This will be my Life

“I am going to make everything around me beautiful – that will be my life.” – Elsie De Wolfe

My passion is to make everything around me beautiful…that IS my life.  I’m driven by the excitement of designing something beautiful or transforming something old and giving it new life.  There is nothing that gives me more satisfaction than making a beautiful space.  Creating at atmosphere.  Making people feel special and blessed because their surroundings are calm and beautiful.  I love the idea of transporting others from reality to fantasy and I do that in my designs and creative re-creation of spaces.  My goal:  to make others feel safe and loved and relaxed.  I have succeeded if I invite someone to a space that they don’t want to leave – they want to stay all day.

This philosophy transfers over into my home.  I try to create lovely, beautiful spaces that sooth, heal and calm.  Since I am not a person that has the privilege of shopping at high end home decor and furniture boutiques, I create my own beauty.  I take that old chair and I recover it or slipcover it with gorgeous or whimsical fabric that I fetched out of the bargain bin at the local fabric retailer. I paint what I love on canvas to match my decor or just to satisfy my whimsy.  I give old cushions new life by make slipcovers for them.  I’m all about the flowers. As Monet has been quoted “I must have flowers, always, always and always”.  That sentiment resonates with me to my core. I am always intrigued at how wallpaper can transform a room and atmosphere.  I have been known to change my decor with the seasons.  Guilty.  I don’t want to be sitting in a red velvet chair with red taffeta floor length curtains soaking up the warmth from the fireplace in July.  That is absolutely perfect for December and January.  But come summer I want to be surrounded by flowers and aqua glass with sunlight streaming in the windows and so…. I switch things out.  I slipcover those red velvet chairs with cream colored drop cloths from the local hardware store.  Neutralize everything and add flowers.  I’ve been known to fetch armoires out of ditches and paint them up, give them vintage ceramic rose pulls and put them to good use again.  If not useful, at the very least beautiful.

I do not follow the rules when it comes to art, creation and design.  I am a ‘follow the rules’ person in most every other area of my life so my creative side is quite a bit more adventurous. I’m kind of a ‘if at first you don’t succeed, go back and read the instructions” kind of gal regarding art and creativity.  When it comes to art and design I am a visionary.  I picture what it is I want to create and move forward until I have reached that end.  I’ll admit, sometimes I have had to go back and read the instructions but I have learned so much from these experiences.   As far as creating and decorating go, be it for a theme party or my home, the sky’s the limit.  I know what I want to create and I reach for the stars.  Sometimes I am unable to pull off everything I had imagined, due to time constraints, finances or reality but no one is ever any the wiser because they do not know what I had cooked up in my mind’s eye.  Sometimes, as it turns out, less is more.

My reveals are the baring of my soul to the world.  And I know now, after much deliberation and a series of unfortunate events, that I am only truly alive when I am creating.  When I am making beauty.  When I am transforming old to new.  Aged and worn out to beauty.   So I have decided to reach out to the world and offer my creative skills to help you create beauty in your spaces as well.