The winter "blues"

Today is the first day of winter and it really feels like it here in sunny Southern California. Where we are sometimes hit with 80 degree days during the Christmas week, this week we are having cold, windy and rainy weather. And as hard as it is to navigate in the rain, I like it. The wind has blown away most of the fall colored leaves that were so yellow and orange just days ago and the trees are beginning to look bare. Winter is here.

For me, nothing says winter more than the cool of winter white and silvery blue. I absolutely love these images from Carolyne Roehm. She is a master at presentation. 

I wrapped my first gift today. I wrapped it simply with some brown packing paper. The tag I printed from a free download from MAEMAE PAPERIE via last month's issue of Rue Magazine. You can see the article on page 59 of the online magazine. Here is the link to the free stationery download.

A friend of mine gave me some of her cherished popcorn balls ... beautifully wrapped in my theme color this year - turquoise. 

They came beautifully presented in a white bag with the cellophane sticking out and a white gardenia inside and this lovely tag on the front - clipped on with a vintage earring - so beautiful and clever. I wanted to photograph the entire package because it was such a perfect presentation but while I was out it somehow fell over and the water from the vase inside spilled and ruined the bag.

I delivered some upholstered pieces to a client today and picked up a little project of my own.

I have had this little leather ottoman for years. I have no idea where it came from but I found it up in the attic when I was pulling down the Christmas decorations. I decided to have it re-covered with some lovely Ikat fabric I had sitting around.

I love the way it came out and the little touch of blue.

A time and place for managing papers

The two most important keys to staying organized with paperwork is having a location to keep it, and time to manage it. Without those two factors in place you will potentially end up with mounds of paperwork overwhelming you, late payments and time wasted looking for something you need that you cannot find.

Whether it is a bill that needs to be paid, a receipt or your child's report card, the less places there are to put them, the easier it will be to find them when you need to. If you do not have a home office, you will need to carve out a space in another room; the kitchen, the dining room, a cupboard in a hallway. If space is tight you may need to have a separate place for files and another place where you have the papers that are not yet filed.

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

In a previous post I talked about the three places that my papers go (besides the trash). Each piece of paper that comes into the house (or is generated in the house!) goes in one of two boxes or is filed or put away. The exception is something that I put directly into my calendar but that is rare.  I file all my papers in either a file drawer or keep them in a binder. It is crucial that you have files set up for your paperwork or it will have no place to go. I make files for medical, school records, receipts, paid bills, etc. which I will address in a later post. Before they are filed I have two places that they can be. If they are not in the one, they are in the other. Simple. Easy. No lost papers!

I have one place designated for important papers that are time sensitive, and another place for papers that require action but do not have a time deadline. That's it. Two places.

1. The time sensitive box (I call this my bill box). I use an antique looking metal box that I like looking at since it sits on my desk. I like it there because it is in plain view and I cannot forget about it! In this box I put ONLY important papers that have a deadline. I put all my unpaid bills, a check that needs to be cashed, an invitation before it gets put into my calendar, etc. Anything with a deadline. That's it.

This is my bill box - just big enough for the time sensitive papers

Lucas Allen

2. The non-time sensitive box (I call this my to-do box) is a place (the only place) where papers that are without a deadline are kept before they are filed away or taken care of. The reason I insist that this box be short is that it is not a place to store papers but a holding place until they are moved somewhere else (put in a binder, filed in the filing drawer, thrown away after reading, or taken care of).

The perfect size for a to-do box - JUST ONE! These from See Jane Work

James Baigrie

Here is how it works. (Practice with your mail today!) Everything that is not filed, put away in designated places or thrown away should go into one of those two places. If it is a bill to be paid, it goes in your time sensitive box. If it is something you want to look at later or can't file away today, it goes in the non-time sensitive box. That's it. I keep my calendar in my to-do box. I may throw a receipt in there before I can file it, or a photo before I have time to put it where I store my photos, or an application to fill out at my convenience. When I need to find something, I know it is either in one box or the other. If I get a check in the mail, I will put it in the time sensitive box.

Alexandra Rowley

Time management is the other factor here.  Part of the reason why I insist that the to-do box has short sides is that it is not intended to be a place for papers to pile up but rather a holding place until they are moved into where they will ultimately be stored (filing drawer, binder or designated home). My rule of thumb - when the to-do box is full it is time to take care of the papers. Ideally the to-do box should be emptied each week.

Paul Whicheloe

Tip of the day: Schedule in your calendar one day a week consistently to go through your to-do box and to take care of your time sensitive bills and papers.

{All images from Real Simple unless otherwise noted}

What color is your Jesus?

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." -Luke 2:8-12

As a little girl I loved playing with our Christmas nativity scene. My sisters and I would play with the cow & the sheep, the wise men & the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and of course the blond haired, blue eyed Caucasian looking baby Jesus. It was my favorite thing that would come out at Christmas. We grew up being told the Christmas story and yet I don't remember what we played when we moved those figures around and made them talk and play each other. Maybe we just played with them like we did with our Barbies.

