Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and Pip Lincolne Guest Blog!

In a recent blogging competition I won Pip Lincolne! Yes, it's true. I won the legendary Meet Me at Mikes, Queen of fab and crafting. Not to do my housework that is - but to do a guest Blog on Tale Peddler. And so today I have a treat for you, dear readers. A post on inspiration by a woman who has inspired thousands and thousands around the globe.
Why do I love Pip so much? Regular readers will know I often have a gush over Pip. Ever since I first stumbled across her amazing blog Meet Me at Mikes and discovered a kindred spirit who loves vintage children's books, Nanna things, whimsy, nostalgia, homemade sauce, ginger-beer and is always ready to share these treasures and recipes with her blogging friends, I've been an avid follower.
Pip embodies the spirit of Brownies with her perky kindness, her campaign to get the entire world on the end of a crochet needle and just to live a craftier, brighter, more positive life. If you read the entry on her blog of how she got a book deal then you will see she has a very 'can do' attitude to life that we could all emulate. She's a loving Mummy, domestic artist, crafter, Blogger, writer and runs one of the cutest shops I've ever seen in Fitzroy, Melbourne called, Meet Me at Mikes!
If I feel anxious and panicky about the way the world is going and I start to feel I'm on a SHIP OF FOOLS that is slowly sinking, I only have to visit Meet Me at Mikes to begin to relax and start to smile again. The ship is sailing perfectly when people like Pip are on board.
But enough from me - I'll hand you over to the fabulous, luminous, cute Pip Lincolne. Three cheers for Pip and long may she reign! If you want to follow Pip (and you really, really should if you're not already) Here's her HOME
And I highly recommend her beautiful, crafty book Meet Me at Mikes! It has something for everyone within its Pip-like pages!
Inspiration Junket
Sunday mornings. Mmm. From beneath the blanket-y depths of your cosy bed you mumble something about sleeping in as you flip your pillow and snuggle down for another hour's kipping. No. No, no, no, I say. Sleeping in is fine. You seem to get that extra wee bit of time to yourself. Your body repairs. Blah blah blah. Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn't you? It'll tell you why. That is the whole point. Everyone else IS doing it. The world sleeps at 6am on a Sunday. (Well, most of the world, of course some poor buggers have to work at that time, but GENERALLY the world sleeps.) Things are so snoozy, you can probably even hear your HOUSE yawning. The windows are probably blinking their shades drowsily and rolling over for another five minutes. The morning glories are still shut tight. The mice are snoring, the cat is catatonic (hence the word) and your neighbours are probably in some unwakeable slumber too. That is exactly the reason that you should GET UP!

You have the world to yourself. It's a brand new day! There are no interruptions. You are claiming extra time that you normally would be spending at the sleep bank, and you can use it to do some stuff just for you! And you can do it in your slippers. What could be better?

20 Steps To An Inspired Day

1. Get up
2. Wash your face and have a big drink of water
3. Make a pot of chai or tea or coffee
4. Put on some music
5. Make yourself some toast
6. Be sure you are warm enough
7. Turn on the computer
8. Go to a site like weheartit.com or tumblr.com and set up an account so you can save images to your very own dedicated inspiration library
9. Grab the little bookmark widget on these sites and drag it to your toolbar
10. Head over to Flickr, http://ffffound.com/ or your favourite blogs and start gathering inspiration images. You just need to click the bookmark widget and all the images on the page will be highlighted - from there you can choose the one's you love most and save them to look at all the time.
11. Leave a comment on your favourite images before you click away
12. Sip your tea
13. Make some more toast
14. Stretch
15. Pat the cat
16. Do some more clicking and looking
17. Get out your notebook and write down or sketch some things that have inspired you, or some things you want to do
18. Put a star next to the things that are most important
19. Review all the images you saved today
20. Make some fresh tea and repeat steps 10 to 20 until you get tired or someone wakes up

Important Notes ::
Be sure to carry your notebook with you at all times, that way you can refer back to it at opportune moments. For instance when you are in the book store you can check the scribble about that great book you saw on someone's blog.
Buy or make some nice bread on Saturday so you can do the toast part
Don't worry too much if you don't have a cat, these steps are important, but optional

Pip Lincolne

all images taken from Pip's flickr account:
main image of Pip originally published in August 2009 Home Beautiful