My Favorite Things
It’s been a while, but I think it’s high time for another edition of My Favorite Things!
Pretty Paper Products
Rifle Paper Company is run by a husband and wife team in Florida, and literally everything they make is adorable. This week, I’ve been drooling over their gorgeous calendars (pictured, available here), but they make more adorable paper than I could begin to list here – including precious custom illustrations for your stationery, invitations, or calling cards.
Nan Lawson
Nan Lawson is an illustrator after my own heart. Her self described “cute quirky and nerdy art” is adorable, and I want to hang it all on the walls of my office. Check her out on etsy for more precious prints like The Piemaker (be still my Pushing Daisies loving heart!), pictured.
Downton Abbey
If you’re not watching this show, drop everything and START WATCHING THIS SHOW. I’m not even going to elaborate. You’ll start watching and then you’ll watch the whole first season on Netflix in one week like I did and then you’ll understand.
Role Models: Katniss Everdeen
First of all, don’t judge. Chances are if you didn’t love The Hunger Games, it’s because you didn’t read The Hunger Games. And if you did read the Hunger Games, then you know what I’m talking about when I say Katniss Everdeen is a BAMF with serious role model potential, and definitely not a girl to be trifled with. Why? I’ll tell you why:
Family, y’all.
Katniss loves her family more than she loves her own freedom. She is a total mama bear when it comes to Prim, going so far as to volunteer to take her place in The Hunger Games – which gives her a 1/24 chance of survival. For Katniss, there was no other option. She couldn’t let her sweet sister go into that terrible arena, so she went instead. Simple as that. And I can’t even talk about sweet Rue without getting a little weepy, so let’s just say that Prim is not the only kid Katniss would do anything for. She’s a killer with a heart of gold.
Survival Skills
Here’s the deal: if Katniss Everdeen and Bear Gryllis had a wilderness survival showdown, my money would be on Katniss every day of the week. Katniss can kill and prepare her own food, climb any tree, outwit her predators, and she gets ruthless when she needs to. Chances are, Katniss would charm Bear into giving her half his food and all the blankets and drinking water before she left him in her dust and scampered into her top secret tree fort to commune with the mockingjays and wait for him to cry uncle.
Great Hair
Katniss understands that the best hairstyles are the simplest, which is why she mastered the side braid early on. Girls, you do not have to tease and spray and curl and straighten and spray some more. Just take a page from the book of Katniss, learn how to French braid (or fishtail braid, if you’re feeling fancy!), and move on to more important things. Like survival skills and archery and Peeta vs. Gale (This blog is firmly Team Peeta, for the record).
Priorities
This is probably my favorite thing about Katniss. Peeta and Gale are cute, sure, and she gets the warm fuzzies from them both…but when it comes down to it, she has bigger fish to fry. Like political upheaval and her generation’s survival. Katniss isn’t heartless – she has crushes and she gets her smooches in where she can. But at the end of the day, she’s not a breathless, fluttery, boy-crazy nitwit. Snuggling is nice, but surviving and protecting the people you care about is more important, and Katniss gets that.
Another Role Model:
Lessons from Jo March
My Handwriting
When I saw this post at eef-etc, I knew I had to jump on board this bandwagon. Handwriting has always been very important to me. I was the girl who “tried on” different styles of writing at the beginning of every school year – the way other girls would try on new shoes or new dresses.
My handwriting has always been a big part of who I am. Now that I’m a grown up and I don’t have time for silly things like throwing away sheets of paper because I didn’t like the way my writing looked, I have settled on what you see below, and I’ll take it.
You like how I automatically added the “u” after “q” in my alphabet? Me, too.
If you feel like it, leave me a link to your handwriting in the comments! It’ll be like we’re all passing one big note around the Internet. I like the sound of that.
12 in 12: January
The morning of January 21 was cold, rainy, and generally gross. The alarm went off way too early, I was way too tired and completely unprepared. Honestly, the only thing that kept me from backing out was the thought of having to write a post admitting to giving up on my FIRST 5k of the year. No way. Not acceptable. Not in 2012.
So I rolled out of bed, pulled my bedhead into a ponytail, tied my running shoes, and headed into downtown Greenville, SC for the Greenville News 5k. I think this was the biggest race I’ve ever run – somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 people braved the dreary weather to pound the pavement, and mom and I were right in the middle of the pack.
As I mentioned, I was completely unprepared for this race. No training at all – which is why my hips were aching all the way home, and why I slept for a solid 10 hours on Saturday night. Mom stuck with me (although she could have left me in her dust!), and I probably walked as much as I ran, but I’m happy with how I did. Obviously, I won’t benefit from this resolution at all if I roll out of bed and stumble through each race without any training or work beforehand. I’ve got my starting time and a plan for February, and it’ s only going to get better from here.
January Time: 41:53
*This was the time on the race clock when we finished. It took us about 30 seconds to actually cross the start line after the race started, so this is probably a little inflated, but I’ll count it.
February Goal: Under 40
February Race: Frostbite 5k in Asheville, NC
What Are You Reading? Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
First of all: Young Adult Lit is really stepping up its game!
What several years ago may have been easy to write off as juvenile or simple has matured into a genre of literature that is just as complex and entertaining as its more “serious” older sibling. It’s a very exciting time to be a Young Adult author or reader, and this book just helps to prove that point.
I picked up Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children because it looked spooky (and the only time I’m guilty of judging a book by its cover is when I’m looking at actual books and judging them by their actual covers) and seemed like it would be a fairly quick read. It was, and it was. And I loved it.
