Snow Days Rock!

I love a snow day! I think it takes me back to my youth when the snow would blow and you would hope to get a day off school or a "snow day"! Trust me, my youth seems so far away, there isn't much that takes me back there anymore so this was enjoyable. Many of you in this business work from home, but I have had a separate office/studio for many years. Today, no blow drying, no make-up, no "office" clothes, it was me with my sweats, my computer, and my butt on the sofa sitting in my first snow storm in our new home. What a great day! It helped me to bond with this house with which I have had a love/hate relationship. As many of you know, we have purchased my original family home. Sounds charming, but trust me, the house needs a great deal of TLC to bring it to charm level. But I have put up holiday decorations and created my temporary version of beauty in this house. Another year, this will be a show place but right now, it is in need of an extreme makeover but I am loving it more each day despite it's flaws. The view and exterior tranquility (which is what drew me to this house) brought me peace and inspired creativity today. The creativity brought me great ideas to redesign my business for 2008 and fun creative webinar and training ideas
for all of you.

How about you...are you inspired to make changes? Are you redesigning your business for 2008? Are you looking at what you already have and trying to decide how to best place it to complement your plans for your business? Think of your business like a great room. What is the focal point of your business this year? Is it to make more money, extablish yourself as the local expert, or perhaps put a spin on what you have been doing by adding new services. Don't allow yourself to get complacent about your business.

The number three is important when decorating a space, use that same number, to come up with three new ideas you can implement in your business by January 30. Then share them with me, so I and your peers, can support and encourage your success. Haave a great day, I hope you get a snow day soon!

JoAnne Lenart-Weary

www.onedaydecorating.com

The Experimental Stages of Decorating

I am truly addicted to decorating. I know I climbed out of my mother's womb thinking, what a horrible color on these walls. I was rearranging furniture at 10 for my Mom and by the age of 12, her friends were calling me for help. I have had decorating masterpieces and in the early years, some decorating nightmares. Let me share one with you.

I have been blessed to have two great men in my life...one I divorced and Tom, who is still my DH. The first one, Ed, was a funny man but liked the brown bottle a bit more than he liked me. But Ed was there for my formative years and the poor man went through a lot. Perhaps that is why he liked the brown bottle so much.

One of my decorating adventures involved a can of red, 2 step epoxy paint. Now this was in the 70's long before Al Gore was enlightening us on the environment and heaven only knows what kind of chemicals I inhaled during those early years of my decorating education. I set out one day to paint a lovely old claw foot tub this beautiful red. When I was done, I had paint left over. Well, like anything great decorator, I walked around trying to decide what I should paint with the left over paint. Voila, a toilet...what a great combo.
So I commenced painting until every part of the toliet and the seat were the same beautiful red. Now coupled with the newspaper print, (yes, real newspaper) that I had decoupaged on the walls, this was a pretty snazzy bathroom.

A few hours later, Ed came home from work and headed to the bathroom. I was already off and running on my next DIY (do-it-yourself) project so I paid no attention to him. Until I heard the roar from the bathroom and I went running. Well, to make a long story short, the red paint bonded very well to his skin but not quite as well to the toliet seat. Ed sported a bright red ring around his bottom for a couple of weeks as nothing known to man would touch it to remove it. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. Ed didn't laugh until about a month later and then even he had to admit the humor in the situation.

Now why am I sharing this with you? I want you to have fun with decorating. Have an idea, try it. If it works good for you, if it doesn't it was a learning experience. Are there decorating principles that will make a design better....yes, there are. But don't get yourself too caught up in the rules, have fun first and then polish it as you polish your skills set. Happy Decorating! JoAnne

Blogging...what is this new fangled form of communication? Why does it work because everyone keeps telling me that people don't read anymore, but they must or blogs wouldn't be successful. As I pondered on it, I realized that blogging is simply blabbing....on paper. Everyone knows, I have always been good at blabbing so bring on the blogging.

My firm, One Day Decorating, is all about creating beautiful spaces and helping others to build a new career and follow their passion. This blog will be my attempt to share color, decorating fundamentals, "I never would have thought of that" ideas, interior redesign, staging, business skills, inspiration, marketing for dummies, and more! I might even share an occasional photo of one or all of my grandkids, After all, it is my blog and I can do whatever I darn well please. :) Thanks for joining me and let me know what you think. JoAnne Lenart-Weary