Note the Beauty Around You

I got a little surprise when I entered my fifteen year old son's room last night . It was way past both of our bed times and he was in in his room still "working on homework" or so I thought. Upon walking into the room, I was greeted by a young man who was not doing his homework but sitting on his bed playing something on his phone...a common occurrence these days it seems. I took the phone away, as per house policy, as I shot some parting words about responsibility etc.

As I walked into my bedroom to call it a night, I glanced down at the phone as I put it on the table next to my bed. Fully anticipating a screen shot of one of the hand held games I was sure he was playing, I was taken aback to see that on the screen was this photo of icicles hanging off of the front of our house. 

I scrolled back and next in line was this photo of our dog Murphy at the edge of the pond as it was  snowing.

Then another one, which had obviously been edited. The aforementioned fifteen year old boy has always loved to take pictures and we have lost him in many a crowd when on family vacations as he stops to snap away while we are all walking away.

As I scrolled through his pictures I was struck by how he has been taking shots of the world around him...the beautiful world around him. 

The scenery in each photo was even more beautiful than I remembered it to be on that first heavy snow fall that we had this winter. It stuck to everything for it was a heavy one. One in which I remember being so thankful that it was not a large amount for that would have brought some of these beautiful branches down.

Yes, he is very blessed to have these snow covered vistas surrounding him but I feel that I am even more blessed that he is taking note of them.

After all...he is a fifteen year old male teenager...tough to sometimes get them to talk about what they are feeling or experiencing.

It warmed my heart that in his moments of silence with us...

 he is not immune to the beauty around him.

Now if he would only do his homework tomorrow that is due next week...

all would be right with the world.

That is way too much to ask for!

May your tomorrow be filled with beauty!

~Meg

There's Something About a Snow Day...

Have you ever walked outside after a snowstorm and listened to the world around you? That is, after you get the 5:30 am phone call on your home phone, then your cell phone, then your husband's cell phone...telling you that there is a snow day. Forget going back to sleep especially if you have kids in different schools.

When you head outside there is a calmness that seeps through you. All you can hear is the crunch of your own footsteps while you survey the whitened landscape. Almost like the calmness that pervades your household with the unexpected luxuriousness of a morning whose start is not heralded by the calls of, "Hurry up! You're going to miss the bus." And then, "I mean it, I am not taking you to school IF you miss the bus." And then, "Hurry up, get in the car!"

The snow piled up while you were sleeping and now you get to drop everything because your kids are now home from school. You call into work or rearrange your To Do List of all that you were going to accomplish today. You put it aside and you live in the moment. What a great moment.

A moment where you are forced to slow down...

to make homemade chicken noodle soup...

to play like you are a little kid again...

to enjoy a decadent hot drink...

to lay in the snow and...

look at things from a different perspective.

You end the day in front of a fire, laughing about the high jinks of the day...

and you go to sleep dreaming that you could do it all over again.

There's something about a snow day...

Meg

Calendar Pages

2014 is upon us and our path of days that seem to move by way too quickly have entrenched themselves into our year...yet again! Where are you with all those New Year's Resolutions that you made? I know that I am doing better with some than with others. It is a fact that we call January 1st the start of  the NEW Year. 

 It is a new year but it is so much more than that. It is so very symbolic. We engage in all sorts of activities that entrench that symbolism into our consciousness. First, we welcome in the new year with parties and celebrations.We write off the past year and think, "Awesome! I have another whole year to do things differently, to do things better, to make improvements where they are needed...this is the year for great change," ...and then we do it all again next year and make all the same "resolutions."

