Want more quotes? Discover them all on our blog here!

Want more quotes? Discover them all on our blog here!

Want more quotes? Discover them all on our blog here!

Want more quotes? Discover them all on our blog here!

Want more quotes? Discover them all on our blog here!

Creativity never stops, even with summer fading into memory and fall approaching rapidly. While the weather is cooler it still doesn’t stop people from drawing inspiration from their daily lives. Whether you’re writing, sketching, or art journaling you can draw on your creativity at any moment. Many people have certain places where they are more creative than others, but sometimes you have those moments when you just draw a blank.

Well, what’s better than getting inspired from everything that is already around you? Based on my experiences, these are my top 5 areas for inspiration away from home:

Parks - Are you an outdoorsy type of person? Whether you flourish outside or need a little push, parks are a wonderful area to get inspired. People are constantly moving, you’re surrounded by nature, and the fresh air can all help to stir up some creative juices. Just take a few moments to capture snippets that you see because those snippets can develop into something more. The best part is you can always refer back to your observations for later use.

Malls/Restaurants - Do you enjoy a lot of active stimuli? Malls are great for that because you can observe a wide variety of people in a short amount of time. People are constantly walking by and engaging with friends or family. Take notice of the details of the situation as those people can be used as inspiration for your creativity. I put restaurants next to malls because they are in similar realms where you can observe several groups of people in a short amount of time. Whether you’re dining at a nice place or getting a quick lunch you can partially eavesdrop on conversations as something you hear could spark an idea.

Libraries - Besides the obvious (observing people around the library), you can read! Most people at the library probably already have their noses stuck in a book. When you’re out of creative juices, pull out a novel, magazine, or book that sounds interesting to you. Who knows, reading the literature and exploring it can lead to your own ideas. For those not in the mood to flip through a book, use a computer and just start browsing the web. The libraries where I live provide computers for research, you just need a library number which is free to obtain. (Computer availability may vary depending on your location.) If you’re still stuck you can always ask a librarian, they are always there to help you out.

Take a Walk - While you’re out and about shopping or getting some exercise, keep a piece of yourself alert to your local surroundings. If you’re taking a walk around your neighborhood you can let your mind wander or you might want to get to know the people who live near you. Your neighbors might have a quirk or a story that may inspire you. You might also gain a lifelong friend. If you live in a city, getting lost in it can be fun. You can observe the artistic architecture of various buildings or the meticulous landscapes surrounding them. Cities are usually bustling with activities, you just have to dive in and interact with them. Some of the greatest minds were inspired by their local surroundings.

Fairs/Museum - Another inspiring place where you are surrounded by many people or by culture are fairs or carnivals. You can observe people, enjoy the music/conversations, and eat good food – all wonderful inspirations! There is always something going on and it’s up to you to find out what it is and how you can use it for inspiration. Museums are wonderful to gain inspiration from because they contain works by some of the greatest creative minds. Surrounding yourself with their works can be an indirect way to get you to open your mind and allow it to imagine the impossibilities into possibilities.

Gathering inspiration from these places can be a cinch on good days. You might want to note that most of these places can get crowded. If you can’t handle large crowds you can always move to a more quiet area. You can find yourself a less traveled road for your observations if you’re a creative introvert who doesn’t enjoy large crowds or too much interaction.

I usually find an empty area or sit on a distant bench for observations. Of course, everyone has their own preferences and may dive into the experiences only to distance yourself later or vice versa. There is no wrong or right way to get inspired. As long as it works for you then you’re doing it right. Just don’t forget to take notes or you might forget! (You have a notebook or sketchbook on you, don’t you? If not go get one!) Now my friends, go forth and create!

Meet the Writer: Lis (Aisazia) Huey is a Notebook/Sketchbook/Comic/Manga lover. A swimmer and a dreamer. A story enthusiast with the dream of telling and sharing stories through art. She has been an avid fan of web comics, indie comics, and fantasy/sci fi novels since high school and since then has always wanted to create one of her own. She feels that everyone has at least one story to tell, but some may have more than one. She hopes to be able to share her hopefully fresh and original stories and entertain my audiences at the same time. To find more about Lis, find her at: aisazia.deviantart.com, twitter.com/aisazia, and etherealvoices.blogspot.com

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I’m sure we can all relate to this superb video. Watch and enjoy!

Much Better Now from Salon Alpin on Vimeo.

H/t to Adventure Journal for the lovely write-up on this video.

Today, journals come in so many designs, materials, and sizes that there is something for everyone. Once you’ve found the one for you, however, you might find yourself with pen or pencil in hand, staring at the blank pages and thinking … now what? What do I write?

