A book of inspiration.

Call me old fashioned, but I love paper.  And despite the fact that I bought a Kindle for Stuart for Christmas, I'm still a sucker for holding the books in my hands.  Touching them.  Smelling them.


You know what I mean?


I love to sit flipping through a magazine or design book, slowly sucking up motivation and inspiration.  And while rearranging my living room for the umpteenth time this year, I ran across an old stack of Sunset, Mary Jane Farm, Organic Gardening, and Hobby Farm magazines that I had purposefully stolen from my Mom.  I need them, you see.  For such motivation and inspiration.  

So of course, being the mental brain-fart that I am, I sat flipping through the magazines one by one.  Sitting on the couch, that is, that I should have been vacuuming under and rearranging.  But alas, I sat, soaking up the beautiful photography and articles in each edition.

I could have done without the advertisements, that's for sure.  There were so many...if only I could cut this article out...or remember to squiggle a few notes around this photograph...

And then it dawned on me (as these sorts of things usually do...)


I need a binder.  A binder of garden, home, design, and fashion inspiration.  A binder where I can organize my favorite photographs, garden designs, living room layouts...


...


Oh, wait.  Duh.  This is exactly what Pinterest is for.  Online 'pinboards' to clip all your favorite ideas to, be it home decor, crafts, knitting patterns, clothing trends...


But there's a problem I have with that.  I like my motivation in paper form.

I know, I know, I'm sure that comes as a surprise to you, seeing how incredibly technically advanced I am with my blog and all.

But none-the-less, I enjoy sitting down with my motivation.  I enjoy the tangibility of flipping from page to page.  And surely, I couldn't get rid of all these wonderful old magazines without pulling some of the inspiration from them.  So, I sat.  And cut.  And pasted.  Just like in the old days (that is, third grade, before 'online' existed).

I sectioned a recycled three-ring binder into a few categories, just like my online Pinterest boards.
 - Garden Dreamin'
 - For The Home
 - Knitting & Crochet
 - Fashion (or lack thereof)


Then, I put the articles into plastic sleeves and categorized them accordingly.  The most wonderful part about this project was being able to throw away all the advertisements while still holding onto some of the valuable information (and inspiration!) inside.  

And since I pull a lot of inspiration from the internet as well, now I can simply print out posts/articles/photographs that I love and stick them into my binder!  

Don't worry.  I still love my online Pinterest boards too.  But there's something about being able to see this lovely book I've created, chock full of goodness, that just makes me smile.


My dearest paper, I still love you so - please forgive me for buying Stuart a Kindle and shutting you out of his life forever.


The end.