Commas & Carbs: Friday Favorites

We got the OK to work from home today because of all the snow we're supposed to get, so I'm thrilled to be writing this from my dining room table in lounge clothes aka pajamas.

This week was packed with stuff, so I'm looking forward to a chill work day today, nothing but relaxation tomorrow, and a sweet baby shower on Sunday.
Now, some favorites...

Sammy's birthday

Sammy's birthday was on Tuesday and I was SO excited for his birthday this year. He had to work so I felt bad he wasn't going to see anyone on his actual birthday (he works the afternoon shift, so he's gone in the evenings when people come home from work around five), so I took the day off so I could be with him in the morning and early afternoon before he had to leave for his shift.

When he heard Elton John would be doing a farewell tour, he mentioned in passing how cool it would be to see him, so when tickets went on sale last Friday, I grabbed two. Definitely not the cheapest gift I've ever gotten him haha but he was very excited when he opened them!

I also got him a day pass to a local ski resort because he's rekindled his love of skiing, as well as this cool ammo case I had engraved on Etsy.

Who knew I'd be buying an ammo case as a birthday gift one day... ;) I put mini Snickers inside because that's my kind of ammo.

I wanted to make breakfast and lunch for him, but I knew we'd only have a few hours together before he had to go to work, so I made almost everything the night before so I wouldn't be spending a bunch of time in the kitchen on his birthday.

He's a big cinnamon roll guy, so I made these pancakes for him and they turned out really well! The cream cheese drizzle was insanely good. I made the batter, cinnamon mix, and icing the night before and stored them in baggies to bring over the next day.

Recipe Here!

And then I made him this pasta dish for lunch which he enjoyed as well. He really liked the sauce and it's so easy to make so I'm trying to think of other combinations to make it with. I think it would be great over larger pieces of sausage and peppers.

Recipe Here!

Of course we had to eat ours with some of the sausage we hung and dried last month ;)

And since I had the rest of the day off, I went home and spent the entire afternoon napping with this guy. It was glorious and so necessary.

New Writing Column

About two years ago, when I was still in grad school, I contacted the editor of the Fra Noi, and Italian-American magazine here in Chicago, to see if he would be interested in a piece about St. Joseph's Day for their March issue since it's a big holiday for my family. Turns out I was too late--they were already in production for their March issue--but he told me to resubmit the following year. Well I forgot about it, but he emailed me last month and asked if I would still submit the piece. So I did but was really self conscious about it because it was a piece I hadn't looked at since grad school, and I haven't written much since then anyway, and he needed it edited down significantly to fit the allotted space in the magazine, so I thought it might lose it's message with such a big edit.
Fully expecting to hear back from him being like, yeah, thanks, but no thanks... I was shocked when he sent the nicest email praising my writing skills and asking me if I'd like to write a monthly POV piece for the next year or two.
My first piece comes out next month (maybe even sooner!) and I'm excited to see it in print. It's a super regional paper and I don't know how high their readership is, but it's a foot in the door on my way to "freelance writer" status and I'm proud of that.

The Paris Wife

Wouldn't be a favorites post of mine if I didn't include what I'm currently reading!

I picked up The Paris Wife for like fifty cents at a library used book sale. I started reading the flap copy and stopped as soon as I read "Ernest Hemingway, first wife, Hadley, life in Paris." I was like yep, don't have to twist my arm. All my favorite things haha.

It's a fictionalized telling of Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson's experience living in Paris in the 20s right after they were married.

I'm really enjoying it so far. Paula McClain has a way of writing so accessibly and yet so poetically. I know it doesn't end "well" so I'm interested to see how McClain writes that.

Emilie Claire Barlow

I've been listening to Parisian music while reading The Paris Wife and I've zeroed in on Emilie Claire Barlow (also, how pretty is that spelling of Emily?). Omg I love her voice. It's so lovely. Highly recommend.

Ulta Products

I'm not an Ulta girl. I'm Sephora through and through, but my girlfriend recently mentioned getting facials at the Dermologica bar for $60 for an hour at our local Ulta and I immediately booked an appointment. I loved the experience (mostly because my facialist was so amazing) and I highly recommend seeing if your Ulta offers the service.

While I was there, I decided to walk around and see if I could find a few things to try.

I found these gel moisture socks (that I thought were listed as $4.99 but I see online are $25 and I swear to god if I paid $25 for gel socks...lesson to me to pay more attention at the register...) and decided to try them out. I was surprised at the results actually. I wore them for an hour or so while I read and my feet came out feeling really soft (which is a miracle during the winter).

Here!

I also grabbed a few new face masks and a terrycloth bow headband for when I do said masks, makeup, get out of the shower, etc. It's a little girly for my taste but I actually really like it on haha.

February Favorites Coming Up

It's easy for winter to get to me after a while, so it's nice to have things to be excited about. There are a few things in Feb I'm really looking forward to like spending some time next week with Sammy to celebrate Valentine's Day (he has to work on the actual day), our office being closed for President's Day, and the annual Wine About Winter event (next weekend!) I go to with my girlfriends that is so, so fun. It's basically a wine crawl throughout the downtown square near where my girlfriend works. It's been unseasonably warm every weekend this event falls on, but I don't think we're going to get that lucky this year, so now we can whine about winter ;)