What's a gal to do?

What is a gal to do when there is a 70% chance of rain, as late as May 27th in California? This gal digs out all her magazines and catalogs,her inspiration notebook and other various decor items that are around to inspire, and of course gotta have tea and triple ginger cookies !

When I was a child , my Grandma would bring out the big Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs, old cereal boxes for the thin cardboard , scissors, glue and even tiny fabric scraps and I would spend hours making my own paper dolls, and picture books and I would spend hours ripping, clipping, taping, gluing and dreaming....no different now, just older and no more paper dolls.....but I still love the process.It gets the creative juices flowing and the mind working and mulling over projects, current ones and those in the future.




You can find inspiration anywhere...I find it in nature..








I find it in art...





Of course there is many other places ...places you might not think of, TV shows, movies, books , even those that are not decor books, talking to others, reading decor blogs, of course surfing the net and walking through your fav stores...even clothing stores....I have even been inspired by walking around a grocery store and seeing a good display set up of white porcelain!

My fav thing to do on a rainy day or just a lazy day is to go through my mags and watch all my taped decor shows and take notes, rip out pages, or bits of pages , even if I do not like the whole space I may like the color combo or the layout, a table scape, even a floral arrangement and then I tape them in my inspiration notebook ( a bargain find at Barnes and Noble for 6.00 on the discount racks). I come back to this notebook a lot, and it may include things I can only dream of, or things that I have seen and want to try to find or copy , even clippings of dream spaces that if we ever own a home that I would love to achieve....almost like a vision board in a book.You will be surprised as you collect these clippings, photos, maybe paint chips and fabric samples, that a pattern of likes and dislikes will occur and it will give you a great start to a beautiful space , something to build a plan on. You may change your mind on some things over time and that is ok, remove it ( that is why tape and not glue) and move on...or like I did the other day and rip the page clear out....that is ok too! There are no rules!

So the next time you are at a lack of inspiration and find yourself with some down time grab those magazines etc and a pair of scissors, tape,and something to sip on and of course munch on and rip/clip away!

***** Portrait of a Geisha in pencil drawn by daughter Rebecca