A NEW BLOG

I didn't WANT to open a new blog!  I loved my blog!  But here I am opening a new one because I can't post on my old one!! I have no idea why. Maybe it's a good thing. Sometimes we have to hit a reset button on our lives.

My last post in elenaismyname.blogspot.com was Charlies services.  My baby boy died on January 12, 2017 and I blogged about it on June of 2017.  I guess that was the first day I could handle sharing the pain.  It was the most awful year of my life.  I think I have made great strides in overcoming the numbing pain, the desire to die.  I am here, I am living and I am blessed.

I'm not sure what the focus of this blog will be.  Probably none.  There are so many different facets in our lives, so many things the we can share with each other.  World events, politics (with respect please! LOL).  Our ever-changing family dynamics.  

And of course ART.  The one hobby that has kept me sane.  I have wonderful friends who "get me".  Who truly "get me" when it comes to my obsession with this stuff!  


THE YEAR OF LESS by Cait Flanders


I just finished reading a wonderful book The Year of Less by Cait Flanders.  She did exactly what I keep thinking about doing and don't do.  She decluttered, gave herself a mandatory shopping ban and saved money.  The decluttering came first.  I think the smart thing about that was that you know what you actually have.  

She made a commitment not to buy anything for one year unless it was on her "approved purchases list" or unless she was buying something to replace something else that would be thrown out.  For example, you don't buy deodorant unless yours is over and you are throwing it out.   You don't buy a pair of jeans unless yours are so destroyed that they can not be mended and are going in the garbage.

It sounds like such a simple concept doesn't it?  But I think in real life it would be daunting.  I am going to give this a try in smaller increments.  3 month commitment instead of one year commitment.  I am an impulse buyer.  The amount of money I waste is outrageous and it really has to stop. 

I am an electronics hoarder!  I buy every new gadget that comes out.  For example, I have a new iPad and decided I wanted the bigger one (which I have yet to turn on) so I gave my smaller iPad to my daughter and got in debt for the bigger one.  Ridiculous!

Again, this is my new goal.  I love this book and am going to read it again.  I am going to start to declutter (everything except my art studio!  I'm not willing to do that yet) and see how that goes.  

I am not going to lie to myself that I will be as extreme as Cait was, at least not at the beginning.  But I love the whole idea of minimalism and hope to be able to embrace it at some level.

STAY TUNED.