Inspiring me right now: #thriftythursday, collage sheets & more

June 2023 and I am super inspired by so many cool women that post stuff online (as so often before), and since it’s been a while since I felt inspired to do anything with the blog or share any link love here, I think it’s high time today!

So without further ado, here’s a list of three things that inspires me right now:

Note: Outgoing links at the bottom of the post! Thanks for reading and leaving me a comment.

1. Amy Cowen and her illustrated life

Amy’s podcast used to be called the Creative Mom Podcast (I found it in 2006!), since then she re-branded it still CMP but called it Creativity Matters Podcast, and there are hundreds of episodes to listen to if you haven’t heard of her before. But if you’ve been around for a while I’m sure you have. I have listened a lot to her soothing, beautiful talks on creative habits, library visits, children’s books, exploring drawing and so many other things over the years, but now it’s been a long time since I listened to any podcasts really (because of audiobooks taking up my listening time). But in May I re-found her on Substack where she writes a blog type newsletter called Illustrated life, and I really enjoy her way of writing, thinking and sharing sometimes loose ideas rattling around in her brain, using her writing as a soundingboard in a way.

I followed along in her Julia Cameron reading as a lurker, mostly to get my own morning pages habit going, and it helped encourage me to write in a specific notebook in a kind of therapeutic way in May, although I could not manage it as daily as I wanted it to be. But I am determined to continue trying and learning more about how to use it.

Mostly Amy shares prompts for keeping an illustrated journal with a spread each week (and she shares her own sketchbook pages on Instagram which are amazing) and thoughts on what creative projects she is working on. I am not doing anything similar to an illustrated journal and that feel great to me (I love the idea a lot but it also feels good to not have to do all the challenges that are tempting us online all the time). Still I really enjoy her musings and recommend you to check her out.

2. The hashtag #thrifty Thursday

Then I found the hashtag #thriftythursday on YouTube via Jennifer Durdle Art’s videos on the subject, and after binge-watching many of her recent videos I’ve also started getting recommended other’s videos using the hashtag, and it’s been great! This hashtag is used by mixed media artists, which makes it even more interesting. I really enjoy when you get to know the artistic thoughts behind the purchase, like what will this or that item be used for and where? If you’re new to thrifting that kind of suggestions will help you think outside the box and see potential in almost everything – or maybe you’re like me and just love seeing old vintage books, bits of fabric, magazines destined for collage harvesting and other up-cycling ideas floating in to ignite your own creativity.

(I don’t like it when there’s a Dollar Store haul included because that is not thrifting to me and not as interesting really.)

I will definitely be filming a thrifty haul myself soon-ish, because summer is my best thrifting time, even though I now give myself restrictions of what and how much I can buy, since I also need to declutter many areas of my life (but that’s a story/task for autumn I think).

3. Collage Sheets by Jennie Mae June

Earlier this month I also jumped in and paid to become a patreon of a beginner illustrator and artist that each month creates fun and colorful collage sheets to her supporters. Her online name is Jennie Mae June, and as I have gotten to know her, a mom of three young kids through her videos on Patreon, I am so in love with her drawings, and feel connected to her as I listen to her talking about her struggles and her ups and downs of filling journals consistently (don’t we all from time to time?).

And best of all, I have downloaded an entire year of her wonderful, colorful collage sheets filled with journaling cards, cute illustrations, number sheets and labels for my fauxbonichi journaling and other notebooks I’m sure. I have been printing, cutting and then using so many of these images and my current June journal is so filled with Jennie Mae June illustrations. I love every single item I’ve used, and even made a video showing some of the collage sheets that I printed, hoping to help promote her collage sheets:

Not inspired by Twitter anymore

I am sure no one noticed, but I stopped tweeting the first of January because even though I (stubbornly) have kept (stupidly) tweeting links of inspiration and excitement throughout the years, I never got any feedback and my following were actually dropping instead of growing, but that’s another story. Also the debacle of a new owner, politics and such (which I usually can’t care about because I think all the good people just can not abandon an app or platform when that shit happens, because where will we end up? More divided. More apart from the evils of the world. More in our own bubbles. Maybe at the edge of earth, thrown out into the cold, that is my guess, but let’s not get into that debate here – to each their own). In any case, don’t tweet me because I’ve uninstalled the app on my phone even though the history and the account is still there. Should one delete it? I’m not sure.

Anyway. The fact is that now I miss sharing random internet finds / inspirations quite a bit, so this is another way to do it in a more (for me) satisfying way that also is feeding my love of writing, thinking and saving what I’m sharing for prosperity (kind of).

Below is the links to the ladies that inspires me right now (let me know if I should do this again next month?)

Inspiring Link Love

• Amy Cowen’s Creative Mom Podcast and her substack at Illustrated Life (just click “no thanks right now” to becoming a email subscriber if you want to trial read it online like a blog), where I recently (this morning as I was having my morning coffee) read Amy’s post on 17 years of Podcasting – happy birthday CMP! Her reading Julia Cameron is there as well.
• Jennifer Durdle’s playlist on hauls and thrifty Thursday videos – hours of watching time if you so like, then click the hashtag from there to see other’s similar videos
• Jennie Mae June is on YouTube and Patreon. Also check out her free collage sheet – download and print it to know what it is you get before you buy her Patreon subscription, which I recommend everyone who likes this style to try out ASAP!