Falling back in love with The Everyday
Inspiration isn’t forced out—it’s received.
August is a weird month. The grind feels endless, workplaces are either slowing down or ramping up, and most of us are just holding out for the next holiday. Energy dips. Brains fog over. Everything feels a bit… flat.
We dream about slowing down and doing nothing, but when it comes, it turns into restlessness. We scroll, we keep moving, we produce. But maybe the point isn’t to produce more. Maybe the point is to notice more.
Inside the first page of The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker.
In The Art of Noticing, Rob Walker opens with a reminder that wonder still lives in everyday life—if we look for it. His book is full of exercises designed to wake us back up to details we’ve stopped paying attention to.
I ordered it back in the two year mandated home time and found myself falling back in love with the little details again.
In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert writes that inspiration is all around us. We don’t have to force it out—it comes when we let it in. It’s there, just waiting for us to notice it. That idea changed the way I viewed creativity. It’s not something I conjure, I’m merely the channel.
When I started noticing the small details—the curl of bark, a crumpled receipt, the way light hits oily pavement, two Nonnas arguing in their driveway—my energy shifted. The pressure dropped. I didn’t need an outcome. I just needed to be open. Understanding is 90% of the work. The rest is just giving yourself permission to be drawn to what you find interesting.
So, what do you find interesting?
A better question—what routine do you loathe right now? Maybe it’s your commute to work. How could it become interesting?
The commute can become a gallery if we let it. Instead of dreading a rainy day, could you notice:
How people behave in wet weather
Reflections of buildings in puddles
How street lights blur when you squint
This is how artists view the world. Maybe that was you once—but the grind got grindy. I promise you, that rock on the street is more interesting than most posts on your feed. Pick it up. Look at it. Really look at it—the patterns. The patterns INSIDE the patterns. The little bug carrying a spec of dust home to its colony victoriously.
🔎🐞🌿 Your noticing challenge 💧🍁🍃
If you’re serious about creative living, I want you to collect 3 interesting objects that catch your eye. Natural, broken, textural, weird—it doesn’t matter. Snap a photo, pick it up, and tuck it away.
It’s a simple way to become a world-class noticer. And… leads into the first exercise of our Creative Reset Workshop in September 2025.
If this resonates—if you’ve been running on fumes, feeling flat, or craving a creative reset—I’d love you to join me.
Workshop invitation: Learn how to make art from everyday objects!
Over 90 minutes, we’ll pause the grind, collect inspiration from the little things we usually walk past, and make art from them. No pressure, no rules—just curiosity, joy, and two wiggly hands.
Creative Reset Workshop 🌿 Make Art From Nature
📆 Sunday 7 September | 4:30–6:00pm AEST
🎟️ $35 (or free for Create Freely members)
📍 Online
Grab your ticket – Invite a mate! The more the merrier.
