I went to the Holiday Homes Tour for the benefit of Health Care Access last weekend and found many great ideas. Keep the tour in mind next year as you begin your holiday decorating. But if you want to make additions this year, try these ideas I noticed on the tour:

• Candle holders with different Christmas bulbs on top some pointed some round. Make a display of them for your centerpiece on Christmas day. The decorations could be multicolored or they could have gold, silver and cream as a theme as the tour house did.

• Use small theme trees throughout the house. These could be really small to fit on the vanity in the guest bath or they could be taller to fit in a bedroom. Keep in mind the scale of the decorations for these trees.

• Start a theme for your decorations Santas, snowmen, nativity scenes, dishes, and stockings are all possible and easy to do. Ask for these items as gifts and it will build your collection with wonderful variety.

• Don’t put all your Santas together, all your snowmen together, and so on. Tuck these figures throughout the house on the book shelves, in a corner of a chair, on the bed. Mix them up in size and quantity

• Frame some special Christmas cards from last year. Many cards are almost works of art and would give you variety from your usual art.

• Don’t forget holiday towels. Unusual towels and sizes will add flair to the bathroom and kitchen with little effort.

If it is too late for you this year to make a change, get up early on December 26 and shop for those bargains that can transform your home next year. Adding a few items each year won’t break the checkbook and you will have fun enjoying the process as you add new items each year.

Happy Holidays! Enjoy the season with your friends and family.

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A few weeks ago I was interviewed on Home and Away, a program on our local television station.  The topic was “getting started”.  I discovered that for most people it is not as easy as it seems.  We all want a change in our environment, but the fear overtakes us.  What if I don’t .like it?  What shall I do first?  How do I decide a color scheme?  How DO I get started??

Do not become paralyzed and do nothing.  Having parameters helps.   We always have them, whether it is a piece of furniture we need to keep, or the walls that were just painted last year and we can’t change them again, or, of course, there is always the budget.  Let’s begin with one idea.

Remember that trip you took last summer?  You carted that ceramic lamp back without breaking it but when you arrived home you put it in the basement and it is still there.   How about making the lamp the centerpiece of your decorating scheme in your “new” living room?  Keep the wood blinds but add a valance that coordinates with the lamp.  Then find an area rug that will cover up the worn spot on the carpet and will add a cozy, conversation area to the room by putting a focus on the furniture arrangement.   Add complementary throw pillows to the sofa and take out the old accessories that don’t match and look worn and old. 

Actually I suggest you take out as much as you can when you are starting over.  It helps you to see the room core and focus on what needs to be there, rather than working around school gifts from your kids many years ago and that basket of flowers that Aunt Mary gave you many, many years ago.  You didn’t like it then and you still don’t like it now, but somehow it is still in your room.  Get rid of it!!

Don’t be afraid.  Life is about taking chances and enjoying the process. 

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