a new approach?

There are three ideas that have recently come together for me:

1. My friend Betsy keeps posting photos of things she is grateful for in her life. It's a beautiful idea: http://365grateful.com/. And it made me think about how I might approach one of my thoughts for the year: simplify. Keep things simple. This means many things, but one of them is to focus on details that make me happy and bring richness to my life.

2. This blog, which I've been reading for a while: http://www.readingmytealeaves.com/. The author has a way of noticing details that could be passed by quickly. I like that she knows when to slow down.

3. Then I came across this post this morning on DesignSponge:  http://www.designsponge.com/2014/01/dsoldhouse-creative-challenge.html. I don't take glamorous, moody photos on instagram, but I do love my old house. This post also just made me think about embracing some of the more annoying parts of owning a hundred-year-old home, and loving what I have, and doing simple things to show some love to my surroundings. This includes our house, but could also be taken more broadly: my friends, my family, my city.

So maybe the combination of these ideas could become something interesting to focus on for a while.

First up: I went around our house the other day, and snapped photos of details that make me happy. Here are a few:

I love the light that comes in this south-facing window.

This little corner is where some of my favorite kitchen things live: cookbooks, jadeite bowls, espresso machine, some ceramics I got as gifts and from a flea market in London. And the picture behind the espresso machine is tiny, but it's a pig leaping into a pond, by Michael Sowa.

This mural in Lea's room. Kyle painted it for her.

I found this old lamp in the attic when we moved in. There was nothing else up there except this. So I brought it out - I like feeling like there's a little connection to whoever lived here before us.