I always intended to get a nice set for my girls but I never found one that was "pass down through the generations" worthy or one that compared to the one I grew up with. We do have a little plastic set that the girls played with just like my sisters and I did, and we were given a gorgeous Boehm porcelain Mary & Joseph and baby Jesus but that was always put way out of reach.

Earlier this week I was out shopping and I saw a set that was really nice and what I loved about it was that it was not like the white-skinned figures that we had. It was more primitive looking and maybe more authentic; at least Joseph looked a little more Jewish than German.  And I started wondering about nativity sets and decided to do a little research. I found out that some of what we put in a typical nativity scene is based on scripture and some is not (the angel and the shepherds are, the Magi were not at his birth, and there is no mention of an ox or a donkey or sheep being present).

 © Prizler Photography

I thought it was really interesting to read about the origin of the nativity scene. Wikipedia said that, 

"St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene in 1223 at Greccio, Italy in an attempt to place the emphasis of Christmas upon the worship of Christ rather than upon secular materialism and gift giving."

I had to wonder about that. I don't think it worked - I can't think of a more materialistic day then Christmas! Click here if you want to read more on the history of nativity scenes.  I also did a little research on nativity scenes around the world.

Japanese Kokeshi Nativity Set

Japanese found on Etsy

Philippines

Mexico

Peru

Peru

Peru - Chulucana

Haiti

South Africa

Ghana

Kenya

Russia

West Bank

India

I really loved looking at all the different nativity figures. I found most of them on this site. I am curious, do you have a favorite nativity set or memory of playing with one?

Two Christmases

I just finished decorating two houses for Christmas; two very different houses. The interesting thing is that both of these clients asked me to keep it edited - to not use 'everything' and instead select just what I want to use. One actually used the word 'simple'. I love that. I smile as I write this because that is what I do best - simple! But sometimes keeping things edited takes just as much time (and sometimes even more) than putting out a lot of decorations.

In both houses I went through all the decorations they had and selected what I wanted to use and put together a series of vignettes. A few bulbs here and there, some grouped together, and candles. A lot of candles.

This year's Christmas card featured on the front entry piece

In the first house, a more grown up home with married children and one away at college, I used primarily silver and gold and some green. Elegant and sophisticated with just a sprinkling of color. 

In the second house, a lively home filled with young children I used a lot more color. What is great is that the majority of the balls in the house with the young children are all plastic ... but don't they look great?

A colorful display for the front entry piece

A lot of what I can do depends on what ornaments and colors I have to work with when I am decorating for someone else. And while it is obvious that my style will be reflected in what I do, I think it is important to make sure that their personality comes out in the end result. I think that both these houses do just that and I really love the way they both turned out! 

A casual dinner & pink Christmas trees

I had my Bible study group over for a casual 'potluck' dinner last night. We meet at my house most Tuesday nights and since this was our last meeting before Christmas we decided to have dinner. I provided dessert - my apple crisp (I had made two, one for me, one for my new neighbor). I also made a very easy hors d'oeuvre. I took Boursin cheese (the pepper flavored one) and poured Bonne Maman strawberry preserves on top and served it with crackers. It is always a huge hit and you can't get much easier than that!

I set a very simple table - we are a casual group - but I think it is nice to use cloth napkins and I just happened to find an entire box filled with acorn ornaments earlier in the day when I was going through my Christmas decorations that I had forgotten all about. I purchased them a couple of years ago after Christmas for a dollar or two. They made the place settings feel a little more special and everyone got to take home a little gift.

Our group spent the year reading through the entire Bible. Last Christmas we all got 365 day Bibles that had a passage for each day of the year. It was set up with a passage from the Old Testament, a passage from the New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb to read every day. It starts at the beginning and goes in succession all year long. It is only about 15 minutes of reading a day. It was a great Christmas gift to give out because you can start reading it on January 1. I gave one to a lot of my family and friends. I thought it would be nice to all be reading the same thing at the same time. You know, like a great book club.

It was really amazing reading the entire Bible including all those passages you usually skip over. I know that the Bible is the number one most read book in the world (3.9 billion copies) but I wonder how many people have actually read it fully - not just parts of it. Reading it in its entirety was fascinating; it is filled with so much history and since it was in an "easy to read" translation a lot of it read like a novel that I didn't want to put down (some days I would have to read on). I would highly recommend it to everyone. Here is the specific Bible we read and if you are interested in finding out more about it or want to purchase it, click here: 

My sister, Patti sent this to me today - she is a photographer so of course she always has her camera with her (although this was actually taken with her phone). She had gone up to her camera store to get some supplies and this was in the store next to it. She thought I would appreciate it especially in light of the announcement of the new color for 2011 (Honeysuckle ... basically hot pink)! 

© Prizler Photography

How very cute is that? Later in the day I ran into this one at Borders:

Are you smiling? I think maybe this is a "sign" ... a pink tree for next Christmas? ;o) ha ha!