Gratitudes

Yesterday I stopped at my favorite local coffee shop for tea and a scone. I've decided to stop going to coffee shops unless I bring my own travel mug. How many people each day get coffee and throw away that paper cup? And cardboard sleeve? And plastic lid? All of which is recyclable, but we toss them anyway? And how many travel mugs do we have sitting in our cupboards? So it's a new rule I'm going to hold myself to, at least as much as possible. Anyway, use your own cup at Starbucks and they'll give you a $0.10 discount. That's pretty cool, but $0.10 won't make a huge dent in my tea-and-a-scone outings. But yesterday, at my favorite local coffee shop, somehow the bill was noticeably smaller. I asked the cool person behind the counter what the story was, and she said the discount for bringing my own mug was a dollar. A dollar! Now that's some serious incentive right there. Obviously those paper cups probably cost more like $0.10 than $1, but I love that they're making it worth my while to create less needless trash. And then, the tea. Blueberry rooibos. My car smelled of blueberry muffins all the way to my teaching gig. Even one of my fourth graders asked about it during his lesson. Yum.



Next up, my red wool tights. Tights make my inner 4-year old really happy. They're the perfect partner to my beloved boot collection, especially during Boston winters. Wool is an added bonus. Red wool puts them over the top. These were found during my last shopping trip to Northampton, MA with Fred. They're great with the perfect black boots he got me for Christmas. And yesterday they went from fashion to function when I woke up to 11 degree weather! Happy that.



And finally, I'm making progress on my sister's wedding invitations. I might be a complete gocco novice, but I love this thing. Mass production is so gratifying in the crafting world of tiny, individual stitches and piece by piece construction. They might be simple, but I think they're going to look slick!