Inspiration is everywhere

Inspiration...it's everywhere.  You just have to look around you.  You have to stop for a minute and actually open your eyes, focus on the present moment, and see.  I did it twice yesterday.

First, I was eating breakfast, looking at a visually beautiful magazine. I couldn't help but cut out the pictures I found to be gorgeous so I could use them later when I needed my spirits lifted or some inspiration to help me with color choices, composition, etc.  Just looking at these pictures makes me want to make something, anything, that might be as beautiful as what is depicted.

Second, Joe and I went to the Renaissance Festival (of course, as the Renaissance Woman, I had to go to the festival :-) ).  What a great place to get inspiration!  Interesting people doing interesting things, all out of the ordinary because we were, after all, supposed to be in the Renaissance.  

The king's court welcomes visitors at the start of the day:

Mostly I was inspired by the music that was played, especially by one band called Celtic Legacy.  They played everything from the standard Celtic music you would expect to The Lion Sleeps Tonight:

Can you guess which costumes they were wearing when they played The Lion Sleeps Tonight?!  :-)  How fun is that?  They took something normal and ordinary (although a great song for sure) and made it extraordinary by playing the song on instruments you'd never expect.  

It was also fun to see all of the different arts and crafts for sale.  I'm in heaven shopping in a place like that not only because I see all kinds of goodies I want, but because I get to see different artists' takes on the usual and customary.  My favorite thing this time was the sales display for piggy banks:

So clever...I bet these folks sold a ton of the piggies simply by thinking outside of the box in how they displayed their wares.  

And all of this inspiration occurred in just a few hours of my day yesterday.  So I not only have some great memories and mementos from from the day, I have a ton of inspiration to draw upon whenever I need it.  It pays to keep your eyes and mind open to see and feel the great things going on around you, whether it is something simple like a beautiful magazine to a more rare occurrence like the Renaissance Festival.

So, until next time, keep your peepers open and brain ready for the beauty around you!

Happy days!