Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
I was going to say that this was the first “back to normal” weekend in three weeks (first there was Doc’s birthday, then Christmas, then New Year’s/my birthday) but we did some non-routine things: a trip to the Food Bank to volunteer with my nephew, a concert at the symphony, and inventory for Doc (which meant an evening of sewing for me. Toby helped).
I took most of this week off since my birthday falls in the middle of it, but I figured I’d better get back into posting before it all blurs together. Highlights so far include a bluebird hike and an early birthday celebration with my family, in which my brother gave me a version of this print I blogged about that he painted himself! The rest of the week will have yoga and Star Wars and as much sewing time as I can fit in. Yasss.
Doc had a good birthday Saturday (IKEA wrapping paper FTW!) but then started to feel like he was coming down with something that evening. So Sunday he stayed on the couch, Toby stayed in his bed, and I puttered around reading old Martha Stewart magazines and planning 2018 projects.
Sometimes it’s nice to stay home.
We celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday on Sunday so we didn’t get into the mountains, but we used the afternoon to KEEP DECORATING. Because the more your house looks like Christmas, the happier you will be? (Still testing this theory.)
Cue the Andy Williams because we got the tree up (Toby already found the pickle) and had some snow blow in. Also, my Christmas shopping is done and I haven’t started to panic about making any presents (yet). That means the whole month will be great, right?
Oh it was nice to have five days off. We gave thanks and saw both families. We went for a hike. I spent four or five hours every day sewing (with help from Toby).
I could get used to this.
There was rain in the valley on Friday, which was snow in the mountains. But the clouds cleared for the weekend and we had brilliant blue skies and cold sun–and a transformed canyon to hike in.
The mountains are getting grayer and grayer and inside is looking nicer and nicer. I didn’t take a lot of photos over the weekend but I will take this opportunity to tell you about Stuffing Eggs:
(Toby toes pic is by Doc; Stuffing Eggs concept is by Sam Sifton in his bossy and delightful book Thanksgiving.)
I took today and tomorrow off to keep a friend company post-surgery, avoid Halloween madness at work, have some sewing time, and get some fall cleaning done. (As you can tell by Doc’s note, he is very excited to help with cleaning. Toby was very excited to impede the sewing time.) So far, so good–the weather has stayed near 60 degrees and sunny for most of October. No complaints here.
We finally got out into the mountains over the weekend. The fall colors are gone at elevation, but it was a gorgeous day–blue sky and 50 degrees. Everything looked like a Bob Ross painting where he only uses about four colors, so I took some Bob Ross pictures with things in the foreground:
