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. 

Inked Blue Bulletin Board Debut

Today is the debut of my inked blue bulletin board. Just in time to create collages for holiday inspiration.  

For the past year, dark inked blue and gold have become a favorite color combination for my home. Navy blue has always been a favorite paired with white or red or both, but recently I started plans to update an old wood-framed bulletin board with  a blue cork board and gold wood frame. 

Read about why and how I transformed an old inexpensive bulletin board into a freshly painted blue cork board with gold wood frame and get ideas for your own bulletin board. 

How NOT To DIY Flock A Christmas Tree

A few years ago I learned how NOT to DIY flock a Christmas tree. In case you would like to flock a real tree or a faux tree, you may find a few tips from my experience to save you time, money, and energy. 

Now is the time to buy the artificial snow before suppliers sell out for the season. You can wait until later to actually apply the DIY snow, but if you wait to buy supplies until you are ready to flock your tree in December, you may not be able to get the artificial flocking snow. 

Midnight Blue and Gold Fall Decor

Instead of relying on tradition for colors with which to decorate, branch out from the usual fall color palette, and select colors that coordinate with your home's everyday colors. Not only does all of the decor harmonize, a fresh color palette of midnight blue and gold creates an upscale decor for fall and Halloween. 

Midnight blue instead of black and gold instead of orange are perfect substitutions for traditional fall colors. Subtle touches with pumpkins, chrysanthemums, birds, feathers, and Halloween message signs add items distinctive for the season. There is no mistaking fall and Halloween are in the air, just not in the expected colors. 

Instead of black crows, how about midnight blue birds with gold crowns and white feathers stamped with gold French script? Just a slight shift on the color wheel from black, midnight blue works to give the dark tones of Halloween, but coordinates with blues found in my home and garden shed. 

French Country Fall Owls

A Paper Series Post

One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to decorate for the seasons is to use paper products. French Country fall owl prints were created by reimagining paper placemats from their usual purpose. Placemats for the table were transformed into eye-catching gold embellished prints and became the star focal points on fall decorated shelves in a garden shed. 

The beautiful owls from the placemats are a new twist on Halloween decorations. Not the usual black crows, but stunning white owls, bring fall and Halloween to mind with a fresh perspective on fall decorating. 

By using gold spray paint and a gold paint pen, the already gorgeous owls were kicked up a notch to glamorous elegance. What's more, the makeover was easy, and anyone can create similar stunning prints for your own home.