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Tag: holidays
Holiday Decorating Safety Tips
Holiday decorating safety tips can come in holiday handy and gift you with peace of mind at this holiday decorating time of year. There is now a direct link between holiday decorating safety tips and year round electrical safety in general. We got a big lighting up the holidays shock last week which explains my radio silence last week.
Fire is the one thing I am deathly afraid of. Let me share with you several situations and events over my lifetime that have caused and stoked this dreaded fear.
When Places In The Home was being built, a group of delinquents neighborhood kids set the entire order of roofing shingles on fire. The sight, sound, and smell of the roaring pile of burning shingles scared me almost to death and scarred me for life. I was three years old, I remember the scene vividly to this day, and it’s this event that set a lifelong fear of fire into motion.
When I was five years old, my precious great-grandmother lit her gas stove with a match. She thought she blew the match out, but she did not. Prior to lighting the stove, she had emptied a pot of melted hot grease into the garbage can. You can almost be guaranteed that when a lit match hits hot grease, flame and fire is close behind. With expert precision and quick hands to rival Drew Brees, Mama Two grabbed the flaming trash can, used her foot to kick open the back door, and ran with can in hand into the backyard where she extinguished the fire with a can lid. Mama Two innocently marked me for life.
In 1974, my grandmother’s house suffered severe extensive smoke damage throughout from a lightening strike to a television left in front of a window in her kitchen. The television burned up and through the floor. My grandmother was on vacation in Florida at the time of the strike. With no one home to notice, the television smoldered for several days. Every wall, surface, furnishing and floor was completely covered and caked in soot. The soot was so thick it measured close to one inch thick inside closed drawers. Determined to face my fear, I insisted on going with her and my parents to meet the insurance adjuster for the initial walk through. Horrible sight that only served to exacerbated my fear of fire.
My parents and I were at the original MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas on the day before the horrific fire in 1980 that killed 85 people and injured 650. We were visiting with family who were guests at the hotel. Thankfully, they all survived the fire. They have rarely discussed the tragic ordeal with anyone for understandable reasons. The details they have offered are as awful as one would imagine, and haunt me to this day. Dave and I have been back to the hotel (now Bally’s) several times since, but I absolutely refuse to stay at the hotel.
My parents were staying at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1981 when an arsonist set fire to the hotel killing 8 and injuring approximately 200. Tragic details with the less shared with me the better caveat.
Last week, our electrical panel-service-wiring placed a bulls eye right in the center of my fear of fire and plans for the holiday budget. Two weeks ago I discovered there was no power to the master bedroom sitting and dressing area. The A/C would come on (welcome to November in Louisiana) but the compressor would not kick on. I called the electrician, he came out and replaced a breaker in the original and antiquated electrical panel, and power was restored.
Two weeks to the day same problem arises. Call the electrician, he comes by that afternoon, and within thirty minutes three electricians, two city utilities supervisors, and one scared to death homeowner stood in our kitchen discussing how soon Dave the Builder and I could vacate the house.
The electricians and supervisors got straight to the point; “Ma’am, your house is in danger of burning to the ground in its present state. We are going to pull the electricity panel and the electrical service to your house is being disconnected immediately.”
Fire.
Electrocution.
Arc.
Rewire.
I’m usually strong- the “I’m a willow, I can bend” one in the group however, this was not the case in this particular situation. I completely lost it in front of all parties present. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I cried worse than I did when my daddy died.
Straw, meet camel’s broken back.
I’ll spare you the details of shock, inconvenience, and scrambling to figure out how to pay for the unexpected heavy four figure expense (does anyone really have thousands of dollars stashed and saved for emergency home maintenance repairs). Dave the Builder is a maintenance master at much, but electrical is not his forte.
My fear is fire. His is being electrocuted.
I got it together, found the silver lining, peace of mind, and good will toward electrician men. The new service is in, and power is back up and running, and it’s time to get back to normal (our normal anyhow). All of this got me to thinking a post about holiday decorating safety tips may be as cathartic to me as it is useful to some.
Christmas Tree Holiday Decorating Safety Tips
A real live Christmas tree is part of many Deck the Halls Decoristas Christmas tradition. Safety takes first place over real tree beauty so let’s start there.
