How to Refresh Your Home for Spring

How to Refresh Your Home for Spring

by | Mar 3, 2021 | Decorating, Homemaking

Well it is winter. Still. And here in Pennsylvania it will continue to be for a while, but we are finally at the point where the end of winter is just about in sight- we hope!! However, while I am still trying not to succumb to total spring fever just yet, I am cleansing my home of any remaining winter items, and refreshing my home for spring. I will not be pulling out anything overtly springy yet, but the stage will be set to add touches of spring when the weather breaks and I feel that I can safely do so without fear of the winter weather coming crashing back in and destroying hopes and dreams of winter’s end.

In my post, How to Decorate for Winter, I said that I do not take down all of my wintery things in January- it’s just too depressing! So now is when I do a clean sweep, and when my house will be a little more bare than it has been since fall! I try to look at it through new eyes. Is there a way I keep arranging things that I don’t love but have just gotten used to? Would I like to swap rooms with some of my pictures? Is there something that has seen better days and I finally need to let go of it?

In all honesty, I find this season the most difficult to decorate because while it totally makes sense to take all things seasonal down and give my home a season of rest, I struggle to do this since I feel like it’s already so bare boring everywhere I look. Outside is gray, and while I love the four seasons we experience here in PA, I have to say this is probably my least favorite season- a season of waiting for winter to end and spring to fully begin. In addition since I am not decorating for a season, this is when I rely on the core of my decor more than any other time of year. If you haven’t built a decor capsule yet check out my post here on How to Build Capsule Decor.

Now, when I am doing my spring refresh is when I always find a few “holes” in my decorating. Seasonal items that have filled out a space quite nicely are gone and I am left scraping for something not-to-seasonal to replace what I just took down. But, you know what? It’s ok! It’s ok to look around your house at least once a year (maybe even more!) and assess the bulk of your decor and decide if you are happy with it. Has your style changed slightly? Is there something you’ve been meaning to buy for a while and just haven’t made time to do it? Now is the time! If you are on a tight budget and really don’t have extra money to spend right now don’t let that stop you from playing with your decor! Sometimes we need to buy something, but we can often fill or fix, even for just a little while), a decor glitch with something we already own. Look through your dishes in your cabinet, take a peak in your craft supplies, see what you come up with and if you are still stumped, try googling or looking on Pinterest for creative ways to use the items that you found! Have fun with it, and I know this is annoying advice but try to approach it from a fun creative point of view, rather than one in which you are upset because you can’t buy or find something new at the moment. I have never had a great idea while throwing myself a pity party, but some of my favorite decorating ideas have come when I have challenged myself to use what I have and try to come up with something fabulous just using those items.

Keep Some Cozy


This time of year I really like to focus on candles and blankets to warm up my home and keep it from feeling too sterile! I still love a chunky knit blanket at this time of year, and while it may be about time to pack up the fur pillows and throws, make sure to still leave enough around to snuggle up with on the cold days that are still to come!

Is Your Home Friendly?


Did you switch things up over the holidays and never return? Did you make your home slightly less livable in the name of beauty? It’s ok for your home to look like people live there- at least to some extent! Find a box for your tv remotes to live in on the coffee table, have a mat by the door for shoes, style a few cups near your coffee or tea station for a quicker grab in the morning! Make it easy to live in- it can still be beautiful!

Re Introduce Greenery


Plants are definitely welcome all year but when is more appropriate than in the spring? I know for me I moved a few plants around because of my Christmas decor and now I really like where they are living and I just may need to pick up another new plant or two!

Add Pictures


I have a few pictures in prominent places like my piano and mantle but I looked around and realized that there were startling few personal touches around my house. I have a bunch of pictures- time to pull them out! A picture is a great way to fill out a vignette! See my post on Vignettes: Tell Me A Story, and add a personal touch to your home!

Color Check


No matter what colors you have chosen for your home’s color pallet, see How to Create a Cohesive Color Pallet, there will be a color or 2 that is more suited to spring than the rest. If you are looking at getting a few new throw pillows lean hard into these colors!

Collections


If you are someone who likes to collect and has a collection now is the time to show it off! Generally with a collection you want to rotate through how much of it you show off at a time, (unless you have a huge collection and a great place to show it off where it can really be a wow factor!), however now, when your house is a little more bare is a great time to display more of your collection than you normally would!

Need a little Inspiration?


Ok so you have all your winter decor down but you also have cabin fever and you don’t want it to just be plain?? What else can you do to refresh your home for spring and add some transitional coziness to your space?

