Ideas & Inspiration

The thing I love about copying tile patterns is that it gives me a way to be very present in the moment, in the physical space, and to interact with colors or a pattern that I find interesting or lovely.

More and more I'm finding that tickets are getting reduced to digital interactions. Occasionally though, you get a really lovely one like this. (Notice the new word on the left hand side - enchilarse: to scorch oneself. Root word is chili-as-in-pepper!)

This restaurant was one of our favs in Oaxaca. I had the most delicious and teensy corn smut (huitlacoche) quesadilla there. Also, my husband and I took a class in hammered tin from Don Tirso Cuevas and made Sacred Hearts like you see to the right. My husband isn't Catholic and didn't know any better, so he colored the flames green and the heart yellow. "I didn't know what it was! I just thought the colors would look good together!" The artisan who was teaching us told him it looked like "la casa de Bob Esponja". Sponge Bob's house. The pineapple under the sea.

I promise that I did not write this thought for YOU. It 100% came from my heart. In case you can't read my writing, it says: Tom bought me new earrings - enamel & copper. Just flipping through this journal is bringing me so much satisfaction and joy. I feel zero pressure to generate profound musings and I love all the freedom to put down small moments, realizations, ideas, images - like these earrings for instance.

(Morning Sounds and Songs) This was a profound hour spent listening to Lake Atitlan (Guatemala) wake up and drawing pictures of what I thought the sounds would look like on paper. I LOVE this for really immersing myself somewhere and listening intently and also having something "to do" at the same time. If I'd been more ambitious, I might have colored everything in.

We visited 2 different Nordic Spas while on a trip to Quebec (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) and did lots of DEEP resting. This collage celebrates all the ways that I love to rest.

Isn't this clever? I like that it has more than one meaning. It was a stamp on the side of a to-go coffee cup.

Languages are my jam. I get such a kick out of learning new & onomatopoetic words in other languages. Poropopo. po-RO-po-po.

You possibly remember this Japanese poem form from 10th grade English class. Turns out, they're a sweet way to capture a moment from the day. Tucked inside a shape that pertains to your experience or the topic of the poem, and you've checked more than one box! (5 syllables, then 7, then 5 again) These colors. I want/them IN me. I shall make a/leaf smoothie for LUNCH!

I was ecstatic to have discovered/realized this wee linguistic gem one happy day while traveling Quebec and being surrounded with lots of French.

This table blew my mind and I wouldn't let us leave the restaurant until I had sketched it. I've gotten into some light construction projects in the past few years and so this sort of thing catches my eye and delights me.

So much history finds its way to street signs! While on pilgrimage in France, I walked along both Chemin du Moulin du Purgatoire (The Way of the Windmill of Purgatory ) and Rue des Penitents Gris (The Street of the Grey Penitents ). Obviously I was going the right direction.

This was a delightful exercise on a vibrant fall day in Quebec. I loved staring at the colors and seeing which ones were a perfect match with my colored pencils.

In case you can't read the writing, the gist of the story is this: in the 7 years I've been with my husband, we have never talked about, seen, or eaten Dump Cake together. While on the way to his parents house one afternoon, we talked about Dump Cake and how much he loved it. When we arrived, what was served for dessert? DUMP CAKE. I thought I kind of understood how the idea of manifestation worked, but this...this is next level stuff.

Notice that the artwork here isn't anything fancy AT ALL. But just the act of documenting it keeps it the concept in my mind and now I might just start leaving around bowls of water & petals! (Incidentally, in Bali they put a bowl of water with flower petals right under the face cradle when you're getting a massage so you have something beautiful to contemplate if you open your eyes while face down.)

I definitely did NOT see this one coming - high-waisted stove pipe pants! Thick clompy shoes. Bless our hearts.

Matchbooks don't really need any explanation. Photo printers on the other hand. MAGIC! It's also fun to color in the images - modern day hand-tinting! And check out the surprise from our Mobster Night in Chicago - Naked lady wallpaper! Who knew? We just thought we were going out for steak.

Not exactly a recipe per se (truthfully, I cannibalized a menu for these), but they were delicious ideas and I didn't want to forget them. Notice how simple the eggs are. And how nice a little pop of color is around the menu cut-outs.

All of my four siblings are partnered with international people, so this is a topic we discuss a lot. (My beloved husband is a white guy from Kalamazoo MI.) We are pretty sure this is a correct assessment of the situation. There's a lot of laughter and good natured debate about which category everyone falls into.

I just adore Matisse and his Blue Nudes especially. While walking in the tourist district of Oaxaca, I saw a gorgeous woven wool rug in cream and blue of this particular nude and didn't snap it up because it was out of my budget. The next day, I'd determined that, in face, it was within my budget and it was GONE! SOLD! So I painted it instead and vowed to always find a way to get the thing that makes my heart sing.

Of the four boys in his family, this nephew is the artist of the bunch. We spent a sweet couple of hours together one afternoon, experimenting with all the possible ways that water, color and paper can be combined.

If you're looking to zhuzh up your page a bit, tracing color over already-existing lines is a very simple way to do it.

Doesn't have to be a book. Or even complete sentences. These few phrases are enough to bring it back for me. (Psst. Notice the haiku on the top!)

Arrived in lavender country one week too late to see the fields in full bloom, but enjoyed drawing a few sprigs and learning about the difference between lavender and lavendin. (So you don't have major disappointment to deal with, shoot for the last week in July if you're heading to Sault and the surrounding haute plateau to experience being surrounded by blooming purple fragrance. The more southern fields closer to the coast are usually harvested before then.)

Here you're seeing the two distinctly different colors of water that we sailed through on our Mediterranean sailing trip with my sister and her kids. The darker color is the water west of where the Rhone empties into The Sea and the turquoise is immediately east.

What a wonderful world.

This image comes from THE most magical hotel in Arles, Frane. The texture on the left is from the bright hot orange surround of the swimming pool. And the watercolor on the right is obviously the bedroom floor pictured. All I wanted to do was lie on my belly and copy those wonderful colors and shapes over and over again!

Everywhere in southern summer France you see people drinking globes of transparent orange Aperol Spritz. I so desperately wanted to like it. But I don't. But they're beautiful, so here we are. This is a postcard I found and taped in.