So Much Joy

There is so much joy in my life right now. Despite being so busy I'm taking time to exhale and enjoy these precious moments because let's face it... How many times does one get to pick homes they love, travel the world for free, style these homes working with a photographer you'd only dreamed of working with until now, and then writing about something that is so close to your heart? It's a very precious time for me right now.

I think outside of my marriage to Thorsten, and moving to Germany, this has got to be the most cherished of time periods for me. I imagined the next will be having a child and so after October we are going to start the family planning process and see what happens!

But for now, everything is going so very well. Sure there are hurdles and deadlines and you know -- normal life stuff, but after all of the horror stories and extreme stress cases I've read about online from authors anxiously living from deadline to deadline I must confess: I've had none of that. No horror stories, no extreme stress, it has all gone very smoothly. Even with shoots -- we've had no strange surprises, all of the homeowners have been lovely and welcoming, it's been just one great experience after another visiting homes in Europe and America over the past few months. I don't want it to end, but within the next few weeks we will travel to our final destinations, shoot our last batch of homes, and then that's it -- no more homeowners to meet and gorgeous properties to enjoy.

I'm very happy that I've had this moment in my life. It's been the best experience though at first it seemed as though it would be very stressful I realized that I just needed to relax and go with the flow and when I did that, everything fell into place and it's been going so well ever since.

Currently I'm enjoying the sunset here on my bed, my husband is in the living room playing some racing game on the Playstation with his brother and I'm tapping away here on my keys as I hear them laughing in the background -- they feel the same joy that I have in my heart just for different things. It's nice to have happiness in the home. Everyone well and at peace, enjoying the moment, living life...

I made "American" cheeseburgers for dinner with Beck's green beer and that was all the guy food they needed to get into the spirit of racing cars and blowing things up. For me, all I needed was my camera and Photoshop so I could create the collage above to show you what I found today at the flea market - those delicate vintage teacups. Two have saucers, one does not, but I love them so much and can't wait to collect more - they are smaller than most tea cups but not tiny and so precious, I love the pink one!

In addition to the tea cups, you can see the Japanese books that I picked up in New York City a few weeks ago -- 5 books and 2 magazines from Japan for me to look at as soon as I finish this post.

The beads are beautiful too, aren't they? I display them on a silver hook from Morocco over my dresser. When I'm in Morocco in October on my teaching adventure, I plan to buy lots of beads, tassels, fabric, and many other things so I've already begun to put aside a "shopping" fund. :)

Then you can see my slippers -- these are from Pearl River in NYC and are so comfortable and sweet.

Finally you see some flowers. The ones in the buckets are from a garden festival I went to a few months ago here in Germany and the other photo was taken during breakfast in Los Angeles last week of a few blooms in a small creamer. I sat on a patio under the warm sun enjoying oatmeal piled high with sliced bananas, strawberries, raisins, nutmeg and fresh milk and thought the flowers were such a simple yet beautiful addition to the table.

Little pleasures are the greatest gifts in life because you don't feel guilty over them or obligated -- you can simply enjoy them and walk away, or in this case, take a photo to freeze that moment for years to come.

I hope that you have a lovely weekend. Tomorrow I will have lunch with a dear friend and walk in the forest, I think that will be a nice Sunday well spent. What will you do?

P.S. It looks like we are moving October 1st. Can you believe it? I will know for sure this week so stay tuned!!!

(images: holly becker for haus maus)