Honeybubble Atlanta

First up in my mini series is this darling place called Honey Bubble Tea!

This neat little place is tucked in the Virginia Highlands/Old Fourth Ward district. This area in particular is one of my favorite parts of Atlanta with every little place propping up embracing the old into the new in it's architecture and even the vibe inside. It just screams comfort or hipster, depending on who you are asking.

Boba tea is one of my favorite obsessions right now. I think it's the perfect celebration drink. I mean the tapioca pearls just remind me of confetti at a New Years Eve party. Isn't it? I discovered this place while driving to one of my favorite coffee places in the area. My sister and I ventured to this place one Sunday night at about 6pm. (This is a huge deal because it seems as though everything in the South closes at 6 on Sundays.) The minute we walked in inside we were in love. The decor is warm with beautiful yellow gold couches that invite you to stay a while.

I ordered their Signature Honey Tea while my sister went for the clear Passionfruit Tea. They also have these small rows of macarons lining their little nibbles section which they get from another on my favorite bakery in town. I was dizzy with all the different options that I could choose from, and they also serve warm tea which is a definite keeper. Y'all this tea was the best I've ever had. I knew I had to come back, so I did, the very next day. We talked about just how perfect this place will be in the summer time when Atlanta is extra hot. It's not kitschy like many of the other tea places that are in town, mainly the suburbs it seems. I have no doubt that this place is here to stay.

So no doubts about it, this is going to be my go-to place for Boba. Plus they have plenty of parking, which really is a win-win for Atlanta.

Ps. I wasn't paid for this or compensated in anyway. These are my honest opinions. :) Also excuse the bad quality of pictures. My DSLR was dead. 

Why Atlanta is cool!

I'm starting a new mini-series about Atlanta. You see Atlanta is like me, it's a little rough around the edges but always improving. It surely has taken me a lot of time to fall in love this city of mine, but now I'm completely smitten. I've lived near Atlanta for roughly 4 years, but just never took the time to explore it. When C was home we would always plan trips to some of our favorite cities, like Chattanooga or Charleston but little did we know that everything our hearts craved was so close to home. To be honest, I didn't start to explore Atlanta until C was deployed since we tried to spend most of our weekends together, so either I was in Texas or we'd stick to our old favorite spots around town. Atlanta is a charming city! We truly have a little bit of everything, and the food scene is brimming with clever, up and coming chefs. The art scene is booming. And the coffee. Oh my heart! Anybody can be at home in Atlanta y'all, it's not perfect by any means, but for anyone who has loved before knows that it's the imperfections that draws you closer in.
So, here's my small effort to explore my city better, document it better and show you that Atlanta really does have a lot of heart.
So here we go.

PS. Be sure to follow my adventure on Instagram!

on homecomings w/ DropCam!

Homecoming videos are my absolute favorite! I may a bit partial but there is nobody on this planet that doesn't get goosebumps all over when we watch a soldier coming home. Back, before I went alumna in my sorority, we would all watch these and bawl. So precious. Recently, as we get closer and closer to the half way point of this deployment I've been planning all these things that I would like to do for C and with C. We've been talking about finally throwing an official engagement party, planning a trip way out west to go camp and surf, and more particularly we've been talking about the little things like grocery shopping and cooking together. Isn't it crazy that when you're significant other has been away for a while you start to miss the mundane little things. It's just more fun when you have your love by your side at Whole Foods trying to decide what exactly would you use a crab apple for?
The folks over at DropCam asked me if I would check out their holiday homecoming videos and see what I thought. Y'all I couldn't say no! My roomie and I sat down to watch these, and cue in the happy tears! My absolute favorite one was the Dog! It's number 4 on the list. Chewy will freak out after C is home, and it's going to be even more precious because he's a great dane! Is there anything more adorable? I couldn't not share this with you guys.
So no matter what the season is in your life, I know that this will remind you that somewhere out there in the world there is family being reunited with their soldier. There is no better joy. As for the rest of us spending this holiday season without our special someone, we can watch these videos and feel a little better in preparation for that homecoming!
Y'all be sure to check out their products as well, I'm thinking about getting one of those bad boys so C can feel closer to home.
PS. I'm aware that the quality on that picture is horrible. It was from the Pre-deployment blog this summer, and between awful lighting and camera quality, this is the best I've got.
N.

