Decorate

I am bleeding creativity.

In the best possible way.

As a science major at a research-centric school, creativity was often playing second fiddle. And on a quarter system I was hard pressed to churn out the results I needed every ten weeks. Can we clarify how HAPPY I am that I don't have any more schoolwork?

To make up for the last 4 years, I have hit the ground running: reading anything I can get my hands on (trashy, classics, graphic novels), painting, doodling, crocheting, cross-stitching....If I see a project, I will find the materials to make it. 

When you get married, you are incredibly blessed with all manner of necessities by friends and family. Kitchen utensils, sheets, towels, dishes, and so on...but who gives decorations? Who gives ornaments and paintings and vases? 

Decorations show what is important to you: what's important enough to showcase on your walls and your shelves. Something you want to look at everyday, be reminded of and display to others.

I certainly don't believe that decorations need to be bought, and if they do there's no need for them to be expensive. I look forward to the day when I can frame board games on the walls for our kids- well loved, creased and garishly painted. 

I decorate with magazines.

I decorate with hardbound books.

I decorate with wedding vases. And ribbon. 

I decorate with my husband's action figures (NOT toys, sweetheart).

I decorate with textbooks. And movies. And broken cameras.

Things we had lying around, left over from school, from our rooms when we lived at home or from family members. We have been incredibly blessed to have family reach out to us when they're ready to donate household items. We have no obligation to keep anything they offer, but it has been a Godsend to have extra sets of eyes looking out for things we might need.

Yes, most of our things are secondhand. There are few things in our home that don't have their own story behind them- and that's half the fun! Surrounding ourselves with the love and support of others, I feel more at home here than I ever have before.

But then come holidays and in an effort to make our sunny California home feel more seasonal (that white stuff in the air? Probably dust from the neighbor's leaf-blower) I like to decorate. I use what I have and make do when I don't. The cheaper the better.

I've been coveting frames with book pages. So I made them with leaves from down the street (my dog thought I was nuts).

At a recent family birthday my grandmother brought embroidery hoops to make fall mobiles. We then brainstormed how to make them more multi-seasonal (plastic eggs- or blown out real ones- felt hearts, paper snowflakes...).

My husband and I had no fall/Halloween decorations...so I saved all the odds and ends of glassware we had in our fridge and set my little heart on a color scheme to paint. Sure, only six of the planned 15 made it out in time for the season, but my husband didn't seem to care. And our guests were floored that I had that idea in the first place. 

A few bottles of cheap paint from Michael's later (and an extra fine paintbrush) and we had these.

My favorite part about crafting is that it gives my hands something to do. I am such a multi-tasker. 
Commute to work? Read. 
Watch a TV show? Crochet. 

Baking night with friends? Make a pumpkin out of a book- what?! 

I can't sit still. I have this insatiable NEED to do, do, do. At the end of the day, I go to bed satisfied that I made the best possible use of my time. What do you do to keep yourself occupied?