Floating in Limbo

Decor wise, this is not my favorite time of year! The Christmas stuff is so all-encompassing and has been up so long that I am now really attached to it. It is not only beautiful and peaceful but it holds years and years of memories that I never tire of. Yet, at some point every year, I must break those ties. This year I am finding that particularly hard to do! I did take the tree down simply because it was definitely starting to show its "age". I will say that I was totally impressed with how few needles came off in the process. That tree has been up since right after Thanksgiving. Its was actually more dusty than more dead! Lol

Taking down the tree is usually my first, sad step and once that is done, I can move on to the rest. But, not this year. I keep finding one reason after another why I should let it remain just one more day!

I have told you before that I like to start my big projects first thing in the morning. If I don't, there's a pretty good chance that I won't...and so, all I needed was a morning eye doctor appointment and a visit from a friend to give me reason to put it off a few days. Today was going to be the day until I remembered that it is Friday. Friday is the day I give myself the day "off". It's definitely a throw back to working days when time off was a reward for a busy week. Now that I'm retired, that isn't quite the story any more but, old habits die hard-any excuse for "time off" and pampering is good with me!

And so, the task has been put off until at least tomorrow and I am walking around just taking in the sights with new eyes. I find myself with time to really appreciate the way the sun is hitting certain things or the glitter of lights is reflecting in mirrors around the room and dancing from place to place. Perhaps I am just wanting to soak in all of the memories as this holiday soon will once again give way to the next.

And, make no mistake about it, I will very soon be embracing Valentines Day-I just need that little shove to take me from one year into the next. I was kind of stopped in my tracks in the living room the other day. For some reason I love the way the afternoon sun is hitting this vignette.

And then, can you believe that just a day or two before Christmas I was tweaking the dough bowl arrangement? I was in Ballard Design in the International Mall in Tampa when I saw a dough bowl with a horse weather vane in it. Somehow it triggered the memory that I had not gotten my reindeer down and out this year. This guy was an anniversary gift from daughter #1 and her family many years ago and he has been a part of our decor every year since. He does get stored on the highest shelf in our garage and for some reason, I just missed him this year. I think he has now found his new forever home at Christmas. I was also somehow mesmerized by the shine off of the mercury glass candle holders.Crazy I know-but, in these days of limbo, it's the little things. Lol

But, I know no matter how hard I try to push it back, the new year is upon us and as soon as I move the first Christmas decoration, I will be more than happy to forge ahead.

Since I have already given myself permission to spend the day as I want, I did what I often do and hit Pinterest with a vengeance...for Valentine ideas. If I'm not moving forward with the decor quite yet, maybe I can settle on a card, craft and door hanger idea and get together a list of needed supplies. Here's what's popping out at me so far:

1.This might be something I could adapt for the kids to make as gifts for the family. I found this at nobiggie.net.

2. This is another variation-as you might be able to tell, shabby chic, farmhouse is still going strong in our homes. This one was just from facebook.com.

3.Since we always make Valentine cookies, I thought maybe the kids could make plates for the cookies using some kind of a play on this. I found this one at diyprojects.com.

4. Each of the kids could choice a design they like and make sets of these wooden tags to give. I can think of lots of ways they could be used in Valentine's decor. They were posted by an un-named user.

5. Then, I found some simple card ideas. This one is from inmycreativeopinion.blogspot.com.

 6. I really love the simplicity of this one from Laura Willson.

7. Or, maybe this one from folksy.com?

8. And then on to the last burlap door hanger I need to make to complete my year. The one I make will probably be a combination of details from many of these. I am definitely leaning to red, white and black but may end up sneaking in some pink-and, I'm not a big fan of writing letters on the bumpy burlap but I do love this one-we shall see?! This is from an Etsy store no longer available.

8. Ideas from burton+BURTON.

9. Or, maybe this one from Pinterest.com?

So you can now see that it doesn't really take a lot to get me going on a new holiday and all of the fun things that entails. If it only wasn't after noon, I might be off and running to get Christmas take-down started...even if it IS Friday. We'll see what tomorrow brings! Stay tuned.

P.S. You might have noticed that these images got me so excited, I DID do some take down on my site and now have the Valentine's headers up and running!