Gift giving - naturally.

It’s Friday. It’s raining. I have good hair. I am meeting my dear friend for lunch today, at her house, and I want to take her a present. I don’t have to. I’ve reached that strangely grown-up time in my life where I don’t take a present to somebody’s home unless I really want to (and I truly enjoy being with that person). This does beg the question, why do we go to someones home if we don't like them? But that's another story.

But it’s raining. And, much as I love her, I don’t want to go out into the rain, to the shops, because I am not even sure what I want to take.

As I got ready I thought about the whole idea of giving presents; for some people it is an obligation, a nuisance, and for others it is a joy and a demonstration of their feelings. My theory is that if we want to do things that make people happy then it shouldn't be complicated (and it should make us happy too).

So, with that in mind I started to think about what to take to my friend. Hydrangeas are my first thought. My garden is filled with Hydrangeas of all colors and sizes but, aside from the fact that they are laden with rain, they take up a lot of space on a table and would need a large vase to hold them. I decide to wander around my garden for inspiration (in the aforementioned drizzly rain). I have a Thyme plant on the back step. With frost looming I thought that would be a good gift. My friend loves to cook and eat fresh, organic produce. Perfect. I bring it inside, pick out the dead leaves that had taken residence, washed the excess dirt off and prune it so that it looks cared for.

Turns out it looked so happy in my kitchen that I put it on my windowsill, and decided not to give it away afterall.

I then remembered I had some more herbs, which I had planted in a half-barrel, in a rather dismal attempt to try and grow a Mediterranean garden. How ironic, it looked like rubbish all year and now, as Winter approaches, it decides to take on some form of fabulousness! I dug up the large, fluffy Oregano and went to look for one of my favorite terracotta pots (I found a pile of old, odd shaped pots just lying on the side of the road years ago, abandoned. I like to imagine they have lived a long, interesting life, squirreled away in some secret garden – maybe even a castle courtyyard overlooking a cliff). I planted the Oregano in one of these pots and put a rock on the side for decoration (in reality it was to stop the plant from tipping out). Found a small china saucer to put underneath it and I was done. It would look at home in anyone’s kitchen.

Anyway, after potting my herb plant I wanted to share my ideas for gift-giving (not the Wedding sort, just the everyday, I’m happy to see you, sort).

- My first idea is to always shop at home first. I know as I write this that it does take a bit of forethought, but overtime it will become a habit, and you will be surprised at how much you can improvise with what you have around you. I love to bake, but I also know that when I don’t have all the ingredients there are some delicious box/refrigerator items. Brownie mixes (Ghirardelli) and sweet Bread mixes (Krusteaz) are always very good (you can easily add extra chocolate, nuts or dried fruit to these too without changing the cooking time). Don’t mean to be rude, but steer clear of the cut and slice cookies in the refrigerator section, buy a box of pre-made cookies instead.
- Check your pantry cupboards. Do you have something delicious that hasn’t expired? (e.g. imported box of tea, cookies, specialty jam, hot-chocolate and marshmallows). Unopened of course.
- Flowers or plants from the garden that you can pick (or dig up)?
- If I have nothing at home then I do head to the shops, but admittedly I usually spend a few moments before I go, thinking about my budget and planning what I would like to buy. This saves time and stress.
- Don’t overlook the beauty of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Find the absolute best you can, put them in a clear cellophane bag and tie with a ribbon (grapes, peaches, asparagus, tomatoes on the vine, fresh cranberries). Miniature fruit is another one of my favorites, especially in the Fall (e.g. lady apples, clementines, forelle pears).
- Bottle of wine from your home town (or country) or one that has a particularly funny label on it (Australian ones especially, have a lot of funny names and pictures and are often around $10).
- Flowers or plants from the supermarket. Find the most natural looking bunch of flowers there (gerberas, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, tulips etc). Ask for a cellophane floral sleeve to put them in. These keep them fresh, and always make your gift look a bit nicer without being too fussy. Remove any baby’s breathe, ferns, rubber bands, labels or price tags. Cut the stems all the same length. Place back inside the cellophane bag and either take as is, wrap in gift wrap or tie a ribbon around the middle. Fold down or cut the cellophane neatly if it is too high.
- Plants. Same idea. Go to the supermarket and pick something natural. Remove any garish decorations, price tags etc (if you need the care label try to hide it, or just give it to them later).If the plastic pot is covered in a foil or paper sleeve that you don’t like, change it. Take it off, put a piece of plastic (or a plastic bag) over the holes then cover with a square of your own wrapping paper. Tie with a ribbon, or, for a quieter look, just carefully tape the wrapping paper to itself so that it doesn’t fall off. Even easier, just take all the extras off, put some tissue in a bag and put the “nude” plant in the bag, letting it peek out the top.
- Inexpensive book that you know pertains to that person’s life at the moment (e.g. the funny side of parenting for a mother raising teenagers).
- Chocolate, a really delicious bar. Wrap it as if it is the most precious thing in the world.
- Daily desk calendar of their favorite indulgence (travel, shoes, handbags…)
- Anything that they love (favorite candy bar, shampoo, soap, beer, lip-gloss, Twinkies etc)
- A balloon. Who doesn’t love a balloon?

