We made it through the spooky month! I admit, I’m not the biggest fan of spooky decor. (There are worse faults a person could have!) But, now what? Done with the Halloween stuff but not quite ready to tear into all the Christmas decor? Here are a few ways to keep your home nice and cozy, just by adding a few touches of winter to your decor—and you don’t have to pack up your pumpkins.
Mirror Nature
I know this is one of my popular refrains but it’s so true! Take a look outside—what do you see? Granted, this may be a little more difficult to see if you live in the south, but for those of us who live in the north, we are starting to see that most of the trees have lost their leaves, frost is appearing on branches and you may even see little red winter berries starting to appear on bushes. Try tucking a few frosted branches in amongst your pumpkins. Stick large branches in a vase. Try mixing real branches from trees with faux frosted branches for a more dimensional look. Stick a spray of faux, real, or dried berries into a vase.
Curate Your Colors
If you do more of a traditional decor color palette for fall that consists of yellow, orange, and red, try editing down your colors. I would take out anything yellow and anything that is a super bright, fall color. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the colors in nature have started to fade considerably.
Leave the Pumpkins
Keep your pumpkins. I think nothing is more gorgeous than sticking a spray of red berries into a vignette with your pumpkins. Tuck frosted greenery in with white pumpkins, if you have a more neutral look.
Refresh
Do one last sweep for any scarecrows or overtly early fall decor. Pack up those things and then stand back and examine. Have things gotten a little rough around the edges? Rather than waiting until after Thanksgiving, reset things and do a little tidying up now, so it will be less overwhelming later.
Next Add a Few Touches of Winter
Faux Fur
Scandinavian decor has cornered the market on cozy. One of the things that I love about Scandinavian decor is the use of faux furs. Bring in a faux fur throw blanket, throw pillows, or (my favorite) a faux animal pelt and drape it over a chair, or use as a small floor mat.
Chunky Knits
If you haven’t yet, and especially if you live in a four-seasons climate, pull out the chunky knit throws and blankets.
Winter Decor
I briefly touched on this earlier but try adding frosted greenery, a spray of frosted berries, or a spray of non-frosted berries to your decor. Play with adding these to your centerpiece, or a fall vignette.
Candles, Candles, Candles
This is the perfect time to pull out your white candles—be they pillar candles, votive candles, or a traditional candle stick. Remember, all of these come in battery options too, if you aren’t crazy about an open flame in your home. If you want to dress it up even more, you can place votive candles in mercury glass votive holders and thereby add some sparkle.
I hope this helps inspire you to play with your decor this Thanksgiving and helps you to create a cozy home that you and your family can curl up in and enjoy this holiday season!
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
Alternative Christmas Color Palettes
How to Decorate Your Home for Winter
How to Create A Vignette for Any Room in Your Home
For by Him all things were created, in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16 ESV
Have you ever met a friend of a friend—someone that you have heard lots about over a period of time? Your friend tells you stories with this friend in it, what they do, what they say, and how they react to things. You get all excited to meet them, you have a mental picture in your head of what they will be like, and then you meet them. And they are nothing like what you thought! You realize that despite what your friend said, you filled in the blanks with a lot of your own preconceived notions and totally changed the character of this person. Have you done this with God too?
I remember having a discussion with someone once. We were both around the age of 16. We were at youth group and while most of the kids were practicing a skit for the upcoming Christmas program, he and I started talking and it turned into a discussion of the essence of who God is. I remember this guy saying, “Well to me God is … .” I don’t remember exactly what he said but I remember that it was clear that he was basing his assessment on what he thought with no scriptural backing whatsoever.
I don’t know exactly how I responded to his statement but if I could go back I would say that God is not defined by what we think of Him. He is the great I Am. The One that never changes. The One that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We may not like certain aspects of His personality; we may be uncomfortable with some of His characteristics; we may not like how He has handled mankind’s sin and situations in the past, but that doesn’t change the fact that we don’t define who God is.
In our modern world we are moving more toward a pantheistic society, meaning that it is increasingly accepted that anything can be God and God can be anything or everything. If you believe that, that is fine. But that is not the God of the Bible. Scripture tells us clearly who He is. It tells us what He is like. We are given guidelines of how we are to live our life, principles to live by. The Bible gives us numerous examples of causes and effects: doing x causes y, and vice versa. The Bible makes it clear what He is all about. He is not defined by who we think He is. He is who He is, and we can accept or reject Him, but we cannot make Him into who we want Him to be. We serve a God that is abounding in grace and mercy; He is faithful and true; slow to anger, forgiving, and compassionate; full of wisdom. He loves us so much that He sacrificed His Son in order that we might spend eternity with Him. And God was willing to send Jesus to die even for those who despise Him! It is our choice. He is a good God. He is a just God. He is God.
