I Inspire!

Kat over at Candles, Crafts and Whatnot bestowed this award on me and many others a few weeks ago and this time I wanted to get to it sooner rather than later. I have to say that this is a really cool award and much appreciated Kat. Of course, now the hard part is who to give it to since I think I've seen it given to most of the blogs I would have given it too already. To be honest all the blogs I visit regularly inspire me in some way, shape or form. So I'll have to be lazy and say ... if you haven't received it already from someone else and you stop by here regularly then consider yourself my inspiration!



Now to our trip. If you haven't been to New York City recently then let me tell you that the hotel operators there obviously don't realize what the economy is like. Luckily for us, we only paid for one of three nights hotels since we won a night at a LaQuinta and had accrued enough nights at Hotels.com that we had earned a free night. It's amazing how much extra you have to pay just to have your own bathroom!! The photo above of the Empire State Building was from the second hotel from our room. Sadly, when we got in the room it was a mess and they ended up moving us but I did manage to snap this shot before we moved since the next room had a view of a brick wall. One thing I will say is you CAN actually do NYC for cheap as far as eating at least for breakfast. There are loads of guys on the corners selling bagels with cream cheese for $1.50. We stopped by those and that fills you up pretty good for a while.



This is me with my freshly dyed hair in front of Giants Stadium on Friday morning. We had General Admission tickets and you had to get there by 1pm to get a wristband to get in the "pit". Being in the pit means you are closest to the stage which of course means being nearer to Bruce. The husband did manage to give him a tap on the back on Friday night and touch him on Saturday night! Friday night we had more energy and were dancing a lot. At one point I happened to notice a very conservative looking guy next to us and I looked harder and realized it was Brian Williams the anchor for the NBC Nightly News. If I had known he was a Bruce fan I might have actually watched the news a bit more....lol.

All in all we managed to have a good time fairly cheaply in New York which is pretty difficult but can be done. The only complaints were the airlines but I won't even bore you with that since I am sure everyone else has their airline horror stories lately. Worst part of traveling is the "getting there".

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

Everyone will have a different answer and I'm always interested to find where people get their inspiration from. I was reading an article about this subject but it covered the topic of wire work and design. The author's suggestion was to look at buildings with ironwork which makes perfect sense. I'm sure there are people who live in the country and have the landscape around to give them ideas. There are people who paint or photograph what is around them. I have to admit that I don't really know what inspires me, silly as that may sound. When I come up with a design sometimes its just sitting with a bunch of bead or jumprings in from of me and hoping for the best. Other times it might just suddenly come to me what I should do with that awesome focal bead that has been sitting there for ever. Then there are the other times when I'm out and I see something that gives me an idea for a design.



One thing I do love to do is look around for inspiration. Whether it is from nature, like the first photo (Zion, Utah, USA) or from something manmade like the bridges and buildings in the second photo (Tyne Bridges, Newcastle, England). It might be the colors or the shapes that give you the ideas to come up with a design. So what inspires you to make what you do? or do you have many different inspirations? I'd love to hear what inspires you.

The Sisterhood Award

I have been given this award by Timeless Designs who is also a member of the EJDSS Team on Etsy, thank you. If you haven't seen her blog then make sure you check it out as she has some absolutely beautiful jewelry designs. Now, the rules of the Sisterhood Award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 5 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Here are my 5 nominated blogs:

From A Yellow House In England
You've Got Maille
Be Jeweled By Candi
Confessions of a Sin City Craft Addict
NyBlaque

Hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do.