Well, you get the idea, the list could go on; but the point is that with just a little time and thought (and not a lot of money) it is very easy to give gifts to people that we care about.

Decorating with Children - Part 2

I love my daughter dearly, I must do, because I promised not to disclose the contents of the debris that lurked in her room. Things that had not seen the light of day since George W. Bush first entered the White House, and many things that, if offered, would be happily accepted by any of the CSI franchise.

It took four days to finish her room. Painting was the least of it. I took as much out of the room as I could, but the rest I had to move from wall to wall as I painted. Some things were put back while the paint was still wet, and I know there are smudges of purple in areas that there shouldn't be. Decorating is never a perfect process, but like any room, once it's re-loaded the imperfections disappear, and, if we are lucky, we see it as a whole, not just a single piece.

The end result is better than I had hoped. I finished about 10 minutes before she came home from school yesterday. I turned on all the lights, made the bed and fussed with the curtains. Just like a makeover show on HGTV I made her close her eyes while I opened the door. When she opened them she squealed. She loved it so much.


The best part for me is that her room now reflects who she is at this exact moment. It is filled with what is important to her. Her hamster and hermit crabs are on the desk by her bed (so that she can watch them as she goes to sleep). The small loveseat has been rediscovered as a place to sit with her friends. Her collection of rocks, shells, bones and claws (!) have been given their own shelf. There is plenty of room to add more, and she can finally see what she has without sorting through worn, paper bags and special, little cardboard containers. I gave her a white board for drawing and a cork board so that she can pin up art work and photographs. Things that she still loves, but doesn't need on a daily basis, were stored away; still accessible but not on display.

Before I began her room I decided to do a consultation with her. I pretended she was a client ; asking what she liked and didn't like,what she wanted and how much leeway I had to use my own ideas. I wrote notes as we talked and I sketched a plan of the room. We discussed the placement of her bed and whether or not she liked to sit by the window. What could I store away and what did she need to have in plain sight. The small amount of time that this took helped me to understand her as a person, not just a girl who recoiled in horror every week when asked to clean her room.

As parents we often ignore what our children want in lieu of what we think is right for them. Decorating a room is an easy opportunity to let them create their perfect world, to show them that we care about what is important to them.

Decorating with Children

I had to write this title. As I did all I could think of were putting hooks all over the wall and attaching my children to them. Of course I never would, but it's a funny visual.

It is time to decorate my daughter's room again. She is 10. Gone are the days of looking at the Disney color charts, and picking out the pinkiest pink in the entire universe. This time she, asked what her budget would be, when could I start and how many friends could she invite over to help. Her budget is $35, excluding paint and of course her friends can help. However, I know who will be doing most of the work. The color she picked is called vintage purple, just the name makes me happy. It conjures up visions of daisies, worn out leather and great guitar rifts played in an open field. But I digress, this is after all her room, not mine.

I never tire of decorating; as soon as she asked for my help, I found myself sketching layouts and writing down ideas. Decorating and design are an inexplicable joy for me, I will never push for a client or ask to redo someones home, but if you ask for my advice I can guarantee you that my head has already started the planning process.

Before I forget, yes, I will post before and afters of her room as soon as it is done.

For most people having a baby is all about the cute clothes and the squidgy, little faces, for me it was also another opportunity to decorate. My inspiration for her room was a wonderful set of curtains that were bright, lime green with abstract yellow blobs on them. I painted two walls yellow and the opposing ones green. The ceiling was painted sky blue with white clouds. Of course we had glow in the dark stars, how could you not? I also found glow in the dark paint at the craft store (which really does work and lasts forever). The accessories and crib were all red, yellow, blue and green. It was an easy palette to decorate with. As she grew up, and started to walk, she loved the colorfulness of it. Add to the room a few hundred toys and it became a kaleidoscope of messy color.

