Sonja Foust, Romance Author

**UPDATED: Everything in this post is ok except for the part about, you know, buying shoes. DO NOT BUY SHOES FROM SHOEDAZZLE!**

Today is National Wear Red Day. I know, another stupid made-up holiday in February, but I’m ok with this one because you don’t have to support the greeting card industry to participate in it. National Wear Red Day is all about education. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. Yes, everyone is affected by heart disease.

So today you can commit to being heart healthy: Eat healthy stuff, move around a lot, and stay tobacco-free.

You can also help fight heart disease by… buying shoes! One of my favorite sites, ShoeDazzle, has this sweet red pump available in February. 10% of the purchase goes to Women Heart to provide education and training for women so that we can take charge of our heart health.

Stay healthy, friends!

This post is in loving memory of my father-in-law, who passed away 2 years ago from a heart attack. We miss you, Charlie.

2009 was a pretty big year for me. Despite my lack of resolutions (on purpose), it’s been a great, full, happy year. I created my Hit by a Bus contingency plan and then proceeded to not get hit by a bus, which was awesome. It was the year of social networking for me (and I imagine for a lot of others, too) and I kept in touch with my friends like I never imagined I’d be able to 10 years ago. I appeared several places, which might have been my 15 minutes of fame, and I enjoyed every second of it. Gained fitness and a great friend in running with Jamie. Celebrated 5 years of marriage with the love of my life. (more…)

… And here are some of the many reasons why I love Autumn so much:

• Sweater weather
• NaNoWriMo
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Apple-picking

How about you? Do you love Autumn? Some other season? Why?

We’ll call Etsy.com my little addiction for the week. I loooove Etsy. com. They have everything, and it’s all handmade and special. I went on a little shopping spree and bought some stuff. Since I have nothing else to tell you about today, thought I’d show you what I bought.

Closet purse organizer by FinnFancies:

I gave up on tearing out the shelves in my closet and putting in a new California Closets-esque treatment. It’s too expensive and I’m too lazy. So I’ve been doing the best I can with what I have, and this purse organizer should make life significantly easier!

Vine earring by thebeadedlily:

Love this. I have a cartilage piercing in one ear and I hardly ever find single earrings I like enough. (In fact, I’m not totally happy with the one I’m wearing currently, which is a hoop with some rainbow-colored rings on it that came from Claire’s or somewhere like that. It’s a little too Sesame Street for my tastes.) I love the simplicity and uniqueness of this one!

Chiffon flower headband by LolaBlossom:

I saw felt flower headbands at Anthropologie a while back and thought there must be something similar on Etsy. And there was. LolaBlossom carries not only felt flower headbands, but feather headbands and these fun chiffon flower headbands, too. Love it.

If you haven’t tried Etsy yet, go and do. It’s a lot of fun, and everything I’ve purchased has been really special and high quality.

On another note, if you have an Etsy store, leave us a link in the comments! I’d love to check it out!

I got stuck in traffic last week and it took me 3 and a half hours to get home. That’s never fun, but my iPhone and my long selection of podcasts made it a lot more bearable. Here are some of my favorite podcasts. Check them out, and give me your favorites in the comments!

Will Write For Wine – This ‘cast is now defunct, but there are the occasional special returns, and if you haven’t heard it before, the old ones are still relevant. There’s also a really fun forum community. I will warn you, it’s more about writing than wine.

Stay Happily Married – I found this via Lifehacker (I think– somewhere like that) and later discovered that it’s actually a local Raleigh podcast. Um, also, ahem ahem, I was once a guest on the podcast. But I really did listen to it before I had a guest spot, promise. Lots of great advice and interesting guests.

You Look Nice Today – Irreverent, politically incorrect, and hilarious. I sometimes listen to this on the treadmill, but it’s kind of a bad idea, as it makes me laugh, and it’s hard to laugh when I’m trying to breathe. Or maybe it’s hard to breathe when I’m laughing. One or the other. It’s difficult.

Your turn: What are your favorite podcasts?