An Etsy Valentine

I spend a lot of time on Etsy, obviously, what with my love for handmade items and my own jewelry shop. And while I'm not at all a fan of Valentine's Day, I do like a little love. Here are some fun things I've spotted recently.

Retro Love You by Vintage Scraps

Sign of Love by Hey Harriet

Valentine Greeting Card by Oh Geez!

Binary Heart by The Wallaboo Prints

Welcoming the New Year

I am not a big proponent of new year's resolutions. It surprises me every year, since I like very few things more than making a nice, tidy list. Perhaps it's stubbornness... why should I make a resolution list just because other people are? It could be that I avoid introspection whenever possible. Maybe it's fear of failure.

Most likely it's just that I don't want to, so I don't.

I am, however, looking forward to this new year in a way I rarely do. 2010 was a good year... the best I've had to date. But it was a hard year. We celebrated our first anniversary. We did not have a honeymoon period like so many seem to have. We struggled. Hard. Things have been easing up lately and I hope that continues into this year. Maybe our two hard heads are learning to avoid smashing into each other as hard.

We've made strides this year on leading a more simple life. I want to surround myself with things that I love. That are beautiful. I want to rid myself of everything else. We have so much stuff. Too much stuff. It's too much clutter, takes too much space, too much money, too much time. This year I plan to weed through as much as possible with a ruthless purpose.

We are beginning to re-learn to garden and this year we have big plans to expand and improve upon our fledgling front-yard garden. Perhaps I'll finally make time to add additional landscaping to help it blend in, rather than stick out.

The end of 2010 saw me completely and utterly burned out, in a way I can hardly remember ever being before. That cannot happen again. I don't know how to keep more balanced, but I hope to learn. I want time to read a book, or take a long walk, or cook a complicated meal with the Husband. I NEED that time.

This year looks to be a continuation of that last, and the one before. A year in which to grow. To become more wise, more patient, more kind. To continue building our family and our life. And that's all the resolution I need. 

A Birthday Weekend Haiku

family visit

pancakes and ice cream today
ride away on a bike

Grown-up Graduation Gifts

It's graduation season. All around me people are graduating... mostly from college now that I'm getting old. Many from grad school (thank God I'm done with that too!) and some are just ending one year to enjoy the break before school starts again next year.

I've never really understood graduation presents. I get that it's a big deal and people want to celebrate. I guess I just never expected any gifts for completing something that I always expected to do. But, that's not really the point.

The point is that I only remember four graduation gifts ever. When I graduated from high school my parents bought be a nice DSL Canon camera. I used that thing like crazy until a few years later when film became, well, obsolete. I also got a set of giant Costco towels from some church friends who had graduated from college only a few years before. They were right--big towels are very handy in a dorm.

My college graduation gifts are less useful, perhaps, and yet much more meaningful. My oldest family friends (these are the people who claimed my sister and I as their so-called daughters when we were just wee things*) gave me the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go," which I thought very suitable.

And my mom's best friend (my other family**) gave me the best gift of all.

Isn't that fun? She told me that it should be a reminder that we're never too old to play and that hopefully work would always be something I enjoyed. It has sat on my desk at every job (ok, that's only three) I've had since college.

Any other clever graduation gifts I should keep in mind for future events?

*Our family had great friends--mostly from church--when we were little. Funny though, they were family friends but they didn't always have kids. In this case, their son is probably the person I've been friends with longest in my life. I think we met when I was four. 

**Again, apparently I have lots of adopted families. I don't see many of them anymore. How does one go about creating new adopted families to go with this new baby family of mine?

Happy Easter!

"Awake, thou wintry earth-- Fling off thy sadness! Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness! Christ is risen."
~Thomas Blackburn


Photo via Peonies and Polaroids on her Etsy shop.