Dyslexic Decorating

So about two years ago, while in my second semester at college, I came to learn that I was dyslexic.  Thanks to a little gadget like this:

 I was able to memorize the correct spelling of most words and learned to 'decode' what we know as reading, when I was a little girl. If not for my speak'nspell, I'm not sure I'd have learned to read the way I did.

If any of you are dyslexic or know someone who is - a child, a friend, a relative, a classmate, this will perhaps resonate.

Most people identify dyslexia as a learning disability where the person twists letters backwards, but in truth dyslexia covers many areas, including ADD.  If you picture an umbrella, there are multiple areas that would fall under it.

:-)

Math is my idea of torture - anything beyond simple addition etc. and I'm what my grade 8 math teacher referred to as "How could you POSSIBLY be so STUUUUUPID!" (imagine a british accent and a very frustrated tone) I avoid it at all costs, just to save my brain.  Quite happily :)

However, since being on Ana White's woodworking website (found here), I think I'm going to try some projects that involve woodworking. Woodworking = measurements = math.  Gulp.  Well, my mama says I like to take risks...so...

I have no internal GPS (meaning I cannot find any directional sense, and I do mean that); my kids would ask "Mom, are we going to get there?" rather than "Mom, are we there yet?"when we were going somewhere..


 My reading comprehension is decidedly low (as is my memory - if you add my recently-celebrated 40th birthday and oh dear lol!) and because I think in pictures, I'm easily bored, and process swiftly.

 So, there's goods and bads to this.  Bads when it comes to schooling, goods when it comes to creativity and thinking.  There's "gifts" when it comes to dyslexia too.

Which is what this post is about.

Dyslexic decorating :)

Do you ever have a hard time FINISHING a project?

At any given time I have about 30 projects on the go, with various rooms in various states of completion.  Sometimes that gets 'over the top' and I force myself to FINISH a room. FINISH projects.

FINISHING a room means this to me: "no auctions, no yard sales, no thrift shopping, no shopping in general, ignore blogs (or try!, but above all, NO PINTEREST)"  It feels almost like a punishment!

But I don't do well living in chaos, and I feel sooo good when I get things DONE...and we're moving into the holiday season, and I need to be in that room to make gifts and cards soooo....

I'm fighting against my dyslexic tendancies to flit and fly from one room to another like a butterfly, seeing this and that and getting this idea and that idea...and I'm GETTING IT DONE!

Right now, to give you an idea, here's just my craft room list:

UNFINISHED PROJECTS LIST

Craft room

-sand/stain desktop of desk
-paint/wax desk
-paint/wax bookshelf
-paint/wax sewing table
-find cute chair
-paint walls (this took THREE tries.  How hard is it choose a pale pink?!  Thankfully it no longer looks like a 90's baby room - turns out I needed something along the 'peachy' lines to get the look I was going for)
-find cheap drawer knobs for wall unit to replace the ugly ones
-put together gallery of b&w heritage photos
-hang gallery of photos
-finish staining pull-outs on desk
-order wooden circles/pulls for creative window treatment
-find lace curtains for window - I have one, where did the other one go?!
-paint/wax antique chair
-re-upholster antique chair
-add moldings to wall unit
-finish painting/waxing wall unit (currently has one and-a-half coats on it - almost finished!)
-sew muslin liners for IKEA storage baskets in storage closet
-sew muslin liners for various other storage baskets (which hold scrapbooking/craft supplies)
-organize storage closet

So ya.  There's my list.  My goal is to have MOST of it completed by the end of the week, when I fly off to Vancouver, BC Canada to visit with family and friends. I need help with reinforcing the antique chair and the cutting of the moldings but I think I can manage the rest..

Here's a sneak peek of what I've been busy with..

(meet Rio, who *loves* my craft room window - there's a birdbath about two feet away from where she is)

So that's a peek at what I've been busy with - are you busy with a very 'personal' project, such as a personal office, craft/creating space, maybe an intimate reading nook?  How do you find it different from decorating, say, a bathroom or living room?  I find I have so much freedom to make it truly mine that I almost didnt't know where to begin.  Almost.  Now, to finish it.  

And I'm only going to the auction tonight to look for a mirror for my mother.  Honest.

:))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To read more about dyslexia, please click here.

For fun, here is a list of famous people with the gift of dyslexia - whoohoo I share this with the founder of IKEA!