Beautiful Living

Our homes are our palaces. You will note that in some of the quotes I love its about the home. Clutter is something I have to tackle and its not fun. Paperwork clutter around my coffee table really exhausts me. They are papers that I use all the time. My notebooks to write in, I love to write and Christian magazines and letter from friends.....to do list.......I need my own office....not at this time....my precious son is with me. When he does venture out in his world, I will have room to maybe fix my paperwork. It is not horrible but much to messy for me. Staying on top of doing all the dishes and washing clothes is full time work. I want my home to have comfort and be a place to welcome others to visit and have tea or hot cocoa.

Monogrammed terra-cotta pots....you can do this by stencils.

Refresh a clear glass vase by adding tiers of ribbons in the center. Let the ribbon colors overlap each other. Use colors that go together. Use double-sided tape to hold them in place. Trim the ribbon ends neatly to finish the project.

Clean out your tin cans and dry. Use beautiful wallpaper or gift wrapping paper and cover your tin cans.....they are great for pencils and paint brushes....all things that are easy to grab. You can choose cans of different sizes to and set in your workroom.

Dry a dozen roses hanging them upside down in a cool dry place or by using silica gel.

Sachets are great in your drawers.

Use your lace hankies or pretty hankies for potpourri.....place your potpourri in the center of your hankie and tie up with pretty ribbon. These make lovely gifts too.

When you travel take a sachet and place on your hotel room door.

Sachets are nice if you have a desk too. Or use Lavender sachets in your bed pillow.

Bowls of piled high fruit on your table in a crystal dish.

Have a glass of filtered water.

No yard.......grow your flowers in pots......wild flowers grow great in pots and so do mini roses and many types of flowers.

Use beautiful fabric in your frames to decorate your bedroom or bathrooms or any room you choose.

I used to be big with making collages............beautiful papers and calendars from Victorian Calendars made pretty trash cans, trunks, luggage.........room dividers.......use Modge Podge.

Decorating tips: place bows or ribbons in glass containers..I love Madori Ribbon....it is organza ribbon and its really beautiful or a nice satan ribbon is very pretty too.

Here are some of the things I like to do for my home: Every room should be a welcome to enter.
Fresh flowers.........even one flower can give great attention. And flowers to bring an added smile. Fresh fruit in a pretty crystal bowl and even you glass containers in your refrigerator for lemons and limes and veggies if you are going to eat them pretty fast. I like for the inside of my refrigerator to look pleasant too. Right now though.........there is BBQ sauce and Ranch dressing along with milk and juice. Hopefully soon I can place pretty things to see and eat in my refrigerator.

My notes to give you are not going to be in order. This will be tips that I have recorded in my journals before my head injury. So these things I did when I was in Little Rock. I hope one day to be able to return to the palace I once had. haha

We don't have to have money to create beautiful things for us. One of my favorite authors is Alexandra Stoddard, who bring beauty into everything. I have her books and I will be writing things she does each day to make her day special and you will get into these "rituals" as she calls them and it will become second nature. Little things we can do to bring on a smile and less clutter. Alexandra calls "Rituals" a term for patterns you create in your everyday living that uplift the way you do ordinary things............I feel in love with her writings after I read this. It truely is the little things that bring a happy face to us. I am in no way discounting Jesus, this is just little things for ourselves and in our homes. She said "Special events should be exclamation marks in our lives, but Ordinary days need to be celebrations too". How true! Because we are alive each day because JESUS gave us life today also. So we should celebrate life each day.

Little things that mean alot:
Placing food pretty on a plate.....sit at the table and use cloth napkins, tablecloth and nice plates and silverware. Take this time to reflect on the day by making your tablesetting really special even if you sit alone. It does make a difference.

Take walks and refresh yourself.....walk as much as you can.
Take a few minutes to be alone several times each day. Breathe deep and relax.

Pick up some pretty buttons and give your blouse or jacket a new makeover.

Spray your cologne in a box of stationary, and put the lid back on. When you write a letter you will be a welcome surprise and the recipient of your letter will enjoy it as well.

Plan your wardrobe around two or three basic colors for each seaon, get colors that go together..

Keep a notebooks so you can record your child's words.

When you feel blue....go to the bookstore and have coffee or tea and find books with beautiful pictures of art.

Line the inside of your closet door with art postcards....I did this in Little Rock and it was great to see beautiful artwork each time I opend my closets.

Be 5-10 minutes early for your next appointment so you can relax before you visit.

Make your own quotation book. I do this and everytime I see a quote or read a quote I copy down in my Quotation Journal.

Have a special basket for you mail......or place all your mail together and tie with a satan ribbon and open when you have set time aside to read your mail and pay bills. Setting time for bill paying and using pretty pens and pretty stamps.......you can enjoy at least writing in pretty colors.

Line your drawers with pretty paper.

