Inspiration Friday: Carrie and Danielle’s interview AND a GIVEAWAY!

Hello my dear ones!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was working on an interview with two fabulously inspirational women, Carrie and Danielle, who run a style consulting service. In a nutshell, they are authentic living therapists, using questions and empathy to help over 700 men and women (at last count) find their “style statement” - a two word compass which always leads to your personal North Star, so to speak. I’ve been fascinated by the idea ever since I first learned of it, and have had a personal consult with them on my wish list for over a year… but you know how budgets go! - and how my extra dollars are always earmarked toward a decorating project! : )

Which is why I was extremely excited to find out their book, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design, was due to be released into stores this month. (It was released this week, in fact!) My original plan was to run out and buy a copy of the book and then do a review of it here, because you know how much I love sharing great things with ya’ll! Then I got the idea to do an interview and here we are! But it gets BETTER! Not only do I get to share the interview with you, I also get to host a GIVEAWAY! That’s right, Carrie and Danielle have graciously offered to give an autographed copy of their book to one of my lucky readers… too cool, right?

Ok, enough of my babbling– go enjoy the interview and then, check out the details about the giveaway afterwards…

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Carrie and Danielle, for my readers who may be *meeting* you for the first time today (smile), could you share a little bit of your backgrounds with us? How did you two meet? What inspired you to create your business?

Carrie: I am a former interior designer. I looked good from the outside: international media attention, great clients, abundance, nice car, cute boyfriend. And yet on the inside I felt like a fraud. My focus was all about the outer world and something was missing; I wanted to marry the inside with the outside. Style Statement was born from my commitment to making a difference in many people’s lives. Danielle was one of my guinea pigs. She received her Style Statement from me, and I received a business partnership from her based on our shared values, a do-whatever-it-takes commitment, and joy.

As a writer, I am a big believer in the power of words so, of course, the concept of your Style Statements resonated with me immediately. Do you find this to be the case with most of the general population? What do you say to the nay-sayers or the skeptics who question how two words could possible have a profound affect on a person’s life?

It has been an honour to share Style Statement with the world. 750 people have received their two words and this is what we hear: “I purged all the black from my wardrobe,” “I am going to yoga,” “I am letting go more,” “I bought orange ballet flats”, “I am more ME!” Two words carry majestic meaning when they declare who you are and what you yearn for.

Carrie, your Style Statement is Refined Treasure and Danielle, yours is Sacred Dramatic. Will you to us a little about the process of discovering your statements and how you both use your statements to create focus and direction in your lives?

Carrie: I use my magically infused words Refined Treasure all the time. Most of my decision-making begins like this: “Are these shoes Refined Treasure?” “Am I being a treasure in my marriage?” “Am I treasuring my body?” “Do I need to process this information more?” It’s a constant guide and mantra for making choices in all areas of my life. And I know when I am not living my Style Statement - when I rush, when I am not present…and I have the bruises to show for it.

Danielle: Sacred Dramatic, like most people’s Style Statements, is paradoxical. Sacred is introverted, reflective, respectful. Dramatic is outgoing, impactful, visible. It’s the 80/20 principle that’s profoundly helpful for me. 80% Sacred keeps me grounded, 20% Dramatic inspires me to be expressive about what’s important.

As you know, A Beautiful Abode is dedicated to providing inspiration for creating a beautiful home on a tight budget. Besides money, one of the biggest concerns many of my readers voice is not knowing WHERE to start with designing their homes. They look at magazines and become overwhelmed with the idea of pulling together a cohesive space that feels right to them. Can you give an example of how knowing your Style Statement has helped you make the correct choices for creating a comfortable, attractive living space?