Ever the lazy mother I drew pictures of her clothes and taped them to the outside of the drawers. I was determined that from an early age she could learn to find her clothes and put them away. Little did I know that just because she knew what to do, didn't mean she would actually do it. Apparently I was lazy and naive. But when she was little my theory worked really well. As she figured out the pictures (eg. a t-shirt, pants, dress, underwear) I added the words so that she could learn through recognition. It became a game for her and an artistic outlet for me. I continued the theme and drew things on the walls around the house, writing the name next to them so that she could learn what they were. A word of caution, if you ever do this, do not use a permanent marker, years later I still have the words "Chair" peering through the paint in the living room. I have used every product available and still the words continue to bleed through. I wrote it seven years ago....

When she was five she had to have a pink room. I, foolishly, let her pick the color. It was a bright, fuchsia pink that became quite dark when I began to paint the wall. It looked horrible. I immediately went out and got a new, softer pink, trying to convince my daughter that it was the same color, that it had just faded when it came out of the can. I still feel bad that I lied to her about it.

We (I) decided that the pink room needed fairies. My friend and I found wall stickers of fairies. I painted a tree and the fairies danced around the tree. I painted her lampshades to match and glued the fairies on them (it's ok to do this, it dims the light a bit but it is not hazardous in any way). Her Aunt gave her a lovely canopy for her bed that had flowers around the top, it matched the fairy theme and became a little hideaway for her and her friends to sit in. I found 5 large pink circles of carpet that became lily-pads for them to hop on as they made their way around the room. She still has them and her friends still play with them like giant pieces of hopscotch.

About 2 years later we hit the Pop Star phase. Hannah Montana ruled our universe for approximately 5 months. Everything had to be Hannah. We took down most of the fairies, hung up a Hannah poster and tried to make the room look a little more grown up. I gave my daughter a budget of $25 and we went to Target. She bought a pink and orange beaded curtain for her door, a pink lava lamp, a pink and purple laundry hamper and some other accessories. She was so excited to be able to buy her own things and working within a budget made her feel very grown-up. It was a good lesson for us both. I would really recommend doing this with young children.

As abruptly as it started, the Hannah phase finished. In came the Jonas Brothers and a need for a more sophisticated room. She and her friends were starting to hang out in her room more and she was, I think, a little self-conscious that it was so cluttered and some of the items were a little young. I have always let her keep her room the way she wanted. Now and again I make her clean it up, but as long as her bed is made and there aren't any actual living fungi anywhere I give her carte blanche to do with it whatever she wants.

So now here we are, ready to paint again. It is going to be purple (vintage, of course, which makes me smile - it's kind of a murky, faded purple) less cluttered and a more mature version of a girls room. I broke the bad news to her, it had to be cleaned before we could paint.......She was shocked and told me "But you're a house designer, can't you do it all for me?". So, I asked "Would you like me to clean your room, organize it, paint and redecorate it while you're at school, sweetie?". "Yes please" she said............


Well, after I had stopped laughing, she really did have to tidy her room. Fortunately for her I can't resist a decorating job, and I have been dying to redecorate her room for a while now. The only instructions I have is to not look under the bed or in her desk, that's where her private things are. As bad as I can be, I promise that I won't look. She is at the stage where I am not sure I want to read everything that is going on in her head, some things are better left unsaid. The fact that she told me where not to look made me giggle.

I decided to treat her like a client. I asked her what her requirements were (hamster, hermit crabs, lava lamp, books and cd player by bed) and what she did and didn't like about the room (not enough space, too much clutter, too babyish, loved the windows and the light, still liked her flower canopy and beaded door).


We discussed some options and decided that the bed and sofa would stay where they were, but everything else I could move if I wanted to. After sketching up a plan I told her I would try to start this week.
Darling that she is, she even offered to pay me a fee...

Eat cake

I have just returned from a three day workshop on Sculptural Cake Decorating. It was relaxing, tiring and wonderful all at the same time. The weekend came to an end with ten exhausted women carrying ten beautiful (and completely different) works of art to their cars. Hugs were shared, and some of us promised to keep in touch. Unfortunately for us, the structure of our cakes were made from styrofoam; not the lovely, buttery confection we had imagined, eating it for weeks afterwards until we finally exploded from too much sugary goodness....
We bonded over fake cake.


