jan milliman

Do cute new aprons count as clothes?

So, as I’ve mentioned here before, I made a New Year’s resolution not to buy any books this year until I’ve read the books I already have. I’ve done pretty well sticking to that plan, although I still haven’t made my way through “Lipstick Traces.” But the doing without a constant stream of Amazon boxes has got me thinking.

Every time I think I *need* a book it’s because I think it will somehow alter my life in some amazing way. Sometimes that happens (see Patti Smith’s “Just Kids”). Other times, not so much (see Bez’s “Freaky Dancin’: Me and the Mondays”). The books keep piling up, and life pretty much keeps rolling along.

With the book habit off limits, my life-improvement habit might have turned to another passion — food. I’ve tried a variety of healthy eating plans with weird limitations or wacky ingredients, and none of them have ever stuck. But somehow, the bread-making hobby we started a while back has rubbed off on us all and we’ve been generally eating in a healthier, manageable way. (Generally! Please do not tote up the calories we consumed at Smorgasburg. And I didn’t even tell you about the eggs mayonnaise we had at Reynard!)

Before food, there was the craft-supply habit. There’s always some new tool that promises to be a game-changer or some great deal on a bag of assorted geegaws that are bound to come in handy. But there came a day when I realized that just trying to sort through and find the supplies for a new project was so exhausting that I didn’t even want to make anything. So I did a major de-stash and have been keeping all that pretty much in-check.

As I was pulling my Spring clothes out of storage the other day it occurred to me that I have taken to “fixing” my life with clothes of late. We all know that everything will fall into place if we find that one perfect jacket or pair of shoes. Right? But I’m afraid my poor closet will explode before I find that magic article, so I am making a late-year resolution to only buy something new when something old wears out.

In the meantime, I’m hoping the time I save hunting down various life-changing items can be put to better use actually doing something life-changing. Or maybe I’ll just spend it making another batch of tortillas.