"She sifted powdered sugar over the great platter of beautifully brown crisp doughnuts . . . she cleaned the fine old family silver, and got out the best long tablecloth to look it over for possible breaks, counted out the napkins, and arranged everything in order in the sideboard so that the dinner tomorrow would be assembled with the least possible effort . . . .
Grace Livingston Hill, The Substitute Guest
Sounds lovely doesn't it? But a bit removed from your harried life?
Here's a little holiday embellishment advice that might give aid to your own efforts, encourage, possibly inspire you to the task of making ready for the Christmas season.
***************************************************
Take a page from Allison's
BrocanteHome puttery treats. She says:
"I like to think of Christmas decorating as a process of layering, culminating in the decorating of the tree and the lighting of the lights in mid December. Start with scent. Spray a little Christmas into the air. Play Christmas music. Patch cushions and old blankets with floral jingle bells or snowflakes. Add pine cones to a bowl-
ful of shiny red apples.Wrap soap in vintage Christmas Hankies and pile into a footed dish. Add a little Christmas to every surface in the house
before you begin to decorate."
*************************************************
More good advice from Anna at
Pleasant View Schoolhouse , from her post Decorating Without Clutter:
"I like the house to look dressed for Christmas, but I don't like a lot of extra things strewn around. Too busy for my eye, too crowded to live with. Instead of *adding*
Christmassy things, I like to edit the house to make it look festive. The stack of dishtowels folded by the sink? If I take out the blue and yellow ones and tuck them away for the month, I have a stack of red and white. Topped with a useful tub of peppermint hand cream, this looks deliberately
Christmassy.
A quick switch of quilts, from autumn colors to the red-and-white schoolhouse quilt.
One cutting of red geranium turns a pot of basil into a holiday decoration.
Pure white flowers in the living room.
By putting away all my pink and blue aprons, and pulling out my three vintage Christmas aprons, my hanging display is deliciously decorative.
A stack of red books on the coffee table."
