confusing but the best part about it is: I get to (kind of) be outside during my weekday. I like to think it's the traffic gods giving me a chance to enjoy the nice weather before heading inside to sit at my desk for 8 hours. Thanks, traffic gods. Love ya.

I do love me some new apps. Thanks to Kayleigh from Elliot in the Morning and her Instagram, I found the Nike Running app. This thing is the best. Not only does it track how much I've run/ran but it yells nice things at me while I do it. Well, not really. It just tells me how fair I've gone and my pace, etc. I like to think she's trying to motivate me and I like that. I run on a treadmill and didn't think that running apps could track how much I've run but I was wrong - this one can! I'm sure it'll come in handy once I start running outside too! I'd highly recommend it!

I've got a lot of work to do coming up. Doing a lot of thinking about my future - which is something I tend to try to not think about. Gotta do it sometime, I guess. 90% of me thinking about my future has been questioning "how soon in my life can I make cake pops because I'v never made them before and that needs to happen?" Things are getting serious, obviously. 

I love Etsy forever.

My typical Saturday morning: browsing around Etsy + favorite-ing items + putting them in my cart to buy when I'm feeling wild one weekday evening after work.

I've discovered a few things (and by a few, I mean 1,000+) that are super adorable and worth sharing! I'm not sure if you're aware, but Etsy has a TON of amazing things that I feel like not a lot of people know about! 

Here are some of my most recent finds that I'm having a hard time not buying: 

1. Chevron earrings in seafoam, $7.95

2. Merci postcards, $18.00

3. Wild and free tank, $28.00

4. Macaron sampler , $22.50

5. Grey chevron mini-lanyard, $7.50

6. Confetti birthday card, $2.90

7. Foldover clutch, $32.00

8. Watercolor funfetti iPhone case, $33.00

I love things lately.

Lately has been pumpkin brownies, new obsessions, and fun buys.

Last weekend, I baked pumpkin choco-chip brownies for my sister and I. We were home alone and needed treeeeeats. They turned out pretty decent. I think Catie liked them more than I did. I usually can't get down with brownies from scratch -- they just don't taste as good as brownies from a box. It has something to do with the cocoa powder? I don't know. 
If Catie weren't in the house when I was making these, I probably would have gone nuts. There were a few mishaps - including putting in the wrong size pan and having to scrap off parchment paper while yelling. Good times. I think they look pretty! If you like brownies from scratch, pumpkin, and chocolate chips - here's the recipe!

In the past week or so, I've developed a few little obsessions. One being Google Docs. I'm obsessed with using Google Docs right now. I have so many lists and it's thrilling to me to know that I can look/add to the lists while I'm at home, at work, etc. SO CONVENIENT. Anything that helps me with my lists makes me happy. The other obsession is scarves. This isn't a new obsession in my life - just a new obsession now that it's fall again. I have to have at least 15 scarves already....and then I've been buying them online every weekend since it started even looking like it was going to be cold soon. Even when it was 75 degrees outside, I was looking at scarves, wanting to wear scarves, dreaming of scarves. Ugggh. I love scarves. So warm and cozzzzzzy.

When I said fun buyssssss...I meant fun buy. Singular. Just one. I mean, I always have fun/make fun buys when I buy things online at 10:00am every Saturday morning. But I made this one on a random Tuesday afternoon and I'm pretty excited. I got a Baggu bag! I've never had a reason to buy a Baggu...but I've always wanted one! This lil guy will be my new lunch bag. 
Here's the one I got:

It's got cute lil baby foxes and it's orange-ish pink-ish. I'm in love. 

I love Starbucks.

I have a love-hate relationship with Starbucks. It's like 99% love and 1% hate. And to be honest, that 1% isn't even real hate. I have to try to hate it to convince myself not to go there all the time.
  
Something about working full-time and Eldersburg having a drive-thru (and probably having Shannon as a best friend) has made me crazy about drinking Starbucks everyday. I don't think it's an addiction - trust me, I googled what it would be like if I did have one to Starbucks and I don't have too many symptoms. 
   
