Serendipity

the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate,
especially while looking for something else entirely unrelated.

Source: Wikipedia

My mind is reeling from visiting many (I'm maybe halfway through the 150+ blogs) of the beautiful, amazing, inspiring, motivating creative spaces that participated in Karen's Where Bloggers Create. It doesn't always take a big space to be creative, and inspiration can be found in many places. I'm amazed at the number of sweet and gracious comments I got on my space, plus all of the new followers on this little ol' blog.

I also added some new blogs to check out (as if that list wasn't big enough as it was). A new find for me is Julie at EAB Designs. She has some beautiful home decor accessories, and takes wonderful photographs. Today she posted about an Ikea storage chest she picked up and decorated for her vintage millinery flowers and trims. Aha! I have a similar chest, and even last week as I cleaning up around the studio, I knew I wanted to fix mine up. This was just the inspiration I needed. I immediately pushed back away from the computer, grabbed the chest and my cans of black spray paint. In fact I was so eager to get started, I forgot to take the before until after I had already started painting.

I was thinking about how I was going to number the drawers similar to Julie, but obviously mine would have to be done in white over the black. Aha! I had just bought some enamel number plaques from Karen at The Graphics Fairy (she also posts some great vintage graphics for download and blog backgrounds). When I bought them I didn't have any definite plans, but they were cool black and white numbers. How could I pass them up? I also happened to get two orders for a total of six plaques. Could this have been planned any better?
Voila! My 99% finished cabinet. I'm going to look for some little bun feet to add to the bottom of the chest. They will help it look more like the black wood storage units I already have.
Julie lined her drawers with her favorite french text. I lined mine with black & white damask. :-) The number plaques had holes for attaching, but I didn't have small tacks on hand. Rather than running to the hardware store, I used some black paper brads I had on hand, folding them behind the plaque, and gluing the plaques onto the drawer with Liquid Nails.

I have discovered so many amazing people who so freely share their creativity, and it has inspired me to be more creative and given me the kick-in-the-pants to get stuff done. All when I wasn't looking for it.