Thursday, November 14, 2013

Life Lessons Month of November: Blog 3- Letters from Mom & Mimi


Dear Ellie,

Now I am by no means claiming any sort of creative title here but I do have some decorating advice for you, as we definitely had our fun remodeling our new house.  Despite being very pregnant when we moved in, I really enjoyed making the house our home.  Thankfully, I also got a lot of ideas and recommendations from your Dad, Mimi, and Aunt Joanne.   So here’s what I learned:  

Life Lessoned Learned #37: Making a house a home doesn’t have to be expensive and should reflect who you and your family are.

1.     Get artwork from family and friends.  Not only will those pieces become keepsakes, they give character and uniqueness to spaces.

2.     Frame a bulletin board.  It beautifully organizes a mess of all things that are important to you.  You and your brother are actually getting them in your room soon as well.  This way, you can save tickets, photos, and your schoolwork.  It’s constantly a changing piece of art and you can keep it current.

3.     Pick paint colors that look good with your skin tone and colors that you actually like (and would wear as clothes).  After all, it’s you who is going to spend the most time in your house and you want to feel good in it!  You know how I love all colors Ellie so our house is a rainbow… we have a purple room, blue room, green room, pink room, yellow room… but predominantly, our house is a sea blue and it’s so calming. 
4.     For your brother’s room, we went with the theme Goodnight, Gorilla (my favorite children’s book, which happens to be a picture book).  We bought a large hard-back copy, tore out the frame, and pasted it to different colors of backing (to which my Mom secured hooks so we could hang our favorite pages that tell most of the story).

5.     When I was looking for curtains that would go in the front of my house, I couldn’t find any I loved.  On the way out of one of the many stores I scoured, I walked by the bath section and I fell in love with a cloth shower curtain.  So I bought several of them, took them to my seamstress who secured the top for the rod and hung them in the dining room and your playroom.  Now I realize that the trend is to have long curtains to give the affect of higher ceilings but for the money I saved, I feel ok with going against that fashion.

6.     Finally, do what feels right for you.  Your Dad and I felt we needed to represent Kyle so we painted our guest room a bright green color and displayed some of our 5k memorabilia.  We both know he’s not really in there but it makes us feel good to know that he’s still a part of our family in spirit.

But most of all Ellie, what makes a house a home is love and we have a lot of that!  Now I’m sure your Dad could write a book on house projects involving refinishing, landscaping, and tools so for any of those projects, seek him out! 

I love you Bean!
Mom     

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