Inspiration Board

Well both my cherubs are in bed tonight and I've been spending some time on my quest to define my style!

At the moment I’m reading “How to Have Style” by Isaac Misrahi.

I haven’t finished it yet, but am working through the exercises at the beginning of the book. It started with a questionnaire, so I’ve completed it, and it also asks you to create an “Inspiration Board”.

The Inspiration Board is supposed to be a board full of things that you love and inspire you. So, I’ve been going through all my magazines and cutting out anything that I love and find inspirational.

I’ve got everything from complete outfits on models, to food and flowers, to colour schemes… In fact, I cut out so many things, I now have filled TWO large sheets of paper!

I’ll try and capture them as best I can here…

The Full Inspiration Board

A snapshot of some of the Inspiration Board
(I'm a bit impressed with my first ever collage in photobucket LOL)

So when I look at these boards the things that scream out to me are:

• I LOVE colour – nearly every colour is represented – but predominately clear, bright colours
• Romance, Glamour, Elegance, and even Sexiness are key - a much stronger influence than I expected - but I guess it explains why I adore getting dressed up and going to the races and similar events.
• Eva Longoria, Katie Holmes, Courtney Cox, Angelina Jolie and Kate Winslet are the famous people on my board - predominately in their "red carpet" looks... (Secretly I would love to attend something like this...)
• Lots of Dresses – almost all being very feminine and too fancy for my day to day life though!
• Denim & Pants are popular but still outnumbered by Dresses
• Lots of blue/black & white striped tops with denim bottoms and red accessories – shoes & bags – more of this combo than anything else!
• LOADS of fancy heels that I can never wear in real life.
• Red lips and nail polish
• Feminine floral underwear – but brighter colours - no delicates for me!
• Lots of femininity and womanly looks, but not many frills/ruffles.

So that was an interesting experiment and really did prove to be quite educational - I honestly had no idea how strong the glamour/elegance/romance/sexiness look was for me - I knew I liked it, but didn't really how instinctively drawn to it I am.

I’ve also realised how much my children are helping to clear things up…

G is almost 4 and very much a GIRL! If it’s pink and a dress/skirt – she’s wearing it! In fact, it’s generally a hard task to get her to wear anything other than skirts or dresses… She's what I call an "extreme girl" - OTT with girliness! So I think she is bringing out the girliness in me.

E is almost 6, and whilst she loves to wear dresses, she is also a tomboy and “one of the boys”. So she wears her dress to school every day (as opposed to the optional shorts), but goes and plays in the sandpit with all the boys.

I think E and I are INCREDIBLY similar actually… in so many more ways than just this too… Wanting to be an obvious girl, but still very down to earth.

When I look at this, I’m obviously very drawn to all things feminine, old-world glamour/sexiness, lots of colour, but still wanting remain practical and not too girly… Grown up femininity and certainly not little girl girliness though... But all fit to suit a MOTG/SAHM... so sadly no daily ball gowns and heels for me LOL

Now that is quite a challenge!