As I was scootching around the internet today visiting some of my favorite decorating blogs and discovering new ones through linky parties and such, along the way, this evening I ended up at Centsational Girl's blog that I really really like. Note to self: Add to blog list.
My own "design philosophy" is reflected in my post of March 7, 2012 The Starburt Mirror - OH NO!
My recently discovered decorating "buddy," Debbie at Debbie-Dabble, whom I admire greatly for doing her own decorating thing so freely and fearlessly (I love looking at her photos at her blog, her house is so warm feeling it always makes me smile and happy in a good way, even on the crappiest days when I'm stressed out from work or just so damn tired I don't feel like I can go on another second doing this until I hit "full" retirement age - still more than 5 years away!) -- Goddess! -- what a run-on sentence this is turning into. LOL! As I was saying before I totally lost my brain train for a few seconds there (sigh), Debbie-Dabble read my blog post, thought about it and wrote a beautiful post of her own on March 11, 2012 Are You an Original or a Cookie-Cutter?
By reading the responses at Debbie's blog to her March 11th post, I realized that there are people - probably lots of people - who agree with us that one's home should reflect one's own true self and be one's haven from the world. One's home should be filled with things that are meaningful to YOU, who live there -- photographs, souvenirs, funky quirky finds, personal art, collections, hand-made crafts if you are so lucky as to be talented in that direction, and your books, your music, your colors! Yeah, if I could afford to have House Beautiful or Architectural Digest, would I do it? Probably not, except to buy a home in a location with an absolutely spectacular view.
If I could afford a home like that, I could also afford a chauffeur 24/7 to haul my non-driving butt around town, or if I actually bought that island I've always fantasized about if I ever married the Sultan of Brunei (ain't happening, ladies, but I can still dream about it, heh heh), I could afford my own fleet of helicopters, speed boats and airplanes! And tons of servants to do my shopping and such. All I'd ever have to do is spend my days trying to keep this 60 year old body in decent shape and would even maybe consider doing - GASP - LIPOSUCTION... Of course I have the face of a 30 years old (well, er, sort of, if you're drunk and don't look too closely...)
But that's just a fantasy. Living here, in this house, is reality. I love this house! It's all mine, I had it built from scratch after falling in love with a model that I saw while taking a local Tour of Model Homes in 1989.
Recently, the ladies of the investment club to which I belong met again (we usually meet 9 to 10 times a year, sometimes taking off over the T-Day/Christmas holiday season) and a month in the summer). As we always do, over breakfast at a local restaurant and then here afterwards at the round table in my dinette, we shared all of our news and I filled them in on my latest plans to update the family room. Their consensus was -- I am NESTING.
At first I just laughed at that. But now I realize they are probably absolutely right. I'm giving this house a go-over that it hasn't received in years while I've been so busy doing other things. In effect, I'm getting this house ready for my target retirement date, January 1, 2018. Sort of semi-nesting? Getting the nest ready for bigger and better things? Have I conceived at my age through an Immaculate Conception? Oh, never mind that last comment...
Anyway, I highly recommend that you take a look at Centsational Girl's blog post of March 26, 2012 A Purpose Filled Home, and the comments that came (flowed in) afterward in response.
There must be LOTS of us who feel the same way. So glad to be seeing this. When looking at so many spiffy, stylish and smartly designed blogs, with lots of doo-dads that I have no idea how they do them, how the doo-dads work (afraid to click on most of the buttons and links!) or what the doo-dads mean, and all of the interiors pictured that are perfectly photographed and Photoshopped, designs that often appear to be the work of a professional stylist and/or decorator(s) at the cost of beaucoup $$$$$ (like the $7500 treatment for three fricking windows I blogged about last night) -- well, I wonder -- where are the people like Me?
Thank Goddess for linky parties! Through them, I now know that there are people like Me out there! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Maison Newton: Heart, Hearth, Home...
Showing posts with label unique decorating style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unique decorating style. Show all posts
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Visiting Debbie-Dabble
I confess to farting around at work earlier today (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) and visiting a certain decorating blog that had a certain -- not sure what they're called -- party? -- posted. It was somewhat before lunch hour, ahem.
People with blogs of kith and kindred interests (and some not so much) post a link to their own particular blog. There are sometimes hundreds of them for each "party" -- and so you get to look over little mini-photographs and little mini-descriptions such as "Living Room Re-do" and "Dresser Re-do" and click on the link if you want to see more -- or you can pass it by. If you click on the link, voila, you are instantly transported to someone else's blog to read about that particular project and see photographs. It's wonderful! If you like where you are, you can stay and explore, or bookmark the blog and go back later on, when you have more time...
And thus, today, while visiting one such "party" I ended up at Debbie-Dabble's blog. I believe her post to the "party" was something about "red and green" and pictured a Christmas tree. Imagine posting a blog entry with a Christmas tree in March? Well, I just had to find out more.
