thanksgiving

Dress: Ruche, Necklace (remixed): LOFT

Despite the fact that it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving this year because I didn't watch any Thanksgiving Friends episodes, I still have an enormously long list of things to be thankful for. And I also dyed the ends of my hair purple, so check that off the list!

It has been a difficult few months which makes Thanksgiving all the more necessary. It's just a reminder, really. Gratitude and appreciation are daily intentions, but Thanksgiving is a feast to celebrate those good qualities. Actually sitting around with family and friends, declaring the abundance of blessing. I'm personally in favor of instituting more feasts into the year, maybe monthly, but I'm not the one who cooks and prepares them so I should probably tread lightly. Also, monthly feasts would be a terrible idea for my health goals this year. 

We had a marvelous day split between my husband's family and mine, plenty of good food and wonderful people. We were missing a few siblings on both sides, which made us feel a bit incomplete. But one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the happy swarm of extended family that we're able to hug and visit with. The families are growing so much, it makes it incredibly difficult to be all together at one time. It's one of those bittersweet tinges of growth. 

This year I was (am) abundantly thankful for:

my faith

my husband

arizona

my parents (and generosity)

coffee

friends, new and old

an incredible family

sisterhood

coffee

dresses

long-distance friendships

mexican food

good books (and my book club!)

a job that i love

cats

the growth found in change

the stamps of life

writing

coffee

making goals and having dreams

the sound of my parents' christmas tree

travel memories

chocolate-covered pretzels

fabulous movies

benedict cumberbatch

beautiful music 

good humor

and so much more...

Gratitude is such a funny thing. It's easily overlooked, isn't it? If we truly sat down and did as Andy Griffith requested and counted our blessings, they would be incredibly overwhelming. The more I sit here, the more things I can think of that I love and appreciate in my life. And yet darkness feels so much denser than the light. We get easily pulled down, easily discouraged, and over time we very easily forget.

Gratitude should be an action. It's a quality that we have to define for ourselves. Perhaps some people are naturally more thankful than others, but I happen to think it takes a lot of hard work for each of us. Gratitude is defined by a readiness. Readiness to be kind. Readiness to show appreciation. Readiness to see the light. It isn't easy but it's a beautiful, contagious kind of alertness. 

We are told to be ready and prepared, and I think part of that is to always be ready to give thanks. Always. Let the words of gratitude be literally on the edge of your lips, saturating your tongue and your eyes and your ears at all times. If gratitude was glitter, I pray to be a dang disco ball. Wouldn't that be lovely? A party of disco balls. I wanna be those people. Don't you?

weekenders {frocktober, day 17+18+19}

Outfit 1: Dress (remixed 1, 2 / similar 1, 2): Ruche, Jeans (similar): Target
Outfit 2: Dress (remixed 1, 2)/Necklace: Ruche
Outfit 3: Dress (remixed): LOFT, Top (similar): Target

Friday, Saturday and Sunday dresses!

This weekend was one of fellowship and gathering around the table. There's nothing I love more than warm-bellied, smiling faces of friends around a dinner table. It's something special, for sure. Maybe my affection for it has grown for me since reading Bread & Wine, but I definitely have always loved meeting for food with family and friends.

When we still lived in Virginia one of our favorite things to do was head a mile down the road to our friends house and cook dinner together. We'd put on some music, pour some iced tea or cider, and dance around the kitchen while stirring pots and pans or chopping vegetables. We'd joke around that we were heading towards commune life, and oddly, we were all okay with it.
Even now, thinking about those memories brings a very special kind of warmth and sorrow to my heart. I miss it! But it was something so personal and wonderful to share recipes and meals and to go back and forth between each other's houses every other day. It was a little capsule of time that will always be very special to all four of us. It was outside of reality, because we were still in that extended college phase of life and meeting with friends for dinner every night was completely wonderful and normal.

This weekend we were able to call back those days with some friends from high school. We went to their house, holding a bowl of salad and a bottle of wine and we stayed late into the night sharing memories and stories and eventually digging into warm ramekins of piping hot pizzookie and vanilla ice cream. That's the good stuff right there.

I sometimes have the tendency to want to stay home all of the time. I love pajama time and TV time and reading time, and luckily my husband loves the opposite of all of those things too (dress-up time, party time, people time). This weekend was a great balance of the two, because we slept in on Saturday and I caught up on Reign and we were able to spend mealtimes with various friends and family. I call that a win.

the last crystal

Destiny seems like a strong word when you're talking about a small token of desire. A token like a necklace.

