Today is the first snow. (If you are in one of the colder parts of the world or country as you read this I apologize for rubbing it in your face that we’re just getting snow now). Snow doesn’t always feel exciting to me, the novelty wore off a few years ago. I was born and raised in a place that doesn’t see much snow unless you drive up a mountain. The magic lost its lustre my first winter on the east coast while carrying my groceries home on foot through two feet of snow. For my friends who grew up in plenty of snow the drudgery never had time to sink in and snow is just another weather pattern that comes every year without fail. But for all the things I don’t love about snow, somehow its magic outweighs them all. I can’t explain the feeling I get when the world is covered in a soft blanket of white. The sky glows as soft as a candle lit night. It’s when the whole city, and not just my home, participate in hygge. This weekend was the release of the Gilmore Girls reboot and the timing could not be more perfect for snow. It’s as if the universe is telling me it’s time for a cozy weekend in with a warm tea, soft blankets, and my favourite fast-talking girls. If you are looking for me, you can find me here, but except to also find PJs and dirty dishes. I honestly write to you from this exact place and that picture above was taken just moments ago. But this week’s post isn’t going to all be about Gilmore Girls and tea, regardless of how much those things are my life. This week I want to share with you some really simple ways to bring Christmas to every corner of your home with minimal effort and an even more minimal budget. Are you ready? At this moment in time, I have not found the perfect thing to hang permanently above the bed so it has lent itself to seasonal decoration on more than one occasion. This adorable string of elves was a gift but garlands like it exist all over the place. It could be a garland from the dollar store, a string of twinkle lights or a string you clip holiday cards to, but all you need is a blank wall and something to hang. I use tape to hang anything it will hold because it is temporary and comes off clean after a few months. Simply hanging something that brings you joy can really liven up a space. It could even just be a collection of beautiful Christmas cards taped to a blank wall. If you don't have any blank walls in your home I will get to you another time, but for now I will say: you do not have to have every wall covered. Sometimes it’s nice to have the room to breathe or hang something seasonal. Making your home feel decorated can be as simple as stringing a garland or even as simple as placing something small. These tiny trees came home with me from the dollar store in Denmark. I’m sure something similar exists in every store here that sells winter village pieces. You know the tiny houses and lampposts and blankets of snow people use to create a picturesque town that sits on a ledge? Many of those villages include trees that can be purchased separately and may or may not come adorned with snow. These two trees are snow-less but still feel wintery when placed on the coffee table with a candle or two. It also doesn’t have to be a tree. You can place an angel or a snow covered house or really any object that makes you feel the warm-cozies of Christmas. Add it to your coffee table display or a bookshelf or dining table. You absolutely do not (and should not) need something seasonal on every surface. Remember when I talked about simply pulling out a holiday book or magazine? That is more than enough for any given room. (If you don’t remember what I am talking about or have not read m previous posts you can read about my suggestions for how to make your living room easily seasonal in my blog post “Come On In”). “Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings” - It's a Wonderful Life One of my favourite seasonal items is this Swedish angel chime. It makes me think of things like Christmas in Scandinavia, the heavenly host of angels at the birth of Christ as well as classic Christmas movies. This sweet contraption sits on my dining table as the centrepiece and there could not possibly be a more appropriate place than the centre of every meal. Maybe your household has a menorah or advent candles. I would suggest the dining table is the perfect spot for these to go. Meals should be candle lit and cozy, but they should also be a time of reflection on things that truly matter. Make your centrepiece meaningful and beautiful. Today’s final piece of easy holiday decor is as simply as wrapping scented soaps or even tiny boxes up like presents and leaving them on the bathroom counter. These particular soaps came wrapped like this from Anthropologie. They are fir scented and delightful even just as an air freshener. However, they also serve the purpose of being backup soap for when the liquid soap is out. They add just enough Christmas to the bathroom and are a really subtle and practical way to decorate one of the most forgotten rooms in the home.
I hope you are able to implement some of these suggestions into your own home, but more importantly I hope you are able to bring the joy of the season into every room of your home in a tiny way or two. This is a season of joy and I hope you are able to find the joy in it wherever you go. Truly. Tasia.
