I've been waiting to share this since Christmas and now I finally can! This was my gift from our friends James and Diana. James is quite the illustrator if you can't tell. I was so in love with these that when he told me they weren't sealed he kindly took them back and coated them. Here are a few close-ups.
The first one is Drew. He is saying "yes," because that is in fact something he says often. Not necessarily as an answer, but more as a response to something he likes.
The next is me. My bubble is "fancy," which I do happen to say all the time (I don't even notice). In fact, I was sorting through old cards last night and found a birthday card from years ago that my friend Jenny got for me. She was so delighted the card had the word "fancy" written on it, and the card was written to "a fancy lady". It's strange that I don't even know what comes out of my mouth that people associate with me.
And of course the tiniest one had to be little Isadora. Aaahhhh.
Absolutely one of my favorite and most thoughtful gifts ever. Thank you James and Diana!!
In other news I have been reading It's All Too Much, and I can't get too many pages into it without getting up and clearing out a new space. It really has been a liberating week. I've had my mom, sisters, friends, and still more to come look through things and take what they needed or wanted. We have a few more folks that are coming to claim stuff and then it's off donation.
I am certainly a "collector of things". I love objects of all kinds. I love good design. I run a business from my apartment, I share an apartment with another person, not only my job but my hobbies include creating and crafting, there are shipping supplies and then some, Drew is an avid reader… all that leads to stuff. Not an insurmountable amount, but a lot.
And obviously, I enjoy consuming. I like Etsy finds. I enjoy online shopping more and more these days. Stores are a place to go when you can't think of anything else do do. Stores are a place you have to go.
My weight is up and down and up and down and I have a hard time letting go of the clothes "that I might need". All the other areas I can get rid of the "might needs" but that one is still my hardest. Yes, 99.9% of my clothes are a slightly different version of the same five things… but ummm, I'm still going to have to work on that for quite a bit longer :) Remember the coats I mentioned? I really had to fight the urge not to buy multiple sizes in edition to multiple colors. Hmmph.
I put off e-mailing and blog posting for a good portion of last week just to dedicate to working and decluttering. I was prepared for it to be overwhelming, but a few of the points Peter Walsh makes in the book were so small but so profound. "Mementos are not the same as memories." And "the first step to getting organized is to work from the vision of the life you want to have." That is really the key to the book. It left me looking around my apartment asking myself, "why do I have this?" It was so obvious that I didn't need or really want it and yet I have moved five times with it. Very interesting to say the least.
Okay, now I need to go play a bit of catch-up with the other areas of my life (like e-mail), but I hope your week is off to a great start!
