We have made it to March—my official least favorite month of the year. March is the month when we get our first few nice days and I decide I’m ready for spring and then it decides to snow again. Given this tug of war that the weather plays on us, it quickly begins to feel like spring lingers on forever, but never really arrives. However, while I may have to wait on spring outside, it can be spring inside my home. I have decided to start decorating for spring!
Spring is such a fun time of year to do a decorating refresh! After the Christmas decor has been put away, things can seem a little bare. Sometimes it is nice to keep out some of the sparkly branches, and other times it’s refreshing to just rest in the minimalism of having very limited decor. Usually though, by early spring I am itching to add a little bit of color and a few other spring touches to my home!
As always, I like to start with doing a little audit of my home. I ask myself these questions before I reward myself with the fun part of decorating:
· Has my home gotten cluttered? What needs to be purged?
· Is there something broken that I’ve been putting off fixing or touching up?
· What isn’t working well? Do I need to rearrange or rethink anything?
· Is there anything I’ve been meaning to buy that will make daily life easier that I just need to sit down and order?
After I have gone through those questions I get to the fun part—the actual decorating!
Flowers
I love flowers in my decor. I tend to stick to decorating with dried flowers as they last practically forever, generally look better than faux, and are lower maintenance than real. Spring is a great time to reintroduce some flowers and greenery to your decor. I like to keep the colors of my flowers muted for spring because: 1) that’s more my style, and 2) I like to save bright pops of color for summer.
Greenery
Speaking of flowers, spring also a great time to add in greenery. Faux moss or moss balls add natural touches of the season; if your home is still feeling a little sterile maybe think about welcoming an additional house plant or two into your home. Plants are natural air fresheners and even a plant killer like me has managed to keep air plants, spider plants, and several different types of ivy alive!
Color
Spring is a time of year when we see a lot of pastel colors… I’m not the biggest fan of pastels though. If you are not a pastel person or don’t have a color pallet in your home that works well with pastels consider adding a few of these colors to your decor for spring if you are craving color after winter’s barrenness:
· Salmon Pink
· Deep Turquoise
· Light Aqua
· Sea Green
· Sage
· Green Grass Green (also known as John Deere Green..)
· A Bright Daffodil Yellow
· Bright Tulip Red
· Spring Crocus Purple
Cute But Not Too Cute…
Spring is also when we see a lot of bunnies, birds, chicks, and other such little cuties appearing in decor. The key to adding these to your decor is to not get too cute with them. Usually a safe way to do this is to try to find vintage versions of these (or at least ones that look vintage), or versions of these done in an unusual medium such as wood or glass and then adding them to your decor. Also, instead of pairing a chick with an egg try mixing it up; don’t add more than one little cute figurine to your decor or vignette at a time. Instead, pair a cute bunny with a few vintage items. This will add an unexpected touch to your decor, lending just a touch of visual tension and will keep things interesting!
Keeping Your Decor From Getting To Summery
Besides keeping your colors more muted and toned down, I like to pair my spring decor with vintage items. I love adding soft white flowers to a dark amber bottle as a vase. I will always love white vases and such but during spring I love playing up the vintage with the lighter spring colors as I think this juxtaposing adds an earthy depth to your decor that really makes it pop!
Holes
Do you have any holes in your decor? Is there something you’ve been telling yourself for months or maybe even years (like last spring and the one before that) that you’ve been wanting for your decor? While I am not a big proponent of buying new decor every season (See my post on how I repurpose my decor for my centerpiece here: Centerpieces Throughout the Year), I am a proponent of thoughtfully adding a few new touches when needed—-especially if it is something that you keep wanting season after season.
I hope this helps to inspire you to refresh your home and to get excited about the season we are about to enter! Be sure to check back next week when I’ll be giving some ideas for different spring and Easter vignette ideas. Be sure you’ve joined my email list (you can do this by inserting your email address in the box at the bottom of your screen) so you don’t miss it!
But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalms 86:15
Have you ever told a lie, even just a little one? What about a big one? Have you gotten caught in the lie, been humiliated when everything came to light, and then years later done exactly the same thing again? That is what Abraham did.
