“Shut the door – not that it lets in the cold, but that it lets out the coziness.” — Mark Twain
Instead of focusing on what we don’t have in the winter, let’s look at the opportunities it affords us.
Hearty soups simmering on the stovetop bring such comfort at the end of the day. Homemade bread and other baked goods not only tantalize our sense of smell and taste buds, but the warmth from the oven is a welcome addition to the home. Shorter days mean longer evenings to explore and learn new crafts or delve into a series of books. The seed catalogs have arrived and now begins the tantalizing job of planning out our gardens. I don’t know about you, but I dream of the bounty to come in the months ahead. The opportunities are limitless, you just have to open the door to the possibilities of how you are going to use the remaining weeks of winter.
A house is built by wisdom
and becomes strong through good sense.
Through knowledge, its rooms are filled
with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.
Proverbs 24:3-4 NLT
Something that I enjoy doing after the holiday decorations are packed away and Valentine’s Day only offers me a small selection to fill the need for coziness in my home, is to go shopping. Oh, not the usual haunts for browsing; local shops and big-box hobby stores. I’m not a big fan of those, although they do have their place. No, I like to shop from my home. Let’s face it, we get used to things being in certain places, never to vary from their locations – to the point that we no longer see them. This is the perfect time to move things around, get creative, and learn to enjoy what you already have.
One of the easiest ways to place things in different areas of your home is to start using them differently than what they were intended for. The candy dish that you were given by your aunt or inherited, will make a lovely vessel to hold your bath salts, or cotton rounds/balls in the bathroom.
“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Old, tarnished coffee servers or deep red creamer and sugar containers become beautiful vessels to display a touch of greenery in the winter months
“Homemaking is a passion you can pass on from generation to generation.”
-Elizabeth George
That large glass container with the lid that is left over from a set that no longer exists or that you intended to use for something else when you bought it, but never got around to it, now makes the perfect container for Keurig pods at your coffee station.
If you contain it all on a silver platter, even better.
The collection of tins, the empty tea containers, spice tins, and the like, now make fun containers for florals, whether gathered from the garden or a bundle of fresh flowers bought from the grocery store. They also make creative containers for artificial stems for a no-fuss floral arrangement.
I bought this flour tin over 16 years ago for a couple of dollars. I got tired of seeing it sitting on the top of my refrigerator with nothing in it and decided to do something about it.
Going to my floral stash (I had a custom-order floral business many years ago), I gathered a variety of winter greens, florals, and berries. Holding the stems in one hand, I fashioned them together with the other until I had a floral bouquet that I liked. I tied them off with some floral wire, cut off the stems below it, and plopped the whole arrangement into the flour tin.
What used to be an empty container is now a visual joy for me each time I enter my kitchen during the winter months.
When winter has passed, I lift it out, store it, and fashion another bouquet to fit the season.
Don’t want to fuss with making arrangements? Every craft store has ready-made bouquets that you can pick up on sale for the different seasons.
Find the right size for your containers and enjoy the pleasure that you receive by making this simple change to your décor throughout the year.
Here is an easy tip if you want to try your hand at creating a simple floral arrangement without spending a lot of money. Next trip to the craft store or HomeGoods, look for these ready-made pots of greens in decorative containers.
The one pictured here, I bought for 4.00. Check out the material that they have used to secure it into the pot. If it is a foam base, that is the one that you want to get. Grab a pretty, little pick of greens and a stem of florals that you like and you have all that you need to make a pretty floral arrangement.
When you arrive home, place the greens pick into your pot, piercing the foam to secure it in place.
Next, cut the floral stem into several pieces and tuck them throughout the arrangement. That’s it. Look at what you made! See how easy it is to make something that is unique, decorative, and easy to change out whenever you want, just by changing the florals in there. I have several of these placed around my home.
“The best things in life are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”
-Robert Louis Stevenson
Enjoy the process, there is a great pleasure to be found in watching things unfold. Don’t make it a chore, but view it as an opportunity to get creative in using what you have.
Be proud of the end result. You’re making your home a sanctuary for those who live within its walls and those who visit it. That’s important work.
Share and describe what you did, or take a picture of some of the creative ways that you have used items you already had on hand.
♦ How do you create a beautiful, calming home environment?
♦ Have you ever thought of using items in different ways than what they were intended for?
I appreciate all your creative designs around our home. Always a welcome place to be.
Thank you, sweet husband! You know that I enjoy making things pretty and welcoming.
I think it is so important, especially when so many are struggling to make ends meet, that we learn how to be content with what we already have in our homes. Sometimes a refresh with a touch of paint, using an item differently, or simply rearranging furniture can fulfill the need for an update in our decorating. We have been in that situation many times throughout our married life. We learned how to make do when buying something was out of the question. I’m thankful for those times. It allowed me to get creative and learn new skills.