It’s happened to everyone at some point whether in personal or professional cases. That’s where we come in to help. Need inspiration of where to start? Use these ideas to jumpstart your pen across those white and empty pages:

1. Count Your Blessings: Too often we let the things we are most grateful for slip by without being fully appreciated. Start writing down three things you’re grateful for each day. It will help you to not only take note of these moments in life, but to actually watch for them and give them the attention they deserve.
2. Make Lists: While grocery lists are rarely exciting enough to merit a place in your journal, keep lists of everything from what musicals you saw this year to what fishing lures you like best to what tricks you want to learn on your snowboard. Each list can inspire you to develop the items more.
3. Set Goals: Writing down goals is considered the most important step to actually accomplishing them. Whether you start small and write down what you want to achieve today or this week, or if you go big and write down what you want to achieve this year or in your lifetime, you have so many pages to break down the goals into individual steps.  Check back often to write how you’re doing.
4. Record Dreams: Sometimes dreams are unbelievably insightful—and other times, they are just crazy images inspired by too much bad television and a questionable glass of wine before bedtime. Writing down what you remember about your dreams can help cement the lessons you might otherwise lose.
5. Note Quotes: A journal is a great place to write down quotes or sayings and refer to them later for further writing inspiration, a pick-me-up, or sharing with friends and family.
6. Review Books/Movies/Performances: Write down your opinions about the book you just finished, the movie you just watched, or the performance you just attended. What did you like best? What do you wish was done differently? What was just completely WRONG? Did someone surprise you? You could even include pictures or your ticket stubs as extras!
7. Remember Moments: Just like a camera, a journal can hold onto moments—fun times with your friends, worldly observations, outlandish ideas—that you will want to mull over again later. Write them down quickly and if you want, revisit that moment later to respond to it, simply reminisce, or flesh out the details.
8. Marking Birthdays/Anniversaries: How about a special journal you bring out once a year for your birthday or anniversary? You can write down what you did, where you went, who was there, what gifts you gave and received and all of those other details. Important dates come and go too quickly in our lives not to grab onto the details so we can look at them again next year.
9. Keep Contacts: Use a small, portable journal for writing down the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and web sites of the people you network with at parties, work, stores, and other locations. Pull the journal out of a purse, messenger bag, or back pocket and get that contact info before the two of you go in different directions, so that later, when you are at home, you can get in touch. Always jot down a couple of words next to the name to jog your memory of why you wanted to follow up.
10. Monitor Expenses: Are you number-minded? Wondering how much you spend on eating out or filling up the gas tank? Where does that weekly paycheck keep disappearing to? Write it all down in your journal. If nothing else, in a couple of years, when you look back at it and see what gas prices used to be, you will get a good laugh.

Open up the cover, uncap the pen or sharpen the pencil and fill in that first page. A journal is yours to create—so start writing! What words are ready to go on your page? What moments do you want to capture? Use your journal and go!

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 Meet the Writer: Tamra Orr is a full time writer and has written more than 300 books for readers of all ages. She is also mom to four and writes an average of 50 letters or more a month.

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1 –>  A bit of neat history this week from Annie at Scribbling Glue about zip codes: The Life and Times of Mr. Zip (a.k.a. Zone Improvement Plan).

2 –> Over at the Good Pens blog, Seth interviews the pen guys from Baltz Fine Writing.

3 –> Misty, a.k.a. The Pen Thief, made some great points regarding whether or not the Post Office should cut Saturday’s service. It is a must-read for all snail mailers, mail artists, and writers alike.

4 –> This is Colossal shared the Alphabet Typography (pictured below) created by Yale graduates Caspar Lam and YuJune Park. “Alphabet Topography is a physical examination of letterforms as it relates to usage frequency.”

See more of the project by clicking the image.

5 –> Laurie at Plannerisms gives some tips on how to create your own planner layout within a regular notebook.

6 –> FPGeeks went above and beyond at the 2012 LA Pen Show and photographed some lovely pens, plus they’ve got a couple of videos of the show you should check out too. Here is their Friday Recap, Saturday Recap, and Video Highlights.

7 –>  We thought you’d get a kick out of Mary Katrantzou‘s latest fashion show for Fall 2012 where she uses images of pencils, typewriters, circular telephone dials, and more. (Originally seen on Honestly WTF blog.)

Click the image to see more images on Honestly WTF's blog.

8 –> Blackwing wrote up a phenomenal post tracking the history of their Blackwing 602 pencil (h/t MLeddy at Orange Crate Art).

1 –>  We’re still not sure what to think of this, but we had to share and ask your opinion on it. This story appeared on our Twitter feed and just begged to be clicked on: The world’s best pencil sharpener teaches his secrets … is this story for real?

2 –> Tiger Pens piqued our interest with their discovery of this pen/writing-inspired rest stop located in Iowa.

3 –> It is the week of love, so we’d be remiss to not mention several Valentine’s Day posts. The Pen Thief addresses the history of Valentine’s Day; Good Mail Day mentions a story about Valentine, Nebraska,; and Dana at Save Snail Mail reminds us the reality of love letters with her post on Virginia Woolf’s letters.