What image do you hold of God in your mind? Perhaps you have a hard time picturing Him as a God who really cares and loves you, or perhaps you see Him as a father who only disciplines. Whatever your view, if you believe in the God of the Bible, I encourage you to spend time in His Word. Invite Him to show you His nature and His loving kindness. He will reveal Himself to those who really want to know. After all, only what He says matters.
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
I have always been a soup-and-salad-type of girl. I love soup, as in I could (and do) eat it all year round! I realize that while not everyone may enjoy soup all year long, most of us can enjoy a good bowl of soup in these colder months. Here are several of my favorite soup recipes. These have been big hits, not just in my family, but also to most everyone I have served them too. Since soup is so easy to throw in a pot and let simmer, it is often my fall back-up option when entertaining—and these recipes have been real crowd pleasers!
Hot Sausage Soup
18 oz. (1 pkg.) hot sausage links (I like Uncle Charley’s)
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1-32 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 cans great northern beans
1 pkg. of spinach
Dash of hot sauce
1 green pepper
Water
Oil
Salt and pepper
You can make this either on a stovetop or in a crockpot. If you decide to make it in a crockpot, you do not have to brown the meat, onions and pepper beforehand, but be sure to cook for about 6-8 hours if this is what you choose. Also, beware the onions and green pepper will have a slightly softer taste, however I hardly ever take the time to cook my onion and pepper ahead of time and I have had no complaints.
Slice sausages links and brown in a pan over medium/low heat. While the meat is browning, slice onions and green pepper and once sausage is mostly brown, add in the onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook until onion and pepper are soft and sausage is thoroughly browned. Add the crushed tomatoes and 32 ounces of water to your cooking pot of choice. Rinse and add one can of beans. Rinse the other can of beans and the purée(?) before adding. This will thicken your soup. Add sausage, onions, green pepper, and garlic from pan. Add a touch of salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Cook for 1.5 hours on stove top or longer if using a crockpot. Stir occasionally. After 1.5 hours add the spinach and cook another 15-20 minutes until spinach is wilted. Then, dish up and enjoy!
Garlic bread, croutons, and shredded cheddar cheese go great with this!
Broccoli Cheese Soup
2 Tbs. butter
1 medium onion
6 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes
8 oz. of rice
2-10 oz. pkgs. of chopped broccoli
½ tsp garlic powder
6 cups milk
1 lb. Velveeta cheese
Sauté onion for 3 minutes, until tender. Add water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Add broccoli and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, or until broccoli pierces easily with a fork. Cube cheese. Reduce heat and add milk and cheese and stir until dissolved.
This is soup—grandma always said cook low and slow so the flavor can really come to strength and this is so true! You can cook for a short amount of time or several hours. The important thing is about 20-30 minutes before you finish cooking the soup, add the rice and the salt. You want to cook it long enough that the rice will soften, but not so long that it will become mushy.
Considerations and Alternatives:
Instead of using rice, you can use a small noodle such as Acini de Pepe. I prefer rice because it is gluten free but either will do.
Be sure the water and bullion are simmering and not boiling when you add your milk and cheese; otherwise, rather than becoming creamy your milk will separate which, although it will still taste good, it will not look pretty!
Tomato Pepper Jack Cheese Soup
2 cans (or one family-size can) of tomato soup
14.5 oz. (1 can) of diced tomatoes
1.5 cups of milk
1 block of pepper jack cheese
4 oz. of cream cheese
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. basil
½ tsp. garlic powder
Dash of hot sauce
Shake of crushed red peppers, if you like spice!
Use a food processor to shred the block of pepper jack cheese into tiny pieces. Then add the diced tomatoes* and process in a food processor until creamed. Cube cream cheese. Add all ingredients to a crockpot and cook on high for 3-3.5 hours, or longer on low. Stir occasionally.
Garnish with croutons, cheese, or serve with garlic bread.
*You do not have to process the tomatoes but I prefer the more creamy texture
There you are! These are three of my favorite cold weather recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and friends do! I’d love to hear what are some of your favorite soups and cold weather recipes.
12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.(A) When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12 NIV
Do you ever think it would be easier to be completely happy if you lived in a bubble—similar to Little House on the Prairie where their goal was to build a house in the middle of open acres where they wouldn’t have many neighbors. I think it would be easier to be content and sincerely grateful if I were in the middle of a wide open prairie with no neighbors in sight with whom to compare myself.
When I focus on all the blessings God has given me, I find it easier to be content when I am not comparing my life to others. When I am spending more time at home and less time on social media, it is easier for me to not compare myself to others.
I came across a quote by Charles de Montesquieu the other day. The quote was this: “If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think they’re happier than they are.” It is not enough for us to just be happy; we don’t want just a nice house, or a comfortable income, or maybe a vacation each year. No, we want it all—plus some. We not only want a nice house, we want it to be slightly nicer than that of our peers. We want a slightly greater income than those around us. We want to go on vacation and have it be a little fancier than others around us. We want it all—plus.
