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Loving (and Living) Life for Yourself

The other morning I was preparing to drink my second cup of coffee when I realized I was tired of drinking out of a plastic tumbler. I have about a dozen of them, all Starbucks, all red, all thrifted. Yes, it's safer if I happen to drop it (and I drop lots of stuff these days, thank you arthritis) but the color red always makes me nervous. Red equals emergency, blood, and crisis in my head. I didn't think about any of that when I thrifted them; I just wanted something cheap and convenient.

Cheap and convenient is nice, easy, and preferable, but not always when it comes to mood.

Part of me is tired of settling for what's easy and sacrificing my mood in the process. I want inspiration. I want to be surrounded by beauty and whimsy and things that make me happy. I really, really want to smile in the mornings. So I ditched the plastic tumbler, took out my favorite Halloween ceramic mug and had my second cup of coffee in that. I don't care that it's five months before Halloween. Drinking out of my Halloween mug made me happy.

I thrift all my clothes, and recently found a pretty summer t-shirt that reminds me of the islands where my favorite person resides. Usually I don't worry about how I look, but this I wanted to wear for her. Got it for half-off, too, along with a pair of capris I thought I could alter into shorts to pair with it.

It's definitely easier to buy new clothes versus thrifting things in my size, and altering pants into shorts, but I really wanted to put together a nice outfit for a day out my guy and I had -planned. So I did, and using the sewing machine -- something I've been avoiding because of the whole machine quilting issue -- wasn't bad at all.

Here I am, wearing my new outfit on our day out -- and I felt very cool and pretty in it.

I've been crocheting winter hats for the last two nights using a thrifted kit and also this cake of hat yarn with a pom pom. It's almost summer. One of them is child-size and I have no children here. I don't care. I'm having fun trying out the patterns and the yarns. It's lovely, and I can always donate what I don't use myself.

I love the things I do to make my life happier, more inspired, and surrounded by beauty. So I'm going to do more of them because that's the way I want to live this last part of my life. I have cared for and supported everyone else in my life all these years. This part is for me.

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