Styling the Winter Season at Home
Things are starting to feel decidedly Christmassy around here. I’d like to tell you that it’s the influence of my 3 year old, but that would be a lie. She seems vaguely excited at the prospect of gifts, but really rather oblivious about the whole thing. We are focussing on the seasonal aspect of Christmas; the solstice, and what’s happening outside which I suppose is why. I on the other hand, although outwardly composed and sufficiently grown up about it, am internally running around in excited circles and throwing glitter and pine needles in an rainbow arc above my head. We’re off to Bolton this weekend to have a mini Christmas with my family, so i’ve been busy buying and making gifts and wrapping and gathering materials. My mincemeat and Christmas puddings are done and I have also prepped quite a few Christmas posts too. This is so unheard of, and quite frankly, out of character, that I feel I deserve some sort of trophy.
What I’m trying to say is that things have been feeling festive around here for a while, as it should. Anything that helps us to focus on the brilliance of Winter should be encouraged: it's life affirming and also SAD banishing. It actually feels good to celebrate winter greenery and candle light, and dark cosy nights.
Since the Sisterhood Winter Supper a couple of weeks ago, which I styled, I haven’t been able to resist starting to style some wintery/christmassy goodness into my home. My mantle has looked like this for a couple of weeks now, and will probably look pretty much the same in December too. It is basically lots of handmade wreathes from the sisterhood supper, clipped with vintage candle clips from eBay. My current obsession is beeswax candles. They smell divine and burn beautifully, with none of the chemicals in most normal candles. The stumpy shaped ones were £3 and £5 a pair from Frankie-Rose’s Advent fair at her Steiner school (bargain! I snapped them up!) and the little beeswax candles in the clips are German, and from eBay.
There may or may not have been a small fire during the shooting of this photo.... eek! I learned that candle clips are lovely but only on really big wreathes! So they'll stay unlit until I make a bigger wreath! When I texted this to my friends, one of them, Jo, didn't miss a beat, replying with #natureinthehome . Touche.
Happy November to you! May winter's brilliance be with you.