Good Morning,
My son came in my studio this week and loved a rug I had on the wall. After years and years of seeing my rugs, him loving one still matters a lot to me. He used to sit on my knee while I hooked my early ones.
I am so proud of him, that as a grown man he loves beauty. He is often working on renovation projects and he always considers beauty. He always makes his own decisions and things always look great. I mentioned it to him one day, complementing him and he off handedly said, "Growing up the way I did, it is hard not too."
Considering the beauty around us is an important part of living, especially today as we spend a great deal in our own places.
Perhaps it is just a twig of forsythia forced into bloom on the kitchen table, or a rock with a bit felted wool glued on the bottom acting as a door stop or a coat of white paint on a door trim. We can love and nurture the spaces around us. It can be small things that enrich the rooms we live in. When that space is enriched, we are enriched.
I think the real thing is to consider beauty. To think about it as you make things, as you lay a throw at the end of your bed, or plate up your supper. When we make things beautiful, we feel it in our hearts. It lifts our spirit.
Beauty is different for everyone. What one person finds lovely, another person might not be moved by at all.
I love my rugs. I love that other people love them. I love that my son loved this one. But I make my rugs so that I will love them. Every one of them.
I do understand though when someone is not in love with my rugs. I get it. Beauty is not the same for us all. And that's okay. What matters is that I love what I make.
It is important that you surround yourself with what you find to be beautiful; what you find to be true and what matters to you. When you consider beauty in your surroundings you consider yourself and everyone who shares that space with you.
When you make your rugs, make them beautiful to you. It does not matter that someone else will like them. That is just a bonus if they do. As you hook, make thoughtful decisions about how to make your rug as beautiful as it can be. Color, shape, form, texture, design and balance all come into play in creating beautiful rugs.
I encourage you to bring beauty into your life in every way you can. To consider what you love and act upon it. I have lived in the same old farmhouse for thirty years and it still amazes me what a bouquet of kitchen flowers from the yard can do to lift my spirits when I walk in there to make a cup of tea on a grey afternoon. In all those tiny ways we make our lives better. Being attuned to beauty around us will also make our rugs better. They go together.
Thank you for caring, and for reading my newsletter.
Deanne
PS. There is only 8 more days to sign up for DFS Design School if you want to learn how to design your own hooked rugs. It is only available for a limited time so Sign up below. Yay! Another way to bring beauty into your life.
PPS........
Seven Simple Ways to Bring More Beauty into Your Life
- Leave art books on your coffee table (The library has lots).
- Avoid watching violent shows and try some nature television (Netflix had a new David Attenborough program on colour in nature).
- Take a walk on a quiet road where you can hear the birds sing.
-
Try some virtual visits to an art gallery or museum. Here is a link to a virtual tour of my show at the AGNS.
- Arrange your wool beautifully on a shelf where you can see it.
- Find a new recipe and cook something delicious. I have been following Half Baked Harvest and have made five new recipes lately.
- Tidy up an area of your house. Dust, fluff the pillows, change around the pictures and sit down there with a cup of tea and take it all in and appreciate it.
