Creating an inspiration journal

journal - photo by JimileeK, Flickr

How do you keep track of all those fabulous ideas floating around your head?  When you see an inspiring photo of a beautiful living room or bedroom, what do you do with it?  What about an item of clothing in a catalog that you love – but aren’t willing to spend money on just yet?  Or a magazine article that seems to speak to you, making you wish that you could remember the sage advice given forever?

I’ve seen plenty of cluttered homes (including my dear mother’s) that have stacks and stacks of old magazines that are being kept in closets and drawers and dusty corners because “there’s some good information in there that I wanted to keep.”  The intent is to hold on to the good information in order to put it into practice someday — but that someday never comes because the information hidden in those stacks of magazines remains so inaccessible.

So here’s my solution for all of you:  create an inspiration book!

It’s the perfect place to cut out little photos of rooms you admire, quotes you find powerful, and stories you find inspirational.  Mine is simply a blank sketchbook I purchased at Barns & Noble — you know the ones, with the gorgeous covers and artful papers inside — and began slapping in anything I found beautiful, useful or memorable.  This is your time to unleash and fill up those gorgeously blank pages with whatever you like!  Even if you think you’re a horrible artist, but always had the desire to play around with a few sketches — this is your own private and safe place to do it!  Who else is going to see it?  No one.  This book is yours.  Write out interesting things you overhear on the street.  Write out your “bucket” list of life goals.

The best part?  Your corners, closets and drawers will be free of out-of-date magazines.  After you’ve enjoyed the magazine, taken out anything you’ll want to refer to later, recycle it!

A page from my own inspiration journal

*  Tip:  Perfection is not the goal. Sure,  your inspiration booklet should be beautiful and endorphin-producing, but only because its filled with things you love — not because it’s a perfect scrapbook with perfectly straight lines and perfectly color-coordinated pages.  If you make your inspiration book into a scrapbook – things will pile up until you have the time to sit down and properly cut and mount everything you want to put into the book.  Me?  When I find something I want to hang on to, I rip the page out of the magazine or catalog and place it inside my sketchbook until I have 10 minutes or so to sit down with some coffee and add my new findings into the book.  I do this with a glue stick or sometimes just plain old Scotch tape.

* Tip:  See what themes emerge. We all have various things that catch our eye — for you it may be photos of gorgeous landscaping ideas, delicious recipes you’d like to try, or some new abdominal exercises you’d like to incorporate into your workout routine.  After you begin to notice these themes, you may want to create more than one inspiration journal.  For me, I’ve got one sketchbook that has been converted into my “inspiration-only” book.  This includes quotes and photos about life, fashion,health and home decor.  For any recipes I pull out of magazines that I want to try, I have several plastic sheet protectors in the binder where the rest of my recipes are.  When I find a recipe I want to try, it takes two seconds to yank it out of the magazine and stick it inside one of the plastic sheets.  I have another stack of exercise-related articles that I always seem to yank out of magazines, and then never find a home for them.  My plan for managing these is the same as my recipes – buy a binder with lots of plastic sheets to stick these articles inside.  I’ll probably divide them into “lower body exercises,” “abs,” and “arms.”  That way, when I’m too lazy to head to the gym and wanting to do a living room workout, I’ll have plenty of options right at my fingertips.

So go ahead – pretend you’re a magpie, collecting all things beautiful to last you throughout the long, cold winter.

And when you’re running low on inspiration, grab some tea and cookies, and settle into a comfortable spot, and re-visit all the things that inspire you….it may just spur a new household project, fashion endeavor, craft idea, or life goal.

A page from my own inspiration journal.

Advertisement