by llenore | Mar 20, 2024 | Beauty, Blog, Business, Color, Creativity, Energy, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Feng Shui, Good Life, Home, Interior Design, Intuition, Living Room, My Story, Nature, Reflect You, Self Care, White, Yellow
Have you ever made a poor choice in decorating your home? If you did, was it your choice or someone else’s opinion you followed?
Design Mistakes
Blue, single-cushion, extra-long sofa
It was 1970. The sheer draperies recently were installed in my living room when a ‘friend’ said, “What were you thinking when you chose that color?” I thought the color was fine. Afterall, it was basically white!
The interior designer from the big chain store told me they were a great choice based on the other furnishings. My friend proceeded to tell me they were “too grey” with the other yellow-based colors I had in the room.
I was so embarrassed! I’d spent a huge amount of money on those draperies and knew my husband would be furious if he ever found out “they were wrong for the room!”
That wasn’t my first design mistake. It was one in a series. Buying a 95” sofa was one of the worst since it didn’t fit anyplace. My then husband, who was 6’5” tall, insisted on it in order to stretch out on it.
Design Classes
My friend’s comment was the last straw. I looked for a class to teach me about interior design. I found one through the parks & recreation department being held in a church and taught by a teacher from the prestigious Parsons School of Design. What a learning experience!
I became fascinated with the many guidelines of design. Many were totally impractical since I had a 2-year-old daughter and was going to have another child later that year. I made a new life-long friend who helped me put things into perspective.
She said, “If you want your home to be a showplace, you might want to follow the rules. If you want to have a comfortable home where you can raise a family and not worry about the mishaps that happen with children, use your common sense.”
She was a wise woman who shared lots of sage advice on numerous topics throughout our 40-year friendship. Sometimes the most valuable lessons learned are not from “teachers,” but from friendships.
Design Business
Within a year I had started an interior design business with several neighborhood ladies. We all were taking interior design classes at the local college. Our company was called, It’s About Design.
Each one of us had specific qualities we brought to the company. I was great at teaching classes that brought us clients. My focus was on the PRACTICAL SIDE of design. If you had children, pets, and/or didn’t like to clean house, I was your gal!
Now I do know the difference between yellow-based and grey-based whites. I’ve trained my eye. I also know, life is too short to focus on material things. It’s family, friendships, experiences, and the beauty of nature that means the world to me.
But if you have design questions, I love to share the pros and cons, the practical, and what truly matters in life. I’m glad to share my stories, experiences, wisdom, and sage advice. Just ask me!
by llenore | Mar 8, 2024 | Ba-Gua, Beauty, Blog, Business, Creativity, Energy, Energy, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Feng Shui, Intuition, Intuition, Number 8, Number 8, Power - Power Tools, Self Care, Wealth, Wealth, Women - Feminine
In learning Feng Shui nearly 40 years ago I learned about the energy of numbers, especially the power behind the Number 8.
Number 8
The odd numbers are considered masculine, and the even numbers are considered feminine.
In many of the Asian cultures the pronunciation of the word for wealth and the word for “8” sound almost the same. There is just a slight difference in the intonation. Hence, 8 (eight) is considered the MONEY NUMBER!
Yet the power of eight goes far beyond money. It is a double container of creation. Most of the numbers are “open” when you write them numerically, except for 6, 8, and 9. With 6 and 9 you only have one closed circle. The number 8 has two closed circles or containers to hold potential.
Taking that one step further in relation to the feminine body, think of a pregnant woman with her enlarged belly, which holds a new creation. It is DOUBLE the life force!
Infinity
Another interesting aspect happens when you turn 8 on its side. It becomes the symbol for infinity! (∞)
A fascinating tidbit in my Feng Shui training was the power of the numbers energetically in correlation with the yearly dates. This is aside from the Zodiac Animals and Period timeframes. It goes back to my statement about masculine (odd) and feminine numbers (even)
The whole of the 1900 century was “masculine” because the first number was a “1” or odd, masculine number. When 2000 started, the energy slowly started to shift to a more feminine quality. I’m not going to go into all of that right now, and I will say the shift does take time. Yet you can start to see nuances toward feminine-based ways of doing things happening if you pay attention.
Add that the larger the single-digit number, the more power it has. The year 2008 was considered the beginning of “the Feminine Millennium” according to my Asian-cultured masters.
Knowing about these qualities or facts regarding the number 8, I find it interesting that International Woman’s DAY is observed on the 8th day of March because March has been designated as “National Women’s History Month.”
Let’s take this one more step –
What if all the symbolism I’ve listed about number 8 brings those energies to life, like:
Women growing their wealth
Women sharing their female qualities
Women being the Creatrix of new ideas
Women stepping into their power
Women honoring their intuition (a quality often suggested as more female oriented)
Women growing in positions of power
Then we add this year (2024) is a year with 3 even-based numbers (2-0-2-4 – The number zero isn’t assigned a masculine or feminine quality), and you have a potentially very powerful year for women.
As I said, just interesting thoughts.
by llenore | Feb 26, 2024 | Beauty, Business, Dreams, Energy, Energy, Feng Shui, Feng Shui Schools, Good Life, Health, Linda Lenore, Mind-Body-Environment, Self Care, SelfCare, Spiritual, Symbolism, Visions - visioning - Vision Boards
February 26, 2002 will always be a MAGICAL DAY for me!
Diploma Certification as Feng Shui Master
It was the day I earned my Feng Shui Master’s degree/certification. Many things contributed to the “magic!”
The journey has been unexpected, long, interesting, terrifying, blissful, disconcerting, challenging, mystical, weird, expansive, and so much more – especially LIFE-CHANGING! Someday I’ll have written a book about it all, but for now I’ll share part of this particular day plus a few events that led up to it.