Here are a few ideas:
Plants
Lanterns
Candles
Deer antlers
Flowers- fresh, faux or dried!
Handmade pottery
Vintage glass bottles
Unique or vintage figurines- try crowning a stack of books with these!
Geometric spheres
Adding a touch of rustic
Vintage busts or small animal figurines.

As always happy decorating- enjoy!

A Quiet Life

A Quiet Life

by | Feb 28, 2021 | Sunday Scripture

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,”

1Thessalonians 4:11 NIV

 

 

 

 

Ambitions. We are all about them in our current society. Everywhere I turn I see advertisements about chasing your dreams, building that big 7- figure business, to be a face everybody recognizes, and to go, go go. That has never sat right with me, I have never aspired to fame. What about you? What if that fancy life never felt right to you either? I’m tired of the message that if we aren’t doing everything we can to build the biggest business we can, that if we aren’t leading massive non profits, then we are then wasting our potential. I am tired of it even as I partially agree with it.

 

 

I agree that God has packed so much potential into each one of us that we will never reach the end of it in our lifetime. I believe that subtle restlessness so many people feel and ignore is not a sign of being discontented,(though of course it can be!), but rather a sign that there is something, even a subtle change that could be made in one’s life.

 

 

But. I also believe that not all of us were designed to build huge businesses, travel all over the world, and be gone from home more often than we are home. Maybe that is your calling, but it isn’t mine. I heard the verse from 1 Thessalonians 4:11 when I was probably around 12 and it struck a chord within me. It is my ambition to lead a quiet life.

 

 

Ambitions are great, we need people who aspire to build big businesses, we need the people who talk to large audiences and inspire thousands, and we need the people who only ever aspire to impact life in their community.

 

 

You see a quiet life is nothing to be ashamed of, and a quiet life does not mean that we are not working with everything we have to further God’s kingdom. Instead I believe it means participating in a small group, opening your home to others, going out of your way to be a support for someone who has no one else to support them. It means helping out with the youth group, making meals for the family that just had a baby, visiting the elderly, and helping out the homeless in your city.

 

 

You see if we all were called to the big things in life there would be no one left to do the little things. My ambition has been to lead a quiet life, what about you? Are you restless? What is the source? Might you need to lean in a little closer to home and start serving your own community in seemingly insignificant ways?

 

 

 

 

 

Check out more Sunday Scripture from Essentially EmmaMarie

 

Living In Possibility

Living In Possibility

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Grace Notes

I spend a lot of my time telling myself no, living on a schedule and generally doing my best to make sure everything stays on track and progresses as I want it to. And when it doesn’t? Well I get upset of course, and then I buckle down, analyze, over analyze and figure out best I can to never let it happen again.

I have lived in a self appointed confinement. Full of rules I’ve made, as if life can be boiled down to a simple formula. As if I alone have the power to control life and make it exactly what I want it to be- but only if I never stray from the course I have set. I was always moving, running, racing at a frenetic pace to get to the next thing but then I had a realization- what if I just didn’t? Sure there are some things that must be kept on top of, but what if instead of living in the world of scarcity that I had created for myself, what if I believe that there were endless possibilities for my life?

There are, you know, endless possibilities. There are endless possibilities of things we can do, vocations we can have, and places to live. And you know what else? Most decisions are not life defining. Way may lead on to way as Robert Frost says in his poem, “The Road Not Taken,” but that doesn’t mean that we can’t transfer paths further up the road. We miss a section of a road, but that doesn’t mean we can’t transfer over to it later if we truly regret having not taken it.

What if instead of assuming there is one path for our lives and that no matter what we must stick with it, what if we lived asking, “what next?” What if we dwelt in the possibility of what our lives could be rather than just assuming that this is all there is. Yes, some commitments we do have to live with; our spouse, children, even pets are with us for the long haul! But there are so many possibilities still open to us.

I remember when my husband and I got engaged at the ripe old age of 19, and people asked why? Why tie ourselves down at such a young age? Didn’t we want to travel, and do things, have freedom? The answer was yes we did! We just happened to want to do all those things together! We filtered our marriage through the lense of possibility, of what all we could do together, not what we were giving up; and since we kind of liked each other, we still haven’t found that we missed out on anything!

I think the key to living in possibility is to view your current situations as guardrails rather than gates. Certain options are off limits, lest we go careening off a cliff, but guard rails don’t stop us from turning at safe intersections, and we pass through many more of life’s intersections than we even realize, because our preset gps tells us to go straight, so why wonder what is down the road to the right?

