I love making my home beautiful. From the time I was a little girl, I would rearrange the furniture in my room for fun, and spend time creating works of "art." I also spent a lot of my time writing in a journal, creating simple poetry, and I just enjoyed the writing and documenting life process. I still do enjoy keeping a record of life, which is why I want to try and do better at it again!
Life for me lately has been a lot of home improvement projects. That has meant a LOT of painting! The home I moved into about 4 years ago had walls that were all the same color -- a sort of pale yellow/brown. My goal has been to make the house my own... one wall at a time. It has been a process, but it has been good. The more I make the home my own, the more I feel like myself again. My home and I have been growing, changing, and "becoming" together.
For me, my home feels like an extension of who I am. If you walk into my home, I want you to feel the love I put into it, as an extension of my love. I am creating beauty, warmth, and coziness for my own enjoyment, and for my family; but I also just want to provide a place that feels cozy and welcoming for all who enter. I have had a few experiences recently with sister missionaries coming over, and they just sink in and relax into my cozy couch, while giving a little lesson -- moments like that make me feel like I have done my job well.
My goal is for people to be able to RELAX, feel loved, and be peaceful in my home. That is the opposite of how my home felt during my second marriage, that ended in divorce out of necessity. I still cannot believe I let an influence into our sacred home that caused so much damage, to me, and my children. But, that is not how we are living now at home. My home is a sanctuary of beauty, light, and love for my family again. Thank the heavens! Divorce was 1000% the right thing to do, to bring peace back into my home and family. I never thought that would be part of my life's story, especially after experiencing widowhood, too! But, it is, and oh the lessons (hard lessons) I have learned from it!
Please take it from me... just LISTEN TO YOU GUT when you feel something is off. And never listen to the LONELY or DESPERATE places in your heart, that cause you to allow people in -- who have no right to even step over the threshold into your precious home and family. I have learned that people can be skillfully deceiving, and that they can be so ON PURPOSE. Use the power of discernment, take warnings seriously, and don't make excuses for someone, or pretend like they will be different with you than their past relationships... just because you are so loving and forgiving. Do not let a deceiver weasel their way into your life... unless you want to know what real darkness and despair feels like.
If you have already done so... healing is possible! Hope and Light is always there and real, with Jesus.
Hold onto Jesus! I ALWAYS have.
Okay... moving on to a more light-hearted tone...
I love watching home interior/design shows -- they have a lot of amazing shows on YouTube! One of my favorite shows is called Homeworthy. I leave the show on in the background, almost all of the time. I love to be inspired by what other people are doing and creating! I have seen such amazing ideas, and then I am inspired to try things of my own. I am so grateful people are willing to share their talents and creativity with others -- my life has been made better by what people are willing to share. So please don't be afraid to share! We need to learn from each other!
Along with painting walls, I have been painting furniture. The homeowner who lived in my home before me left a lot of her furniture. I am so grateful for inheriting her beautiful things, but have also felt the desire to make the furniture my own.
Paint is a powerful way to make change!
Painting in various forms has been a crucial part of my healing and having hope after experiencing both death and divorce. Creativity is the cure for heartache. It is SO powerful. The power within us to create is so strong, and we need to let it out! I spent some time painting a lot of my grief out purposefully, but I have since moved on to focusing on painting to simply bring me joy and to fill my home and life with more color and happiness! It has made a HUGE difference.
The catalyst for this change was my youngest son. He has autism, and he sees the world a little differently. One day he brought in a bright floral outdoor pillow, and put it on the living room couch. I would leave it for a while, and then move it back outside. Every time he would go past the pillow, he would bring it inside and insist it be part of the living room decor. I finally got the clue, that maybe he was trying to tell me something. He was trying to tell me that our home needed to be made brighter, and full of color and life! His small action created a snowball effect. Because of that bright flowery pillow... I decided to go full MAXIMALIST in our home, and make it FULL of vibrant color and patterns.
By small and simple things! I am so grateful for his childlike wisdom, and vibrant vision. He was right, the house needed to be more COLORFUL and lively.
I took down ALL of the pictures in my home that had anything to do with grief, or sadness... and replaced them with things that invoke a spirit of joy and playfulness. It has made a WORLD of difference. Home really is my happy place.
