Thanksgiving is a pretty nice holiday – why didn’t anybody tell me? Maybe they did and I was too busy thinking “Gah! Turkey day! I can’t possibly cook a turkey… I am too terrified to even think about it!”… but when I decided once and for all that turkey was not going to be on the menu this year, mainly due to aforementioned fear but also due to our oven deciding that it has a habit of turning itself off at any unexpected time, it all started looking rosy. My dad fixed the oven on Sunday morning so we were able to have roast veg and Jamie’s awesome and easy bbq chicken, but we also had bbq corn and fresh and crispy salads and delicious pumpkin pie. I think Thanksgiving is almost as good as Christmas – a little less magic but there is also a lot less consumerism and crazy stress. Over the weekend there was popcorn and boardgames, crackling fires, and good coffee (but unfortunately terrible terrible apple cider — what I did wrong, I am not sure, but it was undrinkable). Everyone had a go at the enormous Edward Gorey jigsaw puzzle – such a good one. The scene we put together was a horrific family gathering full of murder and mayhem. It was a good one for Thanksgiving – It reminded us to be Thankful that we have such a lovely, cheerful, mellow family – as there were no babies being stuffed in vases, or people being pushed out of boats or massive tantrums on the floor (well, not many, thankfully).

I love the work of Blanca Gómez, an illustrator and designer living and working in Madrid. Her work is remeniscent of mid century illustrators but with a sparkly modern take. Makes me want to break out the gocco, and the photoshop textures.

This lovely, moving (moving) post captures the essence of what I love about Soulemama. Perfect. I am having new-home envy just glancing at her site.

Just came across this Flickr set via Ravelry last night - LCW Wool Project — makes me want to spin (and dye roving with kids + food colouring). What a great project.

One of my TV favourites is back; Bored to Death – Jonathan Ames, the creator and writer has episode footnotes for added enjoyment.