inspired by | Brandi Girl Blog

Category: inspired by

Inspired By :: 3 Bloggers

inspired byJan 10 20134 Comments

I came across three blog posts this week that just resonated. Don’t you love when that happens? So, I thought I’d share them with you, in case you need a little inspiration today, too.

inspired by 3 bloggers

What To Do If You Can’t Afford Coaching from Create as Folk

For me, I get the value in coaching and ebooks and eclasses, I truly do. So, when I pass on spending the money, I have a good reason for it. It’s seldom because I don’t care enough to invest in myself or my business, but because I need to make a decision about where to spend what I have. -Me

That’s the comment I left on Laura’s post, which I found brilliant and validating. She succinctly acknowledges a point that I didn’t realize bothered me till I read what she wrote: there may be a good reason entrepreneurs decide to hold onto their money. And whatever reason that is, it’s fine.

Curatives for judgement. (Please read before you interact with other humans.) from Danielle LaPorte

Here’s a curative for the sharp judgement that often accompanies our disappointment in others — just a single, surprising expansive phrase: You just never know. Use it before you jump to conclusions that someone’s a jerk, or that they need an attitude adjustment, or that they could be doing better than they are. -Danielle LaPorte

I’m a big fan of Danielle LaPorte; her words ring true to me in a way that I can’t ignore. But this post, read on a day when I felt at my crappiest, made me feel like she was writing to me and for me.

Two Reasons Why Most Resolutions Fail (And What You Need to Succeed) from Life Without Pants

This brings to light the biggest problem with making resolutions. Setting a resolution to “be more productive” is so damn vague. It’s like saying, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds”but not really understanding what it’ll take to get there… -Matt Cheuvront

Since I’m looking down the barrel of a new direction and feeling clueless about how to get a few goals done, this post hit home for me. Because Matt’s absolutely right – sometimes my goals are so very vague. Not only are they vague, the vague-ness of the way I wrote them bores me, which is not a good way to start things off, I think.

Your turn: What’s inspiring you today? Come across any posts that have resonated?

Inspired by :: Collecting Colour

inspired by, interviewDec 10 20129 Comments

At the beginning of this year, the lovely Emily decided to do a color challenge for herself called Collecting Colour. After assigning a color to each month, she went about photographing all of objects in her house that were that color.

It’s a beautiful idea, collecting color, isn’t it? And now that she’s just finished her last Collecting Colour post, I couldn’t resist asking her about it! Plus, with winter upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought that maybe you’d like a burst of color for your Monday (I’m always up for it, but you know that).

What made you decide to do a monthly color challenge?

I’ve always enjoyed participating in link ups and challenges on other blogs and I knew I wanted to do something similar on my blog in 2012, I just didn’t know what! I’d been toying around with a few ideas but nothing really grabbed me. Then one very jet lagged night, when I was wide awake at 3am, the idea for Collecting Colour just kind of coalesced!

It combined two of my favourite things – colour and themed collections – and I knew being a monthly project that it would be manageable (having said that, I only decided on it with a few days left in January, so I had to get organised pretty quick!).

Now that you’ve gone through 12 months, how does it feel to have completed it?

I know it’s such a small achievement but it does feel pretty great to look back over the 12 collections. The response to the challenge has been lovely too, there’s been a few ‘hard core’ collectors who’ve stuck with it till the end! I’ve loved seeing peoples reaction to each colour, and what’s been in the collections they’ve submitted.

I found it really interesting the way the challenge made me think about each colour – what it represents, how I respond to it and why (for example, my school uniform related forest green phobia and my love of the slightly crass coral).

It also made me much more aware of the colours I surround myself with; what’s in our wardrobe and kitchen, what’s on our shelves. It’s not always the colours we’d consider our favourites! And judging from blog comments and social media responses this was a common experience. I guess different colours have different purposes, so even if we adore gold it doesn’t mean all our kitchenware is going to be gilded!

I noticed in putting my collections together that some colours are definitely favoured for certain purposes. For example, I was amazed by the amount of green in food packaging. But try to find something in the pantry to add to a purple or blue collection? Tricky! Lots and lots of book cover designs feature green too, I could have made a whole collection just from green book covers!

Any plans to continue in 2013? Any new color choices?

Yes! I’d love to do another monthly project in 2013. Again, I’ve been tossing up a few ideas – the current favourite is actually inspired by your Colour 101 posts on why some colour combinations work and why some don’t. I’m thinking colour collections based on PAIRS of colours! Now doesn’t that sound like fun? [It totally does!]

I love that some of the colors aren’t immediately obvious for that month, like Coral for February instead of pink, or silver for April. How’d you pick your color choices for each month?

I wish I had a sensible answer for this but really it was kind of random!

The first three colours I picked because they are some of my favourites, and because it was at the tail end of a brutal Winter in Seoul and I really felt the need for some bright Spring colours. Other than that, I knew I wanted to end with the very festive trifecta of gold, red and forest green. Then I just slotted everything else around that, making sure there was plenty of variety.

Was there a color you wished you had picked but didn’t? Or a color you wished you hadn’t picked?

I can’t think of a colour I wish I had picked but didn’t, and I guess because I’ll continue to do something similar I don’t feel like there’s been any missed opportunities. I guess it might have been interesting to do a black collection though…

As for ones I wish I hadn’t picked – oh so many! Because I basically picked the colours at random I didn’t really think through how I would manage the collecting and photographing. I mean, silver? White? Gold? Really?! But, the one’s that I was dreading the most turned out to be some of my favourite collections. The challenge posed by some of the colours forced me to be a bit more creative with how I dealt with them, so it was all good in the end.

What’s your favorite Collecting Colour month/photo/color?

