Ladies I Love, Creative Crushes

So I may have mentioned wanting to pick the brains of some of my favorite inspirational ladies on the creative realm. My imagination and determination has made me want to set my goals really high, so that... what is the saying? Aim for the moon and then land in the stars or something or other. I have been starting to become extremely in tune with the directions (yes multiple) that I want to head in. I start my Fashion Illustration class next Tuesday, which is my second en route to my Fashion Design degree. I have also been really looking into making this blog a bigger and better entity, ie moving it to Wordpress and having it professionally redesigned. It's just somethin' I want to do and obvi, I will need some inspiration to keep me moving.

Along those lines, I have a lot of women that inspire me in so many different areas of my creative interests. I am obviously into fashion and fashion design but I am also crafty and yearn to cook better for myself and my man.  I am sure that you have heard me make mention of some of these ladies and I would be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of others. I hope they don't mind me referring to them as my creative girl crushes.

Ladies I want to interview, meet, chat with, adore more:

Bari J. Ackerman, Author, fabric designer and craftanista, I first discovered Bari while looking for sewing books and I happened upon her promoting her most recent book, Inspired to Sew. I picked it up when it was released and fell right in love with Bari's fabric designs (colorful and whimsical) along with her cute, practical approach to sewing. To me, her approachability (hey, we've chatted on Twitter!) and her love of something that I love, make Bari J. a lady crush fo' sho'.


Nanette Lepore, American Fashion Designer, lover of NYC and Made in NYC Garment Center, you would have to be living under a rock if you didn't know that I adore Nanette Lepore and her designs. One of my top 3 fashion designers/brands ever, Nanette really embodies a lot of what I guess I would imagine my dream life being. Now I know that sounds sketchy and sort of stalker-ish, which it might very well be, but to follow Nanette's travels via Instagram, her tweets and Facebook, she seems to be living an adventurous and creative life outside of her fashion design career, which I obvi think is fantastic. 
 

Tina Sparkles, Author and DIY extraordinaire, is someone I found while looking for group sewing classes, back when I was looking for some refresher courses. Of course, I couldn't swing Tina's classes in Texas (at the seemingly adorable Austin Stitch Lab), I did pick up a pattern of one of Tina's designs and also learned of Tina's book,  Little Green Dresses, chock full of sewing tips, eco friendly ideas and patterns for new fabric or reconstruction of old. It really is an awesome book and it comes highly recommended... from me.

Carla Hall, chipper chef, baker and my fave of Top Chef fame (also now on The Chew) makes me want to be a better cook but more importantly, Carla has this zest for life that is most certainly enviable. If you have ever seen her Top Chef episodes or caught an ep of The Chew, you would know exactly what I am talking about. Always Hooty Hooing, smiling and offering a little tasty nugget of optimism, Carla just seems like a rad lady. I imagine a cooking lesson with her where I not only learn how to make a kick @$$ chicken pot pie but I would laugh the entire time.

Rachel Roy, Clothing and accessory designer as well as all around charitable laday... Man, do I love Rachel Roy. She's gorgeous, she's charitable, she has a sassy, edgy design aesthetic and dude, she seems like a lovely person... yes, I judge this on interviews and appearances where I have seen Rachel. So what I imagine I know exactly what people would be like in person. ;-) ... What I also love about Rachel is her super affordable line Rachel Rachel Roy or RRR if you like to abbreviate things... everything that I have gotten has never disappointed me in fit or in sass, so has become a very real part of my wardrobe and identity.

Faryl Robin Morse, magical shoe designer... I own 4 pairs of her shoes, which is more than I can say for any other shoe designers' fare. The designs are funky but wearable with a quality that is stellar. As much as I love shoes, I have never stuck on one designer except for Farylrobin. I interviewed her back when I worked on The Fashionable Housewife and it was a great experience and well, my first interview haha. I fully intend to keep collecting Farylrobin shoes for my ever growing collection, sorry manfriend.

I am sure I will have another installment of this in the future but these are most certainly my top ladies right now.

Who are your creative girl crushes?