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The time has finally come! — Let’s talk Christmas!!! If you think it’s too soon you’re a scrooge because guess what, it’s only about a month away, and a month of Christmas is hardly enough Christmas at all. This week I began decorating for this most joyous season. I don’t have everything out but the place I always begin is with the tree. It is the first thing to go up and the last thing to come down. I think it is my favourite part of Christmas. I truly believe everyone can have the perfect tree, on any budget, in any home. I promise to keep it simple so you can love your tree as much as I love mine. I put my tree up about a week ago and enjoyed having it up without any decoration, just lights. Even that feels so wintery and magical to me. That really is the first ingredient to a perfect Christmas tree. 1. Lights I like to stick with plain warm white lights. They are the backdrop, they make the tree sparkle, but they don’t need to be in your face. Plain warm white lights are classic, and let me tell you, they are classier too. Lights really are the most essential part of the tree. So much so that you could stop right here. If you have a tree, and it has lights, that really is enough. I actually have 3 trees in my house, a 7 foot tree, a 4 foot tree, and a 1 foot tree. (Is a tree in every room too much? Nah!). My one foot tree has a few pinecones attached to it so all I do is string some lights and ta-da, it’s complete. The 4 foot tree can really go either way, sometimes it gets simple decorations and sometimes it just gets lights. It is cute enough all on its own. The large tree is the only one I really decorate. And after the lights I begin with… 2. A colour scheme If you’re not going to come up with 2 - 3 colours to keep your decorations in your tree will end up looking cheap. My colour scheme is red and gold. I do have a few white and silver and what not but other than red I stick to muted tones and allow the tree to remain simple and calm. Nothing says Christmas like a green tree with red ornaments and a bit of sparkle. If you prefer cool blues and whites and silver that’s alright too. Maybe the tree lives in a girl’s room and the ornaments are mostly pink. No problem. My word of advice is keep it simple. A simple colour palette is a beautiful colour palette. So now that you have decided your colours here are your next steps: 3. Basic bobbles Start by hanging basic bobbles in one, at most two, colours. These can be bought in the dollar store or in bulk in a box or whatever. These should be cheap. No need to waste your money on the simple stuff. No one can tell the difference between a 5 dollar bobble and a 5 cent bobble, so save yourself the cash. These bobbles are for hanging deep in the tree. They help to fill it out and accent the colour of the rest of the decorations. Most of my decorations have some red on them so the bobbles are gold. I only have 8 bobbles and they are all the same colour. If your tree is smaller or skinny you may only need 6 bobbles and if your tree is larger maybe you need closer to 12, but 6 - 12 should do you just fine. After you have set the stage with the basics it’s time for the real attraction: 4. Unique ornaments that mean something to you Only a few of my ornaments have duplicates or triplicates. Each one of them tells a story. They each transport me back to a time and/or place. They are souvenirs from my past. Some were gifts, others from my childhood, but most were literally souvenirs from my travels. Tiny ornaments are easy to find, buy (because they can be fairly cheap), and transport back home no matter the time of year. I have a little Julemanden (Santa Clause, or literally “The Christmas Man”) from Denmark, a glass bobble from my favourite European shop Søstrene Grene, a slice of deer antler from “Kulturnatten” in Copenhagen (for more about Kulturnatten and what it is see “Bedroom Tranquility”), and an embroidered heart from a road trip to Vienna. These unique items give my tree personality. It tells a story no one else’s tree can because it tells my story. Your tree should tell your story. At first your tree will seem bare so for the first couple of years double your bobbles, but as your ornament collection grows get rid of a few bobbles and cut down on duplicates. Keep in mind though, that you don’t need many ornaments at all for the perfect tree. A tree with very few decorations is very Scandinavian after all. We have a lot to learn from these people and their enjoyment of the simple life. The 4th ingredient to the perfect tree is a simple little tip I stole from the Scandinavians: 5. A box, bin, or basket My big tree lives in this swanky basket that holds blankets the rest of the year. My four foot tree lives in nothing fancier than a cardboard box. This clean box without markings makes a perfectly whimsical tree base. And this tiny tree happened to come in a pail which I quite like.
