My conclusion on this topic is that I have rather an excellent life. I have the luxury of being able to afford a nice apartment in a nice part of town and even though it's not very big, it is a vast improvement over the matchbox that Tim and I had been living in previously. I have a car that is, more or less, in good repair. Within reason, I can afford my hobbies and I have some free time to pursue interests outside of my mostly-adequately paying job.
Now, there are some luxuries that are simply out of my reach: travel (for non-work-related purposes), specialty tools (I'm looking at you, spinning wheels), a meaningful amount in my savings account (well, I'm working on it, but it's slow-going), and God forbid anything ever happens to my car-- I am completely up a creek in that regard.
I have been thinking on the impossibility of owning a home in the foreseeable future with a twinge of sadness. In some regards, this hardly matters-- but the idea of having one's own home is just so compelling. No one could tell me that I couldn't paint the walls teal, for example, and I could live in a house with walls that are all different shades of teal.
Not that I necessary long for a teal-walled house, but you get the idea.
So I have been working on contenting myself with the things that I do have and ridding myself of those things that make me less than happy.
Which bring me to this:
I frogged my Hanging Leaves shawl. That last picture I showed you all of it was about as far as it ever went, give or take a few rows. Every row was profoundly boring agony and I've just no time or inclination for such a thing.
Instead, I cast on a Drift Shawl with the yarn I brought back from Montana. It's a gorgeous thing so far and although I have no doubt that I will have to block the ever-living heck out of it to get it to tolerable dimensions, I'm looking forward to wearing it.
The yarn is lovely, though it has some vegetable matter running through it and it appears to be rubbing some orange-red dye off on my hands and the inside of my project bag. I suppose as it is dyed with natural plant dyes and is, in fact, organic wool that I shouldn't be too worried about it, despite how disconcerting I find the leeching pigment.
This shawl will require a long soak once it's off the needles and probably a bit of a wash to rinse out the excess dye.
In the arena of "new things that are making me happy", Tim and I are bringing new, chlorophyll-based life into the world. Behold!
Tiny baby seed starts! With the help of a few friends of ours, we're starting a little vegetable and herb garden. It's quite exciting and given the amount of produce we go through, while it likely won't defray our cost of living, it'll certainly supplement the all important tasty-factor of our meals.
So that's what I've got-- getting rid of old things that I have not the mental fortitude to keep schlepping around with me and emphasizing those things that are good and best.
Also, tiny, baby vegetables. So there's that.
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