30 Day Wellness Challenge Days 9 to 13: 5 Day Mini Decluttering Goal

I am a firm believer in the adage "Messy Home, Messy Mind."  Yet still, there have been many times when I find decluttering to be emotionally unsettling.  I have written about the mini 5 Day Decluttering Challenge here,  where on Day 1, you discard one thing, on the second day, 2 things and so on.  At the end of the 5 days, 15 things will have been decluttered.  It is a relatively simple and easy way to get the ball rolling when it comes to tidying up the home and achieving peace of mind.  See you on the flip side!

This is not a sponsored post.  Use #30days2wellnesslbh on Instagram so I can find you!

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Being Emotionally Ready For Decluttering

I have tried many, many methods of decluttering espoused by various "experts". Discarding one item a day, playing my version of the minimizing game where you discard one item on the first day, then two on the second day and so on.  And while they all have their merits,  a lot of these organizing and decluttering experts assume that, by the time you discover their method(s), you are ready to jump right into decluttering and that, once done, you never have to do it again.  They don't really cover the emotional springboard required before the whirlwind of decluttering commences.  Based on my own experience,  I have found that I have to be emotionally ready to do it.  Declutter my childhood teddy bear?  No way!  To be honest, I have gotten rid of a couple things that I regret parting with.  At the time, I felt like I "had" to get rid of it as it was taking up space and wasn't being used.  But I loved it and thought it lovely.  I think I fell into the trap of playing a numbers game and worried that, if I didn't constantly declutter, I was being a bad declutterer and that, at any minute, the declutter/minimalism police was going to show up at my door.  Afterwards, I felt a simmering resentment inside of me and, for a long time, thought about what I had discarded (hoarders, stop reading if this is causing you palpitations!).  No, I wasn't prostrate with grief and lived to tell the tale but, looking back, I know now that the only person I am accountable to in my decluttering efforts is myself (and to some degree, the people I live with).  If I want to keep my childhood teddy bear, I will!  And placing it in a tree in a forest, as some suggest, or placing a bag over its head doesn't really alleviate the sadness if you feel you are being forced to do it.  In fact, if you do have a strong emotional attachment to something, being forced to do something you don't want to do, can make you cling on even more.  So, I think that before starting your decluttering efforts, ask yourself if you are truly ready?

Once you have completed your decluttering campaign, you may think that you never have to do it again.  Wrong!  Unless you are a hardcore minimalist, life changes and you change.  One day, you might look at that thing that you looked at a million times and thought you could never part with and suddenly decide that its usefulness is over and you are ready to part with it.  And that's fine.  You haven't failed.  Our homes should move and flow with our lives and be a true reflection of it.  

Are you in the midst of Spring Cleaning?  Any suggestions to make the process easier?

LBH Eyes On Design: Stadshem and Scandi Styling

Confession time...I am addicted to those reno shows where a hapless family cannot, for the life of them, sell their home because it is 1) cluttered 2) poorly designed 3) poorly renovated 4) badly styled or all four.  I think these shows' popularity tap into the fact that, with a bit of elbow grease and common sense, it is possible for anyone to make their house desirable and sellable.  Enter Stadshem.  It is not a reality show but a Swedish real estate company.  Just looking at the photographs of the homes on their books is a master class in how to style a home not just to sell but for every day.

via stadshem.se

Look at that living room!  It is pure Scandi style which is so very popular right now.

via stadshem.se

I am in love with the kitchen.  If I was a prospective buyer, this kitchen would have me at hello.

What I love about the styling is that it is consistent throughout the entire property.  It paints a very clear, beautiful picture of aspirational living.

via stadshem.se

The little touches almost make me believe that these are the real owners' belongings and that this is a very livable space.  Well done Stadshem!  Now I am going to go and wipe the drool off my chin.

This is not a sponsored post.

