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.

Phoning in the weekend 1/6

 I started out the weekend by keeping one of my New Years Resolutions and going to yoga. It was a fantastic practice; I'm out of shape and felt my abs all weekend, but that's why I do it!

 Then I was inspired to do a little New Years decluttering. I gave this stack of magazines to my sister for projects with my niece and now it looks like this:

That's where that book went!

 There was a lot of knitting this weekend. A lot. Since I'm working on destashing projects, that counts as decluttering right? Right. My poor old coffee pot finally bit the dust so I'm French Pressing it from now on. I started one of the two French Press cozies I'll need (one for work and one for at home). I also worked on this destashing project:

 which I highly recommend. It's a really fun pattern, great for using up randoms in the stash and won't take your attention away from the exploits of these fine gentlemen:

 (Thanks to Anne for the recommendation!) Netflix it, you guys. If you like British murder mysteries, you'll love this.

I did get off my butt long enough to do a major grocery shopping adventure, complete with meal planning, stocking up on staples, and some apples bossing me around in the fitness department.

Overall it was a lovely weekend! What did you do?

New Years! 2014 for the win! (a sort of Pinterest Wednesday)

Happy New Year! In writing this post, I looked back over past blog posts because I was sure SURE that I must have written before about how much I love New Years but NO! Not one single New Years post to link to! Whaaaaaaat?

I'm a huge believer in new beginnings of all kinds. Remember how every first day of school you thought THIS WAS THE YEAR you were going to stay organized and have a clean desk and never lose a pencil? Or was that just me? Regardless, I know calendars are arbitrary and everyday is it's own new beginning and blah blah but on January 1rst a lot of people agree all at once that it's a new year and resolve to do things differently and that's good enough for me. I'm pretty much the same as everyone in that I make resolutions and stop/break them by the end of January. And I'm ok with that too. There are some that I've kept: I make my bed everyday and I'm pretty sure that was a New Years resolution. I put on makeup, perfume, and jewelry every morning before work because it makes me feel like less of a slob and I think that was a resolution too. I'm careful not to make too many resolutions including the words "always," or "never," and when I use the word "everyday" I mean it the same way I meant it when I said it about making the bed and getting ready for work which is to say "most days" and probably never on a Saturday or Sunday.

Because this is a Pinterest Wednesday, the pictures link to my Resolution board on Pinterest. Oh, tricky tricky!

I resolve:

-to knit instead of play with my phone after dinner (it's better for my focus, my eyes, my happiness).

 -to make time for yoga weekly.

-to work a little toward various goals and big projects calmly everyday instead of freaking out and fear-watching too much Netflix.

-to remember that I am enough, I do enough, and I'm right where I should be and to listen to my breath when I needed to be reminded of it.

-to do the dishes everyday. And to remember that it makes me feel good to wake up to a clean kitchen counter.

-to be quiet and listen more often.

-to journal everyday.

-to blog three times a week.

And that's it! In short, I want to knit, write, and be more mindful. I want to stop freaking myself out and indulging in counter-productive behavior because of it. If I move in that direction this year, I'll be pleased. It's not about the number of times I do something, really, or doing something daily without fail. It's about gently guiding yourself in the direction you'd like your life to go. And that is why I love New Years.

What are your resolutions? Do you make them? What are you hoping for out of the new year? Regardless, Happy New Year everyone!

I've missed you!

You guys! Happy Tuesday and Happy New Year and Happy...9:55 in the morning! How are you?! I've missed you, have you missed me? The weather is WEIRD here in Michigan! Rain, snow, thaws, floods, freezes, ice, weird! How's your weather? Is it bad that we've started talking about the weather already? Is this relationship doomed because we couldn't go five minutes without talking about something as mundane as the weather. Oh no! Don't give up on us yet! I think we have more to talk about: I'm hoping to revamp this blog a bit and use it as a way to keep up with my new years resolutions. Obviously, since it's taken me 29 days to make my first blog post of the year, my resolutions are going slowly. Whatever, at least they're still going.

Anyway, while I get my act together for more substantial posts, here are some things I like right now:

I may have watched this movie twice in a row on Sunday. It's just good fun and I love it. Plus, Chris O'Dowd. Cute cute cute.

My friends and I over at Locust Street Crafts had a meeting on Saturday and I got so carried away with loving my friends that I forgot to put a thumb gusset in this mitten. I ripped it out and started again and included a thumb this time. It has three separate cables because I just can't seem to get enough! Everything I'm knitting has cables right now! Cables, cables, cables! However, if i keep forgetting functional parts of things I'm going to have to change that to gussets, gussets, gussets which does not have the same ring to it.

I'm re-watching Parks and Rec from the beginning. What a great show! Every time I get overwhelmed or discouraged I think, "What would Leslie Knope do?" So I've been eating a lot of waffles. Also, how great is this picture?

Since I can't top Joe Biden and Amy Poehler being awesome together with anything this is where I'll leave you. Get ready for new years resolutions, you guys!