Week four of my series on interior design is on Kate Smithson’s blog Green Couture today.
My article today is called Forever Memories.
It is all about the power of natural elements in your house, or your event venue to create a warm and inviting atmosphere.
“The more we are separated from nature, the unhappier we get. ”
Unknown
I’d love you to join me over there today.
Happy friday people in capture land.
Amanda
How often do you sit with a blank canvas in front of you?
Whether it be an empty bowl before baking something from scratch, a blank sheet of paper before you write, a canvas awaiting oil paints, a journal wanting to soak up your thoughts, sitting at a piano awaiting the presence of a melody to form a song, a ball of wool and a crochet hook…
We each have passions awaiting to be expressed.
We each have opportunities that pass us because we are unwilling to create the space and the time to sit in the uncomfortable moment of a blank canvas.
A space of unknowing, a space of fear of the outcome, an uncomfortable place.
It’s so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.
Paul Cezanne
We need to sit comfortably in this place of discomfort.
Somedays we just need to allow the paper, the white space, the moment to envelope us and then dive into possibility.
What if we miss that moment?
That space albeit blank can never be recreated. That same mix of emotions, that same weather, that same drink sitting beside the canvas, that same outfit you have intentionally picked out, the song in the background, the smell in the air.
Every moment has possibility to bring something new and fresh.
Sit before a blank page today.
Sit before a blank canvas today.
And just wait.
Something brilliant will happen, if you lower your expectations and allow the opportunity to just surface.
Today.
Amanda
A lot of my inspiration is provoked online these days.
Only a few short years ago, when I wrote my first book Capture 30 days of inspiration there was no pinterest, there was no facebook, there was no instagram.
I think I was much more inspired back then than now.
I would sit in a cafe, not with my smart phone but a journal and a book.
I would walk through urban landscapes and really experience them rather than taking a photo and hash tagging it #now.
I would sit and discuss philosophy, theology and divine experiences with true friends rather than have fake, half discussions with people who I don’t even know where I was born.
Today I am inspired by paper.
That is the whole reason I started #inspire14, my goal was to draw and feel the paper and use a part of my brain that is not often stimulated these mummy, food covered days.
I have not been drawing much lately.
Honestly I became embarrassed because my drawings aren’t really that good.
In a few days however I start an online course and a big part of it is visual journalling, so the glue stick, scissors and sharpies are back out and I am ready to try again.
No matter where your inspiration journey takes you.
NEVER GIVE UP.
All my creative love
Amanda
This little plate is a present from one of my dearest friends and all day I have been consumed with it’s beauty. The detail, the fine proportions, it’s clarity and so much more. I went to the shops to do the groceries today and I bought myself a bunch of oriental lilies, their smell, their look in my bathroom and lounge room, one word beauty.
Beauty is just as important in our daily sustenance as bread. Simple, pure, unadulterated peace.
This quote helps me in days of distress.
Beauty is a balm that heals.
Are you confused?
Are you lonely?
Are you needing solace?
Find something beautiful from nature or that is inspired by nature and I have often found in my own walk, my heart lifts again.
We all need a place of restoration.
We were designed to live in a place of peace.
I often find in my life this peace is encouraged and motivated with places of beauty.
I think our interpretation of beauty has become plasticised. We think beauty is perfection. We believe beauty is produced, manufactured.
I think the most beautiful places of rest, are filled with imperfection and a raw condition.
Find your place of nurture.
You will live inspired if you seek moments like these.
Love
Me
Do you feel frustrated at your journey?
Are you over waiting?
Are you sick of the in between place?
Well you are not alone.
Today one of my bestie’s and I snuck away to the movies quietly in the middle of the day whilst I was in between conducting interviews and she was on the way to work to go live on radio.
We had previously sneakily made a plan, because there was a movie we both wanted to watch that no one else in our sphere wanted too.
We were so excited about our plan that we thought we might make a secret movie club on the last friday of each month in the middle of the day as it feels so naughty.
Back to the movie.
It was ‘The Hobbit’.
I have heard such mixed reviews about this movie, but I was savouring the epic-ness of the journey in this film. As I was recently surrounded by hype in New Zealand when it premiered, I have been surprised to hear people bag it here in Australia.
Most of the comments have been ‘It’s just too long.’, ‘They just walk and walk and don’t seem to get anywhere.’, ‘Like how long can you watch a group of people go on a journey!’ or ‘Boring!’.
Today as I watched the film, I was spell bound. Like literally on the edge of my seat, my friend Sara, shouting out loudly in parts, enthralled.
We loved the journey.
We loved its epic genre.
I think some of the feedback shows the age we have been born into. The age of fast, quick, consumerism, over night reality stars made famous culture.
We want stories and journeys to move quickly and at our fast pace, as we munch popcorn and check our phone five (or fifty) times throughout the movie.
We are the ones who have become boring. We are bored so easily and I think the discipline of a slow, unfolding, all encompassing journey is to be savoured.
I think this is why we get bored with our own stories.
I believe we become frustrated when our dreams are slow to tally.
I think we are tricked into believing times of hiddenness or slow development mean that God is missing in action.
I believe God savours the slow moments. I believe he delights in the hidden seasons, because they are times of growth and development.
If you feel frustrated because the dream tarries, then take time to count the growth and the opportunities that avail. If you haven’t done my reflection pages, then maybe this might help you gain perspective.
I love this quote from Saint Teresa of Avila
(#inspire14 : I am doing a visual diary entry for every day of 2014, if you want to choose to do something everyday this year and join me, use the hastag #inspire14)
The feeling remains dear friend that God is on the journey with you.
Even if you don’t feel or know that he is present.
He is.
Trust me.
Or don’t, that’s cool, look for him in the small details.
I think you will find his smile.
He shines in the hidden place.
Love 2014
Amanda
