Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Summerland.


"The tantrums of giants, are, of course, quite literally the stuff of legend. How many of the world's volcanoes, maelstroms, and boiling geysers, how many of its hurricane winds and earthquakes, have been attributed to the ill-tempered fumings and poor sportsmanship of giants!"


Just one of many charming observations from Summerland, by Michael Chabon, which I discovered at the thrift store this past weekend. I've never read anything by him, and this was apparently the first children's book he wrote, after a Pulitzer-winning career as a writer of grown-up books. I'm totally enjoying it.

Inspiration.


Today's blog challenge at Two Peas:

What kinds of things inspire you lately?

Lately I've been pulling out my small collection of Stampington magazines: Somerset Studio, Legacy, Stamper's Sampler, Somerset Home...etc. Somerset Studio is my very favorite. The art pieces in that magazine used to look so over the top to me, and now I can hardly get enough of looking at them and fantasizing about what I could create myself.

Small online projects have also been inspiring to me, like Shimelle's classes, and the stuff at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I like the camaraderie of making something and sharing it with lots of other people who made the same thing--only different!

And I've been on a total reading kick for the past month, so books have been my inspiration. Not in a way that perks up your eyes or ears, but in a way that perks up your mind and gets you to thinking and making connections for yourself.

I'm doing more absorbing right now, and less acting on the inspiration. Maybe I'm coiling up, ready to pounce on something right around the corner. I can't tell!