One thing that I love to do for the holidays is force amaryllis bulbs and paperwhites. If you've never tried it, you'd be amazed at how simple it is. Just pick up one of those little kits you see in all of the stores in fall, and give it a whirl. Here's a couple of tips, though. If you are using an amaryllis kit, take the little plastic pot they provide and set it inside a heavier, ceramic container. Once the bulbs get blooms on them, they become very top-heavy, and tend to topple over. Two things about the paperwhites: First, the fragrance can be very strong, so I wouldn't set them too close to where you eat. Second, they too can become top-heavy, and since you plant several bulbs together in one container, they will be flopping in every direction. The easiest thing to do is just take some ribbon or raffia and loosely tie all the stems together. That way they can support one another. Other things that are great to use for the holidays are dried hydrangea blooms, magnolia leaves, nandina berries and greenery, and of course, pine cones and fir branches. As I'm sure you know, you can't beat fragrance for adding seasonality to your home. Pumpkin and cinnamon-scented candles and potpourris are fabulous for fall, and anything pine-scented will surely transport you back to the winters of your childhood. If you don't want the mess of a real tree in your house, you might at least consider purchasing a fresh wreath or garland to hang on the door and welcome your guests with that wonderfully wintry aroma.
Earlier, in rule number five, I told you to surround yourself with the things you love most, but get rid of everything else. Depending on your age, you may or may not have discovered the seasonality of life stages. When we first leave the home of our parents and strike out on our own, we are traveling very light. When we move into that first house or apartment that is truly our own, it seems awfully bare compared to our parent's home, and the nesting instinct suddenly kicks in. We feel compelled to fill up those empty spaces, so we go out and buy a few knick-knacks, maybe start a collection. A few years later, perhaps you get transferred, or married, or have a child, and you realize that the house that was once so empty, is now overflowing at the seams. So you move into a larger home, with lots of empty spaces, and then feel compelled to fill all of those, and so on , and so on, until one day you look around in amazement and ask yourself, "How did we ever accumulate so much #@*=!" And though you once adored taking out the holiday decorations each year, as the amount of stuff, and your age, increases, your enthusiasm for hauling it out of the attic and then packing it up again, will steadily decrease. So, what is the trick to having great seasonal decorations, without having to accumulate and store a ton of stuff? Simply this - learn to use ordinary things in extraordinary ways. Take that simple green wire garden trellis that's sitting idle in the garage this winter, bring it into the house and display your holiday cards on it. Or grab that tower of empty tomato cages, set them on a pretty urn, spiral a length of fresh greenery around them, add twinkle lights and bows, and suddenly you have a gorgeous topiary to go by your front door. Use your collections if you have any. I have several old mixing bowls in shades of green and terra cotta, and I love filling them with mini gourds and pumpkins in the fall, and filling the big green one with shiny red apples in winter.
Let me pause a moment in order to clarify something. When I say "collection", I mean less than a dozen of something. If you have more than twelve items, it's not a collection, it's an obsession, and instead of having a high-impact grouping, you are back to having a room full of clutter. One common problem I see when I visit people's homes, is that they feel like they need to have everything they own out on display all of the time. The trouble with that is that you get so accustomed to it being there that you no longer really see it. That leads to boredom, so you go out and buy more stuff. Bring different things out each season, put other things away, and you'll enjoy them all over again as if they were brand new!
(to be continued, one last time)
Earlier, in rule number five, I told you to surround yourself with the things you love most, but get rid of everything else. Depending on your age, you may or may not have discovered the seasonality of life stages. When we first leave the home of our parents and strike out on our own, we are traveling very light. When we move into that first house or apartment that is truly our own, it seems awfully bare compared to our parent's home, and the nesting instinct suddenly kicks in. We feel compelled to fill up those empty spaces, so we go out and buy a few knick-knacks, maybe start a collection. A few years later, perhaps you get transferred, or married, or have a child, and you realize that the house that was once so empty, is now overflowing at the seams. So you move into a larger home, with lots of empty spaces, and then feel compelled to fill all of those, and so on , and so on, until one day you look around in amazement and ask yourself, "How did we ever accumulate so much #@*=!" And though you once adored taking out the holiday decorations each year, as the amount of stuff, and your age, increases, your enthusiasm for hauling it out of the attic and then packing it up again, will steadily decrease. So, what is the trick to having great seasonal decorations, without having to accumulate and store a ton of stuff? Simply this - learn to use ordinary things in extraordinary ways. Take that simple green wire garden trellis that's sitting idle in the garage this winter, bring it into the house and display your holiday cards on it. Or grab that tower of empty tomato cages, set them on a pretty urn, spiral a length of fresh greenery around them, add twinkle lights and bows, and suddenly you have a gorgeous topiary to go by your front door. Use your collections if you have any. I have several old mixing bowls in shades of green and terra cotta, and I love filling them with mini gourds and pumpkins in the fall, and filling the big green one with shiny red apples in winter.
Let me pause a moment in order to clarify something. When I say "collection", I mean less than a dozen of something. If you have more than twelve items, it's not a collection, it's an obsession, and instead of having a high-impact grouping, you are back to having a room full of clutter. One common problem I see when I visit people's homes, is that they feel like they need to have everything they own out on display all of the time. The trouble with that is that you get so accustomed to it being there that you no longer really see it. That leads to boredom, so you go out and buy more stuff. Bring different things out each season, put other things away, and you'll enjoy them all over again as if they were brand new!
(to be continued, one last time)
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