The Most Important Gift...

Christmas is almost here, as I think back on my favorite gifts from years past...I can't remember any! More stuff is not my favorite gift...because I can't even remember what I have gotten from year to year!

My husband has spoiled me with all sorts of beautiful things...but honestly, I don't remember what I got for Christmas 2008.

So with that in mind we are not giving gifts...other than the most important gift of all...ourselves.

I saved all of his "love" email/ letters from our year of dating and I put them in a special box.

On my birthdays I ask for a love letter. And now with my no more stuff mantra I am receiving what I really want...and that is his expression of love for me in the form of a love letter for Christmas.

I can go back through the box and read the progression of our romance, flush with intoxication and now after five years, a deeper enduring love, with the punctuation of life's journey through ups and downs, our bond has tied us tightly together.

Letters are becoming a thing of the past in our email age. If you get an email from your loved ones that is endearing, print it out and save it in a special box.

I encourage you to write a love letter to those you love. They will have your words forever and they mean so much more than a gift that you won't remember next year!


PS -- We also have a tradition of going out to dinner, just the two of us on Christmas eve.

It's a Ralph Lauren Christmas!

I had sooo much fun today, decorating one of my client's homes for the holidays!

My client loves everything French . I am a big fan of this casual chic Euro look too. I took my own advice and made sure that the decorations did not detract from the home's existing colors of cream, milk and chalk.

Boxwood garlands abound on stairways, wrapped around the Christmas tree, draped over the entry hall hutch, tucked into silver bowls and white milk pitchers. I used a theme (natural and green ) and just added to it in every nook.

I uncovered a very large elk horn in my mother's basement last week. I thought it would be the perfect touch on the dining room table ...so it's now on loan for the holidays. I draped her antique pine table in a heavy white quilt. Nestled among the horn is a slightly tarnished sterling silver bowl filled with green apples, it's a family treasure. Fir and cedar bows are tucked underneath. (See photos below.)

The entry hall begged for a grand gesture, so I pulled in a cement urn from outside dusted off the snow and filled it sky high with greens and berry covered branches. I made a "collar" out of leftover boxwood garland.

The fireplace is so beautiful I didn't want to draw your eye away from it ...so I banked two cypress trees on either side. Instead of pots I wanted a softer look so I wrapped their bases in cream colored broad cloth .

The accessories that I had put together before Christmas for the mantle, worked perfectly so I left them up.

We bought VERY little to decorate this home...I used family treasures and a few borrowed items to complete this nature inspired French country Christmas.

Hope you have fun decorating your home for the Holidays!

http://www.kimberleejaynes.com/

Dare to be different!

Christmas is almost here and people are frantically decorating their homes. I hope I can help to make your home beautiful with some easy design tips.

1. Use what you already have.

I had a silver sea shell in the powder room that holds guest soaps. I used it on my dining table at Christmas filled with orchids.
Fill your grandma's glass punch bowl with greens.
Use a white quilt as a table cloth.
Fill a pedestal cake plate with votive candles.
Lay down a bed of fresh greens, then fill a large glass bowl with water and float Chinese glass floats and floating candles as a centerpiece.

2. Decorate with colors that coordinate with your decor.
This is probably the biggest mistake that I see people make each year...they decorate with colors that do not work with their existing decor and it is not enhancing to their home.

I used silver and blue to coordinate with my floating home decor.

3. Add a touch of whimsy.
Bring out a ceramic white bunny, wooden horse, iron dragonfly. Look around your garden for decorative element that might be a nice touch inside for the holidays.

And don't forget to have fun with your decor...incorporate things that you might not normally see on a tree...like nestling brightly colored patterned porcelain plates towards the trunk of the tree where they would be secure but add much needed punch!

www.kimberleejaynes.com