X-MAS TREE

It's Christmas is in the warm Florida air & everyone unleashes her interiors decorator/florist/personal  shopper. One more time our little village is turned into a fairy-tale with the strings of light, xmas music & fake snow.  This year i was faced with the reality of having zero xmas decoration all lost in a fire of divorce. Yet again it was a good thing: a chance to make a conscious choice was given. Live or Plastic? Big or Small? Green or Pink? Made-in-China decorations or...? Still contemplating, my daughter & i set for Lows to see our options. The selection was pitiful & we we heading out when we saw her...a tiny unassuming evergreen sitting shyly in the corner. She looked so lonely that i was naturally drawn to her & upon coming close enough was able to read her tag :"Eugenia Topiary" & there was no doubt in  our minds that she was coming home with us!

HALLOWEEN DECOR

Everybody loves Halloween!...well, may be with the exception of sugar intolerant monsterfobiacs...but even they can at least decorate! Sasha & I went crazy on spider web this year:

As a matter of fact we love it so much we may keep it like this forever!:)

THRIFT INSPIRES CREATIVITY

I know i AM rich one day! well, i feel rich already - guess i mean one day i have enough $$ for anything my heart desires:) while we are getting there having a thrift gene in my DNA certainly helps. My grandpa on maternal and great-grandma on paternal sides were THAT too. Oh the things they d bring home - oh the masterpieces they d make out of it!

i was officially titled "a queen of junk" by my friends...Thanx to growing up in deprived Soviet Union where fashion, food & design used to run on bare creativity:) To me it's so much more FUN to go "hunting" for those unique "junk" items which will become my "treasures". It's a win-win on at least 3 points: no one else has it (its not your mass produced Target print), it has a history & it saves you money.

So even WHEN I AM RICH i ll continue practicing the art of THRIFT!

Roy Lichtenstein original poster $5.00

Webster's Dictionary $10.00

Window Curtains made of out Drop Cloth $9.00 each

Wall Decor = my prom dress ...bought so long ago & has so much history it's priceless:)

GOD IS IN THE DETAIL

What make this house a home?

First and foremost its a sense of finally established peace and harmony. Then it's good music to follow my mood of the day, books, photos, art, a smell of freshly baked cookies or a pot-roast (either are rare occurrence here; will substitute with french press coffee and arugula salad:), a scented candle, a friend's painting, fresh flowers etc etc etc


all these little details...

DECORATE MORE:)

Now we did have furniture in my & my daughter's bedrooms so all i had to do was add few decorative touches to our beauty sleep chambers:)

Because my daughter's room sometimes doubles as a guest room (she is gladly getting in my bed:) We had to create a special play area. Finally the "genius of modern architecture - a windowless & doorless nook in our lobby area - is serving a noble purpose:)

CREATE A COMFORTABLE LIVING SPACE

I absolutely love my place. Even though it's a rental i feel at home like never before. They say "home is where your things are" Well, my things are definitely here. everything in my home screams my name:)

its very selfish, i know. But growing up in an overpopulated apartments in my home country of Russia with my personal belongings constantly being moved, lost, misplaced by my younger siblings & later moving in into my ex-husbands home & even later into his mom's house i had pretty much have to carve a corner for my few possessions.

I ll skip the details of how one day my place ended up being stripped of pretty much every piece of furniture including window curtains - i ll just say that that was the day when i sat on the bare floor absolutely happy with the perfect emptiness of the space. it felt like looking at the new canvas imagining the painting to emerge on it. MY painting!

at that time all i wanted was an oversized mirror in a golden frame...

few days later i was driving home when i saw a "moving out sale" sign...2 hours and 500$ later my place was completely furnished again!

from that day on various pieces from flee markets keep making their way in...

Learn To Say Good-Bye

"Too much of a Good Thing can be Wonderful" Mae West said it and she was right. But sometimes it can simply be Too Much. It's not easy to recognize it. Even harder to accept it. And terribly difficult to give it up. It's a "good thing" after all and we as humans tend to fall into beautiful traps set by our bodily desires. Be it food, wine, sex, affection... or all of the above. Earthly Pleasures, right...All of it is wonderful when in balance with other very important things in life like healthy diet, exercise, spiritual exploration...So if you feel that one outweighs the other its time to press the invisible "HOLD" button and sort things out. Sometimes it requires separating yourself from the elements that contribute to this imbalance. Unfortunately, sometimes it means saying Good-Bye to dear friends. It's HARD. It HURTS. But sometimes it's the only way...

we will all be fine after all.

love and peace to you, my friend.

PS Thank You For Teaching Me Life Has No Limits

Be Yourself & Be Free

I Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One On One, Always, Forever, Now
- Damien Hirst

"FREE"


Freedom has always been a huge issue to me. Always. I was born this way. I played by myself for hours. Had lots of friends but always needed my quiet space & time. I don't remember - my mom reminds me - that at 15, when dating my very first boyfriend, i came over to her with a question (& terror in my eyes) if i was now supposed to see my boyfriend (whom i adored) every day?!

Relationship is a tough thing. Obviously I can't do them quite well. Through the years i have been accused in having "fear of commitment", being "selfish", "cold", "irresponsible", "promiscuous" the list goes on...I really have nothing to say in my defense except all i want is to feel free and unowned, to be me, which, if not held accountable for everything under the sun, is a fairy descent person, a good mother, a supportive friend, a passionate lover, a neat housekeeper and as it turned out a pretty skillful cook. So, don't put pressure on me and just enjoy my company & i ll make sure to return the favor:)

Allow Yourself To Be Happy

It sounds simple but it can be hard. Living in Paradise requires either innate or mastered content. There is this collective dream of living in a picture perfect place with helpful neighbors, friendly dogs, clean air, hybrid cars (better yet bicycles), white-sand beaches, emerald water etc. You get the picture. Once arrived to such glorious destination one is assumed to experience instant & everlasting bliss...

Why for so many of us, city transplants, (who are now lucky enough to be at the beach) this state is still a distant dream? a Fata Morgana? why are we still carrying burdens of our whatever past which prevents us from enjoying the beautiful present and robs us from productivity and zest? why do we self-sabotage ourselves by not accepting life's greatest gifts of abundance, generosity and love? why do we "do our best" to distract ourselves from noticing these gifts?

Well, guess what? For may be first time in our lives we are at the right time at the right place: we are on 30A! and it means we are lucky enough!

So (if you haven't already; like myself) stop hurting yourself, set your alarm for 6am tomorrow and do what is good for you: get on your bike and zoom along our beautiful two-lane road, run on multiple nature trails, swim in spacious pools, go to a yoga class, walk on the beach or simply lay in bed and thank your God for being alive. Breathe deep, be quiet, thoughtful, nice, grateful, graceful blahblahblah, pick up plastic tourist souvenirs from our white sand and feel good about yourself, about your life, allow the surrounding beauty IN and allow yourself to be happy!