However, now that I have it home, sitting on the table, in my living room, I no longer want to eat it; I want it to live forever in my house; I will never get tired of it, no matter how dusty and faded it gets. It's a reminder of a pocket in time when I lost sight of who I was supposed to be, I immersed myself into whatever decided to dwell inside my head. For three days I didn't care about the outside world, or if anyone approved of what I was doing.

What made it all so special, for me, was how the center had managed to combine the artistic lifestyle with the classes that they held there. Where we stayed was quite basic; the house was over a hundred and fifty years old, the amenities were minimal, the atmosphere one of simplicity and comfort. We had no choice but to forget the outside world. We were in a very rural area with no televisions, no radio, definitely no internet service and very sporadic cell phone coverage. Everyone at the center was there to study or learn a craft, so the focus was on their art (not the latest debate on Government Healthcare). We had no choice but to be absorbed into our surroundings.

When we first arrived we were given hours of instruction on the art of fondant cakes, and how to decorate them. Then came time to start sketching our designs. I admit I was a little intimidated to have to design and present a cake (albeit styrofoam) to a woman who has singlehandedly taken the dessert world by storm (the delightful and tremendously talented Collette Peters). Fortunately, she made it very easy for us to like her, and I began to sketch my ideas out onto my notepad. I knew almost immediately the pattern and colors that I wanted to use. After she had consulted with each of us we were given the arduous task of carving the cakes out of styrofoam forms. It sounds easy, but honestly, I think it took me about three hours to get the measurements and the shapes right. At the end of day one I had three sawn off pyramids, all of graduating sizes. The following morning the fun part began, we started coloring and shaping the fondant to cover our "cakes".

During the next two days I want to believe that the cake became a reflection of me and my ideas. It is a colorful cake that has symmetry and whimsy, but it is also woefully imperfect. It may be an act of self-preservation, but I firmly believe that beauty and character lie within our imperfections.

As my cake evolved I needed to change a few things. The bottom layer was supposed to be purple but as I mixed the purple food coloring into the white fondant it started to turn blue. I added more and more purple and it just became more and more blue. Collette asked me why I had that puzzled expression on my face (my daughter lovingly calls this my twisty face) and I explained about the color problem. She said that for some reason the purple reacts with that brand of fondant and turns it blue. Adding red only muddied the color, so I had to change direction and redo all of my color schemes throughout the cake. I was happy that I was able to adapt so easily. The more philosophical part of my reminded me that this was perhaps just another teachable moment that can only happen when mistakes are made (but, let's not get too carried away, it was afterall, just a styrofoam cake, not the Mona Lisa).

Last night, after I returned home, I thought of some of the other women who were in the workshop. An architect who spent some time the week before planning her cake; she assembled it beautifully, so quickly and perfectly, with no gaps or structural issues. A young woman did an amazing cake that was a stack of classic horror stories. The top of the cake had a bloodied hand creeping out from the top. Alternately, she also did the sweetest, tiny cake that looked like it had just fallen out of a fairytale. And my dear friend, Debbie, who did a topsy turvy cake that was a glamorous study of pinks and purples with silver pearls in between.

Does this mean that given the freedom to do whatever we want, we begin to embrace who we really are inside? I think it does. All of these women were creative, and yet the cakes could not have been more varied. As we got to know them I could see why they did what they did and the relevance that the cake may have had in their lives.

These women had an opportunity to design whatever they wanted; in an environment with all of the tools that they could possibly need, with a teacher of world-class renown. When given all of these things most of us chose to demonstrate who we were in a very tangible way. All of them beautiful, but all of them different.

I think we should enjoy what makes us different. What makes us think or cry or giggle. Take the time to find out what these things are and make them a part of your life.

Does it count if I'm wearing Pajamas?

I have decided to spend this weekend trying to re-organize my home office. Like most rooms in my house it is small, barely 8 x 8 with a sloping attic ceiling. The size is irrelevant, because this magical room has a view of my garden and at this exact moment a deer and her two fawns are playing in the middle of the lawn. I'm not making it up, they really are; the fawns, still covered in spots, are so small that they can barely run to chase each other.

It never used to be an office; it was a computer room, a beige man-cave filled with old computer equipment and vinyl records. A few years ago I gradually started to reclaim the space. As I tried to figure out what I wanted I realized that my needs had to co-exist with my decorating ideas. I wanted an office, but it must be one that I enjoyed being in, otherwise what was the point?

