Celebration Fridays - Let's Celebrate and Get Really, Really Tired!

The benefit of running two blogs simultaneously has to be that, once in awhile, you can borrow a post from one or the other.  Today is one of those days.

Please go and read "My Favourite Mantra".  It's a celebration of friendship and being really, really tired.

Be sure to read the comment from Mr. Nuggets, too.  Dude's brilliant.  And if you'd like to leave a comment, here or there and let me know the mantras that get you going, I'd love it.

I know this is a bit of a cop-out of a blog post, but I promised you a picture of our pretty, pretty new deck.  As near as I can figure, a weekend that starts with a promise fulfilled is going to be a great weekend.

Hope it is for you!

 

Etsy Mondays

After a ridiculously cold May and June, we're finally getting some warm weather around here.  That and the new deck that we're getting built this week has me thinking, PICNIC!!!

Now, admittedly walking three steps from the kitchen to the back deck isn't likely to put me in danger of having my food go off, but with a picnic bag as pretty as this, why not be extra careful!

JulieMeyer

Not that my table needs protection, but, once again - Pretty!

r2swanger

And how cool is this?  Wine glasses made from recycled wine bottles! 

All I ever do with mine is take them back for the deposit...

bodhicitta

You want to see the deck, you say?  How kind of you to ask!

I'll post pictures when it's all done!

 

Celebration Fridays - Same Old Same Old

 

You may not have noticed, but Alan and I live a life of constant change, if not outright chaos.  In the last year alone, we've moved twice and held five jobs between us. 

And that is so not unusual.

Lately, though, things have been pretty settled.  Calm.  Peaceful even.

And it feels mighty strange, I can tell you!

It's at about this point, historically (and after 26 years of wedded bliss, I think I get to use that term) that one or other of us comes up with a Bright Idea.  Or starts running in circles, rending our garments and screaming, "I'M TRAPPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I've just asked Alan if he has any Bright Ideas and he said, "Nope."  And far from running in circles, he's in the kitchen, cooking something.

And I'm here doing this, so the peace remains unbroken.

I figure, if I can get used to travelling in Africa, or ordering my meals in French, I might just be able to get used to life in the Land of Calm.

How about you?  Anything new in your life that you never thought you'd welcome?

Lazy Sunday Links - The Uniform Project

riot jane

I love this one!

To raise money for The Akanksha Foundation, which is devoted to bringing education to slum children, Sheena Matheiken has  vowed to wear the same dress every day for a year.  Actually, she has seven identical dresses, designed by Eliza Starbuck, that she's wearing day after day, with different vintage and handmade accessories.  Full details and photos of each of the outfits can be found at The Uniform Project.

It's a very cool project, for a great cause.  And a real source of inspiration for anyone who's stood in front of their closet moaning,  "Oooooh.... I have nothing to wear!"

I'm off to the theatre this afternoon.  Hope you're all spending a lazy Sunday exactly as you want to!

Celebration Saturday - Getting Really Excited About Something

I came home from work on Tuesday to find that my husband had dug a fire pit in the backyard. 

He's never been a frat boy, but he found a recipe and "Iwannamakepaella!"  We had friends coming for dinner Thursday night, so, cool.

Wednesday, we went to Ikea (we were headed there anyway) and bought a pan, stopping for mussels on the way home.

When I got home Thursday, he was working away in the kitchen, pre-cooking the bits that needed pre-cooking and chopping vegetables. 

Then he had to run out and cover the fire pit because the rain had started and I was so disappointed because enthusiasm?  Is so wonderfully contagious and by now I was thinking, "I really, really wannamakepaella, tooooo!"

The rain let up.  Alan lit the fire and a couple hours later we sat down with three of our nearest and dearest to, seriously, one of the best meals I've ever had.

But I'm not telling you this just to brag about my husband's abilities with fire and food.  Good though the meal was (oh my lord! it was good!), it was the excitement around the meal that I really loved.  The fact that he started planning it Monday, dug a hole in the backyard Tuesday, went all over the place Wednesday for provisions and then came home from work Thursday and cooked his little heart out, for the sheer joy of it.

My parents used to get on a roll like that.  I remember when my father discovered composting, long before it was even remotely cool.  He read everything he could about it.  He started a compost pile out behind the garage.  And when the first batch actually broke down and became friable, well, it was show and tell time.

It's not about the subject matter.

It's about the passion and the joy that you find in the subject matter.

  

It's about being around someone who can get THAT excited about dirt.  Or food. Or the history of paper.

It's a rare thing, that kind of excitement, but it makes life SO much better.