city sprouts

going on here.

+ Relishing in spending Mother’s Day with my family. We had brunch with my parents and sister, including Mom’s homemade quiche, Stew Leonard’s corn cakes, fruit salad, and bagels with cream cheese and tomato. Yum. Plus dinner out at the Red Barn the night before.

+ Balancing everything. I mentioned it yesterday, but between blogging, freelance work, puppy care, prep for moving to NYC, marathon training, and getting our business off the ground, there is a lot to juggle! And my to-do lists always seem to grow.

+ Loving our save the date cards! My parents and I ordered them early this week, and they arrived on Wednesday. I’ll share more about them and other wedding plans and updates soon.

+ Craving chocolate. Enough said.

+ Cuddling Maple, and trying to get as many photos of her as possible. She’s getting bigger already! Time really flies, so we’re trying to spend as much time with puppy as possible.

Have a great weekend!

making me happy.

Almost two weeks ago, we moved from Vermont to a spot in Connecticut outside of New York City. Since that’s where both Josh’s family and my family are from, it made sense to move here as a transition before moving to the city. I still can’t believe we’re moving to NYC this summer; I’m really excited, and a little nervous, but this transition home was needed.

We can get adjusted with Maple before adjusting to a big change, we get to spend lots of time with family and friends, and we can get ourselves situated with a place and jobs before the move.

While I feel like I’m juggling a lot – wedding planning, puppy, NYC job and apartment searching, marathon training, building our business, and writing and freelance work – they’re all fun things that I’m really excited about. It’s all about staying focused, and making to do lists.

I thought it’d be fun to share a few things that have been making me happy lately. Some are to be expected, some not.

Our little puppy. Oh, puppies. And at 9 weeks, she is totally ready to explore the world and set out on her own. A little wild, you could say. As busy as she keeps us, there’s nothing like the moments when she’s curled up in a little ball in her pen or ion the couch, and watching my family hold her and play with her is priceless.

Marathon training. This is it. Well, almost it. In just over a week Josh and I will be running our first marathon together, up in Vermont. We did our most recent long run – a 6-miler – together, and we just have one more long run left before the big day. I love how running gets me outside, and is such a great stress reliever. It always makes me feel healthy.

Nearby family and friends. It’s amazing what almost a year in Vermont makes you realize. Especially when you’re planning a wedding. Especially when you realize more and more that life goes by really quickly, and it’s important and calming to have close friends and family right around the corner. I love having my people right nearby.

Reading. I’ve always been a big reader. Pretty much every night before I go to sleep, I try to read for 15-30 minutes. I just finished reading Unorthodox, which was really good, and I have a stack of books to browse through after I finish. My favorites tend to be memoirs and autobiographies.

And writing. I’ve had the opportunity to write guest posts for a few blogs recently, like Best Body Fitness, Pavement Runner, and Healthy Living Blogs. It’s always fun to try new styles of writing, and I love sitting at my computer with tea or coffee, and typing away. Writing makes me happy.

free sponsorship giveaway on city sprouts!

For the last few months I’ve been using Passionfruit, an ad service that makes offering and managing ads super easy. While City Sprouts (formerly Vermont Vittles) is still fairly new, it’s growing pretty quickly, and knowing what it’s like to be a blogger and small business owner (I do freelance social media and blog work on the side), it’s great to have options for potential sponsors.

Passionfruit also keeps things really organized, with options like rotating ads, choosing the sizes that work best with your website or blog, or deciding how many slots to offer at a time.

I’ve gotten some amazing guest post and press opportunities over the last several months, so I wanted to find a way to give back to bloggers, writers, and small businesses. And having had the opportunity to advertise through free promos on other blogs, I thought it’d be fun to open this up to you!

 

Want a free ad on City Sprouts?

As a treat this month, I am offering 20 free Small Ad spaces on City Sprouts. Just head to my Sponsors page, click on “$5 – Buy Now”, add your information and image, and enter the Promo Code SPRING13 to get a Small Ad for 30 days for free!

This offer is open to the first 20 people who sign up. I reserve the right to reject ads for non-blog websites.

If you have trouble or questions, email me at lisafine.org AT gmail.com, or leave a comment on this post.

dilly egg salad.

I love dill. The smell and flavor remind of my mom’s soups, which were always loaded with fresh dill. Yum. I had never really thought to add dill to anything besides soup, until I was at my friend Allison’s house one time, and she served me a slice of egg frittata seasoned with dill.

Eggs + dill = deliciousness.

I don’t always keep fresh herbs on hand, but like to have an array of dried herbs available, and we keep a little mason jar of organic dried dill in the cupboard, which was purchased from the bulk bins at Hunger Mountain Coop.

With all the hard boiled eggs and egg salad we eat, I knew I’d have to try a dilly egg salad. So I did. It’s pretty tasty, especially topped on a salad or placed on rye bread. Or try serving it with crackers or tortilla chips.

We had ours on a spinach salad served with sliced red bell peppers and cottage cheese topped with paprika, and drizzled with olive oil.

Dilly Egg Salad, serves 2

• 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon spicy mustard
• 1.5 teaspoons dried dill
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together..

Like egg salad? Try White Bean Egg Salad too.

going on here.

+ Settling in. We’ve moved out of Vermont and are back in the NYC area, which has been really great. My parents and sister have already met Maple, and I’m slowly unpacking my things and getting into a routine.

+ Loving little Maple. Loving loving loving her. Of course. As you can imagine, it’s pretty much all puppy all the time around here. Which is busy, but a lot of fun.

+ Eating good food. Like a portabella mushroom burger and sweet potato fries at Sono Brewhouse, and berry and chocolate gelato at Sunny Daes. It’s good to be home.

+ Loving having Wi-Fi again. Josh and I didn’t have it at our last place in Vermont, since it got to be too expensive, so now it feels like a luxury. Ah.

Is it Friday already? Holy moly. I don’t know where this week went, but I’m excited to have more friends meet Maple, to enjoy the warmer weather, and to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend.