Life with extras

Ah, life is sweet. When the sun stays out longer and later and everyone is overjoyed because of it, you can't help but be in a good mood. I do think though that it's never just the outward things that make life taste so good, but what you've got brewing inside.

I've been sort of obsessed with the idea of changing my thinking through helpful books. I was turned on to You Can Heal Your Life by Louse. L. Hayes, by Gala Darling, blogger extraordinaire. I'd always liked Gala's perspective. She's all about positivity and really champions being honest with yourself and challenging yourself to reach goals. Awesome stuff. She really sort of embodies that outlook too, with bright pink hair and unicorns and cupcakes seemingly spinning 'round her head. Anyhow, lately I'd been thinking she's really taking the positivity thing to a new level and it was seeming more and more real coming from her as she's been pushing herself into this crazy new adventure. She just seems so at peace with herself and while I've come a long way in that direction over the years, I was excited to get a look into this book and video that she seemed so gung-ho about for self-improvement purposes. I've been reading the book on the subway, oblivious to the funny looks I MUST be getting from fellow passengers as the book is ENTIRELY printed in color with crunchy illustrations of birds and hearts and sunrises and women with arms open clearly 'feeling the love.' A bit cheesy, but you know what? Cheesiness is awesome. I don't feel I can do the concepts she presents much justice beyond just saying that yes, if you decide to be happy, and leave yourself open to the awesomeness that life can present to you, then you will be happy because it's all just a state of mind, and you'll find that by making choices outside of your usual life pattern you can take advantage of that very awesomeness I spoke of. What a concept! I don't know if it's just the bit of thinking this way I've been doing or what, but I just found a million people being super sweet today. Little things everywhere that made me fall in love with my whole situation all anew. Picking seeds to plant for some summer fresh veggies and herbs, others doing the same came to browse the selection and we all just smiled at each other because growing fresh things yourself is just cool. Little conversations at the local coffee shop with the dude making my coffee and his friend who was hanging out chatting lifted my spirits, unsolicited comments and compliments while shopping among us shoppers made it feel like we were all girlfriends looking for something cute together even though we didn't know each other. Connections everywhere make life good. The promise of farmers markets and street fairs and beers in a beergarden and trips to the beach and rooftop parties and pedicures and all of that make life better.

The Spring cleaning bug has bitten, too. As I said, I'm planting some consumables. I'm also flipping the mattress and sweeping out under the bed and replacing my big down comforter with a pretty white quilt and airing out the house and doing some baking to bring in for coworkers. Next, I want to begin switching out my Winter clothes for Spring, retire my boots for the season. I began the effort today with a trip to Urban Outfitters for some sweet little woven leather flats and new sunglasses. UO is one of those places where I generally realllly don't so much love a lot of the stuff. It all seems close but not quite there, either in quality or execution, and it makes me feel like an oldie at 26. How does it do that? I guess it's meant for high school students. But I still think it's the best place to go for certain things, like super cheap basic shoes that you can stomp around in until you destroy them without feeling guilty. Or sunglasses! I've seen identical shades at UO and Anthropologie, both owned by the same company, and they're marked at $10-20 more at Anthro simply because it's a more 'upscale' place for an older customer.

Toodles!

PS. I'm definitely going to have to come back to this one. It seems I can't get my computer to let me link to Gala's website, or post my photos because I don't have an updated version of Safari. And I don't have that, because I can't install it, because my OS is too old. Curses!! If I expect to keep this up I better get on this...