After seeing all the snow scene photos today from friends on social media, I looked through snow photos from bygone years and found photos of how I decorated my fireplace mantel one year for a party using snow scene photos. Perfect, inexpensive winter decor with a personal connection was a hit with my guests. Photos of the decorated mantel follow snow photos from recent years. 

Here is the snow scene I posted to social media today. Perhaps the scarcity of snow in our area is why we all take photos to capture the scenes before the snow melts away. Today's snow only lasted a few hours after the sun came out. By nightfall, there was barely any snow left. 

A view of our backyard from an upstairs bedroom window also includes a view into our naturalized woods. You can see the window screen pattern in the photo if you look closely in the lower right corner. No venturing outside in the frigid 13° weather on slippery sidewalks to take photos. 

Snow softens harsh, stark winter scenes and inspires us all to take photos of snow scenes of our houses, gardens, children, and pets. North Texas received a small amount of snow overnight, and today my social media home page is filled with photos of my friends' houses and yards covered with snow. Well, almost covered with snow since there was such a small amount of snow. 

The following photos are selected snow scenes at my house including some of the photos I used to decorate my mantel for winter one year. 

Mirror Updates to French Country

Homes change over the years due to routine maintenance, upgrading appliances, freshening paint, changing tastes, and finding what you have been wanting for years. The mirror in my half-bath powder room started as American Country style that eventually was replaced with a new French Country style mirror. 

After years of searching and intermediate changes along the way, the half-bath has a French Country mirror I love. This post is for all of you who still long for changes in your home. Don't give up. The journey may take turns and twists, but little-by-little you can achieve the home you dream.  

Take a look at my journey from American Country mirror to the French Country mirror shown above. I've tried to include photos with the same views into the half-bath so you can see how the mirror changes over the years looked in the bathroom from the same perspectives. 

Winter White Poinsettias

One of the beauties of poinsettias is how long they last. Last year in the third week of January, almost one month into winter, pots of huge white poinsettias were still beautiful in my living room. 

Bought the week of Thanksgiving at a local home improvement store, these large white poinsettias were in my heated living room for almost two months when these photos were taken.

New Address Sign | Country House

Addresses are hard to find for houses along rural roads in the countryside. Half of the mailboxes with house addresses are not on the same side of the street as the house since all boxes are on one side of the road. Our mailbox with our house number stands across the country road to our house. 

Seeing our house street number wasn't a problem for over 30 years since the only people visiting us were personal friends and family. Whenever someone new was coming to our house, we gave them explicit instructions and directions about how to find our house. 

But, with the explosion of online shopping in recent years, FedEx and UPS delivery drivers need to find our house. Unfortunately, the drivers sometimes deliver our packages to our neighbors across the street where our mailbox stands next to theirs or to neighbors down the road. 

Our cedar house sits on two acres. We are lucky some delivery drivers find the house and deliver our packages without a problem. 

P is for Pinecone

Christmas traditions add joy, sparkle, and beauty to our homes during the festive holiday season, and a primary tradition is Christmas decorations inside and outside. A list of 26 Christmas traditions from A to Z includes P is for Pinecones, a popular natural decoration for Christmas. 

is for Pinecones. 

Natural decorations are a Christmas tradition with origins in Roman times when pagans celebrated the winter solstice. Pinecones were one of the natural decorations for celebrating winter solstice. 

When Christians began celebrating Christmas, pinecone decorations continued, and are often used in Christmas decorations today. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 8 | French Country Coastal Decor

A Paper Series Post 

Summer is flying by! Before it slips away, I created a bulletin board for coastal decor inspiration with a French Country twist. France has miles and miles of coastline from the far north Normandy region down to the southern Riviera making French Country Coastal an authentic phrase for French decor ... and for style of living. 

La Mer (the sea) offers sights, sounds, and feelings with countless images to conjure fun-filled hours of a day, a week, or a whole summer. Cool blue and white color schemes echo water, skies, sea creatures, and coastal architecture. 

