Etsylicious

My sister Lauren is having a pre-wedding sale on all the delicious handmade goodies over at her etsy store. There's 30% off everything, so check out the homecrafted niceness.

Foodcrush!

Behold my latest food crush! I recently discovered BreadTop and it may be love or it might just be infatuation. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I promise you that this is the best bread I have ever tasted. And the Asian food influence just makes it even better. My family (whom I have converted) and I definitely recommend the crispy chicken donut, the taro bun, the chocolate caterpillar, and the onion naan bread. Soooo good.

Weekend Journal XX :: I do and hello and goodbye

I've missed writing these little journal entries that trap my weekends in a virtual time capsule. They faded from my blog because Monday is a busy day and I often forget about blogging on the first day of the working week. As well as that, recording the small moments of my weekend feels sort of self-indulgent. After all, who wants to read the secondhand account of a weekend in review?

However, I'm returning to this practice because I've missed it. Growing up homeschooled, weekdays felt little different to the weekend. While there was always schoolwork and chores during the week, there was lavish time for fun, too. Now, the week seems to be about heads-down-tails-up and I crave the weekend with its Saturday sleep-in, its go-slow-if-you-want-to feel, its opportunity for friendtimes, and its freedom from everydayness. So, indulgent it may be for me, boring it may be for readers, but I'm coming back to my weekend journal notes.

Although it's supposed to be full Autumn by now, this weekend the weather forgot and, instead of pulling out cardigans and quilts, we went back to switching on the airconditioner and sleeping under full-power fans. Saturday found my mother and little bro off for a party which included a pig-shaped pinata and adorable piglet cupcakes, while Lauren and I joined the celebration at the wedding of our friends, Ryan and Charissa.

It's the fifth wedding I've been to this year already. And, although weddings are beginning to seem like a logical and standard regular Saturday afternoon event, the personalities of brides and grooms and families and upbringings and traditions combine to make each one something special to observe. One of Ryan and Charissa's fun touches was to give each table at the reception venue the name of a country and to include in each table's seating arrangements one guest who had a connection to that particular country. It was the perfect investigative conversation-starter.

Sunday found us waking all too early and driving to the airport to deliver mama and little bro back to Western Australia. You'd think we'd be getting good at this by now but goodbye doesn't seem to come easier the more times we say it. Happily, this time the absence is just for a month, and then, all going according to plan, they'll be winging their way back home to prepare for Lauren's wedding (#6 of 2010)!

Sunday evening was our church's kinda-regular acoustic cafe, a more laidback evening of church which includes gathering around tables, enjoying baked treats, listening to some live music, and discussing relevant stuff. What made this Sunday extra cool was that we got to enjoy it with Ruth and her two sisters who are over from the US. We chatted about the woes of enforced driving (let's hear it for the motoring unenthusiasts!), families, Queensland autumn vs. Minnesota spring, and attempted to keep one young church friend from falling head over heels in love with Ruth's younger sister. In the immortal and heavily capitalised words of my friend Carla, "We Had Fun".

Daybook #1

Today, an intrusive headache assails. So, instead of knuckling in and studying, I'm declaring a mental and physical health day. I've folded two baskets of washing while watching an old war movie (Von Ryan's Express) and was spoilt by my mother who made homemade cheeseburgers for everybody. Now, inspired by Elizabeth, I'm popping in to share some little pieces of my day:

Outside my window, the sky is grey and full, a hazy blanket trapping the warm air in close about us. I hope the rain will come and wash away the stifling thickness.

I have been listening to Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander on audiobook.

I am wearing a watermelon-coloured gypsy top and a black skirt.

I am thankful that my mother and little brother have been staying for a month. It's been lovely!

I am pondering how to separate wishes from needs and discern God's best plan.

I am reading, among other things, L.M. Montgomery's A Tangled Web and Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer. The latter is described as "a love letter to the pleasures of reading", and this description is absolutely true.

I am thinking about how to tackle the short story assignment due this semester. The more brilliant short stories I read, the more I become convinced I cannot write anything good myself!

I am creating plans for a bridal shower for my youngest sister.

Beauty in the home comes lately in the form of candles lit at bedtime for reading. Why is everything so much more beautiful by candlelight?

I am hoping and praying for some extended family members going through challenges, and for friends who seek only to walk in God's best path.

One of my favorite things to do in the chill-zone is watch movies with my mum and sister.

My plans for the rest of the week include a girly shoppy evening, study!, a friend's wedding, an evening of acoustic cafe at my church, and yet another airport farewell.

A picture thought I’m sharing is from this weekend just past. This amazing art installation is currently housed in the Queensland Art Gallery and we got to see it last weekend. My twin goddaughters and little brother loved the touchability of this artwork, which encourages gallery visitors to pull from the stack of recycled material and create a piece of their own. I love this!

Of dragons and freckle-nosed boys:

I'm taking a little break out of my study day (the second draft on my paper about the ancient Mesopotamian king Sargon is done. I just thought you might like to know) to tell you to go see How to Train Your Dragon.

Now, as my friend Ruth and I have discussed, movies that have been recommended to you with zeal and hype and confetti never really live up to the promises surrounding them, so I will keep my confetti firmly in its jar and simply say that I loved this one. It's everything I look for in a good story, converted to the screen -- a vivid world with a rich history, beautiful descriptions, understated humour, a coming-of-age story arc, and an endearingly quirky lad as the main character.

I'm adding this one to my list of movies that make me feel like writing.

Old friends and new beginnings.

I'm wondering why it is that the life-moments most heavy with meaning are the ones that are hardest to reduce to mere words formed into sentences. I have no answer to that question. I only know that, now I'm here with a half hour carved out for stringing together some words about my lovely friend Carla's weekend wedding, I don't really know what to say. I want to say that she was a magical bride, radiant with a sort of 1940s beauty. At the same time, she was thoroughly herself, laughing and crying and expressing her emotion in facial expressions as much as in words. Her new husband Alastair ("with three A's") was so very obviously overjoyed to be joined to this precious girl for life, and his tears as he watched Carla walk down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon (the piece Carla had always vowed she would be married by) sparked a landslide of tears from a whole bunch of us who were watching.

The ceremony was a joyful one, full of worship and also a sense of festivity at the new beginning awaiting Carla and Alastair. And the reception following was sparkling with fairytale touches -- swags of linen hung from the ceiling, tiny white lights, glowing candles, and a profusion of pink roses. It was an overwhelming of the nicest sort to be amongst so many of my beloved New South Wales friends at once. The day was too short and the hall too full of excellent people for there to be much time to really talk and catch up, but it was awesome just to see them and to be reminded anew of how good it is to be loved by people who have known you long enough to see your flaws and to realise that you really take far too long to reply to letters -- and yet continue to be loving and kind and super all the same.

So, since I can't explain any of that in words sufficiently elegant, I'll instead point you to some pictures of the special day: Bethany's, Rachael's, and the wedding photographer's, all of whom got some gorgeous shots.

Feathered skies.

I am relishing every bit of Autumn. These are the kinds of days that may turn out any which way. On Monday, it might be bright and shining and warm. On Tuesday, it may be bleak and rainy. On Wednesday, a gale could be trying its utmost to shake the house from its foundations. I love it all. It's letter-writing weather. It's candle weather. It's cocoa weather. It's cardigan weather. And these things make me happy.

What's making you happy right now?

PS. My friend Jessica, who is smart, funny, a little snarky, and an incredible photographer, just started blogging. You should definitely check out her blog.