the power of our senses…

i’m very visual, so whenever i think of the 5 senses, i think of sight first. being surrounded by things that i find beautiful and inspiring is important to me. it also explains why i am on a mission to get rid of clutter that isn’t “good clutter”. to me “good clutter” would be a pile of magazines or paper that’s stacked and waiting for me to dig in. at any rate, i know that i am very visual. case in point, at bagels on wednesday, kelly brought some quilt squares and this little pieced number for a quilt for katie. i couldn’t stop staring at it as it laid on the table. it was stunning! made me want to quilt! or at least go home and try to replicate the piece with paper for a scrapbook page or art piece! even though i don’t quilt, i did take a quilting class in the 80’s and i’ve collected vintage quilts since the early 80’s. i still have every quilt i ever bought, even though as far as home decor goes, they haven’t always been “in”.

here’s the thing that i think is interesting about appreciating beauty: it’s not always in the form of art or something obviously manmade as something of beauty. to me, a bowl of fresh oranges, a lineup of shoes, a stack of books, a child’s messy face, an older person’s hands or many other things might strike a person as beautiful. it makes me sad when people don’t even notice beautiful things that surround them. it’s like missing out on a really important component of life. i think i really started to get this when i worked at carey cottage and one of the girls in the kitchen was soooo good at this. she found beauty in such simple things. it was contagious. i think before i was exposed to her observations, i was sort of just going through the motions. i would notice the obviously beautiful things, but not the subtle ones. watching for beauty makes life interesting. it also helps a person to be a better photographer….

here are some simple things that are inspiring to me:

a little corner of my studio.

my chippy LuRay pastels.

a canvas that i made for the fiskars website with one of my favorite quotes. on a sidenote, if anyone has photos from the fiskars booth at cha that include a little bookscape, i would love to see!

this would be good clutter.

when we did the junk jaunt a couple of summers ago, i almost passed this sweet chippy pink chair up. so glad i didn’t.

if you are a visual person at all, you know that lighting is key. the changes we’ve made throughout the house with lighting since we have lived here has made a dramatic difference. i would say lighting is right up there with paint in it’s power to change a room/home simply and without a lot of cash.

i’ve been collecting paint by numbers for a couple of years and until a few months ago, they were boxed up in the guest room closet….i like them much better on the wall.

when i want to be inspired, i sit down with one of my favorite magazines….i’ve done this since i got my first magazine subscription to seventeen back when i was about 14.

i have cool friends. they gave me a gift card to anthro for my bday and i made very good use of it. thanks bagels!

even though i’m very visual, i don’t ignore the other senses by any means. i think one of the reasons that i love to shop, is that i can combine looking with touching. i can’t shop without touching. so as convenient as online shopping is, sometimes, i just need to go shopping.

a couple of days ago, harper was on my lap and she took her teeny tiny little hands and reached up and put my face in her hands and then rubbed her cheek on mine. if that doesn’t have an effect on you, you are dead. such power in the touch.

i’m a foodie, so taste is a favorite sense too. we have cooking club tomorrow night and as we perused our julia cookbooks at my kitchen table yesterday, my mouth was watering! i can not wait to cook! and eat!

tom and i love good conversation and good music. so our winter evening candlelight dinners include both, plus ambiance, good smells and hopefully good food. no wonder we love those nights.

tonight, we plan to go to jeff booth’s CD release concert and we can’t wait! live worship music is soooo powerful! jeff is truly gifted and his gift blesses us every time we hear.

my sense of smell is keen. there are so many smells that conjur up feelings with me. i burn good smelling candles during the day and enjoy them thoroughly. tom is not a fan. he does not enjoy walking in most gift shops with their strong smells. i try to respect this. he does love the smell of good food cooking and more subtle scents. i don’t wear strong smelling perfumes, just good soap and body lotion. i am really turned off by being in a small space with someone with strong perfume. i am not an este lauder fan. if i’m at the grocery store and someone has it on, i have to go the other way. i have no idea what the deal is, but it almost makes me physically sick. i know we all have our little quirks with smell. we have a friend who becomes physically ill if he smells pine-sol. i like the smell myself.

i hope that you take the time today and hereafter to appreciate the beauty around you, if it hasn’t been on your radar lately. look for it.

have a great weekend and God bless!