Christmas Tree Safety – National Fire Protection Association
Placement is key. Place a live Christmas tree at least three (3) feet away from any heat source such as fireplaces, space heaters, heat vents, radiators, or candles.
Water a real Christmas tree daily to prevent or at least slow the drying out process.
Use lights with the label of a recognized testing laboratory approved for indoor use. A green holographic UL label means indoor use only, whereas lights with a red holographic UL label mean the lights may be used indoors as well as outdoors.
The look is lovely, but never use lit candles to decorate a Christmas tree.
Replace lights that are worn, have broken cords, or loose bulb connections.
Do not overload strands connections. Use no more than three standard size sets of lights per single extension cord.
When we were kids, one of the neighborhood families left their outdoor decorations on while away. The way too old and unsafe big bulb Christmas lights decorating one of the Oak trees in their front yard snapped, crackled, popped, and caught fire.
The fire quickly spread and engulfed the entire home resulting in a total loss. Don’t second guess decorations or discount warnings. If your going to be away from home, turn off and unplug your outdoor and your indoor decorations. Always turn off Christmas tree lights before going to bed.
I don’t want to pour cold water on the holiday parade, but water and electricity do not mix. Make sure to keep your hands dry and never, ever stand in water when touching holiday decorations or gadgets powered by electricity.
Warm and cozy times spent round the Christmas tree go perfectly with the holidays.
For the many who use space heaters as a heat source, there’s a safe way to do so to ensure all is well.
Turn off and unplug space heaters when going to bed. Turn off or unplug space heaters when left unattended.
Use extreme caution to keep the three (3) foot radius around a space heater free of contact with any flammable item, combustible liquids, blankets, sofas, paper, toys, rugs, drapes, and soft goods.
Do not place a space heater on rugs, furniture, or countertops.
Never use extension cords or multiple plugs with a space heater.
Do not cut corners with worn out extension cords or Christmas lights. Never run an extension cord under rugs, carpets, or furniture.
Vintage Christmas decorations bring back old memories, and more times than not come with the original wiring. Check for frayed cords which run a high risk of lighting up the holidays in the call 911, the house in on fire kind of way.
Practice caution with garlands draped over a fireplace mantle or close to lit candles.
According to National Fire Protection Association, the top 3 days for home candle fires are New Year’s Day, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Keep candles at least 12 inches from anything that can burn.
Do not burn evergreens, pine, gift boxes, or gift wrap in your fireplace. Dry greens and cardboard act like tender- burning hot and fast. The flames can quickly flare out of control, cause a flash fire, and send sparks out into a room and/or up the chimney igniting creosote deposits. Make sure to keep the screen before the fireplace while burning a fire.
Plan for safe indoor and outdoor holiday decorating with these holiday decorating safety tips. Let’s all have a safe, stylishly decorated, and happy holiday season.
We Gather Together Holiday Table Ideas
We gather together holiday table ideas help to set an impressive Thanksgiving holiday table.
Getting the look, style, balance, and theme suited to your holiday dining and entertaining scheme requires a certain amount of planning and prep, and that’s where these we gather together holiday table ideas come in.
Design inspiration is often the driving force of my blog content, and I’m amazed at where it comes from at times.
Yesterday, somewhere between trying to locate what bedroom the cat was hiding out in and trying not to lose my religion over the cat and mouse game he loves to play with me, I stopped in the hallway to regroup.
Looking down the hall into the foyer, dining room, and kitchen in more than a glimpse and less than a stare, it dawned on me I truly liked what I was seeing.
Isn’t that the point of the design and decorating grand scheme of things?
I sometimes forget to just stand back and take in the look. My vantage point allowed for a comprehensive viewing from foyer to dining room.
The vintage bamboo chandelier in the foyer.
The wallpaper selection.
The yet once again painted lantern pendant.
The decision to lighten up the dining room color palette.
The placement of artwork.
I like to try new things and new looks, but the traditional personal design style choices I come back to time and time again prove to be the ones I am most satisfied with.
Stay true to your personal style and design, decorate, and holiday table set accordingly is advice I not only give, but practice.
