Blogging it Forward

It's my day for the blog it forward mash-up, organized by the lovely Victoria at sfgirlbybay. She rounded up 300 bloggers to each share our personal inspirations. Amanda over at the pretty Mocking Bird blog shared her inspirations yesterday and now passes it along to me. 

I have so many inspirations when it comes to art and photography, craft and creativity, fashion and style...but I feel like that's what the bulk of Modish is about everyday, so for this special post, I want to mention some of the larger, sometimes unspoken things that keep my heart pounding and brain cranking. 

I'm inspired by this incredible city of Portland, OR which is a big reason why we chose to move here. It is a city that has some of the best food, art and music, that celebrates independent shops and restaurants, that embraces open-mindedness and progressive thinking, that has neighborhoods with shops and farmer's markets and cocktails all within walking distance and is home to some of the friendliest and most talented people I've ever met. It has all this and sits literally steps away from forested paradises, some of the prettiest city parks you'll ever find, rivers, waterfalls, fields, farms, wildlife sanctuaries, gardens & a even a volcano! And when the sun comes out here, you can almost hear the french horns sounding out from the skies above. 

I'm inspired by music. All the best moments in my life seem to have a soundtrack to remember them by. Music makes me feel calmer, happier, softer, bolder. It can be so invigorating, emotional and cathartic. And seeing live music always leaves me so filled, inspiring me to be more, do more, create more. Plus it just feels so good to sing along to something.

I'm inspired by my boyfriend Justin. There have been countless wild ideas that he has stuck behind me on with full support. And countless times that I felt like giving up on something when his words convinced me not to. He is an encouraging, considerate and honest man. He makes me laugh every single day. He inspires me to be the best woman I can be, for him. 

I'm inspired by you incredible readers. Seriously. Blogging every single day, trying to think of new and interesting things to say, trying to choose from all the wonderful objects and eye-candy in the world which things to share with you here...it's time consuming and can be taxing. The inspiration well often seems to come up dry. But hearing from you readers, getting emails from you, hearing from you on twitter and reading all your comments on my posts (especially on posts like the one yesterday) keeps me going. Really. You all inspire me to keep writing here, keep evolving Modish in the way that feels most natural and to keep sharing myself more. Having you share with me, say thank you or hello, or even just being one of the dots I see on my traffic map is why I do this. And I thank you all for being so great at keeping me inspired enough to wake up excited every day.

I'm blogging it forward to Monkey in LA- be sure to check in with her tomorrow to see what her inspirations are!

Comments

[Melissa B.]

Great post! We live in Eugene and LOVE driving up to Portland whenever we can. Such an amazing city!

[Tenacious Textiles]

Thank you for beautiful posts!

[laura trevey]

So true about music... it links your memories together!

xoxo Laura

[drsmoothdeath]

love you momma!! you're the most brilliantly beautiful lady i could've ever hoped to find in a bazillion lifetimes. you make it all too easy to stand by you! again...i love you to no end!!

[Rebecca Stees]

I love that you focused on the personal.
( My sister moved to Portland and is in love with it also)

[Ashley]

I love that Portland picture!

[sarah]

Great post! I am always happy to see a new Modish blog post in my RSS feed...so I thought you should know you are inspiring to me most definitely! And now I'm off to find you on twitter too! :)

[Helena]

great post, thanks for sharing

[Erika-2bydesign]

Hey there! Just found your blog and wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I think it's the tops. And seriously, Oregon is flat out awesome. I live in the desert where there are totally different sources of inspiration (clearly) but I love, love, love Portland and have traveled there often. This post reminded me why. Looking forward to getting to know your blog more!

[Emily]

I feel the exact same way about Portland. It is such an amazing city with great people and remarkable talent! Thanks for posting this!

[Jessica]

I've been plotting and planning a move to PDX for four years now. Posts like this egg me on big time. Now about those grandparents....how can we convince them to let us go? :)

[karin maier]

I really do think Portland is the place to be...I'm not there yet - but a visit maybe? So many of you talented folk are from Portland !

[Fernando]

Great Post.
Had no idea the city of Portland was such had such a boho vibe.
Could be a potential great city to shoot a panoramic for our site that we have just launched.

[grahamgam]

Thanks for this post. I'm considering moving there. Can you recommend a good resource for me that would be helpful? I now live on the East Coast but Portland is looking very attractive to me.

[betsy and iya]

I see my feet!!! And I'm so glad that they're right next to yours. you are, quite simply, the best.

[Miss Modish]

haha! it's so cute you recognize your feet!

[Manvi Drona-Hidalgo]

really enjoyed your post. portland sounds fun. thanks for sharing your inspirations.