Today on weekend meanderings, create your own dopamine menu and do the things that make you happy. Baking the yummiest pumpkin spice muffins, celebrating niece Shelby’s birthday, attending a holiday sip and shop, lots of comfort TV viewing, and cleaning out the pantry.
Happy Saturday, friends!
It’s time for the weekend post with Kim and Elizabeth. Our weekly roundup of inspirations and goings on.
It’s been a week and like many others I found myself in need of a little pick me up.
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Have you heard the term dopamine menu? Apparently it’s a TikTok thing but originated with this YouTube video for the ADHD community. I don’t have ADHD but I do have a tendency to wallow in things. So I’m co-opting the idea to create a go-to list of fun and productive activities that bring me comfort, happiness and sense of well-being. They aren’t all frivolous. Cleaning, organizing and checking things off the to-do list brings me an enormous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And it elevates my mood.
Hood Canal Candle Co. Fall / Winter Collection – Dec. 10 is last day to shop
And then there are the more traditionally happy things like baking, meeting friends for lunch, walking the dogs, a yoga class, shopping, good books and movies. I engaged in quite a few of them this week. Guess what, they work!
Fall Cleaning & Decluttering Project, Part Three
Believe it or not cleaning and organizing makes me happy … mostly because it feels so good when it’s done. And it’s a productive distraction. This week I tackled the pantry. Well, we don’t have a pantry so what I mean is our food cupboards. I pulled out all the food and started looking at expiration dates. I know they’re not hard and fast especially for canned and dry goods. Our local food pantry will take anything within a year of its expiration date so I used that as a benchmark. I’m embarrassed to report that many items were well past the one year mark. In my defense, most of it was left over pandemic hoarding. Made worse last year when I went temporarily insane and rejoined Costco. My one and only trip to the store resulted in an overstock of pantry items that I don’t use as much as I thought I did. Some were stored in our garage pantry cupboard that I forget to check before heading to the grocery store. The good news is our cupboards are now clean, organized and several grocery bags made their way to the food bank.
The top shelf of the upper cabinets is impossible to reach without retrieving the step-stool from the garage … which I find aggravating. It’s a good place to store infrequently used things like roasting pans. I’ve become such a decluttering pro that one shelf is entirely empty and its going to stay that way.
I know it must look like our cupboards are bare. Remember there are only two of us and Jim travels a lot.
Next I tackled the spice drawer which has experienced spice creep into the above cupboard. Do you experience spice-creep? Once I eliminated the well-beyond-expiration-date spices and consolidated duplicates everything fit back nicely.
Going forward I’ve vowed to be a just-in-time shopper. Do you remember the just-in-time inventory management system? Introduced by the Japanese in the 1970’s and adopted by American manufacturers in the 80’s. In the 90’s it moved beyond factories and into offices. When I worked for Arthur Andersen it was announced – to the shock and horror of the professional staff – that their cubicles would now be assigned on a just-in-time basis. Everyone received a two-drawer rolling file cabinet which would magically appear at their reserved cubby on days they were in the office. Mostly it was a major headache for the facility manager. Anyhoo, I’ve adopted it as a pantry inventory management system and will shop for immediate needs – current week – only. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Kitchen Organization ~
Sugar & Pumpkin Spice Muffins
One of the ‘use now’ cans from my pantry clean-out was pumpkin puree, so what’s a gal to do but bake pumpkin muffins. Serious dopamine spike. The recipe was torn from the pages of Southern Living Magazine in 2022, and it’s about time I made it. The recipe uses a whole, baked sugar pumpkin, but you can substitute a 15oz can of pumpkin puree. The recipe also calls for a pumpkin pie spice and sugar topping, but I used cinnamon sugar instead. It’s perfection. Pumpkin muffins and cocoa were my breakfast all week.
Birthday Lunch with Niece Shelby
Niece Shelby turned 23 last weekend! She spent her birthday weekend celebrating with boyfriend, Niko, in San Luis Obispo. When she returned to town we met up with her for a delicious lunch at Social Bird. Lunches out with friends and family always lifts the mood.