Tree skirts are out, containers are in. After placing your tree in a box, bin, or basket, throw a blanket on top to hide the unsightly stand, and ba-da-boom ba-da-bing, your friends and family will think you are so fancy. This takes the tree from looking like it is growing out of your floor, to looking like it is planted in a container. Which I suppose if you have a live tree could really be the case. If you’re bold you could even fill the container with dirt, rocks, or moss instead of a blanket. And the 6th and final ingredient to the perfect tree is… 6. Restraint Keep it simple, seriously. One of the classiest ladies in history, Coco Chanel, told us to get dressed and accessorize, and then before leaving the house “take at least one thing off.” The esteemed modernist architect Mies van der Rohe made sure we all knew “less is more.” The great thinker Leonardo da Vinci taught us (among many things) that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” This does take work to develop. It takes real restraint, but it leads to a less complicated and more calm life. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d like? Let your Christmas tree bring you peace, not chaos. You may have noticed I didn't mention ribbons or garlands at all. That’s because they are not ingredients in the perfect tree. They are extras. There is nothing wrong with a ribbon or a garland if you really love it, but if you only put it on because you feel you have to I am here to liberate you and tell you otherwise. If it doesn’t bring you joy, don’t bother. If it holds sentiment and is a part of the story your tree has to tell, don’t forget it. And that’s it! 6 simple ingredients to a perfect Christmas tree. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and I know you can do it too. Share pics of your trees with me, I’d love to see them. It’s been a joy spending another Sunday afternoon with you. Truly. Tasia. Welcome back. Today we’ll be taking a trip to the spa! Ok not really, but I do view my bathroom as my own personal spa. It’s one of my favourite rooms (have I said that about every room so far? Well, I really do love my home, and I want you to love yours too). This room contains my second favourite place to be in the whole world: the bathtub. The tub is second only to my bed. Nothing beats a good candlelit bubblebath when it comes time to unwind. So today I’m going to try and teach you a few tricks to make your bathroom feel like your own personal spa too. First off, when you think of a spa what do you think of? Really picture it. The most incredible spa you have ever seen. That picture in your mind, I want that to be your colour scheme. Maybe the spa you pictured is on the beach, with the rich blue ocean and pale sand, maybe there were some green palm trees. Maybe you pictured a clean totally white room, with the white sheets, white robes, and white pillows. Maybe your spa was some sort of mud house with rich dark mud, warm tones and a white towel on your head. Chances are somewhere in your vision there was white. It’s a good place to start your spa. My bathroom is a mixture of greys and whites and wood. This palette was more or less chosen for me since I am in a rental. I personally would have chosen white cabinets and kept the wood tones to a bare minimum but ultimately I would have chosen the same colour scheme because I find a mostly white room with shades of grey — and a few warm tones to keep it from getting too cool — the most relaxing. My mental spa is a cabana where the walls are white sheets gently blowing in the wind perched on top of a rock. Now what’s the other things spas do? They create vignettes of beautiful objects and useful object mixed together. A soap becomes a beautiful object when arranged in a vignette where on its own it is merely soap. My soap dispenser serves to bring some wood accents to the countertop and in this case it also serves to bring a touch of pale blue (reminiscent of the ocean) into the colour palette. The grass adds life to the bathroom and brings a touch of the outdoors in, and the candle is of course scented to facilitate the transfiguration to the spa of my mind. Functional yet beautiful. The tub also needs to serve as functional, but I do believe it can be beautiful also. To make a bath seem more spa-like and less drugstore-like I have gotten into the practice of storing my bath products beautifully as well. Where I can I peel off labels for a cleaner look or transfer the contents into cleaner looking containers. I just purchased plastic containers at the dollar store so this wasn’t difficult or expensive and I promise you the impact is huge. Tubs are for bubble baths and every bubble bath requires a few key things.
How to construct your very own bath table:
Oh no, you forgot a washcloth and have to grab one from the cupboard, surely the inside of the messy cupboard is going to ruin your zen. It doesn’t have to. With a cardboard box turned on its side to create a shelf for towels and a few cut bags even your cupboards can be cute. These paper bags are from the dollar store and I have one for travel sized toiletries, one for sunscreen and aftersun lotion, one for feminine hygiene, etc. The six bags can easily be rearranged putting the 3 most timely in the front and keeping the other 3 behind. Cotton balls, Q-tips, and epsom salts are kept on the counter in jars because there are used most frequently. Face creams are in the vanity cabinet and everything else is in drawers. Everything has a place and I am proud to say there is room to spare. Finally I have attached a few hooks to the walls for towels in use. I prefer hooks to towel bars because I can fit more towels in the same amount of space and I have yet to see an attractive towel bar. Hooks also make for easy retrieval and clean up of towels (not that bars are difficult, hooks are just easier). Now finally the toilet paper. I couldn’t forget that. I believe a guest should never have to rummage through your cupboards to find toilet paper, and so I keep mine in a cute little basket right next to the toilet. It’s simple, it’s pretty, and it’s within easy reach. What more could you ask for?
One final word of advice: keep the shower curtain simple. It is the largest textile in the room, patterns can overwhelm if they’re too busy and bright colours can dwarf the already small space. A simple shower curtain liner without a real curtain is a cheap and clean alternative to a luxury shower curtain. Remember, this is a spa, not Sea World, you came to relax, not see dolphins splash around. When you purchase new accessories for your bathroom ask yourself, “Would I find this in a spa?” Picture your dream spa and work towards that image. Ahhhh! What a dream. I hope you’re able to implement a few of these suggestions into your own personal spa and create the getaway you need. No renovation or plane ticket required. I think it’s time to slip into that bubblebath. Your own personal spa is within your reach. I promise. Truly. Tasia. |
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AuthorTasia Craig recently graduated from Dalhousie's School of Architecture with a Bachelor of Environmental Design Studies and now hopes to showcase her design work on her very first blog. She is currently living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Archives
June 2017
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