When you walk into the room you are facing the window that overlooks the garden. The wall that it is on has a sloping ceiling, actually two; the middle of the wall (above the window) has a four foot flat area, that slopes down on either side to walls that are smaller than most, but normal for an old attic space.
I decided to try and make the room appear taller by painting the window wall, the ceiling and the slopes a soft butter cream. The rest is painted in a gorgeous blue/green color that I bought in the discard section of the local hardware store. I would love to say that this was effortless, but it wasn't. It took me several colors of paint, and many painted walls, to find the combination that made the room look as large as possible while also maximizing the natural light coming in from the window.

After I had painted I scrounged the house for things I could use as storage. I already had a filing cabinet and a desk but I knew I needed a place for my decorating supplies, color charts, books etc. I found an old white bookcase, a table lamp and a strange, collapsible shelf from years ago that had been stored in the basement. 

Armed with all this, I knew that my first priority was to put the desk in front of the window. The desk is quite old, laminated in an old fashioned duck egg blue with gold speckles and one of those lovely little shelves that pull out to the side to give you extra space. I rarely use the shelf, but it makes me happy to know that it is there, hidden, just in case. 

Once I had put the desk in front of the window the white bookcase went to the right of the window and the other, smaller one, went to the left hand wall with my printer on it. The metal filing cabinet easily disappeared with just a few magazines stacked on top of it (one day I will paint it, but I can't be bothered right now). The computer chair had to go so I brought up an old, wooden dining chair from the basement. I later decided I needed a chair in the corner of the room. Not quite sure why, as I wasn't expecting anyone, but it turns out to be very useful for when my daughter needs to chat, or my mum comes to visit. I was fortunate to have a wrought iron armchair in the garden that I didn't mind bringing inside. I spray painted the chair white, sanded it a little then recovered the plastic cushions with some vintage tablecloths.

Now, I know that this seems like a very vanity driven room, and I think, in hindsight, it is, but, I know myself well enough to know that how my surroundings look and feel reflects the way I function. I need to be organized, but I also need my home to inspire me, and I have to enjoy what I am looking at. The other side of it is purely practical; if everything is in it's place, and I like where I have put it, I am more likely to be able to find things and therefore stay motivated and on task.

On the mundane side I have tweaked things as I have gone along. I tend to accumulate a lot of coffee cups on my desk, which has led to a designated spot that I had to train myself to use (yes, it sounds daft but if you have ever spilled a cup of coffee on your desk you'll know what I mean). I can't do without coffee, so I had to adapt my work area accordingly to avoid future mishaps. I also decided to screw two vintage cup hooks into the side of the bookcase that faces to the right of my desk. These have binder clips hanging from them which hold bills and anything of importance that I need to attend to. This idea was simple but so successful as they are always in my sight and I can reach them easily. The bookshelf is from Ikea, and is made of melamine, so the hooks screwed in easily but securely. A noticeboard or a taut picture hook wire with clips could also be used.

Anyway, while I am thinking of binder clips, here are some other thoughts that may help anyone else who is lucky enough to be able to work from home:

• Try and keep your office folders and books all of one type/style. Whether you are a contractor or a writer this will help to keep your work space visually clutter free. If you are not sure what to choose just use all black stationary, it's inexpensive and always looks good.
• Think of unusual pieces of furniture to store your PC equipment on. Traditional computer tables and desks are often too big and unnecessary, don't overthink your solutions. Many electronic pieces are smaller than they used to be and you can easily store them on a small table or shelf that you may have already.
• Add artwork to inspire and motivate you. Some people find words and quotes to be helpful.
• Limit the amount of family photos and belongings that you have in your home office. I know as I write this that it sounds a bit callous,but I think that if you have the luxury of an office at home it is important to try and avoid blurring the lines. You will be less distracted and work more efficiently, if you and your family recognize that this is work and not just a parent playing on the computer.
• Find your most productive time of day, and let that be your strength. Make phone calls and important decisions during that time.
• Pretend that you work in a cubicle; at the end of each day tidy your desk and make a list for tomorrow.
• Anything that you can stick a pin into is a good thing (this sounds funny when I read it back, but you know what I mean). I am a visual person, I need my notes, colors, inspirations out where I can see them. Do the same with lists, phone numbers, anything that you need or want to be reminded of. Hang it in plain sight. Even small sewing pins can attach pieces of paper to a wall with minimal damage.
• Reorganize often. As your needs change so should your office space. Don't be afraid to admit it is no longer working, get in there and move things around.
• And finally, put on your pajamas, grab a cup of coffee and get to work!