shop ^ maggie’s corner
Creative Corner: Winter Touches For Your Home by Maggie Bonanomi
A s soon as December arrives on our doorstep and the year begins its slow slide toward the beginning of another year, it’s time to prepare for the upcoming holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah ,Kwanzaa or just the joys of the winter season. Sometimes I feel as though I am speeding uphill, trying to get everything done and by the time the holidays are over I feel as if I’m in a free fall , having not had time to actually enjoy the holiday. I don’t think it’s just me, we all get very busy with work, families and other commitments and time just flies by! Now, I try to keep things simple! Decorating for the holidays is a great time to mix up your favorite collections, old and new, rustic and sleek, vintage and modern. Gather up some fresh green, nothing smells much better than that, fill containers and set them around your house. One year we missed getting
are easy to force but you can also buy pot- ted ones, they’re perfect gifts as well as fun to watch grow. I plant mine in old glass bowls and bakery molds with pebbles, the bulb sitting just about ½” into the pebbles. These are also great after all the holidays are over, it’s when I actu- ally have some time to really enjoy them. For some quick holiday treats when friends stop by keep some cookies and candies in the pantry, then plate them on an old platter with a sprig of green or a vintage ornament, looks fancy but is really simple. Have a bowl of clementines as well and of course something to drink. The New Year will come in quickly, I would put away all holiday except the silvery, white and sparkly decorations, lots of white or silver votive candles and add any old clocks or clock faces to the mix, maybe find some old calendars from years
a tree but found the scrap branches from the tree lot and used those, best smelling Christ- mas we ever had. I even like to buy several tiny decorated trees at the grocery store but I take off the cheap décor and place the pots in groups on a great old vintage platter along with a few old ornaments, perfect centerpiece. Running out of time? Fill a bowl or tray with your decorations, ready for trimming but beautiful on their own, a little like on old trea- sure chest! String up several strands of lights, colored or clear on the wall, set a tree in an old rusty galvanized bucket or an old silvered punch bowl add one special decoration, you’re done! Find an old lantern with a lot of glass or an old aquarium tank use these to highlight a collection of your holiday favorites. I placed a vintage Santa one year, in the old lantern, another year some of my bottlebrush trees. Paper white Narcissus and Amaryllis bulbs
34 VINTAGEKC WINTER 2016
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online