Where do you look for inspiration?

My jar of inspired objects includes green glass
knobs, paint samples, pretty threads, gold keys,
a silhouette of a little boy on a rocking horse,
and a celebratory cork from a bottle of bubbly
opened in honor of my first design show.

Last week I mentioned that I was chosen as one of the top 100 entries for the Design Sherpa “What Inspires You?”contest based on my submission of a chosen photo accompanied by a 100 word post explaining how the image inspires me. My photo? Glinda the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. What does Glinda have to do with interior decorating and good design? When we base our choices on what we love, and surround ourselves with the people and memories that are important to us, we are being authentic – and good design always comes out of authenticity.

Well this entry qualified me to move on to the second round of judging! Phase Two required a 350 word post “on an interior or architectural design topic that communicates both your unique passion for design and writing style.” And guess what? The judges (who include talented design-industry professionals Diane Carroll, Tobi Fairley, Michael Fink, Elaine Griffin, Marcia Sherrill and Clinton Smith) liked my post enough to qualify me to be one of the top 10 entries! I am not sure if they plan to share the 350-word posts we submitted or not, but I will
let you know if they do. In the meantime, this week
on the Design Sherpa blog, our 3-minute video submissions required for Phase Three are
up for *everyone* to see!



We were asked to provide a video that was “both entertaining and informative about some element of home design.” It is harder than it looks to be both entertaining and informative in a mere 3 minutes (all without the aid of a teleprompter or video crew -- I give those Design Star contestants a lot of credit!)
Plus we were required to condense our .mpeg video to less than 10 MB in size so the end result of the submitted versions appears pretty grainy. When I was “filming” this video, shortly after my trip to see The Nate Berkus Show and just a day before New England Fine Living opened, I had no idea my video would actually make it online. But here it is.

So far, six videos have been shown and the remainder will be aired in the next couple of days (I am guessing). The winner will be announced on or around November 7th so I am thinking it may be as early as this Friday!

{Photo from the Hotel Recamier website}

Did I mention what the winner of this social media driven contest will receive? Just a 10-day trip to PARIS, hotel accommodations at Hotel Recamier, and a 4-day VIP pass to the Maison & Object trade show, PLUS $10,000 (!!!!!) and the opportunity to blog as part of the Design Sherpa site!

(click here for all the fine print)

{Image from the Maison & Objet website}

If you know me at all, you know I am good at keeping a secret. All I am going to say for now is that I would love to put the six years of French that I took to good use, and would love even more to discover the amazing home fashions that will be on display at Maison & Objet. Just to walk the streets of Paris would be a dream! And who couldn’t use an unexpected 10 grand these days? “Hello” unfinished design projects!




And speaking of winners, I would like to properly introduce you to the winning eco-friendly chair from Project UDesign: the Alifair designed by Savannah College of Art and Design student Ryland Quillen. Even though my posts featured the Kona chair by Emily Carpenter, I thought each of the designs had style and merit. The well-tailored Alifair almost
looks a little French to me ...

Congratulations, Ryland, and to everyone who participated in and organized this inspiring competition. A little competition certainly goes
a long way in raising the bar on good design!