Year of the Dragon, in Red

The Chinese New Year festival started a few days ago, marking the new Year of the Dragon on the Chinese Zodiac calendar.  While the little I know about the Chinese Zodiac comes from fortune-telling books and Fruits Basket, I did learn something interesting in an e-mail from Polyvore:

Dragons love rubies, the color red, big ideas and flamboyance. Dragons deliver good fortune to all.

That means this year is a Red year.  According to NationsOnline.org, red is a traditional bridal color in China and represents vitality, good luck, creativity, and joy, among other things. Coincidentally, red is my favorite color – and based on its meanings, it seems red would be a great color for writers to keep in mind as they set goals and try to find inspiration.

Check out these red things to inspire you – or just make you grin and procrastinate before you settle at your keyboard to work on that latest chapter or newest revision.

This cute crochet cup of hot chocolate was created by Meredith, who blogs at One Sheepish Girl.  Meredith is one of my favorite bloggers, especially when she posts her outfit blogs.  She did it to help gain confidence, and I admire any young woman who does something like that!

Her Etsy shop, Sheepish Knit Crochet, has lots of adorable and lovely accessories and fun things.  I love the little “drinks” in the shop, from teacups and lattes to several variations of this adorable hot chocolate drink.  You can buy it (and plenty of other delicious and beautiful creations) at her Etsy shop.

This is a digital painting of Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid by alicexz on deviantART.  You can check out the full-sized version here.  Visit Alice on her deviantART site or her Tumblr site.

If you’re a fan of The Little Mermaid (and other Disney movies,) check out Heather Traska’s One Woman A Cappella Disney Medley and Disney’s The Little Mermaid A Cappela Cover on YouTube.

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of an Etsy fan – you can find so many beautiful and wonderful things on the site.

One of those things are these cute red items, Burgundy Knitting Fingerless Gloves by Afra.  They were listed in the Valentine’s Day section – it’s coming up, as well – but they’re so lovely I’m sure anyone could find use for them any time of the year.

I talked about inspiration above, and I’d say these probably inspire me the most: I’m a fan of steampunk, and for some reason these fingerless gloves just cry out “Victorian” to me.  (I’m not sure whether the artist would take that as a compliment or an insult.)  I’d love to buy a pair, though, so I guess that makes it a compliment!

What red items inspire you?  Post your links in the comments!

(For added bonus points, write a blog about how the color red inspires you and link it to my blog.  I’d love to read about your CNY inspirations!)