Let's get to the pictures and color!
To begin, I painted an armoire in my bedroom. This piece of furniture will likely never leave my room because it is so big! When I would look at it, it felt large and overwhelmingly, visually, heavy in my smaller room. So, I decided to see what a little blue paint would do...
I just put a tarp down in my room, and went for it.
Here is the before...
And after...
I added some stenciling to make it even more whimsical. I love it SO MUCH more, than I did without the paint. Now when I see it, it makes me smile and feel happy, rather than feeling the heaviness of it taking up space. It's amazing what a little paint can do for your mood!
Another view in my room... I painted end tables too. Even the lamp shade! I have still not been brave enough to tackle my room wall color... that might take some time.
After gaining some confidence, I decided to tackle the bathroom connected to my room. It is not a large space, and the blue tiled shower just stood out like it was out of place, crying for help. I pondered on how to make this work for a long time... and finally one day, it dawned on me that I should not try to hide the shower, but I should lean into the vibrant color!
This was the before...
And after! Just look at how the blue shower makes sense, when the whole room was painted the same color! I love it SO much more now after painting. I chose blue tones for my bedroom and bathroom, because it is very calming and cozy to me. I also painted the vanity from brown to almond. That made it feel much cleaner and fresh. I will eventually change out the light fixture and I have the new faucet that just needs to be installed.
Another project I wanted to do was the room at the bottom of my stairs... there was nothing really special going on in the area, just a pass through from up to down.
I decided to paint and add wallpaper, and make it a little reading nook.
Some green paint, fun wallpaper, and a cozy beanbag chair... and it feels like a whimsical place to relax. Green and pink are some of my FAVORITE colors. Again, I know this is not for everyone... but I am a single mama, and so PINK is back on the menu boys!
I decided to try and paint a kitchen table. This is a counter height table, I felt like turning it green and stenciling flowers on it was the right thing to do. :) I know it is not for everyone... but I don't have anyone telling me to tone down on the florals, and so... I can make the house as feminine and flowery as I like.
I also decided to tackle the laundry room. It was just a room, nothing that I felt too much joy about. It was the same color that was painted on every other wall...
But, with a little paint and whimsical wallpaper... it is a a whole new space! I decided to color-drench the whole room, add some knobs to the cabinets, and paint the counter top with a marbling kit (that was scary, but fun!) William put in the new light fixture for me.
The project I had been the most scared of... was painting the living room and entry way. But one day, I decided it was time. I chose to paint the walls white, with the trim and doors a light sage green, to brighten things up. It was quite the undertaking! Eventually I would like a new light fixture in the entry too... it is on the list.
I even decided to paint the fireplace trim the same green...
Henry was a good helper.
This is definitely a single woman move... :) Stenciling flowers on the wall was SUPER fun! And guess what... if I don't like it later, I can just paint over it, no big deal. One thing I have learned is that paint is NOT scary, and it can be fixed!
I love the difference adding color makes in my home!
The hallway doors and trim painted light green...
I filled it with lots of artwork! I call it the, "Hall of Happiness."
I believe in putting art everywhere! It makes me happy to have paintings all over the place. Yes, I am a maximalist. And I am starting to FULLY embrace that, without restraint!
I have been painting on canvas a lot lately... mostly abstract art.
This one was really fun. I just took an old canvas picture with a frame and painted on top fit. I call this one, "Finale!"
I have started collecting tabletop books that inspire me...
Learning to decoupage and paint together...
Just some doodling
This is something my dad would always say...
A different kind of happiness therapy.
I spend a lot of time in the art room just splashing paint for fun and feeling.
More of my art creations... I have moved on from grief painting and I just ENJOY painting now. :)
I have decided that clingtocourage.com needs to be how I share my life and my story. This blog and I have been through a LOT together, and I want to try and bring it back to life! I was blogging at www.stormsandstills.com and you can find some of my story there too, but I plan to use this blog again to keep life and happenings more updated.
I have had to cling to courage on this journey of grief and healing. I will always continue to face the world with the courage that comes from Christ, and His love. With Him... NOTHING is impossible.
It is nice to be back! :)
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