Inspiration

"Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful: yourself."--Alan Alda

Today I got this very cute purse (a belated birthday present) from my friend Amanda, an elementary-school friend who re-appeared in my life about 15 years later. Cute on its own, I think the purse is even more special because Amanda made it. Passionate about recycling and saving the earth, Amanda has come up with a great way to re-create what would otherwise be just an ordinary placemat. I think it's pretty cool!

Such creativeness really inspires me. I am continuously awe-struck by the creative endeavors I see around me -- scrapbooking, sewing, painting, baking. And while there are people who have more creative juice in their pinkie finger (read: the Martha Stewart types) than I do in my whole body, there is a part of me that longs to be crafty and creative.

So maybe I'll finally get around to those projects that keep lurking about -- the wedding scrapbook, the half-completed cross-stitch picture (never mind the unstarted one in the closet!) -- or maybe I'll get really bold and figure out what I'm going to do with my newly acquired sewing machine. After all, a girl can dream, can't she?