Adding a bit of green

Today I added a little bit of greenery to what I showed yesterday. Do you think it makes a difference?

I think it does. I think adding a fresh plant or leaves or flowers adds beauty and some undefinable but definitely nice quality to any room/table setting or arrangement.

Today while sorting through mail and magazines I found this Christmas cactus blooming. I put it in a wicker basket and kept it on the coffee table.

I still think the metal and glass vibe is overwhelming and I need to soften it up a bit. What about you? How are you using green plants or leaves in your Christmas decor? Have a great day!

Preliminary stages of Christmas decorating

My Christmas decoration is only in the very beginning stages. Here are a few random images from things I worked on since Monday. I want to add different textures in the form of greenery, and pinecones to this table since right now it is too metallic and too silvery.

I would like to paint the nativity blue or white and also add more characters, such as the angel, more animals, shepherds and three kings if possible. Also, I want to do something more with the twigs.

Here is the half-decorated mantel. I want to add a lot of white candles to the ledge, twinkly lights to the garland and blue balls to the garland also.

Here is the coffee table. I want to add more warmth, and texture and cozyness to it. I am planning to bring a bare branch from outside, paint it white and hang ornament balls on it. I am having a lot of fun doing this. Are you done with your decorating? Or are you like me, just starting? I hope you are having fun!

Sweet Christmas vignettes

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I love creating sweet vignettes around my house at Christmas time. Do you like this girly, pearly vignette? I do. A lot.

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I think vignettes help in setting the mood and for me, I want the mood inside my house to be enchanting and magical, this time of the year. The vignette in the above picture does not look easy to do but definitely contributes to that special look.

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Here is a vignette with rustic charm.

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From the above picture it appears that vignettes near the window can have double the impact.

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Here is a vignette that does not look complicated. Do you like creating vignettes around your house at Christmas time? If so, how do you make them? Have a wonderful day!

Its the most Wonderful Time of the Year

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The most wonderful time of the year is officially here. I love, love, love, this time of the year. There really is something magical going on. I want to soak in the beauty and amazingness of every single micro milli second.

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I love Christmas music, Christmas shopping, Christmas cookies, Christmas cakes, the sparkle, the glitter, the Santas, snowmen, and snowglobes, and everything about Christmas, but my most favorite decoration is the nativity scene. I think it points in a very simple way, to the real reason for the season. I pray, this year, the whole world will have a beautiful Christmas and experience the hope, joy and peace of Christmas.

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Decorating the front porch for Christmas

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One thing we do as a family during Christmas time, without fail, year after year, is drive around the town that we live in and admire the outside lights in the front yards of the various neighborhoods that make up our city. I love that feeling of driving around through snowy streets, our family warm and cozy in the car, just taking in the sparkle of the lights on the streets, the nativity scenes in the yards, the lit trees, the lighted stars, snowmen, reindeer, balls and wreaths. I guess, you can call it our family's Christmas tradition.

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When it comes to decorating the outside of our home, my husband does all the lighting of the trees, fence, hanging the stars and lighting the angels in our porch and yard. However the door is my responsibility. This year I wanted to gather inspiration from pinterest before I attempted to do so. Here are the images that have inspired me.

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Lanterns on the wall, ceiling and the floor, garland lit or unlit over the door, and urns are definitely the elements that are part of the images that are inspiring me.

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What are your plans for your front porch and door? I hope you have a great day!

A Blue and Silver Christmas

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I am so so drawn toward the blue and silver combo that I think I have decided to go with that for Christmas.

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Most of the ornaments that we already have are not blue but I will still be using them. I think I will just find a way to highlight the blue and the silver somehow. However, anything I buy new this year for Christmas I so want it to be either blue or silver.

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I think this door looks so pretty. I will, most certainly not be able to paint our front door blue for Christmas but I can dream.

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Coming back to my Christmas planning I think this wreath looks pretty and something that would not be hard to accomplish.

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Flowers, so pretty.

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I love how the old wood is behind the shining wreath. What about you? What colors are you planning to use for Christmas this year? I hope you have a great day!

Decorating kid's rooms and windows for Christmas

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One of the things I definitely want to do this year is decorate my children's rooms for Christmas. When I saw this picture, right away I thought of my 14-year-old. There is only one window in his room and his bed is against it. I think I could pull it off with ornaments, greenery, tinsel, stockings and some of his old stuffed animals.When he was young he was really into stuffed animals. When he wakes up on Christmas morning how amazing would it be if he could see this.

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My 17-year-old likes the uncluttered look. This could work well for the windows in his room. Instead of pinecones and bows I could use green and yellow ornaments since those are his school colors. This would be good for the dining room windows as well and this looks like something I can do. I know that the first image is so different from the second image and that is my biggest challenge when it comes to decorating... to pull off a streamlined and seamless look as opposed to random. I am trying to solve it by just staring at images I like and hoping that what I eventually do will be something nice.

