John welded a metal valentine for me 20 years ago. I love the rusted patina. (I want to paint this back porch light black when spring +50' weather returns).
Early this morning I told husband-love-of-my-life that when I am trying to relax & go to sleep I go through the rooms in our home and think of what I want to change...He doesn't think that sounds very relaxing. To him that is terrifying--this from my super supportive of my-arts & crafting explosions husband. Not that I am making more things for him to do, but the CHANGE doesn't sound like fun to him. "Things are fine how they are now!"
He voiced the legitimate concern of stumbling around banging into things even with the lights on. He likes things the way they are--and I am constantly wondering how they would look with changes. I said I would love to live in a different house each week. It would kill him. We are opposite on the spectrum of decorating-change-environment. It would kill me to decorate things once and live with them unchanged for 20+ years. I like the way homes can evolve, change, variety and interest keeping pace with the events in our lives.
When I look through our home interior/exterior environment there are some keepers, things I absolutely love and wouldn't want to ever change. Only a very few. But there are more experiments, projects I have learned skills by making decorating mistakes, experimented, left undone or changed almost too soon for any witnesses to get used to it and I would eagerly change given the right resource, discovery at a thrift store, gifting from rich uncle, career change, or honestly a move.
I told him I was ready to re-paint the living room ceiling (a constellation/nebula/cosmos thing) and he said it had only been since the summer since I made a big X and shaded it to look like a peaked ceiling. But I've been adding violets and orchid colors to the living room (to try out color of the year Radiant Orchid) and want to include the ceiling...Yea, I know. I accept that I can't afford to buy new rug/accent chairs/couch, but I can change the paint with paint I already have!
He wonders why I make more work for myself. Why, out of my 8 siblings, I seem to do it more than any of them (any challengers on that? Ha!) Not a race/contest, but it was a funny thought. Then we talked about the opposites-attract break-down of how different my parents are from each other, how in-laws change siblings.
Is it a budgeting/money issue? If I had all the funds available to make a room "perfect" would I do it and leave it as it was???
My "Fiddler On the Roof" if I were a rich woman song goes like this:
If I were a rich woman,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd paint and decorate....
I'd build an open-concept great room with windows
Kitchen island-plenty seating
A new gabled roof with stained black floors below
There would be accent chairs, conversation pits
Sofas and a separate music room
Entry way and mudroom (not for show)
I'd fill my yard with landscaped concrete creations
Peonies, hydrangeas real
Walkways, benches, redbuds, more ivy green
Party patio hammock and fire pit
Entertaining would be relaxing here!
If I were a rich woman, (we would pay off the house, pay off all student loans, water-proof basement, get a new mattress, make sure the kids had everything they needed, new water heater/furnace, roof, new energy efficient windows, then and only then fun things...like skylights, moving the floor-pipe-water-heater units, build columns between kitchen/living room to support load bearing wall, open-up staircase, add 2 sets French doors, new kitchen counter tops, new washer & dryer, upstairs pantry, punch through door from garage to kitchen with connecting mudroom, wallpaper (drool), and BUY A NEW COUCH, not at the thrift store!)
Fun game to play, but now it is time to count my blessings. I know everyone has lists like this. We don't gamble, so we don't play the "When I win the lottery..." game.
But the "How would I spend disposable funds on decorating game" entertains me. And doesn't really put me to sleep! I want to get up and make something beautiful! Or change things to see what it would look like. Not to make stumbling blocks for my family. Just to see the possibilities. And maybe then, I will move it back for fun to the old way.
4 comments:
Your ability to imagine and create positive changes in your environment are wonderful talents. Vision is definitely an important part of the creative process and you have been blessed with it abundantly. I admire what you do. It is hard to be financially limited but a blessing in a way because it requires us to be more creative, make decisions, and focus on what matters more to us. I'm just guessing, but having more money, just like having more time, might make the decision-making process harder. But having that vision makes it possible that when you have the means you know what you want and can take action. It's a hopeful way of looking at life and I appreciate that about you.
I have enjoyed thrift shopping and experimenting with clothes in ways that remind me of your decorating projects. Self redecoration. But I haven't felt the creative energy and compulsion. I admire it when I see it and am grateful you have had the joy of it.
I, David, love to make and change my environment, but I am so slow that it takes a long time and once completed it stays that way for a long time. Not too long ago we took down some paintings just for an evening movie projection and the kids were shocked. Julie agrees that she thinks about how she wants something to look for a long time and when it finally happens she wants to keep it that way. So both of us have very long conceptual phases. We are always designing our dream home in our minds. You are a great creative force and example.
I am so glad you left this up. I've been thinking about it all week. I didn't know How dad felt specifically. I know that he is always positive and happy. Loves the beauty you create. But that dad sometimes didn't know why anything needed to be changed when it already looked so great! The power to make choices and change ourselves , to better our environments is powerful. You are an amazing example. And I really liked you fiddler lyrics!
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