Soup is so warm and comforting that I'm sure everyone can agree this is something they like. There are so many different varieties and flavors of soup that there is something for everyone. I have memories of my mom's homemade split pea or chicken noodle (homemade noodes!) or even black bean. I'd be willing to put chili and corn chowder in this category as well and corn chowder is one of my favorite things in the world! There is just something about using a spoon that makes soup extra comforting on top of the whole-body warmth that soup running down into your stomach gives you. YUM!

Oooh! Yard sales are so exciting. There are all sorts of neat things at yard sales so it's so much fun to walk around them and look. Usually, though, I find going to garage sales can be awkward a lot of the time because the people that hold them are usually strange. However, I love to hold them! Setting up the tables and organizing the wares on them and then flitting about, helping people and telling them the stories behind the objects! What a great thing to do on a sunny day.

YUM! Raspberries, as I've mentioned before, are my favorite fruit. They are juicy and sweet but a little sour and are, in my opinion, a little more unique of a flavor than strawberry. Though the do go bad quickly and are usually pretty expensive, they are delicious and flavorful berries that I cannot help but gobble up almost immediately.

Ahh, the holiday for food lovers! Filled with turkey! It goes so perfectly as the centerpiece for all the Thanksgiving foods: cranberries, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing. It's golden and crispy and moist and perfectly juicy. It makes me drool just thinking about it!

Typing is such a satisfying activity. The words appear before you as if by magic, crisp and clean in their shape. The sound is satisfying as well, a nice click with a dutiful rhythm to it. Personally, I type sort of aggressively (or so I'm told) but I like to think that I really just type with a purpose. Really, though, it is seeing my word in virtual form, the crisp black letters forming my own thoughts but in a perfected physical form that I can alter at will to make even more perfect. Technology at its best for the anal-retentive!

Google is simply amazing. They have not only revolutionized the Internet but the workplace as well. They have given us countless new tools (Google and Gmail only being a mere few) and they continue to wow the world with their innovations and innovative approaches to everyday problems. Known as one of the best places to work in the world, they attract some of the best minds of the age to work with them in an incredible work environment.

I know they continue to impress me, despite the somewhat unsettling fact that they do seem to be everywhere in everything. I am not bothered by their Google Maps technology and the StreetView pictures. I'm not one of those people worried about being monitored--as long as my freedoms are in tact (I don't see Google as a threat to my privacy), I'm happy. What they are doing is revolutionizing the world and I am willing to sacrifice my phone number and address to the public in order to facilitate it.

After ice cream, my second favorite food might be cake. I've told you that I don't care for icing but I don't define "cake" as necessarily requiring icing in the definition--I love the inside. When I make cupcakes, I always leave a few unfrosted for myself, leaving off not on the pesky extra calories but the super, fake sweetness as well. I prefer the buttery, fluffy sweetness of the cake inside whether it be chocolate or "yellow" flavored. Box cake is probably my favorite over homemade--it must be that specific smell that they share. The only way to describe it is "box cake smell"--I'm sure you know what I mean. Sweet and baked. YUM!

P.S. I hate coconut so this picture isn't very accurate--I just love the cake and the strawberries!!

How can you not like Great Danes! Yes, they are very large dogs but they have large hearts and always mean well. I've never really had much experience with Great Danes but they have always struck a chord in my heart. It might be those ears or that great defined jaw but they just make me gravitate toward them. My goal is to have one someday, a companion to my dream farm and consequential farm animals (mainly horses!). They are regal, contemplative and intelligent dogs and I think we will get along great!

Ahh, the pencil. My writing weapon of choice (for thinking, at least) is the pencil. I do all of my note-taking and brainstorming in pencil. I love being able to change my words so easily or fix my mistakes (I'm a bit of a spelling and grammar Nazi so this is important). I use pen for writing letters to people (when I do that...) and I use the computer for everyday correspondence and for written work (creative and academic). Using the pencil, then, is a symbol of creativity for me. I use it when I my words need to be as flexible as my ideas or the ideas being expressed.

And, on top of all this, there is just something satisfying about the crispness of a perfect paper of penciled text that makes me happy and proud of myself.

I love to be awed, to be rendered speechless and mind-boggled. Usually the things that make me feel this way do it in a very subtle and beautiful way rather than ambushing my consciousness out of the blue. A beautiful sky like the one in the picture will have me staring at it for countless minutes, just completely awed by its beauty and the fact that I'm witnessing it. Usually my heartbeat quickens and I breathe a little harder (or not at all), just marveling quietly, my mind struck dumb by amazement.

