Inspiring Me Today

Photo above from caroline.

1. This life lesson reminder, shown above, posted on a refrigerator. (Found via 43Folders Clips.)

2. Looking for new office/studio design inspiration here, here and here.

3. These samples of hand-lettering and  these artist's sketchbooks on Design*Sponge.

4. This fun writing exercise of 10 words that start with the letter S, via Ink on My Fingers.

5. These John Clark pen and ink drawings done on book pages. (Found via the inspiring Donna Downey.)

6. This lovely dahlia light, below from Finn Style. (Found via Apartment Therapy.)

Tell me, what is inspiring you today?

Flowering Fridays: Flowers for You

Salmon Pink Ranculus by Amy Palko reprinted under creative commons license

With Valentine's Day tomorrow, this time of year is all about love — and gifts that symbolize love.

And of course, I will share my love with my sweetie, my daughter and other important people in my life. But I am also reminding myself to love myself first and foremost.

I'm finally getting that all love and the quality of our relationship begins with self-love.

I'm learning that without deeply, unconditionally, and passionate love for myself, I can't truly love another or fully experience the fullness of the wondrous possibility that love is.

And I'm learning to give myself the love that I've been seeking outside of myself — fill myself up with it — and then overflow to others from that full place.

Then, and only then, I can experience the power and beauty of true love.

So this Valentine's Day, I'm buying myself flowers and cooing loving words to myself as a reminder of how important a loving relationship with myself is.

I'm hoping to find some ranunculus, but roses or a mixed bouquet would be fine, too.

I invite you to find a way to love yourself this Valentine's weekend, a way for you to let yourself know how important and loved you are, by you.

You might also want to check out:

• James Ray's video Valentine Message here, which inspired this post.
• Apartment Therapy's 7 Last-Minute Valentine's Bouquet Tips.
• Design Sponge's Weeder's Digest: Valentine's Flowers Decoded.

Tell me, which flowers would you choose to give as a Valentine to yourself?

(For more luscious flower goodness, check out Amy Palko's Flickr photostream of flora and fauna here. I love, love, love her photos. I'm going to follow her blog now, too.)

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Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.

Flowering Fridays: Bloom

Not only do I love flowers, I also love "things" with flowers - sweaters with flowers, necklaces with flowers, photos of flowers. When I went to Anthropologie on Monday in downtown Milwaukee, I spotted this gem of  a book tucked into a shelf.

Bloom (compiled by Kobi Yamada and Kristel Wills, published in 2006 by Compendium) is such a lovely treasury of inspiring quotes to encourage you to bloom, grow and shine. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find a link on either the Anthropologie site or on Amazon).

 This book has so many wonderful quotes, such as:

"The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud." - Paula Cole

"We all have the extraordinary coded inside us, waiting to be released." - Jean Houston

"The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place." - Barbara Deangelis

"I will grow. I will become something new and grand, but no grander than I now am. Just as the sky will be different in a few hours, its present perfection and completeness is not deficient, so am I presently perfect and not deficient because I will be different tomorrow." - Wayne Dyer

"Beauty appears when something is completely and absolutely and openly itself." - Deena Metzger

I also picked up on this wonderful coloring book. It's all based on a gardening/nature theme and features these wonderful hand stamps, doodles and occasional bits of text background. I bought one for myself, one for a woman I admire and one for my daughter (I didn't want to share mine!). (There is no author or publishing information on this coloring book; other than to say it's imported.)

These become part of how I support my own blooming and growing, as reminders and inspiration pieces that call you into more of your fullness.

Tell me, what do you use to remind you to bloom big in the world?

I love that this coloring book reminds me of my mission -- which is to scatter the seeds.