This has been a weird week. I’ve got a serious case of back-from-vacation blues and a minor case of food poisoning. There was a major windstorm with a power outage. A sick baby. A sensitive kid. And a few other things that shouldn’t have bothered me but really got under my skin. So when it came time to sit down and write my weekly post I had nothing. Zero. Nothing was inspiring me to put my fingers on the keys and the words on the screen. So I decided to make a list of things that fuel my creativity as a way of snapping out of my funk and reminding myself of things I can do, experience, or remember that get my imagination fired up. Results below.

My Creativity Triggers (in no particular order, not comprehensive)

1. Reading things that smart people wrote
2. Project Runway
3. InStyle magazine
4. The music of Glass Animals
5. The music of Sia
6. The music of Lo Fang
7. The music of Rupa and the April Fishes
8. The music of Lana del Rey
9. Beyoncé’s Haunted music video
10. Dia de los Muertos
11. Traveling
12. My daughter’s classroom
13. My Twitter feed
14. My multi-talented friends
15. Exercise
16. Running
17. Singing
18. Goth culture
19. My box of colored pencils
20. Symbolist art
21. The Frye art museum
22. People watching
23. New York City
24. Paris
25. The Scottish Highlands
26. Dancing
27. A clean house
28. A quiet house
29. Third Place Books
30. A long bath
31. Woody Allen movies
32. Danny Boyle movies
33. Halloween
34. Disneyland
35. Pixar movies
36. The Solstice Parade
37. Neil Gaiman everything
38. Amanda Palmer Facebook posts
39. Thick forests
40. The open road
41. Grains of sand
42. The stars
43. The night
44. Rain
45. Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking
46. Brené Brown books
47. Sharpened pencils
48. My favorite pens
49. Farmers markets
50. Grimm
51. Boden catalogs
52. Sacré Couer
53. Pinterest
54. Taking pictures
55. French
56. Spanish
57. University campuses
58. Art studios
59. Office supplies
60. Weddings
61. Lakes
62. Rugged coastline
63. Sunsets
64. Tigers in the wild
65. Galloping horses
66. Craft shows
67. Land of Nod
68. Libraries
69. Coffee
70. Coffee shops
71. Candy stores
72. Big ideas
73. Rodin Museum
74. Maryhill Museum
75. Entrepreneurs
76. Color
77. The Devil Wears Prada
78. Musicals
79. Smash
80. The song Broadway Here I Come
81. So You Think You Can Dance
82. Books about writing
83. Niche online literary magazines
84. Alexander McQueen
85. The Met Ball
86. The Met
87. MoMA
88. Journals
89. Bookmarks
90. The music of Fall Out Boy
91. The music of Panic! At the Disco
92. Harry Potter
93. Beautifully illustrated children’s books
94. Melancholy
95. Nostalgia
96. The old seminary at St. Edwards
97. Lincoln Park
98. Autumn
99. Fairy tales
100. Cabaret
101. Austin Kleon
102. Coloring

Okay, that’s actually 102 things, but who cares? I feel better! The rusty cogs of my imagination are starting to turn again.

What makes you feel creative? I’d love to know.

Image credit: mckinney75402 via CC