Everyone is born with creativity. But those people who appear to be super creative have a secret. They know that creativity has to be developed and exercised to come easily. I am on a quest to immerse myself in creativity of all kinds. I hope you will join me!

Are you at the point in your life yet, where you have begun to think about what kind of legacy you will leave behind? I think about it sometimes. I don't have children, and that is the legacy that most people leave. I don't have a pile of money, so I can't leave behind the International Divine Design foundation.

Two things happened this week that made me think about it. My neighbor died. She was very old, with a bad heart. She still lived alone. She had no family, her only daughter died some years ago. It was a weird feeling watching another neighbor haul all of her belongings out onto the driveway and sell them in a yard sale.

It made me think about all of the stuff I like to surround me, to save in case I need it, to make my life easier. Is there really a point to having so much stuff?

And today, I was surfing and read this obituary. It is impressive to me, and I realized that what people think of me now, is how I will be remembered. Am I good with that? 

It sure gives me food for thought, not seasoned with Vitamin C.......

 I am starting to work on my Divine Design project. One of the first things I do is to select a color palette for the room. Then if everything falls within the palette, I can be assured that it will tell a story, create a mood, and not have clashing issues.


So, considering we are doing a women's shelter, I wanted something a bit feminine, but not overtly so.


 I pin color palettes that I like on a Pinterest board. So, of course, that is one of my sources when thinking about color. I started with the upper left palette. Green and turquoise are my fav colors. But not only that, they are calming, especially when used as a color palette, analogously. That means to use several colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. A calm feeling is important for this project because we are doing a dining room for 50 people, half of whom are children. 


Notice, there is pink in most of the palettes pinned to my board. The pink family you see here is the color of the year for 2011. 


I don't feel the need to be super trendy in room design, but if you keep to the trends somewhat, it makes it easier to buy things to go in the room. Besides, everyone looks better in a pink room.  Not kidding. Pink also evokes a feeling of unconditional love and nurturing...according to color psychologists. That seems a good color for a shelter where abused women live.


We will not be painting the walls pink, but we will use it as an accent. Maybe pink tablecloths, something like that. Our color palette is on the left side of the top photo. We will paint the walls in the color range of the bottom four color chips.  Soothing, calming. 


Take your Vitamin P!
Where will you use pink today?

Yesterday was Christmas in Action by the City of Canton, and Divine Design participated. We were assigned two rooms in one of the ten houses they worked in.  Homes and homeowners are selected by needs, financial and otherwise. Our homeowner was delightful and we enjoyed meeting and getting to know her yesterday.

This was our first one day job. There was a lot we wanted to do in those two rooms with minimal time and minimal finances.  I spent my budget on art, but we needed more. Luckily, I had a 25% off coupon on the day canvases were 50% off.

I asked for volunteers to make art and got terrific projects!

Project #1: three 12" x 12" canvases. The girls painted them brown.


 Then Mod Podged sheets of cut out scrapbooking paper to the fronts. So easy and very inexpensive.

 They look great on the green wall next to a new black chair. Perfect!

 Project #2: Paper covered switch cover, cost $2. And it is custom made. Nobody else has one like it!  Just Mod Podge paper to the cover. So easy.

 Project #3: Complements to a large canvas. We had with three 8" x 8" canvases. One was decoupaged with fabric.

 The other two were simply painted with craft acrylics, one with the homeowner's initial and the other with some swirls.  We used the color palette in the large painting so everything was tied together.

 Project #4: I found these 6" canvases in the clearance bin for 50 cents each. We already had scrapbooking paper in the right palette and some Mod Podge. Put it all together.........

They make a nice little bit of color right over the desk.

To see the before and after pics of our two rooms, see the Divine Design blog.

Just took a big lack of funds and a little Vitamin C!

Ikea lamp commercial from Rob Sbaglia on Vimeo.

It is getting to be that season and Divine Design is doing its first project this year on April 30.  

I found this video today on Young House Love. It made me howl because many times we have had home/room owners who go into absolute panic when we remove something for an upgraded counterpart. It can sometimes even be non functioning and we are not allowed to throw it away.

It is true that sometimes people who do not have much, or who have really struggled to acquire things, even if they are hideous, broken, and don't work right, turn into hoarders. It is understandable and we have much patience with that mindset. After all, we are there to encourage, not stress out.

Even so, this ad made me laugh and wish I could have a hat with a video screen on it, and I would play this commercial on a loop while at the project site.  I would probably get boo-ed out of the place, wouldn't I?

Never mind, I watched it twice and enjoyed it both times.
Take your Vitamin C!