Rebecca and I both found the Nesting Place blog this past week.  Gorgeous ideas and witty writing.

I have not sewn in sooo long.  Makes me sad. Where does the time go?  Better question – where did the transfer pen go??   Should you be in the stitching mood be sure to check out these oh so cute dishtowel patterns.

As opposed to big ones lol.  I found the Wrangler Home site this week and love it. Good mix of rugged, western, and warm with good clean lines.

Woolrich’s Home Furnishings Line is similar though a bit more LL Bean-ish.  Is that a word? Surely you know what I mean Rebecca, yes?  The Summerstone Falls collection is my favorite.  Now if my red plaid Woolrich bedding would just wear out I could justify replacing it. <g>  Five years and going strong I tell you. You can’t wear this stuff out. It outlasted my fondness for black wool bears…

This is what I think about when I am not tackling the great problems of existence. Living rooms and bedding sets. : )  Dear friend Jen always says you may not be able to change the world, but you can always move the furniture.

I told you yesterday I was reading through the Babauta site with vigor. It is funny how things come together sometimes. Rebecca already had me thinking about the purpose for our stuff and spaces.  I have been hitting our schedule reliably and working the binder system.  I actually have looked at several other binder systems but after reading Leo’s articles and links I realized this really does work best for us and now I can articulate why.

His work builds upon David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which I haven’t read since I am busy getting things done. <g> (and let me tell you it is plugs like these that endear me to Amazon lolol!; ))  GTD was designed to help corporate types boost productivity and eliminate stressors. While I mostly shun the concept of running a home like a factory there are some parallels to be made. Some of the guidance can be adapted to our situation. 43 Folders sums up the GTD system this way:

1. identify all the stuff in your life that isn’t in the right place (close all open loops)

2. get rid of the stuff that isn’t yours or you don’t need right now

3. create a right place that you trust and that supports your working style and values

4. put your stuff in the right place, consistently

5. do your stuff in a way that honors your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment

6. iterate and refactor mercilessly

Now if you have visited Rebecca’s site since she started the Peter Walsh book, It’s All Too Much, you know how similar the advice is – Declutter, have places for what is left, always put the stuff in the right places, reconsider both the stuff and places regularly.  There.  That is easy enough.   Easier if you have less stuff anyway. And excepting the fact that childrens’ stuff tends to multiply in the dark I am almost certain. Note to self: keep purging the stuff….

There is also #5: DO your stuff in a way that honors your time and energy, which is what we have been talking about a lot lately. What is worth my time? (see Doing it All) What does it mean to do things honorably? If I am a Christian wife and a Montessori mom then for me it means to do things cheerfully, peacefully, and respectfully.  (Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love Eph. 4:2) 

Creating a supportive working environment means surrounding myself with encouraging, enabling messages and avoiding places and people who are less so. Never underestimate the power of suggestion. A discouraging word can weigh on your heart and slow you down.

Honoring my energy means acknowledging that there is a fixed amount of time we are given and we can’t get it back.  Since I have some stamina issues, time and energy have to managed carefully and responsibly.

Leo B mentioned that the best rule of thumb for GTD is to make short lists and follow those lists. We are doing very well with that. I have considered some of the other list systems I have seen and my feeling is you can have too much of a good thing. The opinion seems to be if one list is good then ten are better, but the inverse is true here. At some pt your mind shuts down and you stop seeing things and start glazing. Better to have short lists you and your family can memorize and make work.

If you task yourself with tracking every book read, every window cleaned, gift bought, calorie consumed, all your bible verses, etc you will end up a slave to your binder. The goal is to spend most of our lives LIVING vs planning and documenting. Make the plan – yes, but make it the least cumbersome possible. Life is short. : )

Mitchell Gold and his brother weren’t allowed in his family’s living room growing up.  As an adult he vowed to have interiors that children and pets could frequent.  As a designer he determined that these spaces can and should be innovative and artful and personal.  His book shows how it can be done. I cannot wait to get my copy in my hands!

