The most wonderful time of the year will be here before we know it- Christmas! I love Christmas, the sounds, the smells, the events, and of the course the decorating! I think I was born in the wrong era because at Christmas I want to ditch any signs of minimalism and pull out everything; garland, greenery, and Christmas bulbs – oh my! My heart starts fluttering just thinking of it all.
But of course it’s not quite as simple as all that; we want the garlands, greenery and Christmas bulbs but it also takes planning and consideration to decide what color themes and look we want to stick with. Capsule theory – Cohesive Color Pallet
The most renown color theme for Christmas is most definitely red and green, tossed with touches of silver and gold. Now, what I call a traditionalist when it comes to décor- meaning I love red, green, silver and gold, and generally don’t hunger to switch up this pallet too much. This works for me but I also live in a neutral colored house that adapts easily to this color scheme- but what if your house doesn’t?
One of my favorite things is to play with color- there is nothing like a new box of crayons, or looking at all the color swatches in a paint store to make me excited-yes, this is a little pathetic, but so be it! I don’t know why all the different colors excites me so much, but they sure do! There are endless combinations and pretty pallets to be created, if one only takes the time and encourages their creativity, the same is true for Christmas decorating!
You may have a house where your walls and decor are primarily blue, and you don’t want a bunch of red and green. Your house may be bright and welcoming with yellows, beige and other warm tones. You can add red and green because after all it is Christmas but what if you want a little more cohesion and less tension within your color decor?
May I suggest you work with what you already have in your home. If you want cohesion and your house is full of blues and grays, make a Christmas color pallet, (insert capsule the Rory) of 5 or more colors made up of gray, silver, navy, gold and perhaps a touch of burgundy.
If your house is inclined toward the warmer side of the color wheel, try a color pallet of gold, cream, white, silver, and a soft greige.
Do you love pastels? Blush, gold, silver, gray, and navy make a breathtaking outline to work within.
Below I have included several sample color pallets to get your creative juices flowing; have fun! You don’t have to follow all the rules, and if you need even more inspiration search color pallets on Pinterest and then let your creativity run rampant!
I’m sure you’ve heard of the capsule wardrobe, it has been around for many years, and has one again become popular over the past few years. This theory teaches the principle that you have a small core wardrobe in which all items are interchangeable and small accents can be added to give more pop or flair to an outfit. This same principle applies to décor.
While generally it is the rule to build your decorating style off several different looks, rather than buying pieces that are all the exact same style,(think all rustic farmhouse themed, or all mid century modern), this is not something we always apply to seasonal décor- but we can and often should. Imposing this filter on our décor will help to simplify our lives immensely!
If you read my post How To Create A Cohesive Color Pallet, you may already be familiar with and utilizing these principles but as a quick refresher it is a good idea to create a color pallet for your home of about 5-12 different colors, having 1 or 2 main colors, about 3 accent colors, and 2 or 3 colors that you use vary sparingly. Now you may already be doing this but do you follow these guidelines when it comes to seasonal decor?
If you have a neutral color scheme in your home, with a very small color pallet, then you have a lot of room to play when it comes to adding seasonal decor. However, you may have more colors in your home; you may like pastels or yellows and oranges which can make for challenging decorating when it comes to certain seasons. Enter capsule decorating.
If you have a home that is decorated in pastel purples, blues, and greens then you may not want to plunk down a bunch of orange pumpkins in the fall. But what you can do is plunk down a bunch of white ones. You build your base of white pumpkins, and then add a few soft brown twine balls, maybe a pair of deer antlers, and some eucalyptus greenery sprinkled about. Then the next year you build off of this base. This gives you a framework for your decor; when you can’t decide between an orange and brown welcome fall sign, and one that is designed of beiges, grays, and creams you can easily make a decision to go with a neutral sign and therefore simplify your decorating.
My base for the decor elements in my home are white, wood, and vintage. The white keeps things clean and modern, the wood keeps things rustic, and the vintage is all me- an expression of my personal style and what I like. When I cull through my decor and find the pieces that I use every season I see a theme, which I can then follow to help in the selection of new decor pieces. I picture the decor that I love the most and ask myself if this new item will find a home among my other pieces. I sometimes stray from this rule but it’s very helpful when I’m under a lot of shopping pressure!
