Couple of Crumbs

Hi! Welcome to our little blog, run by two old friends who just want to have a place to write... anything we please. Thanks for stopping by!

Funfetti is trying to defy the evils of writer's block one project at a time.

Red Velvet is a quirky little cupcake trying to channel her inner writer.
1 year ago
23 notes
View comments

Red Velvet #9-12 #WEverb11

#9: Appreciate

In which moment did you find yourself flooded with gratitude? How will you rally around gratitude in 2012?
 
I don’t think there’s one big moment that I could choose for this one.  Despite the times when I complain, I’m honestly so grateful and appreciative of a lot of things in my life.  I may not always show it, but I feel it.  

Like, every time I’m out with one of my friends I can’t help but feel grateful for their friendship.  As I get older, I realize more and more that connecting with someone isn’t an every day occurrence.  It’s rare to find someone you can truly be yourself with and confide in and I try not to ever lose sight of that.  Or when I’m at family get-togethers.  Even though my relatives can be crazy and slightly overbearing, would I really want it any other way?  Probably not.  I love that we all live so close each other.  I appreciate that I had the opportunity to travel this year, connect with people through writing, read more, survive everything at work.  The list goes on.  

While it’s important to appreciate those big moments, I think it’s equally important to appreciate the little ones too and everything in between.


#10: Create
Share a creative project you undertook this year (art, writing, DIY, cooking, home decoration, crafts, photography … whatever comes to mind). How do you use your creativity to express yourself?

On my personal blog, I participated in a photo challenge recently that was run by Positively Present (one of my favorite sites!).  It lasted the entire month of November and the focus was on gratitude, which really appealed to me. Taking photos every day based on the daily topics (favorite food, memories, happiness, books, etc) forced me to think, be creative and focus on the things around me.  I really enjoyed it and even kind of miss it now.  Plus it gave me a chance to try something new and connect with other bloggers online.

Even if you’re not into photography but just love taking pictures on your phone (I adore the Instagram app on my iPhone!), I’d definitely recommend trying it!


(My photo for Day 28: Nighttime)


#11: Try
What 12 new things do you want to do/accomplish in 2012?

1.  Find a new job
2.  Move out
3.  Do at least one thing (I don’t know what) that’s outside my comfort zone.
4.  Travel somewhere new. (More travel and roadtrips in general.)
5.  Go to the beach this summer (simple I know but every year I say I want to go to the beach and it never happens.)
6.  Read 100 books (Funfetti inspired this one!)
7.  Meet someone / go out on a date.
8.  Save more money (like come up with a plan/budget and stick with it).
9.  Go to more concerts.
10.  Travel somewhere by myself (I think about going to California to see my cousin all the time, but my fear of planes always stops me).
11.  Take a class - yoga, zumba, maybe beginner’s ballet for adults.  Something!
12.  Every year, I tell myself that I should learn a new web programming language to stay on top of things professionally. But I never do and I really should.


#12: Thrive
What was your healthiest habit of 2011? What would you like to change or do differently in 2012?

This seems kind of silly but my healthiest habit is probably cutting back on soda.  I’ve always lived off of soda (Code Red Mountain Dew, to be exact) and would drink a couple bottles per day in college.  Now I only have soda once a week at most which is HUGE for me.  Instead I stick to raspberry iced tea, water, ginger ale (I don’t think it’s really soda) and of course, coffee.  It’s such a seemingly small change but health-wise, I think it does make a difference.

I think next year, I’d like to be more active.  Join a class at the gym with a friend (I always mention yoga or zumba) or go on walks more often.  During the summer on my days off, my cousin and I would go on this trail near where we live and walk for about 3 miles.  I’d always feel so good afterward and it’s the kind of thing I need to do more next year.  
1 year ago
41 notes
View comments

Red Velvet #8: Choose

Choose.

What was the biggest choice you made in 2011? What caused you to choose what you chose?


