life — Page 230

Decorating is Not a Competitive Sport

November 4, 2013 at 10:20 am by Claudia

It isn’t.

With all the decorating and DIY blogs out there, with all the beautiful, pristine photos of perfect rooms, with all the concentration on trends, with all the stainless steel and chevrons and faux animal heads (yuck) and things made from pallets, it would be very easy to fall into that trap. To see your decorating style as ‘less than.’ To think you can never keep up because you can’t afford new appliances or a white slipcovered sofa or a big house with high ceilings.

I love looking at pretty pictures with the best of ’em. They are inspiring. I’ve poured over decorating magazines since I was 12 years old. I love seeing how others decorate, what choices they make, how color can change a space, how texture can change the feel of a room. It’s eye candy, whether on the pages of a magazine or on a computer screen.

But with the coming of the internet and, even more, the emergence of decorating and DIY blogs, there is an overabundance of eye candy. Much of what I see is a variation on a theme. It’s basically the same on-trend look with a tweak here and there. That’s okay. There will always be trends in decorating, just as there are trends in clothing design.

cups

These are from Anthropologie, so I suppose they’re trendy. But I bought them because I fell in love with them, not because they are ‘in.’

Here’s the thing I always keep in mind: I am not competing with anyone. I know my style. What is right for someone else is not necessarily right for me.

Decorating is not a competitive sport.

This post came about because of your comments on my recent Cottage Tour. Some of you lamented that you don’t seem to have a decorating style. Some of you asked for advice, while others commented on my eye for decorating and pulling a room together.

Yes, I have a good eye. I say this in all modesty. I’ve always had an eye for pulling a room together. I’m very visual.

But more importantly, I know what I like. And what I like isn’t necessarily what’s on trend or what I see on decorating blogs. Far from it. And, I might add, what I like at this stage of my life is not what I liked when I was younger. My tastes have evolved. That happens to all of us.

I subscribe to very few decorating rules. As you might have noticed if you read this blog with any regularity, I tend to break rules. By that I mean rules that some expert tells me I must follow. Excuse me? Why? Who made you an authority as to how I should decorate my personal space?

No, thank you.

I’m absolutely sure that my decorating choices are not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, some professional decorators might throw up their hands in horror when they see pictures of my home.

I don’t care.

Decorate with the things you love

My home is full of things I love that tell a story. That story cannot be told by a professional decorator. It can only be told by Don and me. If you love something, you’ll find a way to make it work in your home. If your eye can light on something that has meaning to you, I guarantee it will make a difference in the way you see your space. And in the way others will see your space.

Use what you love.

Use colors that make you smile.

What colors do you tend to gravitate to? At one time, my colors would have been in the brown family. I loved taupe and deep chestnut brown and rust. There are remnants of that in my den, but for the most part, my color palette has changed due, in great part, to the colors of the McCoy pottery that I collect. Those colors spoke to me. They made me happy. And so it goes.

Your preferred color palette may be very different from mine. Good for you. Go for it. Go for what makes you happy. Who cares whether gray or orange or lime green seem to be in? Your home is for you.

lamp

Take your time

If you’ve read any of the Cottage Tour posts, you know that I have gathered the furniture and accessories in my home over time. This is partly out of necessity, since my funds for this sort of thing are modest and sometimes non-existent. I can’t afford to run out and buy the newest thing. I’ve come to view that as a blessing. It keeps me from falling into that trap I spoke of earlier, the trap of keeping up with the latest thing. I get exhausted just thinking about it.

I gather, I tweak, I take something I’ve had for a long time and renew it, perhaps with paint or a slipcover. I make what I have work in this space.

Be realistic about what works in your space

I live in a tiny cottage. Except for in the kitchen, the ceilings are low. There are a lot of windows that break up available wall space. I have to take all that into account when I make decorating decisions. What looks good out there in decorating blogland or in a magazine might not work in this cottage.

We have lots of windows and lots of light. I chose not to overwhelm the windows with heavy draperies. I like light. I need it. So the windows have become one of the key features of our space.

Your living space will be different from mine. Maybe you have high ceilings. Maybe your home has some quirky things you have to work around. Or, better yet, enhance. Take all this into account and let those things that make your space different be positives. Use them. Celebrate them.

