home-decorating

MindFULL Color

A few weeks ago I wrote about wanting to paint my bathroom. I’m prone to changing color. I liked the green at first, but it never really sat well with me. However, repainting the room felt daunting. Remembering the lesson my daughter and I had learned – How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time – gave me the courage to look at the job as “one stroke at a time.”

Slowly, but surely, it came together. At first the blue was off, but a quick trip back to the paint store and a little adjustment gave me just the shade I wanted. I love it! When I am in there, or even walking by, my energy changes. What is that about? Do you think that color effects how we feel?

According to Psychology 101 color can certainly affect our moods. Check out their article for a simple read on how your favorite color may be affecting yours.

http://www.psychology-101.com/2012/03/color-psychology-how-colors-affect-our.html

What color do you Mind FULLY gravitate towards? And have you changed a color in your home to change your mood? Let us know!

Birds Eye View

It’s school break and that means lots of house time. Funny what I notice about my house after sitting in the same chair for hours.

Seeing things with a new perspective can help me think that I have created something new, without spending much money.

Take this drink stand I recently purchased. It just sat in the corner of my dining room, til Colette mentioned what a cool bird’s nest it could be when I wasn’t using it. All of a sudden, the shredded paper in the study had a purpose and everywhere we went, I started to notice all kinds of creative birds! I bought a few and am thinking I may be on to a new collection. I’m gonna work on this.

Real Simple magazine has published their New Uses for Old Things: Holiday Edition. http://www.realsimple.com/new-uses-for-old-things/new-uses-holidays . Perhaps there is something in it to inspire you? After all, you never know what “bird brain” ideas will present themselves when you simply look at things with a new eye.

What have you MindFULLY re-used? Let us know!

One Box At A Time

I once sat next to a man on a plane, who told me his management style was based on the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I never really understood that saying. But when the moving truck(s) pulled up last Thursday, I got it.

What you can’t tell from the picture is that there are two trucks – and the truck nose is leading a semi. The little truck was from the condo and the semi was the truck of all things from storage. Really? I could have sworn we gave more stuff away.

(On the subject of getting rid of stuff, a quick digression: A few weeks ago we were having dinner at a pizza parlor in another part of town and the waiter looked so familiar. After a few trips to our table, we all commented on how we might know each other and it turned out he was one of the “College Hunks Who Haul Junk” who came to the old house 3x to haul away stuff! That’s how much stuff I could have sworn we got rid of.)

But alas, it took 13 hours to move everything into our new house. And as I watched the guys carry in box after box, I wondered how I would ever make this house a home. I started to get that pain in my chest and the voice in my head screamed, “Why did you move?” But then, another voice, a voice that had moved numerous times in my life, chimed in and whispered, “One box at a time…”. And so, I set about focusing on one box a time and a funny thing happened; by Saturday night – there were no more boxes in the main rooms of the house – kitchen, family room, living room and bedrooms.

The smartest thing I did was hire Danny, the handyman, to come by every morning for a few days and take away the empty boxes as I unpacked them. Something about removing the clutter gave me the space to relax.

And now, on July 4^th, while there are still pics to be hung, rugs to buy and window treatments to coordinate, there is still much to celebrate. Friends are starting to drop by and with their laughter, are helping turn our house into a home.

I am going to apply the “one box at a time” theory to other parts of my life. There are plenty of places where it feels like it all has to be done at once. But as the list grows or the voice chirps in, I am picturing Danny carrying out the boxes. Everything in its’ time, my friends. Everything in its’ time.

How can you apply MindFULLY apply the “One Box At A Time” theory in your life? Let us know!

Color Me Crazy

G-d bless my girlfriends. Not one of them shamed me as I spent the last month perseverating over what color yellow to paint the family room/kitchen. Wars rage, sickness ravages and our government stumbles. Try as I do to keep perspective and balance, I could not move off of “what color yellow?” We’d go into restaurants, I’d ask what the color was (champagne gold). Jill sent me her neighbor’s yellow (straw). Dad and Pam shared theirs (dorset gold). Still, nothing.

But on Friday, it all came together. Isn’t that the way life works? You change one thing or try one more time and whatever you are struggling with comes clear.

It was a big week at the house. Picking paint colors is excruciating for me. Color is visceral. I feel it. People say it doesn’t matter, you won’t notice once art is up. But that’s not how I work. I see it, I feel it. I go through color phases. This one is yellow. In our last house we went from green, to orange and ended with blue. My friends shake their heads and color me crazy.

And I can’t hire someone to pick ’em. That I’ve learned along the way. I have some wonderful women in my life who are terrific decorators. At different points, I have tapped their expertise, but in the end, for a variety of reasons, I have to do it myself (with Ken, of course). I know what I like. I get why they make the big bucks. It is a lot of time and work. Frankly, I couldn’t afford myself.

On Thursday they started to paint the outside and the Grey was wrong (and I had “bought” that color from an ” exterior paint expert”). My stomach turned. Panic set in. I couldn’t afford, literally, to make a mistake. But, as she often does, Colette (www.handygirlfriend.com) showed up for a walk at just the right time and pulled the paint deck from her trunk. There, in City Park, she suggested a new Grey. The next day, Matt painted a sample of her choice and the breath returned to my body. Ken and Chris agreed. We were back on track!

THAT’S what friends are for.

Taupe, check. Yellow, check. Grey check. We still have to pick a color for my daughter’s room and then all we can do is cover our eyes and hope that when Chris yells, “move that dumpster!”, we are as happy as the folks on Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Our job is not that extreme. But it is extreme enough.

How do you MindFULLY make choices about creating your home? Let us know!