#The100DayProject and #OneRoomChallenge
This month I am launching two big projects: The 100 Day Project and the One Room Challenge. I’m excited to share both with you!
Aloha! It is Wednesday — so much going on! I am fairly certain I have lost my mind. You see, I’m already participating in the One Room Challenge which starts tomorrow. Eek! I’m really excited to show you our Guest Room Refresh as it unfolds — more on that tomorrow.
But then I was reading about another community event on Instagram — #The100DayProject — and I decided I just HAD to do that, too. They are totally different exercises, but both use the same creative muscles.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, the sculptor, painter, poet, and architect, wrote about the flow of creative energy he experienced as “furor divinus” — the divine fire. As creative people we must tend that fire, adding kindling, branches, logs, stoking it and making sure that fire has enough oxygen to keep burning. My fire has been smoldering a bit of late as I have been buried in the business and technical sides of my endeavors. So I am excited that yesterday was the start of The 100 Day Project — a worldwide focus on sparking creativity in any medium. I am jumping in with both feet, committing to my art journal every day for the next 100 days. My project will be an intersection between words and images beginning with today’s piece — a collage using paper, watercolor, and acrylic paints.
I find communal challenges like this great to getting my creative spark aflame. And working in a different medium — visual art rather than words — stretches me and forces me to think differently. Are you doing #the100DayProject ? If so, tag me! I would love to follow along. I learn so much from everyone — new techniques and different ways of looking at the world.
So here we go!
Day 1: Suddenly all my Ancestors are Behind Me | Collage, Mixed Media
Day 2: Creative Muscles | Watercolor, Mixed Media
I’ll have more about the One Room Challenge tomorrow, but here’s a sneak peek. We found this amazing map of Hawaii in the attic of our 1948 Suburban Sweetheart when we were renovating it. This gorgeous map is the inspiration for our Guest Room Refresh. I did a little research about it. It was created by a Hungarian immigrant, trained in Italy, who fell in love with Hawaii and spent much of his life living and teaching in Honolulu. His name was Joseph Feher, and I’ve written a bit about him. Read and enjoy!
Who is the artist?
I did a little research into our inspiration piece, and the story of Joseph Feher, the artist, is fascinating. Enjoy!
New Things are Coming! And Instagram!
I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. It is fun to meet new people and to learn new things, but I open it up, and immediately an hour of my life slips away! Yikes! However, I have been working hard on several projects which are coming, and I’d love to connect with you on Instagram!
What is coming up?
#oneroomchallenge
I’m working on the #oneroomchallenge on Instagram! I love this idea — focus on ONE ROOM in your house and get it DONE. We are hard at work on our guest room. Honestly, this was low-hanging fruit. Making it beautiful doesn’t require construction or craziness. It just means some paint, some organizing, and making the room pretty — with a little flair. I’m excited to show you the final product! I’ll be unveiling the room bit-by-bit beginning April 4 as part of #oneroomchallenge. And I will have some great budget-friendly ideas that you can use in your own homes!
So, I hope you’ll follow me on Instagram. I have two handles: @midmodernmama is all things lifestyle especially home decor — and that’s the account where I’ll be doing the #oneroomchallenge. And then I have the other part of my split personality: @piningforrome which is all travel all the time. If you need beauty and travel inspiration, look no further.
Follow me!
Follow me!
Which brings me to my second project…
Pining for Rome Relaunch
So, I actually started my very first website 11 YEARS AGO this month! Yikes! And it is still there with lots of good content. But it is looking rather tired, so I have been working for weeks and weeks and weeks to update every page, refresh every photo, and organize all of the information. And I am rebranding everything. So soon Pining for Rome will be a fabulous place for all things travel! I’m super-excited, and I can’t wait to bring you the new-and-improved Pining for Rome!
Not on Instagram?
Follow me on Facebook!
I post everything in both places, so you won’t miss a thing!
Soon there will be gardening to be done, more renovation projects, and dinners out on the patio again. For now: snow in the forecast for next week. But the yard is greening every day!
Happy Spring!
XOXO
A
Happy Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day always makes me a little Romesick. Valentine’s Day has its roots deep in Italy, and so much of what we now associate with this holiday of love is deeply rooted in Roman history.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day!!
Valentine’s Day always makes me a little Romesick. Valentine’s Day has its roots deep in Italy, and so much of what we now associate with this holiday of love is deeply rooted in Roman history. St. Valentine lived in Rome and was martyred about 278 ad. But the iconography of Valentine’s Day is even more ancient.
