Strange Gardens and Happiness

I worked on Strange Garden while at Erin's and think it is about finished. I will leave it alone for awhile and see if I want to add anything else, new birds or flowers, or whatever.

The book I wanted to share with you is How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People.
I reviewed it over at A Garden Carried in the Pocket, but wanted to give a shout out about it here, as well. The book turned out to be such a rewarding read that I left my copy for Erin to read and ordered 6 more copies. Another one for me, and the rest as gifts. :) See, I'm happier already!

After this morning's meeting and various errands, I came home and began cleaning/organizing the studio because...

One of the components listed in the book is "identification" - taking the time to identify things that make you happy. Not things that you think would make you happy (like more money, a new house, a better job, etc.), but things available to you right now.

Just identify them and see how what you think might make you happy and what actually does make you happy correlate. I had a long, long list that included a lot of trivial things (like Avocado Delight sandwiches, fresh flowers, green tea-scented anything, rosemary, my favorite chair (+ book or handwork + Mac), etc.

I'm pretty cognizant of the things that make me happy, and they include family, reading, quilting, handwork of all kinds, gardening, yoga, tai chi-- but making the list helped me realize that I was neglecting some things or taking them for granted.

Thus, the impetus to clean up the studio and finish some WIPs and begin some new projects. I need to take the time to appreciate what I enjoy instead of being on automatic pilot. The studio is one of my first steps.