five for your weekend

I realized recently that I'm intoxicated by the concept of the weekend.

Not in the sense of TGIF, etc. But I love the idea of two days as bookends for the week. Two days. The perfectly small grouping, just enough time to do something to reset your mind, your outlook, your surroundings. It's why I'm crazy for books like this and this and this.

Life can change between Friday night and Monday morning. Weekends. Gorgeous.

So, in that spirit, here are five sites to change your weekend.

1. Habit is a lovely blog that I enjoy just getting lost in. Each entry is a perfect little slice of photo and text, just enough to make me pause and consider. Browse it for a while and see what you think.

2. Cannelle et Vanille might be the most beautiful blog in the universe. Truly. Reading it feels like a vacation, every time. Beautiful food pictures? I'm so there.

3. If you're looking for a new take on your surroundings, Apartment Therapy is the place to go. I absolutely vanish into this site whenever I go... so many brilliant ideas, I can't stand it.

4. All right, I admit that I haven't actually read this next one. I haven't. Gasp. So it could be terrible, it could be excruciatingly bad, and then you can send a torrent of grumpy comments asking me what the deal is...

But how could I resist? If you're up for a literary adventure, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is the coolest idea ever. Ev-er. Click through and see what I mean: as they say, it's not what you think...

A bunch of super-fabulous authors are collaborating on this, each one writing a chapter and passing it on. A partial list: Katherine Paterson, Kate DiCamillo, Susan Cooper, Gregory Maguire, Shannon Hale, Lemony Snicket, M.T. Anderson... are you shrieking yet?? Seriously. My brain explodes every time I think about it. And sometime, sometime, I have to read it. Beat me to it this weekend, and let me know what you think.

5. And then, to round out your weekend of awesomeness... my wonderful sister Kristen just gave her blog a makeover. It's incredible!! She is so talented. So go visit Mango Squirrel and see what my brilliant sister can do. (Mango Squirrel... Serif's Yarn Cafe... Squirrel and Serif... yup, you just figured it out.)

Have a life-changing weekend.