Christmas Wishes

Hello friends!  I can't believe that we are counting down the days to Christmas!  This year has not been without its challenges for Monsieur and I and in many ways I will be glad to ring in a new year and its chance to start afresh.  When we first set up house together, I was swept up by the idea that our home had to look "perfect" at Christmastime. Inevitably, chasing perfection just led to a lot of stress and feelings of inadequacy.  Now, I am at an age when I don't feel the need to buy a whole set of new decorations each Christmas.  Instead, I look forward to bringing out of storage old, sentimental favourites. I try hard not to be seduced by the twinkling displays as going down that avenue just leads to a budget blowout.  This year, only a couple new to me vintage gems crept into the house.

I do love these wooden pyramids!  They are a lovely twist on the traditional Nativity scene.  There are tiny shepherds and sheep on the second level and the Three Wise Men are on the bottom level.  The next one is not a candelabra but a music box.

They are so sweet and charming and the craftmanship is admirable.  In line with trying to inject more meaning into gift giving, this year, I have started giving away family heirlooms to family members.  If it is something that they truly desire and it gives them pleasure, I don't see the point in having them wait forever.  Obviously, a family "treasure" is by nature second hand.  Do you think it is tacky to give a gift that is secondhand, vintage or antique?  I would love to know your thoughts.  So far, the reaction has been positive.  And I have to say, selfishly, that one less trip to the mall is always a good thing!
I wish you all a lovely Holiday Season.  See you in the New Year!

I am linking up with A Stroll Thru Life.

From Retro Glam to Scandinavian Cool, A Vintage Bar Two Ways

Change has been been blowing in my little corner of the world.  Monsieur is away in Montreal visiting an ill family member.  While he is away, I have been catching up on the laundry pile, also known as Mt. Washmore.  I have been switching things up a little too as a bit of a respite from the everlasting laundry.  Part of slowing down, for me, has been reassessing what is in my home. What works for me, what inspires me, what can I let go?  Lately, a yearning has been growing within me for clean and simple lines and a more cohesive colour palette.  More and more I find myself staring, entranced, at photographs of stark Scandinavian interiors.  Now, I will never be a minimalist as I am too much of a magpie for that and Monsieur loves being surrounded by familiar, sentimental things.  But I did want to make a nominal nod in that direction, at least.  In accordance with this yearning, my current bar display kept catching my eye but not in a good way.  I do still like it a lot but the Hollywood Regency look of the cranberry red and gold colour palette just wasn't doing it for me any more.  I think I detect a latent obsession as I have blogged about my bar here.  I seem to waver continuously between warm, gold tones and its polar opposite, silvery frosty hues.  Here is an old, before photo of it.

Monsieur loves the glassware and the brass pineapple so I have not gotten rid of them, just packed them away.  Who knows, they may make a reappearance at Christmas time as the colours are appropriate for that time of year.  Here is a photograph of the new bar.

From retro glam to Scandinavian cool!  I love the long white lines of the pitcher and icy look of the glassware.  I think they would still work over the holiday season as the new look reminds me of snow and ice.

Which look do you prefer?  I have to say that even with my yearning for simpler lines and neutral colours, there will always be room in my life for sparkly shoes.

After all, life can't always be about doing laundry.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

I am linking up with Natasha in Oz and Have a Cup of Mrs Olson.

Trying To Grow An Indoor Herb Garden

I guess the title says it all as in I'm trying, desperately trying, to grow an indoor herb garden.  I've read many suggestions about the benefits of growing your own herbs as you can harvest them when needed and use them right away.  I have found that there is quite a bit of waste involved with buying herbs as we only ever use a bit of it and then the rest goes mouldy before it gets used up.  The problem is that I don't have a backyard or a balcony.  But herbs are just weeds and we all know weeds have evolved to grow anywhere. So I thought, why not trying growing them indoors?  When I saw this glass miniature greenhouse at Ikea, I was entranced.

via Ikea.com

I had these romantic visions of casually sauntering over to my lovely miniature greenhouse that was perched in my kitchen bay window and snipping off a few leaves of herbaly goodness which then gets tossed nonchalantly into my Michelin star recipe.  Like so...

via Ikea.com

Maybe I would have so many herbs that I could make my own cosmetics!  Yessss!!!  BUT my kitchen has no deep bay window, no natural light and very little counter space.  In fact, I was stumped as to where to put this green house, miniature though it was.  Insert sad face.  Still I was game to try and so, rustling up a couple of tiny coconut husk cups for starting seedlings, I decided to try growing dill and cilantro.  After many days spent on bended knee waiting and then pleading (and ignoring Monsieur's postulations about a watched pot or in this case watched dirt...), this is what I had.

