I'm Cuckoo For Cuckoo Clocks.

I've been a little bored. Not much, because I've been too busy to actually think about it. And now that I DO take a moment to think about it, that's probably not the right word for it. I believe I'm feeling boring, not bored. It's that familiar plateau -- the thing you feel when you need to shake up your inspiration, push your boundaries, challenge your abilities and make something new. In order to stay interested, stay interesting. (Or maybe it's the other way around?) Either way, I need to search out some sort of spark.  

That said, I don't always have a lot of time to click around online without purpose.  My day gets started pretty early, and although I work from home, it's not the cakewalk you might expect. The ol' Blackberry starts buzzing before I wake up, so even when I'm not at the desk, I'm at least ambiently aware of what's going on work-wise.  Then Oliver gets up, it's time for breakfast and coffee, lunch-packing, hair combing, dressing and (like today), sometimes a bit of Mommy-time for me.

Today, I wandered onto Etsy in search of vintage placemats. I loved the vinyl, foamy ones from when I was a kid: they feel cool, usually have fun vintage designs, and are easy to clean. After a short search, I found that they also tend to curl at the edges, get weird knife-y cut marks on them, and are generally the same price as the shipping fee. I gave up, decided I'll use some great vintage fabric from the box in the closet, and I'll figure out how to make some. One day.

Next, I began to search vintage clocks.  I have a wall I'm filling with various vintage items (plates, paintings, clocks, you name it...). This search ended up becoming a source of inspiration today: the various shapes and styles pique my interest.  

I found some Art Deco era clocks I could hardly resist, some late 60s/early 70s box clocks, then some vintage wood cuckoo clocks from the early sixties, Swiss style.  I can't wait to paint one.