Abraham is traveling with his wife Sara through Egypt when Sara catches Pharaoh’s eye. Abraham tells Sara that, if questioned, she should say that she is Abraham’s sister. Now this is partially true; they had the same father, but they definitely were married. Pharaoh, upon hearing that Sara is Abraham’s sister, takes her as his wife. Plagues visit Egypt and it is revealed to Pharaoh that Sara is in fact Abraham’s wife. Pharaoh immediately calls Abraham and tells him to take Sara, pack up his belongings, and get out of Egypt!
Years later a similar thing happens. Abraham and Sara are traveling through Gerar when King Abimelech sees Sara. Abraham tells Sara to repeat the lie that worked out so well for them in Egypt—and Sara does this! This time, Abraham was afraid that because Sara was so beautiful that the king would kill him to take Sara. But again, we saw this play out once already. Things are not going well for King Abimelech. God comes to the king in a dream and tells him to release Sara back to Abraham because Sara is Abraham’s wife. Abimelech listens to God and Sara and Abraham once again pack up and leave.
Now when I read this I say what? How does this happen because:
Why would Abraham repeat the same lie when it didn’t go well the first time, and
Why would Sara go along with it?
Personally, I can understand Abraham fearing for his life and coming up with the plan the first time but as Sara, I really don’t know that I would go along with it the second time—especially when this would mean being taken away from her household and living in a strange culture in the King’s palace. (Well, living in the palace part doesn’t sound so bad…)
Though this is a very blatant example of a family making the same bad decision twice, we see repeated examples of people making terrible choices and decisions throughout the Bible. The Israelites mess up time and time again, and repeatedly have to be brought back from their worship of false gods—even after they had witnessed the miracle of God parting the Red Sea. Then there is Peter who denied Christ not once, not twice, but three times!
We read about these events but do we really absorb them? Do we truly grasp what an all-loving, patient God we serve? We mess up in our lives; we beat ourselves up and think what horrible people and Christians we are, forgetting that we are merely humans living in a fallen world. But, He is abundantly merciful, full of grace, patient and kind. We should strive to serve God with all of hearts, souls and minds as the Bible commands. We aren’t perfect and that is not news to God. While we might be surprised at our frail humanity, God isn’t. The good thing is He never asks us to be perfect. He asks us to love Him and through doing so He will make us more like Him.
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Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
What I love about historical fiction is how it can bring to life little-known events and shed light on overlooked people. We hear so much about the men throughout history but as the saying goes, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” While this may, or may not be completely true, here are several books about the wives of some of history’s famous men.
The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin
This is a book about the life of Charles Lindbergh’s wife. You have no doubt heard about Charles Lindbergh (the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic), but have you heard about his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh? Anne was the daughter of an affluent family and an aviator in her own right also. This book, told in the first person, is about Anne’s life growing up and how she came to be Mrs. Lindbergh. I found this book fascinating as I knew only a little about Charles Lindbergh and nothing about his wife; however, if you are hoping for a book that goes to great lengths to investigate the disappearance of their baby this book does not offer that. What it does offer is a glimpse into the life of a woman who was remarkable apart from the man to whom she was married.
I mentioned this book in my post (books I have been enjoying lately) , but this is a story of Joy Davidman Lewis. Joy was stuck in a loveless marriage with an abusive and cheating husband. They had two young boys. On a whim, she decided to write to C. S. Lewis with some spiritual questions she had. He wrote back and, being a writer and poet herself, Joy and C. S. Lewis discover they have a lot in common. C. S. Lewis invites her to visit England. As her marriage continues to deteriorate, Joy finally travels to England and her friendship with C. S. Lewis deepens. They have totally different backgrounds and lifestyles yet they find a deep friendship birthed in their mutual love of literature and philosophy. I really enjoyed this peak into C. S. Lewis’s personal life and I learned a lot!
In an age where money was everything and society was a game to play, Alva Smith is starting out on the bottom rung. With her mother dead and her family’s once prestigious wealth depleting quickly after the Civil War, Alva needs to hurry and land an eligible husband before it is too late. Not only does Alva manage to marry one of the richest men in America, William Kissam Vanderbilt, but she plays the games and climbs the social ladder. Seen by some as a cold and calculating woman, Alva doesn’t seem to care what people think. All she knows is that even being married into the wealthiest family in the country isn’t enough—she needs to land at the top of New York’s social elite if she really wants to secure her place in society. But at what cost?
