I am officially back from vacation and spending this lovely Monday catching up on all my work. Ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? Fortunately when we arrived home we found that the weather in Minnesota was far nicer than that in Nevada, go figure. Yes, we were there for the SNOW IN LAS VEGAS!

My husband and I spent the week in Las Vegas, neither of us had been there before. Wowee, there is a lot to see! If you like to sight see its a great place to visit. We both loved the visual aspects of Vegas, the lights, the architecture, just everything. My husband has just picked up photography and was constantly stopping for pictures and learning how to use his Cannon SLR. I, on the other hand, stick to my point and shoot camera which I find does amazingly well for such a tiny camera. Aren’t those umbrellas neat?

We did find it funny how work and simply life follow us on vacation though. When taking pictures I was constantly looking at composition and layout in the way I would for web or graphic designing. When going back over our pictures you can tell which one of us (between my husband and I) had studied more in terms of layout. His excuse? “Oh honey, you can crop that for me”. Haha. I can tell you that on more than one occasion my husband stopped and said “Kristine, why are you taking a picture of THAT?” Can you tell by the look on his face in the above picture? That has got to be one of my favorites.

I love to grab images that I see around me to stick away for future inspiration. I find myself commenting on colors or the pattern or simply the layout of things around me. When you work in design its easy to fall into a pattern of doing the same stuff over and over, therefor I make a effort to watch for new things around me in my every day life. I think this is important for creative woman and is true for a lot of my clients. When was the last time you noticed a billboard’s unique use of color or how the reflection of a fountain dances on the water. I dare you to find one new thing that is inspiring to you the next time you are out running errands, or something that just looks neat. You just might be surprised at what you find!

Are you looking for some inspiration for a product, graphic or even in your everyday life? ColourLovers.com is a great web site to check out. I’ve been browsing this site for quite awhile now. A great web design idea is often spurred by an amazing color palette! Whether its at ColourLovers or just seeing a great palette on a favorite shirt, my kids’ artwork or something completely random! When I used to be in the baby carrier business I often talked to other vendors about inspiration for patterns used. We’d joke about walking through the store and oohing over a print we saw on a shirt because it would have made a perfect sling! Or seeing the color combination in a pile of socks that really stuck out! Now I have trained myself to see those colors everywhere and picture how they can be used in web and graphic designs.

Web Savvy Mama even has a Color Lover Profile as well! http://www.colourlovers.com/lover/WebSavvyMama
Come see some of my favorite color combinations!

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