Dear Friends,
Today, I’m awaiting my daughter, who’s driving across Pennsylvania with her dog to begin her holiday break from college. We’re very excited we’ll have her for almost two weeks (boyfriend in Philly—can’t stay longer), and we’re making one of her favorite meals tonight, but I still have to make it through the nail-biting five hours it’ll take her to get here. Our son and his fiancé will join us next weekend from their home in DC. I can’t believe I’m old enough to have a daughter who’s a college junior or a son who’ll be getting married next year, but there it is. We’re very lucky to be able to spend time with many of those we love over the next few weeks, and I hope you are, too.
I know everyone’s in a mad rush to finish work, meet deadlines, decorate, buy gifts, cook the things their family loves, and doing a little something for yourself can get lost in other claims on your time. Here are four gifts you can give yourself that cost absolutely nothing and will bring you a bit of much-needed pleasure. (You can see the gift I gave myself on the left.)
• Follow Dwell Magazine on Facebook. If you love architecture, design, and looking in people's houses, you will love Dwell's sumptuous photos of interesting homes across the globe. I never don’t open their photo spreads and I’m never not fascinated by what I see. A couple of today's posts: a comfortable Maine retreat, and a 160 square-foot prefab that can be built in just two days.
• Access the 13,000+ recipes at the New York Times and sign up for their daily Cooking Newsletter. Two words: FOOD PORN!!! That newsletter drops into my in-box and like Pavlov’s dog, I open it instantly to drool over the mouth-watering recipes and entertaining insights about food and cooking. And whether you like classics or new wave, you’ll find everything you could ever want in their online recipe database. You can save the ones you like in your own “recipe box” if you’d like, too. Accessing the recipes and receiving the newsletter is free and requires no sign-up. You have to become a member of the New York Times to start a recipe box, though, but becoming a member doesn’t cost anything.
• Listen to the Serial podcasts. We started on our Thanksgiving drive to DC. Now we can’t wait for the weekly episode. Journalist Sarah Koenig’s investigation into the 1999 murder of a high school senior in Baltimore, Serial has become the first podcast to achieve water cooler status. It reminds us how fragile justice is and how hard it is to pin down innocence or guilt. The last episode comes out this Thursday. All twelve episodes are available for free.
Another gift you can give yourself is enter here to win a bottle of Essie’s Time to Kilt nail polish (a deep dark red) and a signed ARC of Just in Time for a Highlander, which comes out February 3. The winning entry will be drawn at midnight on December 23. If you don’t win, never fear, you can pre-order the book here or here to ensure you have it in your hands the moment it’s released. It’s the first book in my new Sirens of the Scottish Borderlands series, and it’s hot, hot, hot! Perfect for a February chill.
Thank you for your love and support. Whatever holiday you celebrate, may it be filled with family, food, friends, and joy.
Gwyn
old.cready.com gwyn@cready.com
Gwyn Cready , Romance Novelist on Facebook
@GwynCready on Twitter
Copyright©2014 Gwyn Cready. All rights reserved.
Author photos copyright ©2014 Garen DiBartolomeo.
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Illustrations of author courtesy of Design-Her-Gals.
