Holiday Fashion and Decorating
December is officially here and that means it’s the season of
singing carols, decorating the tree, holiday shopping, and of course
seeing friends and family at those holiday parties. But let’s make
sure this holiday season won’t be too overwhelming between your
normal daily life and then getting everything done from decorating to
holiday parties.
Feng Shui Interior Design Expert and Couture Fashion Expert,
Elesia Carey, sat down to chat with me about some of her holiday tips
to help get in the festive spirit. From ways to take the Christmas
spirit and combine your own personality to how to pull some double
duty when going from the office to a party.
It’s so great to get to talk to you again, Elesia.
Brynn, it’s my absolute pleasure. You are one of my favorite
people.
And you are definitely one of my favorites to talk to. Now
with the holidays, a lot of people have a lot of things on their mind
from the decorating to all of those holiday parties so where should
we start?
Let’s start off with decorating and when it comes to decorating, I
like to think to keep it very simple and clean. When it comes to
decoration for Feng Shui the tips are not that complicated.
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The Front Door. It’s the calling card to your home so
you want to make sure you have a wreath that reflects your
personality. So whatever feels right to you is what you should put
on the front door so people can know that you’re celebrating the
holiday spirit. So put that on your front door to let visitors know
what to expect when they enter.-
Some favorite wreaths include using:
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Peppermints
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Twigs and branches
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Even poinsettias
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Then make your foyer another opportunity to show your
celebration. I always suggest some sort of plant and anything
welcoming like decorating a table or putting lights around a mirror.
You want to also make that area another opportunity to show your
love for the holidays.
What are some of your favorite plants for the holidays?
Specifically with the Christmas season we think of poinsettias, but
what are some other good holiday plants?
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Pine. I love pine. I’m a pine girl from way back,
and I love the smell of pine. What I like to do though is mix it
up, so I have a little centerpiece on my dining room table of pine
and oranges. Then get this, I put cloves in the oranges. The smell
when you come into the house is just amazing with that mix of
oranges, pine, and cloves. -
Potted Plants. I also, believe it or not, get some
mums. I love potted mums and especially decorating them in a space
by the window. -
Fresh Flowers. I also like to do fresh flowers and
including that anywhere in the home for me is an amazing
opportunity. Try and do a combination of potted plants like mums
and poinsettias as well as some fresh floral arrangements throughout
your home.-
In the bedroom, I like to do roses, but if you do that make
sure to remove the thorns because you don’t want them to represent
a thorny relationship.
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That’s definitely a nice way for people who miss the warmer
weather to carry some of those scents into winter.
Amen to that. Now one of my favorite hallway plants is the Peace
Lily. I love them because of the fact that they also clean the air,
plus the leaves are big, bold, and sexy. I have a Peace Lily plant
that is just gorgeous and I make sure to talk to her everyday so she
grows bigger and more beautiful all the time.
So that’s something really cool for people to think about this
holiday season especially for people wanting to carry that feeling
into the new year with those New Year’s Resolutions.
Exactly and it also symbolizes the growth of money. When you
think of a green plant and Feng Shui, you think of money.
Here’s another tip for you: I’m not getting a pine tree this year. I’m actually going to
decorate my Peace Lily. I’m getting a string of red lights to
string around it. Then at the bottom of the pot, I’ll wrap it in red
paper and put it on a stand as my holiday tree. So then it doubles
as your year round plant and your holiday tree.
That’s a really cool idea. Then it becomes different from what
everyone does and the norm and you’re putting your personality into
it a little more.
Exactly and it’s a nice little conversation piece as to why you
didn’t get a tree this year.
So once we think about decorating the tree or Peace Lily,
what’s the next step for getting ready for the holidays?
I like to think about a good cleaning for the holidays. It’s a
time to de-clutter since you will have people over at your home.
Plus it’s also right before the new year and a nice chance to look
around your home, get rid of some of the stuff that shouldn’t be
there and those unwanted items.
It’s that time of the season and I think it’s just a great
opportunity to make space for the new things coming in the new year
and also make space if you’re planning to throw a party and want to
make sure the guests are comfortable.
Maybe that chair that used to serve a purpose is now broken or
that table isn’t looking as nice as it used to. So get rid of it and
instead think about getting another table. It’s a great time to
spruce up your home and in reality spruce up your life.
So throw out those items that we’ve been saying we can fix for
a while now that in reality we aren’t going to end up fixing them.
Yes! This is the time. This is the time to get rid of the broken
items, to spruce up and spit-shine the home and get it ready for the
holidays.
And now you also touched a little bit on those holiday parties.
And a handful of people might find themselves going straight from the
office to that holiday party. This means that they have to find a
way to take the clothes they wore to work and make them party
appropriate.
Yes, that is one of my favorite times because I love holiday
parties, but a lot of people are busy during the day and don’t have
time to go home and change. So I have some great tips to help with
that.
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Double Duty. Sometimes I like to do things out of the
norm. For example I’ll take a strapless dress which I know I can’t
wear that into a meeting and take a thin turtleneck layering
underneath with the strapless dress over it. Then it’s an amazing
outfit for work and you can easily transform it to be holiday party
ready.
It definitely sounds like a cute combination. The strapless
dresses are something that a lot of people are hesitant about in the
winter because they are afraid of being cold and this is a great way
to warm up the strapless dress for winter.
Correct and that’s what you want to do. Another way to do double
duty is to take the top of a dress where the bottom isn’t quite
appropriate for the office. You can actually add a pencil skirt or
A-line skirt over the bottom of the dress. Then you have the top
part of the dress paired with the skirt and it becomes two in one.
It’s one of my favorite looks and I do that all the time.
That’s a new way to layer because typically when we think of
layering we think of tops with other tops, but not necessarily
bottoms mixed with other bottoms.
Yeah, so right now say you’re wearing a dress and skirt, which
actually works for me because one thing I don’t do a lot is buy a lot
of tops so this is my way to get around that problem because I have
more dresses than tops.
That’s a really cool idea. It’s definitely something to help
people with that office appropriate outfit and then being able to go
straight to a party without feeling like they have to go home and
change.
Yeah, exactly. You don’t have to go home and change. Instead you
have it right there and ready to go.
To get more Feng Shui holiday decorating tips, you can head
over to Elesia’s Facebook page “Feng Shui Interior Design by
Elesia”, and for more fashion tips check out her other Facebook
page at “Couture by Elesia”.