Well, have I got the thing for you…

Come to The Texas Margarita Mixer

Saturday, March 9th

Noon to 5 p.m. at Holy Mountain

RSVP HERE. 

I’ll be there.
With these fine folks…

Sponsors:
Troy and Sons Moonshine 
Pura Vida Tequila 
Moonshine Sweet Tea 
The Convoy Group
Holy Mountain

Bands:
12:00-12:30 The Couch

12:45-1:15 The Tontons  

(listed as “One To Watch at SXSW 2013” )

1:30-2:00 Wild Child

(listed as an “Artist(s) to Discover at SXSW 2013”)  

2:15-2:45 Tyagaraja

(listed as an “Artist(s) to Discover at SXSW 2013”)

3:00-3:45 The Wandering Bufaleros

4:00-5:00 Frank Smith

Sound good?

Okay!

I’ll see you on Saturday.

Go Mighty is on a New York Times blog today.

Check it: Go Mighty or You Might Not Go At All by KJ Dell’Antonia

And I say, perfect timing. Eight weeks into a year is just about the time that I start to begin to get going. Plus, I’ll be turing another year older this weekend…while I watch the Oscars…And I never even begin to start to resolve anything, to make anything or to do anything until after I’ve had birthday cake. So heck yeah to that.

Also, if you’ve been meaning to make a Life List but aren’t sure how, where to start or how to get some friends to help motivate you, sign up for our Go Mighty Skillshare class which starts next week (again, post birthday cake). One of the attendees gets a $1,000 grant to cross something off their list. And my God, I hope it’s you.

So here’s to doing things.

Also, happy last weekend of goofing off. May it be filled with lots of cake.

But I do wish I could do it because it’s a fun tradition and a really swell thing to put out there into the postal system. Maybe next year. But this year, if I did send one, I’d send the one above. Or maybe one of these below. Hard to say. (Again, with all the choosing.)

Today over at Hitting Refresh I wrote about Christmas Cards…And 10 cards I’d send you this year if I were sending cards this year.

Consider yourself seasonally greeted.

Happy Christmas, Festive Hanukkah, and Merry 2013. Etc.

Love,

Laura

Do you like Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, Nickel Creek, Mutual Admiration Society? Well, then you’ll love The Oh Hellos. They’re Maggie and Tyler Heath, a brother/sister duo from San Marcos, Texas…which is a quirky college town right up the street from me…a town that is completely underrated in its all around awesomeness as far as I’m concerned.

They’re undiscovered. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to them all day long…because you’ll want to. They are seriously good..and they’re great to work to.

My favorites right now…
• Eat You Alive
• Second Child, Restless Child 
• Through the Deep
• The Valley
• (this one sounds like it should be on a car commercial in about 5 minutes)

So buy their album. They ask you to name your price. (What’s the right price for someone who makes my day much more interesting? Higher than normal.) You’ll want to get to know them.

True artists make the world better.

I like to do something different every year, and I’ve been pretty creative in the past…but this year, it seems people are taking them to 11... or uh, 25. So of course I was tempted to build an advent city or something. (My nature is always to overdo things. It’s what I do.)

Last year’s

But this year, Christmas is going to be way more simple around here. For starters, on actual Christmas, we’re doing very minimal gifts because of travel logistics and philosophy adjustments. On the other hand, Harry is seven. And seven is such an optimal awesome Christmas year. So, to compromise between my need to live more minimally and my need to throw a “Circ de Christmaspalooza con Firework Glitter Festival of Underwater Skywriting!”…well, we’re just going to celebrate a little bit each day.

We’re still doing our daily giving calendar. Because we love it.

But I’m also going the present route this year.

I’m not sure I’d do this if I had more than one child (possibly, but maybe not). And I’m really not sure I’d do it if I didn’t have easy access to a variety of dollar stores and a rad Target dollar section. But because all of these things are in play, I went for it.

24 gifts. Small gifts. Dollar gifts. But all functional (colored pencils, books, flashlight). Or usable (trading cards, stickers, puzzles). Or edible (chocolate, ChapStick, Chocolate ChapStick). It looks waay more impressive than it actually is. $24 dollars worth of  joy. Ok, I did slip in three bigger items (some golf balls ($2.99), Annie the musical on DVD ($4.99) and a Skylander for Christmas Eve ($9.99)…so $39 worth of joy), but for the most part, dollar bin. At this age, opening the present is still the best part about the present. And the fact that he can open one everyday gives us openings to talk about the Advent season, the blessings we all have, and the important connections beween giving and celebrating (which works nicely with the giving calendar).

Perhaps most importantly, I’m done. All Christmas shopping, wrapping and presenting is completed.

We’ll do a few more under the tree from Santa, but this is pretty much it. The Advent has sort of turned into the Main Event. And we’re planning to celebrate a little bit everyday throughout the season…to start early, to keep it going and to make it last longer than the 25 seconds it usually takes him to tear through the presents under the tree. This year, the unwrapping will take 25 mornings.

I’m ready.

Happy Holidays.

P.S. Here are 10 more cute Advent Calendar ideas.

I’ve opened an Etsy shop (Shop con Queso) and right now it’s all about pecans.

I’m currently selling small batches of Texas Pecan Pralines, Texas Pecan Cookies, Spicy Texas Pecans, Texas Pecan Bourbon Balls, Toasted Texas Pecan Pesto, and Texas Pecan Pie Jam.

Proceeds will go to charity: water and Occupy Sandy.

Go check it out .

I wrote about our 10 Halloween decorations under $10 over on Hitting Refresh today. Check it.

Dilemma.

So we compromised. (I wrote about our 10 Halloween decorations under $10 over there.)

Here’s what we did to meet his batty needs.

I bought ribbon, bat cut outs and straight stick pins from the dollar store.

I pinned the bat to the ribbon.

I hung the bats from the chandelier.

Required bats = done.

And I must admit, it’s kind of a nice way to be greeted when you walk in the front door. In a weird way, it reminds me of George Clooney. And that’s never bad.

Last January or February I became ridiculously addicted to Polyvore because just because. It’s like paper dolls for adults meets Pinterest and then goes to a candy store laced with crack for a party. Much like the Katy Perry Movie, it makes no sense and yet, you’re completely riveted. So anyway, in order to leave the house, I had to quit cold turkey sometime around first thaw. But now I’ve found Evoking You…actually the Evoking Style section of Evoking You. This girl (and great photographer) Kelsey Anderson goes ahead and goes through Polyvore and comes up with great outfits for you…complete with linked sources. It’s like Cliff Notes for Dummies. Crack cocaine for lazy people. You’re completely welcome.

So I’m just going to sit on my porch and drink coffee.

Oh. And I posted the above photo on Instagram today and Karen replied…

I will tell you. Zappos. Gabriella Rocha Adair shoes. Right here. They are great. I’m loving them and am wearing them a lot. You should get some.

Happy Saturday!