inspiration

Feeling crafty today

August 6, 2010 by Nicole 12 Comments

No not devious crafty! Creative crafty. Why? My mum really loves a handbag I brought from a fair and as I wasn’t able to buy her a present (that whole no work thing…) I decided to have a hunt for a pattern that would work. And I came across this site U-handbag owned by the lovely Lisa who makes and sells both handbags and patterns.

This is a gorgeous and totally drool-worthy site – at least for those of us addicted to adorable bags *grin*. On it I found a FREE (yep free) pattern for the ‘love bucket’ which is exactly the style I wanted! I have to get some bits and pieces to make the bag but I think the hardest decision will be the fabric. I love the examples Lisa has on her site and I’m thinking I might have to make a few more of these bags as fabulous pressies. Once mum’s is complete of course ; p

So my mind’s been fixed on gorgeous fabrics/pictures and designs and then at lunchtime today I came across an outstanding artist (in my humble opinion) selling her wares. Unfortunately I have a lack of spare cash at the moment so could only admire. Beautiful postcards of my absolute favourite orchids, those divine Moth orchids (no I don’t know their botanical name). I snagged a card from the artist and then had a squizz at her blog True Orchid and WOW is she good! I actually thought the two pics of ‘Raven’ at the bottom of her blog were the photo and the painting. It wasn’t till I read the caption that I clicked both were paintings. Very impressed!

(this is Seree – the Artist – in action next to my work)

I do realize that this blog is meant to be following my writing but part of what inspires me is beautiful things. For this reason I do follow quite a few ‘Crafty’ blogs and I want to thank them for their inspiration with this gorgeous little award. I’m awarding it to the following blogs.

Running with Scissors

The only requirements of this award is to proudly display it on your blog *grin* link it back to the person you received it from and award it to three blogs that inspire you. If anyone else would like to award this to someone feel free to take it! Everyone who creates beautiful things deserves to know that others think their work is inspirational.

Dreams – divine inspiration?

June 22, 2010 by Nicole 7 Comments

Are many of you inspired to write stories from ideas in dreams? My current project BirthRight The Arrival was inspired by day-dreams but that doesn’t really count. I mean the unconscious crazy type dreams!

Don’t you wonder where they come from sometimes? Divine inspiration? Memories of a past life? A view to the future?

Last night was really warm (for winter) and as a result I had a variety of nutty dreams but can only remember one clearly (ish). It was myself as an older woman. With plenty of wrinkles and a face I barely recognized (and still long colored hair *lol*). I was wearing a long tutu inspired skirt with a beautiful fitted top in ruby. The funny part is that it didn’t bother me at all! I felt an odd sense of joy at seeing myself reach such an age. Looks like I’ll have lotsa fun for a long time yet *grin*.

I was just wondering if any of you have written stories that were inspired by dreams? Were they dreams you could explain away (like the time I’d watched a documentary on elephants and that night dreamt I was teaching an elephant to play pick-up-sticks in my family’s holiday home..). Or were they totally out-of-the-ball park, inspiring creations?

Creating a fantasy world – how do you keep it ‘alive’ in your head?

June 7, 2010 by Nicole 2 Comments

A weird blog title I know and possibly not that clear so let me clarify. My story BirthRight The Arrival is set (mostly) on a fictional planet where mythical creatures are real. This post is about how I keep the creatures and people etc that I’m creating in my mind because I need them to be as ‘real’ as possible to me.

So far I’ve found ElfWood http://www.elfwood.com/ to be absolutely vital. ElfWood is a site where artists and writers can publish their work for all to see. A lot of illustrators have their work on it. I’ve printed off dozens of pictures that inspire me and have a huge corkboard that it all gets put on. See the below picture.

Any time I’m stuck with something I tend to study my corkboard for inspiration and it frequently helps – or I go to ElfWood. I have read on some sites suggestions of having your own note pages that describe characters in details – for your personal reference but after trying it I realised I am very much a visual person.

So how do you do it? How do you keep your characters vivid in your mind?