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.
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:
Peppermints
Twigs and branches
Even poinsettias
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?
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.
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.
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
page at “Couture by Elesia”.
