Of autumn and nests and Pinterest
Image source is Martha Stewart dot com. Natch.
I’m so excited about fall coming. My husband and I spent the weekend at a friend’s house in North Carolina, and on Saturday the rain coming in over the river brought cool breezes and gloomy clouds, and that made me want to curl up with a quilt and a good book. Then Sunday morning I spied a fall flavors K-cup sampler in the cupboard and I was undone. Pumpkin spice coffee made me think of pumpkin bread and deep fried turkey and leaves turning golden and red and falling and chilly evenings watching scary movies and planning to make five hundred thousand awesome Christmas decorations and presents and then realizing I’d bitten off way more than I could chew and finally buying some last minute cheap plastic stuff at Wal-mart and finally getting to the New Year and thinking, okay, I’m ready for summer again.
I love the rhythm of the year. I love the energy that comes with each season.
You know how supposedly pregnant women getting ready to go into labor “nest?” The thing is I am constantly in nesting mode, regardless of what stage of pregnancy or not-pregnancy I’m in (FYI, we’re at 11 weeks-ish now). I am always wanting to move and change and decorate and craft and organize and throw things away and feather my nest. Unfortunately I have this thing called a job that takes up way too much time, and when I’m not working there’s a toddler that needs attention and groceries to be bought and laundry to be done and dinner to be cooked and reruns of The Big Bang Theory to be watched and sometimes I really miss those lazy years right after college when I was working about 2 days a week and spending the rest of my waking hours just looking for things to entertain myself. I don’t really miss much about life back then (this was post-cult but pre-divorce and I was about as miserable and confused as any 20-something could possibly be) but I do miss the freedom to watch endless Buffy reruns while making lots of bad crafts.
Now crafting time necessarily steals from other activities and interests. I only have so many minutes in a day, and that might be why my chief creative endeavor some months weeks is just the act of scrolling through Pinterest boards. I used to buy stacks of magazines with words like “garden” and “country” and “cottage” in their titles, but now all my inspiration (and vague feelings of not-measuring-up) is found online. During some seasons in my life I eschew all crafty input, as if not looking at beautiful pictures will make living in a crowded, sticky, fur-coated home easier. And maybe it does – I do believe that comparison is an enemy of joy – but I also believe, I KNOW, that pretty things make me life better.
Sometimes drinking a cup of pumpkin spice coffee on a rainy day is all I need to see the potential in my crowded, sticky, fur-coated home. Bring on the fall, bring on the inspiration, bring on something beautiful.