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I love the simplicity of how the windows are draped with a single line of greenery. However, I think the room overall looks nice due to the lanterns, the topiaries, the wicker and the creamy carpet, throws and pillows.

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I like this but it looks way too complicated. I don't know if I can pull it off. I think it will look nice on a glass door leading to the porch or patio. These are my inspiration pictures for decorating my kids rooms and the windows in my home for Christmas. What about you? How do you usually decorate your kids rooms? Do you have a go-to plan for the windows in general? Do you have tried and tested ideas? Have a great weekend!

Table decorating

Recently when I went for a run I found that an entire street in my neighborhood was lined with small trees laden with red berries. I decided that I wanted to bring them into my home. Also, a few weeks ago in some blog I found a picture of a table decorated with only berries. It looked simple and beautiful. After that, in yet another blog I found a Thanksgiving table decorated with magenta, white and green flowers. I thought it looked unusual and pretty. This is my attempt to recreate the essence of both of those looks. I know these berries are not magenta, but they are the closest natural objects I have to the magenta flowers I saw.

This tablecloth was too small for our table when I got it. I added a bit more length on all four sides by sewing three ribbons to all four edges.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Books on a Bookshelf

Since yesterday I have been arranging this book shelf. From several blogs that I have been reading I got the idea of arranging books according to color. Last year around Christmas time I wanted all the books to look white so I tried to wrap the books with white paper. I don't know why but later I changed my mind and so only some books are covered.

In the top shelf I kept a few of the books I covered with white paper.... this reminds me of school days in India. We had to wrap every single note book and text book with brown paper and label the book with our name, class, school name etc. So I am really good at wrapping books. Anyway, I arranged the rest of the books according to the color of the spine. A lot of paperbacks have several colors on the spine so it is not easy to put them in any color category. I love hardcover books with cloth binding and gold or black letters on the spine. They make me feel as though I am in a library in an old medieval castle with lots of portraits of ancestors hung on the walls.

This morning on pinterest I found this bookshelf which I like a lot.

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I like everything about this picture. I love the detail of the stack of books on the table with the topiary on top. Once I tried to make a side table in our living room with a stack of books. It was okay for a while. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Dream Kitchens

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I was de-cluttering and cleaning my kitchen and I needed some inspiration. Here are some images I pinned today. I love how light filled this kitchen is. I like the fact that there are glass doors and glass windows on two sides of the kitchen. I love the chandelier also.

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This kitchen is also so pretty. It has glass windows on two sides and a glass door also. I love the chandelier and the island. I have to get back to cleaning my kitchen. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Pantry Real Estate

Location!Location! Location! That is the slogan of real estate agents when they are trying to sell a home. That was my mantra as well while I was trying to reorganize the pantry. While much more work needs to be done in the pantry, one thing I did do was put all the items that are used daily or several times a day in the most easily accessible place. In our home, the item that is used several times a day is snacks and so that was placed in prime pantry real estate.

In the shelf below that I placed items that are used maybe once a week, or once in two weeks. I grouped all the cans together.

I labelled some jars also.

The cookie jars are rarely full due to the activities of cookie monsters.

Lots more work needs to be done on the pantry. I will definitely keep you posted as and when it gets done. I want to keep a tray which contains only baking supplies. I also want to finish lining all the shelves with wrapping paper. I hope you have a great day!

Elephants in God's own Country

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Every time I see the picture of an elephant or a peacock my heart skips a beat. It reminds me of my life in India. When I saw this picture from Johnrobshaw textiles and saw the name of this collection my heart did not just skip a beat but it also stopped for a minute. Guess what the name of this collection is! Kerala. Yeah that is the name of the state I grew up in India. In Kerala, aka God's own country elephants are very common. Elephants used to come on a regular basis to my neighbor's house from the temple. And our neighbors used to give the elephants coconuts and bananas. I with my brothers would watch the elephant eat and then walk away. Sometimes the elephants would cry. Tears would roll down the wrinkled black skin of the elephant and I used to wonder why they cried. Were they missing the forests they really belonged to or were they missing their family?

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Sometimes when the temples had festivals there would be fireworks in the midnight and the elephants would go on a procession. All the elephants would be dressed up and their trunks would be covered with a gold thing (I don't know the name of the thing in English, but in Malayalam it is called "nettipattom," I think). The mahout would sit on the top with two white furry fans. Elephant after elephant would parade through the streets to loud drumbeats. This post will be unending if I go on and on about elephants and India's textile heritage. I hope you have a great day! Btw, the pantry is still a work in progress though, yesterday there wasn't much progress.