Inspiration Friday: The Right Side of My Brain

picture

I have been drawing like a madwoman. It started when I picked up A Life of Style by Rebecca Moses...which is about style, but has these great little drawings...

picture

I thought- fun! I should make a book like that. So I bought a sketchbook, and did a few pages with little drawings and captions. But then I just got into the drawing part of it. So I picked up this book again:

picture

The Creative License by Danny Gregory is one of my favorite books on creativity. And if you don't draw and want to learn- even if you think you can't! you should pick up this book.

Now I'm reading Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain. I may be 30 years behind the times, but this book is awesome! The basic premise is that drawing (a 'right brain' activity) is a skill, just like reading or math ('left brain' activities), only around adolescence, we stop learning how to draw. (ps. you can still learn!)

So, this week I've been inspired by 3 books to use the right side of my brain, and draw what I see around me...
Note: If you need a little work/study break, but don't have the time to start a sketchbook, you should check out this awesome sketching tool.
I'll warn you though, it's slightly addicting, so pour yourself (or draw yourself!) a cup of tea, set the timer while you sketch, then (if you have to), you can get back to using the left side of your brain.

2012

Did you all know about this? No, it's (probably) not the year the world is ending. But it is the year we all get to see him...

and her...


in the movie adaptation of this book...


You now have one year to read/re-read the book, and to get super excited with me.

It also wouldn't hurt to re-watch this again in the meantime.

Inspiration Friday: Helena Bonham Carter's shoes

picture

Did you watch the Golden Globes this week? I missed the red carpet part, so it wasn't till later that I saw this: Helena Bonham Carter wore two different coloured shoes. Say what you want about how crazy she is, you have to give her points for creativity. Plus, if Punky Brewster can do it, why can't Helena Bonham Carter?

picture

Here's what she had to say about the outfit: "If you're going to spend three hours getting ready you may as well go for it."*
I'm not going to go to work this week in mismatched shoes, and I'm not saying you have to either. But this week I'm inspired by Helena Bonham Carter because she does her own thing. And I like that.

picture

*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1347778/Golden-Globes-2011-Helena-Bonham-Carter-stands-mismatched-shoes.html

earth stood hard as iron*

Chicago winters can be pretty..brutal. I love holing up in my house with candles and a good book, but this has been one of those winters that just...feels like winter.
After a series of crazy events, I have to say: I would love to skip to the month of May right now. Recently my mom lent me this book "Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul" by Mark Buchanan, so I could read the chapter on Winter. This was so helpful for me in this season of winter and I wanted to share his thoughts with you...

"If we are to bear much fruit- if that's the goal of the Christian life- then the best model for spiritual maturity is seasons. Fruit grows in seasons, and all seasons are necessary for growing it. And seasons are as much about what is not happening as what is. It has as much to do with inactivity as with activity, waiting as with working, barrenness as with abundance, dormancy as with vitality."

"Winter is bleak, and cold, and dark, and fruitless. It is a time of forced inactivity, unwelcome brooding, more night than day. Most things are dead, or appear so. It never seems to end."


Buchanan writes about how important each 'season of the soul' is. He talks about the best activities for Winter: praying, pruning, waiting. Yes, I'd rather skip straight to spring and if you're in your own 'dark night of the soul', I'm sure you rather would too. So, while we wait (and prune, and pray...) let's remember that spring is coming.

'Spring is coming,
And all we've been hoping and longing for soon will appear
Spring is coming, spring is coming,
It won't be long now, it's just about here.'**


'Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.'***

*In The Bleak Midwinter, by Christina Rossetti
**Spring is Coming, by Steven Curtis Chapman
***C.S.Lewis

Inspiration Friday: Harry Potter and the Black Family Tree

*Harry Potter and the Black Family Tree has been updated (with new images) at Everyday Planet.*

Ah, Harry Potter. So many reasons to love it (the books, the movies, the butterbeer). I love this scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The entire room is painted with the Black Family Tree:


I'm seriously considering making a very large collage with my family tree on it: genealogy and Harry Potter (nerdy? extremely. But also awesome).

Inspiration Friday: Toast UK

picture

Not the breakfast food, although that is inspiring. Toast is a British company my sister found. I'm not ashamed to say that I keep their catalogue and pour over it for months (even though- ahem- I can't really afford anything in it).

picture

I love the simplicity and comfort of the clothes, blankets, and layout of the interiors. Especially in January, after the craziness of the holidays- I want things to be simple.

picture

A few things I've been inspired to do from the Toast catalogue:

• handmade flannel hot water bottle covers (they call them hotties- ha.)
• hang less things on the walls. It's kind of nice to have a little blank space.
• pull out my Scottish wool blankets. Warm.
  
• I also made a flannel shawl for cold mornings. Call me crazy (really, I know it's weird)- but I'm always cold when I'm reading in bed at night, and when I'm making coffee in the morning. So: a flannel shawl to put around my shoulders! You know you want one.
• plaid flannel pillows for the living room.
  

Pop over to Toast and request a catalogue...let me know if you get any good ideas!

picture