This weekend I went skiing for the first time in 5 years. It was amazing, but slightly frightening at the same time. I need lessons. Any tips?

After driving up to Arapahoe Basin last Saturday through snow and fog, my friends and I decided to have a beer before hitting the slopes. By the time we finished our beers, got geared up, and went down the bunny hill 3 times they announced last call. Oops. We made it down the bunny hill one more time for an approximate 15 minutes of skiing.

On Sunday morning we planned to get to Keystone by 8:30, but instead we slept until 8:30 (because we uhhh… had some fun in Breckenridge) and got there at 10:00. By the time we geared up, rode the bus, and actually made it up the chairlift it was 11:30. Our goal was to leave Keystone at 12:00 so that we would miss traffic and get home in time for my friend to make it to work. Oops again. We had time to go down once. Good thing it was a 3.5-mile run, so at least it was somewhat worth it. Also, the beauty of having a ski pass is that you don’t have to pay lots of dollars in lift tickets for a little amount of skiing!

One thing we did do right was to make sure we left the mountains at a decent hour. We hit the road by 12:30 and had essentially no traffic. To celebrate we had brunch at Sputnik when we got back.

Overall, the weekend was such a blast and did teach us a few lessons:

• The ski lifts stop running at 4:00 pm (unless there is night skiing).
• Don’t leave your snow pants, jackets, gloves, and boots in the car overnight, because they will be freezing when you put them on in the morning, especially when it’s only 8 degrees outside.
• Frozen boots will take you about 15 painful minutes to put on.
• Be patient. There is a lot of “hurry up and wait” involved with skiing (on busy days at least).
• Leaving at noon is a good idea, because there will be minimal traffic.

Rookie mistakes, but at least we learned from them! I’m looking forward to going again and skiing for more than 15 minutes.

Then there are also these things unrelated to skiing, but all very fun:

• What does your favorite holiday cookie say about you?
• How to setup a holiday bubbly bar. This really needs to happen in my life.
• Find the best red lipstick for your skintone. Just in time for the holidays.
• These travel bucket list experiences are all amazing. I’ve hiked Machu Picchu. 1 down, 19 to go.
• An awesome article about 3 damaging lies women believe about their bodies.

I hope you get your holiday on this weekend! Katie and I are having a roomie brunch on Saturday with quiche, mimosas, and Christmas movies. It’ll be great.

I feel like I’ve been slacking on my posts a little bit here. It’s not that I’m crazy busy, but rather that I don’t have a consistent schedule like I used to in Minneapolis. At General Mills I knew I would be working Monday-Friday 8:30ish-5:00ish and could properly plan my schedule around it: when to bake, when to blog, when to run, when to meet up with friends. Now I may be at work from 8:00-7:30 one day and only 11:00-2:00 the next – all depending on my clients. For a Type A planner such as myself this throws me a little bit off of my game. I think it’s probably good for me though.

The great thing is that the days absolutely fly by! On Tuesday I was at 24 Hour Fitness for just shy of 12 hours. I trained 6 clients, consulted with 2 new members, attended a meeting with the other trainers, and fit in a quick workout myself. It went faster than any 8-hour day at General Mills. Needless to say, I’m happy with my career change so far.

So anyways, I’m going to try to work on my hustle and stay consistent with my posting. Otherwise my mom will call me out.

Also, the Denver sunrises are insanely fierce and I like these things:

• I forgot how genius chocolate bark. Check all these out: dark chocolate cherry quinoa bark, pretzel peanut butter stuffed chocolate bark, mint chocolate swirl bark, chocolate almond ginger bark and cherry almond bark. I think I need to make some.
• Then there are all of these amazing cookies on Sally’s Christmas Cookie Palooza.
• Settl, a great new online dating app 😉
• Do you have an RBF (Running Bitch Face)?
• A guide to craft beer, just in case you need it.

Oh! And did you see that my Chocolate Pistachio Meringue recipe made it to a post on Buzzfeed -> 17 Fantastic Recipes for Meringue Cookies. It made me just a leeeetle bit excited.

Have a great Thursday!!!

It’s been getting cold here, so the snow is actually starting to stick to the ground and accumulate. Let me tell you, 25 degrees in Denver does not feel like 25 degrees in Minneapolis. Thank you, sunshine. It’s pretty incredible.

And these things are pretty cool too.

• Last weekend I was really tempted to watch Christmas movies, but decided to wait and watch old movies instead (while knitting, naturally). I watched How to Marry a Millionaire, High Society, Roman Holiday, His Girl Friday, and Anchors Aweigh and just can’t get enough. Any recommendations?
• A pretty updo that is casual, but would be awesome for any upcoming holiday parties.
• Let’s go to all these fairy-tale towns in Germany, but then also make a stop in Berlin (because, Berlin).
• All of these cookbooks are gorgeous.
• I’m really tempted to buy this sweatshirt.

The picture above is an exception to what I mentioned earlier about the sun. Normally there are less clouds and more rays.

Happy Thursday!

JD

Last weekend a couple of friends and I went up (literally) to Breckenridge for a quick girl’s weekend. The drive up and down mountains in sleet and complete darkness was somewhat terrifying, but we all arrived in one piece and spent the remainder of Friday night eating lasagna and snacks, drinking wine, and chatting.

We woke up Saturday morning with a gorgeous view of the mountains and agreed that it probably never gets old. Besides the view, the morning also included mimosas and a butternut squash and sage frittata. Afterwards we went to check out Breckenridge Distillery. The tour was quick, interesting, free, and included samples – my kind of tour!

Then it was finally time for the hot tub. There was a bright sun and blue skies, snow on the ground, and cocktails in our hands. The water was just the right temperature to balance the chilly air. Then to top it all off, a little fox ran by to say hello. It was all just perfection.

Katie and I had to cut the weekend short, since we both had to work on Sunday morning, but the quick trip Friday night to Saturday night was totally worth it! Thanks again Carla for the invite J

These things are worth checking out too.

• I want this banana bread french toast, these Swedish cardamom buns, this roasted butternut squash soup, and this chocolate sweet potato layer cake.
• 24 Hours in Minneapolis with one of my favorite food bloggers.
• I love these little color block pouches.
• What are your everyday rituals?
• 8 tips for greatness. Let’s hustle.

Katie and I are hosting some visitors this weekend again. Can’t wait to see Ellie and Olive and explore more of Denver with them!!!

xoxoxojd

Katie and I had friends in town visiting last weekend and we did fun things like visit the Stanley Hotel (inspiration behind The Shining), go out around South Broadway with new friends, make tasty breakfast pizza, dance at Mile High Sprits, visit Coors Brewery, and check out the gorgeous views from Lookout Mountain (pictured above).

I think mountain pictures will be the Denver version of all my Stone Arch Bridge/Mississippi River pictures. I just don’t think they will ever get old. Ever ever ever.

These things might not get old either? Idk. Ask me in a year.

• It’s great weather to bake (and eat) muffins, like these: spiced apple muffins with streusel topping, vegan pumpkin gingerbread muffins, caramelized upside down pear bread, nutella swirled banana muffins, pumpkin brown butter muffins
• Sally’s Baking Addiction has great tutorials for cinnamon raisin and everything bagels. Want to make.
• Stay Gold.
• Make sure you know how to pair beer with your Halloween candy. This chart will help.
• Loved this post about crushing goals. Let’s make them happen!!

In other news, I made a major career change – from Supply Chain to Personal Training! It’s only been a month, but I have already found it to be both challenging and exciting. I am very much looking forward to the new adventure and will write more about it in a later post.

Have a happy, spooky, safe Halloween!!

jd