At Home: Get merry and bright!

 Rituals are an important part of our lives, even if they can be boring at times.  My official marker for winter is an appointment to get the tires changed on our car.  It's happened. Winter is officially here, even if we only had a dusting of snow followed by torrential rain.

 Each year as I  approach the end of November, Christmas creeps into my thoughts.

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 While I love to look at all the seasonal additions other people make to their homes, and I marvel at the time and creativity it takes to decorate, I keep things as simple as possible.  I'm a vicarious decorator,  enthralled by others' efforts and the numerous possibilities without the physical work and outlay of cash.

 Here's a good example.

Every time I visit my daughter's house I am greeted by her inviting red door (now there are boxwoods in the planters) ...

and covered porch large enough to have two tables, a bench (made by her dad) and a chair.  

This space is calling out for Christmas decorations now that the cushions are stored for the winter. 

Don't get me wrong, my daughter  doesn't need my help to decorate, and she's very independent.  For the last several years she's had some great looks for her front door, but this is the first Christmas for the bench on the porch. 

 2020 Wreath made from  her garden shrubs 

2020 Sparkle and glam wreath 

2020 Glowing snowballs and white sparkle twigs

  What I liked about the feather wreath and snowball planter was its longevity into the winter months.  If you are putting effort into a project, you should aim to get the most from it. 

This is a "what if" post... what if I had that porch.  If my daughter is reading this now, she's rolling her eyes. I'm always on about something, and in the end she'll do her own thing as daughters usually do.

Let's start with the boxwood planters on either side of the door.

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I have the cedar and my daughter has lots of silver balls.  Anchoring things because of the high winds is always a challenge.  I use tree ornaments and stick a wooden skewer  through the top and down into the soil.

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Then there's  twigs and berries to add height and colour.  This is a great solution when planters bank a door because the added height and colour would be at eye level. 

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Following the dictate that simple is best, here's an idea to build on. This is an easy look to achieve and it invites modifications.  Not sure where you would ever find  gigantic pinecones in our neck of the woods, but you could certainly carry off the rest of it and make some bright additions.

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How about a plaid blanket or plaid pillows for a nice splash of pattern and colour?  A definite considering plaid is very in this year (so I've been told).  I'm thinking about the  red plaid scarf my daughter just purchased.   It  could be folded around a summer pillow and pinned.  A piece of fabric would achieve the same look.   Presto!  Job complete - one plaid pillow.

Here's a simple idea along those lines I just whipped up.  I know how much my daughter  loves happy little signs!  Not!  

or.....

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 you could make burlap cushion covers with stencilled polka dots (a great kid friendly project)....

or

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 you could use a  plain red blanket and blend it with  the summer white/black cushions for a very graphic look

... and 

Just a few simple changes to pillows 

and add bright arrangements for the table.... 

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Then there's always lanterns and greenery for the tables.   Get the spay paint out if you already have black lanterns.

Lit twig balls are always a big hit, and they could be added to any container depending on the size.  You can also spray paint twig balls and just go with colour and no lights. 

Why not take an idea from my sister Vera's  red bird themed Christmas pot from last year?  It continued to look good for months after Christmas. 

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Love the idea of skates in a swag for the front door.  This would be super easy with a red door and lot of accessible greenery on one's  property.   And I just found my daughter's  little white (now yellowish) skates in the storage room clean out!  Ideas! Ideas!

Or just give in and put a  plain old wreath on the bench. How simple is that?

No pressure!

What are you doing with your entry for Christmas?

And more aqua

This must be aqua week! I am noticing it everywhere.  After writing a post yesterday about aqua, I opened one of the blogs I follow this morning to be greeted by a lovely room make -over by Kelly Porter of Color Sizzle and the walls are painted aqua. The accents are red.  I wanted to share this lively combination.  While it is too much colour for me, I know it will appeal to lots of my readers. 

Pillow and lamp love on my part! 

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And another living room with the same colour scheme, but the colours are used in a very understated way. It is all about the intensity of the hues.

Which room would you be most comfortable in?

Are you feeling blue?

Hopefully you are into blue!  Blue seems to be a dominant colour in Pantone's colour forceasting for  both spring 2019 and upcoming 2020. Here's how it's playing out....

 Monaco Blue (Spring 2019)

 Dazzling Blue (Spring 2020)

Two blues, but with great differences.  I can't say blue is a big favourite of mine, but I am really into Monaco blue because it is a warmer blue that is approaching navy. I don't think it is a blue that you would  catagorize as trendy. Perhaps timeless would be a better descriptor.   Dazzling Blue seems to be a colour that will not be  around for the long haul.  It is cold, quite exciting ,and lends itself well to accessorizing.   It isn't exactly a colour you snooze to.  Could you have it on a wall?  Not me, but there are those who would.  

You could use it a little or go whole hog and saturate your space with it. 

 Welcome to the world of dazzling blue....

 

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 .... put it on the outside

 

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on furniture or pillows...

 I really like it mixed with various grays and all that texture.  Both serve to tame it down a little.  You will notice quite a bit of colour variation in the blues above. Mixing a more vibrant dazzling blue in with "tamer" blues seems to be a good solution if you aren't into bright. 

 

on a wall....

 Whenever I see these fresh, intense blues my mind goes to warm countries like Greece.  Since I don't live in one, it could explain why I am having trouble warming up to this selection.

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or a poof...

This is a truly dazzling accent piece that could find a home in most decors.

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 in glass or flowers...

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and tile ...

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on chairs ...

 or bowls...

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 or a pillow with lots of other fun colours. 

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And here it is with Celosia orange another Pantone selection for spring 2019.

 

These colours  show up on the runway too! 

Which type of blue decorator are you?

Why you should photograph your home

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I bet you have stacks of photos in albums or boxes  (if you are of a certain generation) or stored on external hard drives, on online sites like Flickr or in the cloud.  When you sort through all of them you may be surprised how few of them actually reference  the physical attributes of your home through the years.    I went looking for photos to do an entirely different post,  and ended up writing this one instead because I didn't find what I was looking for.

Whenever I see panelling I am instantly brought back to my teenage years.  I don't need a photo of my siblings at that time.  That one decorating trend conjures up all sorts of memories, and is as powerful to me as a photo of my family.

Add orange and avocado chintz fabric on a sofa and the memories are complete.  That's the power of our physical environment, the power of place.   And who can forget avocado green and harvest gold if you lived in the 60s and 70s? It was the backdrop for my post secondary education, my first job, and my marriage.

Later it was  the red shag carpet and flocked wallpaper in our  first house.  I know I'm dating myself terribly just to make a point.  NO, I didn't choose it, I inherited it and removed it eventually.  That was a difficult room to sleep in for someone who needs a calm environment.   I certainly didn't like the space, but I remember it for a totally different reason; it was the room I brought my first child home to.  A good thing she was a great sleeper with that wild wallpaper. 

 For my daughter this colour scheme will be her instant playback of her teenage years.   I hate to admit it, but we had lovely peach walls in our living room and cream, blue and peach wallpaper  in our dining room - with borders!  I had the perfect flow going from  light peach  to navy blue wallpaper and European cabinets in our kitchen.

 I'm sorry now I didn't put more effort into charting my "built environment"- colour choices, furniture, artifacts, and art work.   I actually had to go searching for images online to illustrate this post.

If I had more of my own interior shots,  I would lay them all out in a timeline and test my theory of embedded memories.

Is it just me or do you think your home is as important in your memories as the events that happened there?