I don’t know if there’s one BIG choice I made this year (unless you count treating myself to a much needed vacation). If anything, I tried to look at my daily choices more.  I wanted to make choices that would make me feel less stressed or give me opportunities to do things I love.  I mean, ultimately I just want to be happy.  It’s such a simple thing but I honestly do think it’s a choice you make for yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I would tell myself at work - don’t sweat the little things.  I didn’t always follow that advice (which Funfetti can attest to!) but on the days when I did, it felt really good and I’m getting better at doing that. No one wants to be sitting at their desk internally raging at their coworkers.  (I swear, I don’t.)  Or the decision to read more.  Again a simple choice and yet it’s one that’s made me very happy.  I’ve always been a bookworm and for whatever reason, I went through this period post-college where I hardly read at all.  I missed it! Now I’m reading all the time, escaping into these wonderful stories.  Books just make me happier.  Same goes for blogging.  I love to write but it’s always been stop and go for me.  Then for the past year and a half, I’ve made the conscious effort to keep at it and it’s been so rewarding.  
 
It’s kind of like that saying - how sometimes it’s the little things that matter most.  Maybe I didn’t make one life-altering decision.  Instead I made a lot of little choices that made this past year a happier one as a whole.  And that’s probably something I’m going to try and keep at next year (and that year after that!).  

1 year ago
54 notes
View comments

Red Velvet #3: Learn

Learn

What lesson did you learn in 2011 from “The School of Life” rather than a classroom?

I think I learn this lesson in some way, shape or form every year but.. I’ve learned that things don’t always happen the way you imagine or hope they will and that isn’t always a bad thing.  I’m 28 years old and the fact that I’m getting closer and closer to 30 will occasionally throw me into a panic.  I thought that by this time I would’ve had a different job, met the person I’d marry one day and moved out of my house.  But I haven’t done any of those things yet.  And sometimes when I hear about other former classmates, I find myself comparing (but then I tell myself to stop) and wonder why I’m not at that point in my life yet.  
 
But you know what?  I kept (and keep) reminding myself of the things I have accomplished and all the blessings my life.  And I do have a lot to be proud of and happy about.   Plus, to be honest, there aren’t many choices in my life that I would undo. So maybe I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Everyone has their own path to follow and hopefully I’m on the right one for me.

I’m probably going to keep learning this lesson because who doesn’t want things to go exactly their way all the time. But I’m trying my best to appreciate what I have and accept what I can’t change.
1 year ago
View comments

Summer Lovin’: finding the silver living in a variety of unusual places

Hey everyone!  You can usually find me blogging from MK in Wonderland, but I had to take up Couple of Crumbs when they offered me a spot as a guest blogger.  I blog about everything – from money troubles, life as a twenty-something girl, online dating, to the adventures of being a new Mom.  Since most of my recent posts have been consumed by the new addition to my life, I wanted to return to my “roots” and write about things I know well: moving, red wine, and finding at least one good thing about the most miserable of situations.  Enjoy!

Moving sucks.  There’s no way around it.  And I can say that because I’ve moved 10 times since I graduated from college 5 years ago (5 years…shudder).  Don’t believe me?  In order:  moved from my apartment in Burlington, NC back to my parents’ house in Lawrenceville, NJ then to an old, furnished one bedroom in Roland Park while my actual apartment was at the end of the previous lease.  Moved into a shoebox sized one-bedroom apartment in Mount Vernon (Baltimore), then to my favorite rowhouse in the entire world on Streeper Street, then to one of my best friends’ parents’ house (last minute emergency/necessity), on to another apartment in Hanover with two of my girlfriends, then to yet another one-bedroom in Arlington, VA, back to Baltimore in another rowhouse (after sleeping on a few friends’ couches in between the move), and then here I am, right outside of Baltimore for over a year now, which – as you can see – is some sort of record for me. 

 There is one, teensy upside to moving and it takes a lot for me to admit that there is ANYTHING positive about moving as I have endured packing and unpacking as a second full-time job.  Moving forces you to get reorganized, throw out the stuff you’ve been hanging on to for no reason, and just get your life back in order.  I think it started in Virginia – my odd stash of mail and bills.  I’m not a big pile person, in fact, piles drive me insane.  So, I take what I think at the time is the “higher road” and do not put my mail in piles, but instead, shove it in my underwear drawer.