We get so focused on looking at what others have that we don’t stop to appreciate what all we have been blessed with. Who do we think we are to tell God that we appreciate His blessings but could He bless us just a little bit more? The tragedy of this is that these same people to whom we are comparing ourselves are probably doing the same thing—comparing their lives to ours! While we sit comparing ourselves to each other, we totally overlook the unique blessings that God has showered upon us.
We have seen examples of this kind of thing in the Bible too. Remember King David? He was, as I said, King. He was ruling God’s Chosen People. He had wealth, prestige, and power. He had beautiful wives. But . . . he didn’t have Bathsheba who was the wife of another man—Uriah. Oh he got her—but he sacrificed a lot. When Bathsheba conceived a child, he ended up basically having Uriah killed. Sadly, this child died. There was a wedge now in David’s relationship with God until he repented. He lost his peace of mind. He lost his integrity. And, the Bible says, the sword never departed from his house. That is a steep price. All because he found something (or someone) he didn’t have and on impulse decided he needed it. Oh what needless pain was caused because David stopped focusing on all he had been blessed with and instead craved what Uriah had. (Read the full story at II Samuel 11 and 12.)
Why do we feel the need to compare our blessings with the blessings of others? We spend so much more time comparing our blessings than we do thinking about the Giver of those blessings. What God must think when He sees us not being grateful simply because He didn’t bless us in the same way that He blessed others in our lives!
It is so easy to get distracted with the things of this earth—especially the things we want but do not yet possess. We can spend our days being jealous and envious, comparing ourselves with others, or we can carry our list of wants and needs before God and then release them to Him, trusting that He is able to do infinitely more than we could ever imagine but He will do only what is best for us.
The seasons are starting to change—are you itching to change some of your seasonal decor? At this time of year, I always get the bug to switch things up. I enjoy the summer months so much and am focused on being outside that I let the decor in my house rest. But after a few months, I am ready for a change!
The beauty of seasonal decor is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel and totally switch everything for the upcoming season—we can simply switch out a few elements or maybe just a few minor pieces. Take your table centerpiece for example: do you totally strip it down and redo it, or do you just switch out some of the elements? I used to try to make major decor changes just about every season and then I realized that (1) I definitely had a favorite way of doing things, and (2) it was silly to keep reinventing the wheel. Yes, it can be fun to do a total overhaul and switch everything but other times it is just as good of an option to switch out seasonal elements.
I have had the same centerpiece for about a year now. While I do different variations of it, it is the same base each time. For me this includes: the base which is a shallow wooden box, my candlesticks, and my twine balls. Then I switch out the seasonal elements.
Last fall I added little pumpkins and twinkle lights to my centerpiece. I also added the pinecones as they give my centerpieces a little more woodsy, fall-like feel.
This is a picture of my centerpiece at Christmas. I love sprinkling in the mini ornaments to add some sparkle and shine to my centerpiece. Again, the pinecones make it feel more like winter.
After the holidays, I usually just strip down my centerpiece to just the twinkle lights, pinecones, and twine balls. It’s simple and it reflects the world outside my windows. And I let it remain like that until spring.
This is a picture of my Easter-style centerpiece. By adding the faux Easter eggs, it gives it just enough of a touch of spring.
And that takes you through a year in the life of my centerpieces!
That is what I do for my centerpieces, but the same principle applies to other decor in your home. Instead of feeling like you need to replace everything, can you swap a candle on a pillar for a pumpkin in the fall, or insert a garland of sparkling greenery at Christmas?
Here are some seasonal accent items to keep in mind:
In the winter, think about the world outside—nature is dormant and there is much more brown than in other seasons. You can add a touch of evergreen or even a sparkly branch or two, but also think: pinecones, twine balls, bar candles, plain branches, and even deer sheds (antlers).
In the spring, keep a base of twine balls and pinecones and consider adding some faux eggs prior to Easter, some dried flowers, or accent balls that correlate with the color you have in your home.
In the summer, you can still have your base of twine balls and even pinecones, but also add some flowers—faux, dried, or real, sea shells, greenery from outside, plants and even fresh cut branches!
For fall, keep your twine ball base along with the pinecones and consider adding: acorns, baby pumpkins, strands of wheat, and twinkle lights.
Christmas offers a lot of options! You can add ornaments, holly branches, glitter greenery, angels, or even a manger scene and, of course, the twinkle lights.
I hope this gives you some inspiration for how you can switch up your decor without the headache of redoing everything! A few little touches can completely change the feel of your decor. If you want to totally redo your decor, go for it! But if you just want to add a seasonal touch and change the feel, you don’t have to go crazy! Look at your decor and see where you could add a few seasonal elements. Just have fun playing!
