sunday happiness*8

It occurred to me that in the midst of this awesomely long yet busy weekend, I never wrote a Thanksgiving post. And that is sad. I have so much to be thankful for.

So, in the spirit of the giving of gratitudes...

1. A lovely Thanksgiving with my family in South Florida... Grandma's cornbread dressing, pumpkin cream cheese pie... oh yes.
2. My cupcakes turned out okay. Frosting was successful. I want to make more stuff with my awesome new candy thermometer.
3. A beautiful post-turkey walk on a peaceful beach. (see photo :)) Funny how you can walk forever and hardly notice the passing of time or get tired. Heavenly.
4. Sleeping really late on Black Friday. (Totally counter-cultural, right?)
5. Fun time last night with friends at a Needtobreathe show. Second row, favorite venue. I was feeling kind of sad and tired yesterday, but the music chased my blues away. They were amazing as always. Oh, and they played some new songs too.
6. Doing it all again on Thursday. Switchfoot at House of Blues! Maybe 4 and 5 should be filed under live music in general.
7. The creative adventure Sherri and I are about to embark on with The Sketchbook Project. Already developing ideas for our little art piece. I haven't done much art to speak of in a really long time, so this is especially exciting to me.
8. Continuously awesome weather.
9. First Sunday of Advent... The mystery and the joy surrounding the Christmas season
10. My friends that accomplished (or are in the process of accomplishing) NaNoWriMo... and the fact that I do not feel guilty at all for dropping out.
    

This is only the surface of the many things I could be grateful for... there is just so much. But right now I'm tired and fuzzy and will leave it at this.

End of ramble. Share your gratitudes as well, if you feel inclined. :)

dear foodies...

photo © 2009 Veganbaking.net | more info (via: Wylio)We're going to visit my aunt and uncle and grandma on Thanksgiving for a good ol' family feast in South Florida, and I've been given cupcake duty. By popular vote, I'm going for chocolate cupcakes with coconut frosting and almonds on top. I know, not so fallish or traditional, but the Roses dig their coconut cake, and I want people to be happy.

Anyway, I told my mom tonight that I'm going to learn to make seven minute frosting for this occasion. From a Martha Stewart book, no less. I even bought a candy thermometer just for this, which kind of looks like an awesome yet dangerous piece of equipment.

She gave me a look of both fear and sympathy.

Dear foodies, I ask... what am I getting myself into?

whoa.

Some new Civil Wars for you on this Music Monday. "Barton Hollow." It's gritty and Southern and pretty much amazing.



Compiling my Top 10 of 2010 list this week... oh yay. And also supposed to make a list of my top 5 Christmas albums too. How fun!

As I was thinking about it though, I realized that I can't remember any super-classic albums (as in, everybody-knows-and-loves-them classics) other than Bing Crosby's White Christmas that would make my list. And I haven't even listened to that one in years. How lame of me.

the boss.

photo © 2010 Kazi Hirok Al-Arafat | more info (via: Wylio)I once heard a sage piece of writing advice that went something like this...

If a blank page makes you paralyzed, then mark it. Anything. If it's a word or a scribble or a doodle or whatever... just show it who's boss.

This is the digital equivalent of bossing my blank pages around.

November has been a wild, ridiculous, busy busy month. I broke up with my NaNoWriMo novel days ago, because with a heavier work load, too full weekends, and no amazing story idea I could get passionate about, I knew I didn't need to add that pressure to myself. (it's not you, dear novel, it's me.)

And that whole sentence looks so whiny and self-indulgent now. bleh.


Also, my name got mentioned in a CNN blog today. No big deal.

Okay, it is a big deal to me. Huge. C-N-freakin-N!

Slightly bummed that it's because it was an article about Chris Tomlin's new CD that referenced my "mixed review" on JFH... but eh, what can you do? A writer friend tweeted the link to me earlier today, and I literally felt the blood drain from my face when I read it. So weird.

I'll never get used to people taking the words I string together seriously... or strangers calling me tone deaf for that matter. :)

It does set some ideas running through my mind... about words and opinions and how to express thoughts with care and grace, especially in the faceless land of the Interwebz. But I'm feeling too sleepy and stupid to write that post coherently, so this is what you get. (and to think I actually entertained the idea of going to a midnight show of Harry Potter tonight! Yeah, right.)

For now, I'm showing the page who's boss so I can move forward. I have lots to talk about, and soon.

So, how's your November? :)