sunday evening

"My father used to say: 'I will protect your freedom, Malala. Carry on with your dreams.'"

- I Am Malala

Last night, Pancake and I were reading on the couch with the sound of light rain, first cool breeze of autumn and a smooth mellow song in the background. It was so simple and perfect. This quote stuck out to me and warmed my heart and I had to share it with him. He shared a quote he enjoyed too. It was so serene, simple and sweet.

in a pickle

how i spent my saturday night:

we used this recipe from serious eats for the cauliflowers. all lemony and tart! and a spicy pickled recipe for the asparagus! they are sitting in the fridge till this saturday...then soon it'll be served with cheese, meats and wine. 

HISTORY OF RAP

you're welcome.

WORDS FROM STEINBECK

copy and pasted from January 2012 Letters of Note blog post

In November of 1958, John Steinbeck — the renowned author of, most notably, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men — received a letter from his eldest son, Thom, who was attending boarding school. In it, the teenager spoke of Susan, a young girl with whom he believed he had fallen in love.

Steinbeck replied the same day. His beautiful letter of advice can be enjoyed below.

(Source: Steinbeck: A Life in Letters; Image: Thom and John Steinbeck with their father in 1954, courtesy of UC Berkeley.)

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First—if you are in love—that’s a good thing—that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second—There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply—of course it isn’t puppy love.

But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it—and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone—there is no possible harm in saying so—only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another—but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,

Fa

CHUNKY COWL

first project of the year done! a very late gift for my friend. more info on ravelry

LONG TERM GOALS

I remember taking a personality test a while ago and one of the things I lacked was laying out long term goals. It's hard for me to think about the future and setting out realistic goals that I can meet. I have those "dreams" in my heart that one day I can be this and have this...but it's not realistic..it's more of a child's play. Sounds so pessimistic but I mean it in a optimistic way. For example, my "dream" is to have a little shop that makes no profit. haha. I want it to be a donation based store that sells hand-made goods and all the profit will go to organizations in need. I also want to create a photo library that caters to missionaries. In this library will have easy to read, well designed infographics on different countries that can be sold as a poster that people can hang in their homes. It will be reminder for them the needs in that country, to pray and to keep hope.
That's my dream. To combine design and missions together.

But my long term goal to get there...nada.
I don't know how to strategically layout the blueprint for this platform of a dream.

Coming back to reality and my current situation.
I need to be debt free..student loans and credit cards (they are evil!)
I haven't touched my cc's in a loong long time. I'm learning to live within my means. I created an excel and everything. Excel makes everything official :P

On another note, I finally finished my hooray cardigan. I actually completed it a two weeks ago. Now I gotta take pictures and show off my first knitted sweater! Coming soon TO your nearest blogs.

CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA