Dream. BIG. Opening a Coffee House!!! (at some point in my life : )

Van Leeuwen Coffee House NY ~ Some Dream Inspiration for the New Year!!!

Being a coffee connoisseur (thanks to being a college student : ) it would be my life long dream to finally one day open a quaint coffee house of my very own!  In college I had a roommate who would always say to me as we talked of our many lifelong dreams: "Dream BIG girl, dream big!!!" and this has always stuck with me.  So here I am still, browsing around, getting ideas and still dreaming!

I can still vividly remember THAT exact day when I "enjoyed" my very first taste of the drink everyone called COFFEE!!!

Love this style of drip coffee

This is the first coffee house picture that I happened upon in the "The Knot" and immediately fell in love with.  It's small, cozy, self contained, artistic, manageable, old-fashioned and appealing to the eye.  This picture came from a great little article on this couple who opened their own little coffee house and ice cream parlor in NY.  I just loved their personal style and had to share!

Cute seating ideas!

Following in the footsteps of many things that my Grandma enjoys, it was my Grandma Lois who gave me THAT first sip.  Now while some things are "love at first sight" or "love at first taste"coffee and I did not have that particular experience when we first met.  My Grandma and I were out shopping together in downtown Barrington and loving her daily coffee we stopped in at the local Starbucks.  She offered me a sip from her cup and being quite curious as to the taste of this popular drink, I accepted.  Here I was with my first cup of straight black coffee in hand and my immediate reaction was.....

 "oh gross, this is bitter and nasty and who really drinks this stuff anyways???!!!"  

But at the time, I thought it was the "cool" thing to drink and so I was determined to like coffee.  Every time my Grandma would come to visit she would bring the cold little Starbuck's frappuccinos in a bottle and we would share them by each drinking half the bottle.  ( I know she enjoyed sharing her love of coffee with me and splitting these bottles in half was a great way for her to justify drinking these as a treat to herself .... I mean at that point it's only half the calories, right : ) I thought it was cute and I always loved sharing our (at the time "mutual love") of coffee as it made for some great memories. Anyhow, thanks to her I came to LOVE coffee and not just the kind loaded with sugar and cream!!!   Oh yes, and now she is the one telling me, "you know you shouldn't drink too much coffee!" or "you should really try drinking half decaf, half regular" : )  I love you, Grandma!!! I'm glad we can share in our now mutual love of COFFEE!!!

This is my current "baby" that I take care of every day and that gives me the perfect cappuccinos in return!  If I ever open a coffee house, this is coming with me in remembrance of what gave me the drive and energy to dream BIG!!!