The absolute best holiday table ideas begin with a sense of you.
What suits your style, taste, and personal preference is what best fits the occasion and sets an impressive holiday table.
Scandinavian Dining Room
Create a backdrop with touches sure to resonate with the crowd.
Sure, most of us try to emulate moms-grandmothers-aunties side dish or dessert recipe- that’s a given.
I like to use decorative accents and tabletop pieces that make a shared memories, experiences, and regional commonalities connection with my guests.
Magnolias in glass cylinders cover the Southern aspect of our holiday table.
Fresh flowers or an heirloom bowl filled with fall leaves native to your area set a home for the holidays tone.
Wooden turned candlesticks instantly become I remember these conversation pieces.
Antique Blue Transferware Platter
A handed down from generation to generation family recipe served in a handed down from generation to generation serving piece is wow factor certified and guaranteed to tug at the home is where the holiday heart is heartstrings.
The heirloom crystal water bottle makes it way from the china cabinet to the Thanksgiving table.
Vintage Etched Coupe Glasses || Plymouth Birds Double Old-Fashioned Glasses
Cocktail glasses in a similar pattern as the ones my dad served holiday spirits in, and goblets in the style of the ones my grandmother used at holiday time to serve her famous orange fluff salad in become a must have addition to the we gather together holiday table.
I don’t give a second thought to using paper cocktail napkins.
Rest assured, the holiday table ideas police will not be hauling you off to tablescape and place setting jail.
I go with the best of both worlds option and use a traditional and a zippy paper cocktail napkin.
Fresh pears in white bowls is a simple and elegant suggestion.
I pick up gold-rimmed white stoneware bowls from Dollar Tree and keep an eye on the produce section selection of seasonal pears.
For approximately $2.00 per place setting you can add a fetching look to the Thanksgiving holiday table.
Gold-Rimmed White Stoneware Bowls, 7 in.
An impressive holiday tablescape does not have to be expensive or difficult to achieve.
Place the focus on folk, food, fresh, flavor, and fun.
My comical husband suggested I call this hosting tip “f” the holidays.
Holiday hosting humor is a fabulous stress buster. Dave is in charge of levity, and is brilliant at it.
We’ve still got the December holidays to decorate, entertain, and tablescape to and the holiday budget to manage.
Items that pull double duty justify the initial price of admission to the holiday tablescape party.
This is the exact reason I go with white plates with gold rims and serving pieces in November to December holiday friendly colors and patterns.
I’m embracing the home is where the holiday heart is theme with these Magnolia drinking glasses and Louisiana appetizer plates.
Gold-Rimmed White Stoneware Dinner Plates, 10.5 in.
The combination of a natural wood pattern plate charger gold-rimmed white dinner plates, and the look of vintage antique silver sentiment flatware makes a striking statement.
Make new serving pieces friends, but keep the old.
One is traditional silver, and the other, Millennial gold.
Tors Bronze Cast Aluminum Serving Bowl
I love a holiday twofer, and a Merry Thanksgiving gift draw is a fun and giving family and friend activity to partake in at the end of the Thanksgiving meal.
For many years, Dave the Builder and I along with another couple and their daughter spent Thanksgiving week at Chicot State Park before the kids got to the age of I’m bored.
Three bedroom, 2 full bath lodge with fireplace, satellite television, cellphone and WiFi service second to none, scavenger hunts, hiking trails, midnight runs to spot deer, owl and raccoons, stay up and sleep in as late as you want boring.
Not exactly what I would call roughing it.
Striving to keep things new, fresh, and in the holiday spirit, I came up with the hot cocoa and hat draw holiday kick off.
The moms would make hot cocoa, and the dads would light up the fire ring late Thanksgiving day afternoon.
While we were enjoying hot cocoa and getting back to nature, we would pass a hat around with each of our names in it.
Each of us drew a name from the hat and the planning began.
When we drove into the neighboring towns to antique and Black Friday shop, each of us would buy a kick off the holidays gift for the person whose name we drew from the hat.
We set a $5.00 limit, and the rule was the gift had to be something the recipient talked about on Thanksgiving day or night.
