From flocked wall paper to adhesive backed mirror tiles, (the smoked ones), to avocado appliances, (boy was that a mistake), the environment in which we function has a huge impact on the way we feel.   After over 30 years as a credentialed interior designer, this fact has become deeply embedded in my belief system.  Fortunately, there are wonderful resources out there that will allow you to breathe new life into your surroundings, on the cheap: Target, Ikea, Pier One even Wal-Mart at times.  Start 2010 by punching up just one room that no longer spins your wheels.

Add one new color to what has become a stale and boring space.  The room will tell you what that color should be.  (Unless your room is completely neutral and then you can choose anything, as long as it knocks your socks off.)  Using the one room garage apartment where I am staying, (which is wonderful, but the owner hinted they might be interested in making some changes),  as my example, I am going to pick orange.  Why? 
• Orange has been a hot fashion color and products should be easy to find.

When we heard Diamond Lillian Aubrey sing, (in her deadpan style), Manfred Mann’s “Doo Wah Diddy”, we fell in love, (chin hairs and all).  Turns out that we are not the only ones.  The Young @ Heart Chorus has been up to its charming shenanigans since 1982.   They started in an elderly housing project in Northhampton, MA.  The original group included “elders” that had lived through both wars.  One of the original members—Anna Main, lost her husband in World War I;  she sang with Y@H until she was 100.

Y@H has put together some pretty crazy combinations of talent during the past 28 years of preforming.   Noteworthy collaborations include performing with a group of Latino break-dancers from a local housing project in Main, “Oh No a Condo” with Cambodian folk artists and punk rockers, “Louis Lou I—A Revolting Musical”, (a re-telling of the French Revolution using the songs of Sinatra), and “Flaming Saddles”, a big campy production with the Pioneer Valley Gay Men’s Chorus, to mention only a few. 

Having romped, (clearly they can still romp), all over Europe, Australia, Canada, and the U.S., (with an Asian tour planed for March of this year), they will be available , in their full glory, in NYC this spring, and in L.A.

Talking trash just doesn’t have the naughty little edge that it  used to.  Reducing your carbon footprint and helping the world be a cleaner, safer, healthier place to live—for us and our offspring—requires trash talk and THEN action.  The old “trash to treasure” theory is being implemented on a daily basis by Tiffany Threadgould and her company RePlay-Ground.  They push reincarnating garbage into usable products.  Although initially a disgusting, and possibly dangerous thought, she really has some good ideas. Make a paper-tube fruit bowl for your kitchen or dining area, it’s a great way to add an accent color and could be fabulous, (and what a hoot of a gift idea for the financially strapped)..  Visit www.replayground.com for some great info, as well as some highly tricked-out project suggestions.  And spread the word about using the items you already have instead of buying new—don’t let it be just YOUR dirty little secret.