Who are you Inspired by?

 A friend posted this onto my Face Book this morning.  Lovely.  I also get inspired all the time by sayings and quotes.

We get inspired by beauty and youth every day.  And we want to grasp it in our hands.  There is a bit of beauty in every household.

I found this image from Pinter est.  Love it.  Would be tempted to make one as a joke gift for my sister's husband for a Christmas Gag gift.  I couldn't imagine the coffee beans going into the microwave, but I'm sure it would hold up.  But to get it rinsed, that could be a different story.




Who are you inspired by?  Who or what in your life drives you to create?  What motivates you to do what you do?  It doesn't matter what you do, but we all are inspired from something.

Are you one of those people who loves to flip through a magazine to get inspired?  Are you a picture person or are you text?  What draws you to the page?  Is it enough to make you stay?  Or are you the one who flips through pages quickly?

Sometimes I am the one who is flipping through a magazine rather quickly.  But as I go, I discover a page here and there that I want to linger in a moment longer.  And then the reading grips me with a vise and I'm there for the duration.

I love seeing the pretty pictures.  Sometimes, I can flip through quick and other times, I find I need to study the picture a little longer to see how it is made.  And as I sit in my chair (usually at a waiting room), I find myself asking that question.  "Could I make that?"  Or, "That would look perfect in my dining room."  Where can I get it?

Or can I come up with something similar and unique because it is my own.

And sometimes it is a celebrity who we are inspired by.  Which celebrities are your favorites?  Do you have a whole bunch of favorites or does just one all time favorite sum it up for you?  What is it about them that makes you love them or their style?  Is there one actor or actress that you love that you think nobody else measures up to?

And if you could have been one of them, who would you have switched places with?  And how do you think they would have lived if they had filled your shoes?  Vice versa.  What would you have done with their life?  Maybe I've just given you a great story to write.  Or maybe I'll write it someday.  Hmm.....

Too much on my plate right now.

Here's a funny little story that I read from one of my brother's friends on face book.  He dreamed that he was at a yard sale and bought a bunch of socks that were in a fish bowl.  I laughed and told him if I saw them at a yard sale like that tomorrow, I would know who to send them to.  And then another friend told him, "Have fun with your smelly, stinky dream socks."  Cute.

That's the beauty of face book.  You get to have a good laugh with your family and friends no matter how far away you live from them.

Well, as I think about things, I would have to say that I love Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor.  Those would be my favorite older actresses or iconic figures that I would look up to.  And when I die, maybe I will float on over and have a cup of tea with them and a Sarah Lee pound cake fer sure.

Who knows, I'm not dead yet.  And I don't plan on going until I get my face on one of those Smucker's jars.  By then, someone else will be announcing the old geezers that we will be.

Ode to be old and sitting in a rocking chair like Whistler's mother or Grandma Moses.  Now she lived a full life.

I guess my favorite modern actresses would be, Kristen Stewart, Amanda Seyfried, Julia Roberts, Paltrow, Kate Winslet and I'm sure others.

I really like a lot of different ones.  It kind of depends on the movie.  I basically like watching a lot of different ones and decide if I think they are acting well in the movie.  And sometimes I fall asleep on a movie and it becomes meaningless.

I'm a fan of the Twilight movies.  Anything Gothic will do it for me.  I love those movies, Gothic art fascinates me.  I always wish my art would be Gothic, but it ends up being pretty, nostalgic and lovingly done.  But I do have some works that can be borderline.  Like a doll with no eyes.  That would do it.

Anything that has photographic atmosphere really inspires me.

It's not just the people that inspire me.  It's the images, the artwork, the photography, the way a certain thing looks.

Sometimes we can go somewhere and look at our surroundings and just get inspired.  Do you ever find yourself walking into an antique shop or somewhere else that you want to visualize just for the sake of ideas?  I love looking at antique shops, but usually don't go because I don't have the money for their pricey old stuff.  And once in a while I will purchase something.  Maybe once a year or two.

And how many times do you just get inspired by your family and friends?  Quite often, I would think.  And if you are a writer like I am, we can get ideas from absolutely anywhere.  Maybe it was something that Aunt Susan said to you yesterday that maybe made you think to yourself, "Oohh.... you just gave me an awesome idea."  "Your spoon you are holding is giving me an outrageous thought.  I'm gonna bang the crap out of it and write all my wedding guests names on them!!!"

That is a Pinter est idea by the way.  If you haven't already checked it out, go and get an invite.  It's lots of fun.

Have you ever thought that a simple photograph could begin a story for you?  I've known other authors and poets who have used this idea in their poetry.  I gave it a whirl a few times.  It's kind of fun.

