Little Things Mean a Lot

I think sometimes we underestimate the little things.  Little things can add up to big things, and, I don't know about you, but sometimes I am so paralyzed by a need for big change that I forget the power of baby steps.

This weekend for me was one of great little things and glorious baby steps.

On Friday morning I went to my friend Hope's house, Starbucks in hand, (a great little thing!) to talk about a plan for her living room.  Hope is a good friend with good taste, and I'm honored that she has hired me to help her create a living room that feels more in line with her personal style.  I'll blog about our adventures over the next few months, as Hope has elected to execute the plan in real time, on a real budget.  (I so appreciate this, as most of us cannot realistically change a whole room overnight!)

Hope's hope (I'm lame; I know) is that her room will breathe more, feel more casual, and invite people to come in, put their feet up, and enjoy a glass of iced tea (metaphorically speaking, although I'm sure she'd be happy to make some... Just be prepared to drink it out of a kiddy cup as she is a mom of FOUR young boys!!).

Hope loves blue, green, and yellow and adores spring, so we are going to make her family room feel like spring, year 'round.  Currently the seasons are colliding in a bit in her house, so we'll try to remedy that, one baby step at a time.

While I was at Hope's house we talked about our big-picture plan, we shopped the house a little, and we moved around some furniture.  She had already taken it upon herself to switch out a few things and spray paint some picture frames, and all of these free changes (free minus the cost of some spray paint) have already had a great impact!  Check this out:

Before:

After:

The mantel is not done (yes, I'm fully aware that the clock on the left is the wrong size and scale), but we just moved a few things from other parts of the house to see what we needed to do to achieve a different look.  Check out what a difference it made!  I can't wait to show you more as we progress!

And now I will transition from a beautiful room to a beautiful plate of food.  Is this not a work of art?

On Friday night I took another baby step: I tried sushi!  have to tell you, I'm not a seafood person and I don't do raw anything except fruits and vegetables, so this was a stretch for me.  However, of the eight of us who went out, four were experienced sushi eaters, and they assured me that I could have cooked food that wouldn't taste fishy.  (I gave them some major trust, my friends.)

Surprisingly, almost everything I ate was really quite good!  I only ate one thing that was fishy tasting, and that was a smoked salmon roll.  That one did not make me so happy.  Everything else was pretty yummy, especially the pieces that were fried or had cream cheese in them.  (Who knew that sushi could be fried or include cream cheese??!!)  I never tried anything raw, but one thing at a time, right?

After dinner our friends came over for dessert and games, and it was so fun!  A few dollars spent on a babysitter and dinner was totally worth the soul-quenching laughter and joy after a very long and difficult week.  I am thankful that we are beginning to connect more with people who know how to have fun and also run deep.  Those aren't the kinds of people you meet every day, and I am grateful for them.

 

Here is a picture of my friend Janna trying her own first bite of sushi!

What little things have brought you a lot of joy recently?