Edit

This, to me, is key. I have a lot of stuff. I don’t have an attic. I don’t have a basement. Lots of it is packed away in boxes in the shed. When we first moved out East and rented an even tinier cottage than this one, we put a lot of our stuff in storage. There was no way we could use everything. It would have overwhelmed our living space.

Everything you own does not have to be on display. Take, for instance, our walls. I carefully edit what I hang on those walls. Too much is too much. If you could peek under our bed and the bed in the guest room, you would see lots of framed artwork that has been covered and stored away.

We simply cannot hang everything we own and love in this space. Why? Because the eye needs someplace to rest. If there is too much visual stimulation, whether it is with tchotchkes or things on walls or furniture, your eye has no place to land. You cannot take in everything because everything is too much.

Since I don’t have a spare room or an attic or a basement where I can stash things in order to rotate them in and out of rooms, I edit. I take that into account and think long and hard about what I buy. And I sell things. We sold several pieces on Craig’s List about a year ago that we knew we had outgrown and that were taking up valuable real estate in the cottage.

Edit.

Be fearless

If you want to try using an old cart as a coffee table, go for it. If you want to hang a lamp made out of an old frame and cover that frame with vintage crochet pieces, do it. If you want to hang a canoe paddle from the ceiling because you love the look of it or because you love to canoe, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? You might end up not liking it. That’s okay. Now you know.

minis

Eclectic is good & have fun

Everything does not have to look like you bought it at the same store. You can have a mix of modern and vintage. You can mix wood pieces with painted pieces. You can have a hutch made in the thirties in the same room as a contemporary sofa. If you love it, you will make it work. Too much of one style, whether it is country or mid-century modern, tends to look less than personal.

Most everything in my home is vintage, but not everything. And the vintage pieces are from different eras.

Avoid matchy-matchy. My favorite spaces are those that aren’t perfect but are eclectic and fun. Have fun. Be whimsical.

Your home is a reflection of you.

Remember that your home is your space. It should reflect you, your family, your interests, your taste. Everything in it should speak of you.

I feel the same way about my home as I do about my blog. I want this blog and what I write and share here to be such a pure reflection of me that if you were to meet me face-to-face, you would say “She’s exactly how I thought she would be.” Nothing less.

Same with my home. Nothing makes me happier than when someone walks in the door and says “This is so you.” That’s the way it should be. My home tells a story – about me and Don and Scout and Riley and our past and present. Your home needs to tell your story.

I’m not an expert, that’s for sure. I just know what works for me.

Happy Monday.

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Book Review: Backlash by Lynda La Plante

October 30, 2013 at 10:11 am by Claudia

Backlash

Today I am reviewing Backlash by Lynda La Plante for TLC Book Tours. As always, I receive a copy of the book in return for my honest review.

About the book (from the publisher): Award-winning and international best selling author Lynda La Plante returns with the eighth installment of her acclaimed series featuring London’s Detective Chief Inspector Anna Travis.

Late night on a notorious high-rise estate in the borough of Hackney. A woman on the street never makes it home after a long night of drinking. A white van is being driven erratically. The driver is pulled over by police and questioned. A suspect…an arrest…a confession. Case closed?

Five years earlier, a thirteen year old girl disappeared in broad daylight on a busy London street. Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton headed the investigation; the case was never solved. It has haunted him ever since. And now comes another confession, to this murder, and to one more besides. But is it too good to be true? After being pulled into the fray, Anna Travis isn’t so sure they have their man.

My review: I’ve read and reviewed La Plante’s other series of police/crime procedurals, the well respected Prime Suspect series, upon which the British series starring Helen Mirren was based. I was a big fan of that series and the detailed and meticulous plots, as well as the protagonist, a London policewoman fighting prejudice in a sea of entrenched, suspicious male cops.

This series is new to me. I haven’t read any of the Anna Travis mysteries, so the only back story I know is what La Plante carefully includes in this book. It is enough. The mystery stands alone rather nicely. Once again, we are immersed in the life of a police investigation and La Plante provides plenty of meticulous detail and information as to just how an investigation is run. La Plante’s eye for detail is evidenced in the intricate plot, the painstaking work of the detectives, and the characters that people the book’s pages.

