Romantic Shabby Chic

Do you change things around your house often?  Do you have a favorite decorating style?  Or perhaps more than one?  Many?

I find myself wanting to change the look of my rooms at the turn of every season.  Spring, summer, fall and winter.  Not big changes.  Our furniture is always the same, same rugs, mirrors, and such… but the changes are in the details. 

 ...decorative pillows, and curtains are always changing... and then there are the glass jars, pitchers, baskets and dried flowers with which to create pretty, romantic displays.  

 Miss Frida got a new head... she looks so pretty!

Fairy lights are a must!

In the bedrooms, it is a fresh new change and softer colors, a new bedspread or comforter, new pillowcases and decorative pillows, area rugs and curtains.  Nothing new, just things I already have, but the change makes everything looking like new... I never get bored doing this!  And of course, again the changes are in the details.

if you put your bed along the wall, the easier would be to incorporate more pretty pillows!

It needn’t be much and certainly; it needn’t cost you too much money.

Why do I always seem to gravitate towards the Shabby Chic style in winter?  I don't know.  It is just so much more romantic and cozy... Shabby Chic is decidedly pretty and delicate with its lace and pastel accents.  Flowers and floral prints are also welcome in this decor style.

Home

We got our first snowy day of the season last week and the garden was a white world and an aviary, with birds coming in and out of the garden at every hour to feed from the feeders.  

I sit across the window when they feed and just watch and just meditate upon life as I enjoy the coziness of my home and the beauty of my little jungle inside… cause it is a jungle in here with my many plants in this little corner, and I love it—love sitting on the big comfy chair among my plants and be swallowed up by them; tall and small spiky and lush and just look outside the window and have a cup of coffee while sitting here too.  Little joys that I appreciate so much.

And thus, our house had been decorated for the holidays as much as I can stand—the main tree tall and thin to free some space.  This time, I decided to place it by our fireplace in our family room, rather than in our formal living room where I have been placing it for the last two years since we moved back home.  

Our open floor plan kitchen/Livingroom is where we spend most of our time when we’re home, so this is where my Christmas tree will live this year.  I love seeing a Christmas tree peeking out of illuminated windows at night when I drive by, but if I place our Christmas tree in our living room, which is in the front of the house, I would never get to see it, as I hardly go there.  Our kitchen and family room are on the back of the house.  Nobody will see it from here, but I get to see it lighted up every night, and that’s perfect for me.

The other two smaller Christmas trees are sitting in different rooms of the house… they’re small and only have fairy lights on them.  I love them so much!

This one in particular is so special to me... I had it for two years now and it is a dead bougainvillea plant that I just kept and adorned with lights and other ornaments.  I keep it light up all year.

I keep my fairy lights all year around.  They are everywhere. 

I love being at home. Home is not a place…it’s a feeling!

The secret on the stone revealed

“Ah, dearest Lissy”, said grandma when Lissy told her all about the strange stone she’d found in the garden.  “A garden can keep a great many deal of secrets in it.  And the greatest of all, is this:  Creation, including all the beautiful things you find in a garden, is an expression of God's goodness.  His mercy towards us served as an approach to creation.

“Come, on!”, said gramma suddenly, “let us walk back to the garden, shall we!  There is something else I want you to see there”.

Lissy, glowed with enthusiasm at the thought of a new adventure and the prospect of finding new exciting things in gramma’s magical garden.  And truly, something amazing was about to happen indeed!   

The sun was setting down over the horizon by the time Lissy and gramma reached the farthest part of the garden where large weeping trees grew and vines climbed and twisted around their trunks like fat snakes.  

Lazy shadows stretched themselves across the grass and came to rest above the drooping branches of the weeping trees like dark umbrellas.  It felt so peaceful and quiet in this shady corner of the garden.  A blackbird stood perched on a nearby branch. Lissy had this curious idea that the bird was watching them.

Lissy followed gramma through a sheltered path among the weeping trees to a little bench hidden among the shrubbery, where they both sat down.  Past the weeping tress and the little bench, and past the picket fence which delimited the garden from private lands stood the open fields of barley and red clover with its expanse of red blooms stretching away into vastness.  Lissy had never been to this part of the garden, and it was beautiful, and it felt wonderfully secluded and cozy.  

“See the sun setting over there?”—said gramma pointed a finger towards where a giant orange marble of a sun was painting the sky in cerulean blues and baby pinks.  “Long, long ago, in the beginning of all things, our earth didn’t have a sun”—continued on saying gramma.  “In fact, the earth didn’t have any shape at all.  It was empty and an unfathomable darkness covered the deep waters.  

“You did not exist. Neither your parents, brothers or sisters. There was absolutely nothing, or anyone alive. Only the Spirit of God, like a mighty bird, hovered over the surface of the waters and above the darkness that covered everything. 

“Then”, said gramma picking up a certain song in her voice, “that’s when God stretched out his sight all the way through time, up until your time, and saw you. 

Lissy jumped on her sit at that. Her eyes widened with excitement. 

“He did?”  She exclaimed!

“He certainly did!”, said gramma, “and He loved you so much right there and then, that He decided to create an entire new world just for you.  A beautiful place He knew you’d love and be happy in, and where He could live close to you eternally.  

“The Bible teaches us that God saw us even before He created the world. That is why He told us through his prophet Jeremiah, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31: 3).

“It was this mercy towards the still non-existent generations what motivated God to create the universe. God's love for us will never be exhausted. There has not been a time, nor will ever be in all eternity in which God would stops loving us.

Everything God does is motivated by his eternal love for us, a love that is perpetual, endless and eternal”.

This is the continuation of a story I started HERE, in case you want to read it again.

Happy Thanksgivings!

Five days off from work—to get to be home again, enjoy my nest relish my solitude appreciate life love every moment… to be happy, to contemplate my little world outside; the world of birds in the silent winter garden and be one with them.  Feeling content, feeling blue, nurturing little joys deep down in my soul, feeling nostalgic at time feeling young inside old outside.  Feeling that time comes and goes too fast to be able to appreciate it; rather soon rather short for all I want to do and feel and for all the dreams being weaved into the depths of our souls to become realities… 

I’ve been cooking, and baking, and I’ve so many books I want to read and so few hours of the day for such endeavors... 

I think of mom throughout my days, I miss her. I see her in me in my fingers and in the apple of my eyes. I want to tell her so many things want to talk to God and hear angels sing. I walk the lonely garden with a broken wing hidden under my heart. It happens every winter, life changes colors, life is a blue balloon melting away… in dreams and hopes and a desire of a genuine faith.

It snowed lightly yesterday; a puff of a snow and the sun is out today warming up the garden and melting ices away.  Birdfeeders have been refilled and as I write this, behind me, I hear a ruckus of birds and squirrels competing against each other for a fair share.  

Later on today we’ll get together with those loved ones closest to us, we’ll share food with strangers too and mingled in sentiments as equals under this world of God.  Praying for heavenly blessings towards us and toward others. For unity and love and for the peace that passes all understanding… a strong, resolute faith and confidence, that no matter what circumstances you encounter, God is faithful, God is good, God will keep you, God will provide for you, and God will bless you.  

A happy Thanksgiving to all!