Yep. 

And every house that I’ve lived in since I’ve lived in Virginia, I vow that I won’t start stuffing things into my underwear drawer and that, instead, I’ll form some sort of organized method like a normal person…but I never do.  In fact, my underwear drawer is currently full of bills (as in…I owe money…not bills as in dollar dollar bills ya’ll ßnothing has sounded more unnatural than that statement coming from my mouth) and my sock drawer, for whatever reason, is full of office supplies.  And it’s not like I take out the socks and replace them with office supplies…no, the socks and office supplies live together in the top drawer furthest to the left.  In all fairness, I don’t carry one stash of bills from one house to the next.  I take the opportunity to reorganize myself and purge whatever I need to/everything.

The storm this past weekend had a similar effect.  Our basement flooded.  To give you an idea of how the evening went, I had taken a three -hour nap earlier that day so when the electricity went out at NINE PM…there was no way I would be able to just fall asleep.  So I did what any person (just me) would do…popped in a few melatonin and threw back a couple glasses of wine….the mellie cocktail, as I so affectionately call it.  And then the basement flooded and I had to coherently fill up buckets of water and come up with some sort of logical game plan all whilst feeling a bit…wobbly…if you will.  (Word to the wise…consider assessing your situation during a natural disaster BEFORE going into party mode.)  The end result, aside from my miserable headache the next day, was that the basement carpet had to be ripped up and replaced…which has led into full blown overhaul of the entire downstairs level.  B figured that since everything was already getting ripped up, we might as well replace the heinous tile by the back door and repaint over the god awful color selection on the walls (none of which were my choosing).  The end result?  Everything that he had wanted to do was getting done.  Under the best of circumstances?  No.  But chances are, without a little water in the basement, it wouldn’t have gotten done anytime soon. 

So the bottom line is that two things that are in no way fun – moving and flooding – have at least ONE positive outcome.  A fresh start.  Even if it just means having a meticulously organized sock drawer for one week…it’s still an improvement.  So when you’re packing up your life belongings for the 11th time or filling up pitchers with clay water after red wine time…try to remind yourself it’s a blessing in disguise.  A little one.  But hey, two natural disasters in two weeks…I’ll take whatever blessings I can get at this point.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have a Visa bill to pay and I believe I’ve misplaced it…and by that I mean…it’s probably in my t-shirt drawer…with all the old sorority t-shirts I swore I was going to throw out last time I moved.  

* * *

Finding the silver lining in a variety of unusual places is part of our Summer Series.

2 years ago
5 notes
View comments

Running Away like Hoobastank/Taking Chances like Celine

By: Funfetti

I remember a time in college, between sophomore and junior year, when I wanted to take a semester off, and apply to a program in another state. Things were rough at the time. A lot of changes were occurring around me, and I was in a relationship that had been dead for awhile. I was also still holding out hope for a person from my past to realize I was “the one”. It seemed like the perfect time to get away. Start fresh. I told my best friend about it, and I wouldn’t call her response supportive. Instead, she said she felt like I was running away. Out of all the benchmarks we have experienced together, this is certainly small beans. It was probably a conversation over AIM or something too. Not even on the phone. But I remember it well. I took what she said very seriously, and didn’t apply. Instead I attempted to welcome the changes and wade through.

I survived.

So why do I bring this up when it all worked out? Well, I was talking to a friend this week who was thinking of making a big change in her life. Huge change. Like moving away for a year to figure out what she really wants. This is a woman in a committed relationship, who has been going to graduate school for her career. And she’s been having a change of heart. This happens. People change their minds all the time, but when it’s something that’s required so much hard work, money, and time… it’s a bigger deal. But once you take those details away, it’s a choice like any other. Are you unhappy? Okay, what are you going to do about it then?

Read More