Sitting at Starbucks – Designs & Hot Chocolate (all you need in life)

New Blog Design

Bears Read Too (client work)

Bears Read Too blog design

It was such a pleasure to work with Carrie from Bears Read Too! She was so sweet and easy going. She wanted something colourful with teddy bears, books, and reading, but beyond that she gave me a lot of creative freedom. I think our final product really fits the image of her blog and is fun and whimsical, but without being too childish. 🙂

Visit Blog

Wedding Website (personal project)

Wedding Website for Ashley and Peter

As I alluded to in a few Sitting at Starbucks posts, I made a wedding website for Coding God and I! It’s actually not a ‘full’ wedding website in the sense that we don’t have our story or a ton of photos/text on there. Its sole purpose is for people to RSVP. We struggled a lot with how to make the RSVP cards work with our invites, and finally we decided to take care of it electronically. So I made a form where people could RSVP online, but then we needed a website to go with it! It’s insanely simple, but kind of cute. 🙂

Moving Apartments

Oh my gosh, this week was so overwhelming! As I mentioned in my post last week, I had to go to London and clear out the apartment there. I had a whole night doing this:

Packing up boxes

The one upside to doing this was that I found a dress I’d been missing (you can see the blue and white dress in the bottom left corner!). I wanted to bring it to BEA but I couldn’t find it and I was SO upset because I thought I lost it.. well it was hiding on a shelf in London.

Then we got everything moved into our new apartment in Cambridge, and now our new apartment is filled with boxes and suitcases. But Coding God and I are both so busy with work that we haven’t even been able to THINK about unpacking them. I imagine we’ll be living around boxes for a few more weeks.

Hot chocolate connoisseur

I had ALL THE HOT CHOCOLATE this week. It was fabulous! Coding God and I went on a hot date and I got this lovely cup for dessert:

Hot chocolate from a restaurant in Cambridge

And I spent a few days this week camping out at Costa with my book. I adore their presentation! (And the hot chocolate itself is good too.)

Hot chocolate from Costa

Then I created the most glorious hot chocolate from two different mixes:

Hot chocolate from two different mixes

Hot chocolate in an A cup

Exercise news

Yesterday I brought my Kindle… to the gym. I read while on the treadmill. LOL

I’ve been wanting to try this out for a while now, just to see if it could physically work, but I never did it because it’s kind of embarrassing! What if I brought my Kindle and it totally didn’t work AT ALL, then I was the idiot who just brought her Kindle to the gym for no reason?

So yesterday, I poked my head in the gym, saw it was empty, ran back to my apartment and grabbed my Kindle, then went back and got to work! Of course, people did trickle in eventually, but at least at that point I had privately established that reading while walking/running on a treadmill is totally doable! Sometimes I did find myself getting a little weirdly dizzy.. I think just from focusing so hard downwards while running.. but I’d just look up for a minute, get re-oriented, then get back to reading.

Would do again.

Tell me about your week!

Photo of Ashley
I'm a 30-something California girl living in England (I fell in love with a Brit!). My three great passions are: books, coding, and fitness. more »

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21 comments

  1. Oh I have this little step thingy at home and I often “work out” on that while watching tv or reading. Otherwise I would give up fast lol. And those websites are so cute! I’m afraid me ordering a design from you will have to wait. I’m going to save up for BEA first, then for a new laptop and then the design. Sigh. It’ll take years. *sob*

    Bieke @ Istyria book blog recently posted: Stacking the Shelves #46
  2. Aw you and Peter are just cute and I’m so happy for both of you! I hope one day I find a guy who’s into coding and books #mydreamboy lol. Also, I really like the new blog you designed! Kind of reminds of Winnie the Pooh haha he’s so cute.

  3. You need to see if you can purchase Cadburys drinking chocolate. It’s yummy enough to eat straight out of the tin. It might not be too hard to find in the UK, since it’s owned by a UK company.
    Love the blog design and your RSVP site design. Very cute.

    Chantelle recently posted: Book Reviews: The Cuckoo’s Calling
    1. Yeah I actually used to buy Cadburys hot chocolate quite often. 🙂 It’s sold a lot here. Coding God and I even went to Cadbury World together!

        1. Yeah we got those too! 😀 They gave us a ton of chocolate to take home, then we got to taste some AMAZING liquid chocolate.

  4. I haven’t been to the gym in a long time but when I used to go I tried the kindle but unless I was on a stationary bike for cool down I couldn’t read because it would make me deathly sick. LOL So I had to stick to ipod.

    Thank you so much for my site. I absolutely adore it and you nailed it the first try with “I like teddy bears and books.” from me. LOL I’m glad you thought I was easy to work with… I worry about stuff like that. You’re an absolute angel to work with… and wicked fast.

    Carrie recently posted: Things Are Looking Up!
  5. Oh man you have me seriously craving hot chocolate! I can’t read while working out very well, it’s kind of like reading in the car for me and I get sick. But I rock audiobooks! I tend to go outside for my walks/runs anyway. I’m glad the kindle worked for you though 🙂

    Good luck getting unpacked – I have to say, it’s my favorite part of moving (aka – the only part I like). Unpacking and getting organized (I LOVE to organize) and at a new place it just feels like a nice fresh start.

    Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun recently posted: When do you listen? #JIAM | Fun Questions
    1. Yeah I can see why you wouldn’t be able to read. Every now and then I got that same feeling as reading in a car, though for me it wasn’t as bad. I keep meaning to give audiobooks a try though! I think my problem is that they’re just soooo expensive. 🙁

      LOL I wish I could hire you to unpack for me! I hate it!

  6. Good luck with the unpacking! I’m a terrible procrastinator and am embarrassed to admit that I still have a few boxes I haven’t unpacked yet. And we’ve been here over a year! Yeah, I need to get on that. lol

    I use my nook while riding the exercise bike and it really helps pass the time, so glad your kindle worked out for you! And all that hot chocolate! Yummy!

    Terri @ Alexia's Books and Such... recently posted: My Book Haul 6/14/14
    1. Thanks Terri! I’m exactly the same. I hate unpacking.. I keep putting it off. I guess it does help me realize which items/clothes I can live without though. I plan on donating a ton of my clothes!

  7. The design looks fantastic. The colors all look great together. You’re so close to the Day! I’m excited for you. You realize your going to make me drink hot chocolate in 90 degree weather right? 🙂 All of those pictures look scrumptious! When we were going to our local gym, I’d take my Kindle with me. It was the only thing that could get me to go for sure!

    Stephanie @ Once Upon a Chapter recently posted: The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen by Lindsay Ashford
  8. Bringing my Kindle to the gym is the only way I can get myself to go outside of my scheduled personal training appointments! I’m always bribing myself that if I’m at the gym I can read the most exciting eARC I have even if it is way out still, haha. 😀

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