CAN WE DESIGN OUR OWN LIVES? — INTROS/TEASERS: BLUE JEANS & COFFEE BEANS — FEB. 12

 

 

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today’s featured book is Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans, by Joanne DeMaio.

 

Intro:  Long Island Sound’s lazy breaking waves chase her back onto the sand.  She watches them carefully, believing they are truly after her.  Upon the waves’ retreat, her little legs dare to step back toward them, never to  quite within their reach, while never far from her mother’s reach, either.  She is only a toddler, the girl in the blue and white ruffled bathing suit, her light brown hair falling with a salty fluff to just below her tanned shoulders.  The last of an ice cream bar clings to its stick, melting slowly and dripping on her toes.

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Teaser:  Eva fills the coffee pot with water and measures in the scoops of coffee.  The house is still, so still, now that the guys left.  It’s that same kind of stillness that falls upon a steamy, humid summer day, the kind that makes you alert, that draws attention to something happening that you can’t really see yet. (p. 79).

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Goodreads Description:  After years of pursuing a denim design career, Maris Carrington never imagined trading her Chicago studio for a New England shingled cottage. But a forgotten home movie tucked inside a dusty attic box leads to an unexpected summer … One of uncovering family secrets while settling her father’s estate, one of inheriting a forlorn German Shepherd, one of reconnecting with old friends on a weathered boardwalk, beneath starlit skies on a beach nestled in a crook of the Connecticut coast.

Her design career had become a shell, curving around her like the intricate whorls of a conch, shielding her until now. Until fried clam dinners and carousel rides beckon a lost love. But can Maris ever really go back? Can these beach friends ever be who they were to each other all those summers ago? Now one of her circle is dead; another unemployed and struggling in a tenuous marriage; another regretting a fateful decision; while one is missing a mother, ever seeking a connection she longs for….

To the backdrop of seaside cottages and a boarded up beach hangout, to the soundtrack of whispering lagoon grasses and a vintage jukebox, Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans asks if we can really design our own lives, or if our fate lies somewhere in the stars.

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What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

PLEASURES GALORE: BEADS & HO, HO, HO! — NOV. 23

 

 

I found this on Pinterest today.  I LOVE it!

If you’ve been reading any of my blog posts lately, you know that I’m endlessly fascinated by “beaded curtains.”   But this one in the bathroom, with plants…well, awesome!

 

My Newest Beaded Curtain

 

Beaded Curtains of the Past

 

 

But even though I’m obsessed with beads lately, I am also enjoying renewing my love of Christmas-y stuff.  Yesterday, after filling up on turkey and pumpkin pie, I thought I’d pull out the Christmas bins from the garage.

Here are a few old favorites arranged in new ways.

I want to enjoy my coffee here!

 

Bill Paying will be Fun Here! Old Favorite Sleigh from the 1980s.

 

Friends on the Hearth

And when I curl up to read or watch TV, I love looking at these old friends, like the Nutcrackers, the wreath, and my third miniature tree.  This tree is minimally “dressed” with only a few pine cones.  Of course, Fantasia Mickey remains through the holidays and beyond.

What are you enjoying this season?  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and look forward to a blissful Christmas.

 

 

FINDING PLEASURE IN THE WHIMSICAL: IS IT SOMETHING TO FEEL GUILTY ABOUT? — NOV. 6

 

 

Sometimes when we think about “guilty pleasures,” what we really mean is that there are things we love to do, and places we want to go…but we worry that we don’t deserve them, for whatever reason.  Hence the “guilty” aspect of the experience.

So if something truly makes us feel good, we are too quick to toss it under a label called “guilty pleasure.”

Earlier today, I finished reading a book by Gretchen Rubin, who wrote The Happiness Project.  I loved and raved about that one when I read it a couple of years ago.  And today’s book, Happier at Home (click link for my review) recalled the experience of delving into the subject of happiness.

 

 

In reading this book, I found interesting thoughts about happiness that tilted my perspective a bit.

I enjoyed this passage:

“My home was a reflection of myself, so the work I did to make my home more homey was actually an extended exercise in self-knowledge. To be more at home at home, I had to know myself, and face myself. This was the way to true simplicity: to be myself, free from affectation, posturing, or defensiveness.”

