HomeTalk and Talk of Home – Confessions of the Home Challenged

I have recently taken to visiting HomeTalk as a way of keeping track of my favorite DIY bloggers. I joined a while back but did not understand how great it was until a few weeks ago. There is a lot of great action going on over there. If you are a decorator, designer, DIYer or just appreciate beautiful things…go check it out. I am having a blast interacting with my peeps…my tribe {or one of my tribes} SHY SMILE!!! I confess I do have a few tribes…the DIYers, the foodies, the crafters, the techies…yes I am, after all, just who my bio claims…an artfully domestic Renaissance gal with designers eye!!!

HomeTalk is almost as much fun as Pinterest…well maybe it is just as much fun. The DIYers are an amazing group…from my BFF Courtney at French Country Cottage to partner in paper Karen The Graphics Fairy…from old pal Rhoda of Southern Hospitality to new pal KariAnne of Thistlewood Farm…I feel at home. And amongst these are amazing artisans and designers…somehow I feel inadequate. Tonight I am just plain sad.

You know that I moved into a small villa the first of this year. The story of why and how is a painful tale for me. So I feel inadequate because I am in a rental in which I only have so much control over what I can do to make it mine. Don’t get me wrong…I am in no way complaining! I know I am truly blessed to be here in this exotic environment…a gated community between the ocean and the marsh amidst a wildlife refuge. I get to walk the trails and come close to beautiful birds and all kinds of animals. The exterior space is over the top amazing. But the interior space, what I want to embellish to my hearts desire, is mediocre at best…badly in need of an update.

Good thing I have an imagination!

Here’s a little secret. I am pretending that I am in a small villa in the south of France. That gets me through the really rough times when I mourn the loss of my home….the home I thought I would die in. Macabre…perhaps. My truth, my life lesson, my soul exposed.

So I have decided to embrace the present and make this a project. I love a good project. I plan to become the expert on how to make over a tiny space that can only have semi-permanent transformations. I am starting a series called:

The Well Collected Home ^TM

Oh heavens…I loved this name so much I marched over right to GoDaddy and bought the domain!!! {sidetracked blogger again} My idea here is to do what I do best…collect, well actually hunt and gather…hoard some would say! I prefer to call myself a preservationist slash collector. I love preserving the past..those well-loved belongings that are no longer useful to the previous owner. I will take them. I will reinvent them. I will love them. Then, I will share them with you.

Some, especially my family, would tell you I am a little crazy. My friends call me eccentric. I let them smirk and smile at my finds and treasures. When I work my magic and transform them with my vision, they come around. Just like this Ghosts of Furniture Past ^TM project…and I mean GHOSTLY {say ghastly} PROJECT!!!!

This piece…a Hoosier cabinet just like the one my beloved GrandMother had, actually looked worse than this photo. It was dirty, the top was not attached to the bottom and nothing worked. I originally bought it for my daughter…she loves retro and her kitchen is red and white. Great idea, right? Not so much. She took one look at it in this condition and passed….So HIMself and I had a spare 6 weeks with nothing to do (YEAH RIGHT) but perform this transformation…

 

 

 

Read all about it here and here. And check back often and see what we are up to in The Well Collected Home!