As I looked around my home today, I realized that my husband and I create so much of our environment. In the corner, there is a barrel bubbling with homemade wine. A shelf holds a collection of essential oils I use to make our own cleaning products as well as my hair and skin care products. Sheets of paper that I have been making out of my magazine scraps lay flat or folded across the kitchen table.
A plate full of dried blueberries that I’m going to use to make my own tea sits next to the paper.
I walk outside into a garden full of plants that we have grown from seeds and bulbs, including parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, potatoes, red cabbage, kale, lemongrass, and swiss chard. There are also flowers galore. Just the other day, we ate potatoes and herbs for breakfast, all straight from the garden. The very box that our parsley is planted in was a homemade gift from my husband – “Verduras,” it says. Vegetables.
In my daughter’s room, a large “busy board” sits in the corner – my husband made it for her as a Christmas gift.
In my bedroom, I have a box full of beads and silver chain that I’m using to make a necklace. A homemade journal sits next to me in my office, and our art surrounds us, hung on walls all over the house.
I have containers of dried herbs from our garden that we use for cooking. Cooking! We do it every day and enjoy it thoroughly. When our daughter was able to start eating solid foods, I made her baby food pureés.
For our wedding, my husband made a wooden board for our guests to sign, a natural wood platform for our cake, and I designed all the florals, from centerpieces to my bouquet. I made every boutonniere, and bracelets for the bridesmaids. A floral centerpiece and my bouquet now serve as a splash of color in our kitchen, wonderful memories of that day that we’ll never forget.
In our closet are the contest winning Halloween costumes my husband made a few years ago for both of us. We have been creating together for years, and there is nothing more satisfying than to look around you and realize how much of your own world you’ve constructed. For that, I have so much gratitude.
