Oh Christmas Trees!

I spent today decorating two Christmas trees for my favorite long-term residential decorating client. Since everyone is looking for Holiday decor ideas, I thought I'd share some close ups of the decor on her magnificent trees. She has chosen such beautiful elements over the years, such as these huge tassels in lush colors, large metallic ornaments, and multi-sized velvet balls that I clustered together.

 

Shimmering ribbons & antique horns add sparkle, and these elegant glass crystals drip perfectly from the tips of branches.

These 'bouquets' that I created from faux flowers & fruits, berries, and crystal grapes adorn many of the branches of her large sweeping tree. And those beaded ornaments are made of brass beads, from Morocco! (I think they'd be FAB earrings!)

The tree stands regally in the office/library at the front of the house, offering a stunning Holiday view from inside and out. And if you are wondering about the strange lighting here, the light bulb directly over the angel burned out seconds before I took this photo! When it is working, it softly illuminates the angel's face. sigh.

The second tree is inhabited by the softest, cuddliest teddy bears on the planet!

See these two guys? They are just a part of the menagerie that comes out each year to frolick all over the tree in the Family Room. By special request from the twin sons in the family (whom I have watched grow from little boys to very tall young men), this tree has multicolored lights and decor, and a whimsical feel. The bears tilt, sit, lay, lean, peek, flip, and hang from the branches in a myriad of poses every time I set this up - last year, they all 'held hands' and formed a chain garland around the tree from top to bottom.

This year, they are performing death-defying acts of gymnastic skill all over the tree...

Everywhere you look, there is a teddy bear peeking at you!

It's a fun tree and 'the Boys' STILL smiled when they came in from school and saw that I had finished it!

There is a window located on the wall next to the 'Teddy Bear Tree' (as it's become known), and it overlooks the front porch entry. When you are standing on the porch at the door, you can look to the left and see through the window - so I always place some teddy bears precisely at this spot, doing something cute, to take advantage of the view. It's my favorite part of the decor, to be honest!

This year my sweet friend scaled back a LOT on her decorating, due to some travel plans during the holidays, so I only created these trees for her. Normally, it's the entire house and front entry that get decked out! I've posted before about the 'elegant excess' she usually lets me create with her hundreds of nutcrackers and dozens of Dept 56 houses and plethora of garlands, wreaths, trees, and such.  I'm so used to spending a week there that it was sort of surreal to finish up in just one 8 hour day this year! I really enjoyed spending that time visiting with her, and her dear hubby. These are some really amazing people who started out as clients way back in 2003, and now they are so much more. I am blessed to call them friends!

Simply Thankful

 

 No big 'to do', no showstopping decor.... just marvelous food that everyone contributed to, the company of some of the people we love most in this world  - daughters Brianna and Bethany, and Beth's hubby Jay & son Troy. We were missing daughter Jeni and her hubby Joel, and our son Joel and his wife Ashley and son Jameson, though. It was an afternoon of visiting, teasing, and playing together.

The focus was on each other.

Simply Perfect.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a few photos from past Thanksgiving posts here on my blog... because I'm not done with this year's table decor yet! Still adding final details.
Like, um, everything. ;0)

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving, a day filled with love, family, friends, and fabulous food! We all have so much to be Thankful for, don't we? Blessings to you...

Taking Off the Blinders

My sweet hubby took me out on a bonafide date on Saturday night! We  had a lovely dinner out at Applebees, and then saw the new film 'The Blind Side'. I can honestly say it's one of the best movies I've ever watched. It's right up there with 'August Rush' in my book when it comes to emotion and meaning and inspiration.

I like Sandra Bullock's work in almost everything she's ever done, but this one - lemme' tall ya', they aren't kidding about this being an Oscar-caliber role for her. I would guess that there is probably a great deal of the 'real' Sandra in this role and in her realistic, emotional portrayal of a woman whose life is changed by taking action. It's truly amazing that this is a true story.

I also enjoyed several parts of this character that seemed very familiar to me: the 'decorator-mother-wife-coach-coordinator of everything' part, for one! I got more than one nudge from my hubby as she displayed characteristics that he's lived with for 30 years now! I watched two scenes of her at lunch with friends, and smiled to myself as I remembered myself in a similar place just one short year ago.... my life changing, me staring at the women around me and wondering how we were ever friends in the first place.

