Radvent, Day 5: Decorate

I put off this post yesterday so I could take a picture of my living room, but then I got home and was (quite predictably, in hindsight) swept up in the baby routine and in visiting with my dad. It was his last evening with us before he drives home to Ohio today, and I ended up not wanting to spend time away from him. So here is a picture of my living/dining room at Thanksgiving instead, courtesy of Instagram:

There are a few things that make me happy about this picture. The turquoise wall is bright and happy, and reflects light and lifts me up. Even if it's starting to darken out, the color magically morphs into something soothing and warm, despite it's cool tone. That painting is the first piece of art I've ever owned, purchased from a good friend and artist here in Omaha, Wayne Brekke. (The ceiling fan does not make me happy, however.) The table is set for a feast for 15, with my grandmother's heirloom china and silver candlesticks given to us as a wedding gift. The boy in the white shirt is my dear brother, who lives away so I hardly get to see him, and my husband can barely be seen at the French doors in back. And the little white blur in front is the happiest of happy fluffballs, Inga. I love hosting for the holidays.

I've never given a lot of effort to holiday decorating since I never knew for sure where I'd end up. Since Eric and I started living together, we've amassed a hodge podge collection of hand-me-down holiday pieces, some I delight in and some I cringe at. Now that I know we're in this house for the long haul, I plan to replace the cringe-worthy with beautiful holiday pieces, one at a time, to create a holiday landscape indoors that pleases all of us. I'm looking forward to hitting up the post-Christmas Pier 1 sales!

Home decorating....that's different. I still kind of take the easy road. It's so easy to paint rooms bold colors and adorn them with art and prints and instantly look like you know what you're doing. Furniture, lamps, accessories? So overwhelming and so not my thing. Happily, Eric has a touch of the interior decorator in him, and he picks out that stuff. It's awesome to be able to fill in the blanks for each other.