"It's a good thing"

I have to admit that annoying as I find Martha Stewart, the girl knows her crafts. I've seen her on TV a few times, and she is more than a little rude, but goodness is she a whiz in the kitchen/garden/basically everywhere. So you can imagine how completely beside myself I was this morning when I came across this at my bookstore:

Awesomeness in a hardback

The book is a freaking work of art. I cannot wait to try my hand at some candle/soap/silhouette making. One project I will not be trying is the seashell wastebasket shown on the cover, because, honestly, ew. Martha, you drive me nuts in person, but good job on the book. (I also like your really old book where you meticulously document your total renovation of an old schoolhouse. That one I found at Value Village, so it gets extra points.)

Other things that are making me smile right now, in no particular order:

- The hubs is making our bread today. I've been making all our bread from scratch the past few weeks, because it's fun and tastes so good. The dough also makes killer pizza crust, so the batch takes care of several of our meals each week, plus makes enough to give a blob of pizza dough and a loaf of bread to the family upstairs. Hubs really hovered over the project last Sunday, so I promised that he could take over bread-making this weekend, and he's cute-excited for it. I'm just ready to eat a fresh, warm slice.

Who wouldn't want a piece of this?

- Sun! It's not that warm out today, but it's definitely springy and sunny out. I even busted out a little skirt to wear on our bookstore bike run earlier. And it smells sooooo nice out there too.

View from our front yard

- And finally, studying for the bar exam. I'm actually enjoying this for a few reasons. One, I'm way ahead of schedule. I like taking care of stuff super-early; it gives me the same smug sense of satisfaction that I get when I'm all stocked up on something (for example, when I've made a freezer full of meals or bought a huge new bottle of olive oil). Also, some of the stuff is sort of interesting. Like, did you know that when you stop payment on a check, the stop payment order always automatically expires after 6 months? So someone could still present the check to the bank after that 6 months and it would be paid if you didn't renew your stop payment order. I didn't know that. Third, I get to make flashcards to help me learn some of the stuff, and I always enjoy seventh-grade activities like making flashcards. Plus, I know that studying for the bar will only be fun as long as I don't have to do it, so I'm enjoying it as much as I can now, because in a few short weeks I know I'll be singing a different tune.

AND:

- I'm weeks away from being DONE WITH SCHOOL - oh my goodness, my eyes well up with tears of joy whenever I think those three beautiful words.
- Next weekend's my big birthday trip to Denver to hang with Dad and attend a mini-reunion.
- The next weekend I'm pretty sure G will be making a Seattle run to hang out with us for a few days, which is a relief because I miss her!
- I've finally got Amelie from Netflix, and since it's everyone and their dog's favorite movie, I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about.
- The hubs has a police-job interview at the end of the month. Yay!


So basically, I'm having a great day.

Love,
J

PS: Happy Birthday, dear Lauren! I love you!