Holiday Sip & Shop
Dana Green hosted a Holiday Sip & Shop at her home this week. Dana’s a local realtor who grew up here in Lafayette and raised her own family here. Not only is she a local real estate legend but she and her team throw their support behind just about every community event and cause. Not surprisingly she lives in a beautiful home which she filled with fabulous local vendors so we could get a jump on our holiday shopping. Fun!
I wore Frank & Eileen’s corduroy shirt dress and cotton sweater.
When Jim said he wanted to go, I’m not sure he understood what he was saying yes to. I don’t think he heard anything beyond ‘Dana’s house’ and ‘sip.’ When we arrived he said, what the heck, I’m the only guy here! Not entirely true. There were a couple others including Dana’s husband, Todd, who Jim quickly found at the bar. Once he had a glass of wine in hand he was happy to sip, chat and watch me (like a hawk) shop. Who was there …
B Sweeter Cookies by Kim – strategically positioned in Dana’s foyer, we sampled Kim’s chocolate chip cookies as soon as we walked through the door. Delish! Her moto is worth – every – calorie. Can confirm.
JBJ by Jill – fine jewelry with sunshine vibes
South Austin Lane – while perusing all the wonderful personalized and monogramed gifts, a checkered cross body bag caught my eye. It’s totally a Clare V. fanny bag dupe and I snapped it up.
I wore the bag yesterday with Mother warm white denim, a Frank & Eileen flannel button up and Birk Boston Clogs.
White Barn Home – love this adorable downtown shop in the original – 1857 – Lafayette post office. It’s my go to for creative tabletop ideas and so many other things like throw pillows, candles … everything. Oh, and their holiday wreath bells are in stock.
XO The Blanket – oh my goodness, I think I lost my mind in the middle of Dana’s living room. I know I lost my wallet. These blankets are amazing. But first, the dog bed covers. Pippa and Maggie were in need of a new cushion cover for their living room bed. Nothing but the best for them, right? The girls are at the top of my Dopa Menu.
After Pippa and Maggie’s needs were met, I couldn’t resist XO’s signature luxe throw blanket. It weighs 5 lbs! And it can be thrown in the washing machine. Someone told me they’ve had one for over 5 years, wash it repeatedly, and it’s just as soft and luxe as when it was new. Okay then, I brought one home from their new Teton Collection. I’m saving it for the new house.
Zahra Boutique – niece Shelby introduced me to this cute boutique in downtown Lafayette. It’s right next door to a favorite restaurant and it’s fun to watch the shop girls model clothes and snap social media photos in front of their pretty, yellow Dutch door. Sheila, the shop owner, couldn’t be cuter or nicer and I enjoyed chatting with her.
That’s Shiela in the center, and I’m going to hazard a guess that’s her daughter on the left.
She had so many things I wanted to try on, including a gorgeous leopard print coat … but Jim was getting impatient. I did manage to buy a Clare V. bag before he dragged me out. The bag caught my eye because the style and color reminded me of my very first ‘good’ bag – a Coach saddlebag – that I saved for a bought with babysitting money in high school. Kim’s recent fall bag edit had me thinking about that adored Coach bag and I thought it was serendipitous when the very similar Clare V. appeared. Anyway, I got to wear it last night which filled me with nostalgia and happiness.
If you’re local, be sure to stop by Zahra’s beautifully curated boutique. If you’re a fan of Clare V. she has a great selection of their bag straps including the shorty strap that I’m going to buy for my new bag.
I had so much fun at this first-of-the-season holiday shopping event. Ten-percent of the evening’s proceeds are headed to Make A Wish of the Greater Bay Area. Thanks, Dana!
Comfort Viewing
We finally watched Emily in Paris season four, part two. If you haven’t seen it I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll just say I’m very much looking forward to season five.
We also started season four of Only Murders in the Building. Did you hear that Meryl Streep and Martin Short might be dating … in real life?!
Odds & Socks ~
After a long search, I finally settled on these Stuart Weitzman brown, leather boots. They’re an investment, but as wise woman say, don’t skimp on shoes and coats.
Current Favorites ~
And that’s what I have for you this week. Let’s see what’s inspiring Kim and Elizabeth.
In case you missed last weekend’s post, you can catch up here.
On Thursday I’ll be joining a group of friends, including Kim and Elizabeth, to share some of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes.
Until then, wishing you a wonderful weekend!
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