Inspiration Dawns...

It's Day 2 of my long overdue vacation and I'm finally getting around to doing all the little things I've been putting off lately (like lazing in bed with my Yorkie and a stack of Shabby Chic & Victorian magazines!) But truly, it's amazing (and rather sad) how work and stress and commitments and responsibilities get in the way of us taking just a few sweet moments for ourselves. When is the last time you were able to take a morning, afternoon or evening or even just an hour to yourself, to do whatever your heart desired? Take a leisurely walk? Read the next chapter of the book that's been calling to you from your bedside table? Flip through your latest magazine subscription with a hot cup of tea? Start (or finish) that crafty project you've been waiting to do? Write a post in a beloved blog you've neglected for over a year? *wince*. Whatever 'it' is, it's a very necessary part of your well-being and making the time to fulfill 'it' will rejuvenate you! 

My year has been a crazy glorious adventure! Since my last post I began a new and exciting job, went on my first real trip with my boyfriend to Mexico - where we spent 7 heavenly days at a tropical resort and where I said yes to his proposal atop the Coba pyramid in the Riviera Maya! 

My winter and spring was spent house-hunting with my now fiancé Jon (we saw over 50 houses!) and my summer was spent packing my old life up and saying goodbye to my apartment and downtown life and saying hello to suburbia and a pretty little grey brick house on a quiet street.

Things have been a whirlwind but we're finally settling in and have now begun the umpteen preparations for our wedding next year. Finding the reception site, booking a church, researching photographers, the works! We've even been planning our engagement party (which is happening tomorrow actually!) So in the midst of all these big life changes, I began to feel that nagging little voice, that longing to nourish my creative soul with the joys I had put aside for so long. Time to cease -even for a moment- to give precedence to my duties and obligations and the priorities set out for me by Life and to do what needed doing for my artistic well-being. 

This, for me (this time), was painting...

One day I couldn't ignore the voice anymore and I marched to the art store on my lunch break and came out victorious with a 24x48 canvas, a large brush and big tubes of white, red, blue & yellow acrylic paints. That night I released onto that canvas what had been awaiting escape all those months. To my surprise it wasn't frantic and charged with explosive artistic energy but calm, peaceful and soft - an abstract morning sky in pale tones celebrating love and the union of male and female. It was, for me, an amazing thing to produce and I felt a kind of artistic high, when inspiration, ambition and effort create an intoxicating cocktail of satisfaction, pride and fulfillment.

Now this triumph has its rightful place above our bed; a reminder to dream, love and fulfill our desires.

I hope you all can take some time to answer the call of your heart today. <3