Moment of Happy in home decor

My dissertation killed the happy in my apartment

In the wake of my PhD I published papers- or at least I tried to publish papers. While I did this and waited for my postdoc to start, I dwelled in burnout. The author of my favourite blog in the whole wide world would call this "dwelling in possibility". That chick, however, gets stuff done. She is setting up a school, building and organizing a house, raising a two kids etc.. I, by contrast, sat on my couch, working up the energy to get to the gym at 2 pm. It occurs to me that had I taken a trip after my dissertation was deposited - if I had even chilled in a organized way that week, I would have been more productive in the weeks that followed. I might even be more productive now. 

I did however, reclaim certain aspects of my life and household. This included 1) destuffing/decluttering 2) reorganizing and repairing and 3) completing some decor projects.

My PhD years were fun, but the last 3 years were stressful. I worked veeeery long hours, in a very aggressive and unsupportive environment. For 3 years, I just came home and collapsed into bed. As a result, we never really settled into our apartment. It was filled with half done projects. It was messy. It wasn't a refuge. It was just something else I have to do.

So in the weeks after my dissertation, I decided to re-introduce the happy. H and I are worked a special project to pull the living room together. Before I put that up here, I'm posting my easiest solution to bringing in the happy - pretty drawer pulls. All found on Etsy - all pretty and delightful and welcome to replace the sad Ace hardware burnished brass pulls that dragged down our home.

VintageSkyes is a delightful Etsy shop that produces handstamped "vintage inspired" drawer pulls. The shop contains dozens of designs, most in black and white. While some stamped designs have 19th century science plate illustration feeling to them, others are dead ringers for late 19th century advertising typographic symbols, or actual government stamps (i.e. U.S. Post Office). I'm in love with all of them. At the cost of $7 a knob, I could happily see these ushering in the pretty in my kitchen.

 I am particularly fond of this Matryoshka doll pull. I've never seen anything like it before.  

Photo credit: VintageSkye

Veritas Inspired  sells recovered drawer pulls, amongst other metal objects. The feel of the shop is very shabby chic, but the owner does find some interesting pulls and will paint and shab them up anyway you might like. 

Photo credit: VeritasInspired

I'm not sure how this happened, but I have a serious case of the cutes that my grad school self would have found very amusing. I suspect it took hold after the birth of our little one (oh yes, a lot has happened since I last posted). The upshot is, I like cartoon drawings of fuzzy animals. I really dig the drawer pulls at Ebonypaws . They are adorable without being cutesie, simple but not dull, sweet but not saccharin. I have a particular soft spot for this sleeping fox pull below

Photo credit: EbonyPaws