We are in the midst of a stressful and unsettling time. As I have adjusted to working from home over the past few days, I have gone through a battery of emotions. I am nervous about what is to come. I am stressed about this getting out of hand and lasting longer than we could have expected. I am worried for the people who are sick or will get sick and I am extremely concerned about what the economic impact will mean for small businesses such as my own or the many that I frequent and love. I have had sleepless nights and I finally realized today that I need to limit how much I watch the news and focus on the things I can control. I want to be sensitive of the intense time we are living in both here and on Instagram. I took a poll and 99% of my Instagram followers who responded want to continue seeing design and lifestyle content. I get it! Like them, I need a distraction. While being mindful of our reality and doing my civic responsibility of social distancing, I want to continue putting forth content that is helpful and inspiring in some way. Otherwise, I might lose my mind, spiraling into negative thoughts and fear.

I am determined to look for the Silver Lining in all of this. I am spending more time at home with Fabian and Tate. My life is usually so busy and hectic that I rarely have time to write my blog anymore or to just sit in silence with my thoughts and creativity. These things are gifts and the past few days have afforded me the time to do them. I am so used to running around like crazy that I don’t take care of myself like I should. I have promised myself to use this time to continue working on our design projects, pour over books, listen to podcasts, connect with my loved ones via phone calls and texts, and to exercise and focus a bit more on self-care. I was just about to order some beauty products that I am running low on and was pleasantly surprised that Nordstrom is currently offering 25% off of quite a few of my go-to beauty items as well as site-wide. This was a little silver lining today, so I had to share with you all! We are all in this together.

{Photography by Max Burkhalter for Paloma Contreras Design}