{ Relaxing Saturday + beenie }

I think there is something to be said for taking half a saturday to do almost absolutely nothing but enjoy the day. Indoors. In your pajamas. At least that's what my Saturday was today, and it was highly enjoyable. I finished crocheting the beenie pictured above this morning (thanks for the tips and inspiration, Ali), did laundry, made some asparagus, sweet potato and rice for lunch (delish), and watched Dan in Real Life while unpicking some letters on a pair of coveralls I got the other day at the DI (only $6! and they are all kinds of sweet). It was quite nice.

{ Sue Visits! }

For those of you from Huntington who remember Sue Leuschel, she's now Sue Senkovich, and she and her husband Nick came to visit Utah last weekend. They currently live in Arizona, but Nick's sister, Tammy, is trying to convince them that they should move to Utah. I, for one, think that is an excellent idea, so Sue and I spent last Saturday night in Salt Lake seeing the sites and unabashedly discussing all the great reasons why Sue and Nick should move here.

Highlights included Ruth's Diner, a tour of the adorable homes in the Avenues, city views from up near the Capitol building (one of my favorite sites in SLC at night), temple square, the conference center, a quick run through the Gateway, and we finished the night off with european hot chocolate and a game of speed scrabble at the Cocoa Cafe. Sue said I did a good job at convincing her (awesome!), so I'm looking forward to having her as a neighbor. Sue is one of those great friends who, even when you don't see each other or even really talk for 2.5 years (actual time period), your reunion evenings include lots of completely comfortable laughter, joking and good times...like there was no absence at all. So wonderful.

(NOTE: I'd like to confess that two out of the three times I typed "Nick" in this entry, upon proofing I found that I had in fact written "Nicki," not "Nick." Glad I caught those. That could have been confusing.)

{ Belt-tastic }

You may remember Scott from the "Great glasses debate" posting about 3/4 of a year ago. We still happen to be friends, and he still happens to be doing as rad of stuff as ever (not that the glasses post would give you an idea, but you should take my word for it). The latest rad adventure was made manifest to me when I stopped by Scott's house Saturday morning to say hi. I walked into his room only to find a factory of BELT GREATNESS!

As Scott related, he had purchased an entire cow (yes...an entire cow) of leather and made these sick belts to sell in local shops around town/to his friends/on etsy/etc. SO COOL! I am impressed. I went over tonight and viewed about half of his finished belts (complete with buckles), but I only have photos of unfinished belts from Saturday to share. It's cool though -- they capture the true essence of the first-discovering-of-the-coolness excitement anyway...


The brown-toned belts on the bed. He makes them using a mixture or paint, stain and random pattern objects.


The grey, funky belts drying on boxes.


Scott modeling his favorite belt.


And this is a lamp in Scott's room that I just thought was sweet. No wonder he's so creative -- how could you not be working around good-looking objects like this?.

{ Hemoglobin Schmeemoglobin }

After some intense training and eating sufficient amounts of fish, beef and spinach over the last 6 days, my blood donation today was golden!

Iron level? 13.77
Facial expression upon finding out said iron level? FAT smile. And I'm pretty sure I said something like "BAM! I totally rocked it!" to the tech taking my hemoglobin levels.

As an added bonus to the happy feelings I got donating today, I also got a sweet little bow on top of my bandage. So rad. My tech had given me one these last time I donated, so I requested it this time for good-looking-ness' sake. If you gotta wear the big bandage, may as well make it cute(r), huh?

{ Rejected }

It's usually a challenge to convince myself to give blood (I sometimes have a hard time remaining calm when I have needles inside my body), so it's been a goal of mine for the last few years to conquer my aversion to donating.

While it takes me a while to work up my nerve, about every 4 months or so I convince myself to go to the donation center. I was feeling pretty good about myself today when I went in to give blood until the nurse informed me my iron levels were too low to donate.

"You need to be at least at a 12.5 to donate," the nurse told me after testing the blood from my left ring finger. "You're only at a 12.4" Sad, huh? I mean, I guess I was kind of relieved. But mostly just sad since I was doing so good to have gotten myself in there in the first place.

She had another nurse come in and test a different finger after my reading was too low, just to be sure my levels weren't high enough (I guess a second prick can sometimes read higher and then you are eligible to donate.) But the reading from my middle finger on my right hand only garnished a 12.2 iron-level reading. Even more sad. So, instead of donating, I sat and kept my friend Natalie (who had adequate iron levels) company while she donated.

I'm going to eat some leafy greens, lentils and fish this week and try my luck again next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

{ Boots at last! }

You may or may not have noticed, but I have slightly sizely calves. Not in a bad way, but in a I-ride-bikes-and-live-an-active-lifestyle way. So, trying to purchase a cute pair of riding-style boots to wear with my fall outfits has proved quite the feat over the last three years. That is, it PROVED difficult until last week when I found these rad boots at Nordstrom (they just arrived in the mail cause the store didn't have my size in stock). And for 40% off nonetheless!

I find them the perfect balance between being dainty and awesome.

Small wedge heel = perfectly feminine, while
Chunky rider style = perfectly masculine.

Oh man...life is good.

{ Fully engaged in life }

The quote of the day came from a Church Educational Fireside that I watched this evening while crammed in my little living room with 10 other people (it was a cozy). It comes from President Thomas S. Monson -- the Prophet and President of the LDS church.



"He who soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly; however, he who soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully." -Pres. Thomas S. Monson



So simple and true no? It goes right along with some thoughts I was writing the other day. I had written the phrase "I want to believe that life really is what you put into it." Looks like that thought was confirmed. So, Here's to living life fully -- giving it my all. Cause really, I'm not sure it would be all that amazing if I decided give any less :)