life this week: cookin' & craftin'

I think I started to panic during my last few days of holiday from work. Realizing that my free time was going to (once again) be fairly scarce must have triggered something in my brain, because I started cooking and crafting up a storm.  To be honest, I enjoyed it so much that it made going back to work even harder.  I think I need a job that requires me to cook, embroider, take photographs, write, drink tea, and watch Law & Order.  Any ideas? I mentioned that on Facebook, and suggestions ranged from rich to British royalty to retiree to stay-at-home mom.  Since I’m not rich or royal, too young to retire, and nowhere near ready for motherhood yet, I’d say I’m out of luck for now. Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to this week (aside from going back to work):

My good friend Sarah and I decided to become pen pals. We went to grad school together, but then I moved back home to take care of my grandparents before moving back to Springfield last year, and in the meantime, she moved halfway across the state too. Even though we're a few hours apart, she is one of the best friends I've ever had, and we try to keep in touch and see each other fairly regularly (and we even took a trip to Portland together last year!). I'm so looking forward to exchanging old-fashioned letters & trinkets with her. I wrote my first letter a couple days ago, and as soon as I can find a stamp, it will be in the mail!

I love foxes, that's no secret. Even all my coworkers know I think they're amazing. I found this little fella at Michaels, but I think would feel a little silly just having a plastic fox sitting around--I mean, he was only a little over a dollar, so he's not the finest crafted little fellow, anyway. Still, I needed an excuse to get him, so I decided to paint him gold. It only took a couple coats, and I think he turned out rather well:

I also started embroidering! Well, I guess I should say I started embroidering again. My grandma taught me how to do it when I was 7 or 8, and I was pretty prolific there for a while. She only taught me the basics, and I kinda dropped it when I got to that (dumb) age where I started caring about what everyone else thought was cool. Anyway, I bought some hoops and started dabbling a few months ago, but got too busy to really do anything with it, so I dropped it again. Over break, I started dabbling with some simple designs , and I knocked a couple out over the weekend. They're kinda rough, but I think I like that. I have a ton more ideas, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them once they're finished. Maybe I'll open that Etsy shop after all.

On top of feeling crafty, I also whipped up some fairly delicious eats this weekend--gluten free pesto pasta and banana bread. I'm going to do a couple recipe posts so you can enjoy them, too, but here's a sneak peek of how the banana bread turned out!

Hope your week was wonderful!