What Makes Me Smile

First, thank you for all the uplifting comments, e-mails, and FB messages regarding my last post. Monday was a BAD day. Tuesday was great. Today's not looking too shabby. The one thing I lost sight of on Monday is that happiness is a choice we make each day. "I guess I'm learning, little by little, that we decide what our lives are going to be. Things happen to us, but it is our reactions that matter" (said by Sally Reardon in season one of Felicity). There will be days when we simply need to wallow...but most days we just need to "put on our big-girl panties" and "cowgirl up" (thanks, Nik!). Everything will be all right.

Moving on. While in Utah over Thanksgiving, I developed a new obsession at a craft show. Watch Art. Apparently the trend is big in Utah but I've never seen the watches down here. Essentially it's a "make your own watch" deal...you can interchange faces and bands. And the bands are stinking adorable! I bought two (a clear "crystal" and a black, white, and turquoise) and face at the show, and just ordered this Christmas-ey one from Scarlet Lime. The whimsical bands make me smile.

In other news, when I returned from said trip, I had a package waiting at my front door. Back in August, I read The Hollow by Jessica Verday. The book is a decent first attempt by a YA author and I'm looking forward to seeing how the story plays out. It's a quick, light read, but good. In the book, the main character, Abbey, creates perfumes and dreams of opening her own shop. The author created scents for the three main characters in the book and held a contest for them on her blog. I won! Yay me! I received the three scents as well as an autographed copy of The Hollow. That makes me smile.

Remember the Blissfest street fair I went to last month? Well, one of the booths had adorable paper chains crafted from old book pages. Do you see where I am going with this? Book pages? Paper chains? Word Room? I ordered a set of old illustrated dictionary pages from Etsy a week or two ago and last night got busy trying to make my paper chain. I might have to re-do it since the chains are a bit thick, but I love how it looks so far! I also want to try the paper sunburst mirrors (here's the tutorial for the project). These projects make me smile.

Cause Smiling? It's good.