So thankful.

Hello, three blog readers. :)

I'm back from a weekend in the mountains and three days in the home office.

Things I'm excited about:

Starting my online Christmas shopping on my days off.

Testing out as many of these recipes as humanly possible.

Thanksgiving dinner at Green Vegetarian. Five years ago I could not have imagined looking forward to faux turkey this much.

Spreading the few Christmas decorations that I smuggled onboard the flight out across our wee apartment.

A nice cuddle with a handsome grad student.

Thankful to be home, for my family, sweet husband and incredible friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mountain Getaway

Montreat image via Flickr

We're headed for Montreat, NC to see two wonderful people get married this weekend. There's a group hike scheduled and the rehearsal dinner is in a barn. I'll be thinking lots of warm thoughts and grinning ear to ear. Have a great weekend!

something different

Phew. Yesterday was a rough day at work.
Like all the balls I've dropped in the last six weeks came crashing down at exactly the same time.
I've been a space cadet. I haven't been showing up [mentally].
After work I walked into the house and burst into tears.
My job is wonderful. The people I work with are phenomenal.
But I don't love it, and have been struggling to get work done these last few months.
Doing half hearted work makes me feel like a real asshole.
There's a serious reevaluation of my life taking place.
The difficulty is in finding the courage to take that leap.
In the meantime, I'll be doing lots of long walks and channeling my confusion into a series of questionably crafted scarves for loved ones.

Inspiration

It's so critical that I clear the cobwebs out of the old noggins every once in a while and let some fresh air in...both for my mental health, and to keep myself moving forward, not just trudging along with my shoulders hunched to the world.

Today I'm feeling extremely inspired. Gwen Bell has just convinced me of how critical it is to have a personal manifesto, and I'm itching to get started.

Another inspirational, if not completely awe-inspiring, bit that I came across on the interwebs today:



Found via The Year in Pictures....did this video not make your hands sweat, too?

Over the Weekend...

My weekend consisted of:

Fabulous Jamaican dinner with K (followed by too much yummy microbrew and a zombie Saturday)

Tons of time on the lightrail spent knitting

Turkish coffee with a new friend

Baking cookies for an old friend

A trip to the library and a new stack of books to dive into

Intoxicatingly fragrant flowers at the lightrail stop.

Lightrail stop art installation. The length of coils that went into the hands is astounding.

Glowing cacti.

Happy Monday!

Have a Lovely Weekend

Hope your weekend is lovely.

Ours is stacking up to be fairly loungy (for me, anyhow, K is deep in the throes of his final studio project for the semester, but can hopefully pencil in a lounge or two).

Snuggles under warm down comforters in a chilly room, quiet time over hot tea, and some work on holiday gift lists are what's up my sleeve.

Sunshine on My Ceiling

As I flopped on my bed last night, exhausted after work, I looked up and saw this:
 
The light in our wall sconce was refracting onto the ceiling in the shape of the sun.
Does this make me one of those kooky 'I saw the Virgin Mary in my goat cheese omelette people?'
Meh, I don't care.
Sometimes you find beauty in the most unexpected places...