4 –> Laurie at Plannerisms brings up the conversation again regarding analog versus digital planning. Recording Thoughts also weighs in on analog versus digital for recall purposes.

5 –> The Peaceable Writer posted an incredibly well-done and thorough review of multiple blue inks and finally narrowed down the choices … but you’ll have to check out the post to find out all the details!

6 –> Misty at the Pen Thief is hosting a contest for people who have always wanted to make their own stamp! The deadline is March 1st, so you have some time, but check out her blog for the full details.

7 –>  Sheila at Does This Pen Make Me Look Fat is also hosting a random drawing for a Jinhao X750. Entries close at midnight on Saturday though so you’ll want to hurry!

8 –> The 365 Letters Blog did a great round-up of LOVE stamps, and informed us that on Valentine’s Day “fans of 19th century poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were given online access to a collection of 573 letters the two exchanged from 1845 to 1846.” Click through to read more.

1 –>  Our Moleskine Haiku Contest ended yesterday and it’s been a BLAST going through the 100+ submissions! Thanks to everyone who participated! We are psyched to announce the winner Tuesday, February 7th and to share all the haiku love!

2 –> Troy [Penpalling-Dad] received a neat “Peek-a-boo” letter recently from Becky [Leaving a Paper Trail] – and while the envelope is interesting (and Becky shows you how to make it here), it’s even better to see bloggers connecting this way so we can sometimes see the path a letter takes!

3 –> The Celebrations at Home blog muses about the 12 paper trends they think we’ll see in 2012.

4 –> Demilked shared this beautiful Cut-Away Leaf Art by Lorenzo Duran. (It was made for an ad campaign by Legas Delaney for Plant for the Planet. The aim of the campaign was to show leaf’s ability to absorb CO2.)

Art by Lorenzo Duran. Click the image to see more of his work on Demilked.

5 –> The Telegraph (UK) introduced a series of art masterpieces created solely with marker pen on a whiteboard. See the artist, Bill Taylor of Durham, North Carolina, and his art in their slideshow here.

6 –> Read all about the rebirth of handwriting in J. Richard Gentry’s report in Psychology Today aptly titled “Handwriting—the Most Elegant Form of Communication.” Here’s just a taste: “E-mailers, text messengers, and skeptics be damned. Handwriting–American style–is born again. So say about one hundred and fifty teachers, administrators, psychologists, master penmen, and researchers from across the country who occupied the Newseum in Washington, DC for the 275th anniversary of John Hancock’s birth.”

7 –>  Rhodia Drive set up a Superbowl bet for this Sunday. “Anybody who guesses the final score will get a new Webnotepad (flip top reporter style with dot grid) when they arrive from France!” (Enter your guess on Rhodia Drive’s blog post here.)

8 –> Demilked also shared an adorable set of pictures by Laurent Laveder called Moon Games (and while it has nothing to do with paper, it’s an incredibly fun set of art).

Created by Laurent Laveder. Click the image to see more of Moon Games on Demilked.

1 –>  Julie [The-Gadgeteer] asks what format you use when starting a new journal – analog or digital – and she provides some great digital options for those not familiar with them

2 –> Reena Jana [on SmartPlanet] published a Q&A with Moleskine America President, Marco Beghin, and delves into the paper world and beyond.

3 –> How many journals/notebooks do you have actively going at once? Nifty [Notebook Stories] sums up Steve’s [Recording Thoughts] blog posts on the topic here.

4 –> Penned House has a great notebook hack post on how he turned a Moleskine into an iPhone case. Check it out here.

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 … This is completely random, but it’s cute, has a cat in it, and a ballpoint pen. … We got a little distracted.

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5 –>  Here are a couple neat posts on journaling this week. The first is from Journal Addict asking what your journal style is, which was discovered via a quick quiz on Journal Tips. Both great sites to follow for more on journaling.

6 –> David [Because I Really Felt It] posted a really cool Russian Doll Letter Version #2 that has us inspired to play with the idea. You can check out his Version #1 here.

7 –>  We’ve been seeing Sharpie projects pop up everywhere lately. For example: 6 Ways To Create DIY Sharpie Wallpaper on Babble.com; DIY Sharpie Tote on Sharpie’s Blog; Sharpie Snow Leopard Ottoman by LittlePinkMonster. And of course, you can always do a quick Sharpie search on Skineart.com for some inspiration.

8 –> We’ve also got a couple of contests going on right now – not to be missed! First up is our Moleskine Love Haiku Contest where you could win a Moleskine prize pack, and secondly, our Love Letters & Leuchtturm Planners Contest where you could be 1 of 4 winners to receive a Leuchtturm Weekly Planner!