Part of the fun was seeing how attentive and creative we could get with our gift selections.
A quick stop at the dollar store for a small Christmas tree, gift bags, and reindeer bells to ring round the campfire completed the process.
The kids loved it, and the big kids got into it as well.
Our kick off the holidays hot cocoa and hat draw gifted each us with a great memory.
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
– Dr. Seuss
I’ve tweaked the tradition a bit, and now it’s the We Wish Family and Friends a Feast of a Happy Holidays Season favor gift give.
Brass wishbone figurines stay in theme and make a lovely We Gather Together holiday keepsake.
Home is where the Holiday heart is, and ours beats strong here at Places In The Home.
Our holiday celebrations are all about honoring traditions old and new, making meaningful memories, sharing the holiday love with family, friends, and readers, and offering holiday table ideas, holiday decor finds, suggestions, stories, and sources.
Join me throughout the holiday season for all things house that make a holiday home.
Design, Create, Greet, Announce, Invite, and Impress with Paperless Post
This post contains links to Paperless Post. I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions expressed are completely my own based on my experience.
Places In The Home is in full-on this is not a drill, the holiday season is here mode.
When a shopping network host announced Christmas is less than two months away, it brought it all home.
This end of October-beginning of November week kicks off the whole let’s holiday plan and prep shebang, and I’m inviting and celebrating family and friends, thankful feasts and fêtes, seasoned and Seasons Greetings, ’tis the season of soirees and open houses, New Year’s Day supper, and happy birthday greetings with a little help from my friends at Paperless Post.
Paperless Post is an online invitations, cards, and stationery platform. Begin the custom design process by creating an account.
Choose the occasion and from there peruse the selections of designs.
A wide range of distinctive designs, fonts, colors, backgrounds, shapes, and designers make it easy for you to create, design and send custom digital invitations, cards, and stationery for your business and/or personal needs.
Christmas Foyer Card with Envelope – Paperless Post
Paperless Post has many cards free to send, and you can send a free card to up 200 email addresses.
Birthday wishes, save the date, dinner party, graduation, fundraiser, new address, game night, add your own photo, sympathy, charity event, birth announcement, girl’s getaway weekend, entertaining, sip and see free and fabulous.
Premium designer cards require coins to send. Coins are the currency used on Paperless Post to price premium design options and add-ons such as envelopes, liners, stamps, postmarks, logos, and backdrops.
As you go through the customization flow, the cost of your card per recipient will appear at the top right corner of the page.
Paperless Post never shows third-party ads on their website, in their emails, or on their mobile app.
Therefore, you do not have to use additional coins to remove ads.
Pheasant Plumage – John Derian
An invitation to gather together with friends to eat, drink, celebrate, and be grateful for one another on the third Thursday of November is but a custom design and email list away.
Gourd Times – Crate & Barrel
Holiday time is open house time, y’all!
A customized invitation to join you to celebrate not only fits the occasion, but reflects your personal style.
Plumier (Welcome)- Paperless Post
Holiday in the City – Rifle Paper Co.
A Tuesday Tipple by Charlotte Olympia invites holiday style to the holiday mix and mingle.
The Lady It’s Cold Outside invitation is decked out in faux fur holiday finery for a festive evening of holiday spirits, decorating, and dancing.
So sipping cocktails-Dino on the hi-fi-Cherries Jubilee-1960s throwback swanky.
The Peas on Earth invitation is perfect for our Creole black-eyed peas and Southern buttermilk cornbread Peas on Earth, Good Eats for Luck New Year’s Day supper.
Peas on Earth
A Louisiana birthday celebration deserves a snazzy and snappy birthday card.
Snappy Birthday (Nicholas John Frith) – Red Cap Cards
Design, create, greet, announce, invite, and impress friends, family, and clients with custom digital invitations, cards, and stationery from Paperless Post.
The design and send experience is as easy as email, the design result as elegant as it is exceptional.
A Most Fetching Friday: In Glorious Bring The Holidays Home Fashion
Today’s A Most Fetching Friday greets the first day of December in glorious bring the holidays home fashion.