As I write this, I see it is going to be longer than what I want one post to be. Hence, this will be Part One.
I’d been taking courses on various topics including Feng Shui with Prof. Dr. Jes T.Y. Lim for several years. Because of his extensive and diverse education, these trainings encompassed so much more than Feng Shui. Since he has diplomas and degrees in psychology, medicine, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), hypnotherapy, and business administration, we’d learn all of these modalities and how to interconnect them.
Leading up to the 3-week course –
Culturally, as a student, it is disrespectful to arrive late to a class, and late could be as little as a couple of minutes. I was planning to attend this course when my “life-saving” best friend announced she was getting married. (I’ll share the “life-saving” story for another time also.) When the Twin Towers were attacked in September 2001, she was in Tahiti. That was a wake-up call for her to marry the love-of-her-life NOW! It was scheduled for February 9, which happened to be the first day of the Canary Island course.
It may sound strange, but back then many of us didn’t have, or use, email like we do now. It was still a very new technology and everyone was working out the bugs with it. I emailed the organizer to tell her I wouldn’t be attending after all – and why.
Arial View of Hotel – I believe it is Dreams Jardin Tropical
A couple days later I received a personal phone call from Dr. Lim from his home in Australia with this voice message: “Linda, you go to best friend’s wedding. Then you catch the first flight next morning out of San Francisco. When you arrive in Tenerife, you go straight to hotel, drop off bags, and come to class!”
WHAT?!!! That is totally unheard of!!! Many times I had seen a person kicked out of course, or even kicked out of the Feng Shui School, for being as late as an hour because it is such an insult or dishonoring to the Master when one is late. To be given permission to be almost 2 days late – actually to be given a directive to attend even though I was going to be 2 days late – I was in tears with gratitude!
I did exactly that.
I was stopped and searched in San Francisco because I was carrying eight 18″ hollow copper rods as part of the “tools” I needed for the training. Remember, this was about 4 months after 911 and security was exceptionally high.
I knew it might be challenging to get through security, even though I had contacted airport security telling them I was going to be traveling with the copper rods. I allowed plenty of time – at least I thought I had. I had allowed 4 hours and it took every bit of the four hours and then some – to the point where I did almost miss the flight!
Maybe this day stands out as magical to me because of the prelude. Yet when I tell you some of the rest of the story these following days, you just might see a Divine Directive was at play!
by llenore | Feb 2, 2024 | Business, Chinese New Year, Energy, Energy, Energy, Feng Shui, Food-Recipes, Health, Optimistic
I love to have fun with Feng Shui, which makes the energy created even more powerful. The energetic vibrancy of joy, happiness, love, playfulness, creativity, and beauty – to name a few adjectives of high emotional vibrations – can change just about any possible bad vibes.
Groundhog Day Cookies from Penzey’s website
That’s why a sign I used “on stage” at the 100’s of presentations I did around North America in the late 1990s and early 2000s had the word FUN in bold letters!
Hence, this blog is about having FUN!!! (I also incorporate FUN FRIDAY FENG SHUI posts on my social media most Fridays.)
GROUNDHOG DAY – COOKIES & DO OVERs
When I lived close to a Penzey’s spice store, they had a special promotion on making Groundhog Day cookies. I immediately purchased a cookie cutter to celebrate this fun and unique day. You can find the recipe I used here: https://www.penzeys.com/shop/recipes/groundhog-cookies/
Official Groundhog Cookie Recipe from “VisitPA”
It turns out there is an Official Groundhog Cookie Recipe from Pennsylvania here: https://www.visitpa.com/article/official-groundhog-cookie-recipe
I always loved the movie, Groundhog Day, because it gave me hope that I can “do over” anything until I get it right – or close enough!
Groundhog Day Movie image from Amazon
Do Overs – Getting It Right vs. Doing What Works
There was a time I wrote a blog every week – sometimes every day. I loved sharing my knowledge, especially the many things not usually discussed about Feng Shui.
You see, I was not an advocate of Feng Shui when first introduced to it nearly 40 years ago. Always asking “WHY?” got me dismissed from several Feng Shui schools. That lesson taught me to keep asking questions until I found the answers. That’s a DO OVER of one type.
Since I love to share the “little known” or “held privately” knowledge, I’m committed to write blogs more often. There is a huge amount of unmentioned knowledge about Feng Shui. I do share them in my courses and will be sharing here as well.
Because I was always asking WHY, I figured out how many other diverse modalities I’ve studied connect to each other. EVERYTHING IS ENERGY! EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED! That’s why you will find me discussing and sharing Feng Shui in a way that connects rather than isolates.
Chinese New Year Checklist
As part of the interconnectedness, I celebrate the Chinese New Year. It’s a time to think about what I want to DO OVER. What worked? What didn’t work? This year it starts on February 10th, 2024.
It’s a time to focus on gratitude when I’m not exhausted from the holiday madness that results with the Western calendar year. I love the symbology and the shift in energy that’s created when I utilize some of the customs.
Dragon Reflection in the water as part of the Chinese or Lunar New Year Ceremonies
I’ve created a CHECKLIST with things to do in your house BEFORE the New Year, activities or tasks to shift your personal energy in preparation for the New Year (both of these can be done for any “new year or new beginning”), and the customs for the FIRST DAY of the Chinese New Year. You can get your FREE eBook here: https://lindalenore.com/cny2024/
Since one of the customs is doing a deep cleaning of your home and tomorrow is the last Saturday before the New Year, I will be doing my deep cleaning this weekend!
How about you? What are your thoughts on Groundhog Day, “DO OVERs,” and Chinese New Year? Please share in the comments.
DON’T FORGET – GRAB YOUR 2024 CHINESE NEW YEAR CHECKLIST HERE! https://lindalenore.com/cny2024/
