No better way to celebrate National Coffee Day than supporting your local roaster. I celebrated with a lavender honey latte from The Coffee Pedaler in New Haven, CT. 

Click the more button below to see the recipe for homemade chai.

Finding joy in the little things like morning coffee out of one of my favorite espresso mugs that I made and kept for myself, and how cheerful my new spider plant is.

Cheers to my fellow March and April b-days as we learn how to celebrate a Birthday in the midst of quarantine and the COVID-19 crisis. Listed below are some of my approaches to still making my B-day special in the midst of isolation as we quarantine.

Good food is a must for any celebration!
My husband made us an amazing breakfast before we each started our work day on my Bday. This included a healthy spread of fruit salad, sweet potatoes, avocado, healthy but yummy banana bread, and not feature in the picture was the scrambled eggs. This was perfect for me as breakfast is my favorite meal, and really enjoy savoring slow breakfasts on special days like my B-day.
In contrast to my healthy breakfast was tea time ice cream and cake. Aldi sold this fabulous Godiva lava cake mix which all I had to do was add butter and eggs, and it backed really quickly as well. I loved these mini sized lava cakes and gooey hot center.

When it comes to good coffee I have to give a shout out to Stone Creek Coffee's Cream City roast. I'm not an affiliate for them they just make my absolute favorite coffee! I got a 5lbs bag of cream city roasted coffee for my B-day. And you should know that they are offering free shipping right now! 
Ps. a mug made by me and beans from stone creek coffee would make the best b-day/thinking of you gift.
​Plus my beautiful bouquet of aldi flowers in a Lisa York Arts vase.

Finally, a double win with takeout food was getting to support a local restaurant and not having to cook. I ordered pho from Vientiane Noodle Shop. This was a the perfect meal for our picnic at Lake Michigan because it was a little cold to have a picnic. It's good to remember that we are still able to enjoy nature at our local parks we just need to make an effort to keep the appropriate social distance of 6ft.

Haha...so I guess you know my favorite things now: pottery, food, and nature. Well I had a fabulous pottery b-day, and I hope you, my fellow quarantined B-day buds, make an effort to have a special, celebrated Birthday during COVID-19 quarantine as well.

And hey we can always celebrate our Birthday again with travel and/or people post the quarantine. In the mean while, we can day dream of being able to explore and travel again this summer.

A few more pictures from La Jolla Cove park.

Want to see reviews of other great restaurants or out doorsy experiences?

Allee Etheridge Shares her love of coffee, and the memory of buying her Lisa York mug while at her art residency in Las Vegas.
She says her mug reminds her "both of the neon lights of Vegas strip as well as the colors of the Nevada dessert" and that"it's a good size...important for her ability to drink inhuman amount of coffee every single day...and used it every single for the entire summer she was there [Vegas]."

This mug was purchased from the exhibition "Serve It Up" at Clay Art Vegas. they still offer art residencies and amazing art exhibits.