Sunday Spark #1

Lately I haven't been crafting a lot myself, but I have stumbled upon a lot of things that fuel my imagination. I have decided to start a new feature where I will be sharing things that inspire me!

The Reinvention of Normal

Enra - Pleiades

Today I wanted to share an inspirational permonance by enra. Enra incorporates images in their live performances to create something quite unique.

Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm

While I was in Stockholm I visited many museums. The museum of Ethnography was my favorite by far. They had so many beautiful objects from places all around the world. It really made me want to see more of the world and I realised that there still are so much places I want to visit. Here are some of the photos I took. They're not great quality, but they will give you an impression.

 

 

My favorite part of the museum was The storage. It was just amazing to look at all those showcases that were chock full with foreign items. 

Source: http://www.varldskulturmuseerna.se/en/etnografiskamuseet

The Storage
an Ethnographic Treasury

It is easy to get lost amongst tinder pouches, monkey traps and poison arrows. There are 6,000 objects here, from all four corners of the world. By opening up the Storage, we cath a glimpse of the diversity and magic of our collections - a treasure-trove for the curious. Thousands of artefacts, stories from bygone eras and infinite inspiration for the future.

If you are ever in Stockholm, it is definitely worth the visit!

Beautiful paper art

A while ago my mom took me to a great exibition of paper art. I'll share some of my favorite works.

Couzijn van Leeuwen

Caterina Crepax

Transparant God - Peter Callesen

Dylan Graham

Especially the dresses were incredible. They didn't look like they were made of paper at all. I think it is amazing what some people can do with paper.

For more information you can click on the images.

Plot in a jar

Lately my writing has occupied most of my thoughts. I constantly go from having a lot of inspiration to having none and back. When I don't have inspiration for the story I'm working on, I still want to write something else to get better. I've created this Plot in a jar so that I will have a start for a short story and go from there.

How to make a Plot in a jar

Take 3 jars (or more if you want more seperate ones) and paint 'Who', 'What' and 'When-Where-How' on the lids (or whatever you want). Cut a lot little pieces of paper and write characters, actions, places and moments or conditions on them. I will give a few examples:

Characters
A king with no land
A masked barber
A retired circusmember
A crawling todler
etc.

Actions
fel out of a tree
bought an unreliable timemachine
joined the circus
entered an other world
met a long-lost family member
befriended a vampire
got arrested

Places
in a cave
in a hospital in the jungle
under a giant christmas tree 
at a masquerade
in an underwater world

Moments
on christmas eve
right before marrying the wrong person
during a pottery course
when he/she heard a family member had died
on the opening night of his/her restaurant
after just having an accident

Conditions
like he/she had expected
because his/her mom said so
like he/she had had a vision about
because his/her loved one asked him/her to
because he/she was sure it was a dream

Put the pieces of paper in the right jars and your finished! Whenever you need a simple plot idea to start writing a story you can just randomly take a piece of paper out of each jar and start from there!

Take a seat & make a friend

I always love the conversations you can have with strangers. I'm not really someone who starts a conversation with someone I don't know, but I love it when a stranger starts talking to me. Usualy these sort of things happen to me on the train, but it can happen really anywhere. It so much fun when you realize you have something in common. Today I found this video on youtube and I loved the whole idea of two strangers talking to eachother. The questions they ask are fun, but my favorite is 'Find something you have in common'.

I also love people's life stories. I find it really interesting to learn about how other people live and what has happened in their lives so far. I think it would be so much fun if there would be an event where only strangers would gather. 'Stranger day' it could be called and people would get to do stuff with people they don't know and talk to people they don't know and just get to know more people and find some commonground!

Gratitude and positive thinking

I used to be a person that always saw the negative side of things, which highly effected my emotions. A while ago I decide to change that, and I feel so much better for it. When I realise how much I have that I can be grateful for and how wonderful my life actualy is, it instantly lifts my mood.
Now it bugs me a little when other people are being negative all the time. Of course it is okay to be angry or hurt sometimes, but not all the time. So I'm showing you a video that might help you see the positive side of things more.

Enjoy ;)



One of the biggest changest I have made to be a more positive person, is change my attitude towards the weather. I used to be annoyed by the weather whenever it rained. Now I also see the positive side of the rain. When I'm inside my home and it is raining, my home always feels a little more cozy and whenever I'm in a forest and it rains or just stopped raining it always smells so fresh! I love that.

Pictures of the moon

I have always been fascinated by the stars and space. Whenever I can see the moon, it is a moment for me to slow down and I always feel inspired somehow. The last months I have been taking a lot of photos of the moon. Today I wanted to share a part of my collection ;).

 

Yeah I know, they are not great quality. One day I'll have a better camera ;).

Inspirational audition

Today I was watching some auditions on Youtube from shows like X-factor and Britains got talent. I came along an amazing video that I wanted to share with you; the audition of Jillian Jensen at X-factor USA 2012.
She is so brave to come on tv and share her story of how she was bullied and she sang eventhough she was crying.



People like that, make me want to be just as brave. Eventhough she was probably scared of the reactions she was going to receive, she did it.

Real beauty sketches

I found this video quite inspiring so I wanted to share it with you. It's about the way women see themselves. Dove asked women to describe their own face and a stranger did the same. Gil Zamora, who is a Forensic Composite Artist drew both descriptions. It's fascanating to see the difference in the way those women see themselves and how others see them.