Wednesday, April 20, 2011

5 Places to Get Free Inspiration

Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)

Yesterday April Bowles-Olin from Blacksburg Belle wrote a guest post on Heartmade (my two favourite blogs by the way). You can read the post over here. It's all about inspiration and where to find it. There are some great tips and tricks!

I commented on the post, because I felt so inspired just reading it. I thought I'd share my tips with you here too.

So here are a few of my tips for where I go to get some inspiration (in addition to April's places):

Muir Woods (personal photo)

Muir Woods (personal photo)


1. Plant or gardening stores. Or a botanical garden. Or a national park. It's usually quiet there so have time and peace to take it all in, plus it's really colourful, and the smells are amazing. I look at texture, shape, colours, what it feels like, etc. Also, it's pretty easy to take pictures there using your phone. I wrote two posts on plant inspiration here and here a while back. Check them out as well ;)

2. Home improvement stores. I look at tools, nuts and bolts, how things are put together/ constructed, shapes, colour palettes, the different materials and their texture, etc.

3. Ikea is also a good place to go. You can even pick up some free fabric swatches for sofas there, which you can save for inspiration later. Look at the swatches; their texture, colour, pattern, the feel, etc.


Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)
[The school of fish looks a bit like a Pacman haha]

Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)


4. An aquarium. The colours are amazing there!! Whenever I go to one I'm bursting with inspiration! Nature is so fascinating. And it's pure. It's everywhere around us, we just need the time to take it all in. Plus it's free :D


5. A music store. I love looking at posters and album covers. They're so creative and fun. Think about it, this artist or band has to express and represent themselves and their music in one piece of artwork. This artwork has to represent the rest of their art (their music). This can be important to look at for creative entrepreneurs. Creative entrepreneurs need to express themselves through a blog post or their etsy listing or their business card, etc. We need to pay attention to the small things that represent us and our business!




Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)


Try out these tips and April's tips. It's free to walk around in stores and in nature. Use what we take for granted every day. Grab each opportunity you have to get inspiration. A camera (eg. on your phone) or a notebook (or writing notes on your phone) would be handy for when you want to remember all your thoughts and ideas. Remember, you may think different things each time you see these pictures, so pictures are clever to keep for a while!


Where do you go for a little inspiration?

Colourful Fish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium
(personal photo)

---
If you liked this post, please share it using the social sharing buttons below and follow my blog.

PLUS I made a twitter account today (yay!) so go and follow me (@thegentleflower) over there :D

If you have any questions or comments, comment below, e-mail me or tweet me on twitter @thegentleflower.

Here's a little shoutout to my newest followers: Aimee Lee, Sandra, April, Tanya, Annabeaninc and Emilee Marsh.
Thanks to all of you for following me! I really appreciate your feedback and comments - you keep me going!!!
Go check out their blogs and follow each other :D There are some really good ones out there!


AND remember to enter my giveaway, ending this Saturday!

5 comments:

Stephanie @ henry happened said...

I love your aquarium photos - that sounds like a lovely place to get inspiration. I love that it's dark & cool in there.

I love to sit down with a fun magazine & think, could I make that? Or just take a walk and let my mind wander...

Thanks for visiting my site - following back!

-Stephanie
henry  happened

Katrine said...

Thank you, Stephanie! I love going to aquariums, I love that it's dark and cool too :)

I completely agree! I think, if you set your mind to it, you can make it. It'll probably be a bit different depending on materials, etc. but then it's a personalised version, which makes it even better ;) A great website where a woman makes things she sees is http://psimadethis.com/ you should check it out ;)

Walks are great :)

Thank you! I really appreciate your comment and that you're following me!

Love, Katrine

ThisGirlBlogs said...

Hiya! Thanks for hopping over and following :) Following you back now and look forward to reading lots more!
I havent been to the aquarium since I was a little kid, the pictures are incredible and make me want to go again! x

mymy said...

what lovely photos! that school of fish shot you made looks like a tilted heart to me... :)

thank you so much for following; a pleasure following you back :)

Katrine said...

Hey MRS, thanks for following me too! :D
Thank you :) I know, the aquarium is actually an amazing place!! :)

Hey mymy, thanks for following :D thank you :)
I agree- it does look like a tilted heart - well spotted :D

xx

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...