Tag: thanksgiving

Something cozy + cute + free for you!

by Maria

This cute plaid iPhone wallpaper and cute plaid desktop wallpaper are perfect for the cozy winter months! 

Are you lazy about seasonal decorating? I am.

If I’m lucky, I’ll get a few pumpkins, some mums, a plaid blanket or two, and call us Fall-ified.

This laziness does not run in the family. No, not at all.

cute plaid iphone wallpaper

But one thing that I do almost always do is change my laptop and phone backgrounds to something cozy. Because it costs zero dollars; it’s stupid easy; and it really makes a difference when you spend half your day on a screen.

So today I have something for you that costs zero dollars, is stupid easy, and will hopefully really make a difference in your day.

Cute plaid desktop wallpaper

I designed this cute plaid desktop wallpaper for you guys, and I highly recommend you take its advice and get yourself nested in with a book, a blanket, and a hot mug STAT. And yes, it has a matching plaid iPhone wallpaper!

Consider these my big THANK YOU to you in this season of giving thanks. I am so grateful for all of you who read, write, and talk about books along with me.

You can download this free desktop background and phone wallpaper, as well as dozens of other free literary printables, by signing into The Library.

 

Click here to download these free phone and desktop wallpapers!

 

 

5 quick reads for the week:

  1. I am so honored to have two of my books make Amazon’s Best Books of the Year list! And yes, Once Upon a Chef and Season do make great holiday gifts. 😉 
  2. Wise words from Kirsten of Well-Storied on how to make time to write.
  3. Don’t forget: ideas aren’t pizza, so there’s more than enough to go around.
  4. It’s time to get down to work on our Thanksgiving menus, and I’m always on the lookout for new Thanksgiving recipes.
  5. The National Book Awards happened this week, and The New York Times is keeping us posted, Oscars-style!

What we’re eating this week

(Well, actually, this was the menu for last week. Please tell me I’m not the only one who can’t get it together this time of year.)

It’s a slap-dash, slop-bucket kind of cooking week. We hosted our big Friendsgiving on Saturday (so fun!) and now we have ten trillion pounds of leftover ham to eat ourselves out from under (so fun!). What do you do with ten trillion pounds of ham? I have five answers for you:

Monday: Run away from the ham by grilling out a friends house. Ham: 0, Us: 1.

Tuesday: Ham is like bacon is like pancetta is like what I need to make carbonara? That was my questionable thesis for dinner, and hey, it sort of checked out. Ham: 1, Us: 1.

Wednesday: Hide from the ham and when it’s not looking, go out to dinner. Ham: 1, Us: 2.

Thursday: Jarrett’s traveling for work, so it’s me and Ham alone in the house. We know how that’ll go. Ham: 2, Us: 2.

Friday: We’re eating chicken for dinner! Just kidding. It’s ham again. Ham: 3, Us: 2.

Hoping you enjoy a big ol’ turkey on our behalf this week.

Cheers!

Get one free tip for reading more + living better each week!

Read, Eat, Drink–Weekend Roundup

by Maria

Read: 

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Leo Babuata of ZenHabits, one of my favorite sites on creativity and living, is finally launching his new book. Watching this launch has been incredible–it’s funny how sometimes we can learn so much more from people who are outside of the publishing industry.

He traditionally published a few books several years ago, and he’s self-published a few ebooks since then, but this is his first self-published print book to be sold direct to his fans (he has over a million readers on his blog). And he decided to approach writing a book the way a coder would approach writing new software. As he explains:

The traditional way of writing a book is like the old Microsoft model of developing software: you write it in isolation for a year or two, and then put it out as a fully-formed product.

The problem with that method is that it’s never been tested in the real world. You don’t know if readers (or users) will want it, you don’t know where you’ve made huge mistakes, you don’t know how it will work in the wild.

That “Microsoft” model of making programs has been replaced in the last decade or so by iterative programming, where you make a Minimum Viable Product as soon as possible, and let a small group of people (alpha or beta testers) use it and give you feedback and report bugs. Then a new version is made, more testing and feedback, and so on, making the product better and better each iteration. I love this model, because it leads to a better product over the long run.

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