23 April 2010

Speaking of inspiration

I am addicted to blog surfing to discover new things and find inspiration. Here are two blogs that have made me smile and started ideas boiling in my brain...

Michael Nobbs has a made a free eBook with tips and ideas on how to start drawing your life. It is in a more readable format than the printable versions on flickr, and beautifully presented with his own drawings, lots of suggestions to just pick up and draw! (and it goes for anything creative really)

A wonderful series on mini-journaling written by Lisa Sonora Beam with lots of beautiful colourful pictures, ideas of things to do and advice about fighting our fears etc.

21 April 2010

Inspire


While I was making this page in my visual journal, I picked out a random word cut out from my the Living Out Loud book by keri smith. The word was INSPIRE. It got me thinking a little about what it meant...

I tend to mostly think in terms of looking for inspiration, rather than actually inspiring, though I hope I do and will inspire people from time to time, even without knowing it.

Then the thought came to me that inspiration in French means both: inspiration and breathing in! It seemed so appropriate to me who is always trying to remember to breathe properly in order not to be overwhelmed.

16 April 2010

Good mail day

I wish I could receive hand-written mail and coloured envelopes everyday! I love finding a package or an original looking envelope with unusual stamps on the stairs up to my flat (hell, I even like looking at my neighbours' envelopes and thinking about what they may contain and where they are from!).

Whilst surfing the web I just found a wonderful blog celebrating the joys of snail mail. I'm happy to know I am not alone in my passion for mail, in a world where most of my friends prefer to keep in touch via facebook. I totally love the concept of 'good mail day', the day where you find a letter you weren't expecting smiling at you with news from a far away friend, the day when you are running late and on your way out you find an envelope that sends you off on your day with happiness.

The blog has great pictures and ideas of awesome things sent in the mail. It's inspiring, I know what I will do this weekend, there a few friends I haven't written to in a while!

1 year

Today is the anniversary of starting this blog. Though I don't have a real direction for it, I really enjoy having this online platform to express my thoughts. To think a whole year has passed already and so much is happening in my life... At the same time I feel so much more grounded than I was a year ago, so much more ME in a way.

This simple collage I made shakes up something in me. I love the big open window with a large view and the letters vaguely seen through transparency, like a sign that it is OK to look wide and also show who you are underneath. I'm starting to realise that many unconscious thoughts come to the surface when I do collages, visual journal pages, doodles.

11 April 2010

Making sense


Spring is finally here, the days are longer, flowers are popping up all over the place after the long and cold winter we've had. It's great to see the growth of nature that nothing can stop, and the beauty of each little flower.

This is a period of shakiness on my feet, not knowing where to turn to and feeling a bit lost. But I'm hanging in there, with the hope that it will all make sense soon, or at some stage, like spring after winter...