Inspiration {Virgilio, Virginia and John}

One of my favorite places on the web

to go be inspired and fill my well
is Vimeo.

Here is a great live action video clip
created for John Mayer's "Submarine Test January 1967."
Uploaded and directed by Virgilio Villoresi.
The art was created by Virginia Mori.
Enjoy!



JOHN MAYER - SUBMARINE TEST JANUARY 1967, VIDEOCLIP by VIRGILIO VILLORESI from Virgilio Villoresi on Vimeo.

Big Hearted Business {Inspiration Bomb}

Happy Monday!

 

I was going to post photos of my Handmade U doodle journal today,

but I'm stuck in Denver until tonight.

So, I'll save that for the next post

and anyway, I really want to share this...

 

Big Hearted Business

 

A few weeks ago Ali Edwards shared this website on her blog.

I watched the Week 1 Inspiration Bomb.

 

 

Totally fantastic.

Both the interview and the chalk-art lettering.

 

Since then I've watched all of them.

A couple of times in fact.

 

Inspiring stuff.
Also, I really like this tag line of
"Teaching creative people about business, and business people about creativity."

 

I hope you watch them and enjoy.

 

 



Inspiration {A Pep Talk}

Hi.

This week didn't exactly go as I had planned.

In fact, it's been a pretty rough week

physically, mentally and emotionally.

I am determined to have a good weekend though,

so to kick it off

I thought I would share this fantastic video

the Farmboy shared with me last week.
 

 

I hope you're doing well and your weekend is beautiful.
Enjoy!

 

Inspiration {Betty In Paris}

I recently received this book as a gift,

so I've started planning of course.

Though I have no idea when we will get to Paris.

 

{Maybe the next time we go to Scotland.  Farmboy?

A week in Paris and a week on Mull?  Hello?  Farmboy?}

 

So until then, I'll continue my list of secret places to visit

and watch Paris through Betty's eyes.

 

Betty In Paris from Olive Us on Vimeo.

When I do get to Paris,
you can bet your britches
the first and last thing I will do
is ride that carousel.

Happy Friday!


 



Inspiration {Flora Bowley}

Last summer I wrote a post about picking up my paint brush again.

What a great feeling that is.

The push that got me to that point was this lady,

Flora Bowley.

 

I took her e-course.

A painting e-course...

makes one pause, but it worked and it was amazing.

 

She published a book last year as well;

Brave Intuitive Painting.

I have yet to get it, but it's on my list for whenever I need that little nudge again.

 

If you're looking for a bit of creative inspiration

she's recently posted this great video that shows her painting process;

from blank canvas to finished painting.

Very cool.

 

 

 

Flora Bowley * Brave Intuitive Painting from Zipporah on Vimeo.

 

Enjoy and have a beautiful Monday!

 



Living My Word

When I dare to be powerful,

to use my strength in the service of my vision,

 

 

then it becomes less and less important

whether I am afraid.

~Audre Lorde

 

*********

 

I have been living my word.

 

 

How about you?

 

 



Life. Adventure. Art.

"LIFE is pure ADVENTURE

and the sooner we realize that,

the quicker we will be able to treat life as

ART."

~Maya Angelou





On Life

It's about time I showed up around here, huh?

I'm still trying to clean up from the aftermath of the holidays and get back into the normal flow of things.

I did, however, want to drop in and share a little something.

A few days ago I received the kindest email from a lovely lady named Pam.

In discussing the ups and downs of this past year, she said something I found quite poignant and oh so true

{and sometimes I need to be reminded of this bigger picture}

"The reality of it is--

Here's to a year filled with

beautiful moments,

ridiculous moments,

disappointing moments,

maturing, growing moments,

moments filled with tears and sorrow,

moments filled with much laughter and joy,

fun moments.

In essence,

another year of LIFE!"

I concur, Pam.

Here's to you, Life.

You are such a beautiful place to be.

More Catalog Inspiration

As I was flipping through Pottery Barn's April catalog, I came to a screeching halt when I saw this photo.

The table was not what caught my eye... sorry Pottery Barn.

It was the books.  Specifically the stamped numbers on them.

I have lots of old books scattered around my home and I also have book innards (as I like to call them) lying about too.

When I make journals I use unloved library books, purchased from the library. I gut them and use the covers/spine as a base for the journals. So I have a lot of book innards.

Just what I needed for this project.

 Because my books were too bright I made a tea bath for them and I'm a messy crafter so I did this outside.

And I remembered how hot the bath was when I went to push the book down with my finger.

Of course, I didn't bring out any type of utensil for pushing/flipping the books.

And just so you know, in case you too want to do this, a stick tends to get mushy and quite worthless as a pushing/flipping utensil.  Best to remember to bring out some tongs with you.

Once the books were the color I wanted, I laid them out to dry.

A heat gun helps speed this process up.

Now for the fun part.  The part that this project was all about.

I simply used some number stamps (foam worked best here, because I was able to conform the stamp to the tea warped spine) and Tim Holtz Distress Ink.

Distress Ink is totally the best.

In my humble opinion.

