Spark Your Creativity at the Thrift Store

Creativity.  I feel so much more fulfilled if I can sneak something creative in each day.

Last fall I worked my guts out painting and rearranging and buying rugs and bamboo roman shades, hiding the leather love seat in the nursery and dragging the wingback chairs up from the basement, installing the shades etc, etc.  Earlier this year I was already thinking about how the room still doesn't feel done, even though it is much improved from this:

Fall 2007, living room soon after we moved in

And then I found this book on Amazon.com in February this year.  Julia Cameron presents concepts of how the brain works, how creativity works, and has specific tasks you can do to keep your creativity going and improving.  Shortly after I began to read this book, I created this mantle arrangement:

the living room as of yesterday

I had gone to a local thrift store for an "artist's date" and came back with $20 worth of stuff and tons of energy that I am now realizing is Creativity.  That gold framed mirror was $16.  Someone had smeared brown paint on two sides as some sort of project.  I thought I would have to gold leaf it again, but was delighted to find that the paint rubbed right off with a wet cloth.  Thanks to Julia Cameron and Thrift Town--I can keep going--keep getting better and better at creating beauty.