Things that made me smile this week...

Today I am introducing a new series I am calling "things that made me smile this week." It is pretty self-explanatory, but each Sunday I will post a list of things, big or small, that made me happy. I know there are many people in the blogosphere who do something like this, but I was particularly inspired by reading my tea leaves's "my week in objects (mostly)," Insomniac Lolita's "Sunday Lovelist" and rockstar diaries's "here's to happiness" posts. 

I just think it's good to take a moment and remember the joyful moments in life, especially those simple things that we too often take for granted.

So without further ado, here's 10 things that made me smile this week:

1. Sore upper arms and leg muscles. That means the Shred is working, right?

2. Discovering that a Grande iced coffee with milk (sweetened, please) at Starbucks is almost half the cost of a Grande iced vanilla latte. On top of that, the iced coffee has 70 fewer calories and less than half the fat—and it’s just as yummy as the latte. Score!

3. Seeing a happy license plate that read “FULJOY.” Three minutes later I was behind one that said “PXYDU5T.” Fun.

4. Watching people ride their gorgeous horses in the Bridal Path neighborhood of Simi. Ok, this one made me jealous, too.

5. CoCo, aka Conan O’Brien, aka the new host of The Tonight Show. Love his goofy expressions and gestures. Oh, and that hair. Don't you just want to touch it?

6. Taking a catnap on the couch and having Hazel take one with me—more accurately, on top of me.

7. This brilliant quote by a beautiful lady, Audrey Hepburn. (via Under Lock & Key)

8. A giant, delicious artichoke that took an hour to cook and an hour to eat. It was worth the wait.

9. Finally seeing "Slumdog Millionaire." It evoked a roller coaster of emotions in me: sad, scared, happy, romantic. All in all though, it was amazing. And I absolutely loved the dance scene at the end. Jai Ho!

10. An Etsy shopping spree. More on this later.

So what little things made you smile this week?

Iced coffee image via Starbucks
Conan image via The Tonight Show
Slumdog image via Fox Searchlight