Only recently, I saw a blend of simple coastal decor and traditional French Country decor that makes a perfect pairing.

French Country Christmas Guest Bath

Often the French Country style guest bathroom in my house is one of the first rooms decorated for Christmas each year. A small room needs only a few additions to change everyday decor to holiday decor. 

and... 

Voilà 

Christmas magically appears! 

Well, not magically... it does take a little effort... but the results bring such a magical feeling. 

Smiles and dancing eyes beholding beautiful sights. 

Add a fresh evergreen wreath, a vase filled with flowers, a set of Christmas-y towels, and a seasonal print on the wall, and the guest bathroom is ready for the holidays.   

Here's how my French Country bathroom is decorated for Christmas. 

Bathroom | New French Hardwood Flooring

New French Oak Light House hardwood flooring in the bedroom and adjoining bathroom made a beautiful change to how the bathroom looks. I am already starting to decorate the bathroom for Christmas, but realized there should be a post showing the bathroom with its new solid oak French floor before sharing the holiday decorations. 

The new flooring flows seamlessly between the bathroom and the bedroom with no raised door thresholds. Nothing on which to stumble in the middle of the night trips to the bathroom. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 7 | Conservatories

A Paper Series Post 

The latest bulletin board displays a collection of conservatories that inspired my home's sunspace. Dream rooms are different for different people, and one of my dream rooms has always been a conservatory.  

Conservatories can be formal, rustic, large, small, attached, free-standing, garden rooms, or grand salons. Budgets, gardening zones, and personal styles are the major factors in the ultimate design for each person's dream conservatory. 

Summer Living Room Blue Decor

With one major new blue purchase and a little rearranging of existing furniture, the living room has a fresh look for summer. The color scheme is still pale blue, but the room feels brighter, more airy, and more cohesive than before. 

Fresh flowers are a guaranteed way of making any space feel brighter during any season of the year. New lavender plants in an old rustic blue box are perfect for my favorite French Country style in July since this is when fields of lavender plants bloom in France. 

Allowing the large box to fill the coffee table, with only one French antique fence finial as an accent, keeps the flowers centerstage and the room clutter free. If you missed the last blog post all about the lavender plants in the blue box, see a link at the end. 

French Lavender in Rustic Blue Box

When you cannot go to France, bring France to you. French lavender is in full bloom in July in the sunny Provence region of France and fills the summer air with a heady lavender fragrance. Bring that French experience to your living room like I did by filling a rustic blue box with lavender plants. 

July brings memories of walking through commercial lavender fields in France once upon a time. Several years ago my sister, a work colleague, and I traveled to France with an itinerary designed to walk through lavender fields, to visit perfume factories, and to stroll stone streets in picturesque hilltop villages around the fields. We continue to reminisce about that trip and to dream about returning to France to make more memories. With no travel plans in the near future, a rustic box filled with lavender brings a little of France to us. 

French Country Style in Shades of Blue

A new shade of pale blue showed up this spring in my French Country style decor. For years, periwinkle blue has been my go-to favorite blue, and still is, but a different blue has shown up on, and around, the French Country style reclaimed pine dining table. 

A soft, pale blue is not really new to me, but has been hidden away in closets, cabinets, and corners in the bedroom. This spring I decided to bring the pale blue treasures together for the first time in the dining area. 

The first grouping of items together included a large laundry basket, an old stool painted the same blue color as the basket, a European size pillow with coordinating blues, and a vase of blue and white hydrangeas. Together on the country pine table, everything came together with a French Country vibe. 

But, this was only the beginning... 

Easy Blue and White Easter Tablescape

Create an easy blue and white Easter tablescape even at the last minute. Begin with white flowers, add dishes in your favorite shade of blue, include a bunny (or two), and place a cluster of bird eggs (in the same color family as your dishes) inside a pretty white bowl. 

Violà 

There you have it. An easy, last-minute blue and white Easter tablescape. 

