by Jen | Nov 11, 2013 | Life Reflections, Popular
World War 1 www.daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com
Vietnam ~ www.zocalopoets.com
Vietnam~ www.cherrieswriter.wordpress.com
www.militarytimes.com
It’s November 11th. (That’s 11-11.) If you are reading this at 11:11 (on 11/11) did you know that on this day at this hour in 1918 World War 1 formally ended?
Today is also Veterans Day, a day to say Thank You to all who served and serve in our military.
So on 11/11, Veterans Day, I’m thinking about how the Navy sent us to the US Army War College for 11 months. Not 12 months, not 10 months—11 months.
There’s got to be something to number 11. So I googled this 11 phenomenon. The word Synchronicity kept popping up. Apparently, when 11’s are involved repeatedly someone is trying to tell you something.
Synchronicity, according to wikepedia, is the experience of two or more events as meaningfully related, whereas they are unlikely to be casually related. The subject sees it as a meaningful coincidence, although the events need not be exactly simultaneous in time. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920s.
Jung was transfixed by the idea that life was not a series of random events but rather an expression of a deeper order. He also believed that synchronicity’s purpose was shifting a persons’s egocentric thinking to greater wholeness.
The whole essence of our US Military is sacrificing self for the greater good. I wonder if it is a coincidence that Veterans Day falls on 11/11? I wonder if it is a coincidence that World War 1 ended on 11/11 at 11:00?
I’m pausing here.
I’m from Michigan and I am pretty sure growing up that I probably never thought about what it meant to be in the military. Wars were a distant thing that had no bearing on me except in history books and “violent” movies. I suppose to give myself a little credit I recognized that our country’s freedoms were in a vague way tied to our country’s military past and present. But here’s the thing I wonder now…is that how the rest of the country sees it if they aren’t directly linked to a military member, their family, or a military town? What if you don’t read the paper/watch the news, you live far from any military base, and you aren’t related or know anyone in the armed services? If it’s not personal to you and you choose to not keep up with current events then wouldn’t it remain a vague notion? When the government shut down and we wondered if we would get a paycheck I thought about people, for example, living in Los Angeles or Hollywood, and wondering if this was just a vague news story to them. In 2006ish when the war in Iraq and the mess in Afghanistan resulted in more and more military being sent, deployments extended, and shore duty cut short I wondered this same thing again…have people “not involved” forgotten there was a war going on?
I have a clear image in my head of Jack Nicholson on the witness stand in A Few Good Men. He is giving his famous YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH speech and says “…but deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties-you need me on that wall”. Maybe it feels a little better to keep it vague because otherwise it feels too hard–and what can we really do?
Maybe it’s not vagueness maybe it’s avoidance? Maybe it’s too raw, too uncomfortable? I get that.
But there is something we can do, we can openly say Thank You. We can acknowledge. Thankful Thursday this week will be full of addresses just for this purpose.
It’s 11/11. That’s a lot of 1’s that add up to more than 1, more than ourselves.
This I really liked and it seemed very appropriate. 11 represents TRANSITION, OPENNESS, and TRANSFORMATION.
Have I mentioned it’s November 11th and I’m here in Army World via Navy World for 11 months? It’s a transition and a transformation. I’ll open up more about that later, maybe at 11 or on December 11th…In the meantime, watch this.
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.
None of us would be here without you. Thank you.
by Jen | Oct 28, 2013 | House Tours, Popular
The Munsters
You know I am hard pressed to figure out which house I could live in comfortably.
On one hand…
…the Addams family is quite wealthy. They have amenities, like Lurch, the butler. They have a large house–space to spread out. Morticia had a nice green house.
On the other hand, the Munsters seem to be a bit more “normal” than the Addams family, so less to worry about in the middle of the night? And Marilyn, she seemed nice…we could be friends. Although, there was Grandpa. He was a vampire–that kind of freaks me out. But back to their house…it seemed a bit cozier. No bed of nails. Just a dragon, that lived under the stairs…
Then again, on the OTHER hand…the Addams family seemed quite cultured. Lurch was always playing the organ. Morticia spoke french. I believe they liked Broadway and Hollywood…they had a show created after them and a movie.
I don’t know. What do you think?
Here are the outside of their houses:
The Addams Family House
The Munsters House
Master bedrooms:
The Addams Family Bedroom
The Addams Family Bedroom
The Munsters Bedroom
Living Rooms:
The Addams Family Living Room courtesy of Hooked on Houses
The Addams Family Living Room courtesy of Hooked on Houses
The Munsters Living Room
Pets:
The Addams Family Stairs courtesy of Hooked on Houses
The Munster’s Stairs
The Munster’s Living Room
Then I found this candid shot of them behind the scenes…totally going with the Munster family. Looks like so much fun!
