One Year!

Wow, August flew by!  As summer always does, it seemed race to a finish.  And before you know it, here we are: August 31st.

August 31st is actually the one-year anniversary of my last day at my job in Brooklyn.  I can't believe a whole year has passed!  Though I miss the people I worked with back in Brooklyn, I feel really good about where I am as a writer and an artist these days.

Writing means I spend a lot of time alone in my new office, which of course is my house.  On this anniversary of leaving my cool (populated) Brooklyn office and taking up in my solitary little cabin, I thought I'd share a few pictures of the details of my new space.

I've taken to shutting off my computer for hour increments and using notebooks to write.
There's no Facebook to click on in notebooks! I feel like being away from the computer
really lets me dig into whatever thought I'm chasing.

When I'm using my desk for notebook writing, my computer hangs out on an old diner chair
I got in Brooklyn, which sits next to my desk.  I also keep a calendar on there - it's hand-carved
prints by a Vermont artist.

                   

I have always been really into to-do lists, and I realized recently that being able to see
all of the tasks I have for my various pursuits as once helps me organize myself.
I have personal writing, client writing, blog writing, and wedding planning tasks on here.
Oh, and a few pictures of Murgy!

Hanging above my desk are several photos my dad took in college. I love this one of my mom.

I call these guys "Blocky and Buddha".  Buddha's actually on a
necklace.  I bought these at 'Gallery in The Woods' in Brattleboro.
When I bought them, the woman at the front said that the two artists
are actually best friends and they'd be excited that their art was bought
together.  It got me thinking about all of my artists friends that inspire me,
and about how art is so collaborative.  Blocky sits on my desk as a reminder.

Most days I enjoy working outside for at least a bit.  Garret and I got this purple chair for free on the side
of a road.  It's really comfortable and weird and I love it.  Next to it is an old kitchen chair,
a box full of my cards, pens & pencils, and an awesome owl painting our friends Evan & Crystal gave us.

Evan and Crystal got this owl painting while they were living in Montana, and then it hung in their
home in Atlanta for a while.  They gave it to us as a housewarming gift for our new home here.
I love it. 

Some plants that sit on a little wooden table in the "outdoor office".

Though I usually need to write in complete silence, the windchime outside is soothing and beautiful.
I got this for Garret for his birthday. His house in Buffalo was next to a house with windchimes, and the sound
of them became somewhat of a reminder of home for both of us. So, we got one in this home, too.

Hope you enjoyed a few of the details of my "office"!

settling in...

week three of vermont life is in full swing (has it really only been three weeks?).  i've done more than one grocery shopping trip, and we went out for chinese food.  surprisingly enough the combination of these two [seemingly insignificant] things has started to let it seep into my mind that this isn't an escapist vacation, but rather, we actually live here.  i'm happy to say that the realization is a rather lovely one.

therein i'm also starting to get used to the new realities of life.  groceries is a big adjustment, actually -- where in brooklyn i would just stop on my way home from work and pick up a few things here and there, here it [actually, literally] takes me forty minutes to get to a big grocery store.  there's a smaller one right in town (so, a fifteen minute commute) but as is with smaller grocery stores, i find the selection [logically] smaller and the prices a bit higher than the bigger stores like hannaford or price chopper.  so!  grocery shopping is a commitment, is what i'm getting at...

i've taken to making really detailed shopping lists, and i flirted with the coupon section of a newspaper last saturday at a coffee shop.  i haven't quite taken out the scissors and started clipping yet, but i could see myself being featured on extreme couponing soon enough.

going out for chinese food is a similarly lengthy commute commitment, but that, my friends, is a blessing in disguise.

all in all we're basically just getting into a groove, here.  we've both got our home offices set up -- mine is on the first floor of the house and garret's is on the third floor, so most of the time murgy hangs in the middle in the living room confused about whose desk to curl up next to.  i think in time, i'll win - i put one of her favorite couches in my office... prime curling up space.  you're welcome, murgs!

it's going to rain every day for the next seven days here, so i'll probably be posting again soon enough.

rain for the next seven days in wilmington, vt!