etc.

I’ve been feeling decidedly uninspired by my surroundings lately. Part of it has to do with the fact that once we made the decision to get a cleaning lady, I wanted a clean house stat. But it doesn’t quite work that way unfortunately, finding the right person takes time, and we’re still very much in the early stages of the process (talking to friends & neighbours), so my clean house is still a bit of a distant hope at the moment.

The other part of it is my overall indecision about what actually inspires me as far as room design goes. A part of me wants to strip away all the clutter and embrace clean lines, wide open spaces, and white white white (all our walls are white); another part of me wants to surround myself with colour and fabrics and texture and objects that are meaningful to us (this pretty much sums up my studio, where I have been spending NO time lately). We haven’t been thoughtful at all about what we’ve done with our surroundings, so the end result has been a combination of neglected white walls (the white is fine, the lack of things hanging upon these walls is not), some clutter-free corners, some spaces dense with colour and character, and no sense of balance whatsoever. I’m starting to hatch some plans for a few additions (nothing major, just a few little things that I can whip together using my sewing machine and fabric stash) and whenever I’m in need of inspiration, I turn to Flickr (where else?) where I get absolutely lost combing through tags and groups and where inspiration is very easy to come by. Here is a mosaic of what I added as favourites this morning (while sitting in bed, waiting for the meds to take effect and allow me a last hour of sleep). Take a look at my favourites page to see these images individually.

As you can see, colours (blues, reds, pinks, yellows) figure prominently, as do fabrics and textures, which gives me a pretty clear indication of where my head is at at the moment. Looking at this mosaic (and I’ve been staring at it all day!) makes me want to beat feet up to my studio, fire up my sewing machine, tear through my stash, and reinvent my surroundings instantly! Of course, if it were that easy, there’d be no fun in it, would there?