Let me tell you what hooked me in once I was magically whisked to Debbie's website: it was a blog entry she did on February 18, 2012:
Do You Ever Think About What You Post on Your Blog May Mean to Those Who Read It?
I have often wondered about this very thing, probably because I'm an historian, researcher and writer by passionate avocation, although none of those things is what I do to support this household (but the skills do come in handy on occasion).
I know how much the written word can affect people. But even if you do manage to reach out and touch the occasional reader, you don't usually know about it, unless that person leaves a message telling you so. Nope, you just have to sorta kinda hope that what you're doing may connect with someone else, preferably, thousands of someone elses.
I read what Debbie had to say on the subject, and was so incredibly touched by what she wrote. She wrote straight from the heart, and what she wrote went straight to my heart. So, I explored her blog a little bit further, and then left a message. Because I felt I just had to let her know that I, silly moi, had found her blog and visited, and really really like who she is and what she does.
It seems to me that Debbie is a woman who spreads joy, light, laughter and love wherever she goes. I have sometimes (not often, I'll admit, but sometimes) wished that I was that kind of person. Don't get me wrong, I believe that I am a generous, loving person, and I do express that in my own cock-eyed way, but in translation things usually don't come out quite right -- and besides, I have absolutely no damn patience for people I consider trumped up Donald Trump types or fools! No, I'm no Debbie-Dabble. She, well, I know this is going to sound absurd, but Debbie does seem to incorporate into her personality the primary attributes of the Great Mother Goddess, in her most benign aspect.
Now, I consider myself a Goddess, too. But I'm no Mother, that's for sure. I'm far too temperamental and bitchy to be a good mother and thank Goddess I was smart enough, when I grew up and got over my sentimental 6th grade "Oh, I want to have a DOZEN children - or become a Nun", to not become a parent. Or a Nun. Being a generous Aunty has been more than enough, thank you. That's okay. The world is more than big enough to hold me and Debbie-Dabble quite comfortably together.
I won't go so far as to say we're two peas from the same pod, but I feel a definite kinship with elements of her decorating style. Debbie has a flare for the dramatic, and I think I do too. I like how she puts unexpected things together. Her feeling is downhome comfortable. I'm headed more in that direction away from "House Beautiful" myself over the past several years -- when I've had time to even think about it. Of late, I've been thinking about it (that turning "60" thing...). "House Beautiful" looks fab in photographs, but how does it really function in day to day living? It's fine if there's just you in the house (and you can afford a housekeeper to come in once a week, like moi, to do the vacuuming and dusting, etc.) and hardly put a dent in one of those perfectly constructed "vignettes" and 42 pillows piled upon your bed! But come on, let's get real! I sure as hell don't want to be messing with removing pillows from my bed when I'm tired and ready to hit the sack! I sure as hell wouldn't want Mr. Don tripping over any of those same pillows which would, I've no doubt, end up all over the bedroom floor because the "master" bedroom isn't all that "master" in size and the chair isn't large enought to hold 42 pillows.
In any event, neither of our decorating styles is everyone's cup of tea, to be sure. I mean, Debbie has had 17 Christmas trees in her house at the same time! And she still has some of them up, one of them is actually decorated for St. Patty's Day. It's beautiful! The green speaks to me of Spring and growth and lushness, and drunken handsome young Irishmen with black hair, rosy cheeks and sparkling blue eyes - and tenors -- but I digress -- that was back in college days.
My decorating style, on the other hand, prominently features pagan goddesses, hopelessly out of "trend" colors and furniture (I still have a 27" tube t.v. in my family room that I watch DVDs on) and my bookcases are nightmares to the decorating queens of the internet because they are utterly unorganized and cluttered with photographs and memorabilia from my travels here and there, and loaded down with pending research stacked haphazardly in teetering piles. Lighting is - crap. I don't like bright light unless it's the sun shining in and then I yank back the curtains and let her rip, fading all of my fabrics.... But generally at night, I prefer candle light. Or those new-fangled "flameless" candles that I never knew existed until recently. Geez, talk about being hopelessly out of touch!
We need more Debbie-Dabbles in the world. She has achieved her own unique personal style and has a happy-feeling house. What more can one ask than to have a happy-feeling house? Isn't that what we're all trying to achieve? We won't achieve that by being cookie-cutters of each other, because WE are not cookie-cutters of each other.
People with blogs of kith and kindred interests (and some not so much) post a link to their own particular blog. There are sometimes hundreds of them for each "party" -- and so you get to look over little mini-photographs and little mini-descriptions such as "Living Room Re-do" and "Dresser Re-do" and click on the link if you want to see more -- or you can pass it by. If you click on the link, voila, you are instantly transported to someone else's blog to read about that particular project and see photographs. It's wonderful! If you like where you are, you can stay and explore, or bookmark the blog and go back later on, when you have more time...
