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Question | Inspiration Overload?

looking for answers to the question shouting over everything else in my head.

So, I’m going through my daily blogroll adventure and realized that time was just laughing at me as it walked away.  I wondered if I spent too much of it taking it all in.  Looking for inspiration in someone else’s reality and not enough time creating my own.

Is there such a thing as Inspiration Overload?

I look at these images, these ideas and the questions just ask themselves.  Am I at a saturation point for a particular curated aesthetic? Am I coveting more than appreciating?  Am I bored?  I know I get something from everything I take in, but could I spend more time away and not feel like I’m missing something?

Maybe I’m inspirationally congested.  Stuck at the point where I should be using some of it, instead I’m creating a bottleneck checking out what everyone else is doing.

Information overload is a given with everything coming so fast from so many places.  Can you feel that way by things that are meant to get you going? Things at are supposed to motivate  you in some way?

I don’t know.

What inspires you and how do you keep moving?

Nikki♥

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brings it all back | gil scott-heron’s i’m new here

there’s a gsh story. it’s from the 70s. it only really matters to me, though.

The sound of Gil’s voice is like a window opening on my childhood that makes me want to scream from the rafters that MyMomRocks.  She exposed me to art in its many forms.  It wasn’t what I might’ve liked at the time, but it has stayed with me for life.

I saw her enjoying herself.  I watched her in dance class.  It may have been an African dance class, but they got down to the original Lady Marmalade, too.  She took me to plays I couldn’t quite understand about apartheid.  I sat in her lap at poetry readings.  Paintings, framed prints and maps lined the walls at home.  We read to each other, too.

The sound of his voice reminds me of how fortunate I was, am and will always be.  Thank you, Gil.

And, I’ll Take Care Of You is on repeat.

Nikki♥

(♥:You are thanking her, too, right?) But, of course!

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thinking got me distracted | michael jackson

i really do it quite often.

I still don't know how, where or when I would have gotten this as a promo.

So, I’m working on a post about collections inspired by artist Lisa Congdon’s A Collection A Day, 2010 project.  I’ve been thinking about the things I brought with me from back east.  I kinda have stuff, but I don’t actively collect.  I just seem to keep some of the same kinds of things.  I’m documenting the few that have interesting stories or that tend to send me off thought wandering.

I was looking through my LPs to see if there was anything I wanted to shoot, when I realized that I hadn’t touched the 45s in ages.  I didn’t even know what was there.

I couldn’t believe what I found.  Just after Antidisestablishmentarianism, was Micheal Jackson’s Thriller leaning against the Purple Cat below.  It was this moment where I saw Junior High Me & Record Store Clerk Me giving each other the head nod of recognition as they passed each other in my memory.

Nikki♥

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giggly and screechy | the can jam

this is going to be fun!

I’m about to head out to the farmers’ market in my neighborhood for the first time in over a month.  I’m so excited to see what they’ve got. I can’t wait to pile all that goodness on the table.

I’m a bit giggly because I’m participating in Tigress’ Can Jam.  Each month this year, we’re going to focus on preserving.  We’re turning our attention to good food and to traditions that are truly local and global.

In P & K's Yard

I feel lucky to not only making connections to long gone relatives and ancestors, but to the family members that are here and getting older.  I get to make new memories, too.  And share them with you.

So, here’s the jumpy part.  I’m eight days in and I haven’t the slightest idea what I’m going to do.  This month the spotlight is on citrus.  This should be easy, right.  I live in California.  Well, I want blood oranges.  I need blood oranges.  Don’t you see I’m blinded by my blood orange lust.

I haven’t come across any yet.  That could change today.  Or I could just get on with it.  Which is what I’m going to do.  I’ve got today and Hollywood on Sunday.  This weekend will be the start of the citrus days.  Or the continuation of the citrus days.  Tigress must have been reading my mind.  I’ve been super citrused for the last couple of weeks.

Time to get the tote bag and camera.  I’m coming back with something fun.  I promise.

Nikki♥

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inspired by beautiful losers

sometimes, i feel like i’ve been waiting for permission to let go of supposed to and to allow myself to just do and be. (♥:Permission granted.  Get on with it.)

Watched: Beautiful Losers.

(artwork via beautifullosers.com)

For me, it just might be worth owning a copy.  Why? It’s a fascinating doc about a group of artists who created their own paradigm.  I spent the first half of the movie itching to make something and the second half not wanting it to end.

Nikki♥

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ummm, so how’s that going?

i don’t really want to talk about it.

Remember how I was going to start taking book breaks.  I was going to try to read things besides cook, crafty and showmehow books.  Things Fall Apart was top of the list with a nod to the diaspora.

So, how’s that going? Kinda, not?  I’m in recipe-ville.  I’m all about cooking and stuff.  I’ve watched a lot of telly, too.  (♥:Excuses.) Fine.  Seriously, I want/need a comfy reading chair.

Remember that denim and print tote bag.

So, how’s that going? Huh? Uhhh.  I know.  The Make:Stuff List is growing and I’ve yet to get beyond the ideas in my head.  Arrggghhh.

I’ve got to live by the writing on wall.

Nikki♥

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out with it already | paris

I woke up needing to say this: Je voudrais habiter en France.  LA est pas mal, mais j’adore Paris.

I used to dream in french.  It weirded me out, but I liked it.  I was sixteen.  I want to dream in french, again.

Nikki♥