Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Maybe I never thought about it in this way before, but one thing struck me today: there are two kinds of objects that I have in literally every room of my house. I carefully verified and it's true. I have at least one mirror and one clock in every room. It may sound strange but I'm not vain at all, I don't need to look myself in the mirror often – on the contrary, as time and life start to show in my face I'd rather skip the mirror -  no surprise there.

I try to understand why I need a mirror of some kind in any room. Is it for decorative purposes? Is it to reflect the light? In Feng Shui mirrors should have the effect to double in real life what reflects in them: food, money, flowers...so one should choose very carefully the place to hang a mirror. I'm not really following that advice but I do mind what reflects in a mirror.

What I know for sure is that I love to check briefly several times in the mirror as I prepare for work in the morning. This starts right in the bedroom: what do I look like today? Restful? Tired? Do I have to work hard to make myself presentable? It continues in the bathroom where I put my day cream and my make up. Then when I dress I also check for flaws, on me or on the clothes. And just before I get out of the house, one last check...you never know. And I said I'm not vain? Hm, got to think about this...

And what's with the clocks? Even in the bathroom? I simply need them to reassure me in the morning as I am navigating trough the house and preparing for work. I have my little routine and clock checking is part of it. Yeah, but why am I checking the clock even on weekends? I guess I always need some “time orientation” even if it's not for work.

The worst of all, and I'm going to be very embarrassed now, I put a clock on the wall on the exterior of my house in the summer, on the patio to be more precise. What should you think of that? But that's not all. Guess what hangs on the same wall over the clock? Little round ornate decorative mirror! Go ahead, shoot me...What's with you? Do you have some must-have objects in every room of your apartment / house? Mind to share?

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Yellow My Love !

I always loved yellow, since I was a little kid. This color cheers me up and makes me happy instantly no matter where I see it. Yellow brings sun and light in your life and home but it also attracts regards wherever you put it. Warning: this color isn't for the Faint of Heart, you must be a very special person to love it and use it. There you go blue-lovers !

For more inspiration in yellow you can visit my album 'Yellow My Love'

Yellow My Love !

Salvation Art

I had an opportunity, completely involuntarily and independently of my will, to build and rebuild what is going to be my home three times in my life. And when I'm talking about building a home, I'm not talking about building a fancy house with an architect and a designer on my side. I'm talking about building a feeling of home after having lost it once for historical reasons and another time for political reasons. I promise I'll explain it all to you one day when I'm ready.
My first home was a very humble rental, I can remember exactly how it was furnished and decorated, but at that time it didn't matter at all. What did matter was that I was madly in love with my husband and so over happy to live with him under one roof after four years of being together. Then we had our first child and two years later our second. I still remember how impatient I was to fill that fourth chair around our little table.
Our happiness was brutally interrupted by an (now) historical event in 1992 and we were forced to leave our home with nothing but our lives - yes, we were lucky.
Then we were installed in Germany for six and a half years, working hard to build from scratch a sense of home for children, to protect them and to give them them a happy life. Tragically, for the political reasons this time, in 1998 we were not allowed to stay in Germany any longer  and we were forced to search for a new country to call home.
Since 1998, we have been living in Canada. It wasn't easy at all, starting a new life from scratch again, learning a new language, a new culture, having to acclimate to the new weather conditions. But from the first day on, I continued to dream about building a home for my little family, I wanted my children to be able to play in their own yard. We started by learning a language first (French, imagine!) then finding a job and saving every penny in order to realize our dream. It took us six years, many sleepless nights and lots of tears to get there. I didn't know we could be so strong...
A hell of an introduction for what I was going to show you today! I can't change it, it's my life...
I thought often about things that make me, make us feel home. Each time when I was confronted with an empty space, aside from getting the basic furniture, I went and bought large plants and art for our walls. This two elements gave me instantly the feeling that I was already there for a long time.
Arriving in Quebec, Canada, I discovered the Salvation Army shops and, to my surprise, I was able to find many original paintings and prints for a couple of dollars only! And so I started my Salvation Art collection that didn't stop to grow since.

