An Elegant Evening at Home

Tonight, I got home and felt like a quiet night. I put on my black satin robe and made a pot of tea. I sorted through some paperwork and wrote a birthday note to a friend. I knit and watched a movie. It was quiet and relaxing.

It drove home the small aspects of an elegant personal life that you must have to develop an elegant life on a larger scale. The robe was a wonderful, luxurious alternative to my street clothes. The teapot and matching up created a sense of aesthetic harmony. My pearls, which I don't usually take off until I shower, peak out from beneath the robe, a small reminder of the beauty of the day. Little breaks to knit kept anything from being rushed or pressured.


These made the mundane tasks of scanning papers seem more pleasant, far less drab than they are. Taking the time for yourself is important, but the ways and means that you do it in are crucial. That's one of the cornerstones of an elegant life - that each item in it is carefully selected to reside in harmony with everything else. Nothing has to be designer or expensive. They simply have to work together towards your personal goals. So when you pour your tea, you get a little sense of enjoyment just by looking at the cup.


Elegance is in the details. And, as Kathleen Tessaro states so clearly in her novel, Elegance, "everything you own should do its job with some semblance of grace and dignity."

A Beginning

I've been considering the idea of this particular blog for awhile now. Earlier manifestations were attempted, always using a group format. I never trusted that I could create enough content to justify taking up webspace.

I have finally accepted, however, that my standards are unique to me, as they are to each person who has taken the time to become an individual, and I find it incredibly difficult to collaborate in areas which I hold a strong opinion on. While not my favorite trait, it is the case. And so I am venturing forth into a new project, in which I hope the experience I gained from previous efforts as well as a better understanding of what I am pursuing will guide me along the journey. I do not know all the answers, and the only person for whom I can dictate elegance is me. But I can pass along what I know, while learning from other perspectives, to continue to fine tune the life I live into an elegant one.

I hope you'll join me in my pursuit of an elegant life.