Carrie: When people come into my home they feel a quiet elegance, a kinship with nature and space to breathe. They see treasures from my family, a cocktail dress hung on the wall, an Allessi vase, a painting from my niece. All of these elements are created based on my two words: 80% Refined and 20% Treasure. Without the definition of your Style Statement, it’s important continually asking yourself this question: “What inspires me?” It’s so simple and so powerful. If you bring that question forward in your daily life, you’ll start to see patterns in what truly floats your boat. A colour, a way of being, a style of sofa, the way someone speaks—pay attention to how these things make you feel. Up? Down? Heavy? Light? Inspired?

I’m very excited to tell everyone that your book, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design, was released in stores just a few days ago (April 8th). Will you explain how readers will be able to use the book as a tool to discover their own style statements?

Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design is an inquiry into your authentic self. It’s a discover-it-yourself process for defining your own personal Style Statement. The questions are playful and profound, superficial and deep. You can see how others use their Style Statements in their lives, and the final part of the journey is an exericse in how your can really live authentically in every area of your life — from your living room to your relationships.

Finally, if you could share just one piece of advice with readers who are concerned with styling their homes in a way that authentically reflects them, what would it be?

Ask yourself these questions abut every aspect of your home: What do I love? What do I desire? How do I want to feel in my home?

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If you want to learn more about Carrie and Danielle, please visit their website at CarrieandDanielle.com. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for their Friday Focus newsletter. It’s one of the few e-mail newsletters that I ALWAYS read every week and it never fails to provide me with inspiration. Their book, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design, is available online right now at Amazon.com and I’m pretty sure you can pick one up at your local bookstore (which is on my to-do list for next week). As a wonderful A Beautiful Abode reader, you ALSO have the chance to win an autographed copy of the book

**Entering the giveaway** is pretty simple…

If you have a blog, write a post about “What inspires me?” and add a link to that post in the comments here. If you don’t have a blog, you can still enter, just leave a comment answering the question “what inspires me?” Add your comment by midnight (eastern time) Thursday, April 17th. I’ll announce the winner on next Friday’s Inspiration Friday post.

Good Luck! I can’t wait to see what inspires you all…

xoxo - Shauntelle

Edited to add: I’m extending the deadline to Tuesday, April 22nd. A post would be nice, but to make it easier, you can just answer what inspires you in a comment.

Inspiration Friday: Awarding Excellence…

Jen from Sanctuary Arts at Home AND Courtney from Nesting Instincts were both sweet enough to give me this award for Excellence yesterday! The award is given to bloggers who you feel provide excellent content and I am so happy to have two bloggers that I admire give the award to me.

Part of the rules of receiving is to give the award away to 10 deserving bloggers yourself. Although you can give the award to people who you know have already received it, I thought long and hard and decided to give it to people who ya’ll might not visit all the time… These are blogs that I find inspiring and I hope you will too.

So on to my award winners:

1) Kate of My Journey - first, I found a picture of Kate’s creative space on Flickr, then one of her awesome little books… which blew me away so much that I had to find out more about her. When I tracked down her blog, I was even more amazed. Kate makes the most beautiful scrapbook layouts I have ever seen and I say that as someone who isn’t the biggest scrapbooking fan. Her layouts are truly works of art, but what makes her blog inspiring to me is how it really exemplifies a strong woman creating her vision of a successful life.

2) A Year of Gratitude blog - the AYOG blog is actually put together by a group of women, Nanette, Kathryn, Barbara, and Angie, who were inspired to create a blog whose posts celebrate reasons to be grateful. I always pop by and read a post or two when I’m feeling low, as a reminder that the world is full of grace, we just have to choose to be aware of it.

3) Scissors, paper, glue. I can’t remember when I ran across this blog… probably found it via her etsy shop, but like I said, I can’t remember. But I always end up here when I just need something to get the creative juices flowing. I’m really visual and I love to read about other people’s lives and creative work. So the combination here really does it for me.

4) PuglyFeet, In My Shoes. This is another blog that I can’t remember how I found it. But I love it! It’s a close to daily photoblog of a person’s shoes. Yeah, that’s right, one person’s shoes. But what photos! You have to check them out for yourself. It’s a site that always puts a smile on my face whenever I’m feeling down.