If my quest for happiness is really about self-knowledge, then why would it be something I should feel guilty about?  If I’m happier, and my home is a happier place, then those in my life also benefit.  It isn’t really a selfish pursuit, then, and I can feel good about it.

Lately I’ve been reconfiguring my space.  These efforts may seem trivial, or even whimsical.  And perhaps they are, to a certain extent.  But when I change my surroundings and enjoy what I’ve done, then others who enter my home can also feel good.  At home, even.

Earlier I wrote a post about some of these experiences:  MY MANY JOURNEYS:  RECONFIGURING, RELOCATING, & PONDERING.

It has been a week of these kinds of pursuits.  On Thursday, I waited all day for the Fed Ex delivery of my beaded curtain…a blast from the past, and a reminder of a time of tie-dye and butterflies.

Here’s the curtain hanging over the doorway leading into my bedroom.

Do you ever question the pleasures you take in whimsical, quirky objects or events?  Do you ask yourself if your feelings are silly?  If so, perhaps you, as I have, should take another  look.

GUILTY PLEASURES CAN BE NECESSITIES: WAITING ON “THE THINGS THAT MATTER” — OCT. 3

Welcome to one of the more pleasurable bookish events of the week; Waiting on Wednesdays, hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine, is our chance to drool about the delicious books we’re awaiting.

I love all things stylish and beautiful, and I’m a bit obsessed with feathering my nest.  Hence my home is filled with books with glossy pages (as well as all the other kinds of books I read).

Today’s feature is from that Maven of Style, Nate Berkus, whose book The Things That Matter will be released on October 16.  Yay!  Not long to wait.

 

Does your home tell the story of who you are?

In The Things That Matter, Nate Berkus shares intimate stories from his life, introduces us to people who influenced him and helped him forge his sense of style, and opens up about the remarkable experiences that have left him forever changed, all of which find expression in how he lives today. From his most cherished flea market finds, to his beloved books and photos, to the many extraordinary mementos he’s collected in his travels, every piece defines who he’s become and what endures in his world.

Berkus invites readers into his own home as well as into twelve others, including a sleek steel-and-glass high-rise that soars above Chicago, a rustic cottage in the Hudson Valley, an ultra-chic atelier that maximizes every inch of space, a Greenwich Village townhouse that holds multiple art collections, and a study in meaningful minimalism in Marfa, Texas. The distinctive interiors beautifully displayed in this book offer revealing portraits of their owners’ lives and the inspiring choices that have made them who they are today.
 
The Things That Matter convincingly lays out Nate Berkus’s philosophy that things do matter. Our homes tell our stories, they reflect the places we’ve been and the people we’ve loved along the way—and there can be no more beautiful design for living than that.

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I can’t wait!  And I’m featuring this book on my “guilty pleasures” blog because I love to showcase the beautiful things I love.  Now I’m off to see what you’re awaiting.

GUILTY PLEASURES: AN OLD HOTEL, A LIVE-IN GHOST, & ROMANCE — A REVIEW

The Montgomery brothers are renovating an old historic hotel in Boonsboro, Maryland, and when it is finished, a gorgeous Bed and Breakfast Inn will stand in its place.

The opening chapters of this beautifully descriptive tale also show us other residents of the small town, like Clare Brewster, the bookstore owner who has returned home with her three sons after the death of her husband.

Beckett Montgomery has had a huge crush on Clare since they were teenagers. Watching the attraction between them develop is a large part of the fun of The Next Always: Book One of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy. I also enjoyed seeing the small-town unity of other characters, like Avery, a friend of Clare’s from way back. Reading about the family that surrounds the primary characters is a bonus, adding to the feel-good nature of the book.

I am a big fan of interior design, and I was thoroughly engaged by how the author brought the reader along, showing each stage of the renovation, and then finally, bringing its beauty to light for us to enjoy.

Other characters in this book, the first in a trilogy, include a ghost named Lizzy…and a darkly malevolent presence of the human kind.

Roberts has a gift for bringing the reader into the lives of these very real and down to earth characters; and showing us the romance as it comes alive is a breathtaking side effect of this story.

This one earned five stars from me. I’m eager for the next book!