Dala horses & Kimchi...WHAT??? How does she think that stuff up?

 I just was asked this question on Monday  "where on earth do you get these ideas from?" and how do they come about?
Inspiration comes in all forms to me sometimes it can literally pop into my head and I go straight at it, or a customer requests a particular image and my mind just goes through the roladex of images and ideas while they are talking to me, I jot them down then edit the ideas and then present them.
 Now the Dala horse on the left is actually a planned idea from the fun I've had connecting with relatives in Norway (see my last blog) I wanted to make something in a traditional image (yes I KNOW this is Swedish) with a scandianavian flair to it. So I came up with Dala horse mitten images, the trick is in getting a design that looks good and stitches out in a reasonable time frame. Annnnnd you say Kimchi? What the heck? How does she go from Dala horses to Kimchi. You now feel my husbands pain (news flash, Taurus marries Aquarian and lives!)...when I present an idea to him I get the look from him that sums it up this way; "what does that have to do with the price of Monkeys?"

Sorry back to the Kimchi. It all started here, We started up the pond this weekend and the gold fish have survived the winter (accept the one sacraficed to the pump intake...yuck) and then I had installed the gadget / widget goldfish on my igoogle homepage today (they're kind of fun they swim around your mouse, I put them on the top left, Go play with them!) ...ok wait for it....then in my emailbox today were some photos sent from my daughter of her year of living in Korea with her husband GI JJ (that's him to the left you can tell by the hair cut) teaching English to kids.

  How does this all tie in? TADA! I'll work on some Pagoda Ideas, Koi Fish ideas, cherry blossoms etc. then how does she sell these you ask? Just like the Dala horse I will find a salesman or a shop that sells gifts to that Market...I found a salesman who is a distributor of Scandinavian textiles and gifts, showed him the mitten sample and he will be selling them with his products. The Oriental idea???? I' check out some fish shops, the Como Japanese garden and their gift shop, or perhaps a large pet store...I'll find a way!

Take a look at the photos she sent and my inspiration to work off of. I'm happy to say my creative gene was passed on! Thanks Jess!