But I don't really know how else to describe a series of events like this one....

In November we went to the mountains with another couple. It was such a beautiful fall, and we couldn't wait to spend a little time away!

Her family owns a beautiful house in Blowing Rock, NC -- there's really not much to say about the weekend except that it was absolute perfection. 

Board games by the fire, leaves turning, stunning vistas, ice cream, coffee, shopping.

In town there's a great strip of outlet stores, and we decided to go there on our last day. 

This may be a huge shocker, but us girls wanted to shop a lot longer than the boys wanted to...their patience was growing a little thin. Right around the time they started dozing off on the couches in LOFT. 

I was, of course, the last one to be rushing to finish up -- I ended up getting only one pair of pants because I was in panic-mode and didn't want to buy stuff I wasn't even sure I wanted. I'm guilty of that way too often!

With Dusty following close behind, shielding my eyes from any further distractions, he cowed me into the checkout line and I hastily flung the pants onto the counter.

Once the cashier rang me up, I went to pay and suddenly noticed her ensemble. So cute! A LOFT sweater, of course. It was nearing the official time to be sparkly and festive, and she was wearing a maroon sweater with the most amazing necklace ever. It was so sparkly on her, I just had to comment : I love your necklace!

She smiled, I think it's actually right behind you!

Oh yes. There it was. Hanging in the jewelry section that I hadn't had time to browse.

It's such a horrible feeling, regret.

I saw it hanging there, the little tag sticking up. $8.00. 

I think Dusty saw the look in my eye because he seemed to raise in stature and his eyes said, don't you dare. Our friends were waiting by the door and I started to sweat.

We got in the car and I seriously considered yelling apologies as I ran back into the store before anyone could stop me. But, alas, it was too late. I had surrendered.
We went back to the cabin to enjoy our last few hours, then drove back to Virginia and bid farewell to an amazing mountain weekend.

Non-buyer's guilt is real, though. It's real. 

Obviously the story doesn't really end there.
The first weekend in January we went back with our friends to the mountains, (and almost died in a crazy snowstorm, but that's a different story), went back to the outlet mall, and I walked back into LOFT and that feeling of sadness still lingered.
Of course, it's an outlet store. Things come and go and change and filter out like crazy. There was a cute new striped sweater in the window that said Bonjour, so I decided it would be my fun purchase for the day if I could find it. The necklace was something from my past that I wasn't going to let ruin my day.
I kept it simple, tried some things on, and was the first at the cash register. My friend was still shopping so I felt at ease browsing the jewelry section.
I saw a few cute necklaces, but was suddenly blinded by something shocking and beautiful.
There. Behind a stack of other unremarkable necklaces. Was the necklace. 
It was there! After all this time, one little straggler was left behind, perused but never bought, considered but never taken home. It was there waiting for me.
The last necklace.

See?

It was destiny.

pink toes

My new favorite shoes. 

Honestly my shoe closet is in dire need of updating, still stuck in a time span between high school and now, and most of them sit untouched and covered in dust. I think I'm still in a state of shoe confusion, completely unsure what my style is. I'll figure it out. But I really need to come to a definitive decision about heels. 

We're currently enroute to Cleveland, and eager to see if it's really as bad as people say!

So I thought I'd throw up another outfit from last week. We were on our way to the movies after work with my parents (seeing Star Trek: Into Darkness - I wasn't born a Trekkie, but I sure am one now) and did a parking lot photoshoot before walking into the mall.

There was definitely a car right next to us with two people in it, staring avidly at me the entire time.
I decided to ignore them and just do my thang. Which included mostly just looking to the right, and pretending they weren't there.

Dress: Ruche (similar, similar), Top: J. Crew, Shoes: Gifted/Zulily
Watch: Fossil, Bangle: Cookie Lee

It has become a habit of mine to enlist some of my shorter dresses as tunic tops to wear over jeans throughout the work week. In fact, I did the same thing yesterday.
The jeans policy at work is unclear, at best - they take the "look professional" approach, and since I sit behind a desk in a closet/office in the back, I'd say I fit the bill nicely.
During the summer, things are really slow in the library, so they've already designated Friday a jeans and t-shirt day. I never wear a t-shirt to work, even on Fridays, so I'm feeling fancier already.