Joy, Inspiration & "Big Magic" - Seeking Tranquility in Tea and Crafts!

This weekend I joyfully finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic (which I gushed and blogged about in my last blog post here) with a sigh and a bit of wistfulness.  I always seem to feel this way whenever I read the final words of a book I love because I get so blissfully engrossed in the narrative that I want it to go on and on and never end.  I adore this book and I find myself flipping back to passages in random parts over and over again and ugh, I JUST LOVE IT.  It has solidified a place in my heart, making itself comfy right alongside all the other books that have lit me up from the inside out. 

So it's no surprise that I was inspired to do something this weekend that I haven't done in a long time: create for the sake of creating.  I was inspired to dabble in a new and fun and personal project and I made stuff for no other reason than to make stuff for the sheer heck of it!  Zero expectations (other than to actually MAKE the thing!) and zero rushing.  I am in my zone and I feel most aligned whenever I am creating which is why doing what I do for a living (creating and developing recipes and tea blends, designing products, and experimenting and innovating) is so fulfilling.

But after reading Big Magic, my inner voice said, "well, why stop there?  Let's do other fun creative stuff for...well, fun!"  I think this inner voice piped up because before the pandemic hit, I'd had plans to find and enroll in some art classes and attend art school during the summer, just for myself as an additional creative outlet, to stretch my wings even bigger and further.  Since things have changed though, I think that yearning and longing for even more creative fun simply needed a release and this weekend I had simply found another way to do it from home: paper crafts!

For those who know me, you know what a craft junkie I've been all my life!  Jewelry making, scrapbooking, painting, and more have all taken over my heart at different times, holding my undivided attention during the duration of those creative endeavours.  Paper is my number 1 crafting love (as evidenced by my ridiculous stash of patterned paper, supplies, and tools) and big magic simply found me again this weekend, giving me the ever so gentle nudge to make stuff.  I scrapbooked heavily for many years and while I was running my first business, The Sugared Teacup, I amassed quite a stash of decorative items and paper things on top of my mountain of scrapbook supplies.  And I felt the urge to put them to use again, but in a new and different way.

So I did.

I had this fun idea to make 4x6 paper cards with the same teacup motif but making them all look different with different colours and patterns and embellishments and such, and to maybe print out a fun tea quote to glue onto each of them.  What will I do with them?  Hmm, give them to my customers in their parcels probably for an extra hit of love and light because why not? :)  So I busted out the papers, scissors, glue, pencil, and paper punch and spent my Saturday afternoon paper crafting, not giving a single damn if an edge was crooked or if something was perfectly rounded. 

And I think part of me really just wanted to feel free to not care and be hyper aware of every single thing.  To give myself an afternoon to not worry about whether I was 2 meters away from the next person, to not feel anxious about daily life, and most of all, to create a little space of peace, tranquility, and grace which is so sorely lacking for us right now.

For all my friends who love tea so dearly, use that love to fire up a creative pursuit!  Write poetry, paint, draw, or you can be like me and go to town on pretty paper things.  Because at the end of the day, it's all just big magic, inspiration, and fun.  So why not?