That's right...nothing.  Insert another sad face.  Why???  Why??  Were the seeds old?  But seeds, by definition, are young.  How can they be old before they have even started growing??  You will see that, in an ecstasy of optimism, I even labelled my little seedling pots.  Hmmm...I am beginning to think that this business of simple living is not so simple after all.

At this point, I remembered reading somewhere that a good way of jumpstarting a garden is to just buy seedlings or save the roots of store bought herbs (if they come with roots attached).  I saved the roots of a green onion and lo and behold it grew one stalk and then another!  Obviously, it is the one in the blue pot.

I was so excited and admittedly took an inordinate amount of childish pleasure out of watching it rocket upwards especially after the dill and cilantro failure.  And then, one morning, I checked on it and the first stalk, now a long tall stalk, had inexplicably flopped over. Was I supposed to stake it?  I have heard of staking tomato plants but spring onions?  I guess I should harvest it as it looks a wee bit pathetic flopped over like that.  You will see that I have a basil plant to the left.  It was bought as a seedling and is still in a plastic pot because I am too afraid of transferring it to a proper plant pot for fear of killing it.  I think that next year, when there are more seedlings available in the nursery, I will buy a few and do my best to keep up an indoor herb garden.  I haven't given up the dream completely.  Do you do indoor container gardening?  Any suggestions on growing herbs indoors, please send them my way!

I am linking up with Natasha in Oz.
 

Decluttering My Wardrobe Slowly

I want my wardrobe to look like this:

Via Google Images

The problem is that it doesn't.  If I showed you a picture of what my closet really looks like, you would likely rear back in horror.  I live in a small home without a lot of storage.  I have one closet and it isn't a walk-in. Besides my closet, I have 3 drawers in a dresser that I share with Monsieur.  Because there isn't a lot of storage in the home,  my closet has become a dumping ground for other things besides clothes.  It has got to a point where trying to hang up something involves a lot of pushing and shoving and a certain degree of anger.  Have you heard of Marie Kondo?  All of a sudden she is being talked about everywhere.  Her method involves dumping all of one's clothes on the floor and decluttering in one shot.  Now I have a confession to make which probably won't shock you.  I have a sentimental attachment to my clothes, especially the ones that I wore to a significant event.  The thought of doing a huge declutter all at once filled me with feelings of overwhelm.  Also, if I got rid of everything I didn't like, I would probably end up with just the clothes I am currently wearing.  But something had to be done so I thought I would start with my sock drawer.  After all, what could be difficult about discarding holey socks and bagged out tights?

So, not the most Pinterest-worthy photo on the planet but every time I look at my sock drawer, I am filled with delight and a sense of accomplishment.  I did the same to my lingerie drawer which I won't show here (TMI) and then to my last remaining drawer which holds sweaters and t shirts.  

I have to say that folding everything into small packets is a fantastic idea.  Now I can see everything at a glance.  Having scaled these small mountains, I have started the process of decluttering my wardrobe by going through my closet one item at a time and really asking myself if I want to keep it.  It goes against Marie Kondo's advice of doing a big declutter in one sitting but it is working for me.  I have also been doing a lot of research into building a capsule wardrobe.  Have you heard of Project 333?  Basically, you put together a capsule wardrobe of 33 items which you wear for 3 months.  I am a creature of habit and I know that I tend to wear my favourite clothes over and over again.  Most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time.  I think my percentage of clothes worn is probably 10%!  So if I concentrate on removing the excess and just focus on keeping my favourites, I think that will make the decluttering process a lot easier.  Last night, I did a tally of my favourite Spring/Summer items and realized I had the makings of a 33 item capsule wardrobe!  I was so thrilled and excited.  What does your wardrobe look like?  Please let me know of any tips or tricks you have up your sleeve!

