A Wednesday list

1. Homemade Chex Mix in the house! Now if I can just keep from eating it all before Jeremy gets home.

2. Brandon Sanderson's Oathbringer released yesterday (the third in his Stormlight Archive series). It'll probably be a few weeks before I dive in (and since I hit up the library for some unneeded books last week, I have plenty to occupy me in the mean time), but I'm looking forward to it. Fall seems like a good time of year to dive into a doorstopper fantasy novel.

3. Still working on the shawl I started at the beginning of October. It's my first foray into lace knitting, and I've unsurprisingly (for me) had to backtrack several times. At first it was mostly frustrating, but now I'm reminding myself about how much I'm learning and how much practice I'm getting in. Let's hope I can keep that perspective...and finish before the cool weather is gone!

4. Speaking of yarn arts -- my friend Stephanie and I are planning knit/crochet weather scarves next year. We have seven different colors of yarn that each correspond with a 10 degree temperature range. Each day of 2018 we'll knit/crochet two rows that correspond to the high temp for that day. At the end of the year, we'll have one colorful, LONG, fun, wearable memory.

5. I had a feeding-people-at-your-home realization the other night (I'd say entertaining, but that makes me think fancy dinner party, and no one's fancy dinner partying around here). One of the best ways to make hosting someone for dinner relaxing and enjoyable: fix food that can mostly be prepped before people come (and cleaned up). Here's two examples: chili or other soups, make your own pizza bar. Everything can be prepped ahead of time. Clean up after eating is minimal. So you get to spend more time with your friends! Win, win, win.