What's Your Birthday Color???

 

By now we've all heard that Pantone's Color of the Year for 2014 is Radiant Orchid...

...Radiant Orchid???

 

While I was surfing the web to see if decorators have figured out how to use Radiant Orchid in real homes yet, I came across an interesting article...

 

Here's What Your Pantone Birthday Color Says About You.

The authors suggest colors that best reflect your personality based on your date of birth. You can check the color for your birth month here.


 

According to the book, Colorstrology: What Your Birthday Color Says About You, "Colorstrology is a blend of astrology, numerology, and color theory that offers exciting new insights about our lives and relationships. Written by renowned astrologer Michele Bernhardt with the artists at Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color, the system features 366 "birthday colors" that illustrate who we are and how we behave."

Here's my birthday color: Cerulean.
It just doesn't feel  like "me". So...

 

I'm officially changing my birthday from October 25th to August 25th.
I like this Sun Orange much better!

 

Meantime, I'm still trying to picture myself incorporating Radiant Orchid into my home with all of its oranges and earth colors...

 

 





photo courtesy of style illuminated at Lamps Plus



 

 Have you introduced any of the new pastel colors into your home this Spring?

 

 

Linking this post to:
 Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party at Sew Many Ways

 

 

 

Updating Mom's House #2: The Master Bedroom

My sister, Joanne, and I are updating our Mom's condo for her while she recovers from a stroke...thought it would be fun to share our progress.

THE MASTER BEDROOM

Once Joanne and I saw how good our Mom's updated living room looked, we just couldn't stop there.
Mom's bedroom needed a coat of paint as well. Instead of sticking with the same off -white Mom has throughout the condo, we took our inspiration from the ocean (actually Casco Bay) outside the window and chose a very soft grayed blue/green color, Benjamin Moore's "Quiet Moments" .

It always amazes me to see how fresh paint transforms a space. I love this color!

 

 We repaired, polished and rearranged the furniture to open up the room.

 

Mom and Dad bought this mahogany bedroom furniture shortly after they were married in 1946.

 

 We found the perfect area rug at the Curtainshop.

 

Joanne bought this chair at a local consignment shop and finished it off with cushions she found at home.  The stool, made in India, is from Home Goods.

 

We love the way these lacy curtains catch the sea breeze...

 

They have just enough of a beachy look without being too predictable. We found these at the Curtainshop, too...thank goodness for our  shared stash of 20% off coupons!

 

Joanne liked the curtains so much that she went back for the runner for Mom's dresser...

 

 

Which is edged with shiny little shells and beach rocks.

  

 Joanne reused pillows from other rooms (and even one from the deck!) to add color to Mom's wicker chair...

 

And created this side table from a discarded cement pillar and a round piece of glass she found stored in Mom's hall closet.

 

All that was left to do was to accessorize.

Mom and Dad loved antiques so there were plenty of interesting collectibles around the condo to choose from. 

 

 

Travel collectibles, from Maine, Mexico and St. Lucia inspired this bedside vignette.

Dad's old binoculars, clocks, and cameras add a bit of a steampunk vibe to the room, while a piece of collectible folk art overlooks the scene. 

 

 

Joanne collected simple pieces of blue glass from around the house and grouped it on Dad's dresser against a backdrop of vintage postcards. 

 

We're both happy with how the bedroom came out... but of course, we couldn't stop there. Stay tuned to see what we decided to take on next...

 And now...the "Out Takes":

What we found when we tried to move Mom's dresser to paint...guess our parents believed in the adage that "necessity is the mother of invention"...

And, even worse, what happened when we moved the bed...Oops!



(Wall color before we painted; ignore the fact that the bed fell totally apart!)

 

Happy Decorating!

 

Linking up to:
Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Flaunt It Friday at Chic on a Shoestring
Show & Tell Saturday at Be Different, Act Normal
Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On the Porch
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

 

Updating Mom's House: #1 The Living Room

My sister Joanne and I are updating our Mom's condo. I convinced Joanne that we needed a little "occupational therapy" to cope with the stress after Mom's stroke. As usual with the "Smith sisters", things soon took on a life of their own. Two months later, we're still at it...redoing the whole condo that is! 


THE LIVING ROOM
 

Mom's living room was off-white and she likes the color. We color-matched her paint and put two new coats on all the walls and trim. Her color scheme still worked with her "shabby chic" things but relied heavily on 80's rose and blue. We chose to update it by eliminating the blue and heading toward orangy-red instead of pink for accessories. That way, we could still incorporate most of Mom's things, but with a new twist.

 

 We went a little crazy and decided that Mom really needed a colorful accent wall to set off her fireplace and mantle. A quick trip back to Sherwin-Williams and, before we could second-guess ourselves, it was done.

 

But then, Mom's TV stopped working.

 Off to Best Buy we went. The next day the Geek Squad arrived with this baby. We decided Mom deserved a 46" Smart TV mounted over her fireplace! 

 (See what I mean about one thing leading to another?)

 

 

Years ago, Mom cut roses out of her living room curtain fabric and decoupaged them to the wall as a border over her fireplace. When it came time to paint the accent wall, we felt bad taking them down.