I am linking up with A Stroll Thru Life.

Moving Towards A Slow Home

Dear lone reader in the Aussie hinterlands, I apologize profusely for the lack of posts lately.  Without going into overshare, life got in the way and blogging fell off the radar.  I was slogging along in a career that stressed me to no end, Monsieur's health which has always been precarious, took a nosedive and it all became much too much.  I went to Australia over the New Year and when I came back I took many, many steps back from everything.  The last few months have seen me trying to figure out the maze that had become my life.  I had heard of zero waste living but it seemed too extreme. I had heard of minimalism but didn't ever think it was for me either.  I just couldn't see myself living surrounded by white walls, a bed, a bowl and a spoon.  I like having things that are beautiful and inspiring to me, around me.

As you can see, no white walls but there has been a fair bit of decluttering.  Entire, once greatly loved collections have gone marching out the door.  There used to be lots of knick knacks on the piano but I am very pleased with the pared back mantelscape.  It isn't minimal by any means but the important thing is that it makes me happy.  The same goes with the new plate on the wall.  It is a recent thrifted acquisition and is the perfect size for that spot.  

Right now, I am not sure where to take this blog.  Sometimes I think that 2014 was the year where a lot of the blogs that I used to read, many of them hugely popular, decided to turn off the lights.  I am just small potatoes compared to them but I can only guess that what I currently feel is likely similar to what they felt. I used to love talking about thrifting and decorating my home on a shoestring budget.  I wanted to show that you could have an amazing home without spending big bucks.  This isn't to say that I don't love the thrill of finding something that is perfect for the home but I don't thrift as much as I used to and, when I do, I am a lot more choosy about what I bring home.   In the midst of this soul searching, somehow I stumbled on to Slow Living.  Again, I didn't think it was for me as I thought that extreme minimalism was a big part of Slow Living. But now I think that it is my life and it is up to me to make and break the "rules."  And maybe there aren't any rules, just what works for me.  So my focus lately has been on how to slow down my life in a way that makes sense for me.  Case in point, I finally ditched my obsession with vintage tablecloths.  I know that this is likely sacrilege to the vintage lovers out there but I had to face up to the fact that tablecloths will accumulate stains and the fussing over stains and hours of ironing trying to get them perfectly wrinkle free just wasn't worth the stress.  When I thrifted this French inspired ticking stripe table runner by Cynthia Rowley, it was a revelation.

  

 

It dresses up the old  table without all the maintenance of a tablecloth and gets removed for sit down meals. This shift may seem trivial to most but, trust me, for this vintage lovin' gal, it was a huge step!  And in the spirit of minimalism, the table runner is my only runner for now and for the foreseeable future.

And so, lone reader in the Aussie hinterlands, I promise to try to be a better blogger in the future and I hope you will continue to follow along with my journey.

Linking up with A Stroll Thru Life, Sir Thrift A Lot.

Put A Horse On It

Did you know that 2014 is the Year of the Horse?  I picked up a couple pairs of vintage onyx horse head bookends recently and am in love. I had been keeping an eye out for them for ages but whenever I found them, they were usually chipped or there was just a sad, lonely single.  I think I have to stop at 2 pairs because a third makes (another) collection!

I love the translucent striations in the stone and how each piece is unique. The second pair has striations on the horizontal instead of vertical with dark tan accents.

The only problem with bookends is that, when they are fulfilling their destiny as bookends, you can't really see them in their full glory.

You see?  All you see is the front of their, albeit handsome, heads.  Do you have bookends on your bookshelves or in your decor?  How do you arrange them?  I was pondering this dilemma (I know there are bigger, more important issues in the world but it is a dilemma) when I came across 47 Park Avenue.  OMG! The extreme fabulousness!

via 47 Park Avenue

I am entranced with the hits of pink. Bold without being sickly sweet.  Do you notice the horse heads on the mantel?  I love the depth and layers on the mantelscape.   Lining things in.a.row. is a trap that I fall into over and over again.  I am really trying these days to be a bit more brave and daring with my decor.