Christmas Home Tour by Craftberry Bush
Holiday wishing you all a most fetching Friday and a lovely first day of December.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as we trim the trees and deck the halls in glorious bring the holidays home fashion.
A Show and Tell On This Beautiful Good Friday
Holidays are a time for celebrating, rejoicing, feasting and sharing. We will practice and partake in all, beginning with a hippity, hoppity Easter’s on its way show and tell on this beautiful Good Friday.
Plastic Easter eggs and a gold bunny from Dollar Tree make eggcellent decoration anchors for the holiday dessert display.
Live lilies as well as porcelain and china flowers take centerpiece stage on the Easter table.
It’s the year of the wedding(s) in the Places In The Home family.
There’s talk of silver, china, monograms, cakes and flowers at holiday gatherings with assurances from one very proud mom and aunt that the topic of conversation is one of supreme interest.
Dorothy’s Homemade Coconut Cake Recipe from Alex Hitz is the perfect choice of Easter, bridal shower or bridesmaid luncheon dessert.
May I suggest a dessert pairing featuring fresh Louisiana strawberries topped with a heavy handed spoonful of granulated pure cane sugar served in watermelon glass pattern sherbets in spring and summer shades of pink and green.
Presentation wow factor now being served.
The bloom is off the rose thanks to recent tornado times however, a lawn and garden gift of good nature produced fresh blooms from knock out roses row.
Bridal shower inspiration bloomed, and rose petal ice cubes became the entertaining diy project of the day.
Remembering, reflecting, celebrating, decorating and wishing you a blessed and beautiful Good Friday.
Our Home For The Holidays
Happy Holidays friends! We are T-3 to Christmas 2015, and the joy of the season is electric by way of white Christmas lights and treasured traditions. Welcome to our Home for the Holidays where the theme of comfort and simplicity is well represented.
Our tour is of the dining room and the part of the foyer decked for the holidays. The dining room, a forever work in progress, has seen several design and decor changes in 2015, and will continue to see more in 2016. The walls are devoid of artwork (the piece you see in this photo is part of the kitchen gallery wall) and the style jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision on accent rug vs. hardwood floors. The dining room isn’t the only space getting a makeover. My Mother’s Day gift from our son was paying for the new wallpaper I fell in love with at first sight but took several months to decide if I really had to have it. Turns out I did. Dave the Builder began the project, but real life obligations and unexpected circumstances stepped in and halted the foyer beautification project. Patience is not only a virtue it is a necessary tool of the trade in design and decorating.
On the Monday before Christmas, my true love gave to me. A single Santa leopard-ing
and a Christmas goose in the foyer displayed in front of the new zebra wallpaper sitting pretty (pronounce it prit-tee and it rhymes with tree. Get it? Partridge. Pear Tree).
A holiday table centerpiece of magnolia leaves and holly is indeed so Southern, so holiday, so easy and so beautiful.
Bob’s Sweet Stripes as swizzle sticks and crystal finial ornaments as wine charms? You bet!
I purchased these vintage mini framed Madonna prints for my kitchen gallery wall.
Inspiration is everywhere.
The subject matter is holiday appropriate, and the petite size of the framed prints sealed the DIY deal. Napkin rings it is!
I have collected Victorian inspired Santa Claus figurines for years. Due to the epic move aka the gift that keeps on giving, combining two households into one and the renovation of my childhood home into our new to us home, most of my Santa collection now resides in climate controlled storage. These inexpensive stand-in Santas have no great provenance or famous artist signature assigned to them, but I do love the colors and facial features of these old world replicas.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and this perfectly imperfect image serves as a visual reminder of my personal design and decorating philosophy. Perfection, style and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The life lived within a home comes alive through personal style and taste, and there is nothing more gorgeous than a home that beautifully illustrates personal style lives here. Design and decorate it with a sense of you!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Gift Guide For The Decorista
Christmas came early to this decorista, and it was my Pinterest pleasure to create a gift guide for the decorista with all things house that make a home goodies in mind.
Want to see more gift ideas with decking the halls, host, and home in mind?
Click on the image below to head over to the complete Pinterest Gifts For The Deck The Halls Decorista board where you can check out my fabulous and festive finds of the season and resource information.