Use pretty paperclips. Mine are french clips and they are round. Really neat and people love them when I give them paperwork with my clips.

Be sure and buy your hose during the sales two times per year.

Use a pretty letter opener.

When you are ready to toss your fragrance for a new bottle......put the bottle in your lingerie drawer or socks drawer.......old time pj's.

Serve tea from a porcelain tea pot. Serve in bone china cups.

Buy some new dishtowels..in pretty colors.....watching a budget....go to Kohls, I love them for dishtowels and buy while on sale. They always have 50% off. Use the worn out ones for other cleaning needs. Buy one or two each month.....and soon you will have new pretty dishtowls. Your old ones are tired.

Serve my Stawberry soup recipe in a silver bowl.

Put eggs in a wire basket in the frig.

Hang a string of garlic on the wall and use it.

If you bake an Apple pie and are having guests over......after baking pie put on rack to cool and set next to a pile of apples on the counter.

Keep butter in a pottery crock.

Serve green grapes with Roquefort cheese on hard pumpernickle rolls.

Add red radicchio lettuce to a green salad and cut up goat cheese to sprinkle over the top.

Make toast, cinnamon toast..butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and place back in the toaster for a few more minutes.

Make yourself breakfast at dinner time. Don't for get to add a selection of jams and marmalades.

Keep a peppermill handy.

Save your pretty fragrance bottles for instant vases of tiny flowers or use one big flower.

Purchase new pot holders...discard the old ones..they are too tired to keep.

Use your coffee table by placing a pretty tablecloth over it and serve tea or coffee or hot cocoa and invite friends over to chat.

Picnic outside, use a pretty quilt as your table cover.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on popcorn.

Spruce up your back splash in your kitchen with some hand painted french tiles.

Serve chicken salad in scooped-out vegetables, such as acorn squash, all kinds of veggies you can pack inside..........I think red peppers or yellow peppers would be great too.

Keep a journal by your bed.....when you wake in the night.....jot down your dreams or thoughts.

Be sure and turn your mattress once a month and be sure to switch the head of the mattress to the foot on odd months.

Use natural wicker baskets in your home in your bedrooms and bath.

I love having a cotton rug next to my bed. The feel of cotton on my bare feet. Such a treat.

A pretty lace table cloth is great to place on your bed..........you will need to decorate with it to show the beautiful presentation.

If you own your home you can refresh your rooms with adding new hardware.

Rocking chairs are awesome.

Take a look in a Kaleidoscope. Buy one and place on your bedside table.

Put a beveled edge mirror in your bathroom. The light will give this mirror such beauty.

Buy a thick terrycloth bathrobe. ALL cotton. Cotton breathes...........

Use ribbon some use grosgrain ribbon tied in bows to hook through the grommets of the lining over the shower rod.

In the summer time....add lemon slices to your bath. Ask you gyn doctor first. Really refreshing.

Start buying new towels. Kohls again, has a towel called THE GREAT ONE and I love them. Sometimes they have $10 for 3..........as you add new towels....discard one or use a cleaning clothes.

Don't throw away your old magazines. Take to your car service department or give to friends. Friends first.......many people love to look at magazines from months past....I sure do.....don't throw away.....give to someone ......even nursing homes........great gift idea for person who is at home alot.......give them a magazine subscription.

Make a date with a friend or friends and bake some goodies to take to someone sad or sick.

When someone is sick I make a pretty collection to put in a pretty, sack, tin or basket. Put pretty tissue paper in the container.......soups, hot cocoa, organic teas in foil, pretty napkins, oatmeal, coffees, cough drops, magazines, crackers, fruit..........mints and cotton socks...............drop this off to them and I promise they will be so thankful. Watch the MSG in the soups..avoid that

SMILE you will always feel better smiling.

The next time you read a great paperback......buy two and give one to a neighbor or friend or just give a gift card for $5 or $10 from your favorite and your friend can choose her own book.

Send a love letter through the mail to your spouse, boyfriend or child.

Volunteer.

The next time you go to a museum, buy two sets of postcards; put a ribbon around one and bring the cards back to someone to enjoy the museum at home.

Use the word Love all the time.

A lovely gift for men.......monogramed hankies.

Coffee today is really just dessert. Hot Cocoa is also a dessert today. Give your hot cocoa and coffee more elegance using your bone china tea cups and saucers. Be sure to end your drink with a mound of whipping cream.

To sweeten coffee, dress up the sugar. Sprinkle colored sugar crystals into the sugar bowl. You can also make your own decorated sugar cubes by using colored icing and by pipping your icing onto the sugar cube with different shapes of decorating tips. Or you can buy them at a speciality cake baking store and add them to your sugar cubes with frosting as your glue.

Use brown sugar in your coffee along with chocolate chips....this would be great in hot cocoa too. Use a cinnamon stick as your stirrer.

Next time you make corn bread.......use in individual heart tins......adds a spice of love next the your favorite soup.