Tough call! I have a soft spot for yellow in January because it’s definitely one of my favourite colours and being the first one it was exciting to see an idea become reality. Despite it’s sparseness I also liked the gold one in October. It’s got a bit more balance and order to it, with the baubles in each corner and the tinsel in the middle. Plus it makes me feel all festive (I adore the holiday season!). Then there’s some collections I like just because they have a few special pieces in them – like the silver one from April which has an awesome robot the youngest step-son made and a lovely photo of my gorgeous late Grandma.

A big thanks to Emily for sharing her experiences with us! For more, check out her links below:

Pantone’s 2012 Fall Colors

color palette, inspired byOct 23 201212 Comments

I have to admit, when I first saw Pantone’s colors for Fall 2012, my first reaction was… meh. That’s kind of why it’s taken me so long to comment on them; I just didn’t think I had a whole lot to say.

But then I started really looking, and when I started looking, I started playing. Most people probably aren’t going to use so many trend colors in one go, but I enjoyed playing around with them as a group.

Individually, I’m loving the vividness of Ultramarine Green, and the quieter colors of French Roast, Titanium, and Rose Smoke. Rose Smoke was a surprise – it’s not a color I normally gravitate to. But the soft, dusky pinkish purple looks great with so many colors. I also had a hard time not overusing the chocolately gray-brown French Roast; it, too, looks fantastic paired with every other fall pick.

The more I look at them, the more I really dig Pantone’s picks this season. Even Tangerine Tango is winning me over; I’m loving the way it looks in the first and sixth palettes, how about you?

What do you think about this fall’s picks? Which color or combo would you use?

Inspired by :: Striking Truths

inspired bySep 25 20127 Comments

There’s a new-to-me blog out there called Striking Truths that is so simple and elegant, I’m a little jealous. The premise is simple – a new manifesto created every day with fabulous graphics and quotes. I want to paper my walls with Striking Truths; with a new shop now open, I can at least grab a few to start.

What do you think? Got a favorite?

Found via Pinterest and Going Home to Roost. Photo sources from the top:

Easy And Certain, Knowing, Find Your Greatness, The Most Important Thing, Remember, One Step Closer, Do It Your Way

Inspired by :: Seamless Backgrounds

inspired by, tip shareSep 13 20124 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time the last couple of weeks thinking about a fresh design for the ol’ blog here, but haven’t really made much headway on deciding on a theme or direction. I like and appreciate a lot of different styles, which is pretty much the heart of my problem, so I haven’t moved from “just searching” to “implementing” yet.

One thing that has caught my eye is the plethora of attractive background images out there. I love all of the variety, and I especially love it when it’s a seamless repeating background.

If you’re not familiar with them, a repeating background is exactly what it sounds like: an image that repeats over and over. This is done automatically with code in your blog template, so once you upload an image to your server, you’d go into your blog’s code or template editor and set that image to repeat.

Strictly speaking, any image can be repeated, but the ones that look best to me are the ones that are seamless, where all of the edges line up perfectly when it’s tiled together to form a larger image, like my stripes here. Seamless images are usually small in file size (I say usually, but it depends on the pattern image), so they can load quickly and not bog down your site. Overall, a seamless background gives a smooth, cohesive feeling, and there’s a ton of different images out there to play with.

These are only a few examples, so if you’d like to see more, visit the sites below or Google “seamless pattern backgrounds” or “seamless repeating backgrounds” to find new sources.

Pattern/background sources:

Don’t forget to check the Terms of Use! I did my best to pick sources where both personal and commercial use was acceptable, but TOUs can change.

Other resources:

StripeGenerator.com is an awesome free site that makes creating a huge variety of colored stripe combos not only possible, but easy. A few choices, a quick preview, and bam – your stripes are ready for download. The makers behind Stripe Generator also have another pattern-making website called TartanMaker.com for that perfect plaid.

Or, if you feel like having a go at making one yourself, be sure to check out Libby’s guest post about using Seamless Lite from ColourLovers.com. For Photoshop users, Katrina from PuglyPixel.com has got a tutorial about making tileable wallpapers!

Installing a seamless background:

This is where a little homework on your part comes in. Because there are so many different templates made for WordPress alone, much less all of the ones available on other blogging platforms like Blogger, Typepad, and Squarespace, it’s tough to write up a tutorial about installing and implementing a seamless background that will cover most blogs.

So, start by looking at your blog’s dashboard. Does it have a template editor? Does it allow you to upload a background image? If so, does it ask if you want to repeat your background image? That’s what you need to do, upload then choose the select or repeat option if you have one.

Another option that might be available to you is if you’d like your background fixed in place. To give you an idea of what a fixed repeating background looks like, again, look at my striped background here. Instead of moving with you as you scroll down the page, those stripes are locked in place. That’s what a fixed position means.

Now, Blogger users, you’ve got a template editor. You want to look under the Template heading on your Dashboard, then click the Customize button under the Live on Blog thumbnail. This will open up your Template Designer. Next, choose Background > Background Image > Upload. The times that I tried it, Blogger automatically repeated/tiled my seamless image, which was nice.

If you don’t have a template editor for your theme, then you’re going to need to dive into your code. I’d start by looking at any documentation or support info that came with your template to see if there are any suggestions adding or changing anything, or if there is a larger support forum you can access to ask questions. If you’re on self-hosted WordPress, checking those Support Forums could answer your question, but keep in mind, that’s the general WordPress support area, so it may or may not apply to your template or theme. Or, if you’re just looking for reference codes, W3Schools.com has a few basics for CSS.

Beyond that, I’m not really an expert, and without knowing exactly how your template is structured, I can’t give any further help. I’m sorry about that, but I hope this gets you started!

What about you? Got a favorite background image resource? Got any tips for installing a repeating image?