Capsule decorating is an easy formula to follow to add seasonal touches to your décor without feeling like you have to do a huge overhaul of all of your décor. Capsule decorating isn’t about hard and fast restrictions that you can never stray from; rather capsule decorating is a tool to simplify your life. Who among us doesn’t need a little more simplicity these days? I hope this helps to simplify and give you more freedom in your decorating!
Moses said to the Lord, Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Exodus 4:10-13 NIV
I love decorating- that will come as no surprise to you if you read this blog! It’s not even that I just love decorating my own home as much as I love seeing pictures and visiting other people’s homes. I love looking at all the colors, seeing all the styles, being surprised by the ingenuity of others with a DIY project or upcycling something into a different item that I would have never thought of.
I have my own style for my house that I call something like American heritage meets modern style/ meets vintage- with a touch of not so much farmhouse as much as a country air. Sounds specific doesn’t? What this all boils down to is that we live in an area where we have more horses and goats for neighbors than we do people, and I want my house to reflect the pastoral setting. I also love vintage so I want to embrace that in my decor but also include a few modern touches to keep it up to date. I want my home to feel collected but not too eclectic. I am in many homes and see beautiful eclectic styles, perfectly done neutrals, and refreshing minimalism.
I see each of these and my heart beats a little faster and I wish I could be more like them in my tastes. I would love to have the classiness of a totally neutral home, I would love to feel that openness that comes with a hardcore Marie Kondo Minimalistic styled home, but alas this isn’t really me. My home is a reflection of me. I like classy, but I’m not Grace Kelly. I don’t like clutter but hard core minimalism scares me. What I am is a mix. I like neutrals with spots of color to bring everything to life. I like having a tidy house while still knowing everything I need when inspiration hits for a craft project is at my fingertips. I like this. This is me. This is how God made me.
God makes each of us unique, one of a kind creations. While we definitely need to surrender to Him, (a never ending struggle), to polish and shape us we need to remember that He is polishing and shaping us. He is not remaking us. How much time do we waste wishing we were different? We wish we looked different, had a different life and different tastes. How much of our lives and potential to we spend fighting God on what he has given us rather than asking how we can use our uniqueness to honor Him?
Remember Moses? He couldn’t speak well, therefore God couldn’t possibly use him to lead a nation- could He? Instead of God using Moses’s studder to bring even more glory to God, Moses ended up begging God to use someone else, which God ultimately did. What blessing did Moses forfeit by not doing as God asked? What was robbed not just from Moses but from the Israelite people because of this unwillingness on Moses’s part?
The next time you sigh about a part of yourself not being like you wish, think whether this is truly something that needs to be improved, or whether it is in the neutral category. If it’s not a bad thing, then ask God to show you to what purpose He would like you to use this specific thing. The answer may shock you.
“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
Luke 24:39
It is the day after Halloween, you thought you were done hearing about ghosts and all manner of spookiness until next year didn’t you? Well not quite. Halloween in our current culture has become a rather macabre, month long celebration of all things evil- ghosts, demons, zombies, and witches, etc… I’m not against the dressing up and trick or treating for kids, but I think as Christians we tend to pay little attention to how we participate in a day that is dedicated to demonic activity. November first used to be All Saints Day, a day to remember and honor the saints. It was believed that on the night before this day, the lines between the living and dead became blurred and the dead and ghosts could roam about, so people would dress up in costumes to trick anything they may be looking for them. Halloween started thus and has continued to gradually gravitate toward the occult over the years.
Regardless of where you stand on Halloween, or how much thought you give, or don’t give to the rather evil roots of the day there is another spooky subject that I would like to pose for food for thought- what about the ghosts and demons?
