Our Own White Walls

It only took a couple of hours to fill our new space.

It is taking longer to arrange and organize said things, as expected. I'm excited to see what kind of progress we make this next week.
And yes, this house has the best morning light in the living room and dining room. Heavenly.

I am trying to keep visuals like this in mind as we get through this chaos of packing and cleaning. I'm trying to use my extra-nesting+spring-cleaning energy to help me stay motivated to get rid of stuff. It has been very freeing, and every bit helps me get closer to this vision, to living in a space like the one above. Sometimes it feels out of reach, but I am learning that life can be even better than I ever imagine, and that I shouldn't worry away the good times while they're here. Instead I want to make more good things happen in our home physically and emotionally and spiritually.
Have you caught the spring-cleaning bug? What spaces are you trying to clean out?

It's not about finding, it's about making

image via flickr.
I'm trying to make a shift in my life where I feel more comfortable and satisfied with what I have, make more of my time, and make more period. It's a process, of course, and I don't know that I will ever fully feel I've done it, but advice like the following help me keep my true goals in perspective.


"In terms of 'writing time'—it's not a matter of finding it. It's a matter of making it.

Ask yourself:

Can I get up a half hour earlier each day?
Can I give up an hour of TV?
Can I write on my lunch break?
Can I write in the cracks of my day—ten minutes while waiting for a prescription . . . fifteen minutes while the supper soup simmers . . . twenty minutes while the baby is napping?

Forget waiting until life settles down. Life never settles down.

If you really want to write . . . feel called to write . . . somehow, some way you will do it." —Eileen Spinelli
I love how this applies to writing, but I also want to think more about my time in general--especially how I spend time with my children. They are growing up everyday--these moments are so fleeting. I take great comfort in capturing tiny pieces of them now with words--in journals, on our family blog, and in little movies.
I need to listen to my kids bounce balls off the front door now.

Happy Belated Birthday, Flannery

I am finally catching up on things from the end of March. One of them: wishing Flannery O'Connor a happy birthday (if she were with us, of course.) She is one of my favorite writers. B brought her up last week, trying to remember "the famous short story writer from Ireland." I couldn't figure out who he was talking about and then he finally came up with the name. He was surprised to find out the writer he was thinking of is a woman from the south. I feel like that sums her up so well--she was full of surprises in her work as well, and never quite did what you would expect in her stories. I love these quotes from her:

"I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both."

When she was six, she and a chicken that she taught to walk backward appeared on the news. She later said: "I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been anticlimax."

A Bright, Cheery Kitchen

I stumbled on this article about the kitchen of Lauren Childs, artist behind such beloved characters as Charlie and Lola. Being familiar with the style of several of her books and the show Charlie and Lola, I wasn't too surprised to see what her kitchen looks like:

I love the clean white walls and open shelves with all the brightly colored kitchen tools and art works. It definitely seems like a great place to create works for children.
You can read the full article here.

big kids room: pretty things

i still like to call it the nursery, in the peter pan sense of the word, because it is where the children are children. their room is where they sleep and play and read and sing. it's a magical space and i'm excited to create a new magical space in our new place.
at the same time, there will be a new little one in her own space, which i am starting to call the nursery much to everyone's confusion. it's crazy that lulu and g are both in beds and are definitely not babies anymore. still, i want the "big kid" nursery to be a magical space that is organized and warm and inspiring for them. as usual i'm in love with a mix of retro/vintage/modern/handmade.

some resources: land of nod, brita of sweden, heather ross, target, anthropologie.

our new space will be tighter, BUT has better storage. i'm thrilled that the kids closet can be dedicated to their clothes and toys--not their clothes and toys AND bins of old clothes and rotated-out toys and camping gear. wood floors and white walls make it even better.