Everybody's talking about The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful. I first heard of this book by Myquillin Smith over at Conversion Diary and since read it about it on a few WWRW links.
Can you see those coral wedges in the cover photo above? Those are identical to Susan's coral wedges and they are from Payless Shoe Source.
Did you notice that the chair is missing a leg? It was the very last thing that caught my eye...after I finished reading the whole book. A stack of old but attractive books is propping up the chair, and on that stack is a plastic dinosaur.
"It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful."
There are lots of good takeaway quotes in this book about home decor/organization/spiritual acceptance of one's circumstances. Smith forces one to really examine the purpose of one's home.
Smith has a gift for thrifting and re-purposing furniture and home accessories. From the photos, I spied several items that had been rearranged in different rooms. And of course, I want to rearrange all my furniture and go thrifting, and paint all the things RIGHT NOW!
Smith has great ideas for the budget minded decorator, but she has no advice for the mother of a newborn who is sitting and nursing 98% of the day, and scrambling for personal hygiene and sustenance in between. Survival mode doesn't last forever though.
I should have read this book last summer.
I'm getting lots of inspiration for the future though. Crazy ideas like tossing out the pecan wood china cabinet with the swirls carved in it (that I hate with every fiber of my being) and either replacing it with a long thin table against the wall with wall-mounted shelves above, or...wait for it...re-painting the Ethan Allen girl's desk complete with hutch (that we got free from someone in the homeschooling co-op) and using that instead.
Maybe I can take some pictures of what I'm talking about and share with you on Friday.
One last thing about The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, my library did not own it, and the other librarys weren't allowing inter-library loan, SO I had to buy it. Sight unseen. Totally worth it too.
I've also been reading My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir by Collen Carroll Campbell. (Not as quickly as The Nesting Place, because there are no pretty pictures in this book.)
My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir is Campbell's autobiography interspersed with biographies of various female saints and the impact they had on her at different points in her life.
I'm not terribly into this book yet, mostly because the only story in that I'm not already familiar with is Campbell's. Campbell has identified some good "saintly" bios that I have yet to read. Good book recs are always appreciated here.
Campbell's writing is clear and concise and when I force myself to put down the social media, the YA books, and the homeschooling catalogs, she helps me to focus on the important things. Things more important than furniture placement.
If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment, it would be most appreciated. Other link-ups require this. I'm just asking nicely. :)
I have no good book gossip because I am in the midst of my annual July Harry Potter reading. I used to be able to do a book a day for a week but... I got wise these past years and now I just have to get through them in the month of July. The Nesting Place scares me a little. Because I am in crazy nesting mode. (Clean ALL.THE.THINGS!) And I still have a baby room to create so I am equal parts SUPER intrigued by the book and just frankly terrified I'll invent 6 projects in a week's time. We'll see which side wins.
ReplyDeleteI love "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." I am very guilty of comparing my lived-in house to pictures in magazines. With seven people in the house, surfaces are never bare and nothing stays clean for long.
ReplyDeleteGuuuuuuurl!! You know me and painting furniture!!! Y U no let me help you??? But, yeah, as someone who has painted an entire dining room set during a summer with a tiny baby, I can't recommend it as a Best Practice.
ReplyDeleteShow me watch-u got!!
I keep reading about The Nesting Place. I think I need to look at it....because our things are FAR from perfect. Our house is so far from perfect it's not even funny. We're basically still stuck in college-kid, nothing-matches, old, beat-up thrifted-furniture land. I've never felt that my house could be beautiful. I'm usually willing to settle for "not a disaster."
ReplyDeleteI'm another one who's Nesting Place-curious. I've read about it a few places and even checked out her blog. I'm always down on myself about how everything I touch turns to ugly: I can bake delicious cakes but they're always misshapen; I can make delicious dinners out of cheap ingredients but they're always sloppily presented; and so and so. I shudder at the thought of tackling home decorating, of even attempting to make my home "beautiful" by ANYONE's standards. I think I even read somewhere on The Nester's blog that as women we're drawn and called to create beauty (not quoting, exactly, just something I remember getting from her blog), and here am I, Everything I Touch Turns to Ugly--yet another reason I don't hold up to all this feminine genius I'm supposed to have. I'd been rather down about this until my editor, not knowing I'd been feeling like a real life physical mess, told me that I have "a beautiful way with language." That... kinda helped. Maybe we are all called to beauty, just some of us do beauty in different ways? I hope so, anyway.
ReplyDeleteSorry. I think I just turned a comment on your blog into what should've been a post on my own. Anyway.
Delicious food is more important than beautiful food, so if you have to pick one, go with delicious and just take pictures of the rapture on people's faces as they eat it! I'm with you on, though -- my painted furniture looks like I gave my 5-y-o free rein on it... so I don't really try that any more. I can cook and bake, but I can't seem to beautifully ice a cake. I've discovered, though, that I can make a great garden, so that's my way of making beauty for now. Luckily I got it all going this year before the new baby!
DeleteThanks for reviewing The Nesting Place - I've had my eye on that one. I loved My Sisters the Saints - hope you enjoy it as you continue reading!
ReplyDeleteI have those coral wedges too!
ReplyDeleteI just finished My Sisters The Saints for a book club, I loved it. And it really made me curious and interested in more of the saint's lives.
I have yet to read The Nesting Place, it's g on my bookshelf waiting: I'm looking forward to diving into it though! :)
I always love your book posts and am so grateful for your book recommendations. I just finished Father Elijah by Michael O'Brien after an epic seriously 10 year journey to finish that book. I first started it on the plane during a work trip to England, and then stopped and started 2 more times and finally this summer powered through. 2 thoughts - 1) probably not the best book for an already anxious about so many things very pregnant women to read (spoilers - all the death, so many people he loves seem to die, the world is going to hell in a hand basket - yes, I know evil will not triumph in the end, but still… and 2) oh my goodness the ending was so anti-climatic. I really was hoping for some final showdown of good and evil. Not to be. Yes, alluded to I know…I guess I prefer books where things are tied up nicely. But again, it is an apocalypse book we are talking about, I don't know why I thought it would be any different. :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am in the middle of reading Campbell's book and have found it very interesting. I am not really into home decorating. I go more for organized and clutter-free vs. pretty. But I know I could probably do both. Hmmm…maybe I should check out the book.
As always a pleasure to stop over here. Have a great rest of the week!
The Nesting Place sounds like an awesome book. I wonder if my library will have it . . . I love those wedges in the photo! (Of course, we don't wear shoes in the house and I'm not really sure where I'd wear them . . . ) I'd really love to see a furniture painting project, I think that they're always fun.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed My Sisters the Saints when I read it last year. It hit me at a particularly good time for the story to resonate.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the great reviews I've read about the Nesting Place, I'm thinking it's next on my buy list :)