an unexpected discovery

I’m having a bad day today. I have a cold and am just feeling discouraged. Solvi is sick too, in the way she often is: coughing and sneezing, but totally chipper. She’s been home with me today, so naturally I started taking pictures of her and her activities. Wouldn’t you know, a theme started to emerge.

Then alas, Mom-duty called and I put down my camera to do the laundry. But look what I found amongst the dirty clothes! I don’t know how it got there. But I think, just perhaps, the universal is trying to tell me something.

pink heart dress

pink heart tea party

Can you find the pink heart here? (It’s near the thumb of the mitten.)

Lest you think I don’t practice what I preach, I do. Most of the time…. But my cottage is a beautiful place and because of this, I do sometimes find myself falling into the pit of perfection that I’m always cautioning against. For instance it drives me bonkers when my husband leaves his basic black backpack out in the bedroom. It’s not that bad, it just offends the whole zen aurora of this space.

But this year, blogging plus motherhood has meant that it is impossible to keep up with repairs as well as a regular cleaning regime. As a result I’m not only coming to live with, but actually discovering the beauty of my summer home in its imperfect state.

Take the photo above for example. A few mornings ago, I looked at my sink and loved the picture I saw there. But before I got my camera, my first instinct was to remove the rubber glove, because it’s just a cheap, ugly thing. (I used to have nice “designy” ones, but they recently died. So I just grabbed these at the grocery store.) But then I saw the glove not just for what it was, but in terms of how it contributed to the whole. It actually makes the composition! The corn color is great with the yellow sink, and I love the way the finger is pointing at the drip. It adds humor, life!

Now the drip itself is another story. Of course, I called the plumber to fix it, only to find out that they no longer make any parts for my old faucet, so I would need to replace the whole thing. NOT A CHANCE! The faucet is half the character of my sink. So I have to live with the drip. (Enviro’s out there, don’t worry. If I flip the little handle by the spigot, I can get it to stop. It’s a pain to always remember to do this, but I do.)

When I looked at this photo, I saw in it some important life lessons. Sometimes you have to live with the drips in order to achieve a greater good. At times the nicks and dings and things that are not quite right actually add character and depth. And every once in a while letting go means letting new experiences in. (But no, my husband still can’t keep his backpack in the bedroom.)

Some more inspiring bits of imperfections noticed of late:

The kids love to hide in the laundry basket and at this point have pretty much destroyed it. Next year I’ll get a new one, but for now I love the way it looks with my daughter’s not so carefully stowed pjs.

As if anticipating today’s project, the roses in my bathroom just dropped their petals. There is something quite exquisite about this state of delicate decay.

Hi Friends,

Next week, my family and I will be on an island with little to no internet service, so I will be taking a true vacation.

Please look for me again on Aug. 23rd.

Thanks!

Justine

Although I explained it a while back, new readers might not fully grasp why I feel so compelled to document my children’s delightful “design droppings” in Kid Serendipity. So I thought I’d give you a visual.

Above is my childrens’ usual contribution to home decor. More like “home destroy.” Ok, I exaggerate a little. While this is an actual photo taken of my son’s room last week, it does depict an abnormally cataclysmic event in which he climbed up on his bureau and toppled it. But it’s not that far off base. So when my kids do do something more towards the charming end of kid spectrum, it’s cause to celebrate.

But this photo also brings up a larger, more important point. Although I love to look at, document, and think about beautiful things, I am in no way advocating for some unsustainable ideal of perfection. I’m not saying that your house should always be neat and tidy and sanitized and well-designed and that you should always have cookies in the oven and fresh flowers on the bedside table. (God, I hope you don’t think I’m saying that! I certainly don’t want to put that kind of pressure on you.) As it says on my side bar there, I prefer personality over perfection. A philosophy no doubt born of the fact that I would rather blog about a neat house than actually clean my own!

But I do know that when I am in a beautiful place – the beach, a cathedral, a considered home – I feel much more centered and calm. So it is my wish that, for you as it is for me, Designskool may be a bit of a sanctuary – a place of balance and peace – away from the daily clutter. And I hope that, maybe, just maybe, I can help you find some beauty hidden in the mess.

tiny bouquet that my son picked for me last fall

Ahhhh. That’s better.

The birth of my son was one of the greatest joys of my life. But truth be told there was one aspect of motherhood that I anticipated with about as much enthusiasm as a root canal: not diapers, not potty training – no, it was the dreaded macaroni necklace! Just what does one do with all that horrible, edible jewelry?! But of course I would never want to crush my son’s creative spirit. So upon receipt of my first pasta pendant, I mustered as much fake enthusiasm as I could (which is a lot, I am a mother after all!), and prominently displayed it on the bedroom mirror.

Then another arrived. Then another. And then something happened. I noticed that all together, the noodle necklaces actually looked good! They’re quite complementary and rather jolly. They add a nice splash of color to that side of the room and balance the composition of artifacts around the mirror. Of course it helps that my son serendipitously chose good colors. Could it be that he managed to channel some of my design sense in utero?

So once again, my son has taught me a lesson in design: not to be so hasty in my dismissals. To consider a little craft in my high design. And, OK, not to be such a damn snob! But most importantly, I learned that sometimes it’s OK to put things of sentimental value out on display, even if you think they’re tacky. Because they are part of who you are. And you never know, they might surprise you.

Now I just can’t wait for the next step: macaroni landscapes!

I’ve never liked the color of my neighbor’s house. In most lights it’s just a cold, flat, kinda deadly blue. But today I looked out the window and saw how something about the light of a snow day transformed it into a rich indigo. I saw how that now lively hue perfectly offset the falling snow, how the gold tones of the dead branches beneath added their own warmth to the scene, and how if I framed it just right with my camera, the whole thing might actually be charming. For the first time I came to appreciate that color, just a bit.

It’s a great lesson in design and, if I may wax philosophical for a moment, life. From now on I will look at things I dismissed as hopeless just a little longer, in another light, to see if I can bring out the life in something I had long considered dead.