If you read my post, Should You Read My Dear Hamilton If You Didn’t Love America’s First Daughter, then you know I have mixed feelings about this author. I loved one of her books and really didn’t care for one of her others—so what was I going to think about this one? Turns out I loved it! The story rotates from the points of view of three different women during the periods of the 1780s, WW I, and WW II. In 1774, we meet Adrienne de Noailles, or Adrienne Lafayette as she is better known, who is the wife of the Marquis de Lafa. Adrienne was a kind woman of stalwart courage. Not only would France’s history be much different without this woman but so would America’s. We then travel to 1914 where we meet Beatrice Chanler who decides to get involved in the war effort which could possibly involve turning Lafayette’s home into an orphanage; and then we meet Marthe who is presently serving as a school teacher to the ill children who reside in Lafayette’s once home, now school for ill children. How this chateau has played a part in such varied history is truly fascinating!
This is a story about Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln and the friendship that was forged between her and her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. Mary’s childhood was an indulgent one, growing up among affluent in Tennessee’s high society. Elizabeth was a former slave who had learned to make a way in the world for herself with her talent as a seamstress, buying her own freedom in the process. Though Mary’s life may have been one of affluence, it was not without its struggles, struggles that culminated during the Civil War years as Mary led her life married to the man who was leading the Civil War, a war in which Mary’s entire family was on the opposing side. Add to that losing a son (her second child to not survive to adulthood) during her husband’s time in office and we can see some of the factors as to why Mary received the nickname of “That Female Hellcat”. With her husband preoccupied with the war, Mary leans heavily on her friendship with Elizabeth.
I hope, if you decide to pick up any of these titles, you will enjoy them and gain a little more rounded view of history. If you do decide to pick up any of these titles, I encourage you to use the affiliate link in this post. This is a way you can tangibly support this blog—and at no extra cost to you!
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
We are in this world but we are not to be of this world; rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, setting our minds on the things above.(Romans 12:2). This can be so hard. The demands of life add up, snatch time away from us, and next thing we know a year has come and gone and a new year has begun.
What always amazes me, when reflecting over a past year, are the moments that I remember. They aren’t always the big moments that I remember with the most clarity. The small moments, the minutiae of life, are usually the things I remember. They are the moments I laughed with my husband until I couldn’t breathe. The moments of pure relaxation reading a book on the bank of the river in the summer. The quiet moments sitting by a campfire, sharing a meal with friends. These are the moments in which time stands still; when all else fades away, and for a moment there is no such thing as time. It is in these moments when we get the best glimpse into what eternity will be like. These precious but ordinary moments are what I think eternity will be like.
When I met my friend’s little new born son for the first time, I asked her if she felt like she had always known him and she said yes. God has planted eternity in our hearts—something within us knows this world is not all we were created for, and we do sense this about others. We feel a weight when we truly connect with others; when we hold a newborn, when we engage in a meaningful conversation with someone, when we are helping an older person, we can sense that these people aren’t just creatures like our pets (and I do love my pets!) but these people have something eternal planted within them that our souls recognize.
Society and individuals today try to play down the sanctity of life—of the preborn, of the elderly, or of those who are terminally ill. Hastening the end of the lives of individuals is a big deal. It’s the biggest deal. We aren’t just playing with the things of this world, we are messing with the eternity of others.
Like C. S. Lewis said, “If I find within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” This can make us uncomfortable. We are very used to this world; but let it make us bold, not uncomfortable. When things are spoken to us in conversation which we know is not in step with what we are told in God’s word, let us always be bold enough to proclaim the truth, gently and lovingly, but firmly. After all, when we stand before the judgment throne in heaven do we really want to confess that we didn’t share our faith, and perhaps plant the seeds that changed eternity for someone else because we were embarrassed? Of what?
Eternity is something we have to deal with in this world. We don’t get another chance to deal with it after this one. This is our one shot to decide where and with whom we want to spend it. We plan our weekend, our years, our careers, our lives, but we must also plan for our eternity. May this truth help us bravely share our faith with others. This is their one shot for eternity also.
P.S. If you are enjoying these posts please share them with someone you know who may also enjoy them!
