Inspiration File

Think back to high school. For some of you that may seem like eons ago and for others maybe just yesterday. Did you ever take Home Ec? What type of class was it? At my tiny little school (yes, I graduated with 47 people), it wasn’t a popular class to take. The main attraction was the teacher. She truly cared and had a relaxed way of teaching. I remember in one of those classes we spent time talking about our future. For some reason, we started a manila envelope of pictures of things we would like to have in our future homes. (Huh, now that I’m writing this I wonder if we really did this in class or if it was just some other weird idea I had at age 15.) Anyways, I can remember filing pictures away just like I had seen my mom do as her and my dad built our house (more on that later).

Almost 10 years later I find myself doing the very same thing but now it’s more of a reality. I have begun my own inspiration file.

Ridiculous things I considered while making an inspiration file:

• Hard cover vs. soft cover
• Lined paper vs. blank paper
• 8 ½  x 11 size paper vs. larger paper
• Inexpensive vs. expensive notebook

Particular about the binding, I choose a sketchbook (I have a weird obsession with sketchbooks, they’re perfect for anything).

 With a little dash of Amy Butler’s (a fave fabric designer of mine) scrapbook paper I began my creation. A delicious latte and few labels later I had myself a little book of inspiration. I use it to keep my ideas that I tear from magazines. I look forward to someday studying the pictures to begin making choices for my home that awaits us.

Final choice: soft cover, larger blank paper, inexpensive sketchbook. (Would have loved this one but figured my $3 one from Target would suffice.)

The inspiration file is just a piece of my dream land. I have my online pictures saved here. Are you ready to start clipping? Maybe you’re a little crazy like me and feel better once something is visually organized. Let me officially give you permission to cut and paste.