The next prompt in our little blogger’s group involves highlighting something we do well. A talent, an accomplishment . . . anything we do that gives us a feeling of satisfaction.
A lot of my blogging revolves around self-betterment. I know that this, in itself, is a fairly noble practice . . . but I’m pretty good at focusing on the betterment and completely forgetting about the things I have actually accomplished.
I have always loved to take pleasure out of small things. When the “big” things are sometimes too stressful to bear, I can usually take a moment and find something little to ground myself. In high school, it was music and lipstick. There was pretty much nothing in my little world at that time that couldn’t be fixed by a new CD and a trip to Lexington for a fresh shade of lipstick. In college, it was . . . well, college in general. If I couldn’t focus in my room, I could go to the library and work among the smell of old books. If I needed distraction, I was never more than a cement bench away from a good round of people-watching.
Now, my favorite little thing is a hot snuggle with a mug of some kind of beverage. Coffee, tea, hot cocoa . . . you name it. And, despite my decoratively-challenged nature, I have managed to actually create a cute little sanctuary for my favorite form of stress-relief.
In college, all of my friends knew to buy me a coffee mug for any kind of gift situation that came up. I ended up with an extensive collection of new mugs and quirky mugs from various thrift stores . . . and I loved them all. When we moved back to Nebraska from Austin, I had to trim down the collection quite a bit. It was sad, but I soon realized that even the thinned out version of my Mug Army was too excessive for our cupboards.
Somehow, I had a momentary stroke of domestic, housey-house genius. I had Paul mount a leftover shelving unit to our dining room wall, and then move our abandoned changing table under it. Suddenly, I had this little space that was perfectly suited to house all of my warm beverage paraphernalia, as well as open up some room in our cupboards. I even stuck some decorative contact paper down to make it look pretty . . . all by myself. I know that shouldn’t sound like such an accomplishment, but that kind of thing stresses me out.
I’ve also developed a little obsession with decoupaging jars. I have entirely too many empty jars lying about the kitchen, waiting for me to be motivated enough to do another batch of Mod Podging . . . but when I get them done I get a really weird feeling of intense satisfaction. About gluing paper to jars. Gluing paper. Onto jars. I don’t know.
I’m transitioning away from bagged tea to loose-leaf, and these cute little jars are perfect for tea storage. Seriously, sometimes I just stand, sipping coffee, and stare at all of my jars. My preciouses.
Anyway, what can I say? I’m totally proud of my little beverage sanctuary. It’s like the land of lost mugs. No longer do mugs and coffee pots and tasty tea leaves have to sit around the kitchen, getting pushed out of the way, longing for a place where they can truly belong. It’s also visible proof that I’m getting a little bit better at defeating my decorating deficiency, which is something I’ve battled with since we got married.
Most importantly, though, it’s an example of my love for the little things in life, and I’m pretty excited to see a big reminder of that whenever I grab a cup of coffee.
What about you guys? What have you done lately that warranted a self-high-five?