Hello! Happy Monday, my friends.

This weekend passed by in a very relaxed, lazy way that weirdly felt productive. I volunteered with my work for Operation Clean Sweep to clean up my neighborhood on Saturday, and have decided that stickers are not only the lamest way to tag sign posts, but are also really hard to scrape off. On Sunday, I spent a good part of my afternoon sewing a fancy new sweater! I’m pretty happy with the results and feeling possibly too confident in my newly discovered sewing abilities.

Anyway, I’ve sensed a pattern in the links for this week. Here are some ways to waste your Monday.

Books I’ve been wanting to read:

• How to be Free and How to be Idle, which I first read about in this fantastic article from Bust Magazine. 
• Gulp. by Mary Roach.
• The Great Gatsby– one of my favorite books, I’d love to give it another read before seeing the movie next month.
• Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. I’m about halfway done with this great book, and it’s seriously giving me a yen to hike!

Bites I’ve been wanting to try out in the kitchen:

• Bee Sting Cake from Smitten Kitchen. 
• Crunchy Kale Salad from Use Real Butter.
• Broccoli-Quinoa Casserole from Eating Well Living Thin.
• Mini German Pancakes from Momathon.

Projects I’m filing away to tackle at a later date:

• This scrap quilt. 
• This tufted ottoman.
• These cute headphones.