Thankful Thursday: A Delayed Part Two

So to finally reveal what I've been hinting at the past few weeks of Thankful Thursdays...

1> This is the most amazing, all wool and fur vintage coat that one of my sweet co-workers back in Nashville gave me right before I left for Columbus. This is the real deal folks - it's beautifully made, fully lined, has huge pockets and these super cute vintage-y buttons, and she gave it to me for free (on the condition that I pass it along gratis to someone else when I no longer want it). Yes it is real fur, but its vintage and second/third hand, so I feel slightly less bad.

Oh and RU, I found the note you left in the pocket a couple weeks back and almost cried. Thank you!!!

2> And this is the gorgeous little key necklace that one of the high schoolers I worked with gave me right before I left. Such a sweet heart in this kid, I know he's going places!

3> Lunch dates with new friends. 'nuff said.

4> Chocolate milk. I can never seem to leave the grocery store without one of these, but it's such a great pick me up.

5> All of my things finally coming out of boxes, but mostly my adorable french press. I spend so much less on coffee now that I have this thing again.

6> Getting to go visit Nashville this weekend, even if one of my dear friends isn't going to be there (JS, I'd better see you soon!!!).

7> Being able to start back into DIYing and crafting. SO many ideas, I just need payday to roll around. Rent and food before jewelry, no matter how much I wish it were otherwise.

8> The beauty of winter. Otherwise, it would be an intolerable season.

9> This book. It's been just a beautiful read so far. It's dreamy and matter-of-fact and sentimental, with a touch of magical realism, without being too much of any.

10> And finally, fireplaces. It's been bitingly cold up here, so this has been a common sight this past week:

1, my socks really aren't that dirty, I promise! 2, I'm in love with these F21 leggings I got a few week back.

Thankful Thursday (Part 1): Four Hours

I have a lot of photos on my camera that I can't upload yet (yay for living out of a suitcase for two weeks!), and they really deserve their own dedicated thankfulness post anyways, so here's half of this week's Thankful Thursday. The rest will follow this weekend!

1> Finally getting into the swing of things at work, and beginning to take over a couple projects!

2> As I get busier though, I've realized that I only have roughly 4 or 5 hours to myself a day outside of work and sleeping, so I'd better start using them more wisely! Less computer, more doing.

3> Getting an incredibly thoughtful (and thorough) email from a friend of a friend outlining a zillion things to do in Columbus. It's bulleted, subtitled, and everything. I'm still in awe.

4> Hearing this baller song come on the radio right when I was about to have a sucky moment on my drive home from work. I was grinning the rest of the way after that.

5> Getting these amazing chocolate truffles from a friend who stayed with me over the weekend while auditioning for an opera grad program here. They were freakin delicious.

P.S. My little sister turns 21 today, which is ultra super weird. But happy birthday, B!

Thankful Thursdays: 2013

Things that I'm grateful for this week:

1> I made it safely to Ohio! Even while driving a mini-van with a giant UHaul trailer behind it, going a max speed of 63 until I hit a 3-hour traffic jam. But still, I'm here! See this post...

2> And there's snow here! Lots of it! (Never thought I'd be so happy to see snow, but it weirdly is really comforting. There should be snow in winter.) Except it's supposed to be 60+ this weekend... Shorts!

3> Having amazing co-workers who welcome me to the team with this on my desk Monday morning :)

4> Being almost done with my first week of my real job!! Yes, it's still new and super exciting, but a Friday is a Friday still.

5> Finding an INCREDIBLE apartment so quickly after getting here! Can't wait to show you guys photos once I move in.

6> Beginning to explore this town and finding some amazing things already. Walked into the town center near my soon-to-be apartment and I find a tea shop, a community garden, a chocolate shop with free coffee, a nationally famous cupcakerie, a super hipster coffee shop, a bike shop, and a yoga studio. All within two blocks of each other. Gaaaaahhhhhh.

7> Songs like this one that get me pumped up for work when I'm super sleepy at 6am. Judge me all you want. And/or dance along.

8> Having my beautiful, hilarious, and so so thoughtful co-workers back in Nashville send me off in style, quite literally. I'll show you their generosity (seriously, it deserves its own Thankful Thursday) soon!

9> I found the library down here and already have a card and a mile long list of books I can potentially actually read now!

10> Starting to feel a little more in control of 2013. Just a little, but maybe that's enough for today.

Thankful (Almost) Thursday: By Way Of Snail Mail

Yes I know I missed Thankful Thursday yesterday. I decided to write my thanks this week instead of blogging about it.

Without going into too much detail, this holiday week was a bit rough with the family. And after this past month of insanity and upsetness and crying and feeling down and friends rescuing me at all hours of the night and day with their calls and texts from wildly different time zones, I knew I had to do something in return to show my friends how much their help has meant to me.

