Wig3000BathAfter.jpg
"...I also want to share a few photos of my fall cure 2008 project which finally wrapped up last week. AT and its community really helped us with making some of our bath purchase and design decisions. Thanks, AT!" ~ Wig3000 (before pic at bottom)

3-15-Cure.gif• Cure Clock: 8 weeks remaining
• Assignment: Read Chapter 1: Creating Your Own Vision
• Curees: 434.....

Welcome to our seventh online Cure. I've been rereading my book in preparation for our eight-week sojourn together and couldn't be happier that after five years (I wrote it in 2004) it's not only still sharp and fresh, but the Cure movement is growing and flourishing in new ways as we explore the marriage of the book and a web community...

This time, I'm working with some of my amazing AT bloggers: Abby, Laure, Leah, Sarahrae and Susie, and we're accompanying this cohort via three posts a week, which will also be shared by email, and low-tech local "discussion boards" where you can chat directly with folks who live near you. If you want to transform your home, even a little bit, I urge you to sign up, join us and let our many hands make light work of your problems. We'll all be done by Memorial Day.

My job is to post on Mondays, and today I've been thinking about the "visioning" element that this whole thing is based on.

"All successful journeys start with a positive vision"

When I've been called up in the past to help people in their homes, it's usually because they're not happy with what they're living with. Crisis is one of the strongest motivators, but though it provides momentum, it doesn't provide a real good direction. Real motivation and energy come from having an idea — even just a vague one — of what you'd like your home to be like. It comes from being excited and inspired by the possibility of not just of changing something, but creating something wonderful and new. This is what this first week is all about.

In reading the first chapter you'll find there are a number of small tasks to get you started and help you "break the ice," but the biggest thing you can do is to dream and pull together a new vision for your home or a single room. I know it may sound silly, but it's important and this dreaming is what is going to carry you when you run out of steam in week four, five or six.

2-13-rustic dining.jpg
This is an image I've been carrying around for about six months now, that inspires me for our future dining room.

I find my strongest inspiration comes not from magazines and styled shots, but from friends and neighbors, places that I've actually been in that have made an impression or photographs of places that I feel share my style but do it BETTER. I carry these images around inside my head until the time when I'm ready to act on them.

This week — whether you join us or not — try envisioning your home in a way that inspires you. Imagine what you'd like the whole thing or just one room to be like and then draw, cut out or download the images or words that communicate your vision. Put them in a folder or on paper and share them with someone, so that you can hear yourself say them. Once you've done this, your intention will have been born and it's only a matter of time before it happens.

IMG_0174.jpg
AFTER

"This is my apartment before and after my first round of the AT cure. I only fully redid the living room. I'm now in 2.0 mode to prepare for adopting a dog, and taking on the whole apartment." ~ kittykittymeowmixhead

428468389_354a907fe5.jpg
BEFORE

---

Wig3000's before bathroom!

Wig3000BathBefore.jpg

- POST INDEX SPRING 2009

• Week 1 - Creating Your Vision - Intro

- CURE INFO

>> Main Cure Page - Spring 2009
>> About The Book
>> Excerpt from Chapter I

- BUY A BOOK

>> From Amazon
>> From Powell's
>> From Barnes & Noble


3-10-cure.jpg