Kelle, Author at Enjoying the Small Things

Baby, It’s Cold Outside…but warm in Ikea

November 6, 2010 By Kelle

Wow. That’s all I can say on the response on the last post. It was really good for me to write that but even more to read your comments. There is a lot of pain–a lot of people going through finance problems and sicknesses and losses and deep hurts. But, there is so much color to balance it, and it was powerful to read about both. Thank you for your kind words.

I am doing well and am very accepting of the fact that we don’t know the future. That alone fuels me to change the future–to believe that great things will happen for our child and for others like her. And it is good for me to go there sometimes–to know that reality can be harsh. I take myself as far as I can go every once and awhile, like pushing a bruise and wincing from the pain. I come out stronger and go there less. But, thank you either way for so many encouraging words.

And kudos to everyone who spelled color colour…’cuz Lord knows I love a good “u.”

And with all that said, I’m on a total high right now.

Dude, it’s cold.

Forecast calls for a low of 48 tonight, and I couldn’t be happier. The sweaters are out, the hats are unleashed, the new quilt is currently tucked around a fleecy jammied baby. And we are loving it.

She totally knows what to do with chalk. She colours with it…swear.

And while that cold sends me into a creative frenzy planning Christmas crafts and preparing for holidays, it also commences this cozy calm in our home. Tonight, we had our first fire of the season, and it was delicious.

I’m painting the bathroom this weekend. After my first trip to Ikea ever today, I’m inspired. That place is nuts.

I have some pretty far-fetched ideas for the bathroom, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they’ll work out. We can’t afford to do a real bathroom make-over as far as gutting the shower and ditching the gold fixtures and such, so I’m cheating like crazy to incorporate it all in a funky way with paint and some new textiles and such to hold us over. I love the challenge…more to come.

Ikea’s on the East coast, so we did our jaunt across the Everglades today and stopped to scout some gators. They freak me out in the alligator-nightmares-once-a-month kind of way. We found none, thankfully, but we did enjoy some crazy wind.

The weekend calls!

Lainey’s favorite barrettes right now from Lil Junebug Boutique, our new sponsor. Right now, you get a free hair clip for every $5 you spend. Check it.

And, the Bib Set Giveaway winner goes to:
Commenter #284, Misty: My gray is this morning sickness that is still lingering. This too shall pass. My color is the most gorgeous golden hues in the leaves of the Cottonwoods reflecting off the water of the Rio Grande River. Cutest bibs ever!!!

Misty, send your info on over to kellehamptonblog@comcast.net, and some bibs will land your way.

Finally, I want to thank you again for your comments, your support, and your readership. It really is a two-way street. I am continually inspired by all of you and am so happy to do this high-on-life-and-writing-about-it thing joined by others who share the same enthusiasm. With that said, I’m so excited to share that Enjoying the Small Things made Babble’s Top 50 Mom Blogs list and made #7 for Best Design. You all play a big part in these successes, so cheers to you and cheers to anyone who wants to grab life by the horns and ride it into the sunset.

I’ll lead the way.

Happy Weekending, Friends.

Grays and Colors

November 3, 2010 By Kelle

I am an eternal optimist, but I like to think, as a good persuasive argument paying recognition to an antithesis confirms even more the intended point, my optimistic philosophy is likewise strengthened when I give room for what can sometimes be a disheartening reality. I try to balance my self-reflection somewhere between laziness and annoying hyperstimulation, so I hope this comes out as I intend…somewhere in the comfortable waters of “I’m treading, I’m figuring this out, I’m doing what works for me.”

I see the good and talk about the good and my outlook fits me like a well-tailored suit, allowing me to use my strengths and yet paving the way for growth from the not-so-pretty times. Likewise, I know and love and respect others with different philosophies and have had discerning moments of clarity from their sometimes more dismal perspectives. Because sometimes life is hard and reality does suck and ignoring that fact does not give room for the progress and production that can come from those moments.

While progress comes most naturally for me from expressing gratitude and painting strokes of vibrant color where I can, when more painful moments come–and they do–I want to pay appropriate attention to what they can teach me. Sometimes when anxiety or discomfort or that throat-constricting sadness arrives, I want to heave it along like a hot potato that doesn’t belong amongst the yellows and ceruleans I aim to create. But gray has a beauty all in its own. Gray is purposeful too, and while I may instinctively attempt to quickly fold it and stash it away, I am learning to first run my hands along its threads and find the beauty in cold and calm as well as warm and spirited.

With that unnecessarily long disclaimer, I think it is only fair I pull out the gray I folded up earlier this week and let it have its moment too.

My dad tried to keep it from me, but he finally felt he needed to share a rough week he had at work last week. He spent every day visiting a 50-year-old woman who had come to the hospital from a group home, and her health slowly deteriorated until she died on Friday. She was alone and incoherent. She had Down syndrome. My dad said he spent an inordinate amount of time with her. She became a favorite and he spent many hours sitting with her, talking with her, even though she did not understand. He gave her a stuffed animal. But still, she was only 50. Alone, unresponsive, and she did not make it.

And here’s the deal. Life expectancy still scares the hell out of me. I know things have changed and individuals with Down syndrome are living much longer now. I am hopeful, and today is really all that matters–and today is good–but somewhere there is a part of us that hopes every day that, no matter what, our kids will outlive us. It’s a parent’s greatest unwritten plea. And knowing that I have scientific data that increases the likelihood that I will hold her hand before she holds mine made me really, really sad this past weekend.

I held the hot potato, I felt the burns, I cried and used it to fuel me. I am at peace now and am grateful for our very beautiful right now. I will not dwell on tomorrow, for it is unknown and filled with voids. Today is quite the contrary. Today is good. And I write not for sympathy or to ignite a discussion of optimism vs. pessimism but simply to slap a valid antithesis among “enjoying the small things.” It makes the small things even better.

Which is why I’m completely geeked about my spontaneous decision to redo my bathroom this weekend on a very tight budget. The challenge thrills me. And while I actually considered painting the walls a languid gray–because gray is good too–I have settled for a vibrant, crazy aubergine. To thine own self be true.

Life is sometimes hard. Reality sometimes sucks. But most of the time? Most of the time, it’s amazing.

Like these wicked cute reversible bibs? Brooklyn Bib Shop is giving away a quilted bib/burp cloth set to a random commenter on today’s post. But wait…

With the yin and yang of discomfort and joy, I want to know more. While I’ve made peace with my gray this week and am finding joy in a can of Inkberry #73RB, tell me briefly…what’s your “gray” this week, be it large or small…and what little happy is bringing you color?

Randomness

November 2, 2010 By Kelle

A few randoms…

A: Ingenuity is running out of diapers and thus rigging up a kitchen towel, some safety pins and a hotel shower cap with two leg holes cut out of it. I’m just sayin’.

B: Happy Lake Evening last night.

C: Babies in capes on really cool quilts.

Our favorite capes, courtesy of Pip & Bean (renewed sponsor, yay!…and we love them and all the imagination they encourage). And quilt, to answer all the questions, is homemade purchased from Ebay after a year-long search for the perfect one. I love everything about it…it’s worn, it’s random, it speaks to me. It’s up there with my red cowboy boots and my camera and my grandma’s old spoons on the things-in-my-home-that-I-love.

D: Photos displayed in the home.

And for a snippet of how we display photos inexpensively in the girls’ room, come check out one of my favorite websites, Ohdeedoh. (and we cheated on the gallery canvases…they are really just 20×20 prints that I spray mounted with photo-safe adhesive onto 20 x 20 canvases I picked up at Joann’s–a two-pack for $15).

Check it HERE.