Music does this to me too. Certain songs, at certain moments, have the effect of making me feel distinctly different, alive and aware in ways I'm not usually. Or maybe they make me feel happy in that sort of warm, true happiness rather than the usual energizing enthusiastic happiness. These songs just make me feel like things are right. I doubt you can blame me for liking that feeling.

It is my favorite "color." I know that some people may think it's dull and depressing but I think it's a beautiful color. You can have blue-greys (my favorite!), green-greys, etc--there are so many options. The sky before a storm is a lovely dark blue-grey and has such power to it. Sunrises have a hopeful light blue-grey to them that welcomes the transition from night to day. My eyes are actually a light blue-grey and that definitely is something I'm proud of. Yay for grey!

They are colorful and so smooth to use! The ink, if they are Crayola, is vivid and long-lasting, allowing me to color to my heart's content! The basic colors are all you really need for coloring and, if you want to be adventurous, you can even blend colors to create new ones. I like the fine tips that Crayola markers have and the thin ones are just as nice as the wide ones though I prefer the wider tip for coloring books and the thin ones for drawing and marking up books and notes. They are an essential tool for anyone who enjoys color!

Rainboots are just fantastic. They are rubber but usually have very cute color/pattern options available. They keep your feet dry, dry, dry in the rain and are cute to boot (double pun!)! I've tried to use rainboots as snowboots as well but the cheaper ones like from Target usually cannot take the stress of the heavy movement through snow and the rubber rips in the back or, oddly enough, the toe. At least for me they do. Anyway, I can barely imagine what life would be like without rainboots to save my feet and keep them dry in the rain!

The variety! You can buy all KINDS of food at the grocery store! I love the endless possibilities its holds! So many meals, so many options and combinations. And it has FOOD in it! What more do I need to say?! The aisles are neat and organized, the produce smells fresh and they are always bright and colorful. And it's a place of shopping! All things I love!

So pretty and so bright. I love nights when there are a full moon and the night becomes as bright as daytime. It's mysterious and pretty, making us gasp when it turns orange on a Fall night. Its movements and morphing habits give it a sort of personality, making it seem as if it's trying to hide winking away one night only to return another in a slightly different place. Oh nature...

So sweet and healthy! I prefer them on the greener side because I don't like the taste of bananas when they start to get really yellow and freckle. I like the harder texture. Obviously, I'm pretty particular about them but I like what I like, how can you blame me?

I like bananas best plain but they are good in yogurt and smoothies. I've never had a banana split but I'm sure they're good with ice cream too! Occasionally I'll have them on top of waffles or Cheerios. Yum, yum, yum!

So beautiful! I've always wanted a dapple grey horse. Ideally it would have a dark mane rather than a light one as in this picture. I just love the dapples and the color and the mystique and they are definitely my favorite coloring in a horse. I can't really further explain it--I just do!

Oh Billie... Her voice is amazing and full of the old days of jazz and classics: crisp, clear and strong. And her songs are charged with such an aching that really resonates with me. I can't really explain it--I just really enjoy her music and her voice. It takes me back to a place, a mindset, and a time that I have never experienced.

Yep, I do. No explanation--I just do.

Haha. Have I said it enough? There is enough ridiculous complexity in the world that I really just enjoy it when someone is able to capture an object, a thought or a feeling in as few strokes, words or letters as possible. Simplicity separates the main idea or object from the stuff that surrounds and complicates it and I greatly enjoy the finished and much more poignant product. It takes great talent to be able to refine and condense all of an object or idea into a small package and I admire those who can do it.

The smell, the crunch, the color, the beauty: leaves are terrific. They are an undeniable symbol of Fall, my favorite season, and make me feel so happy that it is here. I like to take walks in the Fall, crunching through the leaves and seeing the bright colors all while smelling the smell that lets me know winter is coming! And then, of course, there are the memories of raking and piling up leaves in the yard and then jumping into the big pile (full of leaves, sticks, bugs and who knows what else). Though I don't enjoy the large amount of raking and leaf blowing we have to do at my new (well...newer, my first 10 years of life were in another house) house, I do appreciate leaves and enjoy them.

Hard to explain this one. I have always liked contour lines: from when I first started coloring in coloring books to when I discovered the awesomeness of Matisse in middle school to now. They instantly simplify an image and leave the eye to focus on shape and color rather than dimension or perspective. I prefer my art to be 2-dimensional with no pretensions of attempting to capture the impossible 3rd-dimension so contour lines definitely go along with that.