Where would you choose?
by Jen | May 6, 2013 | Interior Decorating, Popular
So this is Bookshelves 201. If you are here and haven’t taken Bookshelves 101 that is fine. I really think next semester these two courses should be combined. I’m going to go over some important points to consider that are pertinent to 101 so you should be just fine. Just in case, here is the syllabus for 101, Styling Bookshelves for Normal People Part 1.
Important Points to Consider when Arranging Bookshelves/Built-Ins:
1. WHERE is it located? IMPORTANT. If it someplace you stare at all the time i.e. next to your TV, do not fill it with everything you own.
Just because you have it does not mean it needs to be displayed.
Just because it cost a lot of money does not mean you need to display it or keep it.
Just because it was a gift does not mean you need to display it and stare and it constantly (especially if you don’t like it.)
Just because you don’t know what to do with it does not mean it needs to be displayed, or kept.
Is it a relaxing room? Why are we staring a shelves full of work? Is it an office? Why are we staring at decorative objects when all of your “work” is piled on the floor and desk?
Is it a cluttered, “chock full of kid” room, busy hub of the house room? Visual Clutter, click here, for that syllabus. MINIMIZE THE CHAOS in bookshelves and built-ins in these rooms with books and one other simple category. Images with ideas following below.
2. What colors are in the room where the book-case or built-in is located? Use those colors when deciding how to tweak. Don’t bring in new colors. You want it look seamless in the room.
NEXT. A word or two about ARRANGING.
It’s all about balance. If something is big and heavy on one side….you need to balance it and have something big and heavy on the other side. Think of a see-saw. Balance. Same with the colors. Red on one side. Red on the other side.
Tall stack of books on one side. Tall something on the other. AND a good tip is to make sure everything is using about 2/3 of the vertical space of each shelf.
Ok here are some visuals:
Palette of the room is brown, yellow and blue. These are colors used in bookshelves. Vertical space of each shelf is almost to the “top”. Brown and white striped vases balance. Green, white, blue, and yellow vases offer consistency. Also, these vases give the eyes something to rest on–which helps it feel “not so busy”.
LOVE this. Pictures only on bottom shelves and middle. CONSISTENT. Easy. All dark books on top. Consistent. Easy.
White objects make up top shelf (main color in room), books 2nd and 3rd shelves, one object roughly the same size on bottom shelf. Easy. Consistent plan.
This is basically red, white and black. Books on bottom shelves…all horizontal. Picture frames on middle. They used a stack of books to raise one of the picture frames to fill space better. Picture frames match the color theme. And the contents of the bookshelves match the “sophistication” of the actual room. Baskets and plates for example would have looked wrong in this room.
Simple room. Simple shelves. Minimal. Minimal. Minimal. Matches the palette AND the tone of the room.
And there are always books. Just books. Pretty straightforward. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is what bookshelves are for.
This is fun. But you must have a lot of books. I’ve done this with clients and in my own home. Take off the book jackets. If you have a lot of books and you don’t care how they are organized this is not as difficult to achieve as it looks.
This one I just had to use. I think it looks nice but it falls into the category of BOOKSHELVES FOR NOT NORMAL PEOPLE. The thing that gets me is this is a KIDS room. Really? How confusing is this for a child? BUT it does look good for a magazine picture. One thing to note—it works because it is a monochromatic theme.
This was 201. Send me pictures of your class projects. In 301 we’ll be discussing the disillusionment of decorating pictures in catalogs.
by Jen | May 3, 2013 | Interior Decorating, Organizing, Popular
Pottery Barn
This is a tough one. I struggle with this too. How do you make built ins, shelves, bookcases look artfully arranged without looking “arranged”. It’s like that scenario where you spend 4 hours trying to look really good and when you arrive at said destination– “Oh this old thing? I just threw it on.” It’s the unwritten rule that unless it is for a grade, interview, etc…no one wants to look like they tried too hard.
So when I look at magazine pictures of bookshelves they all look so amazing and haphazard all at once.
Like this:
Pottery Barn
But really? Who has bins of…are those parchments?…lying around and books that all happen to match?
Hence the title of this post—How to Style a Bookshelf for Normal People.
You need to remember a few rules. Let’s keep it basic. Simple. When we have it mastered we will move on to “How to Style a Bookshelf for Extraordinay People Who Happen to Own Books that All Match…or Bins of Parchments”.
Rules:
This is Bookshelves 101. This is not 201, 301, or even the dreaded 501.
- First take a before picture of the situation.
