Thankful

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was low-key and peaceful, and couldn't have been nicer. I made a meat-free meal for my family, then went on a photo walk around my neighborhood as the sun started to set. The evening was spent making Christmas cards and watching the original Miracle on 34th Street (and Bridget Jones's Diary!).

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for:

-The support and love of my family.

-An amazing family of friends all over the country--and the world!

-My drive to write and to create.

-Books, and words in all their forms.

And, on a less serious note:

-space heaters

-SWEATER TIGHTS

-Pie

-my playlist of Christmas pop music

-that I've finally mastered the skinny jeans/boots concept.

Taking a Day Off

(via)

I had big plans for today--my day off. I was going to be terrifyingly productive, run all over town, and accomplish all the things I'd been putting off for weeks. Instead, I woke up with a migraine, and spent more or less the whole day reading blogs, taking Advil, and drinking herbal tea. I hate the frustrating feeling of losing a day--but this was my body's way of telling me to take some time off. The bright side is that I've run across a ton of new blogs and great posts during my epic day of interneting!

~101 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up Part One & Part Two

~A great list from Yes and Yes of "31 Things I've Learned in 31 Years" (this whole list is so very true and wise)

~I'm totally in love with the blog One Pearl Button. Alli's a grad student in Archeology who posts all about photography, sewing, knitting, crafting... all the things I love!

Have you guys run across any great bloggy finds lately?

p.s. I've been using Pinterest to keep track of all my online discoveries (I've gone a little nuts posting sewing and crafting tutorials lately!). If you're on Pinterest, follow me, and if you're not on Pinterest, I can send you an invite!

A Week of Tea Towels!

Happy Monday, everybody! My weekend was NOT long enough--I spent Saturday working, and Sunday doing a very long and involved deep-cleaning of my space. But I did get to go to the movies on Saturday night, and it feels sooooo nice to finally have everything tidy and clean again!

I also watched the last episode of Sherlock on Masterpiece Mystery last night. What a cliff-hanger! The time in front of the TV gave me the opportunity to finish the final tea-towel in a set that I've been embroidering for myself. The patterns are iron-on vintage reproduction patterns that I found at Hobby Lobby. I've been working on these for a few months whenever I have down time from other projects. I love them! They're going to look perfect in my super-cute future kitchen.

Aaah I seriously can't get over how cute they are.

How was your weekend?

Gifted Magazine

I'm taking a brief break from grad school applications and novel-ing to ask my bloggy buddies (too much?) if y'all have seen Gifted Magazine? It's a new online mag put out by the lovely proprietoress of Creature Comforts, an amazing design and visual inspiration blog. (Bonus: she just moved to Tulsa so I guess she's a local blogger now too!) Anyway, Gifted Magazine is an absolute treasure trove of blogger and handmade business profiles, as well as gift ideas and (most excitingly) inexpensive and adorable DIY holiday project ideas!

Do you have a strategy for the holidays yet? My family is trying to make our celebrations more low-key, with less emphasis on gift-giving and more emphasis on the traditions that make the holidays fun, like cookie-baking and movie-watching. We're also switching from a real tree to a sparkly silver tinsel tree!

For myself, I'm trying to do make as much homemade as possible. All my gifts are going to be made by myself, and I'm hoping to have time to make cards and wrappings as well!

Tulsa Indie Emporium!

Whew! What a long, great weekend! It's a struggle this morning to get back into a productive week-day mindset (and boy do I have a lot I have to get done this week... mostly related to grad school applications... ugh). I'm feeling a bit gross--I think I have a sugar hangover from last night's Halloween treat-binge of candy, s'mores (using vegan toasted-coconut marshmallows!), roasted pumpkin seeds, and apple cider. Plus I woke up this morning and it was suddenly COLD outside! I guess this means autumn is really here.

I barely took any pictures this weekend because I was so busy! I was a vendor at Tulsa Indie Emporium, which was a truly amazing event that I was grateful to be a part of. Too often, I find myself falling into the creativity-sapping mindset of "There's nothing to do here and no interesting people," but that is definitely NOT the case! I met so many vibrant crafters and artists this weekend, and came away not only with a great sense of satisfaction from my own participation, but also with a renewed appreciation for the handmade community that exists here.

Without further ado, my weekend:

breakfast at Blue Dome Diner

My bestie/assistant/moral support Briel and my friend May of Electrofervor hanging out at our shared table

After an epic day of craft-fair-ing, we headed to Tulsa's new Anthropologie to ooh and aah over the store's beautiful clothing and housewares. I didn't buy anything, though--I'm trying to spend less money on unnecessary things (and make more of my own clothes) this fall. This weekend also involved dinner at Lanna Thai, seeing Red (it was so good!), and an afternoon of shopping at craft stores and fabric stores. Add in the aforementioned cozy Halloween evening of treat binging and answering the door for Trick or Treaters, and I'm worn out!

Happy November, friends! I'm hoping the new month brings new productivity and progress on a number of projects. Plus, I'm diving into Nanowrimo once more (I already have 1700 words that I stayed up past midnight last night to write!), and am hoping to "win" (write 50,000 words) for the third year in a row. The next few weeks are going to be busy!