styled living simply achieved by Jacqueline deMontravel
The idea of putting on your buffalo check cap and chopping down your tree at a Christmas tree farm is a romantic notion that often gets put aside in a busy season. There’s also the reality of hauling the tree home and the constant maintenance of fallen pine needles. This can sour the experience like egg nog well past its expiration date.
Spoiler Alert: the Easter bunny doesn’t exist. For those hosting the holiday dinner — along with creating baskets and stuffing plastic eggs with goodies for a world-class egg hunt — assistance from a folkloric rabbit would certainly be welcomed. Here, no holiday magic is needed with these hacks for a no-cook Easter dinner that’s delicious, festive and easy to do.
Leave it to Trader Joe’s for the reminder to plan a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner with their displays devoted to the holiday. You’ll find everything from a pair of strip steaks to heart-shaped macarons. Reluctant singletons may want to avoid going there until Saint Patrick’s Day. This token holiday of love has become controversial. For couples it can become treacle with its chocolate samplers that crimp the winter diet and flammable lingerie. Those who are unattached have the Galentine’s options that involves slabbing on clay masks and drinking way too much carbonated alcohol. Allentine’s Day has become our household policy, which opens up the holiday to not just the one you love but ones you love.
Who’s with me that there can be a lot of effort over a bird that often gets passed over for the sides? Simplify holiday hosting with a few simple shortcuts so you can be a guest at your own gathering. Thanksgiving is a holiday rich in autumn colors, tastes, and intimacy–perfect for small gatherings long on eating and relaxing.
Go easy on yourself this Thanksgiving with simple dishes and creative touches.
Letter writing has countless benefits, including gathering your thoughts and showing care via a handwritten note.
The packing list for sleep away camp is as standard as a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Throw in stationary and stamps and you can hear the cartoon screech happening in your child’s mind. Do they even know how to address an envelope? Where do you get the material to write about? What’s a mail box? And how do you write something without grazing your fingertips across a keyboard? In today’s digital age, letter writing isn’t simply a lost manner that needs to be resuscitated like gifting care baskets to the less fortunate. Letters are testimony to genuine social graces and human connection.
“I definitely believe that letter writing still serves a purpose in the digital age,” says Katherine Kelly, who teaches English at Darien, Connecticut’s Middlesex Middle School. “There is something special about receiving a handwritten note.”
The act of choosing the right stationery and putting your thoughts into a personalized note shows time and care. Letters are more notable in today’s culture when a handwritten note without emojis stands out among the more typical pieces of mail. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with embracing the ease of digital communication,” says Kelly, “but taking the time to write or read a handwritten letter brings me a joy that I don’t always experience with digital messages.”
Similar to reading, writing is a cerebral skill that improves with practice. Its benefits are also transformative. Jason Courtmanche, Director of the Connecticut Writing Project and a professor of English and Education at UConn, oversees the annual Letters About Literature contest in conjunction with the Neag School of Education. Participants read a book, poem, or speech and write a letter to that author (living or dead) about how the text affected them personally.
“I enjoy sponsoring the Letters About Literature program because it honors two of the most important things about literacy—writing to an audience and for a purpose, and reading literature to be transformed,” says Courtmanche.
Kevin Daniele, Middlesex Middle School’s 7th grade Healthy Living teacher, worked with an organization that allows students to write handwritten notes of encouragement to individuals recovering from addiction. Despite the students anonymity for protective measures, the students were able to read through the replies and see the impact they had made on complete strangers from their notes of support.
“I know that my students have really developed a sense of accomplishment and community from writing these letters,” Daniele says. “You can see the lightbulb go off about how their letters made an impact on someone else’s life. That was always the coolest part for me.”
An essay on the Boxer Rebellion this is not. Letter writing is an opportunity to reflect, gather your thoughts, and creatively express yourself in the written form. It’s a way to relive key moments or feelings and share them in a personal way.