For those of you who are tried and true paper calendar lovers, we buy a new one or restock new pages into our day planners. As I partook in that occurrence this year, the thought struck me of how this physical act of taking out the OLD pages and putting in the NEW kind of cements this thought process. With each new page that I clipped in, the thought that I can re do each day again jumped off those pages. As I wrote dates into the calendar thoughts flew through my head like:

This year I will:

~Keep better track of buying and sending cards and gifts...on time

~Get to the gym on a more regular basis

~Make more dates to spend time with family and friends

~Be more prepared in the months before a sale/show so I am not spending all nighters way too frequently (I am getting too old for that)

~I will blog more frequently and chronicle the projects that I am working on better

~Those family nights that we talk about all the time will be scheduled more often

~Decorate for Christmas earlier and take the Christmas card photo NOW so as to have a hope to get the cards out on time

~Go to church as a family more often

The list and thoughts fly through my mind more quickly than I can process them.

What resonated more deeply this year though, was the thought that I am grateful to HAVE these days to DO again!! Sounds corny, but I am here, I am alive. The fact that I CAN do all of this again is a blessing indeed and one that I want to grab onto more firmly this year than any other.

As we age, our parents age, people we know and love face health challenges, some win them...some lose them. 

This simple act of loading calendar pages struck a chord this year...a deep one.

A connection to that chord is what spearheaded Chris and I last year to launch Exclaim Your Life! 

This year, the chord will dig deeper into that topic.

We held our first retreat in November and we were thrilled by its reception! 75 women joined us that cold November day.  Chris and I learned so much from the experience, the women who attended (thank you!) and from those tid bits of knowledge and comments we received about the day. We are excited to be moving forward with more events, workshops and retreats in 2014 to help women experience and live life with an exclamation point!!! 

For those of you who missed it, here are some shots of what we did that day and what it looked like.

The event was held in both the upper and the lower barn. We had a beautiful sunny day although a bit cold!

The upper barn made a great spot for our guests to listen to the presenters. 

Agendas, notepads and pens were placed on each chair, just in case one wanted to "take note."

NBC News reporter and author, Lu Ann Cahn opened up the morning with a fabulous presentation chronicling her book, I Dare Me, which was due to be released two days after our event. In her book, she talks about a year long challenge that she instituted herself, for herself,  to step outside of her comfort zone each and every day to participate in one new thing. By taking chances and getting outside of what made her comfortable the year long experiment reinvigorated her life.

She graciously had copies with her that you could purchase and she could autograph. All the proceeds were donated to Living Beyond Breast Cancer. Lu Ann is a two time cancer survivor and that organization is near and dear to her heart. Since it was near and dear to her heart, it became so for us  and we donated a portion of the ticket price to her charity as well.

The purpose of the day was to reach out to women and get them thinking about how they can live their lives with an exclamation point; go after those ideas that are swirling around in your head, look for a purpose and fulfill a long neglected passion. Wow! Lots to talk about in an afternoon! Given that, we gave an introduction to those ideas and then launched into talks about nutrition, fitness and beauty given by three different experts in these areas. The mind and the body are inexorably linked; what one does to one part, affects the other, and vise versa.

Of course, Life's Patina would never do something that did not involve creativity or doing something with your hands!

We set up craft tables and challenged the women to "try something new" sticking with the theme that Lu Ann presented.

Many of the women had never heard of or used Modge Podge before but they were a quick study and they created personal clip boards with a strip of chalk paint on the bottom where they could write their name, quote or inspirational word. They could then clip their notepad to it and write notes to themselves of how they were going to live life with an exclamation point!

Aren't they beautiful?

Of course another element that Life's Patina would never neglect to have at such an event would be great food! We worked with Loraine Houston, a dear friend who owns Loraine Houston Catering to come up with a menu that would fit both our nutritional target and be delicious. She succeeded!  

 The menu fell right in line with the Fall season as well as the decor. I have to admit, that my absolute favorite part of the whole event was creating the special places that the women would be spending their day in. I wanted them to feel pampered, to feel special. We used beautiful old chairs to raise elements of the buffet, burlap and art inspired paper table runners. 

We used a color scheme of black, tan, pale green and cream using items that we carry at the barn sales.

We gathered chairs that we also carry at the sales and brought in many from my own house. Love the look of mismatched chairs!

