Motivational Monday: Start Somewhere

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Motivational Monday: The Creative Life

My goal with Motivational Monday posts is to encourage myself as much as others, especially since I thought it might be helpful to start a long work week with what little bit of enthusiasm we can muster to keep us going.

Today's little piece of inspiration spoke to me because I have creative goals and aspirations in my life - namely creative writing and collage art (and I hope to try my hand at book binding soon). I've found that when I set out to complete a project, I have a specific stumbling block, and I often wonder if anyone else has the same problem - analysis paralysis. Like most women (so research says), I am an overthinker. 

"...Overthinking has actually been shown to impair problem solving and rational thought, and interfere with initiative and motivation." (via Refocuser.com)

However, I only overthink certain things. Oddly, in some areas of my life, I am very spur of the moment, but when it comes to creative pursuits, analysis paralysis somehow takes over. And, as we know, overthinking is rooted in fear - fear of making the wrong decision. Compounding this fear is the bad habit of comparison.

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Motivational Mondays

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Awesome Collage

Amazing.  Click collage for artist's website (It's for sale!)

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"The minute I sat in front of a canvas, I was happy. Because it was a world, and I could do as I liked in it."   
-Alice Neel, artist

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Awesome Collage!

Awesome Collage Art!

via Fly

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On Fear

"FEAR means Forfeit Everything And Run"

Other Cool "Fear" Mnemonics

False Evidence Appearing Real

Forfeit Everything And Relinquish

Future Events Appearing Real

Face Everything And Recover

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God of Small Things

I recently had the privilege of attending a talk given by creative genius Willard Wigan. Described as the "8th Wonder of the World", Wigan grew up in England. Painfully shy and dyslexic, he was berated by teachers in front of other students and told that he would not go far in life. He could have given up; instead he turned lemons into lemonade (pardon the cliché) and created something no one else had before - microscopic sculptures. I found his story inspiring on so many levels and hope you will too.

I really wish there was video from the talk that I saw as I enjoyed it more than his TED Talk found here. Check out some of his work below. For a greater appreciation of exactly how tiny his sculptures are (they are invisible to the naked eye for goodness sakes), take a look at the following videos and visit his website.  Amazing

(Umm, I think they meant, "This is the most amazing thing I've EVER seen")

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Stylish Gal

I am loving Shingai Shoniwa's hair and makeup in this vid:

The Noisettes - Never Forget You (Official Video) HQ
by wonderful-life1989

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Inspiring

"I made my first shirt when I was around thirteen. One arm was longer than the other, but I was so proud because it was something I had made all by myself."

The talent of this young man is so inspiring. I would absolutely rock the dress pictured here if I had the gams for it!

(photo by Astrid Riecken for The Washington Times)

More on Bishme Cromartie here...

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Cool Design: E. Spalding

I absolutely adore Esperanza Spalding's website design.

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Structure?

So, I've decided that the format thing isn't going to work for me - yes, that fast. I've just come across far too many cool things that fall through the cracks in the meantime. Sure, I could wait until the appointed day to share, but it's just too hard!

My latest exciting find is Hotel Fox. Located in Copenhagen, Hotel Fox boasts 61 unique rooms decorated by 21 artists. Themes range from lush to fantastic, to everything in-between. It's been around a few years, but this is the first I've heard of it. Take a peek.

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Inspirational Wednesdays: Quotations

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Inspirational Wednesdays: Art Slam with Lu

If you take a look at the sidebar to your right, you’ll see I’ve decided to develop a format for M&C. Otherwise, I let perfectly good posts and ideas fall by the wayside. I’m also playing with new themes and a possible move. In the meantime, the only thing I’ve decided on is that there must be an order to things around here, starting today with Inspirational Wednesdays!

Why Wednesday? Well, it’s hump day, and sometimes you need inspiration to get over that hump in the middle of the week, and so Inspirational Wednesday was born. Today’s creative kick in the pants was found at Art Slam, the personal blog of the talented Lucrecer Braxton.


I found two posts particularly useful:

Creating a Morgue File and Laying the Foundation for Your Creative Life. I actually keep a morgue file already, I just never knew there was a name (and morgue file of all things) for it. I'm pretty literal so I always called them my, “pieces” or, “inspiration box”, and "the magazine files" since I keep them all in cute little file boxes for now. I’m planning to expand to file folders as well though since there are some things I never plan on using but inspire me in different ways.

To boot, I’ve decided to share my creative corners with you all. But you'll have to wait on Personal Day Mondays for that!

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I Need a Kodak Zi6 in My Life

This lovely video voodle by Karen Abad makes me want a Kodak Zi6...NOW:


After The Rain ☂ from Karen Abad loves Dinosaurs. on Vimeo.

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Cool Blog

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Eye Candy!

I've found yet another website to keep me online at ungodly hours - we heart it - an online visual bookmarking tool.

I. am. so. hooked.

Check it out...with caution. Some of the images on the randomized "hearted by everyone" page are NSFW until you get an account (it's free) and set up safe viewing. You can imagine what some folks find on the web to "heart". :o)

Recently hearted by me:

Here are a couple of songs for the weekend. (FYI, I try to download "clean" versions of songs whenever I can, but it's difficult finding them online, so there is some parental advisory language.)

Have a Happy Halloween and a safe weekend!

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Dose of Inspiration: Crafty Chica

I have Strength to thank for finding this wonderful

post by the Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo. It really spoke to me (and I heart her pimped-out glue gun).

(click image)

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Marinate on That

I need to tell myself sometimes.

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