happy.

check out these rainbow throwing chimneys i captured out my kitchen window yesterday.

these last few weeks top the list of my best weeks yet in berlin/europe. i was able to spend lots of time relaxing, finishing a book, hanging out with friends, and enjoying the city. trying to savor it all before heading home in just over a week.

...a cook-out on the terrace of classmate's flat, a house-warming party, brunch at a friend's place, baleadas at my place, a cook-out in the park in friedrichshain and out for a drink afterwards, the best homemade mexican dinner night yet, sangria at treptower park, strolls along the river, old man jazz at zosch, taking in the body worlds exhibit, hitting up street markets, and more.

BUT this next week is bound to be even better! my sister arrives tomorrow morning, and we will do out best to live up this last week in germany before heading back to the US on the 25th. my european adventure has been just that...and i am sad to see it come to an end, but am excited about the things to come.

until next time...

what says spring better than a juicy fruit?

i seem to be on a kick of blogging about sphere-shaped fruits. well this time it's not so much about the fruit itself, but the life-altering tool i have used for years to access the sweetness that awaits inside this fruit. my mother is a Pampered Chef consultant, and loves supplying her children with her favorite kitchen gadgets. including this one

i have always loved to eat oranges, but before this "Citrus Peeler" came into my life, i admit that i rarely ate them because i couldn't stand to peel them. i know that's a lame excuse, right?

mom has given me several of these peelers, and i take one with me whenever i travel. people watch in awe when i whip this gadget out and access the sweet goodness of my orange in record time (and i don't even have to pick the orange peels out from my fingernails afterwards!) really, this thing is amazing, and only costs $1. so worth it.

do i sound like i'm on a commercial? i guarantee you that i get absolutely none of the proceeds from their sales. i'm simply just trying to spread the love. so having said that, i would really recommend it if you have children that are orange-lovers. when i worked in honduras with something like 60 children from the ages of 2 through 9, i always feared the day when we got oranges as snacks. those days meant that the staff and volunteers spent hours peeling oranges for the kids (this was before i had my very own citrus peeler). if there was a knife nearby, the kids would use those to peel their oranges. i would be on stand-by to take them to the clinic for stitches when they cut themselves (luckily that happened infrequently...). but there was still always that fear someone would lose a finger.

i'm contemplating buying loads of these peelers for the orphanage. 1 - so the caregivers and volunteers don't have to destroy their fingers peeling 60 oranges, and 2 - so the children can just do it themselves without the running the risk of cutting their pretty little fingers off.

i know you want one. or more. you can order them here.