Perspectives

Have you ever thought about the rituals you live with everyday? You wake up, roll over the same way, get outa bed, do your 'morning stuff' (restroom, etc)..stumble to the kitchen, let out the dogs, make the coffee, sit in the same chair, check your email with your coffee....You know what I mean. This goes on every day, all day long until you go to sleep. For the most part, you take the same path through your house over, and over and over.

This morning I happened to sit in a different chair at the kitchen table than usual, because I was trying to avoid the hot sun which was coming in the slider door. I know it sounds trivial. But from this angle, my kitchen takes on a different look. It's actually really interesting. I can see the shelves above my counters and the collections of blue mason jars when the morning sunlight hits them....From here I can see the front door down the hall, and the wonderful warm, deep red it's painted. I love that color. I just have a little different view of my house. I was just recently thinking that my decor was looking a bit stale and that I might have to change things...until I sat in a different spot!

I have a bad habit of getting bored quickly with the way my house is decorated. This started way back when I was about ten. I had been going to auctions with my mom since I was teeny and I was always surrounded by antiques and old stuff. My mom always had a subscription to Country Living magazine and I loved looking through old issues. It was around 10 that I decided my room needed COUNTRY.

God love my mom. She never cared if went down to the basement or garage and dragged stuff she didn't have room for up to my room. She's always embraced my decorating hobby, even when I was that young! Once I decided to do a 50s theme in my room after I watched the movie, "Peggy Sue Got Married." I pulled up an old record player and a stack of records; found my old pair of saddle shoes to set out; hung up my mom's pennants from high school (she graduated in '57); it was fun. From there, the decor just went farther and farther back in time. I saved up babysitting money to buy a Victrola for my room and started to collect 78s. Mom let me use some of her old quilts for my bed (at one point in a cold winter, I had seven of them piled up on my old iron bed, which also came from auction.) Not long after that, I thought I should take pictures of my vignettes. Somewhere in a box I still have a stack of photos from back then, of all the different ways I decorated my room. (Come to think of it, I think that made me a nerd back then!) Once, I actually had my parents make one whole wall a mural of a woods (it was a wallpaper mural). Then I had green carpet (to resemble grass) and pale yellow walls (to mimic soft sunlight.) This was about middle school age. I found a cassette tape that was of nature sounds. I put it in a tape player that plugged into an outlet which was controlled by the light switch near the door of my room. Every time I walked into my room, I'd flick the switch, and immediately hear distant birds, water trickling from a creek and a breeze through trees. I thought that was brilliant, to go with the giant mural on the wall. Well, my friends quickly got tired of my nature sounds. Someone stole that tape and I still to this day do not know where it ended up. I guess other 12 year olds just didn't understand interior decorating.

But every three months or so, I'd get bored and start moving furniture. That part would make my parents looney. They always worried about me hurting myself. Or the drywall (which I did a couple of times.) I have had a severe allergy to dust my whole life so during these big "changes" I was sneezing my head off for days and then zoning out on allergy meds. But in the end, my room was awesome! And since then, it's been that way. Although, I try to wait longer than three months now that I have an entire house and not just one room to switch around. I do have stacks of primitives in the garage (that drive Husband crazy) and in the barn (Lord only knows what's out there ) that I can't stand the thought of getting rid of, because I might need them on a whim at some point when I get an idea to redo a room. Anyway, even back then as a kid, I remember standing on a chair in a corner of my room to look at it from a different angle. This would inspire me to spruce up a corner or a shelf I may not have noticed while sitting on my bed. And this morning, those ideas all came flooding back when I sat in a different kitchen chair.

Today I am appreciating some antiques I forgot I had. I am staring at things around my house that I am so thankful to have. (Especially after a trip to an antique mall yesterday where I saw prices on pieces that would out of sight---makes me come home and REALLY appreciate what I have now that they charge so much at shops for the same things! ;-) So I challenge you to sit in a different chair. Walk a different path through your home....try to see things a little differently today. You might really enjoy it!