Useful, Beautiful, Joyful

Most of the days, in the thick of the routine and ordinary, it's hard to find beauty... especially when you're toting around a bump so huge that limitations abound. It's harder to get around, to do things, to step out of your room.

I was getting tired of the same old, same old day. My creative reservoir was empty. I noticed I was in need of inspiration so I drank off the things closest to me - books, magazines, and blogs. As each chapter, each image and post filled me, the yearning to create consumed me. The desire to just make anything useful, beautiful, joyful. I had been parched for a long while and I decided it was about time to do something about it. 

So I researched, inquired, took some online classes, bought fabric, scoured the city for flowers, styled a tablescape, broke a vase in the process, brought out the stationary and the cakelets, snapped photos, edited. 

Now I have a story on flowers (Japanese ranunculas, astilbes, and eucalyptus),

on delightful pastries (cakelets from The Delightful Miss Joyce),

on stationery (letters from my husband). 

Necessary? Not totally. But yes, all useful, beautiful, and joyful. 

Most of the time, in life, we have to create beauty and discover it. It doesn't just sit around looking pretty. It needs hands and a soul to breathe a heart into it. It needs eyes to notice it.

And, I'm guessing, that's what makes it ineffably beautiful.