My Inspiration Journal

Hey everyone.  I hope ya'll are havin' a great week so far.  It's starting to warm up pretty fast around here -- we were already in the high 90's last weekend.  I know, YIKES!  We are all starting to think about moving indoors, just as all of you are throwing open the windows & doors.  Even so, we are die-hard desert dwellers;  and as long as they continue to make sunscreen & moisturizer, we will survive!!!

I have just started to do some clearing out in my sewing/craft room & ran across something I have been wanting to share.  It's my Inspiration journal.

What is "inspiration" & what does it mean?  Well, according to the dictionary:

inspiration  

in·spi·ra·tion

     

[in-spuh-rey-shuhn]  –noun

1.

an inspiring or animating action or influence: I cannot write poetry without inspiration.

2.

something inspired, as an idea.

3.

a result of inspired activity.

4.

a thing or person that inspires.

5.

Theology .

a.

a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.

b.

the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.

6.

the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.

7.

the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired. 

Inspiration, for me, is something that makes me take an action.  That action can come in many forms.  A beautiful scene might make me smile or give a little gasp, both actions showing pleasure.  A magazine page of the perfect room will probably make me giggle with glee & say "YES, I can create this!"  I'm also very inspired by many of the "Self-Help" books & tapes.  I'm not saying that I'm so gullible that I BITE on any & everything.  I have a good filtering system!  All that being said, I am most inspired by  images or pictures.  I can take those visual images, whether it's a scene, a magazine page, or on a blog, & expound on that vision in my head;  and MOST of the time, I can translate that to a drawing or written description. 

Several years ago, I decided I needed a place to keep those things that inspire me.  I remember the day very clearly, because I had been listening to one of those "self-help" tapes & the person was talking about the importance of an inspiration board.  He was talking about using it more for goals & visualizing those goals, like the kind of house you want, travel you wanted to do, that kind of thing.  Well, I do believe in the "power of positive thinking," but not to the extent he was talking about.  I did, however, really like the idea of a place to keep all those pictures & pages that get ripped from magazines.  I didn't want it on my wall -- I could have wallpapered the room with all the pages I'd accumulated.  Well, it just so happened that Michael's was having a sale that day on sketch books, & I thought that would be a great thing to use.  That's the day my "Inspiration" journal was born.

Before I started gluing in my stack of lovely ideas, I had to first decide if I wanted it to be orderly, like with labels & such.  Normally, that would be the way I'd go -- you know with my OCD!  But, I decided on random;  and that has worked so well for me.  I also "weeded" my stack before I even began the gluing process.  I had been saving things in a designated folder in my "Go To" file drawer, but now I can thumb through my book & see all the loveliness.

Some interesting things have happened since I started my Inspiration journal.  As I go back and look at older pages, I'm seeing similarities in things that I or we have actually purchased. The magazine photo of the fountain, above, was toward the front of my journal & I hadn't even looked at that page for a long time, until I was thumbing through to see what pages I wanted to share with all of you.  The fountain below is in our backyard.  Yeah, I know, I was pretty surprised, too!

I love planters like this with all kinds of different plants grouped together.  This one inspired me to do......

this one, plus several others around our yard.

On most pages, I will write notes about what I like best or how I would like to tweak the look to fit our home.

This was another one of those weird coincidences.  I refer to a few pages in this part of the book as my "Pastel Period!"  I was totally enamored with pale peach, pink, etc.  I knew I liked Fiesta Ware, but had no idea that the company was actually making new pieces or that I might be the proud owner of.......

my very own growing collection someday.

I love putting clothing outfits together, so when I see some ideas that I think might work for me (sometimes only in my dreams would it work!), then it gets ripped out & placed in my journal.

I had plans to replace a couple of light fixtures in our current house, but now I may be doing that in the new house.

I'm very inspired by all the new paint colors & how they can be combined for such loveliness.

Organization always inspires me.  This well-organized drawer inspired me to create.......

my "much less expensive" version, using poster board.

As with all things, our tastes certainly change.  Some of my pages make me stop & wonder "What was I thinking?"  LOL!!!  But, if it's glued in, it's staying & will be part of the story of how this journal has evolved.  I'm also finding, as I "age" (ouch!), I rip fewer things from those magazines.  I hope that's because of my efforts to be much more satisfied with where I am right now -- living in the present rather than always having the need to project myself into a future, better scenario.  That's something I work on every day.  

I hope you have some kind of "Inspiration" keeper.  Whether it's a board, a book, or a folder, I really believe it tells so much about us.  If you do something along these lines, please let me know or even consider doing a posting about it.  You just never know who you might inspire!

Thanks for stopping by and please come again soon.

CAS

I'm happily linking to:

Organizing Mission Monday

Today's Creative Blog

Wow Us Wednesday
Whassup Wednesday
Inspiration Friday
Friday's Unfolded
Amaze Me Monday