Current Obsessions
A small lantern nestled among foraged pinecones provide a gentle light on the front veranda.
This month’s obsessions all share a common theme: making the ordinary feel that little bit more special.
Pools of warm lamp light
Now that the evenings are closing in earlier, I take great joy in turning on the table lamps just before I start preparing dinner; the house morphing from daylight business to evening cosiness.
The overhead lights feel like an insult to my sensibilities. There is not a jot of cosy ambience to be found in downlights.
I also switch on the battery-operated candles on the front veranda. Partly because they look lovely, but mostly because I like the thought of my children returning home from their late shifts at work to a warm glow waiting for them. It’s almost like a hug from me before they even step through the door.
Our front door with the battery powered candles proffering a warm glow to guide the way home.
Soup served properly
If one owns a soup tureen, one must occasionally allow it to fulfil its destiny. I am now in the happy position of owning not one, but two tureens.
My newest tureen is called Stewart, or Stew, for short. I am happy to say that he has already been pressed into service for the Soup Weather gathering that my lovely daughter hosted for my Mother’s Day dinner. I can’t wait to tell you all about it next week; she did an amazing job.
There was something exciting about lifting the lids of the tureens to see what she had prepared for us; it added such a sense of occasion to the evening.
I have made a mental note to use the tureens more frequently to recreate that feeling. I am determined not to wait for a ‘special occasion’ to do so. Having a family dinner is reason enough to get the tureens out of storage, and we all enjoy the happy surprise of lifting a lid to reveal something warm and delicious inside
In the meantime though, Rabbit Stew is sitting among the greenery in the front room, looking very comfortable.
Nestled comfortably among the greenery is my newest, slightly unhinged purchase: a soup tureen in the shape of a rabbit. We have very sensibly named him Stewart, or Stew, for short.
My side board hosting the reimagined Autumn Harvest centrepiece.
Fruit being used as decorative elements
This is very close to becoming a personality trait. After the Autumn Harvest dinner party I had an abundance of nuts and dried fruit in the house. Why should we eat them when I could create a centrepiece for my beautiful buffet?
I stacked a couple of cake stands (op-shop treasures, of course), on top of each other, added some pinecones, dried orange slices ( typically served with a gin and tonic, but repurposed as decor), cinnamon sticks, chestnuts and the amber votives that have served me so well this year.
This little arrangement gives such a wonderful sense of the season. It cost me next to nothing to make and gives me a little thrill whenever I see it.
Looking ahead, I have two family birthdays to prepare for, both for very special men in my life. Truthfully, I think the planning and anticipation bring me almost as much joy as the gatherings themselves.
Next week I’ll share the love and attention to detail that went into the Soup Weather gathering my daughter prepared for us. It was such a thoughtful, cosy evening and deserves a post of its own.
I’m discovering that it is the little things that give me so much pleasure. They are acts of defiance against an ordinary life.
A pinecone tower and candlelight on the front veranda are not necessary to the daily running of life. Dinner would still get made, laundry folded, pets cared for without any of these little touches, but life feels infinitely nicer because of them.
How do you add little touches of whimsy to your own lives, and how do they make you feel?
