Adventures in Charleston

We arrived in Charleston this past Saturday - the day we celebrated 10 years of togetherness. :) We checked into the Aloft Hotel and headed Downtown. Such a pretty, pretty town filled with lots of history. These pictures are from our first evening there. :)

Instalove

As seen on my instagram lately. :) 

LOVE that I haven't tended to my garden in over 4 months and it still
gives me lettuce, cilantro, tarragon, and onions. I really should throw
out lots and lots of the following seeds come next fall. :) 

We enjoyed bowling with some friends this past Saturday. Tony and I hadn't been
bowling in ages (like at least 7 years). I'm not good at all ... but it was still fun. :) 

Sweet niece :) 

My dad got a baby rocking chair for baby Elayna. He say's it's the
grandbaby rocking chair - for her and any future grandbabies. :) 

Today I made a easy, tasty tea latte. Brew a mug of your favorite tea
like normal (sweeten if desired) - I used Bengal Spice tea (caffeine free).
Blend together with some ice, almond milk, and cinnamon. Yum!! 

Books read in 2012

Just some of the books I was able to complete in 2012; such a colorful collage. :)

7300 Burpees & Stitches

One of my goals for the year is to do 7300 burpees (that is about 20 per day). I've been contemplating the best way to keep track of my progress and finally decided to mesh this goal with one of my other goals (to embroider something). For every burpee I complete, I will make a stitch on my embroidery piece. Each flower is made up of approximately 25 stitches, so that will be nearly 300 flowers by the end of the year. I'm thinking it will be a pretty wall hanging when all said and done. :) Typing out the number of flowers really makes me second guess this self imposed challenge. Haha. We shall see. :) This picture is inspiration from Jane Brocket. I just added the text to it. Now I need to go buy some embroidery thread. :)

Luxury Yarn

Last night, I sat snuggled on the couch and wound my fancy blue yarn into a ball. It is a luxurious blend of 40% merino wool, 40% silk, and 20% bamboo sourced viscose. Lovely, lovely to work with and a real treat, seeing as the price paid for this yarn was much more than what I normally pay for my acrylic blend yarns. I contemplated for a long time of what to make and have finally settled on a lace cowl. The pattern is from a vintage crochet book published in 1956. I'm so grateful to Tony for surprising me with a trip to a real yarn store and helping me to pick out these lovelies!!
 

"It helps to have a state of mind that can turn even the smallest indulgence into a luxury. This means looking positively at your life - considering not what you want to have, but what you can, or already, have. It means deciding for yourself what you class as luxury and not following the media's overblown ideas. Couture dresses, private jets, huge yachts and large gems are very wonderful, I'm sure, but doesn't the fact that only a handful of women in the world can afford them strike you as ridiculous? Far better to treat yourself to a couple of skeins of lovely yarn, afternoon tea and a film, a bright bunch of roses, or a small, but perfectly formed box of chocolates."   Jane Brocket

"Three hundred small pleasures make people happier than one magnificent one."  Daniel Gilbert