I should note that the company supports the Climate Project.  That may make you giddy with excitement or it may give you chills. One can always buy used and save the difference.

Pattern Bee has a dozen vintage Christmas patterns here. The Turkey Feathers Blog which belongs to her also has some wonderful freebies tucked into the archives.

So I am a schizophrenic decorator.  As I tell my dh there are a looooot of houses in my head. : )  Some lovely images locked inside there come from Mary Carol Garrity’s Nell Hill’s  shop and the books she has written showcasing her signature style. Back Porch Musing features a photo tour of the Kansas shop  Pat at Back Porch has a very similar style herself. Her home was just nominated as best decorated for Christmas by the Old Painted Cottage. 

 
You can see a picture of a table setting using a covered sugar bowl as an individual soup tureen.  Mary Carol is a big fan of using traditional pieces in unconventional ways.  You likely deduced that is a huge draw for me. <g>  A favorite holiday title of mine is Nell Hill’s Christmas at Home.  Any of her books provide lots of inspiration however.   

I am not such a hot gift wrapper. I have a hard time getting excited about something that is destined to be torn to shreds.  It is compounded by the fact that we generally end up rock-paper-scissoring who has to finish up the Christmas wrapping late into Christmas Eve….

I am not too fond of gift wrap from a visual perspective either. Much of it fails the cheesey test. I prefer brown paper packages tied up with string. Or ribbon.  Or burlap.  Or….  really anything! I have seen a couple additional wrap options in recent weeks that had me excited about wrapping once again. Or as excited as I am likely to get. ; )  Here goes:

Brown paper packages. I have saved our grocery bags and laid them flat under my mattress to iron them out. Tie options – burlap strips, raffia, dried flowers, pinecones, tissue paper flowers, decorator ribbon. Brown paper makes really nifty flowers as well.

Newsprint. The plain black and white pages look stunning with bold red ribbon. This image is from Danny Seo, the eco-editor from Country Home magazine. His blog is a wealth of green decor ideas!  While you are at it you can use that newspaper to make very cool paper snowflakes.

Magazine pages as wrap. Ooohh very pretty! But then I would have to cut my magazines…. : /  Ok maybe just the yucky ones. Again – visit Danny Seo! 

finger paint paper.  What else do you DO with all those abstract-ish artworks anyway? 

burlap bags or fabric gathered into a bunch with ribbon at the top. Great for remnants and perfect for those of us who like to be done with our wrapping of odd shaped gifts right quick.

I confess I stress over the Christmas tree.  Stupid I realize but given how much I cringe over cheesey and how enticing breakable ornaments are to both our pets and our children it is usually a dilemma each year this time.My goal this year is to toss anything no longer in decent shape and replace with natural decorations. The floral section of Walmart/Target/Michaels etc has a variety of ‘vase fillers’ that would make perfect ornaments with the addition of a eye screw as holder. They are much less expensive than the ornaments available. A bin of vase filler feather balls came out to less than a dollar each for instance.

In keeping with our goal of using our hands and hearts to fill the house, we are stringing popcorn and berry garland and picking up some burlap for the tree skirt. There is dough chilling for the faux gingerbread ornaments we hope to roll out tomorrow night. In the coming weeks we will pick up some oranges and cloves to make pomanders. Planning to dry some orange and apple slices to hang on the tree as well. Here are a couple resources:

Natural Christmas: A Madderlake book

Natural Christmas

Colonial Williamsburg
Natural Christmas 2
Country Christmas

Apartment Therapy’s Fall Colors Contest is today’s destination.  Why? I don’t see an apartment in my future lol but I love the happy bold colors and kid friendly surfaces featured in many of the interiors.
Not a big fan of ‘predictable’.  And you’ve gotta love the trike in the bottom right. : ) It’s really wonderful seeing pictures of rooms that clearly house children.