Feel Good Friday 93
Happy Friday, my friend! We’ve just completed week four of Chris’ travels. One week to go, and it’s a short one. Plus, I get a three-day respite over the holiday weekend. Insert awkward happy dancing! And to top it all off, next week is the unofficial kick-off to my favorite season. Halloween. JK, fall. I’ve got plans to go grab a bunch of apples this weekend from the farmers market and get saucy! (BTW, you can find my easy applesauce method here if you’re thinking about canning it this year.) Lots to look forward to and lots of good to look back on from the week. Let’s go!
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Homemade Costumes FTW
Halloween is one of my all-time favorite holidays, probably in thanks to my mom who ensured I had a unique home-made costume each and every year of my childhood. She also helped us throw some pretty kick-ass parties, complete with bobbing for apples. The photo above is from 1984, I believe, when I was a Tenderheart Bear and my brother was GI Joe. Over the years I was also a kangaroo, a potted flower, a jack-o-lantern, a clown, an angel and so much more. What was your favorite homemade costume?
I’m a Published Writer!
I am proud to finally share with you that I’ve written an essay that just came out as the ending of the O.Henry magazine September issue. I shared a story about someone very special to me. Someone I was close with for some time in Maryland. That someone is Squeakers, my favorite chicken. You can find my very short essay here.
It’s Not Salmon
You know we love our salmon, but last weekend we tried a new-to-us cod recipe. Chris picked up a bunch of cherry tomatoes and we thought we’d put some to use with this one. I completely forgot to take a photo of our meal, but believe me that it was buttery-lemony-goodness! I substituted ghee for the butter and it had a really nice flavor to it and worked perfectly.
Sweet Quick Read (& Series Start)
One of our book club members wanted to read a book and we realized it was number three in this series. And it dawned on me that I recently read number two, but never number one. We decided we should start at the very beginning with doe a deer, a female deer. Oops, where was I? The Story of Arthur Truluv is about an elderly man who’s recently widowed and never had children. He begins, per happenstance, to create a network of people around him and before he knows it, he’s created his own family. This book is a short, bittersweet read that I enjoyed. I supposed I should grab the third in the series now that I’ve read the first two.
Fancy Snacks
If you’re not local-ish to Greensboro, apologies now. Last weekend I got together with a few of my girlfriends for a little wine and nosh night. One of them owns Sonder Market in downtown Greensboro, a fantastic healthy spot with smoothies, coffees and grab and go foods. She brought the food you see above and all of the non-produce items are generally gluten-free and allergen-free and vegan from her shop. It’s all absolutely delicious and her presentation is killer. (And those white chocolate raspberry pieces. . . OMGimme all of them.)
Cozy Fall Candle Vibes
This past weekend I went back to my happy place to introduce a couple of friends to it. Scent Workshop is a candle and perfuming workshop but also a retail store with loads of candles, sanitizers, candle-making kits and more. If you’re not local, these can all be shopped online as well. I created a candle using amber & moss, oak and oud and it might be my favorite yet that I’ve made. I also created a perfume using some of the same scents with a little cuban tobacco as well. BTW, her new fall scents will be dropping on the site soon and they smell AMAZING! I bought one for my mother-in-law. I love Scent Workshop because the candles are made with soy, clean-burning and owner Lindsay gives back to women entrepreneurs.
Zac Attack
I’ve been a long time fan of the Zac Brown band. Their music is just so easy to listen to and always puts me in a good mood, even if my favorites are the sadder songs. (Sweet Annie, Colder Weather, Highway 20 Ride, Goodbye in Her Eyes). I recently discovered they have a new album, Comeback, coming out this October, but some songs have already been released on Amazon Music (my musical platform of choice).
Something I Greatly Miss
As I was in the shower the other day – where I do all of my best thinking (more on that in a minute!) – I was thinking about one of the tokens of friendship in the 80s and 90s I miss the most and I am wondering how to get it back in some modern iteration. I am talking about the mix tape, or mix CD, as it later evolved into. I used to spend hours putting together themed playlists for my best friends, carefully selecting songs that fit a vibe and that I thought they’d enjoy. After the tape was complete, I’d spend another hour decorating the cover to make it special and fun for them. These days, we can create playlists on Spotify to be shared, but it’s nothing like those mix tapes of yore. Tell me, how do we get something like that back? I want to make mix tapes for all of my friends.
Shower Notes
Did you know that such a thing as waterproof paper exists? I had NO idea, but lucky for me, my coworker and friend Corrinne did. At meetings, I’m always mentioning the things I write or ideas I come up with in the shower, telling tales of quickly jumping out to jot something in the notes of my phone. Well, for my birthday, Corrinne gifted me a shower thoughts notepad and now I can write poetry while shampooing my hair – the best kind of multi-tasking I can think of. The next time I share a poem with you here, just know, it was probably written while I was naked and soaping my armpits.
Life’s Little Moments
Last Friday, our local shopping center (that I could actually walk to, but it was 95 that day!) hosted a Boo-Hoo Brunch for moms who had kids that went back to school. I met a couple fo friends there and we were gifted coupons, coffee, mini-cakes, and my favorite . . . mini-bouquets from Ever Be Floral. It was the perfect start to the last day of a tough week. I wouldn’t get by without my girlfriends!
The past week and a half, I’ve had help with Wilder since the big kids went back to school. I posted on Facebook looking for someone who could watch Wilder in the mornings. A local friend who recently retired and has 3 grandsons of her own (they don’t live here and she misses them greatly!) reached out and said she thought it sounded like fun and would love to do it. That was what I needed to hear because I wanted him to be with someone who would look forward to playing with him and having fun with him. She’s taken him on all sorts of adventures to parks and splash pads, the children’s museum, the science center. And, on the day Ida came through, she took him to her house to do arts and crafts. She texted me that day to say that he may never come home because he was having too much fun with pipe cleaners. It’s been such a weight off of me, knowing that he’s having a good time when I can’t be with him. She’s been a gift to our family and I am so grateful! If you’re local and looking for help, she actually launched a little Happy to Help business and can run errands, grocery shop and more for you. (You can reach out to me if you are interested!)
In addition to my girlfriends, I wouldn’t have gotten by without wine. So cheers to you and me for crushing this week. I hope you enjoy a relaxing and glorious weekend, wherever you are. XOXO