Monday, April 9, 2012

Inspiration

A to Z Badge 2012 (1)

Being in the plumbing and heating business, every month or so we take in a load of scrap—water heaters, furnaces etc. for a little extra cash (which, consequently, has helped us build our emergency fund—see DaveRamsey.com for more info on that). 

sanfordandson

But getting back on topic, I know this sounds crazy, but if they'd let me, I could spend hours looking through bits and pieces of scrap for funky projects. I guess that’s taking the saying "trash to treasure" to a new level, isn’t it. The other day I saw what I think was an old wire egg basket as we were driving in--it would look so cute on the porch with flowers—but, alas, we can give ‘em scrap, but we just can’t take it! 

{I crack myself up!}

After thinking about the fact that something so disturbing to some simple as a scrap yard would give me inspiration to create, I wondered, where did this come from?  Am I totally strange and/or deranged?  (No one answer that!)

Then I found someone to blame for my behavior—my dad!  Yes!  It was Dad who would load up all 7 of us kids and take us to the dump.  (Ok, that didn’t come out right!  Starting over…it was Dad whom we’d accompany to the dump with our load of trash.  That sounds better!)  This was way before the world thought it necessary to fight germ warfare with anti-bacterial soap and trash was just thrown into a can.   We could roam the mountains of trash to our hearts content finding a good Barbie doll that might have a scratch on her leg or a dinged-up Matchbox car, just as long as we were looking out for the front-end loader!  Then Dad would holler and we’d all come piling into the Travelall International and head home to wash our hands with our trusty bar of Zest before supper.  Gone are those days for sure!  (Before you begin wondering what kind of dad would raise his kids that way, ‘those poor, deprived things’, I will add that we were a very blessed bunch of kiddos who went to Disneyland and Sea World, took more-than-a-week camping trips, and we even got out of school early one year to take a 3-week trip to California.  What a dad!) 

I’ve come a long way since then.  Now, just talking about all that trash makes me want to go take a shower!   I don’t go looking for treasures at the dump—not that I could if I wanted to.  I won’t even dumpster dive, though I have been known to curb shop once in awhile.

I find my inspiration to create by more refined means.  Thrift stores, yard/garage/patio/car boot sales—whatever you call it in your part of the world.  I’m also inspired by other people’s blogs, ideas on Pinterest and Etsy, the library. 

What inspires your creativity?

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m off to my shower!

God bless,

Brenda

6 comments:

  1. omgosh this is funny---i have a husband and sister that this so reminds me of---what a wonderful childhood it sounds like you had!

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  2. I still haven't had my shower yet LOL, busy getting stuck in blogs like yours!

    Nice to meet you, and I hope you're enjoying the Challenge!

    KarenG
    A to Z Challenge Host

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  3. I love this post! Those were the days. Life was so much more relaxed. People were so much more relaxed. You have some great family memories, very innocent and charming. With all the technology we have now, people and families are more frustrated, too busy, and short-fused than ever before. I miss the simple days and simple ways. People were polite and they spoke to each other face-to-face: they were friendly. Ahhhh, the good old days. Thanks for this moment of reminiscing. The simple things are the best! Love MoonWynd
    http://moonwyndstudio.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this post! Those were the days. Life was so much more relaxed. People were so much more relaxed. You have some great family memories, very innocent and charming. With all the technology we have now, people and families are more frustrated, too busy, and short-fused than ever before. I miss the simple days and simple ways. People were polite and they spoke to each other face-to-face: they were friendly. Ahhhh, the good old days. Thanks for this moment of reminiscing. The simple things are the best! Love MoonWynd
    http://moonwyndstudio.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete

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