The Dare Dreamer Movement by Julene Fleurmond

I love all types of crafts, especially those you can share with others. I first heard about the amazing work of Eleanor Leinen, known as the “Celebrity Gift Wrapper” on a segment I saw on a local newscast. (Above is a screenshot of her website.) On the segment she shows how you can make a gift even more special by making the presentation memorable. The elegance of her craft is so detailed and creative, that it makes you not even want to open the gift! Click here to see her wonderful work. Here is the video of the segment I saw, and below are some screen captures.

I love how she used sheer glittery cloth in the gift bag instead of tissue paper.

I’ll admit that I’m a big kid. In between college, running my business and doing all of the “adult” things in life, I still watch the Disney Channel sometimes (ok, alot) and like to embrace my inner child. One of my many interests is interior decorating. I love watching decorating shows, and one is Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls on the Discovery Kids Channel, a spin-off of the adult Trading Spaces. The room makeovers the kids and designers do on the show are so imaginative and whimsical. They inspire me bring a creative theme into my own bedroom or art studio. Here are some of my favorite rooms from the show (the link will come up in a new window, and you can click the arrow to see the before and after of the room):

One of my very favorites the Broadway Theater. I love the purple and gold combination, the wall painting and the lights!

Another one of my favorites, an “Underwater Dream.” I wish my room looked like that!

Another favorite, the Actress Dressing Room. I love the elegance of the gold and red silk drapery and pillows.

I’m loving the canopy in this African Safari!

This South Beach room takes me back home to Miami. I’m loving the lighting, palm trees and colors.

Here’s a room that was transformed into a Princess Tower. I love the shades of purple, the arch over the bed and the realistic landscape on the wall.

If I were this kid, I’d love to be sent to my room as “punishment” in this Beach Paradise.

It looks like a real Jungle!

Back in the day, to an early American General Store and a Rustic Log Cabin

Here’s a cool “High-tech Spy Warehouse”

Here’s an African and Puerto Rico inspired room and a colorful India inspired room

This one doesn’t even look like a bedroom! It’s a funky Jazz Lounge.

Here’s a quirky Animal Palace. I love the patterns.

He can wake up in the middle of the night to make tracks in this Recording Studio

A future President?

An indoor Skater and Mardi Gras Queen

A delicious and colorful Candy Factory

An “Imperial China” feel and “Japanese Style”

Making Ancient History and preparing for lift-off

You can check out the show’s homepage for more pics, some DIY craft ideas, and the TV schedule. Too bad I’m too old to apply to get my room made-over!

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”

Here are some inspirational words from who I think is
The Epitome of a Renaissance Woman – Dr. Maya Angelou

“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all.”

“So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as heck we should never teach.”

-Dr. Maya Angelou

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
– Henry David Thoreau

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney