Inspire Your Heart With Art Day

I started to write a post for today and then I stumbled upon 'what Holiday is today' and lo and behold...
January 31st is Inspire Your Heart With Art Day!

Apparently what we need to do today is to pick a piece of art - and after careful examination ask ourselves: How does it make me feel? What does it tell me? What emotions does it evoke?

I'll make it easy for you and I will pick the piece:

The Adoration of the Magi
Sandro Botticelli

It is a tempera and oil painted on panel, c. 1478/1482 by the Renaissance painter, Botticelli. Currently it is hosted by the National Art Gallery, in Washington DC.

I watched it with veneration: both for the event pictured and for the actual work of art. To be in the same room with a creation born over 500 years ago is humbling. I love the pastel colouring - compared to a few of his contemporaries Botticelli has this eerie feeling, it makes you think of faeries, somehow. In the context of this picture it seems an impiety to think of faeries!

What do you feel watching this beauty of 500+ years?

The Butterfly

Going to our local bead store for something else (as it usually happens) - I discovered these splendind butterflies, made of stone (dyed, of course, these are not natural colour), in amazing green, yellow and a very violet one. As it happens, I already had some amethyst for another project so all I had to do is to pick up some matching Czech beads (the 6.0 ones, I am not a seed-beader fan :))

While working on it I kept smiling - the butterfly is really cute and has such a vivid colour. I wished the store would have a bright blue one, but no luck this time (I'll keep looking).

I am presenting you today 'The Butterfly' - a happy necklace to brighten your day and your attire. Will transform you for the after-office evening on the town and it will make your friends ask 'Where did you get this dancing butterfly?'

Next to the focal piece what I love most about it is the 'tail' - a fluid and sparkly 3-strand sterling silver chain, lightly adorned with bits of colour from the body of the necklace itself (the light lavender Czech beads and the bright violet foiled-glass beads). The whole necklace is mounted on a sterling silver chain and finished with a sterling silver clasp - its length can vary from 18.5 in to 24.5 in, not including the butterfly and chain drop, which measures 3.5 in. This variation in length makes it a very versatile piece - from being snuggly hugging your neck to a more fancy 'belly-button' length.

Like all my pieces - it is handcrafted with love and utmost care and attention to detail, and it is designed to adorn the woman who wants to look her best from early morning all through the evening.

Might that woman be you?

The Tea Leaf

A couple of years ago a visit to a couple in our neighbourhood made a long lasting impression on me.

Imagine an office whose walls are full of butterflies - in beautiful frames and displaying incredible colours, between them the well-known Blue Morpho.
Imagine a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of Asimov's books... and next to it another bookshelf displaying sea shells in all forms and sizes, from small minuscule ones to the palm-sized shells, the ones you can hear the ocean through!
Imagine the sun room, something I have wished for so long (another point on my 'bucket list') and that reminds me of my Uncle's sun room back at the feet of Carpathian Mountains - you could see the Mountains and almost touch them...

But I digress (yes, I miss my mountains a lot!)...

At the end of dinner, as it is customary, with the desert we were offered coffee. Or, in my case, tea (I don't really drink coffee). To choose my own - I have been offered 4 amazing pyramids, wrapped in a fine paper... I randomly chose one (I am not a connoisseur - I simply like the natural green herbal tea, never cared too much for the black caffeinated variation) and I got my pyramid.



Maybe I don't know much about teas - however I pride myself with knowing to appreciate beauty... and beauty I received that evening! Inside the paper pyramid I found an art piece: made from the finest silk ever imaginable, of the most white I have ever seen, the inside pyramid contained a few real leaves and seeds! It doesn't even matter how the tea tastes, the beauty of the moment is in being able to submerse the silk in the hot water and watch the colours change. I wish my sense of smell would have been better that day (being winter, my allergies & asthma were already in full charge, not much remained of my sense of smell) - but I could actually feel and see the smell (yes, it is possible to use other senses to stimulate another!).

To add more charm to the moment - inside the paper wrap there was a piece of paper, in the form of a leaf, with a 'fortune' - or like our host exclaimed 'now we will be reading the tea leaves'

My destiny unravelled itself on the precious paper leaf:

'Do what you can, with what you have, where you are'

There you have it: even my tea leaf agrees that I don't need more and I can do something right now. I wish it would have told me what - but that's probably too much to ask a leaf :)

My tea leaf spoke!

I still recall my perfect moment on the evening of over 2 years ago - I am grateful I was allowed to live it and I was given the wisdom to savour it.

What will be your moment today? If you find it - please let me know, I'm always happy to hear beautiful stories!

P.S. I think I switched the inspirational story [which was presented Saturday instead of Sunday] with the fun-sharing one, I hope you'll forgive my mistake for one week :)