And thus, today, while visiting one such "party" I ended up at Debbie-Dabble's blog. I believe her post to the "party" was something about "red and green" and pictured a Christmas tree. Imagine posting a blog entry with a Christmas tree in March? Well, I just had to find out more.
Let me tell you what hooked me in once I was magically whisked to Debbie's website: it was a blog entry she did on February 18, 2012:
Do You Ever Think About What You Post on Your Blog May Mean to Those Who Read It?
I have often wondered about this very thing, probably because I'm an historian, researcher and writer by passionate avocation, although none of those things is what I do to support this household (but the skills do come in handy on occasion).
I know how much the written word can affect people. But even if you do manage to reach out and touch the occasional reader, you don't usually know about it, unless that person leaves a message telling you so. Nope, you just have to sorta kinda hope that what you're doing may connect with someone else, preferably, thousands of someone elses.
I read what Debbie had to say on the subject, and was so incredibly touched by what she wrote. She wrote straight from the heart, and what she wrote went straight to my heart. So, I explored her blog a little bit further, and then left a message. Because I felt I just had to let her know that I, silly moi, had found her blog and visited, and really really like who she is and what she does.
It seems to me that Debbie is a woman who spreads joy, light, laughter and love wherever she goes. I have sometimes (not often, I'll admit, but sometimes) wished that I was that kind of person. Don't get me wrong, I believe that I am a generous, loving person, and I do express that in my own cock-eyed way, but in translation things usually don't come out quite right -- and besides, I have absolutely no damn patience for people I consider trumped up Donald Trump types or fools! No, I'm no Debbie-Dabble. She, well, I know this is going to sound absurd, but Debbie does seem to incorporate into her personality the primary attributes of the Great Mother Goddess, in her most benign aspect.
Now, I consider myself a Goddess, too. But I'm no Mother, that's for sure. I'm far too temperamental and bitchy to be a good mother and thank Goddess I was smart enough, when I grew up and got over my sentimental 6th grade "Oh, I want to have a DOZEN children - or become a Nun", to not become a parent. Or a Nun. Being a generous Aunty has been more than enough, thank you. That's okay. The world is more than big enough to hold me and Debbie-Dabble quite comfortably together.
I won't go so far as to say we're two peas from the same pod, but I feel a definite kinship with elements of her decorating style. Debbie has a flare for the dramatic, and I think I do too. I like how she puts unexpected things together. Her feeling is downhome comfortable. I'm headed more in that direction away from "House Beautiful" myself over the past several years -- when I've had time to even think about it. Of late, I've been thinking about it (that turning "60" thing...). "House Beautiful" looks fab in photographs, but how does it really function in day to day living? It's fine if there's just you in the house (and you can afford a housekeeper to come in once a week, like moi, to do the vacuuming and dusting, etc.) and hardly put a dent in one of those perfectly constructed "vignettes" and 42 pillows piled upon your bed! But come on, let's get real! I sure as hell don't want to be messing with removing pillows from my bed when I'm tired and ready to hit the sack! I sure as hell wouldn't want Mr. Don tripping over any of those same pillows which would, I've no doubt, end up all over the bedroom floor because the "master" bedroom isn't all that "master" in size and the chair isn't large enought to hold 42 pillows.
 |
| Debbie-Dabble's "fake" mantel. Not only does this remind me of my own "Spring mantel", I see definite signs of Home Interiors! I've got lots of Home Interiors items, too. My friend's sister sold Home Interiors for many years and when I bought my first house in 1986 I bought many items, and then in subsequent years. The wallpaper border reminds me of the border I removed from my bedroom that had been pink for 19 years (finally repainted in late 2009) and through three different borders over the years but always the same underlying pink walls and the same curtains (made from sheets). EEK! It was beautiful, I have to admit, but past its prime, and I was so tired of the pink. Elsewhere at Debbie-Dabble's blog I saw the beautiful print "Roses, Roses" also by Home Interiors, that hung in my own bedroom for many years and is currently stashed in a closet. I may never use the print again, but I may use the frame some day, because it is drop dead gorgeous. |
My decorating style, on the other hand, prominently features pagan goddesses, hopelessly out of "trend" colors and furniture (I still have a 27" tube t.v. in my family room that I watch DVDs on) and my bookcases are nightmares to the decorating queens of the internet because they are utterly unorganized and cluttered with photographs and memorabilia from my travels here and there, and loaded down with pending research stacked haphazardly in teetering piles. Lighting is - crap. I don't like bright light unless it's the sun shining in and then I yank back the curtains and let her rip, fading all of my fabrics.... But generally at night, I prefer candle light. Or those new-fangled "flameless" candles that I never knew existed until recently. Geez, talk about being hopelessly out of touch!
We need more Debbie-Dabbles in the world. She has achieved her own unique personal style and has a happy-feeling house. What more can one ask than to have a happy-feeling house? Isn't that what we're all trying to achieve? We won't achieve that by being cookie-cutters of each other, because WE are not cookie-cutters of each other.
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