What inspires me?

Mel has a meme going - write down 6 random things that you love. Not people, but places, buildings, art works, inspiring places etc.

1. Children's clothes - I think since I've got kids and make layouts for them, I tend to see inspiration in the designs and colours. Related to this point - fabric stores.
2. Interior decorating stores - particularly the fusion stuff that we're seeing these days. It appeals to me.
3. Fruit, veges, plants, flowers, the beach etc - I like looking at what nature puts together and how.
4. Old houses like Highwic, Alberton and Katherine Mansfield's Birthplace. I like to touch the walls and think of the life people lived there. How people played in the gardens, made love in the bedrooms, conceived their children and maybe even died there. How the kitchens once buzzed with activity. Cooks laying out their ingredients for making jam from the fruit they got from the garden.
5. Universities. I feel most comfortable in academia and get a "buzz" from learning. Related to this point - museums, libraries and their collections. I'm the one who can spend ages looking at beetles pinned on to polystyrene! I love the smell of the stacks in the library. I could spend a happy morning pulling out files at a herbarium to look at their contents.
6. The written word - novels, poetry, my Bible, even blogs have a place inspiring me.