If you’re a multi-passionate woman, your mind is often full of ideas, projects, and possibilities. Sometimes sources of inspiration feel abundant; other times it’s harder to know where to look. Inspiration doesn’t always come when you’re ready for it—it often shows up in everyday situations you might not expect.
Some of the best ideas can come from small, ordinary moments: a quick walk outside, a conversation with a stranger, or trying a hands-on activity for the first time. When you recognize unexpected sources of inspiration, you give yourself new ways to keep ideas flowing without forcing them.
In this article, I’ll share a variety of sources I keep coming back to. Some involve working with your hands, like pottery or cooking. Others are about observation, like exploring street markets or spending time with public art. Each one comes with practical ideas you can try, so you can add more tools to your creative process.
Hands-On Creativity with Pottery
A few years ago, I signed up for my first ceramics class with no expectations. I had never tried pottery-making before and decided to spend the afternoon throwing some pots on the wheel. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was struck by how enjoyable it was. The instructor complimented me on how quickly I caught on to the techniques, which boosted my confidence. I was able to paint and keep a bowl that I made, which I now use to store jewelry. I’m super proud of how it turned out! That experience inspired me to consider crafting more regularly.
If you want to try something similar at home, an air-dry pottery kit is an easy starting point. Air-dry clay doesn’t require a kiln, and small projects let you experiment with shape and texture without a big time commitment. Working with clay is useful because it literally puts problem-solving into your hands: how to balance weight, where to press, how texture responds. Those practical choices can translate into clearer decisions in other creative projects.
Action step: set aside one afternoon this month to try a hands-on kit or a local ceramics class. Bring a notebook and jot down one or two ideas that come up while you’re shaping clay.
Cooking as a Creative Exercise
Cooking isn’t always thought of as “creative work,” but it can absolutely be an unexpected source of inspiration. Playing with flavor combinations, experimenting with spices, or plating a dish in a way that emphasizes color and texture can open up new ways of thinking. A recipe doesn’t have to be followed word for word — you can swap an ingredient, add a new twist, or adjust how you style it. Those small experiments mirror the creative process itself: taking something familiar and adding your own interpretation. If you want to track your kitchen experiments and inspiration, a creative recipe journal can be a fun place to record flavor pairings, sketches of plating ideas, or notes on what worked (and what you’d tweak next time).
Action step: next time you cook, experiment a little — add a new spice, change the way you cut vegetables, or arrange the meal in a way that feels fresh. Notice what ideas come to mind when you treat cooking as a space to try new things.
Inspiration from Street Markets and Festivals
Some of my biggest “aha” moments have come from wandering around street markets and festivals full of unexpected sources of inspiration. I’ve loved exploring them in Mexico, Panama, and New York. There’s something about discovering unique creations like handcrafted jewelry, vibrant textiles, and local dishes. For me, they spark ideas in ways that nothing else can.
Markets are packed with small, practical design cues: how colors are combined, how products are staged, unique textures, the way packaging draws your eye, signage fonts, makers’ stories, etc. Markets are community staples and full of surprises. Keep an eye out for the details that make you smile—they’re endless, which can be a little dangerous if you love to shop.
Action step: next time you visit a market or street fair, take five photos of details (not whole stalls—details). Later, choose one photo and jot down three ways you can use a similar idea in your work. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.
Exploring Ideas Through Music
Music has a way of shifting energy and focus. Listening to a genre you don’t usually choose — whether it’s r&b, lo-fi, salsa or afrobeats — can change how you approach creative work and uncover unexpected sources of inspiration. Some people even sketch, brainstorm, or write while letting a new tempo set the pace. What feels ordinary in silence can take on new life when paired with sound you’re not used to.
Action step: choose one playlist in a style that’s new to you. While it plays, spend 10 minutes jotting down ideas, scribbling, or moving through a task you’ve been stuck on. See if the shift in rhythm changes how you think or what you observe.
Inspiration in Visual Art and Creative Spaces
Although museums, galleries and public art spaces may seem like obvious sources of inspiration, they may draw out new shapes, colors, textures, and narratives you hadn’t previously considered.
What’s cool is that these experiences don’t require you to be an artist. Meditating on a painting, an artifact, or a sculpture can expand your thinking when you take a minute to pause—and maybe even shift your perspective on certain ideas. A short visit to a local gallery or a walk through a mural-covered neighborhood can give you practical references—a theme, a color mix, or a layout you can try in your next project.
Action step: pick one public art piece or one gallery piece, sit with it for five minutes, and write two descriptive notes about color, form, or texture that you can use this week.
Books to Spark Your Creativity
Books don’t always deliver instant ideas, but they can change how you approach your work. Two practical picks I recommend:
- The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp — full of actionable practices and a no-nonsense look at how routine supports creative output.
- Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways by Sarah Stein Greenberg — focused on short, testable exercises that get you making and iterating.
Action step: read a chapter and underline one concept you can try this week. Turn it into a 30-minute practice.
Observing Nature for Creative Ideas
Spending time outside and paying attention to nature can be an easy way to get inspired. Look for simple patterns—leaf veins, light reflections, or color shifts at different times of the day—and note how those elements might influence textures, tones, or even the pace of your workflow.
You don’t need a long hike. A short walk, a moment on a balcony, or observing plants in a park can produce useful reference points for color, contrast, and material combinations.
Action step: collect three small natural items (a leaf, a feather, a stone). Photograph them and consider one concrete way their texture or color could be applied to a creative project that interests you.
Fresh Ideas from New Environments
Some of the best ideas pop up from unexpected sources of inspiration when you step outside of your usual surroundings. Traveling to a new city, country, or town doesn’t just introduce you to different landscapes and cultures—it pushes you to navigate the unfamiliar. Being out of your element sharpens your awareness and shapes the way you see your environment. It can expose you to completely new concepts.
Use your trip as an opportunity to spot different ways that daily life happens: how locals design small spaces with multifunctional furniture, how public spaces invite interaction, inventive transportation systems that are optimized for efficiency. Once you tap into your surroundings, you’ll likely start seeing a variety of things—patterns in architecture, unexpected color combinations, and unique ways that people adapt—prompting fresh ideas you can try later.
Action step: pick small things that you notice each day during your travels. Capture them with pictures or sketches. Write down what makes them interesting and why. By the end of the trip, you should have a collection of ideas.
Learning Through Conversations and Community
Talking with other people offers practical perspectives you might not gain on your own. A casual conversation with a friend, a mentor, or a partner can highlight pain points, preferences, or ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of alone.
Make it a habit to ask simple questions—what’s the most useful thing you used this week? What are some frustrations that keep popping up? Keep a note of answers that can inform a product or project you’re kicking around.
Action step: ask two people this week what small, annoying problem they’d love solved. See whether one of those answers maps to something you could prototype.
Sources of Inspiration in Everyday Life
Little details that are already around you—the way morning sunlight covers a beautiful church, a colorful street bench near your gym, storefront signage, etc.—are often unexpected sources of inspiration. Try changing your routine to encounter more everyday inspiration. Take a completely different route some days. If you enjoy socializing, check out a cute new cafe. Have fun practicing your spanish with the staff, and let them joke about your accent while they gently correct you. Small shifts can open your eyes to cues you might have overlooked before.
Action step: pick a day this week to take a “scenic detour.” Wander a street you’ve never walked down and pop into a shop you’ve never seen before. Write down the most surprising or enjoyable thing you experience.
Practical Steps to Capture Inspiration
- Schedule micro-experiments. Block 30–90 minutes each week to try a new material, kit, or visit a space—no pressure, just exploration.
- Keep a single idea file. Store photos, notes, cutouts, and sketches in one place. Revisit it monthly to combine two unrelated items into a new concept.
- Prototype fast. Turn one observation into a tiny test: a mood board, a sample piece, a mock photo. Short cycles beat long-term planning.
- Share and ask. Bring one idea to a friend or community and ask one question: “What would you change about this?” Feedback often reveals unexpected directions.
- Rotate tools. Alternate between hands-on kits, short readings and local outings so your creativity stays energized.
Recap: Tools and Books to Consider
If you want to put some of these ideas into practice right away, here are a few simple places to start:
- Try a hands-on kit — like an air-dry pottery set or embroidery starter kit.
- Experiment in the kitchen — swap an ingredient or style your meal in a fresh way.
- Visit a local gallery or mural-covered street — note two things that catch your eye.
- Explore a street market or festival — focus on details, not the big picture.
- Step outside for a nature walk — collect or photograph three small items.
- Rotate your tools — balance between books, outings, and hands-on projects.
- Read a chapter from The Creative Habit or Creative Acts for Curious People and try one exercise.
Choose one or two that feel manageable this week, and go from there.
Why Unexpected Sources of Inspiration Are Worth Noticing
Unexpected inspiration works because it nudges you out of autopilot. It’s easy to move through the day without noticing much, but the moment you catch an unusual color, overhear an odd phrase, or stumble across a new idea, your curiosity wakes up. That spark is what leads to new connections, maybe even divine connections.
The real value isn’t in the detail itself—it’s in the way your mind reacts to it. A strange design choice, a quirky menu item, or a conversation with someone from a different background all stretch how you see the world. That stretch is where original ideas often begin.
When you treat the unexpected as fuel instead of noise, creativity becomes less about waiting for inspiration and more about paying attention. Even fleeting impressions can be stored, revisited, and transformed into something useful later. The more curious you stay, the richer your pool of ideas becomes—and the easier it is to transform those ideas into something meaningful.