Or if you get five of your friends to try this out, I bet you all would come up with something completely different.  As we all perceive things in a different way.

If you were to be really reckless and wild, which actress or actor would you be?  Or even more fun, which family or friend would you be?

Which one would you most likely not want to be like?  Is there one that seems most infamous to you?  If you were to tell one of them what you thought of them, which one would you most likely tell them a piece of your mind?

I think for me it would be Lindsay Lohan.  She has really made a mess of herself.  And there's no need.  I once admired her movies, back in the day when she was good, but she has really spiralled downhill for me to get disgusted.  And I kind of got disgusted when she came out of the closet.

I'm not judgemental.  If people are gay, that's their choice.  I like Ellen and she's gay.  I like her because she is funny.  I love her show.

I'm also a fan of the Today Show and Rachel Ray.  I don't mind Nate Berkus.  I can't stand Dr. Phil and Judge Judy.  I'm glad she was never my mother.  I'll switch the station quick usually.  Anderson Cooper is okay, but something about that show bugs me to no end.

My job is EBay, so I get to be home to watch these and then be there for my kids when they are home.

And speaking of kids, how many times have they inspired you?  Countless times, I'm sure.  Kids inspire the world over and over.  We are amazed at their capabilities, their profound feelings and emotions.  They wear their hearts on a string.  They can be as blunt as can be.  They are not afraid to tell you what they think.

Sometimes we are so surprised at what came out of their mouths.  And yes, sometimes we look over and think, "Is that my child?  She's not mine, really.  Oh, bleep......."  Your face turns more red than the tomatoes in your sandwich.  Or strawberries....... or the bright red undies that you are wearing and nobody knows it.

Nope, I'm not wearing red today.  Maybe tomorrow.  If I remember.

What was the person, place or thing that made you do the wildest thing you've ever done?

I'm not sure what my wildest thing I've ever done.  Maybe to walk the streets of New York City at night once and not quite knowing where I was going?  I thought I was going to get lost, but I found my way to my college friends and the movie theater we were supposed to all meet at.  Thank-god.



I guess the only thing I will be willing to confess is that I'm a little like my character, Sarah in my Black Roses book.  Let's just say, I can relate to her.  Although, thank god there has never been a murder in my life.  I've never been a stripper like her, but I can relate to spending money.

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I may not be famous, but I've lived a colorful life so far.  And one of the best things was being a stay at home mom.

And how many moms have you been inspired by in your life?  Many I bet.

In your close surroundings, who has inspired you the most?  Has there ever been anyone in your life that you have been trying to be like your whole life?  There is for me.

My mother.  I loved her and my whole life will be on being who she was and making sure my children grow up knowing who she was.  She is my biggest icon in this whole life.

And my children are also my biggest inspiration.  And my biggest accomplishment.  Four little miracles that make me smile every day.

And it is so true that we meet the other half in our life by so many mysterious ways.  I guess it all makes for an interesting story.  How did you meet the love of your life?  Write about it and tell your kids.

One of my writer friends from an old writing class was writing her memoirs for her grandchildren.  She wanted them to know what it was like for her growing up in a certain neighborhood.

Basically all over the world, we are inspired.  Each and every day.  It's what we make of it that counts in our lives.

Being inspired by other people, places and things makes us grow as our authentic selves.  And we turn it into something that is uniquely ours.

But hearing stories, seeing images and being inspired makes the world go round.  And we are left with raw emotions that make us feel something.  And suddenly we are not quite who we were before.  New thoughts form.


Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted May 16, 2012

                       
                                An Evangeline Wilde doll.  I get inspired by these Gothic dolls.

 There's always room to be inspired by a new blooming rose.  Women should have a rose for every day.  In any shape or form.

An eerie picture for me to be inspired by.  Perhaps a new mystery?  You never know.

Love her.  Okay, maybe someday I will write the story about a young woman who switches places with her.  It could even be a young girl in the future who wants to know what her life is like and Katherine Hepburn wakes up inside her casket and desires to live life again and this young girl meets her in a dream and asks her to experience her young life.

Okay, there's my food for thought today.  Or maybe it starts out that two dead women (me and Katherine Hepburn and her two friends, Audrey and Liz are having tea spread out on a fancy black cobweb picnic table above James Dean's grave.  Mind you while he is smoking pot over yonder with Marilyn Monroe.) and she and I decide to live life over again in one an other's lives.

                                                           
                                                               Man Ray's photograph.

                                                        Amanda Seyfried.  I love her eyes.  I would love to someday just draw her eyes and then come up with something else completely my own afterwards.  But to begin with the inspiration.  I could even make it haunted if I want.

I also love the old pictures.  I get inspired by old pictures all the time.