Style at Home and Penelope Trunk

What do the two have in common? The May Style at Home issue (which I’m in) arrived in the mail yesterday and I was mentioned in Penelope’s latest blog post both on the same day!

It was all very exciting. I spun around and did a happy dance for a little too long on Tuesday morning so I actually had to reschedule an appointment I had with a new marketing person (who might be the one to help me take my blog to the next level, we’ll see) as I ran out of time to prep for it!

Brett Walther (below) an Associate Editor at Style at Home Magazine, also writes a great blog called Style Sleuth. He found my blog when it was just a baby and linked to The Best Trim Colours NOT Cloud White post and wrote a post about it here. He was the one who emailed me saying he wanted to include me in their colour issue for May! A huge thank you to Brett and Style at Home!

Grace at Sense and Simplicity was the first to announce that I had been mentioned in this sweet post she wrote on me (because my issue came through pony express and her's arrived one week ago)! Thanks Grace!

'Pale colours and whites can really only be enjoyed with a lot of natural light. Painting a dark room pale colours simply accentuates the shadows in a space' Maria Killam

And then the next thrilling thing happened. Someone sent me a tweet saying they found my blog on Penelope Trunk’s blog and I thought, “I haven’t seen a post by her today”, and then, literally 2 minutes later it came through to my in box. Click here to read it.

Anyone that has been reading my blog knows I love Penelope’s blog. Her authenticity inspires mine! Click here to read all the posts (5 actually) where I’ve linked to her.

It’s already easy for me to share personal stuff about my life because I’ve always been like that but reading her blog makes me realize I’m just a beginner when it comes to sharing myself in public. As she said on her webinar tonight (How to be a millionaire from your blog. Really) in response to someone’s question ’what are some blog ideas that are unique’—answer, “There is nothing new, Information is a commodity so if you don’t differentiate your blog from everyone else’s with your personality, no one will read it” (I was taking notes so it’s not word for word but that’s basically what she said).

I love this backyard of a farm house(credit)

By now you may have read on Penelope’s blog that I am doing an on-line colour and design consultation with her (Monday actually). She’s got her fan-deck ready and sent me the photos of the farmhouse and Monday we’ll choose the colours (including a white for her kitchen cabinets) and talk about the furniture she’ll be buying, space planning, etc. I’m very excited. (email me for more info on what on-line consulting looks like).

We are going to paint her kitchen some shade of white (or maybe colour) she wants happy!

I also wanted to tell you why she made this comment in her post (in case you were wondering the same thing):

“She’s so weird about the photos because they are beautiful but generally unrelated to the post, and somehow she makes that work.” Penelope Trunk

Penelope wants a pink and yellow master bedroom, I love the idea! (credit)

Okay so usually you learn something and there's a related image to go with it but sometimes for example, here and here when I am just rambling on about something that I think is interesting (it’s important to be interesting Penelope said)--and since this is a blog about colour and design--I can’t just post a bunch of words without photos, so I’ll find some images that I think are beautiful and include them in the post. And my readers have reported it’s like getting a mini magazine in their inbox everyday, so it works for me!

We could add some yellow to this room! (credit)

That is my exciting news of the week! Thank you to Style at Home and Penelope Trunk!!

If you want your home to have atmosphere including colours that flow to fill you with happiness every time you walk in. Contact me by email for on-line rates or call me at 604.318.9725 if you are local.

Related posts:

A light Colour will never Come to Life in a Dark Room

Warning; You are the Colours in your Home

Kitchen Paint Colours; 5 Questions to Consider First

When is White just Right?

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Your Christmas Tree is You (maybe)

Have you ever heard the expression “The way you do Anything is the way you do Everything?” A speaker once said that in a seminar. And decorating my tree this year, I saw something about my personality that seemed as clear as day once it was finished.

I always get a real tree because I love the smell but the worst part about a real tree is getting it in the stand so that the trunk is at the perfect length (so it doesn’t tip over) and second, getting it to stand up straight. So this year after much struggling, it was still a bit crooked. So I said to myself, I’m okay with it. As long as I have one up.

I would never have allowed this to happen before I started decorating for a living, but I spend so much of my life shopping, sourcing, for my clients and their homes, I just don’t have the same creative energy to do it for myself these days. Prior to my career in design, I would spend all day decorating the dinner table for my guests (just like Martha). Now my guests are lucky to get a napkin.

Anyway, back to my tree saga. My slightly crooked tree--on Friday afternoon--came crashing down!

So Saturday, finally, after about 45 minutes, I got it to stand up straight, and then I stuck all the decorations back on it. Then I stood back to look at it, and do you know what my tree looks like? It's perfect (well not like I am or anything). It’s been pruned and trimmed perfectly, the decorations are spaced perfectly, it’s downright boring. In fact, it looks like a ‘tightly wrapped’ person decorated it.

Then I watched a terrible ‘made for TV’ Christmas movie last night and I just loved the tree in the characters apartment. It looked so casual, whimsical and playful--almost sexy (if that’s possible for a tree to be, just like the one below) and I realized I’ve always wanted my tree to look like that!

All images from Country Living

And maybe it’s because I’d like to be a little less literal about things, more playful, less serious and a little less ‘tightly wrapped’ (like this one too).

Well what do you think of my theory? Do you think your Christmas tree is you? Next year, that’s what mine will look like and then maybe I’ll even take a picture of it and post it!

