Pink of Perfection

Source: traceysthoughts.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

On this very happy Friday, I thought I’d share with you a recently-discovered pretty. I found these vintage-y Frenchified notebooks in a quirky little notions shop in midtown. But in addition to the gorgeous covers, I think what I like most about them is how slim they are. The pressure is off to live big and record a lot; there are only a few pages to scribble down some thoughts about your life today. I like that, if partly because it feels less like you’re toting along the diary of your innermost feelings, and more like you’re just some smart lady who has so many good ideas for her next novel or poem or custom dress design with a peplum, she’s just got to jot them down before she flies off to a hot date at a cozy wine bar. Right?!

And so happy Friday to all of you! My new end of the week ritual is to walk down to the coffee shop in the sunshine and chat with the radiantly charming barista. Then I walk back home with my extremely caffeinated beverage and use her music choice of the day to seed a Pandora station. Last week it was Aretha, and today––bless her––it’s Stevie Wonder.

Do you have any awesome let’s-get-this-weekend-started-right rituals? Happy weekend, all!

Although there is some pain to rejoining the workaday world after a long holiday weekend, there’s also a little more room for something nice. Last night I got into bed and started in on a typical Sunday-night whine of resistance: “I don’t want the weekend to be over, I don’t want to go back to work, I don’t want to go to sleep.” But before the words even came out of my mouth, I stopped myself. And I credit Oprah. I had spent the two hours soaking in a lukewarm bath reading O Magazine‘s farewell issue to the Oprah show. There were so many stories from assistants, Gayle, and senior producers about annoyances and snafus that have come up over the past 25 years. But the resolution was always sort of the same: instead of getting annoyed or frustrated with what was happening, Oprah consciously chose to put on a smile and roll with it. And everything was fine.

So I thought right then and there: What if I just said yes? What if I just gave up the work of resisting what is (and what’s coming) and instead just decided to greet it? It took three days of camping under the stars, eating hamburgers, and drinking rosé in a swimming pool to be able to so zenly embrace the imminent work week. But it felt really nice to not voice those Sunday night whines and instead just roll over, run my hand over the crisp cotton white sheets and be grateful for the night of sleep ahead. It felt, strangely perhaps, like a burden had been lifted. It felt lighter.

Don’t you love that Sunday night suspension, when you can look out on the week ahead and it still seems serene? We pencil in our plans for kickboxing, the dinner menus, a drink with a friend, maybe even a date with ourselves to just read somewhere quiet. The days seem neat and still under our control. But when they do inevitably start spinning and getting crowded with clutter, my goal is to still just say yes to it. Something quite simple feels like a revelation but: I have this feeling that flowing with the current will feel a lot easier than kicking against it.

“Oh yes!” print from Etsy

I think old stuff is charming––the junkier, the better. This makes it very hard for me to cover ground on road trips because every giant billboard on a lonely stretch of country road for flea markets and antique malls makes me want to pull off at the next exit and dig through dusty, musty piles.

This is how I found a Girl Scout Handbook with awesome illustrations from the ’30s, my beloved turquoise typewriter, and the little lidded alpine dish that I pull my Splenda out of every morning. This is my favorite way to shop but sometimes, in a pinch, Etsy will do.

Vintage baby stuff is dear, and old French things, as we know, can have an irresistible sort of charm. Put them together and we’re talking, whoa: a match made in heaven.

Another thing about little vintage knickknacks here and there: when you’re largely shopping at places like IKEA for furniture and big ticket items, a little vintage toy on the windowsill or an old floral dish on the table can bring a big dose of history and charm to a space. It’s the kind of touch that really makes a house a home. And that even grown-ups can get behind.

Happy weekend!

I fell in love with these Valentine’s Day garlands made from old copies of Pride and Prejudice when I saw them on A Rambling Fancy and vowed to craft my own. But then I realized I’d need a cool hole punch and to haul out the sewing machine, and suddenly I just knew this wasn’t going to happen by the 14th. Why not just feature them and the marvelously crafty Christine and then just tell you where––if you’re feeling a little lazy like me––you can buy them?

What inspires you to create, to write, to live well?

Creativity has always been a part of my life and I can’t imagine living any other way. Surrounding myself (both offline and on) with an eclectic group of artists and creative friends is my greatest source of inspiration. They help me think differently and approach ideas in a new way. My brother constantly challenges to me to “just do it”. So often I think we creative types can get hung up on the process or we have so many ideas rolling around in our head it can be hard to focus on one project and follow through with it to the end (well, at least that’s how it is for me). Sometimes we need to “Nike it up”—who cares if it’s been done before or if it won’t come out perfect. Whether it involves taking a piece of fabric and fashioning it into a piece of clothing that suits me just right, recycling old and abused books into wall decor that brightens my day every time I look at it or finding the right words to communicate an idea or story I hope others will connect with, it’s important to just do it.

Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice Valentine Garland” »

My book club did a modest little gift exchange for the holidays (meeting: At Large and At Small). We had a limit of $10 and the gifts were universally awesome: a handmade magnet with one of my favorite words, Saipua soap, fancy food stuffs like artisanal jams and posh hot chocolate. But the gift that made us all especially bright-eyed in our looking-forward-to-the-new-year excitement was this day planner by The Small Object. It’s colorfully, enthusiastically emphatic, and just, well, delightful. Who doesn’t need a daily reminder to “start smiling,” and “banish monsters”? I just think it’s so cheerful.

Who knows what you win, exactly, but I love the sentiment of this cross stitch print like mad and could see it inspiring a craft of my own, very likely complete with a pronoun change.

Available at the Keep Calm Gallery

To people who are very actively involved in helping people who have less year round, the sudden holiday emphasis on reaching out to those in need is, I bet, obnoxious. I’m sorry to say I’m not one of the year-round do-gooders, and I’d wager that I’m not the only one who wishes she had a giving tradition that was a regular part of her life. But I’ve felt overwhelmed by the options. Sometimes, it’s hard to know who to help.

I assisted a yoga class at a middle school for autistic kids for awhile. I went through the application and background check to be a Girl Scout volunteer and then they never called me. (If it were appropriate to put a frowny face emoticon here, I would.) Should we sign up to help at a soup kitchen, become a Big Sister, drop in sporadically at a senior center, walk dogs at a shelter? What form of volunteering will best fit into our schedules and feel like the best use of our time and talents? The answer is probably that we should just do something, anything. But I think many of us are so eager to feel that we are making a difference––in a way that resonates with us with meaning––that we’re hesitant to just sign up for anything. If we’re going to make a commitment to something, we want it to be the right thing.

I’ve bopped from this to that, food pantries and animal shelters, but in the past year I realized the best way for me to give back would be continuing the biggest help I ever got. In those tender pre-adolescent and teenage years, there was a lot of tumult in my life, a lot of change, a lot of unpredictability. But there were also a lot of teachers and babysitters and one particularly awesome Big Sister along the way who taught me, without being cheesy or overt about it, that who I was was awesome, that I could be and do anything I imagined, that there was a wide world out there for me to adventure in.

I talked earlier about my word for 2011 being full. Articulate what you want, and man, it has a way of just flooding in. I’ve been working harder, writing more, cooking more, seeing my friends in ways that feels so good. All that is great, perfect even, but there’s one more thing that needs to fall into place for my sense of fullness in the new year: the right tradition of giving.

How do you guys give back in your lives, in ways both organized and unstructured? What has it brought into your life or changed about your perspective? And do any of you share that feeling of wanting to give, but not knowing what’s the best thing for you?

Photo: Longfellow quote letterpress card by Etsy seller letterary press