I am choosing to live in the possibility, to see the world through the lense of what can still happen, not living in confinement of the choices I have already made. I choose to see possibilities instead of restrictions. I choose to see roadblocks as something to be overcome, not a sign to turn around and go back to from where I came.

What about you? What do you choose today?

Why I Challenged Myself in My Reading Life Last Year

Why I Challenged Myself in My Reading Life Last Year

by | Feb 24, 2021 | Book Nook

Part way through last year I began to feel like I was in a bit of a reading rut…it wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying what I was reading it was just that I didn’t feel I was making very thoughtful decisions about what I chose to pick up. I would finish a book, and just go to whatever happened to look good in that moment without putting much thought into it. Consequently everything I was reading was starting to seem very similar. I wanted to challenge my reading tastes, to broaden my horizons and expand my reading- at least for a test run! So I decided to challenge myself in my reading life and to pick up a few books that I would normally never venture toward and to see what happened!

I hoped not only to gain expanded reading taste, but also to round out my understanding of the world. I read to be entertained, yes, but I also read to learn, to understand different situations other than my own, and to gain a better understanding of world views that differ from mine.

But where to start with books outside my comfort zone? I didn’t want to challenge myself in my reading so much that I never ventured outside my comfort zone again! Historical fiction is my favorite genre, I like it to be fast paced enough to hold my interest, but slow enough to give paint a vivid picture of the backdrop, as well as having some meat to it for me to chew on. I decided to start with something just barely outside of my comfort zone, same time period as I enjoy reading about, but with a different tone from what I usually enjoy. So I started with, Where the Crawdads Sing.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I heard all the buzz about this book and finally picked it up. There is a murder committed in a small costal Georgia town and not just anyone has been killed- the high school start quarter back, the only son of the town’s car dealer, everybody loved him it was said- so who killed him? Then there is Kya, a young girl abandoned to fend for herself in the swamp area of the town, people think she is strange, she is a definite loaner- is she the killer? Will she be the scapegoat? It took me a little while to get into this book but one I did I was hooked! The plot kept me guessing till the end although in hindsight I feel like I should have figured it out sooner. I would not categorize this book as a light read though, there are scenes with domestic violence, abuse, and abandonment. There is a mournful windswept quality about this story. The author does a fantastic job of bringing the town and swamp area to life, I didn’t feel like a struggled to picture anything the author was talking about, and though the book carries a heaviness with it it does get brighter as it moves along. No my favorite type of read but still one that I am glad that I read!

After finishing, Where the Crawdads Sing, I wanted something a little more upbeat and light. So the next book I went for was, The Perfect Couple.

The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

After reading Summer of ‘69, I found myself wanting to read more by Ms Hilderbrand! The perfect couple is about a couple about to get married on Nantucket. They seem happy, both families are pleased with the match but things get turned topsy turvy when on the morning of the lavish wedding the maid of honor is found dead on the beach. Was she the intended victim? Who would do such a thing? Why? Weren’t the bride and groom supposed to be the perfect couple? As the police investigation unfolds we find out that there are indeed much more going on behind the scenes…. This was a fun summer read that absolutely kept my interest, there were a few thought provoking questions to ponder but this is definitely on the lighter side- kick back and enjoy!

How to Be Married, by JoPiazza

This book too I had heard about on a podcast. It is the personal story of a travel journalist who after just about giving up on finding Mr Right, finds him at the last minute and gets married- only to realize she has absolutely no idea how to actually be married. Strong and fiercely independent she doesn’t want to give up her freedom- but how do you compromise in marriage without sacrificing who you are? She decided to use the opportunities she has as a travel journalist and to interview women on 7 different continents to see how they have learned to be married, and how marriage differs from country to country. As someone who is not as well traveled as they would like to be I really enjoyed seeing a glimpse into different cultures! Be forewarned though- this book had more swearing than I was anticipating and definitely more than seemed necessary.(Is any necessary?)

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

I enjoy reading memoirs and autobiographies so I decided to pick up something in the same vein but not about one a distant historical figure so I chose Open Book by Jessica Simpson. I, of course, knew who Jessica Simpson is, but as I have never been one to follow pop culture very closely, I didn’t know very much about her. She came from a solid middle class family, tried and failed at a few auditions before finally getting her first break with a recording studio. She has since been on reality tv shows, (in the early days of reality tv), acted in several movies and launched the first celebrity clothing line to make a billion dollars annually. Jessica also talks about her personal life and struggles which she has dealt with over the years. Jessica is a very good story teller and this was a very engaging read!

