Details.

I have a thing for details.

They are the reason that you love a book, but are disappointed by the movie.
They're the bits that make something stand out.
They're the little pieces that compose a whole thing, changing it from something basic, to something magical.

When you're putting together a jigsaw puzzle, you start by seeing the big picture. You dump out the pieces and you try to group the edges together to get your basic shape (Or at least that's the way I do it). Once you get that put together, you start taking the little pieces to see where they fit, eventually bringing the whole picture into view. Sometimes you're surprised as you look closely at the pieces. Sometimes as you're grouping things together, you put things in the wrong place.

When you're getting to know someone, you're filling in the little details piece by piece. As you learn things about them, you find out what puzzle pieces are part of them, and sometimes you're surprised to find out as you piece them together that the part that you thought was murky blue water was actually a part of the sunny blue sky. It's always interesting to see what the details reveal to us as we piece them together.

I think too often we (myself very much included) look too much at the big picture and don't bother ourselves with the details. We need to realize that everyone is a complex, detailed, and beautiful person.

And I also think we should take more time to stop and see the complex, detailed, and beautiful world that we all live in.

I think we'll all be surprised about the wonderful things we find.

 

flowers and pictures

We went on an adventure with my husband's family to take family pictures today. I really enjoy spending time with his family, especially all the cute children. I don't know how one family ended up with so many cute kids, but they hit the jackpot when it comes to adorable little chubby cheeked babies.


 

As we were wandering around, a few of them decided, like many kids do, that they wanted to pick some of the pretty flowers. I am definitely guilty of always wanting to do this too, so I don't blame them. But it reminded me of something.

 

Just the other day, I was thinking about a time that my little chubby cheeked self thought that it would be a good idea to pick my mom one of the pretty little flowers from Disneyland. I proudly presented it to her, and I remember the conversation that followed, about how it was really nice of me to pick a flower for her, but that if every kid that came to Disneyland were to pick a flower or two for their mom that there would be no flowers left for anyone to look at. I remember being mildly disappointed that we couldn't take some of those pretty flowers home with us.

 

So with that memory fresh in my mind, I handed my phone over to two of them to take a few blurry pictures of the flowers instead. Then we could still see how pretty they were and leave them behind for other people to look at too. I snapped a few myself too.

 

Beautiful things are meant to be enjoyed and shared.

 

 

today is a special occasion

I read something the other day that really spoke to me. I’m a little hesitant to share it because I’m trying to cut down on my conversations that start with “I saw this thing on (Insert Social Media)”, but I want to write it down somewhere so I can go back and read it. I know that if I leave it as a screen shot in my phone’s camera gallery it will eventually get mixed in with everything else and I’ll forget.

“I was always the girl that saved her favorite outfits for special days. The one that didn’t want to use the best things on an average occasion. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that the things I love most end up sitting on the shelf and eventually gotten rid of. Everyone loves the notion that we are only guaranteed this very moment and that nobody is actually even promised a tomorrow. While I agree, I would like to think more along the lines that we deserve the best things at every moment. Don’t save your best for a later time. Give all you have on average days just as you would the special ones.”

I’m so very guilty of this, as I’m sure many of us are. It inspired us to pull down the sparkling cider that’s been sitting on the top of our fridge since November, just waiting for the opportune moment. Well.. We decided to make now the opportune moment.
While sipping on our cider, I started thinking about the other things that I enjoy that I’ve put on my “shelf” and forgotten about.
I’m making it my goal to dust off the things I love and stop saving everything enjoyable for the future. Lately I seem to have forgotten that it’s okay to enjoy today. It’s okay to stop doing laundry and take time to do what makes you happy.

taking time to live life will only inspire your work

laundry, love, and possibilities.

The first jobs I ever remember wanting were a veterinarian and a writer. Now they've morphed into not knowing what I want to do, but the base of those is there. I still love animals and there's still a part of me that yearns to write.

There was once a time in my life where I thought in blog posts. In the year 2011, the blog posts on my public blog reached 141. And that was my neglected blog. I refuse to even look at the number of posts on my private blog because I often like to forget that it exists but I can tell you that I wrote out a blog post nearly every day.

Reading back through stuff, I generally make myself chuckle. 18 year old Toni thought it wise to document every little detail in her life and call it an adventure. 18 year old Toni was very guilty of what someone on 22 year old Toni's twitter feed said the other day. "Kids these days like to go to taco bell at 11 at night and call it an adventure". Those were my adventures. Now my life is much more boring. 22 year old Toni gets heartburn from taco bell and goes to bed at 10 pm most nights.

22 year old Toni and 18 year old Toni don't have a lot in common.

I still have a job, it's just a much more grown up job. Rather than spending my days taking peoples orders for food on a headset, I take people's orders for moving their money around on a headset... Not that different, I guess. But I get holidays and weekends off.

I have a husband. I don't think that 18 year old Toni would have even fathomed that 22 year old Toni would have been married for over a year and a half. That was a someday thing, not a "near future" thing. Especially since 18 year old Toni hadn't even officially met her husband yet. (I say officially because there are several situations where we could have met, but don't necessarily remember meeting.)

I have not one, but two dogs. Big dogs. I was a small dog person and my husband was a big dog person. He won and now we have two big wiggle bums. You'll be hearing more about them, I promise.

I cook dinner more than dessert. As the former queen of cake pops, I can tell you that after making thousands of cake pops for my wedding, I haven't made a single one since. Not one. I think I should change that.


I'm hoping to use this blog as an inspiration. The adventures I go on now are a bit different than they were when I was younger, but they're beautiful just the same. There's a lot more laundry involved in being an adult, but that doesn't mean that beautiful adventures don't hide themselves between the loads. I'm telling a different story now, so I'm starting on a blank page. That's what's nice about a new notebook or blog or house. It's a blank page.. A new beginning, if you will. And that's the great thing about blank pages and new beginnings. They're full of possibilities.