It is a great family film, absolutely perfect for this time of year. I beleive it has the power to cause us to look outside of ourselves and our own lives, to see the needs around us, and to take action without a second thought. Because you never know whose life will be changed when you take off the blinders. Maybe even your own.

edited to add: She just won the Golden Globe for her performance... next stop, Oscar winner! 

The Great Wall of Creativity

With all of the new social networking around, it's easy to get pretty overwhelmed by the myriad of ways to connect to and market to people who've been outside of your normal circle of influence. Sometimes, it can seem competitive - who is in the newest issue of what magazine? Who has a new project with a major celeb? Who has a book deal? What blogs are on top of Technorati or Bloglines? Who has bigger numbers on their Followers box on their blog or Fan Page on Facebook?

I just wanna' say, does it MATTER?

See, I read blogs by friends who live close by, those who are scattered around the globe, and blogs by famous designers, authors, and vintage style mavens.  It's remarkable to watch them grow and experience success... What we all do in this unique world is to build one another up. It's like a 'Great Wall of Creativity' that gets longer and higher and stronger as we all add to it! The trust and community we need and enjoy is of our own making - and our own responsibility.

I rejoice when I see a beautiful creation, made by someone I know, mentioned in another blog or magazine. I read with pride the words shared by friends who are contributing to a style blog or new magazine. I smile when my friends' faces stare back at me from a newspaper or magazine feature article. I experience a sense of community when I see others succeed - artists, photographers, writers, designers, crafters, antique dealers - even if I don't know them at all. If they can do this, so can I, I think. I am encouraged! And on those amazing days when it is my photo or my words or my face appearing in another publication.... well, I'm elated and hopeful that I can inspire others through my contributions.

I learn so much from the people who share themselves this way - not just through what they share, but as I watch them grow their businesses and live their lives according to their own strong principles and dreams. When people display talent and creativity and kindness and are genuine, I admire them. I could care less how much money they make or how big their house is or what brand clothes they wear or what famous celebs they know. It's not about status or popularity or how many people know you or follow your blog.

It's about how you live and act and treat others. It's what drives you to act honorably, even when no one else is watching. That's what impresses me, and what drives me to be the very best artist, creator, designer, consultant, decorator, vintage show dealer, and PERSON I can be. All I can do is to try to reach for my dreams, play nice, and be fair and helpful to others along the way.

Sometimes I fail miserably at that.
Sometimes I am so thrown for a loop by the utterly outrageous actions & attitudes of others that I simply lose my cool and say a mean thing, or mutter an unkind phrase as an 'inside joke' just to blow off steam. It's not nice, it's not right, and I am working to never repeat that kind of thing again. When faced with situations like that, what I want to do is stand up on my soapbox and loudly proclaim what miserable thing they did - on purpose, without caring about how it affected others repeatedly - but then I'd be pretty much on their level. Trust me, I don't want to be there.

Being mentioned and noticed and appreciated for what you contribute to the world is nice, of course. Having Followers and Fans and Readers is an honor. Making new Friends and finding endless sources of inspiration is absolutely Priceless! Thank you for sharing my day, and for contributing to this marvelous Universe of Creative Spirits, where we each decide our own value and worth.

Image Credit: Tres Birds Photography for Come Junk With Us, of a Retreat product.

In the Mood

I've been putting off thoughts of Christmas, but today I was totally immersed in it. We spent the day filling our room at Poppyseeds with a happy red & white Christmas theme, and getting ready for the big Open House event on Friday & Saturday.

Retreat presents a 'HoHo Holiday'!

Just as I was taking photos, we got a quick surprise visit with our friend Dona, too! Then we headed home and made a pit stop at Terry's Corner on Camano Island. (Located at the 'Y' in the highway) We went into Camano Island Coffee Company and found that their gift shop has been expanded into a showcase for marvelous artisan wares. Then we went next door, to the 'barn', and discovered that the whole place is FILLED with booths of antiques, art, and Holiday gifts. WONDERFUL! If you are coming out to the Stanwood Camano Island area, don't miss it! There are SO many incredible artists & artisans here - including Jack Gunter, who just opened up a showroom on Hwy. 532 right in the heart of Stanwood.

OK, I'm tired now.... snuggling up in bed for Grey's Anatomy tonight. ;0) 'nite!

