Confessions of an inspiration junkie

Are you an inspiration junkie?

Do you strive for creative ways to use things you already have on hand or things recently purchased from antiques stores (such as the crocks we use for our firewood)?

Do you spend almost every free moment pouring over decorating books and magazines, home furnishings catalogs, design blogs, and idea-packed websites like Houzz or Apartment Therapy?

Do you look at stories with a discerning eye, until something strikes you and you think, "This would totally work in my kitchen/living room/bedroom/office..."?

Do you look at articles for ideas about what to do with that item you just bought from the yard sale down the street because it was too cool to pass up, but you weren't sure what to actually do with it?

Do you seek out new things or new arrangements of things to keep your mind engaged and your spaces fresh because when things becoming stale you feel as if you are a steel trap?

Do you live for that moment when an idea hits you like a lightening bolt and you rush off to get started on your latest project?

If you answered "yes" to all of these questions, you may, like me, be an inspiration junkie.

Inspiration junkies are always on the lookout for something new.  This could be a new way of using something old, a new way of seeing, a new way of being.  This manifests in chronic furniture and/or accessory re-arrangeing, re-styling your rooms, re-organizing your belongings.  It often means that instead of buying something new to fill the need, you shop other rooms of the house and change things up a bit, like I did yesterday when the rug from my bedroom made its way to my living room in efforts to encourage spring to not be so shy.

I seek inspiration everywhere, all the time.  For me, there is no better feeling than when possessed by the muse, whether it be the decorating muse, the writing muse, the painting muse, or any other kind of muse.  Being cradled in her grips and held under her spell, driven by the need to create and express something held deeply inside me, is the closest I ever come to my wild, divine nature.  When I am in the throws of this process, particularly with my writing, it feels as if the words or ideas are funneled from the ether, into my brain, and pass through me, spilling out onto the page.  The same process can occur when I am putting together a display on a mantle, tabletop, or shelf.  There are times when what I am working on just feels right.  I have learned not to question this nor to second guess myself, but to simply trust the feeling.

The only problem I notice is that too often, I find myself looking externally to the sources I mentioned above, waiting for that lightening strike, when I should be sitting quietly, looking within or perhaps even looking outside my windows. 

 Living in a lovely spot, surrounded by nature should provide me with enough inspiration.  I am working on this, being more quiet inside, waiting to see what comes to the surface on its own, without coercion or prompting.

Are you an inspiration junkie?  Please tell me I am not the only one.

Until next time...

Anne