"inspirational quotes"

Have you ever recieved those obnoxious "what is a friend?" inspirational emails?

Those are the worst!.

My sister gets these lamo "what is a mother?" emails as well. She hates these attachments. I can't say I blame her.

I've seen these Hallmark inspitational magnets and plaques in gifts shops with these corny poems and sappy quotes.

Me, being the cynical-smarty-pants-wise-arse that I am, I just don't "get" the emotional message. Sometimes I really just can't comprehend certain emotions.

I see these "life is good" t-shirts everywhere with this completely lame stick figure riding a bike, swinging on a hammock or playing golf. I see half of the citizens in Newburyport wearing these t-shirts . I scratch my head in amazement that this simple stick drawing resonates something inside of people to make them to wear them. Down the street from the "life is good" t-shirt place is another type of gift shop that sells "life is crap" t-shirts. I don't particularly adhere to the "life is crap" way of thinking but I think the t-shirts are at least funny.(see above picture)

There was this one woman who designed these simple "women empowerment" t-shirts that sold like hot-cakes in one of the downtown's speciality shops. The t-shirts had sayings that said, "simplify" "who needs prince charming?", and things like that. I am really glad she is doing well in her business . I always like seeing women do well in business. But for me, I still didn't quite get her message.

I guess it is like greeting cards you buy. Some people buy cutesy cards with snoopy on them or some people buy gross cards with fart jokes in them or off-the-wall cards with pyscho clowns on them. Each cards resonates something in them to make the reader respond positively or negatively, depending on that person.

As I was doing some online Christmas shopping, (I'll admit, mostly for myself. Ha! ) I found a site that hosts artists and their wares. I absolutely fell in love with one artist with her quotes and simple but super imaginative art pieces.

Finally, somebody out there "gets" people like me.

I bought a bunch of magnets and a necklace on her site. The necklace I bought has a picture of a love bird wearing a dress and leopard print high heels. On the back of the necklace it says, "Sadly, she's rarely judged on how good she is at recycling".

I thought to myself, "oh My God! How perfect! That is exactly how I feel 90% of the time!"

I find that to be so true. You live a simple life and no one seems to notice the little things you do to make the world a better place. It seems that people are more readily available to crititize you instead on nit picky stupid shit nonsense rather than pat you on the back and say, "hey, you're A-OK".

I just wanted to say that I finally found a real artist that I truly found inspirational!

www.allisonstrine.com