What inspires you? What has it led you to create?

Dingley Dell, South Australia

Are you an artist? A crafter? A writer? Where do you find inspiration? What has your inspiration led you to create?

If you have read my About Me page, you know that in addition to being a writer/blogger, I am also a novice fiber crafter. When it comes to inspiration for both writing and crafting I find it everywhere.

My husband and I live about thirty minutes from the Southern Ocean and we like to travel down there often just to sit seaside and watch the waves and the ships. That is inspiration in itself for me and I just find it incredibly relaxing and restorative. But on the way down we pass a turn off to a place called Dingley Dell. I just love the sound of those two words together - Dingley Dell. 


Those words inspire me. For a time I thought Dingley Dell was actually a town. I would love to have an address that said I lived in Dingley Dell. Sadly, it is not. It is a cottage where Adam Lindsay Gordon, a 19th century poet, lived. Still pretty cool though, right?

Someday I will find a way to use Dingley Dell in one of my books. 

I also find a lot of inspiration for my writing in television shows. Lifeboat, was loosely inspired by the (horrible) TV show UFO Chasers and Cass was going to be a free-spirited UFO Chaser off on adventures. While the story didn't quite go that way, that is where the inspiration for it derived.

I recently watched an episode of Ancient Aliens that also got my creative juices flowing with ideas about the Serpent Mound in Ohio, and how they could be related to the Nazca lines in Peru. Not sure if and when I'll write about these, but my imagination went into high gear and inspired I certainly was. Does that mean I believe everything I watch? Hell no. But it makes me think and that is where inspiration comes from. New ideas and ruminating on them.

My needle felted project

Even in my amateurish attempts at fiber crafting, I must be inspired. I recently attempted my first needle felted project. This particular project was inspired by (but not intended to resemble) some of the beautiful Aboriginal art pieces I've seen recently, but I've also just realized that it too was loosely inspired by the Serpent Mound episode of Ancient Aliens. Do I think this is high art? No - I see it for what it is. But is something I created and I happen to like it.

So now that I've shared with you some of my sources of inspiration and what has resulted from them, tell me - where do YOU find inspiration? What inspires you and what have you created based on that inspiration?