Feb 1

Happy Hour : Beating the Winter Humdrums

Every been in a restaurant when it turns "Happy Hour?" You notice the mood instantly changes as everyone is ready for fun. Whenever I'm having a Bad Hair Day, my cure is always a personal Happy Hour. Of course, I'm hopeless addicted to interiors; so for me, this hour is all about decorating. In this series, we'll look at some quick and happy mood changers for our very own Happy Hour. Each should take about an hour - a mere 60 minutes - to perk up our minds and our rooms. Let's get the party started.

After the Christmas decorations have been put away, do your rooms look bit bare? Only someone with too much time on her hands could have this dilemma. Ha! I had two ideas for my rooms - keeping my Christmas angels on display and using some of my blue&white collection (which has been in the basement for a number of years). My blue&white wasn't too interesting to me anymore. But last fall, I became inspired (really inspired!) when I saw reader Jo Anne's stunning antique blue&white collection throughout her charming rooms. Her rooms made me miss my blue&white. My humble collection of non-antiques pales in comparison to Jo Anne's but I could bring some pieces out in January while keeping my angels out for some winter cheerfulness. It just took one Happy Hour and lots of steps up and down to the basement. Let's see what happened.

But first - Last week, Connie and I were talking about winter decorating. She said the only thing she had left out from her Christmas boxes was her collection of angels on her mantel. So fun to know someone else couldn't bare to put her angels away.

For the first time in my life, I'm using one of my umbrella stands. Inspired by reader Jo Anne who has an amazing collection of antique canes in a large blue&white vessel by her front door,

My largest blue&white vases got benched for the season.

I've already bought blue&white ticking pillow covers for the spring.

In some years, I've had a winter mantel full of blue&white vases. This year, I piled a bunch of old books from my grandmother on the mantel.

In the guest bathroom, I dressed this angel with some of my necklaces and fashioned a blue&white skirt out of gift wrap. Maybe a little cheesy, but it makes me smile.

Getting this somewhat blue painting out of the basement was the biggest challenge of the hour.

This guest room is always blue&white but I put lots more pottery on nightstands. I love the 24" square velvet pillows from Amazon (set of 2 for $12) fluffed with duck inserts from IKEA. That's it -just an hour and easy peasy! Hope this will inspire you to tweak your rooms with your collections for this mostly gray and stormy winter.

Speaking of weather, Oakland, CA was a bit crazy last week. If I stand in my sunroom and look between the trees, I can see the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. The ocean weather has a straight shot to my house. Five minutes after I snapped this shot, the rain came with a vengeance.