Creative January to November arranging and decorating

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm starting this thread after writing way too much in PWYC about my use of white mini-lights!

This thread is for those non-handmade 'wins' that we have by using things we own and love as either non-December seasonal or year-round decorative displays.

The goal should always be to declutter and pare down one's objects. But once we do, the items left deserve to be out to increase the joy in our homes.

Used cleverly, they can be part of arrangements of things to 'hide' imperfections in one's home.

In my case, while the view goes a long way to distract people from the crumbling plaster and water damaged floors, I can see them.

Imaginative displays are a way of hiding the damage from my eyes since it causes negative feelings of frustration, lack of control, anger as well as dread. The leaking 55 year old windows are the source of 90% of the damage in my apartment but I have no control over their caulking or replacement.

Replacement will likely happen in my lifetime as it is required to stop water damage to the concrete walls and floors. In the meantime, I have to decide if I want to have plaster repairs and painting done even though I know it won't last more than a year (it has been done 5 times since I moved here 8.5 years ago, each time requiring moving furniture, covering with drop cloths, then the wet plaster and paint smell, and finally all the plaster dust needing deep cleaning after.)

I'm sure each of you have things that need 'hiding' because no home is perfect.

Do you use arranging and decorating as a way to do so?

Or do you just use arranging and decorating as a way of expressing yourself in your space and sparking joy in your surroundings?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Here's what sparked me creating this thread - my use of white mini-lights year round.

I've started to decorate with white lights in the windows around the apartment. The 'spark' to do so came from traveling to Denmark in winter and how families almost universally have candles in their windows when it is dark. Dh wouldn't want real candles (he's uncomfortable around open flame) and while battery operated candles or LED light strings would be lovely, I don't want to be constantly replacing or recharging batteries. I'm a set and forget type person. So mini-light strings it is!

This fits my life perfectly.

Partly it is because we have minimal window coverings so the lights add more interest at night. Partly because I like the break from the dark. Partly because they distract from all the destroyed plaster/paint on the radiators.

Pierre, our ficus tree, has had year-round lights for almost 2 decades now. (As I write this, I realize I should probably swap out the LED lights I put on last year because he's not doing well with them so obviously needs the warmth and light from the incandescent bulbs.)

Then in March 2020 I put up a white light heart in the window of the spare bedroom as a sign of support for hospital staff. I thought it might be up for 6 months.....

I had to put in a new string there after 20 months because too many bulbs were out and so the whole string failed. Yesterday I replaced the 4 bulbs that have worn out through the past year. If I keep up on that bulb replacement, the whole set will last longer and I keep all the good bulbs from old sets so I have enough replacements.

Last year, when I pulled down the kitchen 'tree' and L/R Christmas tree, I felt I needed some lights in those rooms in order to battle my depression. While my depression is much less this year, it is lurking.

The L/R light display is in place - the lights are strung around and in various candle holders and vases to make a winter display.

The heart and ornaments in the kitchen is up but needs new lights. For $5 - $7 dollars, those mini lights run, daily, for at least 4 hours a day (closer to 10 in winter) before needing replacement after 12 - 18 months. That's excellent value and a lot cheaper than depression meds! I have them on timers so they come on at dark in the evening and at 6 in the morning in the winter so they are there to greet me when I go to the kitchen to make my tea in the morning (by summer, they only run at night for a few hours.) If they go off while I'm at my computer in the evening, I know it is waaayyy past my bedtime, since they go off at 11 and I should be on my way to bed by 9:30.

These are the rooms that I'm in and out of the most so these window lights have the biggest payback in terms of mood-lifting. I've thought of doing all rooms but I think that would be overkill. Although, if I take the LED lights off Pierre, I could put them in the bedroom windows and use them instead of the light we have on a timer, to provide wake-up light in the morning and walk-into-the room light in the evening.

[Harmony]

I love the idea of using lights to brighten dark spaces especially in the winter. We have lots of lights from all these windows and I hate mornings when it is cool outside and DH does not open the blinds...so getting up to a dark house inside is hard. I have wanted for years to get a nice artificial tree and put little lights on it for the dark corner of our family room. With wanting to downsize and cleaning out, I keep myself from doing this, but think of it all the time. I did get a pole lamp that has 2 sources of light, one's an up light and the other is a flexible crookneck on a separate switch that works better for someone sitting beside it. I'm the only one that bothers to use it, the up light keeps the corner from looking so dreary.

Maybe someday we'll be moved somewhere and maybe I'll have a space for the tree with lights. I hate dark spaces. Grateful for my switches in most rooms where I can turn on lights in a second if I walk into them.