Happy Linky Thursday

Just some links that made me happy or thoughtful this week. Happy Thursday!

Mighty Girl is a great blog and her lifelist an inspiration. I cracked up at her New Years Resolutions! Such good ones, but also written so well! Snacks! Making out! Etc.!

Oh these super cute doggies and kitties enjoying the winter!

Downton Abbey pickup lines in case you need to woo a fan of the show.

Meditation and mindfulness (particularly in the context of yoga) has helped me with my anxiety immensely and here's a little science to back that up! I like that the article points out that even if meditation doesn't serve a medical purpose it's free, harmless, and can be done at home.

These pictures are stunning, but I have tea at home thank you very much. The most dangerous part of that journey is tripping over cats and that's the way I like it.

More New Years Resolutions, this time from Letters to a Young Librarian. This is one of my favorite library blogs I read on my quest to read more of what librarians are writing, both professionally and in more casual contexts. I also really love her recent post about social media as a graduate student. It was reassuring to see her espouse guidelines I already try to follow about being yourself but being professional. I think they are good habits for anyone engaging in social media, regardless of your profession.

Happy Jane Austen is my Homegirl Thursday

Happy Thursday, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week. I got to have my haircut by my sister yesterday! Jane is in the program at Douglas J and I got to be a model!

She did a great job and we had so much fun!

As your Happy Thursday offering, I bring you a celebration of my love of all things Jane Austen, Downton Abbey, etc., combined with my love of rap and parady. Please enjoy:

There are no words

My friends. I have no words for what I'm about to show you other than these, "I found this. It made my day. I will never be the same again."

 

I was going to try to save this for another blog post even just until tomorrow but I could not selfishly keep this from you. 

I'm sure this will be featured prominently again at Christmas as well as when Downton Abbey returns to PBS. 

Fresh off the needles: The Elinor Shawl

 

You know what that picture up there means? It means I found my camera, my camera charger, and my camera/computer connection thingy that lets me put the pictures from my camera onto the computer (yeah, that's the technical term) and then got them in the same place at the same time! What up! If you don't think this is going to increase the number of cat pictures on this blog, well, then, clearly we haven't met in real life.

But now is not the time for talk of cats, now is the time for talk of knitting! I designed this shawl for The Mpaeyc Community Silent Auction (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mpaeyc-Community-Silent-Auction/218663641535841) and then executed it over the course of three or four days. I was home sick from work and all I could do was knit, blow my nose, and re-watch the first season of Downton Abbey.

I suffered, I tell you

That was a lot of knitting (the shawl ended up being about 2 1/2 feet wide and 5 feet long) and my thumbs kind of ache. But it was for a good cause and Mr. Bates was there to bring me a tray of food with flowers. Or maybe I took too much allergy medicine. Who's to say.

If you're in the mid-Michigan area, you should think about coming out to the auction. There are some really beautiful pieces and it's for a good cause.



I have a lot of good stuff planned for this weekend and lots more FO's to block and photograph. So be looking for more knitting news, cat pictures, and PBS Masterpiece Classics delirium.

Like the tines of our forks, so are the Valentines of our lives. Or something.

 

Stuck in my head ALL DAMN DAY

Happy Valentines day, everyone. I know some people are SUPER into Valentines day and some people are almost equally AGAINST Valentines day. As for me, I am neutral. I like holidays of all types, I like telling the people I love that I love them, I like the pop of red in February, and I love candy. (Dear Candy, I love you. Love, Sam) But I don't like it if people feel bad about not being in love on Valentines day, I don't like that there are a billion e-harmony (and similar companies) commercials trying to capitalize on people feeling bad, and I don't like sappy songs/cards/sentiment/shows/movies/stuffed animals/etc.

This is where I stand on Valentines day, I suppose

Love is lovely and expressing your love is a brave and wonderful thing to do. But after a day full of too much chocolate and too many sappy sentiments, we all need Cher to slap our faces and tell us to snap out of it.

So I hope you have a lovely day, whether you are full on hearts/flowers/chocolates-ing it up or whether you are dressed in black all anti-Valentines, or whether you, like me, fall somewhere in the non-committal middle. And I encourage you to celebrate all the loves in your life. In that spirit here are:

The Ten Things I Love Most Right Now: (obvious things like, boyfriend, family, friends, wine, and whiskey not included on account of obviousness)

1) Downton Abbey

2) The color red.
3) Butternut Squash anything
4) Under the Banner of Heaven

5) Pinterest
6) Finally having some snow this winter.
7) Chamomile Tea
8) Making my bed in the morning (more accurately- getting into a made bed at night)
9) Liz Lemon

10) Mr. Bates from Downton Abbey