Tassimo House Party

I LOVE House Party! If you haven't heard of them, check them out at https://www.houseparty.com/
Basically, House Party is a new way of advertising. You apply to be a host & if you are selected, you invite some friends over to learn about a new product. A party kit is sent to you before the event with favors & goodies. I've hosted several house parties in the past, but it had been at least more than a year since my last one. So I was super excited when I was selected to host a Tassimo House Party!

Tassimo is a brand of Coffee Maker that uses little individual coffee discs. The Tassimo machine is made by Bosch which makes high end appliances & power tools.

My party pack included:

a Tassimo T55 Home Brewing System
Gevalia Latte T-Discs
Carte Noir Signature Roast Coffee T-Discs
Tim Horton Coffee T-Discs

Then I purchased some non-coffee T-Discs at Bed Bath & Beyond.


The chai tea latte was Hannah's favorite.

It's hot chocolate season!

More coffee.

My guests received a coupon for 40% off their own Tassimo machine. I have a few extras, so if you are interested, let me know. I purchased some hot/cold travel cups for my guests, too.

Here's my group. We were a small group, but we had a fun time! Everyone tried a coffee beverage & a non-coffee one.

Thank you to House Party & to Tassimo for this awesome House Party!!!

New Coffee Machine

For a few months now, I had been considering purchasing a coffee maker. Our last one bit the dust about 9 months ago. Chris didn't want to get a new one, so he was using one of these for his daily coffee:

I contemplated the Keurig and other pod systems out there, but when it came down to it, I preferred my coffee with the steamed milk, etc. I was guilty of going to Starbucks a couple of times a week for lattes. We used to have an espresso maker, but it was too complicated for the likes of me. I even purchased the latte packets at the store where all you had to do was add hot water. Yuck!!! I really didn't think there was anything out there for me.

Well...on a recent trip to Target, I came across a Mister Coffee Latte Maker on clearance.  Chris was with me at the time and he seemed skeptical. But he got on his phone and found the item on Amazon and read the reviews. The reviews were pretty favorable. Plus, the price on Amazon was $20 more.

I still had a $50 Target gift card left over from Christmas, so I decided to go ahead & purchase the $49.99 Mr. Coffee latte maker.

I bought some coffee syrups (both regular and sugar free) and started playing around with different flavors, etc. It came with a recipe book which I used as a guideline. I use a little less syrup than the recipes suggested because I thought that was just too sweet. I LOVE the foamy milk! And I love the color of the latte!

The machine is pretty easy to use, definitely easier than the old espresso machine. You can't put the pieces in the dishwasher because of the heating elements.

I have not been to Starbucks in over a week now!

Mocha Coconut

I am a fan of a certain franchise coffeehouse. However, since I have been trying to lose weight, my visits to this franchise coffeehouse have been sparse. And when I do stop by (most often while I'm shopping at Target), I've been ordering small (my husband refuses to order by their tall, grande, venti sizing) skinny beverages.

Every time I pass by the store, I've seen advertisements for their new Mocha Coconut Frappuccino. I've been strong about resisting the temptation to try it, but today, in a moment of planned weakness, (I had been thinking about it all morning) I purchased one.


OMG! It was scrumptious! I enjoyed each and every sip. They had a similar flavor a couple of summers ago. I fell in love with it. Then, when summer was over, so was that flavor. I had problems trusting this establishment for a while after that. And although it was really tasty, I think I will be okay going back to my tall, skinny iced lattes for the rest of the summer.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival

This past weekend was the 75th annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival. We have not been able to attend since 2004! Although this was another busy weekend for us, we squeezed in a trip to Piedmont Park on Sunday morning.


Our first stop was the Green Mountain Coffee booth. FREE Coffee!



We looked around at a lot of the artist booths.




Lots of pretty and interesting (and expensive) art. Lots of looking, no buying.




This dragon was made completely out of recycled plastic bottles.




Ate an early lunch.



Hannah had her face painted.


A beautiful morning at Piedmont Park.

A Saturday Morning Walk

We moved to Powder Springs in Fall of 2000. Nearly 11 years later, downtown Powder Springs has its own coffee shop. Since it has opened in February, we have made weekly visits to this new business. On several occasions we have walked there. This past Saturday was one of those such occasions.

We decided to take Snickers on our walk. Without dog and kids, we can walk to the coffee shop in about 20 minutes. It took us 30 minutes this time.

Here we are leaving the neighborhood.


This is why it takes longer with the kids. Hannah has to stop at the goat house.


The boys didn't wait for us. They were walkers on a caffeine mission.


Not only does Hannah want to see the goats, but she waits until they come up to her so she can pet them, too.


We're almost to the Silver Comet trail. The bridge was just completed a couple of months ago.



Waiting to cross the street.



Continuing walking. We had to stop and clean up after Snickers a couple of times along the way. That's why it takes longer when we take her with us.



We've made it to the square. We're passing the old City Hall building.



Destination is in view now!


But when we arrived, another dog was already parked outside. This dog wasn't very happy to see Snickers. She/he barked non-stop at poor Snickers. I went around the corner and sat on a bench and waited with Snickers while the rest of the family went in and ordered drinks.



There you can see the coffee shop sign and entrance a little better.



James enjoyed a frozen coffee beverage while Hannah had a berry smoothie.



Soon the other dog left with its owner and I got to go inside and drink my coffee with my family.



There's Snickers waiting for us. She was so good! She didn't bark at all. She just waited for us to come back out.


Time for the return walk home.