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This book had the least correlation to books that I currently enjoy reading. I had heard so much about this book- like so much. From being a pick in Reese Witherspoon’s book club, to hearing it talked about on podcasts I had high hopes for this novel. Perhaps my hopes were a little too high because this book did not quite meet my expectations. Little Fires Everywhere was about a mother and daughter who move to Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s and essentially the little metaphorical fires that occur in their wake, though not directly their fault. The mother, Mia, was an art student and has never followed society’s norms. She pursues her art, packing up and moving with her daughter when the notion strikes her. This was facer paced read that kept me turning pages, and did touch on many topics that be good fodder for a book clubs; topics ranging from the struggle of an immigrant mother, to abortion, to being considered strange for not fitting in with societal norms. It also had more swearing than I was prepared for. While I’m not sorry I read it, and it posed questions worthy of deeper thought, I won’t be rushing to read more of this type.

Overall I am very happy that I decided to challenge myself in my reading life. I really enjoyed most of the books that I tried and now have a greater understanding of what I enjoy in a book. It isn’t just the setting but also the topics, tone, and imagery used within a book that all make a significant contribution to how much I enjoy my reading experience. I now have a better understanding when branching of what I may enjoy vs. what I probably won’t enjoy, with the added benefit of being able to discern better with in my favorite genre what I will really love instead of just thinking that it is ok.

A Few Tips to Help your Challenge Your Reading Life

What about you? Could you stand to branch out in your reading life? Here are a few tips to get you started! Give it a try! If you’re afraid you won’t like it just remember

  • Try something similar to what you already like to read, if you already enjoy a certain setting for your books, like stories that take place at the beach for example, then try keeping the setting but time era.
  • If you like a certain tone to your reads; fast paced, slow, dark, wistful, etc., try finding a book that has a similar tone but totally different setting.
  • Don’t be afraid to quit a book if you really just can’t make it! We don’t like to be quitters, but really if you are reading something for leisure and are a good part of the way through and still not enjoying it just quit. That book may not be for you but there are tons out there still- go try one of them!

Living As Though Looking Through A Microscope

Living As Though Looking Through A Microscope

by | Feb 21, 2021 | Sunday Scripture

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

My dad was a biology major, it therefore stands to reason that he was probably the most excited I have ever seen him be when in third grade I was learning how to use the microscope and he was able to show me the hidden wonders of the world, revealed through the microscope’s lense. We pulled out his microscope, dusted off the old slides and examined all of them under the microscope. I was hooked! We started looking at other things beside the slides: salt, sugar, hair- oh how the world transformed looking under that lense! I remember when, after examining everything that could possibly be examined we finally stepped back and my eyes readjusting to the real size world around us, again oblivious to the microscopic world that we had just been ensconced in.

I remembered this feeling a few weeks ago sitting in church, I felt a subtle nudge that perhaps I was living life as though looking through that microscope again. Immersed in the close up details of my life, neglecting to pay attention to the rest of the big world going on around me. In my day to day life, with bills that need paid and projects that need worked on, and responsibilities to uphold, it is easy to think that this is the whole of life, that all these minute details are sum of life as a whole- but are they really?

Yes, it is the seemingly inconsequential tasks that fill up the minutes and hours of our days, and therefore our lives- but isn’t it also true that in getting immersed in all the details that we miss the big picture? Scripture reminds us that, “His thoughts are not our thoughts,” and that “His ways are higher than our ways.” They are higher, the bigger, they are better. We get so immersed in the details of our lives that we totally forget the big picture. Yes we were put on this earth to work, do laundry and pay bills. But we were also placed here to love and nurture others, feed the hungry, and share the gospel.

That Sunday I felt the nudge that I had been living too small, too centered on me, myself, I, and right now. God calls us to many small things in this life but He also calls us to many bigger things too. To a life centered on others, not ourselves. We may run a large non profit, we may give someone the nudge that they need to start a bible study that changes yet another person’s life, but if we never look up from our little corner of the world, we will miss the big things going on in the world around us, in which we could yet play a part- if only we look up.

What about you? Have you gotten caught up in life’s grind as well and forgotten that there is a whole big world going on around you? However if you are feeling like there has to be more to life than laundry and dishes I urge you to ask God what His plans are for you, and then to look up from the microscope of your life.