5) The Ugly Green Chair. I do know that I found this blog via PuglyFeet. The tagline for it is “where the photos and the words rarely relate.” The photos are ALWAYS gorgeous… and you can buy prints in her shop… the words are real. Sometimes amusing, sometimes sad, but always real. And I like that.

6) What I Wore 2day. Kasmira could easily be the most fashionable woman in the blogosphere. I used to be addicted to fashion blogs and had a list that I visited every day. Now design blogs keep me too busy! But I still visit Kasmira– not only do her outfits inspire me to shake up my own look, her color choices have sometimes helped to inspire decorating color schemes.

7) How about Orange. I know, I said no popular blogs. But I didn’t want ya’ll to think I’d forgotten that A Beautiful Abode is a design blog! I’ve mentioned How about Orange once before because she has the great tutorial about using fabric as art. I keep coming back because she keeps having great ideas like that. Plus I like her pictures! And we both love orange… what could be more inspiring than that?

While I’m mentioning popular blogs, I have two more… I can’t help it, I love them! Anna Maria Horner is a fanatastic artist who designs fabric with the most luscious colors! She also manages to remind me of a Greek version of my friend Tricia. Why? I don’t know, something about their down-to-earth warmth, I guess. They both manage large households and swear that they aren’t perfect while doing it, even though us lesser mortals would disagree! Anna’s blog is another one that I go to when I need a pick-me-up. The pictures alone cheer me up and reading about her family and her creative adventures really inspire me. And did I mention, she’s really sweet?

9) My next popular blog is another artist/fabric designer that I adore– Heather Bailey! Her blog is HELLOmynameisHeather and I manage to swing by there at least a couple of times a week. It’s another blog that has the best photos in the world. As in, I’ll admit, there have been times when I just scroll through looking at the photos, stopping to read the posts that I just HAVE to know what the photo is about. Like little kids with their favorite board books, reading the pictures when they can’t read the words. And did I mention that I really, really, really lust after all of her fabric?

10) Finally, I have to mention Wee Wonderfuls. Whenever I want to indulge my inner child, I wander over to Wee Wonderfuls and just salivate over her doll designs. I’m not really a person who follows instructions well so I don’t normally buy patterns, but her toy patterns are making me waver. (Unless someone else wants to make one for me, hint, hint…)

Whew! That’s it. Ya’ll have inspiration for well into the weekend, right? Hope you have a great one! Next week is a big week here… a new “In the Trenches” interview, a reveal of my redesigned living room (based on the input ya’ll gave me this week!), and the interview with Carrie and Danielle… see you back here on Monday!

*All the photos in the post belong to the respective websites below the photo, so don’t go copying them okay? And if anyone has a problem with their photo being here, let me know and I’ll remove it ASAP.

Inspiration Friday: Yellow, yellow, yellow…

I don’t know why, but lately I’m just fascinated by the color yellow. According to definitions that are here, the color yellow is associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy and should be used to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. All I know is that just seeing a pop of yellow in a room makes me happy… so I’m sharing a little bit of yellow inspiration with ya’ll today!

My favorite harbinger of Spring:

Daffodil photo from the New York Botanical Gardens website.

Elegant yellow pillows from Z Gallerie.

Photos courtesy Coastal Living Online

Have a great weekend
xoxo,

Shauntelle

Inspiration Friday: Spring into Organizing!

There are the cutest little birds flying around outside my window today. I know they’re looking for just the right stuff to build their yearly nest. They’re a little frantic, and I completely understand because I’m feeling that way myself. Spring fever is creeping up, making me anxious to get my WIP decorating projects completed and my home organized and sparkling clean. For me, that starts with making an attractive place for everything, so everything CAN go in it’s place.  And that’s the idea behind today’s Inspiration Friday.

Inspiration from Real Simple

And last, but not least, my favorite from Sunset Magazine:

Happy Spring organizing!

