...a caretaker of the right-for-me details...

“Life is too short for you

to be the caretaker

of the wrong details.”
   ~Alexandra Stoddard

When I graduated from undergraduate 25 years ago, my high school English teacher with whom I am still in touch gifted me a copy of Alexandra Stoddard’s Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty, and Joy to Every Day of Your Life (1986). Stoddard cites the great authors to show how attention to detail is key in living a beautiful life. Stoddard who is an interior designer has a much different aesthetic than I have; however, her emphasis on rituals and even her “grace notes” such as “lift your mood with a new fragrance” and “have a special basket for the mail. It looks pretty, and it’s fun to bring into the living room or library, to open at leisure” have stayed with me over the years. Her writing focuses on transforming space to make it something that one can live within. It doesn’t require money or status. It’s simply living what one considers a beautiful life. I've been thinking about that a great deal lately.

And, I’ve been making many changes—some small such as changing out my old closet doorknob that has never been to my taste with a new black crystal one. I’ve also been doing some bigger changes in the yard by digging up, dividing and replanting iris bulbs and daylilies. I even moved the canna that was trapped under the hibiscus to brighter spaces where they have room to grow. I’ve had a good amount of nervous energy lately and limited time since the clock is ticking down the days until I return to my in-person work-life.

For the next two weeks, my bathroom is being renovated. I’ve saved for it for quite some time and even had the tiles in our garage since last October. Our contractor scheduled us beginning tomorrow and concluding on Friday the 13^th!

I don’t want to say that I’ve hated this bathroom for three years because it was someone’s dream and choice; and likely the woman who picked this magnolia tile planted a garden here and had a say in the red brick path we unearthed and love. It isn’t to my taste and I look forward to big changes but I’m blessing the old choices as they leave this home. Maybe I’ll even keep a magnolia tile and plant it in the garden.

My designer glitter grout won’t arrive in time even though I ordered it weeks in advance of its estimated delivery date so we’re going with my pre-awareness-of-black-glitter-grout-plan. And per my fabulous contractor, the quality of glitter grout is somewhat questionable. He broke it to me gently and he is the one who had the idea to make the capstone of my shed into a coffin shape so I do trust him.

This weekend I had to go to two paint locations to find the paint I needed. Each store had only one and their response was that I was lucky. Everything is delayed and out of stock, and has been for a while. But for me, it’s finally coming together! This little toiletries-bag, the pumpkin, will be my best buddy for two weeks as I am sharing my fella’s bathroom, which I acknowledge we are fortunate enough to have two baths so this renovation is all very doable with little interruption.