Once upon a time, not too long ago, making money was easy and buying “new and better” stuff was the thing to do. Average people were encouraged to live lives worthy of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and a great many tried. We were affluent. Happy to be getting more, buying more and subsequently tossing more than any other nation in the history of the world. Yessir, those were the days. Or were they?
We kept this up for a while before things began to unravel. It was inevitable, really. Somewhere, waaaay in the back of our minds, we knew that this definition of prosperity was unsustainable. Now here we are, trying to make our way amidst layoffs, foreclosures, bailouts, and the spiraling costs of, well, pretty much everything. Times are tough, things are uncertain, and most of us have been affected in some way.
But good things can come out of bad times. We're rethinking what it means to be prosperous. Conspicuous consumption is out and is being replaced by a more humble aesthetic. We're using what we have and we're making things ourselves: Thrift is now considered a good idea and saying “I made it myself!” earns admiration. These are old ideas that are now a new zeitgeist and it's pretty darn cool.
Home Again Jog celebrates this change. It's about my venture into this way of thinking, mostly centered on the process of transforming my cheap, icky, 960 square-foot ranch into a cute and inviting home, on an extremely limited budget. I'll be including some of the projects I'm working on too. There'll be some crafty stuff, like my knitting and sewing, as well as our attempts to build our own furniture and remodel the house with nary a clue as to what we're doing.
What's more, if you're going through this process I'd love to share your transformations too! I'm always inspired by people's ability to come up with clever, thrifty solutions to problems. So send me your pics; I'd love to see them and share them!
To sum up, Home Again Jog is a blog about doing the best you can with what you have. Worthy goal? I think so :-)
Thanks for stopping by,
H