Once the ink was dry (in no time at all) I was able to get to work creating new and pretty vignettes around the house.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

A quick and fun project.

Thank you, Pottery Barn, for the inspiration.

Where Inspiration Abounds

If you do not already know of it,

which I'm sure most of you do,

you should go right now and check out

Pinterest.

(actually you can finish reading this and then go check it out)

I've been pinning for a week and a half.

And I can't stop.

Just a few short weeks ago BP

(before pinning)

I would find myself most nights, about 30 minutes before getting into bed,

on Facebook battling it out on Tetris.

I found it a great way to slow my brain down and veg after a full day of doing.

Alas, I may never reach level 19 now that I have crossed over into AP

(after pinning)

I go to bed now with a mind full of beautiful, inspiring images whirling about.

(which makes for pretty dreams)

Here are my boards.  I have a total of 20 already.

Garland Love, Out for a Sunday Ride, Inspires Me, Words,

Mmmm, My Style, Handmade Pretties, Dance Me to the Moon,

Pretty, Pretty Princess, Kiss, Sigh, Daydreams,

Oh the Places I Will Go, Alfresco Please, You Can Find Me Here, I Heart Carousels,

Tea Party, Garden Delights, Home Sweet Home, Enchanted Forest

If you're already on, let me know so I can follow your boards and if you aren't and want to be shoot me your email and I'll send you an invite.

Oh Pinterest, how I love your loveliness.

(all photos/credits via AlisaN on  Pinterest)

Meet Elsita

I recently came across an artist named

Elsa Mora

aka

Elsita

One word...

AMAZING!

I first found her here.

(there are several other places she can be found, which I will link at the bottom of this post)

I was thinking maybe I should try my hand at paper cutting.

However on second thought,

after 14 years of working as a Pre-K teacher

I'm pretty sure the majority of my patience

was sucked dry by all of those Littles.

They can do that, you know.

So I think I will just admire Elsita's work instead.

Here are some other places she can be found.

main blog

Elsa Mora's Blog

doll blog

Dolls Have Feelings too

style blog

The Hidden Seed

(I oh so totally love her style!)

miniature books blog

Miniature Artist Books

and

her shop

Elsita

I hope you find as much enjoyment from her and her work as I do!

(all photos shown here are property of Elsa Mora)

Kelly Rae Inspired

I had a whole 'nother post intended for...

well...

yesterday.

But it didn't happen.

So it was going to happen today.

But now it's not.

Because I listened to this podcast this morning

and really enjoyed it.

Now I may turn a blind eye to the laundry room and the mountain of magazines,

sitting oh so patiently on my kitchen table,

waiting to be purged.

Instead I may just pull out my paints.

The sun is shining and the boys don't really care whether or not they have clean underwear

 or have to eat dinner on the couch instead of at the table.

Have a beautiful and inspiring day!

A Gilded Gathering

This past weekend I attended
A Gilded Life event.

I'm not sure that "gilded" is really strong enough of a word.
But what I do know, is that these two women, Debbie and Shea, were definitely cut from the same bolt of velvet that I was cut from, when it comes to the importance of the little things.

Their attention to detail is truly amazing and inspiring.

Although I didn't get any photos of the classes,
I did capture a little of their world.

So step through the looking glass with me, into the wondrous and beautiful world of the Gilded Girls.

*sigh*

"There Is a Place."

"Like no place on Earth.
A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger!"
~the Mad Hatter

Okay, so the only danger, for me anyway, is that I'm so intrigued that I can't seem to leave in a timely manner to go take care of the things I need to be taking care of.

It's a place called Plays With Needles.

If you have the slightest interest in Alice In Wonderland and/or sewing, stitching, beading, crazy quilts, then you must go see Susan.

DMC asked her to create an Alice In Wonderland crazy quilt block, using their products.

Everytime I go take a look at the newest layer she has added, my jaw hits the floor.

After you have awed over this amazing piece, slip over to her Flickr and take a peep at her bead work.... OMG!

(all photos belong to Plays With Needles)

Autumn Journal

I. Love. Journals.

I love looking at them. I love buying them. I love making them. I just have a hard time filling them up.

I find her journals and her journals very inspiring, as many of you probably do too. But I think the one whom I find the most inspiring is Natalea. She just whips them out so fast and effortlessly and they are always fabulous and interesting to look at.

Natalea recently created a journal just for Autumn. I recently acquired this gorgeous bit of velvet rose, which someone had tacked to a bit of black tulle netting.

So, inspired by both Natalea and the velvet, I set out to create yet another journal.

I started with a hard back book, that I picked up from the library for a quarter. Gutted it and sliced it into two, right down the center of the spine.

I'm going to sidetrack for just a moment here and tell you a little story...
Almost exactly a year ago, I was wandering through Hobby Lobby and saw a Zutter Bind-It-All. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and bought it right then and there without even going home to get a 40% off coupon. Visions of beautiful journals danced in my head all the way home. Then a day or two later, I read on someone's blog that it was a great tool, but you just need to take it slow and do some practicing with it first to make sure you learn to line things up correctly. Frozen is what I became. Silly I know, but I wouldn't go near it after that. In fact I never even opened the box. Until yesterday. Two weeks ago, a friend demonstrated how easy it is to use. I even got to try it and she was right.