 

Our solution was to frame them in a shadowbox and display them in the finished room.

We got all of the carpets professionally cleaned and started to put things back in the room.

Joanne bought a slipcover for Mom's faded wing chair and added a textured throw cushion the color of our new accent wall.

 

She also replaced the throw pillows on Mom's couch.

 

 

 Mom loves wall groupings so it took quite a while to carefully replace all of her artwork after painting the walls. Luckily, Joanne is a perfectionist.

 

 

 

We moved a few pieces of furniture around and edited the accessories...respectfully decluttering and organizing where we could.

  

 This clock has told time in the Smith household for over 60 years...it was always in Mom and Dad's living room.

 My sister Joanne definitely inherited Mom's decorating gene. She arranged this vignette on the top of Mom's piano...it's one of many she has carefully arranged since we painted.

 

 

We thought we were about done redoing, refreshing and repurposing Mom's living room when we saw this rug at the Curtainshop last week. Yup...it came home with us.

 

It pulled together all of the colors in the room, old and new, and provided the finishing touch. Mom's rose is there...along with the oranges and reds we added.

The fabric swatch on the chair is the start of yet another DIY project!

Joanne found the foot stool, made in India, at Home Goods.

 

We hope that Mom recovers enough to enjoy her "new" living room. We're pleased that we were able to update it while honoring her amazing sense of style.

 

I guess that with a view of Portland Harbor like this, the living could have stayed empty and still been beautiful.

 

Next up? The Master Bedroom...
 

 

This post is linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On the Porch

p.s. Meet my "little" sister Joanne...here with our Mom in 2009...

 

 

The 150 Project #3: "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger"

Welcome to the "150 Project"...
One of my "Retirement Resolutions" was to get healthy...hence the "150 Project". That's my goal weight on Weight Watchers. Putting that number right out there keeps me from going back into denial. I was also a smoker. I quit in June 2013,  on the day I retired from teaching. Now that I'm retired, I hope to add exercise to my program. Posting my progress on the "150 Project " is my way of keeping myself honest, tracking progress, and, just maybe, inspiring others because...if I can do it, anyone can!
~Cheryl

The song that's the title of this post, sung by Kelly Clarkson, is my mantra. It's even the ring tone on my cell phone! And, in my third month with my trainer, Ben at Body by John, I really am feeling stronger. Going to the gym isn't even scary anymore (well...except for "leg day" maybe).

 I thought it would be fun to show those of you who may have "gym phobia", as I did, what a typical training session is like.

 

And the fitness model for this post?

Well it's middle-aged "Moi", of course!

 

 I like the fact that the gym is quiet and non-threatening. I'm usually with Ben while John is training someone else at the other end of the gym.

The trainers push us to our personal limits...but not quite over.

 The music helps me keep moving.

(We seem to have negotiated a pretty painless mix of Beatles and rap.)

 

Doesn't it look like I'm having fun?

(Look at that face!)

 

  

Check this out:  "0" intimidation factor...no spandex in sight!

 

 And best of all, I get to work with Ben and John, two amazing trainers.

 

My DH, Hank, is training with Ben now, too.

 

 So that's it...a morning at the gym.

Time to give the sneakers a rest until tomorrow...

 

When it's time to do it all again!

 

“Don’t worry about failures; worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.”

– Jack Canfield

 

 



Cardinals

Mom often wants to share memories with us when we visit her at Falmouth by the Sea, where she is in rehabilitation following two strokes. Many of her stories have been about events that meant something to her, or to one of us "kids", in years past.

 

She has been talking a lot about the bright red Cardinals that used to come to the feeder by our childhood kitchen window. 



Photo courtesy of Wikimedia (since I have no Cardinals yet!)

This is a recent photo of the house we lived in Connecticut from about 1956 - 1961. Mom's bird feeder was just outside the kitchen window, which is the bay window on the right in the photo. Cardinals were frequent visitors.

Since Mom was getting so "into" Cardinals, my sisters and I decided to try to bring some to her. We bought bags and bags of Cardinal seed and spread it outside her window daily. We even put a few "faux" Cardinals inside her room. Now there are birds everywhere at Mom's end of the rehab. center...Cardinals, robins, blue birds and chickadees. She...and the other patients and staff...are really enjoying all the birds (and squirrels) we've managed to attract.

 

Having had such unexpected success at Falmouth by the Sea, I decided to buy a bird feeder to place outside our kitchen window at Applegate.

 

 In order to convince DH to brave the piles of snow and ice with his ladder, I told him that we were feeding the birds to honor Mom. I'm not sure he really bought that, but he was a good guy and managed to get the job done.

 

 
 

There's just one little problem...the feeder has been up over a week and not one bird has visited us.  I googled for ideas and tried some of them...like throwing birdseed on the ground around the feeder.  Still no luck.

 

 My sister, Joanne, also inspired by Mom's stories, hung a feeder outside the kitchen window at Mom's condo. Joanne reports that hers is just beginning to attract some chickadees and finches.



The new bird feeder outside Mom's kitchen window in Portland



 Maybe I just need to be patient and wait for the neighborhood Cardinals to find us.

 

Any other ideas???