It’s September…in suburbia, store shelves and Home Depot aisles fill with spooky goblin decor. Soon our green leaves will surrender to warm color before the lush forest thins. Witnessing the splendor of BER months (Sept-Dec) is a spiritual practice expanding my soul with joy. The grey forest will accept winter’s white, and nesting will be blissful (until it isn’t). Holiday cheer will illumine shorter days, bidding a slower pace. We toured French festive holiday inspo in this and muse a bit more here.
French Festive Holiday Decor Inspiration
Aren’t the bones of this gorgeous cottage in Spain (above) perfect for a Frenchy white Christmas wonderland? The charm of old windows, millwork, floors, and more!
It all sends me into a soulful daydream. Soon the quality of the light will change. I won’t be mad when it does since the same old rooms will shimmer with new character.
Everything will adopt a new silhouette. Shadow will return to create mood and mystery after summer’s folly.
Sometimes it feels silly to separate holiday interior inspiration with labels such as “French and festive” or “simple and Scandi.” It may help to distinguish “classic American” from another style for someone scrolling, yet any styled moment has potential to feel natural, effortless, and inspirational.
The ethereal moment above, for example, contains an understated beauty set apart yet not beyond what we may also orchestrate. Have access to a vintage console to paint white? Could we casually gather yards of tulle with strings of simple stars? Are amber votives with a clear vase of Baby’s Breath easy to procure? Oui.
French Festive Holiday Decor
There are endless interpretations of white Christmas wonder, limited only by our choice to imagine.
The key is willingness to open to the new–to see with fresh eyes and dare to please your senses as you please.
Has it been some time since you thought yourself worthy of pleasure? Self-consciousness, comparison, negative self-talk, perfectionism, and over-reliance on voices beyond your intuitive wisdom are executioners of creativity.
I don’t want to open my self to executioners! Let me live while I am alive, s’il vous plait.
Creative freedom does not always translate into MORE work or MORE details.
You know I’m a girl who loves her some subtraction. Whatever my choices, let them flow from a spirit of liberation so they empower me and mine. They need not suit someone else.
Oops, I’m Falling Into My Heart Again
Am I wandering into mystical territory beyond the material tinsel and flocked trees? I like this about me. I no longer need to separate beauty into sacred and secular piles. There is art making and joyful decorating. There is an impulse to gather bits and bobs of beauty closer. I see the impulse as deeply sacred.
Seeing the sacred everywhere reflects the quality of my seeing.
I see no reason to feverishly phone-in details or go through the motions half-heartedly without seeing properly with a spirit of gratitude. Who is served?
It isn’t about how balanced the flavors in this year’s Thanksgiving stuffing are. Was it made with love? Were little fairy lights strung by a heart overflowing with love?
It’s why I only labor on the trappings when my spirit is centered. Not when my health is perfect or my heart is entirely free of burden, but when I am not weighted by the past or future. When I can bring only health, not harm.
What Inspiration Here Is and Isn’t
It is my hope that the abundance of lovely inspiration shared here through the years ignites your imagination. These are seeds of possibility for color, texture, scale, whimsy, and taste. They are the sparks to ignite the synthesis of your own schemes; not measures of wealth or talent to envy.
Our own ability to admire without the impulse to acquire is something to work on our whole life through.
It is quite possible to gaze at another’s work or composition and feel the joy of their talent and power without a sense of lack.
Spirit-filled Inspo
I suppose visions of holiday wonder are having their way with me, and I feel drawn into the meaning underneath the fuss about a certain Jewish rabbi’s birthday.
The gifts of his teaching and clarification of the law remain precious in any era or existential crisis.
Will we choose to bring a spirit of openhearted mercy to holiday things this year?
Will we make room in our hearts where bitterness and contempt block receptivity?
When we wipe away any dust from the Nativity set this year, will it remain a nostalgic symbol or come alive as a paradox of holy descent and a soul’s expansion?
Gift Ideas
Peace to you right where you are.
-michele
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