Not as outrageously fabulous as 47 Park Avenue, admittedly, but at least now I can enjoy the horse heads more fully.  I have quite a few thrifted vintage knick knacks on that tallboy dresser including a Royal Krona of Sweden owl and a modernist Hoselton angel that I thrifted recently.  The gigantic round eyes of the owl make me laugh and I like to imagine that the angel is watching over me.  Coincidentally, Pantone announced the colour of the year as Radiant Orchid.  So quite by chance, I've managed to cover the bases on two trends this year!  Are you planning on incorporating any purple in your decor this year!  Or do you stay away from trends?

This week I'm linking up with A Stroll Thru Life, Remnant PDX, Sir Thrift A Lot, A Living Space, and The Thrifty Groove.

Catching Up Plus a Sorta Kinda Giveaway

I'm back!  The radio silence here has gone on far too long, I know.  I think blogging is like everything else in life.  If you stop, even for a little while,  it gets easier and easier to put it off for another day and then another day.  On top of my natural tendency towards procrastination, my mother had spinal surgery in a city that is a 2 hour drive away.  After I come home from my daily visit to the hospital,  all I want to do is crawl into bed. Do any of you lifelong bloggers have any words of advice on keeping up a consistent blogging rhythm? Funnily enough, being away from home so much means that I have become a much better housekeeper.  Let me explain.  It has always been a quirk of mine that I like my home to be tidy with all the chores done before I leave home for the day or if I'm going away on vacation.  The home doesn't have to be spotless but I do like the dishes done and things put away.  It is such a nice feeling to come back home knowing that there isn't a mountain of dirty dishes in the sink waiting for me.  Are you like me in this regard?  This leads me to my "sorta kinda" giveaway.  If you are a regular reader, you know that I love thrifting.  The problem is that my home is small.  I'm in a condo which means I can't have a garage sale or a yard sale to make space in my bulging cupboards.  If I do a donation at a thrift store, I just know I will be tempted to step inside and take a peek around (hee hee!!).  My improved housekeeping means I have been doing some organizing in my cupboards and am prepared to move some vintage things on to a new home.  It is a "sorta kinda" giveaway as they are free as long as you pay for shipping.  Here is a pair of Federal Glass Fridgies up for grabs.

VINTAGE FEDERAL GLASS SUNFLOWER MILK GLASS PAIR OF REFRIGERATOR DISHES WITH LIDS

Matching pair of vintage Federal Glass milk glass refrigerator dishes with lids.  Dishes have a tan design of abstract sunflowers or flowers front and back.  One of the dishes has 2 chips on the inner edges (one near each handle).  The other dish has one small fleabite on the inner edge near a handle. Clean interiors.  Bottoms are marked with the Federal Glass insignia and “Heat Proof USA.”  Lids are in excellent condition.  Approximate dimensions:  2.6” or 6.5 cm high (with the lids); 4.6” or 11.75 cm length (including the handles).   Just leave a comment with your location if you want them and I'll contact you with shipping and Paypal details.

Stay tuned as there will be more vintage goodies up for grabs!

I'm linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot, The Thrifty Groove, A Living Space, and Remnant.

Winter Organizing

Are you in the depths of winter or are you bathed in sunshine?  Old Man Winter blasted my city with lots of snow and freezing temperatures this week.  Here's how it looked in my neighbourhood. 

Please forgive the poor quality of the photos as they were taken with my camera phone, the wind was howling, the snow was sleeting into my face and my fingers were frozen popsicles.

Now is the time to stay close to hearth and home.  Even though it's not yet Spring,  I have been feeling the onset of Spring Fever.  I've been wanting to organize my kitchen cupboards for some time and, when I thrifted a vintage Dymo labelmaker complete in a box with extra rolls of tape, I was thrilled.

