Do What is Beautiful

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, art, drawing, encouragement, Inspirational, On my Worktable, travel, Uncategorized, words

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chalkboard, inspirational, Japan, On my worktable, trees, words

Life is complicated and one day a couple months ago I became extra conflicted. I just didn’t know what to do and was almost paralyzed with insecurity and fear. What should I do? I had trouble figuring out what was good, what was right, and how to please everyone. Nothing seemed clear. Even when I found a task that seemed ok, I quit as soon as it seemed fun. Really? Now how dumb is that, to intentionally sabotage something good?

But then a new thought suddenly filled my mind. That day, instead of doing what seemed good or fun… a clear thought came to mind.
“Do what is beautiful.”

I posted it on my refrigerator and said it out loud. “Do what is beautiful.”

That day, as I looked through photos I took in Japan last year, I was struck how looking at a tree, really appreciating it, the leaves, the bark, is beautiful.

Enjoy the photos slow. Look close. Each pine needle, each curled leaf, each thirsty root.
Do what is beautiful.

I breathed in deep, remembering the smell of pine and forest.

And there, sitting at my computer looking at photos, breathing deep suddenly seemed beautiful.

Everything started to be beautiful!

Washing dishes is beautiful.

Strength is beautiful.

Resting is beautiful.

Sacrifice is beautiful.

Never giving up is beautiful.

The slate from my childhood hangs on my dining room wall. I had not written on it for over a year and it was time for a change. Writing new words on the slate is doing something beautiful.
I started with a pencil sketch.

I sketched out the words to make it all fit.

I erased and edited.

Do something beautiful.

My sketch seemed off and I wasn’t happy with it. It took me a while to figure out that I wanted to do “what is beautiful” not just “something beautiful.” It was such a small change but it made a big difference to me. So I erased again and penciled in Do What is Beautiful.

Do What is Beautiful, the sketch for the chalkboard.

The old organizer box still holds chalk bits that I used 45 years ago.

I picked out a handful of chalk colors to make the drawing.

Colored bits of chalk

But I ended up using only neutral colors.

I’ve never minded the scritch and scratch of chalk on the board and even enjoy the dust on my fingertips.

Do What is Beautiful, written in chalk.

Do you see the tally marks in the lower left corner. Count them… there are
37 tally marks. I made them as I worked on the chalk drawing. Each one of those tally marks is when I erased something on this chalkboard and had to do it over. 37 times I made mistakes or had to straighten a line, or erase or start over. I left the tally marks on the drawing because they represent what is beautiful.

The last part of the message is to Never, Never give up. Never giving up is beautiful.

If you’re at a loss of what to do, do what is beautiful. You will know. And never, never give up.

Do What is Beautiful and Never, Never give up.

On my Worktable… continuing teacup cross stitch and embroidery

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in art, crafts, On my Worktable, projects, tea time, words

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crafts, cross stitch, embroidery, On my worktable, projects, teacups

Cross stitch nearly finished. The words will be embroidered. Then adding more embroidery and seed beads will be the really fun part.

On my worktable – artificial flowers

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, family, flowers, home, home decor, Inspirational, On my Worktable, Uncategorized

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artificial flowers, crafts, family, flower arranging, flowers, home decor, On my worktable, spring arrangements

Today my worktable was full of flowers for the spring arrangements. The bins have been in the living room for over a week but I finally had time today. It’s always a pleasure to arrange the flowers, even though they are the same ones I’ve used for years. At the end of a season, I pull all the flowers out of the vases and sort them by color in bins, then they go to the attic. It’s good to start fresh each year so I mix and match the flowers to suit the season and mood.

The arrangement for the foyer. I’ll probably add a little more at the base. It looks a bit too tight but I’m crazy over the color.

The bare brances were in the corner through winter, strung with lights and crystal snowflakes just to add brightness to the room.

The same bare branches now share the space with artificial dogwood and greens. The lights were taken off the branches and placed in the vase for ambience.

I love the new arrangements! They make me happy. =)

Not in the photos: son’s twin size mattress on the floor in the living room because we have to tear out the downstairs bathroom and completely redo it due to a major leak.
Not in the photos: the flat screen tv right in front of the large dogwood arrangement in the corner.
Not in the photos: tears shed because another one of our children moved out last week and we’re all missing him and wishing him well and cheering for him in his new job in another state.

Two of my sons. Noah on the left moved south last weekend. We miss him! Very glad for the job opportunity though.

We all have a choice on what to focus on. I choose to focus on what’s good and bright and beautiful and sparkling in life. You can have brightness if you choose. Sometimes it takes a lot of work, like clearing a garden of weeds. You have to yank out bad thoughts and deliberately hack at unwanted vines. But it’s possible and totally worth it.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Ph 4:8

The arrangement for the living room table. The velvet-petal roses are showing their age but they are still beautiful.

My QR code fabric was a success!

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, fabric, On my Worktable, sewing, Uncategorized

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crafts, fabric, On my worktable, QR code, QR code fabric, sewing, Spoonflower

QR Code Fabric. The white QR Tale design was printed on silky faille on the left. The gray QR Tale design on the right was printed on Kona cotton.

Yay! Pardon all the exclamation points but how cool is that! Woot!
My QR Code fabric on Spoonflower printed beautifully.
I’m surprised QR code fabric isn’t available by the bolt yet. I’ve searched all the major fabric companies and haven’t found anything. The options for code in fabric are endless and super duper fun.
I had this fabric printed via Spoonflower. I call it “An Unfinished QR Tale” because each block of text contains just a hint of the story. There are over 30 separate phrases in QR code in this fabric. The code squares printed up beautifully in silky faille and cotton. I thought perhaps the fabric grain would interfere with the QR reader but there was no trouble at all reading the code. I don’t have a smart phone so used a QR code app on my tablet.

with nary a moment to spare

Yay!
I had designed another QR code fabric for a ModCloth contest but didn’t win. Here is my entry for the ModCloth contest, a sweet little design featuring code and wings. This design has different text from QR Tale, mostly light and airy phrases.

As soon as the QR Code on Wings proofs, I’ll be able to offer it on Spoonflower.
The first two QR tale fabrics printed perfectly so they can be purchased on Spoonflower now. I plan on making more.
~ Recipes in QR code for making an apron
~ QR Check design for a picnic table cloth
~ Poetry, perhaps haiku or limericks
Imagine wearing a shirt or dress and hearing “May I please read your dress?” haha
Imagine a restaurant with QR code napkins or placemats… Reading the code would make waiting for the meal much more enjoyable…
Ah yes, so many ideas.

Also, I really want to do color. These designs are all black and white or gray scale. The picnic table cloth will be a lot of fun to create and even more fun for picnic guests to use. :)