Good Things - Beautiful Books

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his book is almost an "obvious" choice since it's a Martha Stewart Living publication. Although, with all the books she's put out I only have 4. Can you guess which ones? I actually think the choices tell a lot about me, and not necessarily who I am, but who I want to be.

Kiy, a dear friend of mine, made a comment earlier today, which made me realize that she thinks my house is spotless and I'm perfectly organized. My dear Kiy, my house is not spotless... and I'm not perfectly organized. I will even share proof! My office looks closer to the before than to the after right now. Shhhhh, it's a secret! Now that I've shared it, I'm motivated to clear the desktop this week. Besides, I have a few projects for this month to share and I have to get going if I plan on finishing them.

My trick is to never let it get to the point where you just give up. Yes, life gets busy, rooms get cluttered... and even dirty. Creativity breeds messes... snippets of thread or paper, light layers of flour, stacks of books and post-it's. If I cleaned it all up every time I was done for the day until I had time to get back to it, I'd never finish a project. I'd spend too much time in setting everything up and getting comfortable! So I leave it, until I finish... sometimes this is a matter of a day, sometimes it's a few weeks. It all depends on how detailed the project and how busy my life is at the time. Eventually it all gets picked up and put away, but you can ask my hubby. A clear surface is just begging to be covered with a new project in this house! Especially a clear kitchen counter, it's just begging for a light dusting of flour.

What does all this have to do with beautiful books you wonder? Well, Good Things keeps me inspired to cover every surface with projects, as opposed to getting them put away!



I love books that are not only beautiful, but also serve a purpose and are practical. I do have some that are simply beautiful, but they don't get pulled out and looked through nearly as often as ones that inspire me to action of some sort.

Good Things is a "best of" compilation categorized into seven overall topics: entertaining, cooking, celebrating, giving, gardening, decorating, and homekeeping. Given the content of my blog, this is perfect.



Each section is filled with little projects and things you can do, and the basic instructions needed to accomplish each project.



One of my favorite ideas is the dinner kit from the Little Luxuries page in the Giving section.

Next time you're a weekend guest, give your host one less meal to worry about. Line a galvanized-steel pail with a dish towel, then fill it with everything needed to make dinner: spaghetti, tomatoes, fresh basil, crusty bread, mozzarella, and Parmesan, and flowers for the table.

I absolutely love this gorgeous hanging bouquet of roses and think it would be lovely hanging from the door of the guest bedroom when company is coming to visit. You will need to nestle a container of water in the base of the cone for the flowers.

Roll a piece of fine-mesh brass screen into a cone shape and secure the seam with straight pins. Add a loop of wire for the handle.

I will be working on organizing recipes next week, which is why I have the book out in my peruse pile this week.



There are so many ideas and projects in this book, I'd never be able to do everything that I want to try, but it's great to have around, bookmarked for a rainy day.

Oh, the four Martha Stewart books I currently have... Let's see... a book on organizing, a homemaking bible, a cookbook, and a book of pretty projects... that about sums it up! (Back to the question)