Every Monday is Tip Day! Grab a cup of coffee and get over the Monday morning bump with tips, tools, and inspiration from Perch. This Week: Leverage Pinterest for Idea Boards I admit it. For being an early adopter in most tech arenas, I was a late-comer to Pinterest. It seemed too much of a mass-market, Farmville-ish kind of product. All the sudden, everybody was on it and loving it. It was too much of a fad, a blip on the radar of social media products, a trend I was sure would pass by the next quarter. Clearly, I was …

Every Monday is Tip Day! Grab a cup of coffee and get over the Monday morning bump with tips, tools, and inspiration from Perch. This Week: Unwind Happy Monday! I hope you had a lovely weekend! I was blessed to spend a rare 24 hours at the lake with my family and co-workers, and although a bit physically exhausted from time on the water, I feel mentally refreshed and ready for a new week. What struck me most about my experience at the lake this weekend was that having a retreat like that — easily accessible, always available — must …

If you recall, I am a huge fan of Marc Johns’s illustrations. Back in 2009, I was able to give away a copy of his first book Serious Drawings to a Creative Perch reader. Imagine how excited I was to discover these lovelies. Yes, please. (Cases can be purchased here. He also has iPhone and iPad skins, prints, cards, and many other novelties available.) Tonight I am working on getting my very first wholesaler application together. If it all works out, I’ll post details here soon!

Welcome back to Creative Perch! It is so nice to see you, and quite honestly, so nice to be here again. I let this project go for such a long time, but I know in my heart that it’s time to bring it back to life. I have a fresh vision for it, and I’m excited to share all of that with you as the new site unfolds. As you can see, this website has undergone some major changes — thematically, structurally, and foundationally. The heart is still the same — to inspire creativity and encourage innovation — but with …

Every Monday is Tip Day! Grab a cup of coffee and get over the Monday morning bump with tips, tools, and inspiration from Perch. This Week: Be Intentional Making time to nurture creativity can seem like a wonderful thing that is worthy of aspiring to, but in the face of real world demands, a creative practice often gets pushed to the back burner. Many times, creative ideas are bookmarked, clipped, and stored away but never revisited. We tell ourselves, “There simply isn’t time.” Or space. Or resources. Believe me, I can relate. My move last weekend went really well (by …

I know it’s been almost a week since my last update, and I want to thank you for your patience and support. Your comments last Friday were so thoughtful, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated your words of encouragement. We are almost finished unpacking, and life is resuming its normal pace again. Chris and I have been unpacking nonstop. I can see the floor of my closet, and boxes no longer fill my living room. What better time to take a break and share a few of the things that are inspiring me this week? 1. J.D. …

Melanie Sklarz, January 2010 Like most years, I decided to start 2010 by dedicating the year to becoming more creative. Usually, my dedication ends up occurring in not so everyday inspirational spurts. I hope this year will be different. I hope my creativity remains constant and in the forefront of everything I do. So how am I going to manage to pull off this feat? By learning to be everyday creative by following Eric Maisel’s The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance. Yes, that’s a year’s worth of dedication! I first encountered creativity coach extraordinaire, Eric Maisel’s …