Lately

Y'all we finally put up Christmas decorations at the apartment. We went through many mental debates on where to do that this year since there is only one more week of finals left and then we will be heading home. But then we got this huge burst of christmas spirit and decided to put it up. That also means we have been in an usually great mood because our home smells like pine and lights up in many corners. We bought these lights for $1 from the Dollar Tree last year which we thought was such a deal until we realized that they don't connect to each other, they only have one darn outlet. So we had to come up with some creative ways to hide the long string of outlets connect at the same point.
It was a struggle, but the end result is quite beautiful. We didn't want to take the flag down because considering C is deployed it just felt wrong. Thankfully both my roomies (my sister and my bff) agreed. with me.
We sent C this adorable Thanksgiving package that he still hasn't received. My heart broke when he told me that.
I'm mostly done Christmas shopping. I know I'll be completely done by the end of this weekend. Hallelujah!
We have been playin' trivia every Wednesday at this Pizza place. We absolutely suck... mainly because the questions are wayyyyyyy before our time. It's all in good fun anyway.
I bought an Aeropress recently so we have been tripling our caffeine intake this week and making lattes nonstop. Y'all NEED to buy this. Put it on your christmas list, it's the best thing you can do for a caffeine lover.
I kind of wanted Hunter rainboots for Christmas but I just cannot justify spending that much money on rain boots right now.
I realize this post is super rambly. But life has been unusually stressful lately so I just haven't had enough time for meaningful posting.
I ran a 5K on thanksgiving remember? Well I'm trying to tackle a 10K next. I'm thinking of blogging about that on a weekly basis. Because the struggle with that is real.
I also have a pair of new running shoes in the box right now that I really need to get around to using but the weather has been SO sucky here in Georgia.
Hope you all are having a wonderful start to your holidays!
N.

6 more months

I have majorly slacked on my promise to myself to regularly blog throughout this deployment. So, here I am recommitting to this little blog. We officially have 6 more months to go! Phew. C and I threw ourselves a mini party over the phone over this small milestone. Our conversations lately only seem to comprise of what presents to buy for our families and friends and avoiding the eminent, you're missing the holidays, moments. The holidays are C's favorite time of the year. I mean Christmas in our home starts by the end of October.

C makes me watch holidays movies on repeat all December. I mean he even buys those awful "Shrek Christmas" movies. It's kind of adorable. I'm patiently waiting for his "deployment christmas present," in the mail so I can ship out his package before it is too late. Overall, we are doing good so far. I hate holidays without him though. Even the stupid little ones. I've said it before and I'll say it again, deployment is easy because of my amazing girlfriends and my family. Oh, I can't even imagine how I would get through this time without my girls.

Today, I told C that I wanted the new Urban Decay Naked palette and surprisingly in his head he narrowed it down to something for your face. It was quite the moment. My first 5K is coming in a week and 2 days. I am beyond excited because I feel adequately prepared for it. That's the newest happenings in the last few weeks. I'll leave you guys with some silly things C does.

He always, I mean always gets inside the shower without grabbing himself a towel.
He sleeps like a log. The world could be falling apart and he could easily sleep through it.
C makes much better pancakes than me. Also pizza.
During workdays, when his alarm rings he immediately springs upto his feet. It beats me. I'm the type of person where I have to set 4 alarms leading to the alarm to wake me up.
His least favorite chore is laundry. His favorite? Dishes. It works out because I prefer laundry over dishes.
When we are out, he has a "Ready to go?" look. It's kind of hilarious.

More over thanksgiving break.
N

Anniversary

C,
Ours is my favorite story, it is also one of my favorite secrets. As our Anniversary looms over (Oct 4th!)  I decided to finally spill the beans on this little blog and share just how much adventure you've brought to my life. Out of all my favorite things about you, one of my most favorite is that you are a man of few words.We both know that I've always been the verbose one out of the two of us, I'm still learning to express myself in your subtle ways. You express your love for me so grandly in your own way that my words seem so trivial. Your gestures of love without needing to say anything make me weak in the knees even now. This season of our life is full of excitement, even with this bump we call deployment and I can't wait to celebrate our commitment to spend our lives together once you're finally home.

I can't wait to hold you, laugh with you, brew beer together, fight with you, thrive with you and unfold with you every day for the rest of my life. I love this bond between us on our best days and our worst. My hope is that we never stop changing. I also hope that we never stop growing, challenging one another, breaking, shedding and prodding into new parts of each other and ourselves. You and me, we fit together like puzzle pieces my love. All the parts of me, the ones I'm proud of and especially the ones I'm not so proud of, blossom because you are in my life. This love of ours, this relationship, has been one of the most challenging things I've done, and after all these years (four! Can you believe it?!) there is absolutely nothing I'm more proud of.

Without you, I'd only be a shadow version of myself C. I am me because I have you. I am a better friend, partner, and human because of you. Because we can't celebrate this milestone across from each other chugging beer (me beating you at it, naturally), eating a delicious meal we prepare together and seeing your handsome face in the flickering candlelight, my words will carry us over for the next 233 days. And to all this, your eyes will moisten and you will reach for the screen and tell me that you've loved me for so long. And tell you what my love, that will be absolutely grand.

