Doing What You Love

It’s so important as a creative person to take time to do what you love. That might seem like a no-brainer at first, but life’s demands have a way of creeping in and stealing us away from the things we love to do the most. Before we know it we are running at a break-neck pace with little or no time to refresh ourselves. The downside to this is we end up running out of creative juices. I’m not talking about burn-out, because that is an entirely different beast in itself, although if we aren’t careful we might end up there too! I’m talking about when the creative pool runs dry. We are left feeling unmotivated and uninspired to create or put our hands into any project. I found myself feeling this way as the new year began.

I think it’s normal to feel a touch of this after the holiday season. Not only is it the most busiest time in our lives, but creatively speaking the most exhausting. I usually find myself liking the break-neck pace, and am known to “say YES” to too many people at the same time, but always find a way to finish well. I attribute that to my procrastination self in high school. I was always a last minute-er, and found myself producing good work even at that pace. I enjoyed the rush, and thrived off of it. However this time around there was no thriving. I found myself worn-out and quite honestly lacking motivation or inspiration of any sort. Something had to give, or change or be drastically different if I was going to get out of this funk. My husband and I were fortunate enough to swing a last minute solo vacation in March, and found ourselves soaking in some much needed vitamin D and a few margaritas on the beach in Mexico. I thought this was it, this was what I needed. A break from life, a break from routine, a break from winter, and kids, and responsibility – EVERYTHING! And while our time away was refreshing, and definitely relaxing, I still found myself uninspired to create anything. I think it’s normal in life to need a break every now and then. To put down whatever it is we are working on, walk away for a bit, until we feel it calling us back. I spent a lot of time thinking and pondering about what it was I loved to do. What it was that I always found myself most happy in when being creative. I have a creative friend, one whom I’ve actually known my entire life. I had been dreaming and planning of a way where we could combine our forces and work together on something for a long time. And now I had it. I had felt so uninspired and frustrated with taking pictures of interiors lately. Frustrated at my skill set, frustrated at my equipment, frustrated at my lack of understanding how to trouble shoot the issues I was having. But then I remembered that one thing that I always love doing. Tablescapes. Trust me saying it out loud sounds completely and utterly silly to me. But when I think back, and ponder on moments I’ve truly enjoyed, it’s creating beautiful tablescapes, and photographing them. So of course I found myself texting my amazingly talented friend, who happens to be a floral designer. She’s created some of the most beautiful arrangements I’ve used in projects here on the blog, and I was so excited I finally had an opportunity for us to partner together. I gave her no limits, no expectations, no guidelines, and before I knew it we were planning the most elaborate mothers day tablescape. Since it’s spring, we wanted to create something that was seasonally inspirational, but also with the purpose that you could celebrate the special women in our lives. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, a feminine spring tablescape was just what the Dr. ordered. And since we both decorate our homes in masculine colors, it was fun to work outside the box. I hope you are as excited as I am to share our Mothers Day Tablscape with you tomorrow. It truly was the breath of fresh air that I needed for my creative juices to start flowing again. It was the perfect reminder to not get so busy doing “things” you forget to make time to do the thing that you love most. For me it’s Tablescapes, and I hope you enjoy, but most importantly feel inspired!

Beautiful floral arrangement done by Christi Karjala of Twig & Tulip Floral Studio.

Stay Tuned!

Bre