Season's Fleeting...

My overhead lighting situation is pretty horrid, but that's an upcoming blog post. Please bear with my December calendar image as we get on with the to-do list! :)

1. Buy a few more Christmas cards! What?! How is it even possible that I have run out? Anyone who knows me has probably seen my stash of all makes and models of stationery and paper goods. (Confession: I have tons of cards, but they're still at home-home in the garage. Whoops.)

2. Really finish moving in. I know I just posted this last month, but I do not know where the time goes. It seems like I've had something going on pretty much every weekend since I moved. The weeknights are just...uhh...

3. Stop eating so much junk. Oh my gah. Just wait for another post tomorrow or so. Ugh.

What not-to-do this month?

1. Lose track of time. Ok, so that could go for most any month, but this time of year is especially fleeting. Sending Christmas cards, mailing baked goods, remembering online retailer shipping schedules? Whew.

2. Forget those who are less fortunate. We have an Angel Tree at work, and I have decided to not buy as much for those who don't really need it (you know it's true--I'm included in this list) in favor of spreading a little joy to a child who would otherwise have no gifts at all.

3. Ignore my new music purchases! On Black Friday I logged onto Amazon and scored four new CDs--by Norah Jones, Kings of Leon, The Swell Season, and Rachel Yamagata--for about $4-$6 each. I was pumped and can't wait for them to get here. Plus, I need to break out the Christmas tunes. :)

Have a wonderful December, everyone! Thanks for reading!

Sated

Today I celebrated Thanksgiving proper with my fellow only-off-work-for-today Nashville friend Emily. And, I have to say, we turned it out in the kitchen. Here are some pictures of the table, side dishes, what was left of the turkey (with herbs, butter, wine, and lemon, no less!), and so on...

I hope you enjoyed these, but I doubt it will be as much as we did. Thanks, Emily!

This weekend I'm heading home to partake in the family meal. I'm pretty stoked about that, too.

Merci Me

Things for which I am thankful today:

health

freedom

family

friends

new job/apartment

TV w/DVR

Kitchenaid stand mixers

Real Simple images

...and my blog readers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A New Home (*snicker)

Remember how I was talking about finding a place for my antique treasures?

These results are probably not too surprising, but I like the way they turned out. Plus, they're not anything that most other people would have. Oh, and they were cheap. :)

I found this frame at Ross for about $4, and I just had to snip the print down a tiny bit. Here's a tip: Use the cardboard insert from the frame as a template and lightly trace cutting lines with a pencil. Easy squeezy.

The shoe form found a no-cost home atop a pile of books that was just jonesing for a lil' somethin' extra. Plus, it's a deep bookcase, so plain ol' books would be boring. I'm against that. The other shoe will drop somewhere else soon.

(Don't) Come and Knock on Our Door

So I'm new to apartment living, but making tons of noise is not really cool, right? Am I crazy?

The first floor is handy for many reasons: shorter distance when moving in furniture or groceries, easier to flee in the event of a fire, no stairs in case I'm ever crutch-bound, and so on.

But why, oh why, does my second floor ceiling/floor mate feel the need to (apparently) drag large wooden crates across their floor? And why does s/he wait until post-midnight every time?!

I even bought this handy white noise machine to ward off apartment sounds. My favorite setting is 'waterfall' because it's the most like harmless static. There's one setting called 'heartbeat,' which I reallllly don't understand. It's creepy as hell. If that's not straight out of The Tell-Tale Heart, I don't know what is.

Anywho, I'm hoping that my rude neighbor moves out or at least stops making randomly heinous noises so late at night.

Gobble It Up

So I guess this is pretty much what a fantasy dining room would look like, huh? I like the wall color quite a bit, and even though none of it is particularly autumnal, it made me think of Thanksgiving. That's coming up, you know.

This year will be a little different because I won't be going to my Aunt Laura's house near Reelfoot Lake. She always cooks on Thanksgiving Day--no weekend before or after situations for her. It's all very traditional, and I'm only off work on Thursday. It's ok, though. Missing Thanksgiving will make Christmas all the better. Plus, I have so much to be thankful for right now. (Hmm...I just had a potental next-post idea.)

What are your plans?

Whew...

Sometimes there's just no substitute for hard and fast statistics.