The book’s framework is a collection of uncomfortably weird photographs of children. These photos were really what drew me in to begin with – I love looking through abandoned photo albums in antique stores and flea markets, and I’m a sucker for the strange and creepy, so…perfect match.
Once I started reading the book, the photos combined with the easy tone and gripping story made it tough to stop—much like The Hunger Games series, I finished this book in about three days. And I loved it.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children felt like an adventure made up of equal parts Magical Realism, Thriller, and Historical Fiction. If you’re into shows like Ghost Hunters (guilty), Ancient Aliens (guilty), or any other show from the “historically spooky” Sunday afternoon lineup on channels like Discovery and History and SyFy, read the book. Chances are you’ll love it, too.
Next Up on What Are You Reading?
My next book is going to be The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. My friend Megan is going to be reading along with me – if you’re interested in joining us, please do! Just get a copy of the book, start reading, and keep in touch about what you think!
Previously:
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Go somewhere.
I spent my day thinking warm, snuggly thoughts of blankets and hot tea and Jane Austen movies on Netflix. 
I knew that as soon as I walked in the door, I would be hard pressed to do anything other than snuggle with the dogs, turn on the TV, cover up, cuddle in, and drift in and out of a hazy almost-sleep until Josh got home from class.
So when I got home, I said hi to the pups. I took them outside in the rain. We all ran back inside. And I put on my boots, zipped my coat, and headed right back in to the storm.
It is so easy to call an end to my day when I get home from work. To eat dinner, put on PJs, and snuggle in for the night.
But when you are a person with goals and dreams and plans as big as mine, you really don’t have time for that nonsense. And as I am learning, sometimes that means you have to give up the comfort of a full belly and a warm puppy and a cozy blanket for a hard chair and headphones in your favorite coffee shop. Whatever it takes to make you sit up straight and get things done.
Do you feel my pain? Can you concentrate on your work after a full day at your job? Where do you go to stay on task?
What Are You Reading? 100 Years of Solitude
Although it took me WAY longer than it should have, I finally did finish 100 Years of Solitude. (You may remember I started reading it five months ago when I started this little online book club.)
By the end of the book, I felt like poor Ursula—and oh, how I loved Ursula—in her old age. All the characters, their lineages, and their stories blurred completely together. It was all I could do to keep things straight until the end, and I definitely relied on help from the family tree printed in the front of the book.
Muddled though it left me, I do feel like I achieved something by sticking it out with this book. I was tempted to overthrow it for something simpler several times, but I knew it was just too big a story to leave unresolved.
In a lot of ways, this book felt a little Biblical. The family tree grew gnarled, crooked, knotted with begats and with roots so long that the ancestors had become more like legends than family members.
I knew as soon as I finished 100 Years of Solitude that I would need to read it again. This first time was really just to understand what I was getting myself into—and I did sometimes feel like my shoes were made of cement or stuck in mud as I slogged through the densely woven web of stories. I’ll read it again, maybe next year, to actually process, understand, and enjoy. For now, I’m just glad I finished it at all.
I’ve got one more book to tell you about before the book club picks up in real time. Until then, what are you reading? Do you have a book to recommend?
If you’re interested in becoming a reader with me, leave me a comment and let me know! I’ll add you to the list.
Ukulele Wednesday – Eye of the Tiger
This Ukulele Wednesday is here to make you feel like you can take on the year 2012 and win. I hope you like my version of “Eye of the Tiger.”
Inspired
I’ve told you about my goals for 2012—now I want to tell you about my inspirations. I look to these people when I’m drawing a blank or feeling discouraged about where I’m going or what I’m doing in life. I hope these wonderful, talented people are just as inspiring to you as they are to me!
My mom
You guys, my mother is a powerhouse. It’s hard to believe that at this time last year, she hadn’t even considered running a 5k…and now, she’s running circles around me and logging miles daily. My mom has always been the best example of kindness, patience, and Southern hospitality; this year, she has become the picture of willpower and perseverance, too. I am so proud of and inspired by her every day.
The Schultzes
I know. How many times can I write about our amazing wedding photographers (and friends)?
What you have to know about Cheyenne and Geoff is that they are kind, helpful, caring AND wildly talented. Each time I’ve spent time with them, from our engagement shoot to meeting up for pizza, I leave telling myself (and Josh) that “I want what they have.”
What do they have, you ask? They have the drive, passion, and freedom that I was shooting for when I first launched out as a writer. They have their own business, they work hard, they make it look easy, and they rock at what they do.
When I first met Cheyenne and Geoff, I thought I wanted exactly what they have—down to the occupation. While I know now that I want something a little different for myself, it was an easy leap to make, considering how profoundly inspired I was –and still am—by this dynamic duo.
Mary Marantz
I started keeping up with several wedding photographers after I met The Schultzes and decided I wanted to be one. That ambition has (obviously) since evolved, but several of the photographers I found have stayed on my radar because they are such great resources and examples. Mary is one of those people.
She is so candid about her journey to where she and her husband are now—and I so appreciate that honesty. She is often just the reminder I need that these things take time, that I’m going to have to take baby steps, and that I will get there someday. Read her recent post called “There’s Something About the Chase” to see what I mean.
I could go on about each of these people—and I could list about a hundred more who I find inspirational. Maybe I’ll tell you about another batch in a few weeks—for now, I’ll leave you with these wonderful people and their inspirational mojo.
Tell me in the comments: who are you looking to for inspiration this year?
