I am proud to say that I have finally put all of Christmas away Of course all the blank spaces spoke to me for a little winter warmness and decor.  I love to use organic items in my decor, which seems to be the perfect thing this year for some winter pep.

the living room mantel

The mantel, which tends to usually be the focal point for any given room with a fireplace, sat bare for about two seconds.  Then I just added a collection of silver candle sticks and a plant and flowers also in silver pieces.   You’ll remember these flowers from the {winter tablescape}. I am always {stretching grocery store flowers} when I can. These were actually from Home Depot, but it’s same concept.

I love the simplicity.  I love the freshness.  I love the peace and calm it evokes.

an antique secretary desk

On the other side of the living room sits my mother’s antique secretary desk. The antique desk displays some green transfer ware and hotel ware along with green French canning jars among vintage books.  

For an organic touch, I included frosted pine cones as a nod to the season, and the dried roses from my {Christmas mantel}.  I have a plan for them, which I will share soon. Right now they just add an air of romance on this vintage hotel platter.

This furniture piece is dear and near to my heart because it was in my home growing up. It always held a picture frame of my mother in her wedding dress. 💛

a bombe chest in the foyer

Then through the living room you reach the foyer, which I made a minimal change on the French chest.  Remember during Christmas the front hall chest looked like this:

Well, the Bombe chest now looks like this:

I simply swapped out the ornaments with pine cones, and I replaced the Christmas light glitter ornaments with my paper whites, which I am patiently waiting for them to do their thang.  I love forcing bulbs. Although this is the only container I planted this season, you can read more on the topic here {forcing bulbs inside & more}. 

The evergreen branches in the birch container stayed since the have whispers of winter.

a dough bowl on the kitchen table

And last but not least since our Meyer lemon tree is going nuts outside, I snipped some branches. I filled my dough bowl and that’s all I did in the kitchen.  

We have fresh lemons for days!  It’s my go to hostess gift during this time of year but unfortunately we haven’t been going to anybody’s home much lately so I have been porch delivering to some select friends.

I recently made roasted lemon chicken. Also my cocktail of choice is a good French 75 so hubby uses lemons all the time for these.  I think I might make some lemon shortbread cookies soon too.

final details on winter decor

By simply using some organic items like pine cones, plants, flowers and lemons I feel like there’s warmth sprinkled throughout the house combating that barren winter feeling after the Holidays. 

And although it took me longer than I wanted to put Christmas away, I feel like I put it away in an orderly way which will help me hit the ground running at the end of the year when it all comes back out.

I labelled all my Christmas bins a few years ago so I know exactly what is in any given bin before I open it up and dig in. Consequently, I was very meticulous to put it all away accordingly.

Many organizational projects are on my list for the year ahead, which I know many do this time of year. I am actually developing a 12 month plan to tackle a certain project every month.  I hope I can keep it going until the end of the year!

“Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.”

Paul Theroux

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 sharing @ between naps on the porch