There are a lot of reasons to despair these days, but I am trying to hang on to the good things and give thanks for the countless blessings in my life that I take for granted every day.

This week I give thanks for:

• going to the circus with my husband, brother, sister-and-law and 2 year old nephew
• my new pair of glasses — my first new pair in 7-8 years!
• the first snowfall of the season
• an excellent concert by Kristian Bezuidenhout

And here’s what I’ve bookmarked this week:

Textile artist Louis Gardiner shares some of her explosive embroidery from her new gallery show on the Selvedge blog.

Creative Live has a tutorial to make an easy embroidery sampler for Christmas.

So many people are stitching the 12 Days of Christmas patterns being posted by Plum Street Samplers, but I love the colors that The Copper Fox has chosen.

The U.S. National Archives shows us that at one time samplers could be used as legal proof of marriage.

Video of the Week

Because we just saw Kristian Bezuidenhout last night, I have to share this video of him performing the Andante from Mozart’s Piano Sonata 16 in C Major. Lovely.