ahh inspiration

a much loved stack of now defunct House & Garden magazine

The way I begin most design projects is with plenty of investigation and inspiration.

I either start trolling the internet (OMG google images I LOVE you) or I haul out my big stacks of favourite, and now mostly all deceased, decor/design magazines - House & Garden (where Grace from Design Sponge began her fabulous design blog), Domino (the saddest of all because I discovered it late in the game when it only had a few years left) and Martha's contribution Blueprint (an amazing magazine and I'm still mad at her and her financial team for being so concerned about subscriber numbers and that darn bottom line). In Canada we had the short lived but also great Chocolat and Wish magazines. I keep all my saved back issues neatly stacked in my studio/office space and I do still go through them every now & then and always find lots of new inspiration in them.

Thankfully along with the mind blowing number and eclectic array of beautiful, breathtaking and stunningly inspiring creative design/art/photography blogs (that knock me to my knees daily* - no joke) many online decorating & design e-zines are cropping up at a heartwarming rate. Just a few that I've come across lately.

lonny magazine
by fryd
sweet paul

and of course always my ever growing, ever changing list of favourite design stuff blogs

poppytalk
design sponge
decor8
a cup of jo
bloesum
print & pattern
sf girl by bay
black eiffel

... and on ... and on

* honestly I am truly blown away at least once a day by some totally amazing creative blog, artist, crafts person, designer, etsy shop purveyor, and/or photographer that I come across in my thorough travels and I wonder sometimes, in amazement, that it doesn't end up making me feel very discouraged. Discouraged because of the extreme high quality of the work that is seemingly EVERYWHERE I look in this online blog world (that I thankfully am a part of - Wow !) ... but magically and thankfully it seems to do just the opposite. They all inspire me in ways I never thought possible.

check out this weeks blog of the week ... another stunner