Letters also move the spirits. Similar to journal writing, there’s a release of emotions and therapeutic benefits that happen when you put your thoughts to paper.
Kelly suggests beginning the writing process by choosing the right friend or loved one. Consider the dialogue you would have in person with these people — the stories you would you tell and questions you would you ask. Most likely you will be writing more than you would in a text, thus employ conversational devices in your letter. “Make sure to greet the other person, introduce yourself if necessary, and say goodbye when you are finished,” Kelly says.
Aside from thank you notes and condolence letters, any just because occasion shows good manners. Etiquette is essentially an ode to treating others with old-fashioned consideration and respect, and letters are its calling card.
The art of letter writing is a classic form of communication with a myriad of benefits. The writer takes the time to gather his/her own thoughts, eloquently write them down, and the recipient has a treasured keepsake that shows care.
It also honors human connection, Not to mention, it’s great for handwriting practice in this digital age.
As the summer season promotes leisure time, stock up on writing materials, replenish your stamps, and make it a part of your family’s ritual to embark on regular letter writing.
Letters About Literature Contest: https://education.uconn.edu/letters-about-literature-contest/
When you decorate with the color wheel’s version of Reese Witherspoon, you want to find ways to tone it down while preserving its optimism. Such was the case when designing a yellow-themed guest bedroom.
A white-painted room allows for the statement color and accents to stand out. When selecting the yellow shade, we went for a school bus yellow over a softer lemony hue. It was natural to weave in black accents to add a sophisticated contrast.
The trundle bed, the room’s main furnishing, is painted in Benjamin Moore’s glossy Decorator White. A layering of yellow linens and pillows reinforce a cozy, styled feel. There’s a mix of block prints, mud cloth and hand-painted textiles that are both controlled and add design appeal. The black patterned carpet by Hook & Loom brings in a subdued, whimsical feel while adding another warm texture.
One statement artwork piece is all you need on the walls to keep the colors from looking too manic. A Stray Dog Design chandelier that gives the impression of tamed seaweed increases the wow factor.
Whatever shade of yellow you choose, there won’t be any downer moments in a room with this bright color. From happy faces to a radiating sun, yellow pays homage to iconic emblems of cheerfulness. It’s the ideal color to design a room with impact.
Brighton Rug, 3’ x 5’: https://hookandloom.com
Chucho Chandelier by Stray Dog Design: https://straydogdesigns.com
Handwoven Fringe Tassel Clouds Pillow Cover: www.ichcha.com
Peshtemal Bath Thow: https://turkishtowelcompany.com/
Six weeks to plan a holiday event, update the dining room, maybe even organize a wedding can be done with limited nail-biting moments if you’re organized. But an entire home update, including two bathrooms? Follow these no-fail steps we used when renovating our house for the summer season with limited stress and stylish results.
Every February, or earlier thanks to holiday marketers, our bleak winter environment is saturated with red, hot pink and an abundance of hearts thanks to Valentine’s Day. Many aren’t as receptive to Feb. 14th’s arrival and its treacle overtures of romance. Not everyone is in a relationship. Some prefer not to participate in a cliched holiday. We have a solution — celebrate Allentine’s Day, which is a Valentine’s Day that includes everyone you love. Here, we provide simple Allentine’s Day celebration ideas that deliver on fun.
After weeks of below ten-degree temperatures and a Nor’easter that hit on a weekend, embracing winter has become a necessity. You can find inspiration on how to beat the winter blues by looking to the season’s experts. Most notably the Scandinavians who have given winter naysayers hope by following the customs of hygge.
Hygge is an attention to comfort and bringing warmth into the home that resurfaces every winter on illustrated social media posts of a steaming mug of cocoa, fireplaces, and cute mittens. Customs that could be more accurately defined as a guide to winter survival.
It’s the two week countdown to Halloween, which also means fa la las will be taking over the airwaves. No pressure, but with a few weekends left to fall’s unofficial end, celebrate the season by making a checklist so you can capitalize on autumn.