Deb's Happy Santa

I was updating my status on Facebook this morning and added a little emoticon that popped into my head. Well, lots of people liked it, so I thought I'd share it here, too!

Here's my Happy Santa emoticon:

*<|:o{D>

Feel free to spread the joy!

Notes from the Universe

Today's Note from the Universe:

"Thinking brand new thoughts that you've never thought before is wildly more conducive to creating big life changes than just thinking different varieties of the same old thoughts.Think about it...The Universe"*                                          

Isn't it just like us humans to miss the absolute simplicity and truth of this message? We get caught up in 'trying' to stay positive, think positive, be optimistic, be 'possibility thinkers'.... and forget that recycling the same old thoughts is never going to get us the results we want. Open hearts, open minds, open arms are what bring change. It's the same principle as 'Keep doing the same thing and you're going to keep getting the same result - to think otherwise is lunacy!' (which someone famous said).

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the shadows that lurk in my subconscious, cowering in the corners of my mind, whispering doubt and fear. They sidle up to my ear and murmur that I am running out of time, I'm too late, someone else has already reached my goal, someone else will do it better, I'll never get my chance, I've blown my chance, I started too late, blah blah blah. They imitate voices I've heard in my past to try to reduce me to tears: "Who do you think you ARE? What makes you think YOU can do that? What makes YOU so special? You need to stop dreaming. You need to be realistic. Don't get your hopes up. We need to slow you down, rein you in. Dreamers never prosper." 

(Dear friends, have you ever heard any of those lines spoken to you? They are demoralizing, debilitating, and damaging. Please don't ever say those things to anyone, no matter how much you don't understand them or think they need to hear that. They don't. No one does.)

Today, right now, I'm shaking off the limiting beliefs and thoughts that live in my soul and head and keep me in a box of my own making. Because it's high time that I think bigger and reach higher to get outta' this darned box.....it's time to rethink the whole darned thing. I can, and I will. Join me, won't you?

* To get your own 'Notes from the Universe' delivered to your inbox, sign up here. 

help.

I have so many ideas, so many visions, spinning around in my head right now that I can't keep anything straight. Yes, I've made lists. Yes, I've drawn sketches. I have what I am jokingly calling 'Inspiration Piles' sitting everywhere. (They are roughly the equivalent to 'Inspiration Boards' but far less orderly and two-dimensional). I need focus, people. Can someone tell me where that's on sale right now???

With all of the upcoming things on my plate, I am finding it harder and harder to make choices about each of them: Which pieces will go where? What color scheme is the best bet for that show or this space? Should that particular theme be saved for the very special project and are we actually going to be able to complete that very special project in the current timeline? Is it just me on 'overwhem' or is it the new normal? 'Cause I don't like it at all. Deb needs some structure to her thoughts and it's totally escaping me. Any suggestions, my friends?

'Later that evening'......

Thank you so much for your helpful and VERY entertaining comments!

Sue, I can't shut it off. That's my problem! I work allll the time and my head spins with ideas constantly. Only Advil PM shuts it off. Marydon, you are hereby appointed my personal physician. I like your prescriptions!!! DeeDee, pass the fork, sweetie, I'm ready to take that first bite! Megan, go to my design blog and scroll down until you see the post where I am giving away my notes for show booth visual tips. And Christina, I'm still lookin' for that sale!

Bob and I sat down this evening after dinner and had a pow wow about stuff on our minds. We made some hard decisions. That 'very special project' that I mentioned has been given a longer timeline so that we can do it RIGHT, instead of FAST. (Hard for us, trust me. We are REALLY psyched about this idea... it's just not TIME for it yet.)  So the pressure to complete that within a few short weeks is off. That gives me a bit of breathing room to FOCUS ON and complete the other tasks on my list, PLUS have time to enjoy the holiday season and grandson's birthdays and 2 of our kid's birthdays. We decided that we missed a lot of summer because we were working hard - not working smart. So that's our goal now: work smarter. I'll let ya' know how that works out.....

Sweet Friends

I had the most wonderful day today.... the sun was shining, my hubby and I got some work done, and I spent a few lovely hours languishing at a marvelous restaurant in Downtown Seattle with friends. The food was sublime (crab cakes for two, grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato bisque soup for three) but the real deal came with dessert:

Timi's cupcake, above.

Creme Caramel for Kimberly and I. (hers was to go, as she had #2 to pick up)

The fresh doughnuts that this place is famous for were Lisa & Serena's choice. They smelled DIVINE! And isn't the way they are served just adorable?!

