My Color Personality

To employ some relaxation tips myself, I took some time to wind down with the latest issue of House Beautiful. I've been working with a client lately and we're focusing primarily on color... paint color, wall color, stain color... she's moving into a house and wants everything re-done.

Color can be tough. I want to become known as a designer who has a gift with color. As it stands I feel competent - but there's always room for improvement, especially when your goal is mastery!

Some people take the quiz in Vogue or Cosmo - for me today, it was the HB Color Personality quiz. Here's what it said:

Numerology Key to Your Color Personality - L+A+U+R+E+N...
Blue - Optimistic, empathetic, flexible, idealistic, tranquil, patient, devoted. A natural mother. (may I say that I love the "natural mother" part?)

Colorstrology - find out the color of your birthday and what it says about you...

December: Pagoda Blue (dark teal) Wisdom, Truth, Vision

17th: Purple Sage (grayed violet) Perceptive, Deep, Strong

My Color "Season" -- Hello Spring!

"Select colors that look like they were bathed in sunlight. You receive compliments in bright colors: watermelon, turquoise, salmon" (hmm?)

My "Colortime" - uses classic colors lifted from nature, ala, "sunrise", "sunset"

Sunrise: "Your decorating palette veers toward cool colors and is inspired by the natural elements of air and water. It literally sparkles with jewel and royal tones of amethyst, orchid, emerald, royal blue, and prism pink. Cool gray, rose-beige, and mauvey-taupe are good neutrals for you. Your best white is pure-as-the-driven-snow white."

And finally -

Be Relaxed: Studio 5 Segment

Today I went back to KSL to record a live segment on Studio 5. The show's theme this month is "Be Relaxed" - and my segment revolved around ways to relax in the bedroom. We talked about design tips and techniques along with various products and concepts that evoke sensory reactions. I displayed three different nightstands; each with its own decor and products/accessories.

I had a wonderful time, again! I'm thrilled to be a part of the show and excited to return in September for the "Find Your Style" week featuring Home Decor.

Dalmatians - saw them. loved them. found them. want them.

I saw this great feature in the latest issue of Coastal Living magazine and while the entire house is very cool - I fell in love with the pair of dalmatians in the window. What a great find! I love whimsical pieces like these. I thought they were one-of-a-kind. A few weeks later I visited Wisteria and to my great suprise - dalmatians! A Wisteria exclusive.

If I do get them I think I'll have to get a pair. Don't you think they're cuter that way? I do. But I'm a twin, after all.

Girls Camp 2009

Last Tuesday I drove up to the Heber Valley Camp for a day at Girls' Camp. I am our ward's Personal Progress coordinator... what a fun calling. Had I known what the camp was like and how much the girls in our ward/stake were into what was going on, I would have stayed much longer. The Heber Valley Camp is a project that was inspired by President Hinckley and is an amazing development used by the young women's organization only. Each of the eight campsites has separate pavillions, kitchens, cabins and ampitheaters for each stake, at least six stakes per campsite. I heard there were over 3,000 girls there the week we camped and we never saw another group. Driving up there I thought I was driving to the top of the world. You'd never know it exisited, nestled on the far side of Heber on the other side of the moutain range. As I pulled up to the entrance for the camp, (picture something as grand as the Jurassic Park visitors center - the only comparison I can think of), there were huge banners hanging in sequence down the driveway. Each waved a color of the various young women value colors. It may sound stupid but the sight made me teary-eyed. The flags were larger than life and the colors were so vivid. What a great inspiration for President Hinckley to have had and what a great effect is is having on the young women in the church.

I was there from sun-up to lights out. The girls did a craft session making bows and colorful clippies for a program called "Smiles for Guatemala" - what a great organization. Later we went on a hike down to the lake for some canoeing and paddle-boating. Picture 100 girls pushing off their canoes at the same time, on a small shoreline... priceless! Almost as priceless as those not-so-patient senior missionaries that were assigned to direct the activity. We were told not to stand up in our canoes as it causes serious capsizing... well a few girls stood up anyway. We all hear loudly from the lookout tower, over a bullhorn of course, "SIT DOWN you naughty, naughty girls!!!" - so hilarious. They weren't our girls, of course.




Later we were in charge of our own dutch oven dinners - also an experience. By that time we were so hungry we ate it anyway, despite the slightly charred flavoring. That evening we walked up to a secluded ampitheater for a devotional. The speaker was Sister Cook from the General Young Women's Presidency. She is an inspirational woman. I sat looking around thinking that I was probably getting as much out of her words as the girls it was intended for. I felt like a young woman again. Sister Cook is from Park City and said that when she's out speaking across the world and refers to the examples of righteous young women, she is thinking of the Park City stake girls. "You are my girls", she said. How wonderful for them to hear.

When it was dark the stake did an activity called "singing trees" - where each ward's girls and leaders bring flashlights and surround a tree of their choice. The groups are all spread out across an area and it is pitch black. Each ward has a predetermined hymn to sing and an order in which to sing, and it remains totally dark except for the tree where the ward is singing, where flashlights shine up the tree trunks to illuminate the tree. It was so cool! We could see only the light in the treetops and hear beautiful voices!

The young women in our Silver Creek ward are tremendous examples of real girls living righteously amidst the trials of teenage life. They are energetic, outgoing, lively and comical girls!

Bear Lake 2009

Ben and I went to the annual Bitner family reunion at Bear Lake over Pioneer Day. Grandma and Grandpa rent condos for everyone for the whole week - but some of us (who have day jobs) couldn't get away until Thursday night. Hey, we'll take what we can get! We drove up to Bear Lake and Ben had to be dropped off at the course. He played at least three rounds in four days.

We had a great time despite some stormy and breezy weather. Not so great water for boating but the setting is so pretty anyway it didn't bother me much. I didn't take many pictures but I'll post what I've got.


The Ideal Beach Resort is like a cross between the resort in the movie "Dirty Dancing" and the camp in "Parent Trap" - it's kinda like going back in time. In the evenings we'd sit around on this giant lawn in the middle of the condos and play lawn games.