Once Within A Lifetime by Phyllis Georgina Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

suggestions, she made notes on her drawing with a quick little sketch, which she called her fashion shorthand. “Thank you, this is a tremendous help.”
    They walked into a large living room at the opposite side of the entrance. It did definitely sport a woman’s touch, yet was not uncomfortable for a man. A grand piano stood in front of a large bay window which allowed rays of light to shine across the neatly arranged music on the keyboard.
    He stroked the keyboard, “Do you play the piano?”
    “ Yes, I do, and I will play for you soon.”
    At the end of the entrance was a grand spiral staircase with a burgundy rug on it. Two curved, spiral stairs, one on either side, ascended magnificently to the semicircular balcony surrounding the large opening below. She greatly admired the design she had seen in an elegant home in Europe and had it copied for her home. The only change was the color of the rug, from red to mauve, which seemed to fit better with her surroundings. She’d adopted many features from other lands and areas of the country.
    As they arrived at the foot of the stairs, he saw his roses atop stands on either side of the stairs. He looked at her and smiled. They climbed the stairs to face three doors around the arc of the semicircle. He stood looking around and down at the area below.
    “ What an elegant design. Where did you ever come up with such a grand idea? It is simply marvelous.”
    “ I have collected pictures for years from many available sources, such as magazines, videos, trade journals, and the like. I combined many of them to produce what I wanted. Some ideas were my own. I decided where I wanted the rooms and how large I needed them for the use I had in mind. Then I planned my garden to be visible from the rooms. I had a picture in mind and worked with it, with help from my father and brother.”
    Her bedroom was on the right overlooking the pool and part of the garden, above the patio. Several large windows allowed the moonlight to flood in at night to shine over her bed and a large area of the room. This was a special part of her plan so she could enjoy lying there looking up at the moon and the stars when they were visible on a clear night through a large sky light above the bed. This helped her relax after a busy day. Being on an upper floor, there was no need for heavy drapes. She used lavender filmy curtains, blending beautifully with her pale yellow walls, adding a lovely touch and letting in more light which was very important to her.
    The door in the center led into her office, a medium sized room, tastefully adorned and well equipped to cover her needs. Correspondence was lying in neat piles on her desk, some being recent responses, stamped and ready to mail.
    The left door led into a large spare bedroom. It had the same window arrangement as her own bedroom with a view of the garden and bench near the goldfish pond.
    “ The rooms look like they had been done by an interior designer.” He turned to her, “Who did the rooms for you? The design is beautiful.”
    “ I did it myself. It was one of my hobbies. I have been interested in it even as a child. I love to do it. After all, most design principles are the same in all fields: lines, color, and patterns to fit one’s needs and put together with harmony and function. When you are interested in so many things, you just notice, absorb, and learn how to use them. It seems so natural and gives such enjoyment. The hard part was knowing when to stop and get on with other things. It is like a painter, when do you to stop and say enough? Time to add just the signature. The only thing that helped with this was to develop a plan and stay with it, using free time to absorb and learn ideas other than those which naturally came with the doing. Does this make sense to you at all?”
    “ Yes, it does, and knowing you, makes it seem so right and natural because it is you. I am extremely proud of you. You truly are a very versatile woman with a