We tied printed quotes around each napkin and stuck them in the flower arrangements that we made from hydrangeas and cream roses. The quotes were taken from famous women who spoke to the strength of women and their inspiration. (The quotes were also hung on the tree branches on the buffet table)

Flavored waters and ice tea rounded out the delicious luncheon and of course...

desserts were the encore.

All in all, it was a day that spoke of beauty... both externally and internally!

We are so excited to invite you to put our next Exclaim Your Life Event on your calendar page. This workshop will be a more intimate setting utilizing only the lower level of the barn due to the wintry cold that has filled the upper level. It will highlight small groups with the same attention to detail that makes every Life's Patina Event unique.

Would love to see you give yourself some lovin for Valentine's Day 2014!

Yours truly and in homage to paper calendars~

Meg

Design Inspiration in Atlanta

If it exists...they say, then you can find it at the Atlanta International Home and Gift Show. We just got back home from a power trip there where we explored three buildings of almost twenty stories each in two and half days. Each floor had its own personality or rather each vendor had its own personality...and then some!

You really have to have your wits about you before you set out on this journey. There is no time for small talk and no time to oh and ah over items. In and out, we like to say, snapping pictures as we go, taking notes of what we might like to order to come back the next day and do so. Our meals we grabbed at the free offerings of nibbles that many exhibitors offered and our nights were spent tucked in our beds, computers on our laps, inventory and ordering sheets spread out along with the cumbersome catalogs. At one point we looked at each other and declared how lame we were! Away in Atlanta... to be holed up in our room at night, furiously trying to accomplish all that we could in these precious few days before we would fly back home to take care of all that we missed while away.

We were invigorated and enthused to order for the Spring and Summer Sales for 2014 with some of the beautiful merchandise that we saw. We like to supplement the antiques, refurbished items and one of a kind pieces that are our mainstay with some new designs that fit into our repertoire.

We also like to see the trends...just so we know what we are bucking!

Only joking...kind of... sort of. Some we have already been doing ourselves and we did not even know that we were trending.

(notice the fleur de lis at the top of the centerpiece from our Christmas sale)

We saw them everywhere!

In wood...

for the garden...

long stretched out varieties that were covered in bright flocking...

and metal ones.

Paper items and

books and journals were also seen in almost every designers showroom.

High backed sofas were hot...

and so were arms and legs...

which we think not!

Animal heads seemed to be all the rage...

but the only places we could think of to put these ones...

was back in their cage!

These little guys were cute, but we did not succumb.

What to do with a little guy wrapped in a leaf???  made our brains dumb.

Pardon my rhyming, but we often resorted to tactics such as these, so as not to break out in laughter when speaking with a rep while gazing upon such objects.

Ah yes...Mr. Owl's place still has not been usurped. He stands tall and proud amidst all the mirth.

We know that there must be new designs and concepts every year to keep things exciting and interesting. It is that way in fashion as well but I have never been into what's hot just because it is new and outlandish. It seems like they are trying just a little bit too hard. 

We experienced this first hand at the W Hotel we were staying at. I have never been a huge fan of that spin off from the 

Westin. I know... it is the cooler hip version of it's sister hotel but again it eeks of trying a little bit too hard to be edgy and trendy. Turquoise doors with red trim should have warned us of the interior. Flowered upholstered chairs, with deer HEAD pillows of which the back of a nude woman hung above clustered with two other paintings that had no similarities what so ever. Add to that a bathroom where the sink was next to the bed and the sliding door into the bath room was clothed not in wood or metal but a sheer rice paper material. Call me an old stodgy lady but give me the Westin or the Hampton Inn for that matter (love that chain!) This experience did prove that there is something for everybody!

Really cool table base

There was tons of inspiration to be had and you just might see some of that inspiration in some of the items that we are working on for the Spring and Summer Sales. This is our time of year to dream up those concoctions and ideas and bring them to fruition so check back to see the list of upcoming events and dates that will be posted by the end of the week. 

You might not want to miss some of them!

Happy mid January to you all!

Meg