What's Up Wednesday

Happy hump day!  Today, I am linking up with Shay for my second "What's Up Wednesday," which consists of answering the following questions, plus the bonus question, "What is your favorite Halloween tradition?"  My first one ever can be found here.

1. What We're Eating This Week
It still feels like summer here in California, so I've still been eating a lot of salads, like this one below, which I made and blogged about last week.

I've also been baking a lot.  I made this delicious Lemon Almond Ricotta Cake and had it with some cold brew coffee.  It was relatively easy to make.  You can find the recipe here.

2. What I'm Reminiscing About
My birthday last month, which was filled with lots of friends and family time. And as you can see from the pictures, I had plenty of cake and sweets.  

I also enjoyed a birthday dinner at a restaurant in L.A. on Melrose that had the most beautiful outdoor patio.  Look at those twinkling lights...so pretty!

3. What I'm Loving
Starbucks bottled Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino!  These are available exclusively at Costco and are a cheaper option to getting a pumpkin spice latte or frappaccino at Starbucks, which can run you about $4.  You can also put this in a blender with some ice and coffee extract to make your own frapp at home.

4. What We've Been Up To
Visiting places in L.A. like Grand Central Market (an indoor market in downtown L.A.), the beach, and Santa Monica.

5. What I'm Dreading
The time change in November.  I hate, hate, HATE leaving work when it's dark outside.  I makes me want to crawl under a blanket when I get home and eat comfort food (read: lots and lots of carbs) instead of going to the gym.  It's the only thing I hate about Fall.  I love everything else: the cooler weather, all things pumpkin, the cute scarves, and the fall leaves.  I can't wait to wear this scarf.

6. What I'm Working On
Eating better and exercising at least 4 times a week.  I'm proud to say that for the past two weeks, I have done just that.  I've been using my Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor (yes, of course it's pink!) to log my exercises and keep me on track.  It's nice having something that summarizes everything and tells me how many calories I have burned.

7. What I'm Excited About
All the pumpkin goodies that are starting to pop up at several stores (like Trader Joe's and Sprouts), and I've already picked up some of my favorites.

8. What I'm Watching/Reading
All the Fall shows I watch are finally starting again.  One of my favorites is Dancing with the Stars.  I love seeing the interaction between the pros and the stars, the glittery costumes, and the fab choreography.  I'm also looking forward to Scandal and Nashville.  I ended up binge watching all 4 seasons of Scandal this past summer, so I'm excited to finally be seeing it live along with everyone else.

I just finished reading three books:

Kate: The Future Queen by Katie Nicoll
I enjoyed reading this book because it gave me a detailed look into the childhood Kate had and her time at school. Available here.

Dangerous Betrayal:  The Vendetta That Sank Titanic by Bill Blowers
I wrote about this book in another blog post I did recently.  Available here.

Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger
This is the sequel to the popular book and movie The Devil Wears Prada.  The devil herself is back in full force, and I'm amazed at how everything turned out because of that (sorry, no spoilers allowed).  Available here.

9. What I'm Listening To
Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Taylor Swift.  What can I say, I love all her catchy songs.  I've also been listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra when I cook.  For some reason, whenever I am in the kitchen in the evening preparing, cooking, or cleaning up, I have to put my Frank Sinatra station on Pandora and listen to him.  I equate his soothing music to cooking for some reason. 

10. What I'm Wearing
These super cute and super comfy sweat pants from Whitney Eve.  I had to have them since they're pink, which is my favorite color.  They are also available in gray (and on sale!) here.

And I've been living in these Banana Republic stripped drapey pocket tees on the weekend.  They're a tad looser which is nice when it's so hot out  They're currently on sale too!

11. What I'm Doing This Weekend
Going dress shopping for a wedding I have up in Portland in November. I'm thinking something black (always safe, right?) since it will most likely be cold and rainy around that time.

12. What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month
Halloween and pumpkin carving (and roasting the pumpkin seeds!).  A few years ago, I carved a Hello Kitty pumpkin.  It was time consuming but worth the effort in the end.  I'm not sure what design to do this year.  Any suggestions?

13. What Else is New
I've been researching granite counter tops.  Exciting, right?  I want to put in granite and a back splash in my kitchen, which sounds so simple, right?  Wrong!  There's so many decisions that need to be made, like the type of sink, over or under mold, the type of curve on the granite edge, the grade of granite, the back splash options, etc.  Here's what my kitchen currently looks like:

14. What Is Your Favorite Halloween Tradition
Growing up, my favorite Halloween tradition was coming home after trick-or-treating and separating my candy with my younger brother.  We would dump all of our candy on the carpet in our rooms and separate it by type (for example, Snickers, Twix and Milky Way were ranked highest, followed by Mounds, Almond Joy, Milk Duds, etc.  And lowest were Dots, Smarties, and other random sugar candies that didn't have a name on the wrapper).  We would then also trade among ourselves.

Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to read all the other posts for today.