{A Love Letter}

Dear Wisdom Tea House,

You are a breath of chain-shop-free fresh air. Thank you for your antique furniture, your too-narrow-for-two staircase and the fact that you let me choose my very own teacup. And for bringing my small tea to me, teabag, teapot, timer and all, to enjoy from my perch on your sage-green sofa.

You make me want to spend an hour in contented sighs.

Love,

anne

On A Perfect Day {Off}

Well, ideally Shayne would be involved in today's agenda as well, but since he's at work and I'm at play:

I wake up to low-hanging clouds and, despite briefly longing for the 60 degrees and sunshine we reveled in yesterday, stopping to snap a photo of the frost-coated trees outside the house is worth the numb fingers. This kind of weather is perfect for winter days off - and I'm hoping we won't have too many more like it this year so it's worth enjoying!

A trip to Target {new shoes for work? My protesting knees tell me yes!}, followed by fresh asparagus {among other vegetable goodies} from Sprouts Farmer's Market {which is rapidly climbing my list of Happy Places. What's not to like about a grocery store filled with fresh, primarily seasonal, produce?}. Home for pre-lunchtime lunch and to exchange shoes and groceries for laptop, books, Moleskine, then the comfort of the nearest Starbucks.

I should really stop going to Starbucks when I get the urge to write, by the way. My options are limited out here in Larkspur, but every time I "head into town" I end up chatting with at least three different acquaintances about goodness-knows-what and watching the hours tick past with all my words unwritten. I think the dilemma of relationship vs. work-that-must-be-done is certainly one worth having - there's value in both opportunities - but oh, it makes me feel like a procrastinator of the worst sort!

But green tea, a soothing Pandora radio station and grey outside the windows all add up to almost perfect writing conditions in my world. 

Soon I'll close up shop and head home to meet up with Shayne, make our steamed artichoke, oven-roasted chicken legs and butternut squash french fry {or maybe balsamic- roasted carrot and asparagus?} dinner together and settle in for some winter-evening fireside time. 

Such a good day.

Monday Morning Thoughts

Because I can't manage to work up another number-based weekend list without making it look like all we do is go snowboarding {so not the case, unfortunately!}, I'll leave you with a photo that supports that idea instead. See, I'm almost changing things up!

This weekend we road-tripped our way {three hours each direction totally counts as a road trip, right?} to southwestern Colorado to spend Sunday at Monarch Mountain - a ski resort that neither Shayne nor I had visited before. We loaded up the car with two other couples and made our way through rocky, river-cut canyons and over winding, dry-as-a-bone highways to find ourselves almost magically at a mountain covered in clean, white, fresh, snow.

Where we then proceeded to wear ourselves out in a day of pure, sweet, skiing bliss. Complete with a clear sky and lots of trees.

Thank goodness for snow! It makes all the winter worth it.

{A Love Letter}

Dear Public Library,

I can't believe I forgot you existed.

{Insert mea culpa, mea maxima culpa here.}

After all the summers I spent in high school and college, loading up the passenger seat of my car with books and albums and old black and white films, how could I fail to remember you now when I find myself scavenging Amazon for cheap copies of used books?

How could the memories of all the books I read and National Geographic magazines I flipped through at your tables fade away?

You are, in a word, awesome. You make the bookshelf on my wall look empty. You have sharing capacity with at least twelve other libraries. The only problem with you is that your check-out limit is 100 items...and I'm a quarter of the way there {twelve more on the way} and haven't a clue how I'm going to get through all of these books before their due date.

Let's just say my eyes were bigger than the clock on my wall.

And my stack of books is taller than my nightstand.

{Insert drawn-out sigh here.}

I forgot you once. But it won't happen again.

Sincerely,
Your biggest fan

{Today's Top Five: Movie Edition}

In honor of the recent Academy Awards, five of our favorite films - in no particular order.

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The whole thing, extended edition preferred. Shayne had never seen these before we met...and let's just say that his entire perspective on movies has changed since we sat down and marathoned our way through them.

2. Up. Yes, we love Pixar. LOVE PIXAR. Wall-E is another favorite, and although Ratatouille makes my food-obsessed heart happy, Shayne isn't quite so much on board with rats in kitchens.

3. I'm beginning to think that our list needs a little more depth. But no one ever said we were film critics! The Harry Potter movies - which we may or may not have purchased for ourselves for Christmas - hold a special place in our hearts. It's also possible that we've both admitted a growing desire to attend Hogwarts. And visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

4. I would be utterly failing to represent Shayne (and, honestly, myself) if I didn't put this movie on our list. Ruthless outlaws, Mexican sharpshooters, truth, integrity, and some pretty awesome acting (and cinematography. And writing. And, and, and.). So. Good.

5. Audrey Hepburn. Need I say more? Okay, so Shayne hasn't actually seen this whole film. But he will someday. Because it is wonderful. Wonderful.

It's been fun to see Shayne's opinion of movies change over the past couple of years. I swear he went from thinking they had nothing of value to offer (which, you know, is sometimes still debatable) to requesting stay-in movie date nights on a regular basis. Which is fine by this story-loving homebody!

Monday Morning

A little music to start off your work week...nice and gently.

Yes please.

xo,
anne

{A Love Letter}

Dear Snow Day,

You are the second scheduling surprise we've had this week, and you know what? We couldn't be happier.

Thank you for arriving without warning, big, puffy snowflakes and all and sending us into a day of sitting by a toasty fire and practicing our bookworm skills. Your timing - a normally scheduled day off for this girl! - could not possibly have been better. Not that there's really any bad time for a snow day to appear...unless it's mid-May, when we should all be working on the beginnings of our summer suntans.

We're glad you decided to stop by and turn our home into a sleepy, snow-crusted cabin complete with frosted windows and piling snow drifts. Plus, any excuse to make pot roast in the slow cooker and snuggle in our sweaties is a good thing in our world.

We just think you're great.

Big hugs and snowflake smooches,
the mombers

P.S. Looking out the window on a fresh winter wonderland is sure to warm even the coldest of winter-burned-out hearts. Thank you for defrosting mine.