Okay, Okay, it is missing in this post for me to call my tree perfect (I’m not saying it’s the best tree , it’s just boring and symmetrical) and then not even show you what it looks like. Here it is (above :).

Related posts:

Why are Red & Green the Colours of Christmas?

10 Commandments for a Happy Chic Home

Colour me Kelly Green

Stylish Family Photos

Warning: You Are the Colours in your Home

A few years ago I met a woman at a conference who immediately took in what I was wearing and proceeded to tell me exactly how I was feeling that morning when I chose the outfit. I was wearing a pink shirt with gray pants and a charcoal cardigan [and she was right].

During lunch, she talked about the combination of colours [in the restaurant] and what they meant. I had NEVER encountered anyone who analyzed colour that way and I thought “Wouldn’t it be interesting if I could incorporate that kind of knowledge about colour combinations in my interior design and colour consulting business”. She told me she had studied colour therapy with Aura-Soma.

I promptly booked myself into one of their fall courses in San Francisco [2 years ago]. Aura-Soma’s teaching says; ‘You are the colours you choose’. The course was interesting, but I realized that I would have to do a few more before I had the kind of mastery my friend had. Then, the day that we spent a section of the class ‘combing our spiky auras’, made me question whether I would have the patience to continue with the training. [Not that I think there’s anything wrong with that. It just seemed—for lack of a better word—a bit airy fairy to me.]

My point [and I do have one] is the scientific part; the meaning of the combinations of colours that you choose. They have over 100 bottles, and each have 2 colour combinations like this one. (my favourite one—of course)

Whether the colour you choose is on the top [represents the conscious mind] or the bottom [the unconscious] means something in addition to what you choose of course.

The above bottle was the first bottle I chose and this is what it means: “Great strength and knowledge in the conscious mind (the yellow) and an immense wisdom (gold) within our depths. We may have a sense of humor and an ability to deal with life in a sunny, happy manner. (Now the name of my blog makes sense :)

Sunlight is about consciousness. It is self-awareness, which can sometimes manifest in a negative way as a self consciousness or a knot of contradiction within the solar plexus. As the knot begins to loosen and we let go of fear, we can undo the knot of contraction completely and the light can begin to shine. More confidence emerges as self-consciousness is released. Knowledge begins to dawn more brightly. To let go of the knowledge (yellow) may be the first step toward refining our wisdom (gold). The sunlight bottle’s separation of yellow and gold symblolizes the necessity of discriminating between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge can be acquired; wisdom is inherent.

Then I was reading Penelope’s blog the other day and in an article she posted about ‘How to be more interesting to other people’ she said;

“One really cool thing someone taught me is that the color I choose is most interesting when it intersects with another color. Just knowing the right color to use is not the clever, interesting thing. Rather, interesting is when I am unsure what the two colors will do when they interact. (Here's a great set of paintings that illustrate this idea.)” Penelope Trunk

Mark Rothko

When I clicked on the above link, here is what I found (above). And it was so similar to the bottles I have just shown you, I was intrigued. It got me to thinking about one of my new clients. A young woman who is getting a divorce after having been married for 12 years. The colours she choose for her new space are a fresh green (including beige/creams) with an eggplant as the accent colour. The closest bottle to that kind of colour combination is this one:

And here is what the combination means: Choosing this bottle means that we have found space (green) in which to show our feelings and express ourselves, or that we have an inspirational creativity and can join our feminine intuition with our spirituality. It may provide hope to those of use who need to let go of fear and anxiety. This bottle can show that we have a need for healing, especially following an emotional upset or disappointment related to matters of the heart; it also highlights our challenges with self-doubt, stubbornness, and an inability to trust or a fear of trusting ourselves or others.

Green means balance and space. Purple; transformation, a point of change/re-evaluation and healing.

Perfect colours for her new home don’t you think? And a way better method for picking your new sofa colour. This way you'll end up with a colour that reflects your personality instead of picking up the latest, most trendy colour which you will tire of as soon as the next trend comes along.

Domino

Back to Penelope’s post; “We each have spots in our lives where two colors are coming together and we're not sure what will happen. That's the part we should talk about when we talk about ourselves. If you limit the conversation, discussing only what you are certain about, then there's no chance to stand on equal footing with your conversation partner. You stand on equal footing when you both reveal your struggles with what you don't know yet, and the conversation can contribute to the answer.'”

Actually, it was reading the above paragraph that made me decide to tell you the story about the purple colour I picked for that room that ended up wrong.

Jeffrey Bilhuber

And this paragraph I just loved (hey I’m a new writer, so this is completely fascinating to me) but isn’t it true"?

“The same is true for writing. The interesting part of writing is not the part of the piece where you know exactly where it's going. The interesting part is when you get to an unplanned moment in a paragraph and you surprise yourself by what you write next. It's the moment of uncertainty, when you have to look inside yourself to keep going, and pull out something you didn't know you had before.”

That’s why blogging has you get to know yourself in a whole new way. And those of you who don’t fancy yourself writers (or you might be surprised like I was) could just write anyway. Remember the book The Artists Way? Here you can just write, and no one but you has to see it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Related post:

Happiness is. . . Being Uncomfortable (when you pick the wrong colour)

Happiness is. . . Getting What you Want

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert