Dandelions and Daydreams

Yesterday, I read one of the most pleasant books that I have read in a long time. The Spirit of Loveliness: Bringing Beauty, Creativity, and Order to Your Life by Emilie Barnes is inspiring and calming at the same time. The author encourages readers to create beauty without being condemning or judgemental.

Right now, our 3 room apartment (kitchen/livingroom, bedroom, and bathroom) is barely functional. When we moved in here, I had to give up beautiful for “just getting by.” Life here is no tea party, but it can be beautiful.

Even better, there are no “set rules” for beauty in Emilie Barnes book. Home is about sharing your life with others and creating a safe refuge from the world. For Emilie Barnes, that means tea cups and lace; for you it may mean pottery and mosaics. For me, its warm blankets, sunshine, my favorite book, and a pottery mug of something hot to drink.

For the most part, I get hung up on not living in my dream house with my dream life. The goal is to take bits and pieces of that dream and turn it into a reality, in my (your) own home. Today.

I have a notebook of ideas that I gleaned from reading this book. Check back next week to read about my inspiration from The Spirit of Loveliness.

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photos (in order of appearance) windy angels CC-BY-SA

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 11:52 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.