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I’d like to start off by saying, I am not here to point fingers! We all have had our less-than-stellar decorating moments. Some decor faux pas you may be aware of, other you may not. There may be a few sections in your house that you have a feeling that something isn’t quite right but you just keep hoping that if you ignore it may fix itself…
Feeling Off
Do you have a spot in your home that just doesn’t feel quite right? You just don’t quite like it. You think you need to repaint, or reupholster an item, or buy something new, but even when you do these things you still don’t like it, then something is definitely off. Here are a few of the top mistakes I’ve observed that can make a room feel off.
A Too Small Area Rug
An area rug should comfortably gather all your furniture together. What does that mean? It means at least the front two legs of all your furniture should rest on the rug—hopefully by at least six inches! Please do not leave a slight gap around the edge of your rug and the front of your furniture. If you think your rug is too small it will be worth the pain to pack it up, return it, and get a larger one. Trust me on this one—your rug is not going to grow! If your rug was very expensive or perhaps a one-of-a-kind vintage rug and is too small, try layering it over a larger rug. This will add depth to your home will allow you to keep your favorite rug.
Furniture placement
Speaking of furniture—don’t push it all back against the wall! This is something common that we do especially if your house isn’t huge. Pushing all your furniture back against the wall can backfire, making your room feel smaller rather than larger. If you can, pull at least a few pieces out from the wall by six inches or a foot. Try it!
Too Much Stuff
Are you a collector? Do you love an eclectic vibe? Collections are great but display them with care. If you don’t have a large collection that can be displayed together to really make a visual impact then display only portions of that collection at a time.
Likewise you may prefer a fuller room rather than a minimalist feel. Again that’s fine. Just make sure that you are:
· Displaying things that have meaning to you and aren’t just taking up space, and
· That you leave a clear walkway to create flow in the room.
White Space
Speaking of too much stuff, remember to leave some white space where your eye can rest. Even if you are a maximalist, there should be some space in each room where your eye can rest without being bombarded with stimulation. As I mentioned above, make sure there is a defined walk way to each area of the room. You want to be able to vacuum or have someone with a cane to be able to easily navigate your space, without having to move things first!
Too Many Cords
Electronic cords are part of modern day life but make sure they aren’t the focus of it! You want to hide as many cords as possible out of the way and out of sight. Try taping cords down the back of a console stand to keep them hidden. If possible, plug end-table lamps into an outlet behind or even under your couch. If you have a bunch of cords laying on the floor beneath your TV stand, try applying a few Command hooks to the back of your TV stand and loop the cords over the hook so the cords are hidden behind the TV stand and not on the floor underneath it.
Keeping Something You Hate
At some point we have probably all been given an item that we do not love; in fact we may hate it. If you never liked a piece don’t try to style around it. You could try painting or reupholstering it but if that doesn’t work then it is time to let it go. It’s okay if it was your great grandma’s—if you hate it, it is better to pass it along to someone who will love and cherish it as much as your great grandma did.
Trends
Maybe you have all the new trendy item displayed in your home; maybe you have a bunch of items that used to be trendy in your home—a long time ago! Either way, having too many trendy pieces in your home can make your home start to feel cheap. Add a few touches and ask yourself if you like the item because you like it, or if it’s because you liked it back when you bought it many years ago.
Curtains
Curtains are not to just cover your window. They are to be a statement! Hang the curtains within 4-6 inches of the top of your ceilings if you live in a standard 8-10 foot ceiling home. If you live in a house with very tall ceilings then I probably wouldn’t go more than 8 inches to possibly 10 inches above the window itself. See how low you can go; you can let them puddle (crease) on the floor with several inches on the floor for a romantic look; you can let them kiss (just grazing the floor) for a modern luxe look, or you can have them just hover about a centimeter above the floor which may be the best option if you have little kids, or rambunctious pets!
Add Character
Hotel rooms done by a designer are nice, but they are just that—a place where you swing by and stay for a day or two before departing. Your home should not feel like that. You want to add character to your home. Add a few pieces of art that you simply adore. Add a few pictures of your family. (Just don’t go overboard with too many everywhere!) Display the weird knickknack that no one other than you knows what it is—this is your home and if you love it, it should be displayed.
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
