The Eleanor

It’s the first week after the Autumn Equinox, and I am ready for the transition from summer to fall, to turn the page on this chapter. After a couple of grueling weeks, ending with putting our dog of 14 years down to being the victim of a crime, this transition feels especially important for me right now. So to thank and cleanse and manifest a new season, these are the things I’ve been working on:

Equinox To-Do

• Morning journaling in bed – a full brain dump to-do list including “publish the damn blog” and “check renters insurance policy”
• Hot water with lemon and put the simmer pot together
• Fall pumpkin pancakes, fried bacon, and black coffee
• A rainy walk with rainboots and jacket
• Tidying up
• Meditating
• An everything shower – exfoliate, nail polish, shaving cream, hair mask – we’re doing it big, starting fresh.
• Snacking
• Sorting through fall wardrobe
• Sending fall birthday gifts (this is entirely aspirational)

I feel like my mind is clear enough to sit down and work on something, so this is it. If I get really into the groove, maybe I’ll finish filling out the police report.

These are the sorts of practices I want to connect with, to focus on, and to think about. A way to intentionally get out of the hustle and bustle of my everyday life and my everyday neural paths. This is for me, a (hopefully) thoughtful woman, seeking to slow down and enjoy the practices that calm her. A woman who is married and living in a city and ambitious and thankful – delighted and curious about creativity. A novice creative.

It’s Me, Eleanor.

I have decided to start this blog to keep a record of creative projects I try – recipe tinkering, short-story writing, design, photography, gardening, and much more.  That said, this blog is primarily a working space for myself. In the off-chance anyone else ever reads this, though, I wanted to introduce myself and set the stage.

I’m Eleanor, and I’m navigating my 30s as a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a professional, a reader, a writer, a yogi, a swimmer, and a dog mom. A little over a year ago, my husband and I moved from Dallas, Texas, to Washington, D.C., from a home we owned and renovated (ourselves) in a quiet Dallas neighborhood with a large backyard to a townhome we rent in the middle of Georgetown, on a cobblestone street, near coffee shops and restaurants and garden stores and chocolate shops and tourists.

We went from having two cars that we drove everyday (or nearly everyday) to one car that’s parked on the street, immobile, for 6 days a week. And until a couple nights ago, a scooter. We went from letting our dogs out the backdoor, morning and night, to walking our dogs around the neighborhood twice a day, rain or shine. From “2 dogs” to “1 dog”, and a fast summer slipping into a cozy fall, the difference in our everyday lives is surely going to be a theme that comes up over and over again, because the differences have been amazing and inspiring and difficult to manage.

This past year has been full of changes: in careers, lifestyles, goals, minds, hobbies, and experiences. So this blog is my way of recording some of those changes and practicing gratitude, curiosity, and wonder about how the gradual changes we face everyday form our memories and our place in this world. Welcome on this journey of finding creativity, navigating