Fridays are for Favorites #23

After last week when a Friday Favorites post did not happen — I’m back with quite a few this week! Although I’m working this Saturday, I’m looking forward to having my husband back in town after some business travel and spending time with him and our fluffy pup tonight and on Sunday! Any fun weekend plans? Can you believe it’s April??!

Here’s a few things from life and around the web that helped make my week extraordinary.

Life Lately

Spring Flowers! Tulips are everywhere here in North Carolina, heralding spring’s arrival, and I love it! Coming from Texas where I’m pretty sure tulips would absolutely refuse to grow because of the heat; I’m enjoying seeing them so much that I’m planning to plant some for next year!

Movie Date. My husband planned a “day date” for us which included an afternoon movie and dinner. Obviously, it included very healthy snacks as well 😉

Easter. Although I had to work Easter Sunday this year, I loved seeing encouraging posts like this one on Good Friday and throughout the rest of the weekend. How thankful I am that heaven counted to three.

New Coffee Shops. If you’ve travelled with me, you know I have a slight obsession for finding local coffee shops. I think it goes back to the amazing coffee shop in my college town, Midnight Oil. There are so many wonderful memories in that place, and while I love Starbucks, there’s just something special and homey about going where the locals go. The picture above is a new one I just found in Wilkesboro, NC — Talia Expresso.

Dallas the Dog Picture of the Week:

This is exactly what we want him to look like at 10pm and is the new lofty goal on which we measure our daily productivity! 🙂

Links Lately

Don’t have time to spare but have things you need time for? Here are some simple ways to create time. I especially like #1 – outsource, yes!!

How would you like to stay at the charming English estate that inspired Pride and Prejudice??! How many times can I say yes??!

“Running hard after an extraordinary life turns out to be chasing a lie. The realest extraordinary is always found in the ordinary. The extra everyone’s looking for —- it’s found in ordinary…” {Ann Voskamp}

New favorite podcast — Marriage More by Jeff & Mandy Rose — real, honest, relevant and funny!

I’ve shared before how much I enjoy the PBS series, A Chef’s Life, with Vivian Howard — so it’s no surprise how much I appreciated this article on her latest forays into the culinary world.

Yummy Link of the Week: Janae over at The Hungry Runner Girl posted the link to these — “Brookies” — yep, a cookie and a brownie. Yum.

What’s making your everyday extraordinary today? I would love to hear in the comments!

–>For more Friday Favorites from other bloggers — check out this link-up<–