Summer Vacation

Here it is 4th of July week 

and 

I am deep in thought planning a summer vacation

I confess that I have not booked flights 

or made hotel reservations…

In fact, I am having a hard time finding a weekend between 

now and August school start that isn't already promised 

to lacrosse games, baseball season end parties or overnights with friends.

I will not go another summer without a trip to the water

somewhere….

Back east…near the coast

Where the boys can get sand in their toes, 

feel the sun and the sea on their faces,

listen to the tides roll in and roll out,

gaze at the sun disappearing behind the marshes, 

smell the wood burning from a beach bonfire and

bask in the sweet ambience of summer.

I am thinking of upstate New York

the state where I was born 

This rental "cottage" on Schooner Island 

in Alexandria Bay

looks perfect

This is where you will find me soon

The photos were taken from the Home Away website 

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p369865

August Hue

                     "Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you"

finderskeepersmarketinc.blogspot.co.uk

littlebluedeer.com

botanicalbrouhaha.blogspot.com

simpleverydayglamour.blogspot.co.uk

opalpal.tumblr.com

littlegreennotebook.blogspot.co.uk

lambandblonde.blogspot.co.uk

citified.blogspot.com

"Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you"

When I dream of August 

I dream in hues of blush and gold.  

Where I am Today-In My Imagination Anyway

Weights and Wings

All images from the coastal path www.kmldesign.dk/nordstrand  

When I was younger I dreamed that I could fly.  

I had the sensation of flight - of being so free from my physicality that 

I soared across boundaries, across city borders, countries, continents.

I remember feeling the wind

-like the wind from riding in the passenger seat of my Dad's mustang convertible

not an angry wind but the type that awakens me to the wonder of what I can see

and calms me at the same time - striking deep stirrings of joy and gratitude.

Even as I am free of my body I am struck by the heightened awareness of my senses.

I have heard that dreams of flying indicate happiness.

I know happiness - I have felt it in my bones, in my sight and in my dreams.

For me it lives in the freedom of flight - in wings.

I have not dreamed of flying in at least a decade.  

My wings have weights - weights that exist in my thoughts of inadequacy,

in my saying to myself that I am not smart "I don't get it", 

in my insisting that freckles aren't beautiful and taking actions to hide them 

so one one would see. 

My wings have weights that exist in my thoughts of  "I am an absent parent" -

being at work when during the last inning of his baseball game-

undaunted by the heaviness of his catcher's pads-

he leaps for that fly ball and gets the final out bringing the scoreboard to home 6 away 5-

missing that look of elation on his face when he takes home the game ball.

My wings have weights- weights that exist in my thoughts of  "I am not worthy".

I am not worthy of his unconditional love

of him exhausting his 40 year old body and making his fingers bleed 

to install the brazilian hardwood floors that I had to have in our master bedroom.

I am not worthy of him, of his giving so much of himself in an effort to simply see me happy.

My wings have weights-weights that exist in my thoughts of  "I am not important"

I am not important enough to live in pursuit of my dreams -

to be the designer, the entrepreneur, the artist that lives in my heart.

Passion is lived by those who are wealthy and successful

and I lack…

I am not enough.  I lack the education, the experience, the knowledge.

I lack the success and the money. 

It is not enough to have a soulful longing.  

After recently seeking personal development training 

by enrolling myself in the Landmark Team Management and Leadership Program

and after having spent many hours in introspection and in contribution to others' introspection-I dreamed that I was flying.

It happened in a moment - 

a moment when others acknowledged me for who I am in their eyes.

You see I was only acknowledging myself for who I am not. 

I would never have seen this by myself.

In my training there is saying that you are exactly where you are meant to be.  I came to know this this week as well. 

One of the most impactful distinctions that I have learned is that I have the ability to 

let go-

let go of thoughts and feelings that don't serve me or speak to who I truly am.

I let go of "I don't get it", of "freckles aren't beautiful", of "I am an absent parent", "

of "I am not worthy" and of "I am not important"- 

and I had the sensation of flight-

wings without weights.

All of these images are from a post called

the coastal path

It is a place in Denmark

The website is 

 www.kmldesign.dk/nordstrand 

If you love beauty - I encourage you to visit it.

I chose these images because if my soul was a place

it would live here

Wishing you flight

Cristine

Coat Closet Project

Awhile ago J- and I decided to embark on a closet project.

We wanted to change our home's 

1964 entry closet to something more eye catching.

Something like this...

Truth be told I really wanted to get rid of the closet all together.

Then my dear husband J- reminded me that the only place the kids

would have to put their stuff away was - the floor.

Hmmm...that doesn't work.

(even though that is where they usually put their stuff anyway)

This is what we started with.

Double flat hollow doors painted green with brass knobs

(contain your jealousy please)

Gradually we got to the framing phase.

It looked like this...

We built up the bottom and framed over the existing hollow doors.

Step two - primer.

Step three - painted it a deep butterscotch color.

This was the first color applied.

It was the first in a 5 step process.

Hydrangea blossom blue was the second color to be applied.

Then a crackle mixture to enhance it's character.

Finally, we applied some black spray paint along the corners to make it pop.

And VIOLA

This is our coat closet today.

Now it looks like a furniture piece instead of a closet.

Who would ever guess that inside those paneled doors lies a whole lot of mess ;-)

Monday Manifest

Pinterest



I am manifesting summer on the coast of New England
for the Life is Beautiful Project.

You can find it here

Accomplishment April

Big Things are Happening in April 

pinterest image 

Not a peep from me the entire month of March oh my.