Take Cupid — the Roman god of love and desire. He is everywhere! And Cupid can easily be confused with putti — naked, winged babies who are all over the place in Italian art and seem to be everywhere on Valentine’s Day. But they are part of an artistic tradition that is more than 2500 years old.
I bought this antique Florentine box from @vintagecollected a few weeks ago. So pretty! The image decoupaged on the top of the box is a print of a fresco from the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. This ancient piece of art shows little putti making perfume. There are three scenes in the actual fresco, but only two appear on my box: putti crushing something to make the oils, and then setting up shop to sell the perfumes. So if you give or receive a bottle of perfume today, it is part of an ancient tradition and a link to the past, too.
However you celebrate Valentine’s Day, may it be a celebration of love! 😘
XOXO
Angela
Originally posted on Instagram. Are we connected on Instagram? If not, follow me! There’s a whole lot going on on IG!
Happy Galentine's Day!
Celebrate Leslie Knope’s favorite holiday, Galentine’s Day, every February 13. It is a celebration of female friendship and sisterhood — and it is awesome!
I am lucky to have some really lovely, wonderful women in my life! I have always been the kind who has a few very deep friendships, and some of those friendships now stretch back more than 25 years. For all of my sweet girl friends cast about across the country and the world — I am so thankful!
Happy Galentine’s Day!
If you are in the dark about Galentine’s Day, well, you aren’t alone, and clearly you didn’t watch enough Parks and Recreation! As Leslie Knope says, “What’s Galentine’s Day? Oh, it’s only the best day of the year! Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it breakfast style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair — minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”
Here’s a little Leslie Knope joy to help you in your Galentine’s Day celebration!
Happy Galentine’s Day!
XOXOX
Angela
Valentine's Day Decoration Ideas
Vintage-inspired Valentine’s Day decor using milk glass and vintage Italian glass as well as flowers, paper garlands, and DIY mailboxes. Inspiration for simple but elegant Valentine’s Day decor including homemade elements.
Hello! I hope you are doing well — staying warm and cozy! We had lots of snow this week which made for some fun creation time. Our house is all decorated for Valentine’s Day which has been a fun project. I have three Valentine’s Day projects to share with you this week!
First up: our favorite homemade Valentines! Bambino painted these last year, and they were really fun to do — and basically free!
I also have instructions to make this crazy-cute and really easy Heart Garland and Love Bunting! I made this for our mantle, and I love how it turned out! I’ve included files to download in PNG and SVG formats.
And finally for those of you who have a Cricut or a Silhouette, I have free file downloads to make these awesome Valentine’s mailboxes! We love them, and they are the centerpiece of our dining room table this week. Check it out!
And if you just want to peep at our decorations, feel free to check out the photo album…
Wishing you all a great week and a happy Valentine’s Day!
XOXO
Angela
Review: How to Train Your Dragon 3
As much as this film is about death-defying, dragon-borne ariels and fighting a bad guy with a decided Putin world view and accent, it is deeply rooted in Hiccup’s relationships, the cornerstone of the trilogy.
All images courtesy of Dreamworks and NBCUniversal
A Post-#MeToo Protagonist for All of Us
In our family we celebrate great stories about friendship, love, tenderness, and intimacy. Female protagonists are common in such stories — Anne Shirley, Laura Ingalls, Ramona Quimby, the Dashwood sisters, the Marsh girls.
Male protagonists in such stories are rare. But then there’s Hiccup and the motley band of Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
Hiccup is cast as the unlikely hero in this trilogy of movies, loosely based on Cressida Cowell’s series of books. He is quiet. He is small. He has no interest in becoming like his Nordic chieftain father, an omnipresent theme in the first two movies. But in this third installation, those duties fall squarely on his shoulders, and he must figure out how to lead his friends and fellow Vikings and to save the dragons they all love so much. And as much as this film is about death-defying, dragon-borne ariels and fighting a bad guy with a decided Putin world view and accent, it is deeply rooted in Hiccup’s relationships, the cornerstone of the trilogy.
And here’s the thing about Hiccup — he is the hero our boys need to see. He is the antidote to the toxic vision of masculinity presented by so much of the entertainment industry. He loves deeply. He is confused. He is sensitive and soft and shy and not a natural leader and those things don’t just magically disappear when he becomes the “hero.” He tenderly cares for dragons AND enjoys a rollicking ride through the sky on the back of Toothless, the sweetest-looking dragon ever.