She had some scrapbooks she had done, but instead of using the wire binding, she used ribbons to tie it all together. I loved that idea, but instead of individual ribbons down the spine, I decide to lace my journal with seambinding.

At first I wasn't sure if I would be able to bind it this way, because I had to punch through the book spine plus two layers of velvet ribbon. I had a hard time getting it into the slot, but once I did, it punched without any problem.

I'm so pleased with it! Now to just fill it... we'll see how that goes.

Finding Inspiration

I seem to be going down a path of neutrals and natural lately.



This image is from the summer issue of Flea Market Style. I can gaze and gaze at this page and I don't seem to get sick of it at all.



Loving the colors (or lack there of) on the cover of the latest Artful Blogging. And the articles on the inside don't disappoint either. But that's no surprise.

The four current projects I'm working on are, at this point anyway, in neutrals and the one I'm about to start, though still in my head, is headed down the same path.



As for natural, well, I'm there too. Must be all the time I've been spending outside... between rain storms, that is.



I purchased both of these sets of tags from Brandywine Boutique. They are stunning!



And these I purchased from Star's Fault.



And speaking of, I have become infatuated with her blog! It's one of those places where I just feel at home when visiting.

Like Eileen, I want to create a Garden Journal and all of these tags and cards will find their way into it , I'm sure.

And I would like to send out a Thank You to Tina, for two reasons. First, I found Star's Fault through her blog, and second (the main reason) is because she was kind enough to award me with Neno's Award.



THE AIM OF NENO'S AWARD IS:

1) a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.

2) to seek the reason's why we all love blogging.

I would like to pass this along to each of you who are reading this. Y'all are the best!

Hope the rest of your week is a beautiful one!

Inspiration and Some New Pretties

So, during my down time I found a few goodies to help inspire me. I thought I'd share and maybe they will inspire you too.


I purchased these three books from Wanda. She's my book go-to-girl. Funny how a few musty old books can make one so excited. And giddy with excitement was just what I was when I opened this package. See that Russian Ballet book? Eeeep! I CANNOT WAIT to get started altering it! But alas, wait I must. I'm still collecting ballerina images. But I am ridiculously excited!

The American Traveler book I am going to have to hide, until I decide what I want to do with it. The Farmboy has already tried to confiscate it once. Saying it's a book that would come in handy for him. You see, he's learning to speak Spanish from a Scotsman via pod casts (funny, I know) and we all know how often he travels through Portugal and France, so of course he would need the book.... uh, yeah right... nice try buddy.


One afternoon while junquing with my friend Nina, after telling myself I was just going to look and not buy, because I was already pushing the Farmboy bounds with the amount of money I spent on new glasses (two pair... doctor's orders), I went home with this lovely pink floral hat and pretty pink trim. A girl can never have too much trim, I always say.


Now this has a story behind it. There I am rushing off to an appointment. Starving, as I had not eaten yet and it was already 12PM. So I decide to drive through Starbucks and get a latte thinking it would tide me over until after the appointment and I could then grab a bite to eat. So I do just that. Pull out of Starbucks onto the street and stop at the stoplight. Are you with me so far? This is where the story gets good. Red light... I pick up my grande Carmel Macchiato. There is no cup sleeve on it. Starbucks no longer puts them on. If you want one, you have to ask for it. Well, I was preoccupied when I took my cup from the nice barrista, so I didn't ask for one. The cup was HOT. I started juggling it one handed trying not to burn the skin off of my fingers and get it back into the car cup holder. Before the cup made it into the said cup holder, scalding hot carmel macchiato ended up all over my left knee, right thigh and the console of my car. I'm really surprised my car didn't shoot out into traffic. Somehow I managed to keep my foot on the brake pedal. I did end up with a nice red welt on the underside of my right thigh where the coffee pooled up in my seat. Needless to say, that evening I went Internet shopping for a handmade cup sleeve. I found this one here. I have vowed to always have it with me in case a coffee craving should ensue... no more scaldings for me.


These little pretties I found while out junquing with my friend Cheryl. Love the lady on the lid. I think I'm going to put her on the cover of a book I'm making. Both the lady and the circular rhinestone brooch, I saw while I was out with Nina, but didn't get them. When I saw that both were still there,as well as on sale, I knew it was a sign. ;)


Last item. You will never believe where I got this. Well, at least I was surprised... Target! I actually had another one in my basket that I had picked up in the Easter section, but when I saw this one, that one went right back. I love the colors. I reminds me of an OliveJuice & Co. apron. I know your thinking exactly what I'm thinking. I am going to be a Domestic Diva in this apron. Okay, maybe you weren't actually thinking that, but I am... thinking it, that is. Yes, I know it's a little wrinkled and please ignore the grubby hand marks on the door, but I did say I would be a Domestic Dive when I had the apron on... and well right now, technically, Callia Adel has it on, not me. Anyhoo...

Whew, that was a lot longer than I had anticipated. Sorry for that. I suppose I should go don my new DD apron and clean those doors now.
Have a beautiful day!