Something Beautiful: The Making of a Collection, Part I

The beginning of this collection started as a longing...

A longing to be someplace beautiful, a longing to... reside in beauty. Not just to visit a pretty place- although I do love doing that!- but to actually fully inhabit something beautiful as home. 

If you've known me for a bit, you know it's no secret I want to live in the country. The dream is a small cottage (the older the better) with a view of gently rolling hills, some sort of livestock dotting a pasture of green that I watch turn to ochre in the late summer, then to the soft gray-gold of winter. Big sky framed by a tree line in the distance. A winding drive. Maybe some hay bales scattered across the field. Board fencing or stone walls or {sigh} both.

A chance to realize a version of this dream slipped through our fingers earlier this year. It was overwhelmingly clear that it was not the path God had for us, but it was still disappointing. Kind of odd to grieve something you never had?

But I think that this longing for home- for a beautiful home, whatever that may look like to you- is a God given desire. Sure, it can be twisted by greed and pride and envy, but at the core of the wanting is what we were made for- to enjoy Him and His creation. And I think you can be grateful for what you have (we live in a very nice, pretty home that I love!) and also recognize that it's ok to long for something else.

And so I took this love and longing that was all mixed up with hope and grief and I created the Something Beautiful Collection. This series has been in process since March when I first started gathering and saving inspiration (more of that in the next post). And now it is 99% finished and I am in love with every single piece.

Twenty-(ish) works, all different sizes and mediums, framed and un-framed, available August 1st. I can't wait for you to see them all. Click on the Instagram reel below for a bit of a sneak preview.