It's definitely combination of what I just said - plus:

• Everyone that works at Starbucks is SO BUBBLY and nice (I'm sure you've seen my Facebook statuses about this.) I can't get over it. It's so easy to drive up, order my drink, and have someone be really nice to me while I wait for it. It makes my morning a little bit easier! 
• Espresso seems so much more intense than the coffee I made/drink at home so it seems a lot more effective when I'm a sleepy monster in the morning before work. The intensity makes me think I'll never get tired during the day after I drink my latte - which is definitely not true, haha.
• The drive-thru really is extremely convenient. I don't even have to get out of my car. I can continue to listen to Elliott in the Morning while I wait. And...the drive-thru is technically on my way to work so it's not like I'm going out of my way. It's there when I drive by. I have to go to it.

My monthly goals for the past few months have been involving Starbucks...and trying to cut back. Last month, I made the goal of only going to Starbucks 2x a week. It was hard a first but I did it! I cut back to only Monday and Friday. Monday because Mondays are hard and Starbucks makes it easier. Friday because I worked hard the entire week and I earned it. I think one of my July goals will be to cut back to one day a week - Monday! I'll keep you guys updated, hahaha.

I love (birthday) lists.

I'm turning the big two-three (23) in less than a month! I love birthdays (I don't dread mine yet - that'll be 25, I think) and  I love making lists and I love wanting everything ever so I figured this was a good time to list out all of the things I'd like for my birthday. Everyone can buy me something but no pressure or anything.

1. This Remington Curling Wand. I've wanted it for a few months now. My cousins came up from North Carolina in the fall and my cousin Kimmy curled my hair for Thanksgiving with this wand. I was so in love. I can't justify spending $25 on it even though I would use it all the time. 

2. Nike Revolution sneakers. Look at them. So pretty. I haven't had a pair of sneakers (besides my running shoes) in a long time - partially because I'm so picky! These are winners. I stare at them all the time on Zappos. 

3. Okay, this is $800 but still. I got to mess with a Canon similar to this one in my photography class that I had to take last summer. So so so dreamy. I'm apparently without a camera (I've been borrowing my mother's - life. - and now I have to give it back! What am I going to do?) moving forward so this is me pleading to everyone to put their money together and buy this for me. I definitely forgot to mention this little guy in my lottery post. I'd definitely buy this guy if I had $640+ million dollars lying around. 

4. This PowerShot would work fine too! It's a teeny tiny bit cheaper. Just saying.

5. It's not often that I'll laugh so hard that I cry (or that I'll pee my pants, hahaha). But trust me (you can ask Shannon), when I read this book, I go f'ing crazy. I need this book for any bad days I'm going to have. It would definitely make me feel 100% better. Too hilarious. I'm laughing just thinking about the things that are in this book. 

6. I want go to to Georgetown Cupcake. Badly. So badly. Very badly. Badly badly badly. 

7. This Coupons Receiptables from Knock Knock would make my weekly grocery and Target trips a lot easier! So many coupons and so much disorganization right now. 

I love pretty iPhone cases.

It's true. It's so true. I'm finally becoming like everyone else and getting an iPhone. I'm lucky enough to have my birthday be around the same time of when my BlackBerry contract ends so I get an iPhone for free (as a gift). 
I'm excited.
Really excited. 
I've waited all of my life for this.
My BlackBerry has been so...not fun. It was fun in the beginning and then as time went on, it broke and broke and broke and broke and got replaced and replaced and sucked and was lame and sometimes was cool.

Yaaay for getting an iPhone. You know what that means...the time has come for me to buy a pretty case to put on it so that it doesn't break because I'm not going to be getting insurance on it! Yaaaaay. Which one will I get? Who knows? I'll decide later - they're all so cute.

1. Red (or is it pink? or is it orange? Or it is red-orange-pink?) polka dot case from NapPage on Etsy.

2. Vertical stripes (oooh cool) in different shades of teal/coral/green-blue from incase. 

3. Colorful, pretty circles overlapping each other on a pretty, white background also from NapPage on Etsy.

4. Yellow and chevron bright, bright, bright case from redtilestudio on Etsy.

I love Valentine's Day + Macaroons.

This year for Valentine's Day, I got Paul macaroons - something he's been obsessing over for a while now - from Sweetsarahshop. Shout out to her for not only making the best macaroons ever (and I mean ever, they're cute and small and amazing) but also being the nicest Etsy shop owner I've ever dealt with (super on top of things and got back to me really quick whenever I had a question)! Everyone should check out her shop and buy some macaroons or any of her other goodies. I promise it's worth the money!