What's Your Style?

What is your style? We're talking about home interior style, not clothing. But, if you had tons of money and could completely redecorate your house, take this quiz to find out what style would best suit you.

I was surprised to find out that my style is 100% Wine Country style. I have never been to Wine Country, but now I definitely want to go someday!

When I look around my living room, I do see a lot of ... ahem ... orange, and if I could afford a big, comfy oversized couch with some matching chairs, I would go for it.

Wine Country Style

Tuscan sun, here we come! The Wine Country Style reflects the feelings evoked by the seaside regions of Europe such as the South of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The style manages to be both refined and casual, such that you can mix beautiful antiques with more rustic wrought iron or wood and the result is both sophisticated and cozy. Furniture is large and comfortable, colors are bright and cheery, and regardless of the color palette the spaces almost always feel warm. You can easily translate the style into the perfect family environment but you can just as easily emphasize the more formal pieces and make your room the perfect adult getaway.

Materials

To those with a Wine Country sense of style, texture is very important because of how it imitates the surrounding landscape. Walls are often made of plaster or stucco, or faux finishes that emulate these textures. Rough-hewn or wrought iron is very common in tables, chairs, lamps and accessories. Natural pine is also common, although darker stained woods are more popular. The wood pieces (chairs, tables, armoires) are large in scale and each piece has a good sense of presence in the room. Mosaic tiles are very popular for flooring as well as accents on tabletops and other furniture.

Colors

When it comes to color, Wine Country Style literally attempts to mimic the landscape of the regions. Earthy tones such as yellow, orange and red highlight the golden hillsides and beautiful sunsets. Blues, lavenders and greens mimic the fields and countryside in springtime. Focusing on the blues and whites imitates the seaside and white sandy beaches.

Date Night (Project 52)

Simply Modern Mom is doing this project over at her blog, and I have decided to join in since this was one of my new years resolutions AND my foreground goal. I thought this would be a fun way to keep me going with it. I told Yusuke about it and he was thrilled to hear that date night only needs to be for ONE hour ONCE a week AT HOME. When I told him no pajamas, he kind of scoffed because we don't really wear pajamas (just at-home comfy clothes that we also happen to sleep in) and we bathe early in the evening with the kids, so changing into our formal wear would seem kind of like a waste of time. Nonetheless, we are going to give this a try.


January 17, 2010 - Sunday
Our first official date night of the year, though technically, we did go on a date to a coffee shop on January 3rd, took place at our dining room table over a cup of homemade chai and strawberry roll cake. Our main purpose was to discuss our budget for the year 2010. Ooh, how romantic. But, believe me, it was. Our annual budget discussions allow us to be very frank with each other and we have never argued or fought about our ideas concerning money. (No, we just fight about everything else.) So, this is a date we always look forward to at the beginning of each year because it assures us that we really are in this together, for the long haul.


Hey, if any of your readers want to join in this project, it is for a great cause - Your Marriage! I can't think of anything better than that, can you?

Goals Culled from 101 Dreams

So, for this online class called Create the Life You Love, I finished making my list of 101 Dreams. Then, we had to categorize our dreams. My categories included relationships, finances, home, travel, career, personal growth, fun stuff, & a few more.

From that, we had to choose or combine some of the dreams and then create a goal statement. We had to choose carefully - only choosing dreams we were able and willing to commit to for now. In fact, we had to choose some goals that would be "foreground", meaning they would get more of a time commitment and other goals would be "background", meaning they would not require as much time but we would still be working on.

This was a real soul-searching step for me because naturally I wanted to choose some of my scrapbook projects as my foreground goals and maybe even some travel plans as my background goals.

But, Aby asked us the all-important question. If you could accomplish some of the goals in just ONE area of your life, knowing that this would have the biggest impact on your life, which would it be. Well, that is an easy question to answer. Health (weight).

Aby advised that we could have any number of foreground goals (up to 7, that is) but that less was better, so I chose 2 foreground goals. Health and Marriage. Folks, I am now making a true commitment to improving these two areas of my life in 2010. Hey, if I could make the commitment to learning photoshop and organizing my home, then I can surely do this, right?

Next, we had to make goal statements for each of our goals and announce them to the class. Following are my goal statements.

Foreground Goal Statements:

Health

I am losing weight every week by fitting exercise into my daily life, by limiting my vices to 1x a day, and by managing my intake of white foods & dairy so that by the end of 2010, I am at my ideal weight of 140 pounds. I am feeling exhilarated & proud to be shopping for trendy skirts & dresses!

Relationships

During the month of February, I am happy and enthusiastic about my marriage because Yusuke and I are having date night 1x a week and I am showing affection to him each and every day.

Background Goal Statements:

Personal Growth

By May 2010, I am feeling calm and relaxed in the face of adversity, and I can control my emotions by keeping anger at bay. I am using the EFT method to overcome my issues with emotional outbursts.

Travel

I am excited because we are saving 90,000 per month for our travel budget so that by the end of 2010, we will have 1,080,000 yen saved for our annual trips plus a few extra fun trips, which we will begin planning for in January of 2011.

Home

In February, I am feeling confident and at ease in the kitchen because I am experimenting more with Japanese recipes along with other new-to-me soup & slow cooker recipes.

Home

In February, I am feeling proud and happy when I look at our beautiful home because I am following the cleaning & maintenance routines.

Finances

I am diligently & enthusiastically making weekly menus and sticking to our budget so that we can save money for our future dreams which we will re-evaluate together in January 2011.