Here’s how I’m spending my day. I’ve got an extra few free hours and I’m tackling this pile of magazines. I have just a couple thoughts for you on organization of inspiration images and sources.

I look at magazines for two reasons: inspiration images and product sources. I rip out anything that catches my eye and put it into one of these two piles. The images get scanned, cropped, and saved with the rest of my digital inspiration library. The products or sources get looked up and if I think it might be useful in the future, I bookmark the site with a really descriptive name so I can remember what it was I liked about the source in the first place. Then I recycle the hard copy and the magazine. I rarely keep magazines around after I’ve looked through them. It’s easy to get behind and there are always new ones coming. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by the growing stack and just recycle them without reading.

As a designer, I’m always saving images. It doesn’t matter where they come from – books, magazines, blogs, or pinterest. I have thousands. I’ve tried many different filing systems too, some very complicated and time consuming. I discovered the more time a system required, the more reluctant I was to save images. About a year ago, I created an inspiration folder on my work computer, my home computer, and my phone. Anytime I see an image, I dump it in there. I don’t organize, I don’t label. Every month or so, I combine all the images and just move on. It’s been working really well for me. I vaguely know what I have and if I’m looking for something specific, I space bar preview them (on a mac) and it’s super fast. The large collection of unorganized images with minimal time input is much more valuable to me than an organized system that takes considerable effort.

I’ve been looking for the perfect, modern table runner. Most are long, hence the name runner, but for a round dining table, a long runner looks weird. So the selection of non-long (technical term) runners out there is slim pickins. I thought about making something round or square but didn’t find a fabric that was quite right. I needed something more mat-like that could get dirty and spilled on because I definitely didn’t want to roll it up at every meal. What to do, what to do. In my case, it’s wait a little longer and avoid the whole project. My poor naked table.

I had considered Chiliwich since I knew it would function perfectly and look great however the size/shape issue was still…an issue. I briefly considered ordering some yardage from them but that took a simple project somewhere complicated and expensive. And really, who wants to spend a ton on a table runner?

Then, about a week ago, I remembered that SR Harris had a whole outdoor fabric section with rolls and rolls of material that looks suspiciously, if not exactly, like Chiliwich. I have no idea if it is Chiliwich, or if Chiliwich is a generic product that is privately branded, or if it’s an entirely different product. Who cares. I knew it would work and be super affordable. And best of all, not complicated.

Their faux-Chiliwich section was even bigger than I remembered. Lucky for me, I found this dark charcoal beauty somewhere near the top of the heap. Five minutes and $10 later I was out of there with my half-yard cut.

Determined to not loose momentum on this little project, I cut it that night. I decided on a simple, large circle. It’s perfect. I think it looks great with the white marble and doesn’t get in the way of meal time. So if you’re local and have been eyeing a set of modern Chiliwich place mats, check out SR Harris. You could do a whole set for less that $20.

I’ve been thinking about stuff lately. My stuff, the kid’s stuff, the stuff we bring home from Target, etc. There’s constant stuff-management. In the new year, I’d like a little less stuff in every area of my life. A little less clutter to think about so there’s more room for…the good stuff.

I’ve also been thinking about my new baby, a little blog I have called Made Interesting. Maybe you’ve heard of it? When I first started considering the projects I wanted to share with you, it was a free-for-all. There was no structure to it. And in cleaning out the actual stuff from my house, the list of potential projects grew and grew. It’s a little overwhelming to look at a huge list, even if it’s stuff you want to do. I’m a fabulous starter, but not a great finisher so my list is partially populated with half-finished projects. I need a different approach.

So, in 2012, I have two resolutions and in sharing them, I’ve just made myself accountable. One, have less stuff. Two, one project at a time, start to finish.

How about you? What resolutions are you going to publicly declare?

Illustration by Owen Gatley

I always go through the retail catalogs we get. I usually thumb through them super quickly to stay on top of what each store is offering and I never keep them around. As soon as they’ve been looked at they go right into the recycling. But I think the November 2011 West Elm catalog is worth mentioning. There were several new items and I was super impressed with a few.

This lamp is awesome! It’s clearly inspired by The Paper Floor Lamp from Moooi, designed in 2005 by Studio Job, but at 1/10th the price, I’ll take it! Don’t get me wrong. I love Moooi and their lighting is spot on but lets face it, I’m never going to sink $3000 on a floor lamp. But I would seriously consider this guy from West Elm. The exaggerated scale is so fun! I think I even prefer the more simple silhouette of the WE lamp over the more detailed and traditional turned style of the Moooi lamp. Now the real test is how it looks in real life. I may just have to stop in tomorrow to check it out.