- Then ask yourself do you like everything IN the bookshelf? If you do not remove those items.
- Is there a reoccurring element? Lots of picture frames? Baskets? Vases? A collection of…clay dinosaurs that your kids made? What else is similar? Do you like having this in the bookshelf? Do you WANT to look at it?
- This is the key: THERE MUST BE A THEME. That’s the secret.
Examples:
Books and Black Photo Boxes (multiple) and Pictures in Silver Frames.
Books and Square Baskets (multiple) and collection of Solid Color Ceramic Vases.
Books and Something Matching and Something Similar.
Books and Vases and Urns in similar colors (white, cream, blue).
Books and Small Framed Kids Artwork (multiple) and Wooden Boxes.
Books and Category and Category
- Now take everything out of bookshelves and group items into your 3 categories.
- BIG HINT: COLOR IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER.
Books and BLACK boxes and consistent SILVER picture frames.
Books and Matching Color and Something with Similar Colors (Pick 2 or 3 TOPS)
NOW Look at these Pictures:
Theme is Cream and White with Vessels. Only colors are Cream/Brown, White, Grey/Blue and a little Black.
Can you figure out the Theme?
These are JUST Books. That is the Theme. Every shelf is full and about the same height. Visual Consistency.
I think you got this.
- Now with whatever you have culled into THREE CATEGORIES of items you like and WANT to see…start putting things in.
Build each shelf the same height as the one above/next to/below. Again look at the pictures.
If you are having trouble–stick it in the best you can and take another picture and compare. Any better?
It’s a start. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN IMPROVE THIS. Can you spray paint all the picture frames so they match? Can you go to the store and buy matching….black boxes? Can you take off the book jackets? Can you arrange the books by color? Do you need more books for this to work?
Make a list. Buy the spray paint. Look for orange whatevers. Pick something new if you don’t have any reoccurring anything…Globes, parchments..?
Part 2 Coming Next…Help with Arranging or 201.
by Jen | Apr 9, 2013 | Life Reflections, Popular
I swear to you every word I am about to utter is true. THIS my friends is why I started to blog—waiting for this very moment. Now most of the time when truth is stranger than fiction I cannot share it. It involves other people’s stories—and while their stories might prove to be EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING as it relates to me, it is not my place to divulge. So family, friends, and clients know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
But today a stranger was involved and all bets are off.
Today was an ordinary day. I went to the paint store. I wanted to check out their scratch and dent paint—yes that is a real thing. I get out of the car and walk through the parking lot. The rest of this story will now just be flashes of images, chaotic and confusing.
A woman is walking through the parking lot with a can of paint and a dog. Why she had a dog with her continues to haunt me. Was it a service animal? Does she think this is Paris? Who takes their dog with them to the paint store? Are dogs allowed in paint stores? Anyway, these are questions that stay with me—still.
The dog moves quickly in front of the lady jerking her leash. The woman jerks to the other side. At this point I don’t know what is going on. We are both walking through the same empty parking spot. She is far from me but suddenly too close. The lady rights herself, the dog runs the other way, and the lady trips. Her can of paint is uncovered. The quart of paint she carries has no lid. If I write it again in another way will it then make sense? Why was she walking through the parking lot with a dog and an UNCOVERED CAN OF PAINT? The paint dumps. Obviously. On me.
Again. Flashes. Images. I don’t understand. I can’t explain any of it. I pray I don’t have to go into a court room and be drilled because I. AM. STILL. SO. CONFUSED.
Now this lady runs back to her car and hands me a napkin. A napkin. Really? It’s a beverage napkin.
I am like the scene from the Sistine Chapel where God and Adam are about to touch fingers. The woman extends the napkin towards me– I reach out to receive it wondering if one small white napkin will suffice for a quart of paint now dripping down my lower body…And it all makes complete sense. There must be hidden cameras. Candid Camera? Ellen Degeneres?
So now I don’t know what to do. I am not self conscious because there is paint ALL OVER ME I am worrying about what to do in front of national television. I don’t want to let on that I know–that would be boring tv. Do I make a scene? How does my hair look? Do I hug the woman and spread the paint on this prankster? And when did I last put on lipstick? I can’t get any further in this thought process as she suggests we go into the paint store and see what they have to clean me up. Ok. Got it. This is where they will reveal themselves. This is where I will see Ellen.
The paint store is crowded. They do not appear interested in my plight. The woman wants to know if they can match the color that I am wearing. I am given 3 large trash bags to drive home with. The lady leaves. I am left in the parking lot.
I put on a trash bag around my left leg and then one on my right leg. I put the third on the seat. I drive home.