Do you see what the label on the Dymo labelmaker says?  I was so touched when I saw that.  I've decided to leave it on.  Is that a strange thing to do?  For some reason, I feel like, whoever once owned it, is happy that his old Christmas present has found a new owner who appreciates it and is making good use out of it.  Perhaps I'm letting my imagination run away with me?

I had so much fun making labels for my jars.  I know, such a nerdy thing to admit. I used to just cut the label off the packet and pop it into the jar.  However, I found that only worked for large jars and even then it was tricky because the label was often obscured by the contents.  With the jars labelled front and center, I know what the contents are as soon as I open my cupboard doors.

I have a weakness for vintage jars.  I keep my lentils in a vintage French "Le Parfait" mason jar.  I don't come across them too often and, when I do, the rubber gasket is more likely than not, dried up and cracked.  I don't know if it is possible to buy new replacement rubber seals or gaskets?  As I had pulled out my pantry jars, I took the opportunity to wipe down the shelves and do a bit of reorganizing.  I was appalled at the state of the shelves.  I am embarrassed to admit that there was a good quantity of crumbs and spillage.  Now things that I use most often are near the front and lesser used things are towards the back.  I'm very relieved that that is one household project I can tick off the to-do list.

I hope that, if you are snowed in, that you are keeping warm.  Let me know what you've been doing to keep yourself occupied.  Do you have Spring Fever or cabin fever?  If you are in a warmer clime, please send some sunshine my way!

I'm linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot, Coastal Charm, Ivy and Elephants, Knick of Time, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and the Thrifty Groove.

New Year Changes

Happy New Year!  Do you make resolutions?  I've never been one to make resolutions and yet as the old year drew to a close, I felt this grumbling sense of dissatisfaction.  I felt like there were so many things that weren't working for me anymore and that I wanted to change them, only I didn't know where to start.  Have you ever experienced this?  As I began to pack away the Christmas decorations, I felt the overwhelming urge to just keep going, clear everything away and start with a blank slate.  I left out a few things that I loved and realized that there was a bit of a theme going on.  Monsieur had given me a fabulous reindeer crewel work cushion for Christmas.  It's Christmassy without being overtly Christmassy and goes with the existing cushions.  I had thrifted a vintage Beauceware planter in a sunshine yellow that was perfect for holding fruit.

If you had told me, even a few months ago, that I would be plonking down bright yellow planters and filling them with clementines, I would have laughed.  But for some reason the cheery yellow of the planter just spoke to me. And it seemed to work with the cushions.

I wanted to feel inspired so I thought I'd put together a mood board of sorts.  I've never made a mood board or an inspiration board before so I just gathered a few things together that I had thrifted recently or bought from the Boxing Day sales.

The pineapple brass lamp is another thing that I never thought I would buy.  It was a thrift purchase and was made after much deliberation.  I think I picked it up and put it down several times.  For years, I hated brass because my mother, like many mothers everywhere, embraced the brass fad back in the day and I had had my fill of it.  I walked out to the car and then I slapped my forehead and thought, "It's a brass pineapple lamp!  It's small and cute and chubby!  And it's a brass pineapple lamp!"  And I ran back inside and bought it.  The boots were bought from J Crew and the velvet pants from Anthropologie.  Again, if you had told me that one day I would be buying caramel coloured boots or velvet pants I would have laughed in your face.  Buying properly fitting pants has always been a huge trial for me.  Anthropologie calls them leggings but they fit like a snug pair of pants.  And the boots?  Well, I just tumbled head over heels in love with them.

Photo from the J Crew website.

Because I got the pants and boots at a great price on Boxing Day, I maintain that they can be considered thrifty purchases.   The cast iron lock and keys, the vintage buttons and vintage porcelain doorknob or pull were all recent thrift purchases.  I just love the lock as its face is engraved with an Art Deco design.  Even the keys are engraved.  The porcelain doorknob is huge, a good 4" or 9.5 cm across.
Here is another Boxing Day purchase, a new coat from Old Navy.  It was only $15!

