What I’m Loving Right Now

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! I would love to be having a yummy top shelf margarita (on the rocks, no salt please), but instead I’m currently nursing an iced latte. Not a bad thing to be sipping, but it’s no margarita.

Since I don’t have any fun Cinco de Mayo pics, I thought I’d share a few things I’ve been crushing on lately…

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DIY Iced Latte

My daily visit to Bold Bean (a local coffee shop) for an iced latte was putting quite the dent in my wallet. I don’t mind treating myself once or twice a week, but I needed to find a good solution to make my own.

I was obsessed with Italian made coffee when I was in Italy so I recently purchased a Moka Pot. Which as it turns out, Moka pot coffee, is perfect in an iced latte!

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I make mine with 2 oz of brewed and cooled coffee, 2 tbsp of vanilla syrup (recipe below) and 6-8 oz of milk. I’ve been using cows milk only, but I recently switched to 4 oz cows milk + 4 oz almond milk.

I’ve tried to replicate iced coffees/lattes at home several times and was never successful…

Until now! I’m in love with my diy iced latte.

It completes me.

At least until I get tired of it. lol. But for now, I’m patting myself on the back for making my own lattes in the morning instead of picking one up at the local coffee shop.

DIY Vanilla Syrup: 1 cup of water, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract (adjust amount to your liking) and one vanilla bean (optional). Bring water + sugar (+ a split vanilla bean if you’re using one) to a simmer while stirring to dissolve all the sugar. Let mixture cool, add extract and pour into a bottle! If you’re using a vanilla bean, add that to your bottle with your syrup. Easy peasy!

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Hand Lettering

At the end of April, I signed up for a 30 day creative lettering course from Made Vibrant. Each day for the month of May I’ll be practicing my skills and (most days) posting a piece on Instagram. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and hand lettering is simply the drawing of letters. It’s kind of frustrating because I want to be better at it than I am, but I know that I just need to keep practicing.

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Rocksbox

Um, if you’re a jewelry fanatic and you don’t know about Rocksbox, you might want to take a seat. Let me rock your world by introducing you to your new subscription obsession.

Rocksbox is a membership based designer jewelry rental/try-before-you-buy box. For a measly $19 a month, you get 3 pieces of jewelry to wear on loan for as long as you’d like. You can return your box as often as you’d like and get 3 more pieces to wear. If you decide that you can’t live without something in your box, you have the option to purchase any of your pieces at a discounted rate. Plus, each month, Rocksbox gives you $10 of Shine Spend to apply to a purchase. Your Shine Spend expires though so you can choose to use it or lose it.

I got my first box last week and was super stoked with the 3 pieces I received.

DSCF4456 copyHouse of Harlow 1960 Five Station Necklace :: Gorjana Vista Cuff (on sale!) :: Sophie Harper Mini Pave Bar Studs (as far as I can tell, Sophie Harper is exclusively Rocksbox at the moment)

I’ve been wearing these dainty earrings every day since they arrived! For only $28 (my discounted price), I knew from the moment I put them on that there was no way was I sending them back!

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I fell pretty hard for this Gorjana bracelet too and have been wearing it almost daily. It’s the same one I’m wearing in the latte photo at the top of the post too.

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I like the necklace a lot, but I don’t love it on me and I haven’t really had anything to wear it with since my box arrived.

Wanna try Rocksbox out for yourself?! Use this code, “katiebff636” and get your first box FREE! 😀

Tell me…What are you loving lately?

Under the Tuscan Sun

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If I click my heels together three times, maybe I can blink myself back there…

roaming the unfamiliar, yet quaint neighborhoods…navigating the cobblestone streets, treasures hiding around every corner…eating gelato once, twice, three times a day…more pizza and pasta than I can handle!

*sigh*

I’m missing Italy today.

I spent 30 min researching how to make a caffé latté at home. I’m sure there are other ways, but I settled with a moka pot, illy coffee and a milk frother.

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Italy has been high on my bucket list of places to visit for awhile, but I really fell in love with wanting to visit after watching Under the Tuscan Sun so it seemed only fitting to pop it into the blu-ray and watch it again today.

To complete my Italy reminiscing, I got 100+ of our vacation photos edited. *happy dance*

I may have been feeling a little nostalgic today, but all in all, it was a pretty good way to start the week.

Ciao Bella!