To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. Mary Oliver

 

Time to take a look at my best finds for the month just past.  I love to do this as it slows me down and helps me take notice. These days roll on by so fast – I think we can all do with some slowing down and taking notice.

This month I’m linking up with Emily P Freeman and her What I Learned this Summer (or Winter) Link Up  and a few other lovely links ups – see below.

A good mix of house shaped and heart shaped finds this time round  – heres my best five finds for August with some random thoughts thrown in for good measure

1. By The Roadside

If you’ve read here for a while you’ll know  I tend to find a lot of my “interior decor”  by the road. Now ask anyone who does this too and they’ll tell you – the benefits are many. The risks are few.

• there are no store opening and closing hours to contend with
• no snooty staff telling you not to test drive the furniture
• no price tags,
• no dodgy return policies
• no credit card debt
• no eating toast for a week because you blew the budget.

I call it a no risk shopping experience and you never do know just what you might find. The only tools required are a sense of adventure, not caring what people might think and maybe a pair of gloves and a torch if its a late night find.

Anyhoo  this month was no different. So, at the risk of you thinking every item in my house is a road side find – its not – I’ve another to share with you. This one I’m calling “the sun lounge”

Found  by Ethan and myself  not far from home it looked just about new and passed the sniff test with flying colours. This you must do as you want no nasty surprises once your home – so yes that’s probably one risk of road side shopping.

So Ethan claimed it for his room for a good while but he’s done a spot of reorganising of late and I found sun lounge stranded in the hallway.  Now these winter mornings I have the most beautiful sun streaming in my bed room window and do I love a spot of winter sun.  So with only the smallest amount of effort and a few things thrown the way of the charity store (see below) I made room for it right below my window with all that sun streaming in. I read here, I eat breakfast here, and after a quick wash I’m able to gaze out the window here.

It also motivated me to give the whole room a spring clean and to change out the ripped  flyscreens on the window – so all in all a good result. And here’s one of those random thoughts I promised.

Now and then your reminded of some wisdom you already know but have kind of forgotten. This was one. I was reminded ever so sweetly that when  I stop and sit still for more than two minutes the kids somehow sense it and will come find me and just hang out for a bit. It’s like I’m a captive audience and they make the most of it. They sit and talk or read (Olivia) or show me something  funny on instagram (Ethan) or tell me a story from school that I never would have heard otherwise (both). Stopping and sitting for a bit – its not lazy or a waste of time – which is often what we think isn’t it? Lets go with this instead – it’s good work, its life saving –   and hearing those secrets and finding out what’s making them laugh – holy ground.

2. Other “Decorative” Finds

This huge basket.

Isn’t she beautiful. This one I found on top of a skip bin (which I think is called a dumpster in other parts of the world)  Notice I said ON TOP OF – I didn’t go diving through it.   She was sitting right up top and just waiting for me to take her home. She’s a no fuss, versatile and sturdy kind of an item and she fits right in around  here.

And this thing – not sure what to call it, a drum, a barrel, a bucket, a tub ? – whatever it is I found it at the Salvation Army shop for Ethans room.

Its a place to stand his baseball bat, cricket bat, random flags on sticks and his pretend rifle holder – all essentials apparently that are usually scattered across the floor. The miracle is – he LOVES it, he’s  using it and I’m not tripping head over turkey everytime I walk in his room  any more.

3. Online

This website

Be More with Less 

The best way to enjoy your favourite things is to only own your favourite things. bemorewithless.com

And this post in particular

DeCluttering Burst – Let go of 100 things in less than an hour

As you may know, as much as I love a good find I’m also heart set on letting go of all the things that have made there way in to my house that are no longer earning their keep.

This post took that up a notch.

Now I wasn’t going to recommend it without trying it myself. Of course I can’t do anything for one hour solid so I broke it into six lots of 10 minutes each. That means getting rid of approx 17 items each 10 minutes.

This was so easy to do it was scary.  I did two lots of 10 minutes in my bedroom in a flash and stopped counting each time after 17 items.  What I mostly got rid of was from deep in the bowels of my built in closet. Amazing what you can find in your everyday variety bedroom cubby. (See No: 4 below )  I had quite the stash – an amazing number of photo frames totally forgot I had and most of which I didn’t want, shoes I no longer wear,  forgotten clothes, bags, books you name it.

Letting go – oh its good for the soul. But a thing I’ve learnt about decluttering is this – for a long time, a LONG time!!  you feel like your getting nowhere. It’s like you’ve hardly touched the sides and every where you turn theres more stuff. BUT if you keep at it slow and consistently and with the occasional ruthless onslaught like this – one day you find you’ve turned a corner.  The results become clearly visible and you actually start to enjoy the space and lightness you’ve created.  I think I might be just turning that corner now.

100 less things in under an hour  – I can highly recommend it.

4.  In My Bedroom Cupboard

Yes same cubby as mentioned above. Amazingly I found some things in there that I didn’t want to throw away. Found a stash of  frames and wall hangy type things  – my yellow door knob, some wall hooks, the green frame with Ethans foot print in, a yellow patterned frame  – all things I’d put away for safe keeping for lack of a spot to hang them. I thought they would all go together on one fabulous gallery wall but things rarely go to to plan round here.  So some ended up here  on my bedroom wall.

 

And some here

I’m calling it the smallest gallery wall ever and I’ll share some more pics and fill you in on finally getting it and a few other projects finished in my next post. Let’s just say I do all things under this proviso.

5.  On Instagram

@ernsthale

This is just the prettiest Instagram feed. A simple  cosy cottage feel – it’s like a wee doll house with lots of soft muted colours. Take a peek.

So that’s my best finds for August so I’ll leave you with this beautiful Instagram post from Edie at @lifeingrace

In other words – do your thing, whatever it is, whatever it takes or we all miss out.

Your turn. Any finds your way? Would love to hear

Lv Tracey xx

Linking up with #porch stories and Chasing Community

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