What Inspires You? – A Guest Post from Pam of My Man’s Belly
I am very excited that Pamela of My Man’s Belly agreed to fill in for me while I travel to New Orleans this week. She has quite a sense of humor both in person and on her blog, so I was interested to see what she is passionate about and what inspires her. She shares some personal thoughts about childhood and the real source of inspiration in her adult life.
What is my passion and what inspires me? For such a seemingly simple question, I have had a really difficult time trying to put these thoughts into words.
Since my childhood, I have always been independent and wanted to do things for myself. Okay…I like to be in charge.

As I grew older, I learned that I couldn’t always be the one in charge and sometimes I needed other people to accomplish things. That was okay, it’s part of life and growing up, but I still missed doing things myself. I soon realized that being creative is something that comes from inside with inspirations coming from outside yourself.
I played numerous musical instruments, mostly self-taught, and was always doodling or working on some kind of art project. Yes, I was that kid who turned a simple grade school art project into my own Sistine Chapel. My 6th grade art teacher decided to have us take a coloring book picture and “color it” in with dyed rice. I didn’t just outline and fill in part of the picture….nooooooooo – that wasn’t going to be good enough. I not only outlined and then filled in the picture in dyed rice, I also filled in the background with the rice. Each grain was dyed, dried and then glued into place using tweezers. I’m pretty sure my little art project weighed close to two pounds when it was complete.
But these art projects, regardless of how simple or complex kept me entertained and fulfilled, knowing that I conceived the idea all the way through completion and then was able to share it with others.
As an adult, I picked up other hobbies along the way that fulfilled my creativity like needlepoint, furniture refinishing, sewing and several others. But there’s only so much room for these “little” craft projects (and in California that so much room is more like so little room).
I have always liked to cook, but cooking was just a set of instructions that I followed to achieve an end result I was looking for. But once I realized that I didn’t need to follow recipes and could create my OWN recipes – I truly found my passion.
Cooking allows me to vent my frustrations (kneading dough and chopping vegetables can be really cathartic), fulfill my inner creative gremlin (Chicken and Waffles Ice Cream), able to share my culinary creations (and sometimes disasters) with others, plus….the completed dishes get eaten so they don’t take up any space (we don’t count the weight gain).
My inspirations come from everywhere…but especially from these two.

Oh, look at your sweet pup!!! Love your recipe creativity…especially the caramel sauce that goes with your chicken and waffles ice cream.
Great guest post…thanks for the introduction 🙂
And Pamela is even funnier in person than on her site! Score!
I’ve been a beneficiary of reading about what inspires you. And reading your blog inspires me! 😀
I love learning about people one layer at a time, like peeling an onion. Pam and I are two completely different personalities, but at the same time, we have so much in common.
Thanks, Gwen, for allowing us to get closer to people we already like:)
Have fun in New Orleans!
great to know you more Pamela
I love this post! Two of my favorite people on one site. 🙂
And I just have to say… that is one cute pup.
Amen on the chopping vegetables being cathartic! I never understood those chopper devices. I love standing at the counter hand chopping things, looking out the window and thinking about life. Thanks for a wonderful, thought-provoking post!
Safe travels, Bunky!
I know the pleasure of the kitchen as well and understand what you mean. GREG
I love hearing about what inspires other creative people like Pam. Thank you for taking the time to share yourself and your creativity with me. It brightens my day (and many others’). I hope you have a blessed evening, my friend!