Good morning. I want welcome you to one of my favorite places in the house, the library room. I grew up with a love for reading. It's no coincidence because my grandfather was a writer and my mother instilled a passion for reading from a young age. I grew up surrounded by books and an excitement for using my imagination and learning. So I wanted to share a little bit about that with you. When you are trying to live a creative life, it is important for you to use your imagination and to constantly keep learning and seeking out interesting materials and resources. It also allows you to connect with other people. Over the next several months I will share some of the books that I am reading with you. Perhaps they may be of interest to you.
My grandfather, Edwin Augustus Peeples II was a writer. This is one of his books called Planting An Inheritance It was the last book that he wrote before he passed away. This book just really speaks to me. It has played a role the foundation of my core values and my connection the farm in which I now reside. I love having this book nearby and sometimes I'll just pick it up and read a few chapters out of it. It is a book about the legacy of love that went into this farm with the intention of it being shared with future generations. It is filled with wonderful stories of the failures and triumphs that came with developing and maintaining this property. My favorite chapter is The Summer of Hubert. Hubert was a bird that used to fly to the veranda every morning in the summer and join my Grandfather for breakfast and the splendor of the view over the front field.
My love the connection with reading extended outside our family into the design world and I thought I'd share that with you too. I have this constant connection with the outdoors, the arts and architecture.
You are probably familiar with the actor Kevin Bacon. His father, Edmund Bacon, was an architect and he wrote a book called the Design Of Cities. Bacon is known as the "Father of Modern Philadelphia." He was once the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and played a major role in the design of Philadelphia. His team is credited with Penn Center, Market East, Penn's Landing, Society Hill, Independence Mall, and the Far Northeast.
I stumbled across this book in our library and discovered my grandfather helped him with editing and writing this book. It is such an interesting book about The design and layout of cities that is still relevant today. I just thought it was interesting that there was this little hidden connection, on the shelves of this library waiting to be found.
I am a serial bookworm, typically reading several books at a time. I just absolutely love to read. Some are about business, art, or personal growth. Occasionally I buy novels. I will share some of them with you as I discover ones I think may be of interest. I am currently reading The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur by John Jantsch. I read another book by John, called Duct Tape Marketing, for a class in my master's degree program. I stumbled upon this book while I was working on a project and really enjoyed implmenting it into my daily routine. This book has "366 daily meditations to feed your soul and grow your business." Even if you are not trying to grow your business, the content is relevant. So each day, I start with a prompt and reflect on how and why you're doing the things that you're doing. This has become my daily meditation or devotion since early December.
Another great book that I keep out and occasionally read is called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. This one is about discovering and recovering your creative self. You don't have to be an artist to gain something from this, even though it is titled The Artist's Way. Creative living goes far beyond the confines of being an artist. I've been taking some notes from here and I probably will share some little things that I think are valuable.
I hope this video will inspire you to look around, see what books you're surrounded by, or pop into a book store, or even download something on your Kindle. Just having something that you can pick up each day that inspires you, gets your imagination going, makes you think, and helps you learn. It is always good to continuously keep learning. So I hope that this will inspire you.
I will be featuring different books that I'm reading and pulling things out of them on Instagram, YouTube, and on my blog. I hope you will follow along and share the different things that you are reading. You can post them in the comments below. Happy Reading.
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Ellie McIntoshEllie McIntosh, grew up as a creative thinker. Inspired by her father, a furniture designer an inventor and musician, she took the path to creativity. Her artistic journey has taken her as far as France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Spain, Germany, Morocco, and many places throughout the United States and Mexico, where she utilized various Archives
February 2021
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