I seriously considered (on a sugar-high at 3am one night) writing to each of them here on a Thankful Thursday post, but it quickly became too eerily reminiscent of those weird MySpace "tell everyone what you think of them without naming names but you don't really need to cause everyone knows you're talking about Billy who you're madly in love with and Jane who's a witch I mean really come on" things.

Once properly rested, I realized that these folks don't need me to tell everyone how grateful I am for them, I need to tell them that. And preferably, with letters. Hand-written letters are possibly my favorite thing ever. They make thank you's and hello's and I miss you's infinitely better and more tangible. So it was added to my Ten Days challenge. And here they are! I mean, how adorable are these cards??

I ended up writing a few more than the original three I intended but oh well!

Thankful Thursday: Job, Job, Job, Oh And Did I Mention A Job?

In case you were wondering why there was so much silence here this past week, here's your answer: I finally finally finally got a job!! It's not my ideal position exactly, but it's definitely on the path to where I want to be so Merry Christmas to me!! Best part is, my last day in my position here is New Year's Eve and I move out to an entirely new city on New Year's Day. How's that for a start to 2013??

So even though I have zero photos this week (see #10 - it was overall a slightly worse week even than last week), I'm still thankful for:

1-5> Finally having a job. So much so that it's allowed to count for five items.

5> Having six or seven DIY projects on my list (even though I've seen at least four of them pop up on various other bloggers' sites in the past 24 hours... great minds think alike?). I love having things to do.

6> Finding a deep red lipstick that doesn't make me look like a tramp. I love you MAC!

7> Having a clean space again. I can actually find things in my bathroom, kitchen, and closet again and it's awesome.

8> Discovering my new years resolution. Stay tuned on this one.

9> Finally getting a library card from the beautiful library downtown, and checking out far more books than I can actually read in three weeks.

10> My friends who helped me through this absolutely terrible past week, calling me out of the blue or texting me from another continent to calm me down from a panic attack. You guys are seriously the best.

Thankful Thursday: Struggles and Successes

Sorry for the wall'o'text - pictures were a bit hard to come by this week. Definitely a goal for this next week! Anyways, this week I'm thankful for....

1) Getting to present my research to a group of well-published psychologists. The conference was so much fun and Long Island is gorgeous.

2) My family not only being able, but also willing to support me during my joblessness. Sucks having to depend so heavily upon DaddyATM©, but I'm lucky to be able to.

3) On a similar note, landing a job interview for a company that I am thrilled beyond measure about. No details yet until things are more settled, but excited nonetheless!

4) That even though I was barely able to get out of bed the past couple days, I did, and was able to make it worthwhile.

5) For finding inspiration in the strangest of places (I see you local bakery and closet from high school). SO MANY DIY IDEAS.

6) Beautiful views from my apartment patio.

7) The rain we've been having here recently. Makes me feel slightly more justified taking afternoon naps.

8) Long text conversations with friends who are 3 and 7 time zones away from me. BL and MH, you guys are wonderful and I'm so thankful that we've kept in touch.

9) Victoria's Secret coupons for free things in the mail!! And I guess mail in general. Letters are my favorite. hinthint.

10) And of course, being included in Liz of Cotton&Curls' leather week reader DIY post!!! So excited to be included in a list of such beautiful projects (which I am totally doing with all the leftover leather I somehow STILL have).

Here's a link to my "dudely DIY" wallet tutorial!

Thankful Thursday: Beginnings

It's been a rough past six months for me, to put it gently. And it's been really hard not to compare myself and then start feeling inadequate and then getting down on myself and on and on into a downward spiral. In short, it's been hard for me to find things to be thankful for, feel loved by, and feel accomplished about recently.

Soooo, I'm going to be taking time each week to fix at least one of those, by listing 10 things I'm thankful for each Thursday (yay alliteration!). And you can read here (and here and here and here... and pretty much her entire blog...) what Gala Darling, one of my favorite bloggers of all time, says about being thankful. She's pretty damn awesome, amirite?

1) Being chosen to present my thesis work at a small conference in upstate NY, this weekend!!

2) Getting to watch my little savings bank slowly slowly grow closer to my goal (being able to go to reunion!). And on a side note, I'm so glad I've been able to figure out a good budget. It helps!

3) Getting my sewing machine to work (only straight stitch, but hey its better than nothing!) and sewing my first DIY project in months (hint hint)

4) Finding a beautiful library near my apartment. It even has a reading room with a fireplace!

5) Letting go of a few bad influences in my life in favor of fostering some good new ones

6) Finding a beautiful dark wood table at Goodwill and making my apartment finally feel like home!

7) Going for a hike after I woke up feeling really crappy one morning, and getting to stand within ten yards of this handsome fella

8) Figuring out how to bake my very first own pie (raspberry and apple and blackberry yummmm)

9)

10) Discovering that one of my posts has been “GooglePlus”ed almost 17 thousand times... Whatever that means...