Living Shabby Chic Style

My style likes, needs and wants have definitely changed over the last 10 years.  I've gone through many style transformations from my early twenties and owning my first home and decorating it with a country flair to transitioning into a more formal interior style at one point.  As with life changes one becomes wiser with age. Understanding what is really important is understanding that you've come full circle. Once you've tested the waters of life, the feeling of  finally being settled sets in.

I find myself to be living in a more relaxed world a comfortable place.  I find myself living and loving passions that I did when I was 12.  Which leads me down a road of remembrance.

I loved working with my hands as a kid.  Sewing with my grandmother and mother, trying my hand at refinishing an old oak night stand from my grandfather who was a true picker at heart.  Loving anything that says bead-board, farmer's sink, porcelain top kitchen tables and climbing fruit trees in my grandfather's garden.  I realize that all of these memories have brought me back to living Shabby Chic style.

From the way I dress to the way I shop.  The way I look at people who I interact with on a daily basis all creative not only with their crafty hands but also with their mind. Everyone has an important job  they do no matter what it is.  As for their homes, which may not be elaborately decorated, they are happy because they have come full circle and have found peace with who they are, their style.

It's not the stilettos, the expensive dress, the Italian shoes and silk shirts that make a person.  The best part of my job is going into someone's living space and seeing their "stuff".  One comment always made is "please look beyond the mess".  I never see a mess,  I see a person's personality. One's home should reflect their personality.

I hope to think that when a person walks into my home, my space reflects my personality.  Family memories on the entry hall wall, DIY painted chests, old pieces of furniture mixed with comfortable seating, My collection of old framed mirrors painted shabby white.

My lifestyle is definitely shabby chic and realizing this now from a time of when I was 12 enlightens me.  I don't follow the trends in my lifestyle.  Knowing what they are and implementing them in my job is what I do. Living in your interior, knowing your style and surrounding yourself with beautiful memorabilia of old and new will make for a happier you.  What is your style?

Halloween on Pine Valley Drive

Ryan, Halloween 2012, Buzz Lightyear

The last day of October always brings fall excitement.  Running to my parent's home on Halloween night to see my almost 4 year old  nephew  Ryan make his yearly costume debut visit. This year a light up and flashing Buzz Lightyear. Buzz visited shortly before he was flying off to infinity and beyond to trick or treat with the cousins. Something felt different. Not only had the costumes changed, the same house where I used to ready for the tour of the neighborhood trying to score  the most candy of the night just didn't seem the same.  

Halloween 1975

The neighborhood was still hustling with little children and the doorbell ringing. My mother still so excited to answer the door as my father sat in his chair reading the paper.  Mom  knew all the little children and I realized that I knew no one, didn't recognize a single face.  My childhood neighborhood was filled with strangers.  As I pulled out of the driveway, I drove past Mr. Martin's to see his silhouette at the front door greeting trick or treaters before he left for Florida in the morning for the winter season.

Halloween 1972

One thing didn't change, the fall decor I rememberd and loved on the night of Halloween growing up  on Pine Valley Drive.  The fallen leaves covering the street, the dark and mysterious walkways.  The hike up the hilly driveways and cutting through the woods and the flashlights glaring in the dark. The memories were all coming back as I drove off.

PVD house lot 1963 Mom, Debbe and Kathy

What was obvious to me now was how caught up I was in my adult life that I had forgotten that this neighborhood full of childhood memories has designed my daily life and molded me into the person I was today.

Summer 1967, Kathy, Randy, Danny, Debbe

Winter, 1967, Kathy, Debbe, Nick

Pine Valley Drive had the best memories for me.  The Marsdens, the Martins, the Edwards, the Callerys, the Pouliots. We had the best neighbors, the best neighborhood for Halloween, the best kickball games in the streets and the best tree forts ever!  The Sunday backyard football games with Dad and Uncle Ted and the snow days sledding down the middle of the street and ice skating in the cove on Beaver Brook; such memories. Why? We all had the best parents, siblings and families.  For myself and my sisters and brother it was our "big fat Greek upbringing". We, our childhood friends, were the original Pine Valley Drive dwellers for all of our childhood to college to leaving the nest lives where some of our parents still live.  This Is Home!

Mom, Spring 1977, Gina arrives in 1976

What had changed? It was the  realization that the aging process had begun and Halloween night took me back to my childhood days growing up in my parents home since I was a one year old.  Pine Valley Drive has played a large part in "designing my daily life".  What childhood memories have designed yours?