That is because I am working a project….

image pinned from victoiremeneur.com

Not really a project that will produce tutorials or 

feature easy to follow step by step instructions

pinned from the paris apartment

more like

A life project.

One that will culminate into the life of my dreams

I call it the Life is Beautiful Project

pinned from trouvais.com

You can follow the Life is Beautiful Project 

at viedecore.blogspot.com 

Vie Decore means Life Decorated 

I hope you will

Cristine

I will still be posting here as well.

February Fondness

February kind of gets a bad rap…

I was searching the internet for a charming quote on the month February with which to begin this post when I discovered….

…that there weren't any.  

The shortest month of the year is described as "the bridge to March", 

" a suitable month for dying" and "when the days of winter seem so endless that no amount of wistful recollecting can be bring back any air of summer" ~ (Shirley Jackson)

As someone who lives in a cold weather state, I understand the isolation and melancholy that comes with days of putting on hats, scraping off car windows and waiting with shivers until the heater kicks in.  

I also understand the beauty of the one perfectly preserved snowflake that you catch on your tongue, and the sound of my children laughing as they glide down the local sled hill feet first and as fast as they can get them to go.  Every once in while (especially in this-one of the mildest winters in Colorado history) I do get a glimpse of spring -a lone daffodil poking its head out above the hard ground and just above the last snow melt (maybe even a wistful recollecting of a past airy summer-so there Shirley Jackson ;-)  

So when I think of February…

I will think of it fondly.

Fondly,

Cristine

All of the above images- except the first-were pinned on pinterest

Thank you to the creators who've inspired me and who've  shared their wondrous visions.

While I Was Working-can you make spreadsheets beautiful?

Can you make spreadsheets beautiful?

The word in which I am living into this year is 
BEAUTY
The goal is to create something beautiful every day.
I did not realize-when taking on this word-that there would be many days when I went to bed at night never having created something beautiful.  
The recognition of this often hit me as I was laying my head on the pillow after having spent the entire day working.  
Now…instead of taking the road of complaining-where I mention that the type of work in which I earn a paycheck is not the type of work I want to spend most of the hours of my life doing (sounds like I may have taken that complaining road a little bit ;-) but instead taking the road of how I am going to create the type of work that I want to spend most of the hours of my life doing and that provides an amazing paycheck!  

How amazing would it be if all of us could live off of our passions literally :-)

As part of this endeavor I have done some research on how to recognize what stops me-whether it be fear (mostly of losing something I already have or not succeeding at something that is really important to me), time, money, family responsibilities, self-doubt (this is a big one), being wrong (this is a big one too), not having control, having to start again at the beginning, not being good enough or important enough-as a way of avoiding hearing the word "no".  
Recognition seems to be the access into turning it around.

Now that I know what it is that stops me-I can apply a simple statement to each reason and watch them disappear
The statement that I am drawn to is 
"What will you do with this one wild and precious life" ~Mary Oliver
It reminds me  that life is temporary -one go round- and because life is temporary why not live it wildly?  Perhaps not reckless abandon wildly…although that might be fun every once in a while  ;-)  but without so much constraint, contemplation and conformity.  I am also reminded of how precious life is and how important to enjoy it while it lasts.

Mary Oliver also said 
"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Pay attention-be present -this is a mantra that I repeat daily in my quest to live a year of beauty.  Simply to show up and be present-that isn't hard and yet it is astonishingly transformative.  In fact in typing that last sentence I realized that perhaps the days in which I thought that I had not created anything beautiful wasn't true at all.  Perhaps it was those days that I experienced beauty the most-in being present with one of my co-workers or my children or my husband or a stranger and really listening to them -connecting…
 or being present with nature-noticing a flower that I hadn't seen before or feeling the cool February wind on my face as I walked down to the local food store for lunch..or holding my face up toward the sun (Colorado has actually been very warm for this time of year) and really allowing myself to be enveloped by the warmth and the light (sounds corny but it does take something to be present in today's world-I find it especially so when I am at work).  After all-this is beautiful too isn't it?  

It occurs to me that once I have consciously made the things that stop me disappear-all there is left is action-because there is nothing in my way.
A friend of mine recently suggested that I read the book The Happiness Project.  I trust her and her insight so I downloaded the kindle sample and after reading it -went ahead and purchased the book.  Mind you-I am not even five chapters into it yet but one of the things from the book that struck me was the author saying "when the student is ready the teacher will come".   I took this to mean that once I have allowed myself to be free of my constraints and to truly see what it is I want to do with my one wild and precious life (btw: really delving into and getting at what it is you really want is another step in embarking on the life of your dreams-The Happiness Project and a lot of  the research I did on finding out what stops me addresses this as well) then the universe will open up and opportunity will find me-opportunity being the teacher.  This also took away one of my most daunting questions- "but how do I do it?"  
The how will be obvious... all I need to do is step into action.  

One final thought keeps creeping into my conscious as I write this -that is not to undermine the life that I have or to suggest that it isn't enough or isn't what dreams are made of…after all I am a very fortunate person with much to be grateful for and much to live for and much that is already a life of dreams.
Rather….to say that living the life of my dreams is finding the balance-between time and love of family and friends; between service to others and time to myself; between travel and home ...in melding my work life and earning life into what really lights me up and doing it all in beautifully decorated spaces ;-)  

Sorry for the long winded post.

If you are so inclined I would love to hear how you will spend your one wild and 
precious life….
(G-rated only please ;-) 

Show Up, Be Present, Let Go, Create Something Beautiful, Share it With Others

This image is from New England Life.blogspot