When I launched my design blog this past Fall Season, Oct. 4th to be exact...I knew right away that I'd be launching right before the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season. Considering that blogging, in particular design blogs are all about the visuals first and then the writing...I knew I'd needed to showcase visuals for the holiday season to keep my followers both intrigued and interested. And, honestly it stressed me out a little bit and brought on anxiety. Really! Why?
Well, since you asked...😂
Decorating for the holidays is generally NOT my forte at all. I know that may come as a shock to many, considering my love and obsession for Interior Design and Decorating in general. But as much as I LOVE the month of December, mainly because it's my birthday month and I LOVE the Holidays...I don't particularly care for the stress and the manic panic that comes along with the holidays itself. It's an awful lot to do in a very short period of time...
Buying and wrapping gifts (both in advance and down to the wire)
Shipping out gifts, praying and hoping they make it to it's destination in time, because all kinds of things go wrong with postal services doing the holidays
Dealing with the mass of people and crowded lines in just about every store during the holiday season
Attending various holiday events
Staging holiday photos
Sending out Christmas cards
Preparing your home for visitors
Cooking, cleaning, etc...
Whew! I'm tired already just typing up the list. Then add to the mix having both a hectic work and personal schedule. And, to top it off, designing and decorating your home for the holidays all while working to manage the above mentioned list.
Seriously, it stresses me out!! But let me be clear on this - in no way am I advocating that I don't enjoy the holiday season. I honestly LOVE IT! But decorating particularly for the holidays is truly the one time I tend to forego decorating altogether. Yep, I really said that! What's so crazy about that statement is the fact that my mom is Queen Christmas. My mom goes ALL out for Christmas and has done so every year since I was a child. I grew up living in a home that was fully decked out and decorated each year for Christmas, so you'd think I'd enjoy doing it as much as my mom does. Especially since my Interior Decorating gene does indeed come from my Mother.
But for me, I could honestly care less to be bothered with the manic of it. I know, total shame on me!! I think what serves as the main distraction for me is knowing that as soon as it goes up, it'll all be coming down in a rather short amount of time. When I decorate and style my home outside of the holidays...I'm working to create a look that can be appreciated, lived in, indulged and enjoyed far beyond just a season. So I believe it's the logic behind going through the hassle of setting everything up, only to have it come down a month or so later.
I'll be the first to admit that while I do enjoy and embrace change, as I Iike to revamp and change things up a bit in my home. I can also grow a bit attached to certain looks and styles and have a tendency to want to preserve them for as long as I can. It once took me almost a good six months to unwrap a birthday gift because the packaging was so amazingly beautiful. I struggled so bad with the thought of destroying the beautifully, professionally wrapped package. Yep, I'm that girl! I did mention in my previous post, that I can be so extra sometimes. So again, bear with me 😩
It's just something about the beauty of preservation, that has always had a hold on me. Even as a child I always wanted my toys to look and feel brand new every single day. To date, my mom always shares with people how I was such a non-destructive child always wanting to take extra special care of any and everything I received. And, it's honestly a character trait I take much pride in.
But back to Christmas..
Another reason I generally don't bother too much with Christmas decorating is due to the fact that my husband and I usually travel each year to New York for Christmas to visit his family. So I never get the logic behind decking out our home for the holidays when we won't be here to really enjoy it. Ok, that's a cop out...I'll admit it. It's not like we're in New York for the entire holiday season. Only for a little over a week at the most.
The harsh, yet simple truth...I basically always allow the anxiety and stress of the holiday season to get the better part of me. So much to the point, I only put up a few decorations and throw my hands in the air with the rest. However, this year I made a conscious effort that this would be the year that my husband and I would purchase our first Christmas tree. Yes!! It's our very first one ever since being together for a total of nine years and five years married.
Like I said, I would allow the madness of the holiday season to overwhelm me and just wouldn't be bothered with even getting a tree. I'd sprinkle about a few things here and there and call it a day. Don't get me wrong...It still would look nice, but nothing in comparison to what I know my full potential can execute. What I did different this year however, was I at least started preparing early and purchased a lot of ornaments last year during all of the after Christmas sales in an effort to prepare for this year. I knew that alone would help me greatly in not overwhelming myself no more than I needed to be.
Now I will say this, I still didn't go uber crazy with decorating our home by adding Christmas decor to every single room. I mean, c'mon baby steps people...that's how I have to go at this 😉 But I did stick with what I felt would work best, by focusing and creating an updated holiday look to our Blue Living Room.
So without further ado...
Welcome to #HousePiazza Cozy Blue Christmas!
Sources:
Interior Styling By: Allured By Design
Photo Still By: Stacy Marks Photography
Shooting Location: House Piazza
Home Decor: Small Gold & White Art Deco Cannister - Gordon's of Mandeville, Rustic Mercury Vase - Niche Modern Home, Gold Lidded Apothecary Vase - Kirkland's, Frosted Pinecones - Steinmart, Chesapeake Bay Candle - Target, Carved Vine Square Rustic Tray - Pier 1 Imports
Design Tip: When possible, repurpose existing decor items in your home to another area in your space. You don't always have to go out and make new purchases for everything. You can simply shop your own home. One of the main things I worked to do while sprucing up our Living Room for the holidays, was shop within our home. Everything atop my coffee table in the photo above, were decorative accents used in other rooms of our home. The only new purchase for coffee table decor items, were the frosted pinecones for the price of $20.00 a box.
With all of the various shades of rich deep blues being such a dominant feature in our living room, I opted to add in some winter whites for the Holidays.
Sources:
Interior Styling By: Allured By Design
Photo Still By: Tachic Hickman-Piazza
Shooting Location: House Piazza
Home Decor: Winter White Poinsettia Stocking - Gordon's of Mandeville, Flounce Ivory Pillow - Pier 1 Imports, Snowy/Winter White Luxury Throw Collection - Bed, Bath and Beyond
In addition, I chose winter whites that offered a lot of texture. This is precisely what created the cozy like feel to our living room. The throw I added to our space has to be one of the most soft and comfy throws I've ever felt. It makes for the perfect present to gift to someone, as well as purchasing one for your own home.
Considering holiday decorating usually isn't my thing, I must say I'm quite pleased with what I was able to pull together this year. And, dare I say, now even looking forward to continuing to build my holiday looks each year. Wait! Did I really just say that?!?!?
See the Gallery below for additional shots and angles of our Cozy Blue Christmas, in addition to just a few sprinkles in our kitchen nook and formal dining area.
Now that I've actually stretched my legs and have gotten caught up into holiday decorating, I'm sure I'll be upping the ante moving forward each year now. As I mentioned above, I"m even beginning to look forward to it. I've already started thinking about adding a second tree to our formal dining room and perhaps even a third tree to our Master Bedroom. Like what the hell?!?! How did I go from not even wanting to be bothered with any of this, to now conceptualizing ideas for not one, but possibly three trees and holiday decor spread all throughout? Jesus, please take the wheel!! Clearly I'm not in my right mind!!! 😱
And, as always to wrap things up...
I can't thank you enough to all of my followers who continue to travel this design journey with me. Who extend their support to me via social media or simply just from stopping by the blog and taking the time to read and be entertained by my blogposts. I appreciate it more than you could ever know. I hope you all enjoyed my cozy blue christmas. I also hope I offered some inspiration and ideas for ways any of you planning to incorporate blue into your home in the New Year, can spruce up your holiday decor, all while maintaining and decorating with the beautiful color blue 💙💙💙
So many great things planned for 2017, things that I'll be sharing with you all via more videos, stunning photos, an even a home tour. So please stay tuned for all of the latest and greatest that will come from Allured By Design. One thing in particular I'm super excited about, is I'll be working with my wedding photographer, the amazing Stacy Marks, on a lot of my upcoming shoots. When I tell you Stacy is one of the absolute best photographers in and outside of NOLA and he even has the awards to prove it. He's in super high demand and is always always booked. I've been wanting to work with him again since me and Charlie's wedding, five years ago. We FINALLY reunited with the release of my cozy blue christmas photo shoot and I'm just so excited I'll be working with him on additional shoots and future projects as well.
To see more of Stacy's work and to see the magic he creates behind his lens, outside of what he captured in #HousePiazza, click here.
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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to each and everyone of you!! May the 2017 year be filled with more happy moments than sad, compassion, love, patience, peace of mind, daily progress and productivity, dreams and goals manifested, success, good health, increased wealth and blessings galore 💙
With Love,
Tachic-