Yesterday there was a a wonderful newspaper article about my brother's coffee company Barista's Beans. Since the average person doesn't know what its like to taste coffee that was roasted within mere days of finding its way into your cup, he and his wife have made it their mission. They do it all themselves from a small roasting shed in Hyde Park, Vermont and there is nothing like the taste of their coffee. Recently they added a feature to their website where you can sign up for coffee subscriptions no matter where you are. Brilliant! Aside from being a proud sister I am an avid fan, it is the only coffee I will drink!

Yesterday I was preparing for our little wine tasting event* when my boyfriend came struggling though the door with a a bag full of fruit, stinky cheeses and an armful of forsythia branches. There is something about these little yellow flowers that makes me so happy. Maybe its is because you feel as though you are cheating at this whole winter thing when they wake up and bloom inside. It reminds me that spring is right around the corner. Today I think you can actually feel it in the air!

*While the wine tasting dinner was a bit outside our daily budget, it was still very cheap considering our guests brought most of the wine and I made lasagna and salad from stuff in the fridge. Our fun wine tasting charts are from Delong wine, and of course we had the benefit of having a self proclaimed "wine nerd" walk us through everything we needed to know!

I have a tendency to be a bit of a lazy slob. I'll admit it. I like to blame it on the fact that I'm a Sagittarius, but its not something I am proud of. I have to make up little games for myself to get things accomplished. Like for example, the mister and I have water drinking competitions to see who can drink 8 glasses or more by the end of the day. I inevitability lose, but at least I drink more than I normally would.

Right now we are in the midst of a week long "who can spend less money on food" competition. It is an attempt to cook more at home, which I love to do but because of the "lazy slob" factor I often order takeout, eat a third of it before tossing it in the trash. Also I can get caught up in the grocery shopping process and buy a 10 dollar jar of mustard without even realizing it. Then, said mustard is doomed to a lifetime on the miscellaneous condiments shelf in our fridge, only to be consumed on rare occasion. Its shameful and I need to stop the waste. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

It has been going well so far, at this very moment I have a loaf of banana bread cooling on the stove (points for re-purposing old bananas), some chicken marinating, and yesterdays five dollar allotment rolling over for today's festivities. This morning I was reading NY Mags 50 steps to Simple Happiness, and someone made the suggestion of spending a weekend buying nothing whatsoever. Yikes. Something I will need to work up to, but it is intriguing nonetheless. I think I might need a some sunshine for that.

It has been quite a snowy week here in NYC and I'm loving it. At this point I have a bit of cabin fever, but it has been nice to watch the snowfall descend upon the city from the safe haven of my apartment window. 

Whenever I get downtrodden about my wardrobe I just take a trip over to The Sartorialist and I am reminded, it is not about the clothes you own, it is how you put them together.  Or rather, invest in a really great colorful scarf and then get creative. How fabulous are these fashion week attendees? (I love Refinery 29's Step by Step guide to being shot by The Sartorialist. Funny and accurate!) 

This commercial is so sweet and sorta made me well up. There is something about Olympics commercials where they always pick just the right soundtrack to pull at your heartstrings. But then later, I was left thinking, what about dads?

One of the things I dislike most about winter is come January its really hard to find any enthusiasm about getting dressed in the morning. New York has been cold and wet for what seems like forever, and fashion tends to fall by the wayside when all you can think about is staying warm and dry. Therefore it really impresses me when people can wear or design winter clothes with some color and optimism. One of Refinery 29's rising stars of fashion week this season was a line called Suno, which I had never had heard of but am instantly loving the eclectic and islandy style. And their winter collection really appeals to my inner Pippi Longstocking.

Part of the reason I was so MIA last week is because I was working on fashion week. The rest of the time I was sleeping. It was a very fun and very exhausting experience but ultimately fulfilling to be part of such a creative, exciting process. Heres some snaps from the week.