So here's to the miracle that we are here and now. To this season of our life, of conscious committment. And heres to all those laughs we still haven't laughed, the lines on our faces that are still to come from staying up a little too late and some leaner moments that we have still to soldier through, and the thrills we still have to earn and learn. Here's to the life we've made together, full of adventure.

I can't wait to dress in white for you and hand you my whole heart. For the rest of our lives. How becoming it is to have touched the green light.

Yours. Forever.
N.

PS. All pictures are taken by Amy Sandoval while we were on our vacation to Virginia Beach.

lets get real.

I haven't posted on here for a while because I was afraid to be too negative. You see we are finally down one month of deployment... cue in confetti. But these days I'm just overwhelmed. School is so tough right now. I'm in my Senior year, taking all my tough Biology classes, test all seem to be lining up during the same weeks, the course load is something ridiculous, I'm barely treading water. On top of that I've been super slacking on crossfit, which I constantly nag myself about because I've been missing so many classes. AND to put the cherry on it, I've missed more than a couple sessions with C because I'm just SO busy! Ladies, you know the feeling... You know he understands, but you just feel so so so guilty for being too busy for your man away at deployment! So can we just get real for a minute?
Deployment sucks. I mean I made all these goals and plans, but at the end of the day that really doesn't replace seeing C. Having him here, going through the monotony of everyday. I don't mean this in a whining way... but the reality of it is that some days really are worse than the others. I promised myself to write my version of my little experience with Army life and it would be wrong to exclude these moments. I know this is only a phase, a minor bump through the rest of deployment but oh does it suck!  I finally got a chance to skype with C yesterday and I burst into the tears mid-sentence, I whined about how much I miss him and how I'd rather just him have a "regular" job. Being the sweet man that he is, he consoled me from those thousand miles away, told me it would get better and that I have to keep focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel. We are getting through this. So ladies heres to my first major deployment breakdown and being real about what we have truly signed up for.
So. All in all deployment sucks this week.
Nisha.

How to make a delicious green smoothie?

I am currently in love with green smoothies! I know, I know. As you're reading this you're wondering why would I willingly drink one of these everyday but just hear me out. Not only are the health benefits endless for something like this, but it also helps to satisfy my tiny bit of sweet craving. I'm going to share with you guys one of my favorite go-to green smoothie recipe. Although you can definitely alter it. The key is to pick a green and fruits that balance each other out. So you aren't drink spinach puree.
I used:
About 1/2 a cup of kale
1 banana
1/2 an orange
Roughly about a cup or so of coconut water

Stick it all in your blender. Be sure to take out the stems of kale. And blend away. Generally, I like to add mangoes in my green smoothie but we ran out earlier last week.
I generally drink these with a very simple salad. Meaning, dressing on the side and nothing else added. It makes for a light, quick and easy meal on stressful school/work days.

And Voila! There you have it! A yummy, healthy smoothie! 

Thankful Tuesday

I'm big on counting my blessings. All the little details that make everyday special. Particularly with this deployment I have learned to embrace a lot of the little happiness of the monotony of everyday.

1. This week I got to Skype with C. It started off with a ton of different technical issues from his end and we almost gave up, but then we tried one more time and it worked! It was one of those cliche moments where both of us just burst into happy tears. It was absolutely incredible.

2. I have been working hard at Crossfit, and I'm grateful for a healthy body. I'm excited to work hard and see how much my body will change throughout this process.

3. I'm so thankful for this weather! It's starting to get chilly in the mornings so when I walk to class it's the slightest bit too cold without a sweater but we haven't completely gotten rid of the summer warmth that creeps up by 10. It's the best of both worlds.

4. I love emails from C. Sure they aren't as quick as I would like (But lets face it, I would want him to reply instantly and then never stop) but it's been so exciting getting emails from him describing this new place. Something about seeing the person you love adapting well is so gratifying no?

5. I'm excited for looking forward to the weekend. It's my best friend's 21st birthday and we can't wait. Getting dress up, sipping on wine (or in her case, Coca-Cola and rum) and seeing our sorority sisters. It's perfect.

6. I'm always grateful for this person, but I'm particular grateful that my Mom made me Tomato and Squash soup for the week. She makes it from scratch and it's what good dreams are made of. Haha.

7. Last but certainly not least, I'm grateful that time keeps doing its thing. We are already 10 days-ish into deployment! A week into this semester. Things are certainly moving forward.