He is a good friend, not in the superficial joshing, ribbing, teasing way, but when Toothless can’t fly alone with a new-found potential mate, Hiccup fixes Toothless’ tail, intuitively addressing the needs of his friend who can’t ask for such things. Not only does Hiccup see that Toothless may need a mate, but he also sees why that would be important.
Yes, Hiccup is surrounded by other young-adult Vikings who are less noble and more gross than he is. There are plenty of potty jokes for the elementary-school crowd. And there is some teasing about love and marriage — but never about the bond between friends or Vikings or dragons. And this is a subtle but important difference. In Berk, friendships are cherished, sacred.
And then there is Astrid.
First, let me note that this movie brilliantly dispenses with the silly, awkward courtship rituals of so many animated movies — the ones where either the male looks a buffoon or the female swoons or rejects him and then gives in. The first two movies both had a bit of that. But in this third installment that notion of romance is replaced instead by several charming sequences neatly drawn from Planet Earth 2 as Toothless and his mate preen and prance looking oh so much like Wilson’s bird of paradise — a fact not lost on Bambino who loves the entire Planet Earth series. The mating ritual is at once silly and sweet — and carefully observed by Hiccup from afar with a scientist’s curiosity and a friend’s loving help.
Back to the humans… having removed the awkward silliness of human courtship, that animal-documentary device lends a seriousness to the relationship between Astrid and Hiccup which is rare in children’s movies. Astrid isn’t just a love-interest. She isn’t just a friend. She is a partner, and without giving away too much, the unequivocal message comes from Hiccup’s bad-ass mother, Valka, who notes that Hiccup and Astrid must partner and work together — to lead. This isn’t a “girls can’t do it without boys” message — it is about the strength of partnerships and teamwork. Astrid and Hiccup. Together.
But perhaps the most powerful vision of masculinity comes in the snapshots of fatherhood — flashbacks between Hiccup and his now-deceased dad — and a vision from the future as well. Visions of tenderness, warmth, love, and compassion. The picture of fatherhood in this film is not of a son unable to live up to his dad. It is of the warmth and love between father and son, a passing down of tradition without threat or fear. Tears shed. Hands held. Deep hugs. And a father at once shielding his children — and awakening a tenderness in them. This is a change from the last two movies, and I think this installation is better for it.
I hope none of this is unintentional. I hope it marks a new chapter in movie-making. After all, America Ferrera, the voice of Astrid in this series, is one of the leaders of the TIME’S UP movement. And with little fanfare TJ Miller was replaced following several recent scandals. Hollywood has a lot of work to do. But there is a deep sensitivity in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World which gives me hope. I pray we see more protagonists like Hiccup for our child — and yours.
We are picky about the movies we welcome into our home — and even more so about the movies we see at a theater. But How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was storytelling worth our time and our money.
PS: Now curious about the mating rituals of Wilson’s bird of paradise? Here you go…
Easy Linen Closet Organizers
Make your linen closet a thing of beauty and joy! Create these easy DIY linen closet storage dividers which will corral your linens, and make your closet spark joy!
We are working our way through the KonMari process. Are you on this journey, too? Maybe you have done it before. It is exhausting! But it is great, too. And there is joy! This weekend my joy came in the form of my linen closets.
Yes, I know. Linen closets.
We KonMari’d the sheets and towels, but we have little, slightly awkward linen closets. Don’t get me wrong: we have more storage space than EVER before. We just needed to tweak it. So Romano and I designed this nifty DIY linen closet storage system that is cheap, easy, and doesn’t require screws or nails — so it is perfect for renters, too.
So, today my linen closets look like this…
Seriously! Did you hear the angels sing when you looked? They do — every time I open the door!
This video shows how easy these dividers are to install:
And I have all of the details about how to make them at the link below. You could use the same idea to organize clothes, towels… anything you need to corral.
Hope you are having a great day!
XOXO
Angela
Bombas Socks: Discount Code
My mom gave my husband some of these socks for Christmas. One of those boring-but-necessary gifts -- except that he LOVES them! And they gave me a discount code you can use for 25% off your WHOLE order! Plus, I'll get some awesome-sauce socks, too. So if you have cold feet, here's a place to warm your tootsies!
You have to use THIS link to get the discount, just FYI.
Cheers!
Bombas Socks: 25% Off
Order Now!
