Lighten Up

That's it.

My one and only, multi-purpose,

one-size-fits-all

New Year's resolution.

Lighten up.

Allow me to elaborate: in 2010, I resolve to. . .

1) Lighten up my attitude. 2009 was a very serious year. Serious lifestyle changes took place that I wasn't entirely happy about—although it all worked out well in the end. Serious news about our bad economy was on the air and in the newspapers every day. Ugh. Some seriously dull work was done—not design work, but the other work I do that gets my bills paid til the decor biz gets "bizzier"—but it's my own fault that I didn't balance it better. In this new year, I resolve to have more fun. Live life lightly. Look on the bright side (which I really am pretty good at). Play more music. Eat pancakes for dinner. Or maybe a banana split! Make and paint and build and craft things just because I can. Reacquaint myself with my garden. I have a ping pong table. What's more fun than ping pong?

2) Lighten my load. (No, I don't mean lose weight. #4 will take care of that.) What I mean is clear out the clutter that's been weighing down the progress of my projects whether personal, professional or home related. After fifteen years in this house, there is just too much accumulated, unnecessary "stuff". My College Girl was happy to benefit from some of our redundancies and we have plans to continue in that vein—starting with a big ol' yard sale at her house with the cast-offs from mine. She does all the grunt work and gets to keep the proceeds; I get de-cluttered. Win-win.

3) Light up my interiors. Literally. I have plans for new, much needed lighting in both the kitchen and living room. The colored walls that I've loved for so long are crying out to be white. Art in dark frames wants to be replaced with glinting, gilt-y frames or none at all... as in unframed canvases or found objects. And... anything that's begun to look more like clutter and less like decor, no matter how sentimentally attached I am, is being retired or repurposed (or yard-saled, see #2) in favor of light and space. My home wants to breeeathe.

4) Get light on my feet. Move more, sit less. (Easier said than done with both a job and a hobby that require hours at a time in front of a computer.) Take a walk, with or without the dog—but mostly with. I know he'd appreciate it. Do some actual heavy lifting (as opposed to the existential kind—there was enough of that nonsense in 2009). Garden. Hammer. Install. Paint. Move. Improve myself as I improve my home. Even an impromptu living room dance party does wonders for my attitude and, done more often, would surely work those same wonders on my waistline.

5) Bring more light to the blog. Were you wondering why it looks better—brighter— today? (please say yes) No more yellow background. Crisp, clean, light and bright white. Took a little more effort than you'd imagine as some of my sidebar images had drop shadows on a yellow ground blah, blah, whatever. It looks better and I'm happy with it. I hope my lighter attitude comes through in my posts too—not that I've ever been morose or dark here—what's dark about decorating? (well, yes, I know there's a trend toward black walls and dark rooms, but that's for another post—and, no, I'm obviously not embracing that trend). It's just that, if I'm writing this blog because it's fun for me, well, then, shouldn't it be fun for you too?

The rooms pictured here are some that have inspired me toward my decision to whiten the rest of my walls. I painted out the golden yellow accent wall in my living room about a year ago and have been very happy with all white. Next to go will be the yellow in my dining room, which opens onto my already-white kitchen. I'll continue to use my favorite bright, happy colors and patterned fabrics as accents, as did the designers of these rooms—Kathryn Ireland in the top three photos and Windsor Smith in this last one, above. (The four in between were not identified in my photo files. Irresponsible, I know, but still inspirational.) And I promise, any of my own lighter, brighter work deemed "blog-worthy", will appear here for your perusal.

Do you have a resolution (or several) for yourself

or your home?

Whatever they may be, I wish you luck and light and love.

Happy New Year!