A Little Funk

Ah man, today started out with a bad case of the Wednesdays. Anybody else? I have this theory that the universe sort of has a way of dishing out a lot of the same stuff at the same time. For example, I will be talking to one of my friends about how Zara didn't sleep or how weird a day is going for me and she will say, "Me too!". Hence the "universe theory" that sometimes we all experience the same kind of day at the same time. 

Anyhow... today was one of those days where I was feeling overwhelmed with even the thought of cleaning my house, doing dishes and finishing four loads of laundry. Zara fell asleep so I had lunch and watched a silly show about quintuplets on TLC because I was too lazy to change the channel. 

Hello, first world problem!

 I might also be a little sleep deprived because the past few nights Zara has woken up around 10:30, right when we are trying to go to bed, all smiley like, "hey guys! I just woke up from my nap and I am so happy, lets play". It's sort of cute and exhausting all at the same time.

This morning we did manage to make it out of the house to go to the library to pick up some books I had put on hold. We happened to be there during story time which was awesome! There is a lady that reads stories and sings songs with the kids, I imagine it's pretty similar to everyone else's story time now that I think about it. There were even a few other moms from our ward there. Afterwords I was browsing around a little bit looking for a cookbook about how to make sushi when I ran into this little gem, Handmade Living. I love when you find a good book that you literally pull out of stacks. I didn't even open it to check it out, talk about good marketing. 

Back to my lunch in front of TLC, after I finished my sandwich I decided to take everyone up on their advice and nap while my baby was napping. I told myself I can clean next week (I usually clean on Mondays...it's Wednesday so I am already off my schedule...) I grabbed this pretty book to fall asleep too and headed upstairs to my bed, shoved the unfolded two loads of laundry to Dusty's side of the bed and crawled in under the covers. I am usually weary of design books, too many pictures of spaces that are stuffed to the brim with too much crap that is too expensive and flipping through 150 pages of living rooms gets old after awhile, even for an interior designer. 

I opened the book and was immediately sucked in, it was all about this textile designers home and her Scandinavian lifestyle (think ikea), it was a little window into her life. It was so great, good balance of pictures and words on the pages. I read the whole thing in about 30 minutes. She shares things like, if you want pretty dishcloths just make a stencil and paint some, or make a mobile out of paper for decoration, or use contact paper to make something prettier. After, I was so jazzed up about jazzing up my home that I went and did the dishes! What?! Wednesday funk take that! Now I am all inspired to do things like paint my pantry and blah blah blah. It's so great. 

She also shared some recipes from her Swedish childhood like cinnamon buns that we actually ate while we were in Sweden, yummy.

I think sometimes I get so hung up on matching things and making sure things are "perfect" that it freezes me up so much that I don't do anything to my home. It's easier to say, "oh ya, that horrible paint job is from the last people that lived here". I liked this book because she just puts everything she loves together and it works out. One time while growing up I painted a pattern on my bedroom wall just cause I felt like it, another time I painted an imitation Van Gogh on the back of my sisters bedroom door (where else do you paint something without your parents permission and where you are pretty sure they won't see it for a long time?) I miss doing stuff like that. 

So now I am all inspired to let my inner crafty self out. Watch out people! 

I might start sharing some handmade projects inspired by the book, be prepared to see some nooks and crannies of my home that you have never seen before.

This whole experience has made me grateful for two things, libraries, and being able to read. The other day we were at Mckay (used books) and I wanted to buy some new cook books but they were still sort of spendy. It's amazing for being a library volunteer how often I forget that you can get FREE books from the library ANYTIME you want! Pretty cool.