I have been in church all my life and have never heard a sermon that took a deep look into the demonic world and how it does, or doesn’t interact with our lives. We read in the Bible that there were many instances of demonic activity, of demons interacting with and causing interference on earth but as a church today we tend to brush off any thoughts of a dark spiritual world interacting with our day to day lives, beyond the point of the devil planting seeds of doubt in our minds.
And then there are ghosts. I should make the distinction that when I speak of demons I mean fallen angels and beings that are their own, and who currently reside in Hell, unless of course they are allowed to wander the earth and interact with us more than we realize. When I speak of Ghosts I mean people who have died, reappearing here on earth. Let me be clear- I believe absent from the body present with the Lord; but what about unbelievers? Yes they go to hell, but are they there now? Or will it be after the resurrection? Or are they allowed out, on special assignment as it were?
We know in the Old Testament Saul visited a medium and called Samuel down from heaven to give him a prophetic word. Samuel was not happy to have been disturbed. Also in the New Testament Jesus appears to the disciples and they are scared thinking he was a ghost. And what does Jesus say? Does he say silly disciples, ghosts aren’t real? No, He doesn’t. He says, touch me, feel me; ghosts don’t have flesh and bones.
In our science based world where things are only believed if they can be tested and reproduced on demand we don’t allow much room for the spiritual realm. The Bible clearly does. We like to think of Angels so why don’t we allow for demons? I bet we all have at least one acquaintance that could tell us a “weird” story that can’t be explained away, something whether good or bad that seems to go against our tidy scientific resolutions. What if instead of ignoring this side of reality we used it as a way to strengthen our belief that while there are many forces at play in both the seen and unseen world, our God is still supreme, and greater than all the rest combined?
Quick reminder 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!
I hate it when I pick up a book that I think I’m reading for pure edification and end up coming away with a lot to think about and highly convicted. I had read parts of this book in high school, I remembered it being thought provoking and it had been on my reading list for a while.
Randy hits a lot of different points in this book; all of them good, and most not talked about nearly enough in the Christian community. He covers all the things; how money is talked about more than nearly any other topic in the Bible, how our thinking about money in today’s day and age is flawed, often even in our churches, the Bible’s views on debt, and how we should use our money to help others.
I would hesitate to describe myself as materialistic. I certainly don’t want to think that money is one of the most important things to me. But I do place a lot of feelings of security in money. Money is a buffer between me and the unexpected large medical bill. Money is the freedom to do things- anything. And money secures a roof over my head, and that in turn brings me feelings of safety and comfort. Towards the end of the book Randy makes a statement about money that I found terribly convicting. He said that in our American culture we are taught to save, to build a safety net with our money, and once a lot of us start with this we keep going. He says that while that is wise, where is the point that we stop relying on God to provide for our needs, and instead rely on our safety net that we have built. I know this is something I have done, and while I do still think that it is wise that we have an emergency fund, I also think that we really do need to ponder and pray over where our security lies.
An Overarching point that Randy makes throughout the book is that there is soo much need in this world. And largely as Americans, even those living in what we call poverty, we have so much. Did God bless us with all this just for us to stay very comfortable? Randy makes the case that perhaps we have been blessed largely so that we can bless others just as much. He states several times that he believes that we should pick a certain amount of money to live on, it needn’t be super small but neither should it be a lavish amount, but rather somewhere in between, and then commit to live at that amount from then on. We should still work to maximize our incomes and make as much money as we have the skill to do so, but all money over that set amount should go to charities, non profits, and our churches. Randy uses his own life as an example and it is amazing to see how God has blessed and provided. I don’t know how I feel about this. I can certainly appreciate Randy’s view, but it does seem a little extreme. However much of Christianity has been seen as extreme throughout the history of the Church and I therefore believe that we should deeply ponder what our relationship is with money, and how it is impacting our relationship with God.
I think this is valuable reading for any Christian definitely, but also for anyone who wants to take a challenging look at their relationship with money. Do we have a healthy perspective on money and material things? How much time do we spend thinking about money and the things and own and want to own versus other much more important things- like Eternity? At the end of our lives are we going to wish that we had held onto more of our money, or that we had used it to bless others and bring glory to God every time we had the chance?