Spring Blue and White Basket Arrangement

A blue and white arrangement for spring sits in a basket on the French Country antique breakfast table. After winter storms in February, the blue skies and bright green emerging leaves on the trees outside the windows are welcome sights. And, another welcome sight is the bright sunshine streaming through the sunspace windows onto the beautiful spring basket arrangement inside.  

? Is it spring without sky blue lobelia flowers? Not at my house. 

Blue lobelia bedding plants are part of every spring for me and after starring in arrangements inside and on my potting bench outside, they are planted in containers on the porch to enjoy all summer. 

This spring, the cheerful blue flowers star in a spring basket that includes more small plants, white ceramic bunnies, and blue bird's eggs. 

Spring Cloche Collection for French Country Style

A new addition to a glass cloche collection came just in time to showcase the collection for French Country style this Spring. Less than a week away, Spring officially arrives on Saturday, March 20, 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere, but fresh bedding plants at local garden centers have been heralding Spring's arrival in north Texas for the past two weeks. 

White Johnny-Jump-Ups (violas) and blue lobelias under the collection of cloches brought Spring to my French Country style dining table as the small bedding plants awaited planting outside in pots on the deck. 

Christmas Angel Print | Winter Decor Transition

Christmas decor can transition to Winter decor by keeping seasonal greenery and neutral colored decor used for Christmas. Fresh evergreens, magnolia leaves, and a moss ball surrounding a Christmas angel print in neutral tones will carry the decorations into January. A few design tips will help you to create a decor grouping to transition your home from Christmas to Winter decor. 

An elevated shelf behind the kitchen sink is a wonderful place to decorate for any season, and fresh greenery in rustic containers keeps the kitchen from looking so bare during the Winter months. 

French Country Christmas Event 2020 | Small Business Adapts

This year, 2020, is the TENTH year for the French Country Christmas Event. Can a small business offer its customers a beautiful Christmas shopping event in a safe way? How does a small business adapt to new ways of doing business during an international health crisis and provide safe shopping experiences? 

The answers lie in following health officials' guidelines. 

• Wear a mask. 
• Wash your hands.
• Distance yourself from others by at least 6 feet. 

To comply with these guidelines, my small business has found new ways, to my business, to implement safety precautions.  

Read about how I have adapted to provide a safe shopping experience for my customers, and look at this year's garden shed photos to get ideas about how to arrange Christmas decor in your own home. 

French Prints Shadowbox | Tips for Creating Your Own

 A Paper Series Post 

Create a shadowbox with reproduction watercolor French prints to add an inexpensive French country look to any room in your house. By using prints collected during a trip with family or friends, your shadowbox will also remind you of special memories. 

Read about how I created a blue and white shadowbox to hang in my bedroom and get ideas for your own shadowbox. I have a few tips for finding small prints to use, for how to arrange the prints, and for using special items to add a little pizzazz! 

Reproduction watercolor prints in soft blues, greens, and neutrals go well with most French country decor. 

French-Inspired White Bird Cage for Spring

A French-inspired white wire bird cage has landed on the white shelves in the kitchen sunspace for a fresh look this spring. Previously, the white bird cage sat on a table at the end of the sofa in the living room. 

Why this bird cage and the two myrtle topiaries? 

  

As always, I look for ways to bring more French design into my country house. If you also love adding French Country style or garden style to your house, read on to see how a bird cage and topiaries could bring a fresh look to your house this spring. 

French Country Kitchen Stone Wall | Spring

Spring is officially still weeks away, but the sun and warmer temperatures have arrived in my French Country inspired kitchen. The warm sunshine signals it is time to decorate the shelf in the stone wall with favorite pottery and a Spring time arrangement. 

Hand thrown pottery plates by local artist Jess Lord, now deceased, often decorate this high shelf in the stone wall of my kitchen. Periodically, I decorate with other dishes and arrangements on this shelf, but I always like to bring back the Jess Lord pottery during the warmer months of the year.