Winter Home Atmosphere

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand and for

a talk beside the fire;

It is the time for home.”

-Edith Stilwell, British poet

I’ve had this quote sitting at my place at the table for about a week now…just thinking about it. It’s prompted a lot of thinking about the atmosphere of our home. Naturally, I hope our home is filled with the presence of Christ, and His love and presence can be felt by those who live here and those who visit. But I was thinking about the atmosphere we create…the tangibles that create beauty and make home feel like home. And then I was thinking about how, for me, that atmosphere is entwined with the seasons of the year. So, I put pen to paper in an attempt to sort out my thoughts. I found that, in my mind, each season has an atmosphere all its own, and that that atmosphere spills over to: the kitchen, touches of beauty and comfort, and our activities. Here is how I thought about this winter:



Winter

Quiet. Home. Peace. Rest. Togetherness.

The Kitchen:

-soup

-hot cocoa with whipped cream on cold nights

-oatmeal

-crockpot

-warm, comfort food

-eating last summer’s preserved food from the freezer, pantry shelves, and basement

-cinnamon rolls

-maple syrup

Touches of Beauty and Comfort:

-candles

-cozy quilts

-duvets

-indoors together

-flannel sheets

Activities:

-garden planning

-arranging dried flowers (picked fresh last summer) in vases

-knitting

-afternoon walks

-reading

-family fun

Bulletin Board Makeover

I like starting the new year with a painting project.  It’s a fresh start to a fresh year!  Last year I painted three rooms.  This year I tackled smaller projects.

I really needed a place to keep ideas and orders-in-process paperwork for my Etsy shop in one, easy-to-see place.  And having an unused bulletin board (4' x 4') that used to live in the schoolroom of our house in California AND an empty wall in the laundry/sewing room, I decided to give the bulletin board a makeover.

First it got a fresh coat of paint.  The paint color is called Cobblestone…sort of a mushroom-like color.  I like its mellowness.

Then I bought some decorator fabric with which to cover it.  I’m positively wild about this particular fabric!  So neutral, yet not boring.  It’s got weight, and a nice, historic sort of look and feel to it.



I cut the fabric just a bit bigger than the surface of the bulletin board.



I turned it under all around the edges and secured it with upholstery tacks.

Hopefully, it will help me keep that aspect of my life straight.

The first two items to go onto the bulletin board were my new sewing-themed calendar (purchased from this Etsy shop) and a pretty ribbon sent to me by a friend.

This is just the first step in some big improvements coming to that room of the house this year.