Inspiration Friday: The photography of Alicia Bock

By now I’m sure you all know that my preferred medicine for illness, bad days, or any reason what-so-ever is inspiring design. This week, along with trying to steal cat naps whenever the kids seemed slightly quiet, I’ve been building up my immune system by gazing fervently at the gorgeous photography of Alicia Bock.

I found this first photo via etsy (and don’t ya’ll dare buy it, because it’s on MY wish list!):

And then I went to visit her website where she has more beautiful prints available in various sizes as well as notecards and postcards. Here are a few more of her images that I fell in love with.

If you get a free moment this weekend, go and visit her shop. Beautiful art is a must for a beautiful home and supporting such a wonderful artist by purchasing her reasonably priced prints is the kind of thing that has to get you Karma brownie points…

Hope ya’ll have a great weekend… and if you’re in the market for fabric, Hancock Fabric is having an in-store only 50% off sale. Ends tomorrow though, so get going!

Bonus Inspiration! Kid friendly design…

I wasn’t very satisfied with yesterday’s post; I suppose that’s what happens when you try too hard to work through your “to do” list when you’re actually sick.  Anyway, because I felt I’d gyped you, I’m giving you a bonus inspiration post.  A few weeks ago Tricia asked about kid friendly design and ever since I’ve been keeping my eye out for living rooms that would work for regular families… you know, the kind like mine, where there are crazy boys who run everywhere and have matchbox car races over everything.  It’s been a difficult hunt, I’ll admit.  Either designers have much better mannered children than I do or most people who have their rooms professionally designed keep their children in the basement… But I have assembled a few rooms that I thought had potential and that’s what I’m presenting to you now.

Designs from Whitehouse Builders:

From Designer Zina Samek:

From Designer Loretta Willis:

Hope ya’ll are a fabulous Saturday.  I’m going to sip hot tea and take a nap…

Inspiration Friday: Art to Design By

“Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret selves.”

- Jean-Luc Godard

Every now and then I see a piece of art which absolutely speaks to me. That’s what happened to me last night when I stumbled upon this cheap reproduction of a Renoir painting. Everything about it called out to me, from the silver frame to the delicate flowers. I don’t have a bit of yellow in my home and I generally lean toward modern abstracts more than oil paintings… but I had to have it. Luckily, it was only $10 so now it’s home with me. I’m already busily planning the redesign of my master bedroom around it.

Do you have any pieces in your home like that? Art, pottery, fabric, or sculpture that just spoke to some hidden part of you? That’s the inspiration for today’s post. Photos of objects from around my home that have inspired and influenced my decorating.

This is my little stone Buddha and the faux orange lilies from my wedding. I keep them together on a leaning bookshelf in my living room and whenever I see them, they remind me to seek joy. The lilies are also my absolutely favorite shade of orange and were the reason I bought my favorite orange chairs.

I love my antique typewriter. And the books next to it are mostly by my favorite author Charles de Lint. Grouped together, they represent the part of me that loves words, myth, and the stories that become symbols of our selves.

This hand blown (mouth blown?) glass vase is the beginning of the glass art I plan on collecting when I’m not worried about little children breaking things (when they go to college, I guess!). I love the color, I love the way the light reflects off the surface… I loved it so much that I originally bought two, but I gave one away when I was unable to use it.

Finally here is my little Ikea man standing next to a plant. I love the Ikea man because he’s whimsical and represents art… I like to think I have a creative family and this little mannikin says artist to everyone who walks in the door.

The plant was the first houseplant I’ve ever owned without killing! Used to be, I could have a lovely outside garden but couldn’t grow a thing inside. This little Ponytail plant changed all that and has allowed me to have living green inside, something especially nice while we’re in a drought and unable to water a garden outside.

I think I’m going to turn this into my own little meme. I won’t tag anyone specifically, but if you want to join in, post pictures of the art that inspires your design, then come back and leave a comment with the link to your post. I look forward to seeing what inspires you all!