(Sorry, Lisa, this shot of your plate is a bit fuzzy... I was overwhelmed by the aroma!)

The only thing better, sweeter, and more satisfying than the desserts was the company and the conversation:

Serena Thompson, Timi Botorff, me, Lisa Hildebrand, and also Kimberly Taylor (she left before we did the photo) had such a beautiful time connecting over shared interests: business, food, family, husbands, kids, junk shopping, vintage shows, being women in business, our shared desire to attend Silver Bella!, and more. It is an amazing thing to find your 'tribe' and to know that you don't need to explain anything you talk about because they get it all.

Thank you, girls, for sharing yourselves and your time. You are all so inspiring! Thank you, Serena, for being such a gracious hostess and friend. You definitely brought the sunshine to Seattle today!

Home Again

We are home, at last.

We are snuggled deep under the down comforter in our comfy nest of a bed, candles burning, laptops blazing as we catch up and soon head for a night of blissful sleep. Outside, the wind is blowing, dark clouds fill the sky, rain falls and pellets the windows.

We've been serenaded by rain since crossing the California/Oregon border sometime in the wee hours of the morning, pulling over to snooze a bit, and then continuing on our journey homeward. In our absence, winter has arrived in the Northwest. Long gone are the clear sunny skies and 85 degree temps in So Cal. ;0) But the sunshine of our grandson's smile when we stopped by to visit him before driving the last 30 minutes home more than made up for that...

Who ARE You?

I just read this quote in a MORE Magazine story about Diane Keaton:

“She lives her life in question marks and exclamation points, and listening to her is like drinking Champagne: pretty soon you feel giddy, too.”

When you read those words above, as excellently written by MORE Mag writer Johanna Schneller, can’t you just picture Ms. Keaton’s smile, laugh, bubbly personality, and effervescent presence? I can. I think she is a remarkable example of vitality for women of any age. She’s also stylish as all get-out and her hair always looks fab. (OK, I know she has a cadre of stylists to care for her, but still…) However, the greatest measure of her presence is due more to her confidence, her ebullient personality, and her wisdom as a woman ‘of a certain age’ than to her physical appearance.

I’d love to live my life in a way that could be so perfectly and succinctly captured.  

As children, we are all asked ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’.

My answer was always something creative: The glassblower at Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, or the cake decorator at Knott’s Berry Farm. Then, ‘Interior Decorator’ was the answer that stuck with me for years.

If someone asks me ‘What do you do?’, as often happens when meeting new people, I tell them I am a retail visual designer, speaker, and writer, and also co-owner of a company that produces recycled/restyled home furnishings. What I’ve realized is that these kinds of questions are about what kind of service, product, or intellectual property we provide to the world as our job or career. It’s not really about US – who we are. And I’d rather focus on that, thankyouverymuch.

So that’s my goal right now: define to myself, for myself, who I am NOW. Not just that I am a woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, business owner…. but what am I about? What do I believe? What do I stand for and support? How do I express myself and reach out to others? How am I perceived, and how will I be remembered when my time here is done? What words would an interviewer choose to describe the essence of my life, my personality, who I AM, in one succinct sentence? Heck, I can’t even do that right now. Time to get my ‘elevator speech’ together – if only for myself, to have the knowledge of who Deb really is right now.

I know I will change – as I have many times in my life, moving from place to place both physically and spiritually. As we walk through life’s journey, old friends and opportunities are left behind and new ones welcomed (as Miss Kimberly is finding out). Our own personalities and beliefs and goals evolve and change. Our physical features may be altered to the point of not being recognizable even to ourselves (as Miss Stephanie is growing through, bless her sweet heart). It’s not that we are playing different roles, like actress Keaton, but that every step brings us new opportunities to discover more about ourselves. We dig deeper, and delve into the secrets and dreams and hurts to discover and define who we are and where we are headed. It’s a necessary part of life, of womanhood, of growth as a human. No one else can do that for us. 

But a good reporter with a well-turned phrase sure helps… which brings me to this: Should my effusive use of exclamation points and ellipses in my writing be included in my life’s synopsis? “She lives her life in exclamation points and ellipses, filled with enthusiasm and wonderment at discovering the world around her”... ;0) 

Image Credit:  cinematical blog via Google image search (this article is about the new film that Keaton discusses in the MORE magazine interview).