What blessing are you counting this week?

on crossfit

I am two "On-Ramp" classes into Crossfit thus far. Holy moly, this stuff  is hard. I mean after my first work-out which was only about eight minutes long, I was sore. I mean walking up hills and stairs was pretty darn painful. In these On-Ramp classes, I'm learning the proper Olympic weight lifting techniques and other Crossfit movements. (Which mind you are also gymnastic based) I have literally never been able to do a handstand in my entire life. Apparently though, I should be able to in a few months... along with "Hand Stand push-ups." What?! I have two more classes this week before I can do the regular WODs.
Okay, so I realize this sounds like I am never going to make it to the WODs but I am truly enjoying the burn. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely not easy but at the same time it's so challenging that it keeps me motivated to get better. I can already feel my body changing, but maybe I'm just psyching myself out about it. But this Crossfit business is a keeper.
After I come home from Crossfit I generally just follow it with a green smoothie with coconut water. I will share a recipe soon. These aren't nearly as gross as they sound.I even got my 13 year old sister to try them and she loved it. Anyway, back to Crossfit. All the ladies here at this box have some of the most killer bodies that I have ever seen. Isn't that motivation enough to keep going? C has been looking at the WODs from this box and doing the same workouts so we can email each other about these workouts. It's so fun.
I can't wait to share more of my Crossfit journey with you all.

a rainy day

This summer has been overwhelmingly rainy here in Georgia. I remember when I was visiting C in Texas and how despite the hot weather I was grateful I got away from the monsoon we have been experiencing in Georgia! Although yesterday it seemed like the entire universe was participating in how dull I felt, between missing C's phone call and just simply missing him I was pretty bummed. But I made sure to not sit at my parent's house and wallow, SO I decided during my "Desperate Housewives" marathon that something needed to be done to shake off this funk. Monday marks the beginning of my last fall semester as an undergrad student, so naturally I went back-to-school shopping at target. Retail therapy anyone? I could literally write an entire dissertation on the awesomeness that is target. 

 Something is perfectly right about the world when it rains and you have a floral raincoat isn't it? I've been looking for pretty raincoats for a long time (this one is my sisters.) Seriously tell me if you guys know where to find one.

I adore these pictures above, because they one of the few super clear ones of my engagement right. On the day C proposed (Aug 9, 2013) he took me this cute little place in town called "Mug Me" where you can paint your own pottery and they stick it in the kiln for you. He said, "How fun would it be to have our little mugs while I'm gone?!" So I went with it. The owner at Mug Me, who was also a teacher of C's while he was in college was gracious enough to write the date at the bottom of the mugs since he quietly confessed to her his proposal plans for the night. I've painted other pottery here before, but this one was my absolute favorite! His mug turned out much better than mine, even though during the process I teased him. They didn't come back in time for him to take with him on his deployment, but I plan to pour my tea into his mug. It's the little things. 

Little moments are the best things aren't they? Walking in the rain, floral raincoats and C's mug for tea. 

deployment bucket list

One of the biggest thing I've learned from the army is learning to take every situation with a spoonful of sugar. C always teases me about my unceasing optimism but it really is a blessing. I'm also a big list maker. I love crossing off little tasks off my to-do lists so I thought what better way to get through this deployment than make a little to accomplish list.

1. Eat clean. I've been meaning to go mostly vegan for years now. I'm going to try my hand at this over the next nine months. I hope to share a few recipes on this little thing.

2. C is getting my crossfit. It's something I've wanted to get into for a very long time. Recently a crossfit gym has opened up in my little college town. We are planning to do the same WODs each day, obviously for him while he's in another continent. ;)

3. It's my last year of undergrad...going for all A's!

4. C and I bought Project Life so I plan to keep up with that.

5. Save money.

6. Read atleast three books.

7. Run some sort of a competitive race.

8. Stay optimistic and positive.

9. Focus on adventure.

Hoping for a swift and positive deployment.

on deployment

The season is upon us. Deployment. I remember when we first started dating almost four years ago, I wouldn't even say that word out loud. My girlfriends would always tease me about my dread of the word but somehow I got over that through the years. We overcame many obstacles over the years being in a long distance relationship and when we finally officially commissioned lo and behold he got stationed across the country. Once we got in the groove of things we got word that he was up for deployment for 9 months. 

This may sound silly but I already have various little white boards in my apartment with a countdown that reads "274ish days till deployment is OVER!" C has been my rock through all this, and we know that we got this. 274ish days is a long time but at the same time its a minor bump through the rest of our lives. When I get to wishing through times like this, I wonder if I would really like to end up with a man with a tradition 8-5 job? But then I remember all the things I am because of the army, I mean I am a stronger woman and our relationship has stood trials that most civilian relationships don't face. C wouldn't be the man he is without the Army. So I've realized that I wouldn't have it ANY other way. 

I have a long list of things I want to accomplish before C is home again, for good, for a while. I'll share my deployment bucket list soon. My moto through these next 274ish days is that I can't do this but I'm going to do it anyway. Missing the person you love is something that isn't the easiest thing in the world but I've learned that perception is everything. Mind over matter. Constantly. 

Here's to a swift 9 months of separation. And a lifetime of togetherness. 

-Nisha