Recent sources of inspiration:
Two books
Crafting a Meaningful Home I'll admit, I had low expectations for this book based soley on the cover image being of Lisa Congdon's lovely (but overexposed) plate wall. Still, I decided to check it out at Borders and was pleasantly surprised. I found several innovative ideas I actually wanted to try. One was to take rubbings of embossed metal things around your city (ideally things that say the name of your city). Biscuit and I struck out on finding anything especially cool but had a nice walk around midtown and did rubbings of several standard issue sidewalk covers.
Print Workshop by the Yellow Owl Workshop folks. Their stamp kits are awesome and their book was even better. (again, took a look for free at Borders). An excellent mix of inspiration, useful techniques and guidance to do your own thing which is exactly what I like in a craft book. I find I don't use very prescriptive pattern books but prefer to see ideas and learn the techniques behind them so I can adapt to my own tastes. We bought some supplies for a project from the book during our sidewalk rubbing walk. I'll report back on our success.
Speaking of learning techniques, Abby of While She Naps is doing an amazing series on soft toy construction.
And speaking of great things on the internet, my pal, the artist, Lauren, is offering a really amazing giveaway on her site. An original painting/postcard. I'm already signed up so now I can send you over to sign yourself up. I hope you get one--her work is awesome.
And a few blogs I've been loving lately: Bookhou and Poppytalk. Always fun places to check in.
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