If the 1970s song "Colour My World" weren't so schmaltzy, it would aptly describe Heather Caswell's California bungalow-style home and garden in Davis.
Caswell, 45, has lived in her home for 10 years and, just like the song's lyric, "as time goes on," she has reworked the environs to reflect her own life experiences.
From her eclectic mix of fashions to her myriad travels to exotic locales like Bali and even a quaint shop in Point Reyes Station, each room in Caswell's home is a study in colors and textures: bright fabrics on pillows and curtains; whimsical butterflies that flitter throughout the house.
Sculpted frogs provide a morning wake-up call.
"My home definitely reflects the things I love, but it has changed as I've changed," Caswell says. "My home is where I revitalize and rejuvenate."
Caswell owns The Wardrobe, a downtown Davis boutique that's been a fashion destination for 20 years.
There, customers don't just buy clothes, they also tap into their own form of self-expression. Caswell even teaches a class on the "fashion intuitive."
"Everywhere I travel, no matter where in the world, I find something to bring back to the store or my home," she says. "That's how I feed who I am as a person in both style and life."
For example, there's Salvador Dali artwork from the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain; a striking Balinese bedspread; and one of her most cherished items, a statue of the Goddess of Abundance, which she found on a sidewalk outside a shop in Point Reyes Station in Marin County.
"It was love at first sight," Caswell says. "I put her on hold, and my boyfriend purchased her for me. She stands in my bedroom with a headpiece I got in Bali 18 years ago.
"I love the artistry and the color," she adds. "The goddess is supposed to bring abundance to the rice fields in Indonesia and Bali."
The past year has not only been filled with travel, it's also been somewhat of a life-changing process for Caswell. She's focusing on her personal well-being as well as on her home and business.
"I'm now my own healer," she says.
Thus, her garden's bounty of green veggies – kale, Swiss chard and spinach – which she whips into "green" shakes with apple or pomegranate for sweetness and a little flax seed for protein.
"I put a lot of energy into my garden, which produces year-round, including fruit trees."
And she's joined the rank and file of yoga enthusiasts, taking classes since December with local artist Donna Billick, who is a longtime friend, travel partner and mood mender.
(Billick is famous in the Davis art world for creating the cow fountain and dancing pigs at the city's Marketplace and the "Meditation" sculpture at Central Park. She is co-director of the Art/ Science Fusion Program at UC Davis.)
"Donna left her purse in my car one day last December and, rather than have her come by my house to pick it up, I met her at 8:30 on a Saturday morning at Bo Tree (yoga studio) in Davis.
"My whole life started shifting after that."
Now, Caswell has a meditation room at home. She shops for local produce and sells an organic skin-care line, Benedetta, at The Wardrobe.
The products are made in Petaluma with ingredients grown in Dixon.
"I also use the products at home," she says.
With her personal and professional roles so entwined, Caswell enjoys switching out items from The Wardrobe and reusing them at home. For example, dressing room curtains are in her living room; backdrops in the store's windows are in her remodeled office.
"It's almost time to retrieve the Halloween masks from my garage to set up the holiday scene in the store," she says.
As the weather cools, the colors (Caswell calls them "mood food") in her home deepen.
More time at home means more time for yet another project. Caswell will add author to her self-portrait, hopefully next year.
The working title of her book is "The Art of Becoming You." Her mentor is Carol Klesow, an author and teacher in the philosophy of color healing.
They met as business owners and have since become friends and confidantes.
Call The Bee's Leigh Grogan, (916) 321-1129.
