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.

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.

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.

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...

Playing around

More fun in the Moleskine... when I start I never know where it will go. Just painting the background is relaxing and it lays a basis for the rest, guides the colour code and chases away the fear of the white page. It's important to remember to play, like children, without the need to know where we are heading or if it will be good, just following the path the pens and paintbrushes take you...

Visual doodle

I'm loving my new Moleskine and the evenings I spend with it painting, collaging, drawing, doodling, experimenting... As I do this I like to listen to Triple J radio for the Aussie twang, to discover new music and for the pleasure of the absurdity of listening to a morning show at 10pm:-)

I really enjoy surfing on the site of Doodlers Anonymous and looking at all the imaginative things people from all over the world come up with. The site inspired the page above. Doodling is something I do spontaneously when I have a pen and a piece of paper at work or at my desk. But when given the freedom to push it to the extreme it becomes a form of meditation to get out of my brain and into the flow.

This was made with my faithful black bottle pen (recycled from plastic bottles) and gel pens. It's that simple

Flirt to convert

I have decided to try visual journalling... I bought myself a beautiful Moleskine (my first!) and decided to just do it, without worrying about the result. It's a journal, remember? so no one has to see it! so I got out my paints and my glue and made a first attempt and left it to dry...

I felt like going a bit further, I guess my juices had started running! so I got out another notebook and made the collage above! I was listening to the radio at the same time and they talked of an expression I'd never heard: Flirt to convert. Apparently it's a technique hot Christians use to get people into church! Goes to show you never know what you will learn whilst listening innocently to the radio ;-P

Travel preparations

I can pretty much split up my trips in 3 different categories: for work, to go visit my family and to travel somewhere new or exciting! I absolutely love the excitement of preparing for a trip to an unknown destination, there's a wonderful feel of adventure. I know it is not necessary to go far away to break routine, but right now I am savouring the anticipation of going away tomorrow...

I am going for a four day city trip to Warsaw with some girl friends that I adore and I am so happy first about having a well-deserved break from work, going to a totally new country, discovering the food, the streets, the funny sounding words, and doing all that with people I am very close to and who are really fun. I love the buzz of packing, trying not to forget anything important, thinking about what clothes to take so I'll be warm enough...

These last weeks and months have been quite trying and I am glad for a few days 'off' to do things for myself and I know it will bring me the energy I need for the coming period.

Unforeseen chances

I am having trouble posting regularly on this blog. Really lately time has just been flying past me, and this despite the fact that I am consciously trying to make more time for myself.

The last months have been very difficult and wonderful at the same time. For once I have something 'real' to worry about, and yet I feel ok. Cancer has entered my life, well not mine directly but my father's. He is lucky to be able to take a very strong medicine treatment from home but it is still not easy. I feel very strongly for him as he is really FIGHTING a battle against the disease to stay with us, his family. I feel for my mother who is daily more and more impressive in her way of dealing with things, staying positive, supporting my father and my family and keeping on working her job.

It is a curse, really. But it is also a blessing. A chance for me to see how much my parents love each other even after nearly 30 years. It is a chance for me to be able to get to spend more time with them and go home more often than I have in the last 10 years. It is a chance to see that my sibblings are wonderful and loving (not that I ever doubted it). It is a chance to put things into perspective in my own life and enjoy the moment, whilst finding myself and growing stronger. It is a chance to have heart felt talks with my father unexpectedly and make PLANS for the future because we believe in it. It is a chance to feel more loving towards my family because they will always be there for me.

For all of this I am extremely grateful and I feel serene. I trust that things will become better, soon, and this will have been an opportunity to grow.