This was my first one. It's an original print named "Flammes" ('Flames' in English), 4/5 prints signed by an artist named Marc Martel in 1972. I really liked it so I readily payed 19$ for it even if the glass was broken.

I still like it very much. It hangs in my dining room with two other pieces. I'll continue to present you the rest of my Salvation Art originals collection. Many of the pieces that I found are made by renowned artists and are worth much, much more than I payed for them.

Salvation Art

Severe case of color craving...

... or how else to explain my constant desire to see more bold colors around me and on me too. I have to say that even if I never really was I gray mouse in a large sense of the word, bold colors never were an option when choosing clothes for me, paint for my walls or even just little decoration objects like vases, pictures etc. The only exception to the rule was the wall we built in our new house in 2005 that I decided to paint gorgeous velvety dark red:

 I was literally in love with this wall for months because of its color and I looked forward to get home each day after work to enjoy it, my first wall in color ever! But then, about two years ago I suddenly, and irresponsibly, decided to buy a pink shirt for me. And I'm already a little far from twenties if you must know. Anyway, I surprised myself by this choice and apparently the people who know me were surprised too, judging by the comments of my children, my husband (are you sure you want to wear THIS color?), colleagues (hey, how surprising, looks nice on you, you should be wearing these colors more often...). And from this moment on I somehow started to by green, purple, red clothes and to mix them with my more neutral wardrobe (lots of black of course, brown and gray...no blue) And I could swear those colors changed not only my looks, they influenced my behavior also. I started to feel more perky, energized and, why not, younger too. And just when I thought it was over, it started to get over to my house. I suddenly found myself taking home loads of paint chip samples from hardware stores, looking trough inspirational pictures everywhere, from books through magazines to the Internet. And finally this week I started to treat my color deficiency with a heavy dose of bright, glossy cardinal red:

The color is of course even more beautiful than on the photo, I think I'm not so good yet with my camera and light. This is a little piece of furniture that I bought at Salvation Army for my entry area but it looked quite blah when I placed it against the, you guessed, beige wall. Originally it was grayish beige-white:

And as I looked around to find an idea I saw my new red love: Kitchen Aid mixer that my children gave me as present for my important (ahem) birthday. I knew instantly, it has to be red! I gave it two coats of paint and it became hot and sexy at once:

Not the best photo but I have to learn how to make good digital photos with a crappy camera...I'll let it dry one more day before adding a bowl for keys and change and other necessary stuff.

So, isn't it obvious that I have to continue the treatment with some other color doses? More about it in the tomorrow's post.

Viva la Color Revolution! 

Severe case of color craving...

First Snow

Don't you think first snow is always beautiful? I still can't believe it's not icing sugar (see? icing, made from ice) carefully spread allover in the night by Snow fairy. When  I was little, it rarely snowed in my city. And if, the sparely white flakes melted  floating  in the air before they touched the ground. I was often disappointed and I dreamed of a day when it will be snowing so much I could go out with my spoon and eat all of it...

Yeah, I remember the time when I was excited about the first snow of the season after I moved with my family to another  part of my country with more white goodness to enjoy. Well, not anymore since I live in Canada and we have tons and tons and tons of snow every winter till may. Now I need something bigger then spoon, say shovel! We have so much snow each year that it would kill the excitement of any winter lover in the first winter. Well, maybe in the second... Nuff said !

And even if I'm not really winter lover anymore, I anticipate with joy beautiful things that come with it. Cocooning is one of them. Nobody speaks of it any more,  it isn't "in" anymore but it is surely one of the reasons I can survive winter here without going nuts. Let's see: you take a basket, you throw in a nice warm blanket and a pair of hand knitted socks, couple of nice books or magazines (deco thingies, hmmm) and you cuddle on the sofa with a cup of coffee or tee, watching the snow flakes dancing in the wind...

First Snow

My finger in the ocean

I would like to share with you the journey from house to home, stories from my life, my little and big loves...

My finger in the ocean