First day of Spring

 

Most people prefer Spring over all other seasons but not me. My favourites are Autumn and Winter but I do like the beginning of Spring with its fresh days and wonderful light. But I don't like when it goes near Summer, which is a season I don't like at all. That strong light gives me headaches and depresses me. 

But now it's the beginning of Spring. Such a delight. It makes me feel I want to acomplish things (I feel the same in the Autumn) and I make plans. I want to go outside, I who prefer being indors. I feel like gardening and I multiply my plants. I think of improving my home and myself.

I give thanks for all this. Blessed be God in His Angels and His Saints.

Picture: Getty Images via Livescience

Open space concept

Everybody knows, as I don't keep a secret of this, that I can't stand open space concept. At all. 

And I do like to see tv shows on updating houses and such, the problem is that the ones I can see all of them advocate that wretched concept and I find myself arguing with the television.

I can easily accept that the living and dining rooms are one only, even if I have separate rooms for each one, I could live in a mixed one. And that's all. To have the kitchen open to the living room is something impossible for me.

For the ones like me I must say you are not alone, I've been finding like minded people all over the internet.

Bring me walls, doors, windows and gates. Rooms. Privacy. 

What I feel in an open space is that I am in an exhibition fair or furniture sale, not a home.

For the ones like me I leave here some articles I found.

The Reason Why People Despise Open-Concept Homes

"While having everything out in the open is meant to promote inclusivity, people are finding that having an open-concept home really isn’t serving the purpose it was made for.

Numerous publications are starting to make the point that people just miss walls. The Boston Globe points out being in a large, open space doesn’t leave much room for privacy. Plus, it puts everything out in the open. Sure, it can be great for entertaining, but it also means having to clean one giant room before having guests over—kitchen included. The Atlantic even points out an architect who proposes homes to have a “messy” kitchen—one where the mess can live after preparing food for an event, while your real “kitchen” is the place where you host."

 

Are Open Concepts Really Falling Out of Favor?

"Open floor plans work only in a small percentage of homes. While the thought of light and airy sounds appealing, and is perfect for a coastal getaway or modernist space, the actual livability of limited privacy and no sound reduction can be extremely frustrating. Moreover, mechanically it doesn’t seem to work, and more than that, I find that aesthetically a home is more intriguing when you aren’t immediately exposed to the entire space. The discovery process from space to space is, and should be, exciting!"

 

Goodbye, Open Concepts—More People Putting Up Walls in Their Homes

“I think people have realized the importance of walls, finally! More frequently than ever do we see households with multiple family members working from home, so sound attenuation and separation of different spaces has become a more functional necessity.” As Hill points out, walls can also provide major benefits when it comes to designing a space, acting as an anchor for art, furniture, soft goods, and more. 

And some of us might just be realizing why dining rooms, dens, and offices were created in the first place. “Defined gathering spaces give us a sense of place for each of the living spaces”

Is the Open Floor Plan Really Dead

“Many families have seen that the open floor plan has advantages in the current way we live—a parent might be able to, for example, cook dinner and have a meeting or oversee their kid doing homework at the same time. But they also want to be able to close the door.”

Photo by Decorpad

Set that Goal

As it's the beginning of a new year, let's start well and take action on getting better. You can, you are able, don't give up. Feel that happiness bubbling in your stomach, dare to live well. And so you need to remember that

You are never too old to set another Goal 

or dream another Dream

-C.S. Lewis

and

It's never too late to be what you might have been

- George Eliot

So, let's do it, let's dare to fight for that dream. Have that goal. Plan it. 

1 - Write it

Don't worry about the size of the dream, dare to dream big, never mind if it's too big. Once I read something like that if you aim for the stars and you will not be able to reach them, even so maybe you will reach the moon. So, don't worry, try and if you don't reach so far you will be able to reach a good point, so never mind.

For instance, if you dream to run in the London marathon but if you find no way to do it, if you train for it at least you will be able to join a smaller marathon in your town or surroundings and, next year maybe you will join the London one.

This is just an idea, not that I want to run a marathon, I'm not very much sports inclined.

So, let's think of a different dream, more suitable to me.

For instance, you want to have all your house shipshape by the end of the year. Try it but if you can't reach that level, at least you will have some rooms that are a candy to the eye, tidy, clean and enriched with some pretty things. Well, it's not the whole house as you would like but it will be so good to have all those rooms done, or at least that ONE room. Step by step you will get there, year by year, you just have to not give up.

2 - Now write your dream as goals, one by one, never mind if you think it's too much, write them.

3 - So you wrote on the top of  a page the goal you want to achieve. Next you will write the several steps you need to take to reach that goal.

Let's say, you want to begin by prettying your bedroom. You write: 

1 - Clear the clutter on the floor

2 - take the clothes to wash

3 - hang the ones that are clean

4 - dust the bedside tables

5 - give the closet an improvement

And so on. 

4 - And now you will post a date. You will think on when you would like to have it done, let's say by the end of this year. Ok, it's possible, maybe.

5 - And after that you will have a space where you will write how things are getting done - and date it each time you write an improvement, or just a note about how things are going.

Let's say, by the end of this month you will write what you have done to reach your goal. Don't be discouraged, step by step things will improve, if it's not as much as you would like, never mind, just keep going, step by step.

You don't need to  have just one dream, have several.

I have a notebook, an exercise book, or the name you want to call it, written Dream Book or Notebook of Dreams. In there I write my dreams as goals and I do as I said before.

So now take heart and begin, take action.

People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be - Harvey Mackay

And remember

Any Day is Good to Begin

Start Today !

Fly !

Images from Pexels

Partying at

Happiness is Homemade - Eclectic Barn

Sunday Sunshine Blog Hop - Ridge Haven Homestead

A new begining

It's a new year and, after the busy times we had on Christmas and before, we feel we need to go back to normal. 

However, we had to remember that Christmas only ended after the Epiphany: we had to have first the day of the Kings, remembering the visit they payed to the Holy Family and the presents they gave to the King of Kings.

But now let's think about the Year that is beginning. 

Make plans. Think on what you would like to achieve in this year that Our Lord gives to us. Try to be better. Plan to be a better homemaker, a better...(fill the gap). Think of what you would like to do, places to go, books to read. Things to do at home.

There is something so special about new beginnings. 

Take action, just begin and you will see things getting into shape, dreams being closer to be fulfilled.

Begin.

Christmas Adds from the past

 

I do like those adverts from the past decades, mainly until the beginning of the sixties, but even more till the fifties. What glorious times.

But from those adds some I really like are the ones about Christmas.

On  Drinks

Food

Clothes

Other

That's all folks