Along the Journey

I am sitting in my father in law's hospital room, waiting while he is having tests performed, staring out the windows facing Eastward. I can see the panoramic view of the San Bernardino Mountains in front of me, stretching out brown and bumpy like a badly-formed loaf of french bread.

I can trace the line of Hwy 18 up from San Berdoo, and remember every curve as it winds through Waterman Canyon (past the famous Arrowhead Springs) and up the steep inclines and hairpin curves to Lake Gregory, then Lake Arrowhead, on to Running Springs, and finally reaches Big Bear Lake. I know that road intimately, as we lived up there in Twin Peaks and Lake Gregory for years. I've driven up the highway in fog so dense that there was no way to see even the lines along the sides of the roads, and once a boulder bigger than my Isuzu blocked the road in the middle of the night. I smiled recently as I saw a familiar sight in a Nic Cage film: the Cliffhanger Restaurant, perched on the side of the highway right at the Twin Peaks/Lake Gregory turnoff.

There was a time, many moons ago, when Bob and I toodled up that highway to the strains of Led Zeppelin's 'In Through the Out Door' album on one of our first dates - a lovely picnic at Big Bear Lake. Another time, we traveled silently up for a weekend camping trip. We had just found out that I was pregnant, and had to make some fast, tough choices about our life together. We chose to face our parent's disapproval, get married sooner than we had planned, and start the family we had not yet decided to have. I have never regretted that decision. (The weekend was full of drama, and I'd gladly change THAt part of it.... it involved dropping our only set of car keys into the lake and having to call our parents to bring us a duplicate set. To say they were all not very happy is a massive understatement....)

As I stare at the landscape out there, at the winding ribbon of road climbing the brown hills, the blue sky and bright sunshine, I realize that life is a journey that often takes hairpin curves and circles back on itself. We follow a road that is undefined, and we revisit situations and locations quite often.

How many times before have I sat in hospitals with those I love? How many times have I hidden the worry and concern I feel, put on a brave face, and conversed with those people to distract them from their own fears? How many times as a grand daughter, daughter, mother, wife, and friend have I listened intently to the doctors rattle off medical terms and jargon, attempting to decipher their words and find understanding there?

Every visit brings back the ones before....
I am fifteen, and lying about my age to get into ICU to see my grandfather. SO glad I did that, as I never would have seen him again if I hadn't. He died the night before he was to come back home, while I was at my first Homecoming dance.
I am twenty one, giving birth to a child that I am told will not survive. Then I am coding, and neither of us is breathing. A wise RN is the only reason we both survived.

I am twenty four, and standing beside the recovery room bedside of my two year old daughter, who is not waking up after surgery to repair her shattered fibia bone after a horse riding accident. I am touching her and talking to her and pleading with God to let her come out of the anesthesia. She does. (And is very grumpy!)
I can't even count the number of visits to the ER with four children - and an accident prone husband!
I am forty, standing at the recovery room door waiting for  waiting for word that my hubby has come out of the anesthesia from his hand surgery.
I am forty two, standing outside of the hospital room that my grandmother is in. She is alseep, and looks like an angelic child with a slight smile on her face. I could not bring myself to wake her, so I kissed her cheek and whispered goodbye. I had to return to Seattle.... but didn't know that my words would actually be my last goodbye to her. She passed away a few days later.
I am forty two, sitting on a gurney as I hear the C word spoken to me by my doctor.
I am forty four, standing beside my daughter in a delivery room as the C section begins. She screams in pain, and I watch her eyes widen in fear. She is two years old all over again... a deft movement puts her under, and her son is placed in my arms.
Last year, I stood beside my daughter as she awakened from anesthesia after surgery. I didn't see a young adult lying there, I saw her as a small child. I guess all moms do that...

In all of these moments, I have experienced every emotion I can possibly think of. I was actually more calm when it was me as a patient than when it was loved ones. Over it all, there hovered a soft blanket of the knowledge that I am not alone, but am surrounded by the prayers, thoughts, and love of family & friends - including those who have gone on before. Love is a powerful thing, and it strengthens us as we face our fears and the worst things that life can hand us. Love is not bound by time or space or a body, it is carried by spirit to where it is needed. Then it carries us along, through the hard parts. It's the fuel that makes our life's journey possible....