This space makes me ridiculously happy right now. From the Beni Ourain rug, to the vintage art and the brass loveseats…. I’m completely smitten. I am always drawn to moody colors and gorgeous neutral airy spaces, but it’s easy to forget how important it is that we inject a dose of happy into our living environment, in whatever form that may be, and how much our environment can effect us. For me, this means eclectic and colorful but grounded in light, airy, and bright neutrals, with amazing art hung on every square inch of wall space.
Yesterday I was reminded that it’s many of you ‘out there’ see our lives ‘in here’ as being happy and lovely and problem free most of the time. You see pictures of our homes in camera ready state and hear about the things we do and the places we go, and it’s very easy to feel that everything is perfect on this side of the glass fishbowl. Much like this room above. Clearly the people who live here in real life have the perfect life, with happy children and lots of laughter. In the past I think I have seen this blog as my happy place, as a space where I can share the pretty things and talk about making and creating, while leaving my problems and real life behind. While I don’t want to make this an outlet for depressing conversation and complaining, I do think this kind of behavior accidentally creates a never ending cycle of this perception and that is worse and not better, so I’m going to do my best to step out of my comfort zone and talk about real life a bit more often here at TDC. I think it’s important for each of us to use the platform we have to do what we can, share what we will, and learn what we are able to about the people and things around us. You may not be technically ‘around’ me, but it certainly feels like the world is a lot smaller and we are all a lot closer thanks to the power of these interwebs, doesn’t it?
So, each week, while I get my feet wet and get used to the idea of talking about things that relate to me and my life (completely outside my norm… probably why I’m not a crazy lover of Twitter), I’m going to take the easy route and share 5 things that you might not have known, along with a gorgeous image of a room that is seemingly picture perfect. I mean, I need a little eye candy to console myself while I quake in my boots over here trying to be brave and all…
Just in case you have no interest in my general weirdness, feel free to simply browse my picks below for creating your own Trust Fund Hippie Chic space.
So here goes…
One // Both Mr. TDC and I essentially started our own companies around the same time (I do not recommend this under any circumstances). As dualing entreprenuers in the house, we fight for time more than any other thing. It’s a constant struggle because when one of us is with the kids, which has to be one of us at any given time, that person isn’t able to work. If any of you have ever started or operated your own company, you know that the time you put in is directly related to what you get out, most of the time… so this is so amazingly hard on us. I can’t even express how difficult this really is on two people who don’t have family around or able to babysit often or a babysitter on hand and 2 small kiddos running loose. Though, my goodness it can always be worse. I try and remember that.
Two // It turns out I grew up with this cute girl’s baby daddy. And by ‘grew up’ I don’t mean that we lived in the same state or general metropolitan area, I mean that we went to elementary school, Jr. High, and High School together… Somehow I never put the pieces together with the last name and all. Which is funny (or ridiculous). I guess it’s all about context, eh? She just posted some of her maternity pics from an interview she did for Mini Magazine, so now you can see just how cute she and they actually are. It’s adorable! I wonder if they fight over time for work… le sigh.
Three // I stopped nursing the Bird at the end of January just before I headed to Utah for an event with Cricut and ALT Summit, and everything went swimmingly for the first few weeks right up until a hefty dose of postpartum depression crept in. I didn’t actually know this was even a ‘thing’ but lucky me… it totally is! Yay. I have been in a pretty major funk for the last two months and it’s made getting projects done and handling life so much more difficult. I am thankful that it’s going to be a more short lived variety than is typical after having a baby, but this has been one of the most difficult times for me and I have a whole new level of appreciation for people who go through this. I think this is a topic that could use a lot more conversation and information flowing more freely out there and I hope to be a catalyst for that perhaps.
Four // The way to my heart is through sweet treats and candy… and by sweet treats I pretty much mean chocolate chip cookies but most anything will do, most of the time. I’m basically obsessed with candy and my fave is gummy cherries and those sour red and yellow filled twizzler things. I don’t know what they are actually called, but I stock up when I’m traveling.
Five // Today is the one year anniversary of my Grandma’s passing. I am not even remotely healed from that loss and I haven’t actually visited her grave site. Today is the day I will do that for the first time and I’m sure it will be cathartic but to be honest I feel like I honor her every single day and that her grave makes the loss so permanent. I haven’t been ready to face that. We shall see how it goes…
Ok, phew I did it and gosh those were mostly depressing. Hopefully as we get into this more and I find my groove, my 5 things won’t be so heavy. I figure we have to break the seal somehow though, so there you have it.
Image Source: Via – not able to find the original image source. If you know, please let me know…