I still can't believe I own a coat in this poppy orange colour.  But I did make a couple other thrift purchases (as in vintage and second hand) such as this roll of vintage yellow ribbon and this tea towel with bright yellow openwork detail.

Do you see a theme emerging?

I have been feeling so uninspired lately.  Life overwhelmed me and blog posts fell by the way side.  I felt like anything I had to say was ridiculous because I didn't live in a huge house overlooking the ocean.  My home is small with bathrooms the size of closets and closets the size of shoeboxes.  Looking at these photos though made me see that, without realizing it, I have been drawn to things that pull me out of my comfort zone.  And that in itself is inspiring.  Now, I look forward to the New Year and to exploring unexpected pathways.

I'm linking up to Thrifty Groove, Sir Thrift A Lot, Cap Creations, A Stroll Thru Life, Coastal Charm, A Living Space.
A little note:  I wasn't sponsored to mention any stores or companies named in the above post.  It's just a record of purchases made recently that have left me shocked and bemused at myself.

A Tailored Bathroom

Recently,  I was hit by a realization so simple and obvious that I felt, most embarrassingly, like the most ignorant of would-be home decorators.  This all started when my discontent towards a certain metallic gray shower curtain reached a peak.  The tiles are an unremitting gray and the same gray in the shower curtain meant, far from presenting a pleasing continuity to the eye, instead emitted a terrible dullness.  It didn't help that the bathroom doesn't have a window so there is no source of natural light to perk up the gray dullness. At this point, retiling is not an option so there was nothing to do except play around with accessories.   So off to Ikea, Monsieur and I went, to look for a new shower curtain.  My current curtain was Ikea's Saltgrund:

It is innocuous in and of itself but not paired with a gray tiled floor and a gray tiled shower stall.  I had taken a peek at their online catalogue and had my eye on either Farglav:

or Uddgrund:

I was particularly taken with the crisp black and white graphics of both which I thought would leap out in the natural light deprived bathroom.  Would you like to know which one I chose?

Even though I was leaning towards Uddgrund, the crisp tailored simplicity of Farglav with its black borders won me over.

Which one would you have chosen?  And then I succumbed to Ikea's plethora of choice and decided that new towels were in order as well.  Monsieur picked out the black towels and I must give kudos to him for such an inspired choice.  Funny, I have been a white fluffy towel kind of girl for a long time and, if you had asked me a few days ago to consider black towels for the bathroom, I would have looked at you in appalled horror.  But somehow the black towels looked "just right" with the clean lines of the shower curtain.  And when it was all hung up, I realized that subconsciously I had, all along, had my inspiration as this,

It's been hanging on a wall on the bathroom all this time.

I do adore the mimicry between the black border of the frame and the black borders of the curtain.

So, what was my realization?  It was that the shower curtain acts as a fourth wall, an accent wall.  And, unlike an actual wall, it is incredibly easy to change out if one realizes one has made a "mistake" as I did.  Although, I have always believed that there is no such thing as a mistake in life if it leads to something better.

I'm linking up with My Romantic Home, French Country Cottage, The Charm of Home,

Deck The Halls

One of the aspects I love about Christmas is revisiting the "old" and seeing it with new, delighted eyes.  By that, I mean the ceremony of unpacking old, beloved decorations and, with the appropriate gravitas, arranging and rearranging them.  There is something magical about pulling aside layers of tissue and then unveiling a treasure trove of glitter and sparkle, especially at this time of year.

And I must declare an overwhelming fondness for jingle bells at any time of the year.

Of course, displaying little vintage wooden toys is perfectly acceptable at Christmas time, even if one is well beyond the age when whirling toys brought hours of amusement.  Admittedly, they still do.

Even though the days are shorter now and darkness falls swiftly, there is a delight in turning on twinkling lights and watching the reflected glow.

House and home is transformed into a winter wonderland.

All that is needed now is the company of loved ones.



I'm linking up with My Romantic Home, At the Picket Fence, The Charm of Home, Common Ground, French Country Cottage, Knick of Time, A Stroll Thru Life, Ivy and Elephants.