Bella Lou: Inspiration

Where do you get your inspiration? For a long time, I think I got most of my inspiration from inspired people, rather than really being inspired myself. This is still partly true, of course - I read a lot of creative blogs, books, and follow creative people on Pinterest. But I’m finding myself a little changed from three years ago, when I first began sewing - changed at least in the personal creativity department.

Before full-time motherhood, I just didn’t have any extra time to take in the things in that I now can. I did what I could with my limited free time, but now that I have more of it - or rather, am able to better organize what I want to do in a week, I find that I am far more open to being inspired by things myself, rather than someone else’s interpretation. The setting of a room, the shadow of a tree on a sidewalk, the color of the the tiles in a public bathroom - I’m much more open to the subtle beauty of little things around me. Beauty in a public bathroom? Exactly.

I’ve been reading this blog lately, and have been truly moved to see things through a different lens. There is a quietness to her photography that I just love. This post in particular resonated hard with me. The point is, inspiration comes the more open you are to it - and for me, the quieter the moment, the clearer it is.

There is also nothing like a new place to make me notice things I would ordinarily walk right by. We were in Germany last month and I found so much inspiration - feeling foreign must surely heighten the experience. The color of a blooming tree against an apartment building, and even the backdrop of a drab gray sky gave me a fantastic idea for a quilt. The architecture in the zoo's botanical gardens...and the flowers, flowers, flowers. Flowers are probably pretty obvious inspiration, but I just had to include them here. They’re like gobs of fluffy whipped cream on the perfectly sweet cake that is SPRING.