2012, Week Forty-Three

As Hurricane Sandy prepares to batter the east coast, I find that I’m feeling incredibly grateful that I don’t live there anymore. Sorry to all of you who are battening the hatches and preparing for stormaggedon.

It was a sunny and simple week here in Oakland. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, which means that I really didn’t take that many pictures.

I decided last week that I needed to give myself a break from all of the “shoulds” and “musts” that usually rule my life. Other than the truly required tasks (going to work, taking showers) I didn’t do anything last week that I didn’t really and truly want to do. It was a much needed break, and gave me a little bit of clarity about how I should be spending my time. Truth be told, I can be quite hard on myself about doing all the things I think I should be doing, and trying to do them all perfectly. And if I’m not careful, that can really start feeling like a drag. As we move into holiday season 2012, I am setting my intention now to give myself a break. Nothing needs to be perfect, it just needs to be done with joy and love.

So this is what my week of no obligations looked like:

Oct 21 – Sunday night I made pork tenderloin and sauteed squash for dinner. Yay for fall foods!

Oct 22 – I made a skirt over the weekend and wore it to work on Monday. I’ve had this fabric for years, and knew what I wanted to make with it but just…didn’t do it. But I’ve been on a real sewing kick lately, and I’m glad I finally knocked this out. It didn’t turn out exactly how I imagined, but this is a learning process, and I really like it anyway.

Oct 23 – This is not a cappuccino.

Oct 24 – I’ve been reading lots of books about garment sewing, and one suggestion I liked was to select a few of your favorite articles of clothing and accessories, look at them all, and find a few adjectives that describe them. These are mine, and I was feeling stuck for descriptive terms, so I asked my friends and family on Facebook to give me a few adjectives. That was a super fun for me, and this whole exercise did give me a more concise idea of what my personal style is. What adjectives do you think describe the things in this picture?

Oct 25 – No pictures on Thursday ’cause I forgot. It was a boring day anyway.

Oct 26 – I did decide to do some minimal fall/Halloween decorating in our apartment. I made this polka dot garland using some felt and some thread. So easy and festive! And I always love pumpkins.

Oct 27 – Also no pictures on Saturday. ‘Cause I forgot again. We went out for brunch. I took a nap. Sean went to the gym. I watched Dawson’s Creek. It was a pretty quiet non-entity of a day. We did not go to any Halloween parties.

Here’s to not letting your life be ruled by unrealistic expectations. As the holidays approach, join me in pledging to yourself to relax and recognize that none of the things we let ourselves get so stressed out about are the end of the world. Approach the holidays with a light heart and practice letting go of all the things you think you should be doing, in favor of the things you love to do.