The story is believable and the tension builds as the team desperately tries to link the suspect to the murders they strongly suspect he was a part of. There are bureaucratic snags, leaks to the press, time constraints, and mistakes. But there is also the sort of ‘dog with a bone’ kind of detective work that is so vital to an investigation and that we often don’t see on 60 minute television shows.

Because of that, there was, for me, a sort of distancing that occurred. I’ve experienced the same thing with Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. I don’t entirely connect with the protagonist or any of the other recurring characters because there simply isn’t enough time to delve into them. I label this sort of mystery a ‘dry’ mystery. Dry is not boring, by any means. It simply is what it is, a densely plotted police procedural that doesn’t allow the space for layered character development. In fact, perhaps because it is a series and La Plante might well assume we already know the protagonists, I found the supporting characters to be much more compelling and richly depicted.

Nevertheless, I get a sense of Anna Travis and enough of her back story is revealed that I find her intriguing. The same goes for James Langton. La Plante, who is also a screenwriter, is very good at describing the scenes of the novel; the rooms in the police department, the scenes of the crimes, the homes of the deceased, the families left behind. We get a real sense of the ‘where’ of the novel.

La Plante is a very good writer. She knows how to build a plot that is compelling and taut with suspense. If you like mysteries, especially police procedurals, I know you will enjoy this eighth book in the Anna Travis series.

Lynda La Plante

About the author: Lynda La Plante’s novels, including the Prime Suspect series, have all been international best sellers. She is an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and a member of the UK Crime Writers Awards Hall of Fame. She runs her own television production company and lives in London and Easthampton, NY.

I can giveaway one copy of this book to a lucky commenter. Please leave a comment on this post if you are interested and I will pick a winner on Sunday evening. Good luck!

Happy Wednesday.

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Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

October 28, 2013 at 10:01 am by Claudia

rosehips2

I woke up yesterday morning feeling blue. I didn’t feel like talking very much. I was very quiet. I wasn’t motivated to do anything but read. And all day long it continued until the late evening.

Sometimes you just feel blue. There isn’t always an obvious reason for that sad, quiet, keep-to-oneself sort of feeling that can shape an entire day. You can try to snap out of it, of course. You can try your best to be sunny and bright and energetic. But I am convinced that we all need days like that; days where you can’t necessarily explain why you feel this way, all you can say is that you do feel this way.

I try not to back away from my blue days. I try to remain open to that mood change. I try to embrace the slower pace, the quieter day, the sometimes unsettling feelings that are evoked. It is what it is. And while I certainly know there are people that suffer from a kind of depression that is all-enveloping, even crippling, and often require some kind of medication, the occasional ‘down’ day is entirely different thing.

The occasional blue day is a sort of rest for the weary. A day to be a bit more introspective than usual. A day to think and ponder and be still.

rosehips

There is an element of mystery in a blue day. It isn’t always easily explained. But after some thought, I had an idea about what might have contributed to that blue feeling. It was a predominately gray day, with periods of sunshine, the heat was on, there was a sense, to me, of winter’s impending visit. Despite my attempts to protect it, my garden had officially died that morning and all my flowers were brown or black or wilted.

Flowers, plants, green growth – they were disappearing, saying goodbye. Their season was over. I saw a Monarch butterfly about five days ago and last night I found myself wondering where he was now. Was he flying to Mexico? Was he already on his way south? Have the Canadian Geese left for good?

No more flowers for the bees, for the butterflies. All gone.

And it was, as it often is, rather abrupt. One day flowers, the next – none.

I am passionate about gardening, about growing things, about seeing my gardens all around me. They fill me with joy. Coming to this inevitable point of the year means that all of that is over for a long while. It means shorter days. It means winter is on its way and I find that I like winter less and less the older I get. I need light and flowers.

So there you have it. I needed that blue day to come to terms with a seasonal change that I have no way of stopping. I have to allow myself a period of mourning. Mourning will give way to acceptance. All is well.

Happy Monday.

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Decorating is Not a Competitive Sport

Book Review: Backlash by Lynda La Plante

Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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