XOXO: Linda's Colorful World

Favorite paintings.

   "Some colors that have become really trendy and popular should be credited to me. For example, I have been using orange as an accent color for years...and I paired it with pink way before Tory Burch did!"

                                                                       ~ Linda Rosenberg McGuire

A glimpse at her closet.

She has a way with color, wearing it and decorating with it. She doesn't try hard to make herself or her house look good. She merely chooses what she XOXOs and it all falls into place. 

Happy Feet

When Linda visited me in Florida we took a long walk and I could not help staring at her sneakers and how great they looked in the super-green grass.

"I wore lots of black during my late teen years when I had a weight problem. In my mid 20s, I started to add pinks and purples around my face because I thought it brought out my green eyes. The older I got the more I realized that color just brightens me up inside and to the outside world as well."

I love that Linda still lives with my  mother's painting.

Linda and I met in kindergarten. I slept over her house a lot. I remember the chocolate brown den where we watched TV. I am pretty sure her bedroom was yellow. She recounts a lot of orange in the house and I remember a fair amount of blue. Plus, she grew up with one of my mother's colorful abstract paintings and still prominently hangs it today.

"Both my sister and I surround ourselves with color. I think it has something to do with growing up in a very colorful house."

On a recent visit to Pennsylvania, I helped Linda pick paint colors for her new home. Owned by the school where she works, she tread conservatively as she could not put color up on every single wall. She was allotted 3 accent colors beyond the creamy ivory everywhere color. She chose a saffron yellow in the kitchen, medium rich pink for her bedroom and a bluish gray for her son's rooms. I look forward to seeing it all upon my return. 

In the meantime, here are some more photos from the house that was.

"Surrounded by young men (Linda has 3 sons), pink in my bedroom makes me feel like is is a "lady cave."Warm tones in my living space elicit feelings of warmth , happiness and an overall cozy feeling.

"I have had green dining rooms in my last two homes. I think it is a gathering color, healthy color, and a color always associated with good nutrition. I read once that it is a color that encourages people to stay at the table, but I am not convinced it works."

Selecting a bowl: This is a choice I relish being faced with.

"I actually like a lot of color in my food too. On of my favorite dishes to make is tomato sauce with poached eggs on a bed of spinach. Beautiful!


Linda Rosenberg McGuire is a parenting coach, consultant, and speaker with keen insight into the teenage mind. She shares knowledge and guides parents and teens with a compelling combination of humor, wisdom, and personal experience. Linda is also the Dean of Students at Westtown School in PA.