Coffee Chat: Romancing Your Life

 

Hello, dears.  I thought I'd pop in this afternoon and chat at you all for a little bit.  Come in and have coffee with me.  There's Chocolate Raspberry cake to have too, if you'd like.  It was a happy experiment I made when I thought to make that.   But I'd like to try it in future with white cake.  It would make a lovely summer cake.

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?  I know many people don't bother with it in any way.  I typically get a box of chocolates for half price on the day after but not even that this year.  Oh it might happen tomorrow....if there's any to be had by that point.  Life goes on and I can't tell you I'm even a tiny bit disappointed.   Taylor made me a pretty Valentine picture on Sunday.  

I used my pretty rose china on the table and red placemats with red and white stripe napkins.   It was a pretty table and I lit the candles which pleased Taylor.  The candlelight was helpful.  It was another dark, dreary rainy day which we've had plenty of here in February.

The current talk from influencers and authors and such is that of romancing our lives.  Have you heard anyone speak on the matter?

I ran into it first with a vlogger called Darling Desi that I've only recently started following.  She is a lovely young girl, a bit Anne Shirley-ish in my opinion, and she loves the same books I do.   She talked yesterday about becoming a character in her own life.    She mentioned several podcasts and such that she'd listened to...Obviously I didn't take notes or I'd have them to share with you.  I will link to her vlog post here.

The gist of what she shared is that you spend your days becoming a character in your own life from one of your favorite books.  Not pretending necessarily that you are that character, though you might, but living your life in the way that they did and taking the ordinary things of life and responding to and enjoying them.  Not to live a fictional life but to remember to seek out  the wonder and awe of a life lived fully and well.   Not to avoid your responsibilities but to look for the moments in every day when you  appreciate the day you have.  It's about looking at the things you love and acknowledging them every day.

The idea of this is not entirely new to me.  Put it a little differently and you have in basis, what both Tracey McBride wrote of in Frugal Luxuries, and Sarah ban Breathnach promoted in her book Simple Abundance.  Both of them spoke to something deep within me,  back in the middle 1990s when I was reading their books, something that wanted a life that has evolved slowly over these last 25 years.   

Brandi of The Prudent Homemaker, Annabelle of The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm, J.E.S. of Strangers and Pilgrims On Earth, and Angela of Parisienne Farmgirl have dedicated themselves to romancing their own lives for the benefit of their families and themselves.  The things they do on a daily basis in their home is not only practical but lovely.  They take time to put those extra touches on things.   Who needs to have an all white garden in the middle of the desert?  Who needs a rosebud atop a meat pie?  Or lovely labels to go on their pantry jars?    Or to renovate a modern day house into a country French home?    As it happens,  these women do.  They know that these were things that they need in order to romance their lives.

Donna Davis was inspired by 1950s videos, magazines and books.  She embarked on a long experiment of living as though she actually lived in the 1950's.  She dressed the part.  She furnished her home with things that she might have had in the 1950s.   She patterned her days after a 1950s housewife.  She blogged about it and it was fascinating.  She's since returned to her first love, which is painting, but she still dresses in anything from Edwardian styles to  the1950s fashions she once handmade for her 1950s life.

What feeds your soul?  What speaks beauty to you?  What does a 'dream life' look like to you?  Which book character would you most like to be?  I always fancied myself a cross between Anne Shirley (I have her vanity) and Jo March.  But then as I've gotten older, I haven't identified so strongly with either.   

What subjects fascinate you and lead you to study deeply?   We are so blessed in this age because at present we can access so much information on our computers or phones.  There are books abounding and they are affordable in used book stores or even available free from web based libraries.   Good music is easily available.  We can watch opera or ballet at the click of a mouse!   And we're not limited by budget in this matter but only by how well internet works at your location.  

If I'm honest, getting internet is one place where we've spent a lot of money in our past.  What I spent on internet alone would have bought some lovely furniture and a great many good books.  But internet meant access to a world of information and inspiration that I mightn't have had otherwise except through the loan of library books if they could access them through interlibrary lawns.  It meant learning things I might never have learned and experiencing things I might never have experienced.

We don't have to call it romancing our lives necessarily.   but you've likely drawn your inspiration from literature or a movie at some point.   The vlogger Girl in Calico for instance,  lives a very homespun sort of life.  Yes, they have modern conveniences but they limit the usage of them to some extent and they dress and eat in a manner that lends to their desired lifestyle.  They've chosen to 'dress up' to look like they are from an era they admire.   The life they lead is revealed in what they do and in the principles they live by.

My ideal is an English country life.  What does that look like to me?   It's filled with nature walks and lovely flowers in the yard and natural woods and jewel tone colors indoors.   In the winter months it looks like tapestry and needlepoint cushions and velvet curtains.  It's china and gallery walls of pictures.  I dress mostly in jeans and tailored looking shirts.  I'm just missing the Wellies since we're seldom as wet as we are right now.   And the mass of flowers outdoors.  But that is something I am working on.   I have plans to further romance my life.

The lovely thing is that we aren't locked into anything.  We can change our dreams and reshape our life to a new romance!   Sarah ban Breathnach's first book Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, was based on her love of Victoriana. At the time, she and her daughter both wore Laura Ashley style dresses. She realized after a few years that she wasn't that woman any longer, so she changed her style.  I was all about farmhouse style for a long while and then realized that I was actually buying to suit the English Country Cottage looks that I kept buying decor books about.

I know this is shorter than a typical coffee chat but it has inspired me to re-examine what my dream life looks like now and correct my course in some areas of my life.   I've lost my way so to speak and gotten distracted from what I want my life to  portray.  I'll be pulling out my English country decorating books next month when I'm not looking at the frugal side of life.  But I can take time now to figure out how to make that flower garden in the most frugal manner, can't I?

If you'd like to look at some of the people I've mentioned, check out the links within this post.  And share with us what your romantic life looks like.