Life is to be lived

I spot them everywhere, my favourite thing, those huge tulip-shaped pink magnolia trees in full bloom, and every single year I have the same reaction.

I love them.

They bring me so much joy, and I have always wanted one.

As my Debbie downer mother quips, “you don't need anything more in your garden, besides they only flower for a few weeks of the year and then that is it, they’re gone”.

I have decided the return for investment is worth it, (who listens to their mum anyway) and so this week, defiantly, I bought one.

There is nothing subtle about these magnolias in bloom.

They’re not a plant that quietly does its thing in the background.

Instead showing off spectacularly for two or three weeks and then they’re finito, and somehow that only makes me love them more.

I’ve decided that even if I only got one day of the year to appreciate their majestic beauty, it would be worth it.

Beautiful things in life are to be enjoyed.

A friend of mine recently told me that she’s finally started using a precious dinner set, a wedding gift from 20 years ago.

Gorgeous china, the good stuff, and it sat in a cupboard for two decades because it felt too precious to actually use.

Why did it take her almost losing her house to the January fires to realise that life is short, use the good stuff now.

I feel exactly the same way about mismatching vintage crockery that I use in my day-to-day.

Some pieces given to me from neighbours who’ve past, gifted to my old venue, or my nan’s plates which I have always adored.

I use them regularly because simply taking them out of the drawer makes me happy.

Then there is the blanket, total dag I am, I know, but I bought this gorgeous pastel tartan blanket at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show a couple of months back.

Eighty dollars, bargain.

As I carried my found treasure around the show, people kept stopping me to ask where I got it.

Everyone had the same reaction, they lit up.

It was evident that it didn't just make me happy to look at it, but others too.

I brought it home with no real plan for where it would live as it didn't really “go” with my decor.

It went on my bed while I decided, and is still there now.

Because despite it not being part of a planned interiors match, every time I walk into my room, I see it, and it makes me so happy.

Every night when I climb into bed and pull the blanket up over my shoulders, it makes bedtime that much cosier.

None of this cost much.

A small tree, a woollen blanket, vintage crockery, yet it has made the everyday so much brighter.

So please, use the tea set, wear the pretty dress for no reason, plant the things that make you smile when you glance out the window, do the things you actually love.

Don’t save it for a special occasion, or one day.

You might not be here next week, your house might not be there tomorrow, you just never know.

Life is to be lived.

There is beauty and joy to be enjoyed, go take it.

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