I've spent the early part of the day doing research for inspiration on new websites for my new partner's personal site, and also our new site together. We will be working with some very talented graphic designers, but of course we need to have details and directions for them to go on. We are on a tight timeline to pull things together and want them to flow nicely, and of course we want the new sites to be beautiful and clearly understandable and emotionally engaging.

I love the photo above by Robert Flannagan from www.123rf.com. I have used his work before and it's so inspiring. What I love particularly besides the yummy fresh green, is that though these are under water creatures they so mirror the look/color of spider chrysanthemums that I love so much.

Today I also revisited Vanilla Bicycles which I love the great use of photography on, and so love the stylish-yet-organic look of (and has me longing for a vintage bike). I'm going to buy some kind of bike soon, alas not in this sort of hand-made price range. And via twitter I stumbled upon Creative Coast, a non-profit site out of Savannah Georgia that is really nicely done - great use of color and theme and the layout is so fresh and easy to use. Really, big kudos to them on a spectacular idea and subject.

My creative spark is refresh through reading and visual imagery. I am over using the word "love" this post so I'll say that I adored the September issue of Vogue. I dog eared so many pages it's crazy. I love nothing more than going through old (or new) magazines for ideas, for sparks, for connecting the dots. I especially loved the article by Beverly Johnson on her first Vogue cover, and being the first African American woman ever on the magazine's cover - things have changed a bit over the years, but not enough. But Oprah is helping, she is. I also love that hand-painted illustrations of restaurants and stores are popping up again, as a more whimisical way to show off a place, a room, a feel. It made me want to get out my paints again, which I've put away now for years.