You're the meaning in my life...

...you're the inspiration.

Oops. Sorry for that little flashback to 1984. (Eh, maybe 1984, maybe not. All I know is that Chicago song came out when I was very, very young so I'm making an educated guess here.) But I've been trying to come up with a (hopefully) interesting post, and I thought, why not blog about where I get my jewelry ideas from? So this is it.

What inspires me? The short answer...color. I love bright colors. One day a few years ago, when I wore a black top and white capri pants to work, my boss's son made the very observant comment that I "never wear black." Funny, coming from a nine-year-old boy, but true. I rarely wear black (unless I have to...like now we have black uniform shirts at work, where we didn't a few years ago when the above comment was made) and if I do, it's not head to toe. It's paired with something bright. And probably something patterned. I love patterns too. Polka dots. Stripes. Plaid. Argyle. Mmmmm...argyle. But, I digress. The point is, colors inspire me.

The long (longer, anyways, as the short answer turned out a bit long) answer is...pretty much anything with bright colors and interesting color combinations inspires me. Sometimes, I just grab beads in colors I like and have a go at it. Other times I'm at a loss for ideas and look elsewhere. Sometimes, I find a bit of inspiration in places where I least expect it. Like...my lunch. The other day I was feeding my face (again...I tend to do that an awful lot). As I noshed on a bowl of cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew I thought, ooo those colors would look nice on a bracelet. So I gave it a whirl, and came up with this:

(not my melon...my camera's batteries died that day, so I googled it instead)

(look! matching earrings! Yep, I do those too!)

I like it. And, apparently, so does someone else. It sold this evening, probably not more than an hour after I posted it in my Etsy store, The Laughing Girl.

Another food-inspired piece, based on the colors of my favorite citrus fruits - pink grapefruit, tangerines, lemons and limes.

(more googled fruit...I don't have the money to blow on that much fruit at once...)

Sometimes, as I've posted before, I find inspiration in album covers. Here's two examples:

Julie Fowlis' Cuilidh

and Jenna Reid's With Silver and All

And let's not forget Mother Nature. I pulled the colors for this piece from my mom's spectacular tulip display this spring.

This one, I made to match my new favorite sundress.

And this one here, made for Lil' J, was inspired by the adorable outfit she was wearing that day, and her love of bright rainbow colors (that's my girl!) and sparkly things in general. (And the heart? Because I love her, of course!)

So, that's it. Basically, I draw on everything around me for ideas. Nothing is safe. Not even lunch.