Inspirations

Today I am going to post a blog that has nothing to do with what I have made or intend to make.  Instead, in order to keep myself writing and inspired to write, I've decided this particular post is going to be all about things that I love and inspire me lately.  It's important sometimes, I think, to take a look around you and take stock of the good things in your life, the thing that are pretty, make you think, make you want to get up and dance, inspire you to make something.

Here are a few such things for me, in no particular order:

These books.  Sorry about the quality of the photos here, some are a little blurry:

This one is a photo book containing amazing rings by incredibly creative and innovative designers and makers.  Check these pages out!

And this one is, of course, a book of the works of the late, great Alexander McQueen.  I've spent hours just marveling over the pieces included in the book, which also happen to be the pieces that were in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's show of his work last year.  For a better look at these stunning works of art:
http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/objects/

Flowers!  How could something that occurs in nature and is so beautiful not be inspiring?  The colors, the shapes, the smells.  I love the spring time especially, where the city is bursting at the seams with tulips (my favorites) and the smell of apple blossoms wafts through the air, but any season and any flower will do:

The view from my apartment. Recently I was enjoying my building's roof top patio with two of my dearest friends and fellow wine enthusiasts.  We observed how unreal this view appears, almost like a facade, a movie set.  But it's real and it's what I get to see from my livingroom window every day.  I love this view!  The downtown core, one of the prettiest streets in the city (well the one side of the street anyway), all the bustle.  It changes by the minute, day, season, so here are a bunch of photos I've taken since I moved in.

My shoes.  This sounds silly and I suppose grandly materialistic, but I can't lie: I'm obsessed with shoes. I often plan outfits around them and have several pairs that I enjoy so much that if I'm out shopping I ask myself: would this dress look good with the [insert shoe reference here].  I have classic styles - the black patent leather pump; unusual, eye-catching ones - the Stewart tartan wedges with ankle strap; ones in which I can only sit or stand and look pretty since walking could be treacherous  - the five inch leopard print stiletto; and ones that I can wear with anything - the adorable black Mary Jane.  Recently the BF (kind, patient man that he is) and I viewed a documentary about my obsession that made me not feel quite as guilty - or at least not as alone in the wide world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dk66xz8te0

And finally, The Tunes:

Left to right, top to bottom:  Kalle Mattson - Lives In Between EP / Jack White - Blunderbuss / Dustin Bentall - Streets With no Lights / Steven Bowers - Homing / Dale Murray - Dream Mountain Dream / Joel Plaskett Emergancy - Scrappy Happiness / The Derek Trucks Band - Soul Serenade / The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You / Kev Corbett - Son of a Rudderless Boat / Paul Simon - Graceland / Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts / the Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach / Matt Costa - Mobile Chateau / The Kills - Blood Pressures / Mary Stewart - Chances Are I Like You / Xavier Rudd & Izintaba - Koonyum Sun

Where would I be without my tunes?  Curled up in a corner somewhere, silent, sad, colorless and hungry, wishing for the end.  Wouldn't you be, too?

So yeah, there you have it, a few of the things that make me tick.  Tomorrow it might be something entirely different, but for now these do the trick nicely.

Until next time kids and cats, cheerio!