Right now these lovely bits of green are making me very happy.

Happy Tuesday friends!

everybody needs a rainbow chair

found HERE

snippets

The house is starting to come together and and actually feel more like where I live.

Also I sort of wish it would rain today (or tonight), which is odd because I am going camping this weekend.

My good mood yesterday lasted precisely until I got home from work and things began to go wrong. Well, not wrong exactly, but not according to plan, which yesterday felt like the same thing as things going wrong.

The wild mood swings are starting to be less interesting and entertaining then they used to be.

I am also feeling more and more strongly lately how I need to get better at letting go of the plan.

I desperately need to find some balance. I am trying, but so far just haven't found it. But I will.

I am happy to have at least the start of a decent workspace. Hopefully that means I might at some point in my near future do some actual work.

I have been grumpy today. I wish I hadn't been. But hopefully a solitary drive and trip to the movies in a new town while I wait for my man to come meet me after a few days away will help lift it.

If that doesn't then I'm pretty sure seeing the ocean will.

Have a wonderful weekend birds!! xo

moving!

photos via Apartment Therapy

Well, I have survived the week my moving day is (finally) almost here. I am mostly packed already, but will be 100% ready by tomorrow morning. I am pretty excited to get on with it already.
Unpacking and settling in is of course the best part of moving. And I am looking forward to it. I sort of just want to skip from right now to tomorrow afternoon...
But it will be fine. No worries :)

From the photos above apparently right now I am into bright colors, wood, displays full of small loved objects, full book shelves, and lots of plants.

Have a wonderful weekend all!

peg boards - awesome small space storage

One of my many plans involved in moving into my new very small space is using a peg board or two for storage.

Mostly I plan to put one next to my work desk so that I can store a good number of tools on it. Also it will be painted turquoise.

credit

Another use that never occurred to me: over a desk you can store a calendar, clock, piece of art or even a little shelf.

Another awesome idea is to use these in your close to help store and organize accessories. The possibilities are endless :)

credit (2 photos above)

Apartment love

I was browsing through Apartment Therapy the other day and pretty much fell madly in love with this entire apartment. Its full of lively colors, brightly painted walls covered with frames and things that look like they are meant to be used. This house is full of cool stuff that you can tell is very loved. I think its fantastic.

The green shelf is amazing.

"Try a little kindness"

Love it.

I love this kitchen. Its both functional and adorable. Those cabinet doors are amazing and hanging pots are the greatest.

I will be moving into a new little place of my own on July 15th (yay!!! ). I am super excited and cant wait to start hitting up second hand stores and garage sales for cool old pieces of furniture I can fix up :)

creative spaces: the writing hut

There are very few things as marvelous as a quiet place of your own.

Especially when you are a writer or otherwise creative type and need to be left alone to create whatever it is that you create.

Here is a look inside the writing space of a handful of amazing writers.

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The inside of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond.

This is where he stayed when he went to the woods to live a deliberate and simple life. The land he built it on was borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson and the entire cabin was 10'x15'.

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Virgina Woolf's writing shed.

Where she went to write because she was "always being distracted" by the rest of the world.

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Michael Pollan's writing hut.

His own words about his hut in his book A Place Of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams.

"Is there anybody who hasn't at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn't turned those soft words over until they'd assumed a habitable shape? What they propose, to anyone who admits them into the space of a daydream, is a place of solitude a few steps off the beaten track of everyday life."

***

Dylan Thomas' writing hut.

He liked to keep his walls covered with "photos, reproductions and magazine cuttings of Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, Louis MacNeice, W. H. Auden, William Blake, a painting by Modigliani, picaresque nudes, serial specials from Picture Post and similar magazines, rhyming lists and word lists of alliterations."

From The Dylan Thomas Boathouse at Laugharne

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Roald Dahl's writing hut, The Gipsy House.

Where he seldom had to move from his chair because he arranged everything to be within reach and he wrote on yellow legal pads.

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George Bernard Shaw's writing hut, dubbed "London" so his staff wouldn't be lying when they said he had "gone to London".

The inside of "London." Shaw built his hut on a turntable, which enabled him to push it to follow the sun.

All info found HERE

via yes and yes.

bookshelf love

Because really,

who doesn't love

a good bookshelf??

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lovely with turquoise curtains and animal pillows

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as a room divider

front

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back
*
up high

*
industrial

all images found

via apartment therapy

travels...

The getting here part of the trip was good. Long but good. There was snow on the ground but happily not on the road. I forgot CD's so I got familiar with local radio stations. I found NPR is 4 different states and listened to more country music in that 12 hour period then I had in years. It was enjoyable.

***

I haven't been as productive as I expected.

Instead I have mostly wanted to lay around.

But that has been good too.
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a few frustrations:

money

not being able to immediately create what I envision when I start working with something new

not being able to read minds

a twinge of homesickness

***

But

there is nothing quite as good at making you appreciate home then being away from it for a little while.

O Christmas Tree

My favorite part is the flyaway bird at the top.

:)

staying soft and the comforts of home

reasons to be happy list for this cold Monday:

being home

a warm mug in my hands

boots

a warm furry animal sleeping close by

the possibility of snow

colors against the grey sky

family

a made bed

feeling connected despite the miles

turning away from what is not beneficial

a feeling of calm

finding the perfect Christmas gift

swap packages (getting and giving)

remaining soft despite it all

the last couple days have included:

the realization that coffee really does cheer me up

finally getting to do laundry

a bit of shopping

enjoying the mountains

a Harry Potter midnight showing (I was not disappointed :)

thinking about the future

being happy I know some household repair basics

practicing being mindful

looking forward to home

hope you all

have a lovely

weekend

light on the mountains and banishing negativity

One of the things that I love about Utah is this

really amazing certain kind of light that seems to only

be able to exist where there are mountains.

I certainly didn't capture it how I wanted

to, but here are some attempts which

were all taken from a moving car.

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*

Throughout this trip I have found myself in a very negative place. I was being overly critical of everyone (especially myself) and felt more unhappy and unsettled and more not myself then I have in a very long time.

I have to say the whole thing

kind of freaked me out.

I guess I thought I was past some of the most negative and self critical thoughts. I thought I had somehow gone to a place where they couldn't follow me.

But apparently not.

Being aware that I was doing this and consciously trying to take a step back and a deep breath before I let these thoughts sink all the way in or before I act on them has helped.

Brandi's affirmation challenge helped.

And now I am just trying to do the things that will make me feel like myself again, which is not always easy for me when I am not home. Home is important to me. Feeling settled in a place that is my own.

A bit of solitude in every day is important to me, and I haven't gotten much in the last week.

I have not kept up with writing.

I have not been kind to myself when I fail.

And I miss my cat. :)

I think that when I am

feeling negative and critical

and unloving toward myself

it makes it nearly impossible

for me to feel good things

from other people.

And that just isn't really fair

to them or to me.

So I am here for 2 more days

and I will try to use them to be more

loving and gentle with myself

and the world at large.

And I am seeing a midnight

showing of Harry Potter tonight

so the day cant be all bad :)