Domesticity

This book was the intial inspiration for this blog. I've always been interested in artsy-crafty stuff growing up, but never had time to really explore it. During college and law school, my schedule was too crammed with lectures, papers, conferences, clinics and exams to have any time left over to sit back, relax and knit a nice pair of socks, sew an apron or bake something hot and sweet.

And then I moved to Chicago, where life was relatively calm, slow and quiet. There weren't social events every-other-night, and work was manageable within a 9-6 time frame. And with that, odd things began to happen. I started knitting scarves and hats and blankets. I learned to make earrings and necklaces and bracelets. I started cooking and baking and stitching and painting. And before I knew it, I had collected all these little "hobbies" that seemed kinda random and didn't really fit together...

Until I saw this book in the bookstore. It combines all the things I've been exploring the last couple years into one, cohesive category: domesticity. Here's a clip from the book: "There is a world of difference between domesticity and domestication. This book is about domesticity and the pleasures and joys of the gentle domestic arts of knitting, crochet, baking, stitching, quilting, gardening and homemaking. It is emphatically not about the repetitive, endless rounds of cleaning, washing, ironing, shopping and house maintenance that come with domestication. Domesticity...focuses instead on creativity within the domestic space."

I was happy to see that all my random projects may actually be part of one, creative process (and I am not completely ADD!). So I started this blog to record all the little domestic things I enjoy doing, and to remind myself to give space for creativity now that I'm back to a faster-paced life in Boston.