Things I'm Loving: 11/04/2011

Photo Credit

I love my little rental house, but the kitchen is functional and ugly as sin.  I'm been thinking of ways to spruce things up a bit and I love the idea of this fabric backsplash and the open cabinetry option. 

As I chopped a butternut squash last week to make chili I thought to myself, "my death will probably involve a knife and a butternut squash."  Here is a great tip for roasting a squash so I don't maim or kill myself with a knife. 

I'm totally signing up for this reading challenge.  In fact, next year I think I'll make a month my "read from my stacks" month.  I love supporting libraries, but I need to read the books on my shelf!

I desperately need a needlebook.  Luckily, I found a pretty awesome set of directions for a cute, scrappy needlebook.  I need to bust out those scraps and get to stitching!

I'm loving these beautiful Dahlia pins!  

As if I needed another excuse for plate thrifting.

Hello to all my baking and book buddies, Penguin is releasing in the US several titles from the Great Food series.  I want them all!  Geez those covers are lust-worthy.

Reason #372 on the "why I need a doughnut pan" list. 

Owl brooch!!!!!!!!!!!!

More embroidered book cover goodness.

Things I'm Loving...

1.  Bright green, thrifted cords

2.  Exciting Rumer Godden news from Virago (Thanks, Verity, for keeping us up to date!)

3.  Baking with apples.  I cannot get enough baked apples and I know I will be making some apple butter soon! 

4.  This autumn cowl (I'm starting it this weekend!)

5.  This be-cupcaked face:

6.  Easy birdfeeders!  

7.  A tattoo-idea.... This vintage owl embroidery pattern on my leg and the ink looking like embroidery stitches.  Whatcha think? 

8.  Made these pumpkin pancakes this week and they were FABULOUS!

9.  Super huge book sale!  I took a peek last night, but I plan on spending tomorrow hunting through thousands of books! 

10.  Lana Del Rey.  Lovin' her!

Things I'm Loving

The past week has been about 80% shit.  Some stuff happened on the weekend, work is busy, and Sam's truck broke down.  Not really that bad -- but it has been a stressful and emotional week.

My reaction to this week has been to be a complete bitch to all the people I love.  I've been sullen, selfish, and not a very likable wife and mom.  Yesterday, I decided to try to focus on the positive things in my life.  The little things I love that make the day wonderful; there is almost always something sunny on a cloudy day.

So here we are, the tiny wonderful things that occurred on a Wednesday:

coffee in a Shakespeare mug

Office art created by Hope

Having lunch with Sam.  I told him I wanted to take a picture for "the blog" and this is his more than thrilled expression.

My sweet girl doing her homework

Silly cereal face

Talking to duckie

Sweet Potato Fries!!!

Reading Jane Eyre in the baby room while rocking Atticus to sleep

That one, semi-clean space on Hope's floor

Gigglebox

Baking bread

There we are, all the happy little moments in one place.  All in all yesterday was a good day and I'm sure those other horrid days wouldn't have been quite so bad if I had thought about all my blessings.

 

Things I'm Loving

I had something I wanted to write about and then it left my brain.  Taking inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Honey and Jam, I decided to talk about things I'm loving right now.

Coffee is giving me heartburn, so I've turned to Hot Cocoa for my daily coziness fix.  (photo credit)

Jigsaw puzzles!  We're nearly done with this difficult hidden image puzzle of owls.  I'll take a picture of the puzzle when it is complete.

Baby stuff!  We had another baby shower on Monday and have been working hard at getting the nursery ready.

MST3K!  We've been getting the episodes from Netflix and watching about one a week.  Great fun.

Scarves!  The season is growing close and I'm craving this ModCloth scarf.

Well there you go!  Things I'm loving.  What are you loving?