It is hard for me to believe that we are beginning a new decade. It feels like yesterday that we were celebrating the beginning of a new century. The concept of time is so fleeting, isn’t it? In a blink, 20 years has passed.

Most “new” years, I am excited for the fresh beginning, the anticipation of new challenges and looking forward and ahead. 2019 was a year full of life changes and I am still trying some on for size. Empty nesting, especially. Having our youngest leave for college in the fall has been unsettling for me. But I know different opportunities and a clearer path will come into focus for me in 2020. Ambiguity is not my strong suit.

This is the first time in my life I have thought about this ~~ I have more decades in my rear view mirror than I have ahead. I recently spoke with an older friend of mine who stated the hardest thing about getting older is feeling irrelevant. The reality of empty nesting has me also pondering the concept of aging and where I fit in the world. This discussion could be an entire blog post!

But enough of that! As much as I love the holidays, I am ready to get back on track. The indulgences over these last few weeks have been marvelous, but my body craves the routine of healthy eating, accomplishing goals and outlining next steps.

In reviewing the past year, the most popular blog post was my son’s bedroom remodel. Since 2020 will require additional maintenance to Bella Terra, I hope to feature more “re-done” spaces. This year the well tower will need to be repaired, re-stained and deep cleaned. The garage needs a complete overhaul. It has been one of those spaces where you shove everything in and then close the door. I am determined to clear it all out, donate as much as possible and re-configure the space so we can actually use it to park our cars!

We are pretty boring New Year’s Eve types. I am happy to watch the ball drop in New York City at 10:00 p.m. our time and then head to bed. I prefer to greet the new year with a good night’s sleep and then an early morning hike or vigorous walk. The days of dancing and partying until actual midnight are fond, yet distant memories.

Whatever you do to celebrate the New Year, or perhaps you just want it to quietly slip into your life, I wish you and your family joy, love and good health.

Even though I don’t feel like I’ve completed everything for this holiday, I have an odd sense of calm about it. The magic of Christmas happens regardless. Today, I am just enjoying the rainy day and the blessings the season brings.

I can’t believe another decade is ending soon. What will the next 10 years bring? Ten years ago, motherhood was my primary role as the children were 14, 12 and 8. And just like that ~~ two have graduated college and are financially independent and the third just finished her first college semester.

The holidays can be very challenging and lonely for some. I recognize that life isn’t as glorious as portrayed on social media or Pinterest. It’s not easy to forget those holidays when I mourned the loss of loved ones or struggled with other personal pain. But when you have a good year, it should be celebrated.

My goal for the rest of 2019 is to live purposefully and with intention. When the children were small, I often told them to replace the words “have to” with the words “get to”. And better yet, add ” I am lucky I get to…..”. Whether it means washing the dishes, doing laundry, or wrapping gifts, if we just change our perspective and take joy in the simplest of chores, then it doesn’t feel like such a burden.

When we lighten our loads, we create space to be joyful with others. So, this morning, I “get to write a blog post”. I feel so lucky that you have chosen to follow Life at Bella Terra. Your comments and feedback are inspiring. You are my gifts this Christmas. My appreciation and gratitude is deep.

Wherever you are in the journey of life, I wish you and yours, from the bottom of my heart, a blessed, stress-free, and loving holiday.

This week we had our annual neighborhood board holiday party. Nothing like having guests to motivate you to get things done! Unfortunately, I failed to take any great pictures, as I was too busy setting everything up. Photos taken in natural light are the best and of course, these were done in the evening.

In addition to a sampling of hors d’hoeurves and desserts, I served a light supper of turkey chili (see recipe here) and homemade cranberry/cherry walnut sourdough bread. Even though it was a crisp evening, the back terrace and the full moon provided the perfect backdrop for the festivities.

The house is almost completely decorated. I keep adding things as I go, but I am happy with what we did this year.

Each year we send out Christmas cards and my deadline is to get them in the mail no later than December 15th. The cards arrived yesterday from Minted late in the day so guess what I am doing this weekend. This is the first year we had Minted put the addresses on the envelopes. I kept an updated address spreadsheet this year and I am happy we went to the additional expense to have them do the addressing.

Making a gingerbread house last year for the first time was such fun! The goal is to make another this week. Hoping for successful results!

Here are some photos of the holiday decorations around the house. Every year I always hope to do a video tour but that never seems to happen!

Instead of wrapping light strands in the fresh garland on the bannister, I used remote controlled candles on each step.

The living room mantle, like the dining room, has a bit of a tree theme. The challenge with this mantle is the depth~~garland alone tends to look a bit wimpy. I added faux red berries and greens to beef it up.

The homemade stockings are typically stretched out along the mantle. This year I gathered them to one side, which I like better.

Pillows from Pottery Barn and Ikea dress up the living room sofa.

The front entrance is my husband’s project as he puts up the numerous trees that line the entry.

Battery operated candles are in each window, something my mother would do every year at our home in Connecticut.

This next week will be last minute shopping, baking cookies, making my gingerbread house, and creating a Christmas dinner menu. It’s a bit difficult not to get swept up into the anxiety of the holidays. The magic of Christmas happens every year and I keep assuring myself that it will all come together and just B-R-E-A-T-H-E.

Happy Saturday!

I am so excited to share the holiday changes to our dining room this year. Every year, literally, every year, I have done the same thing when it comes to holiday decorating.

When your holiday decorating is repetitive, it’s difficult to imagine the space differently. I was a bit stumped on what to do but somehow it just magically came together!

Here are photos of the dining room in previous years ( I think my photography skills have improved a bit!). The dining room has always been where we displayed the countless snow globes we have. Since I have been buying one for each child X 3 children up to age 21, you can do the math. We have ALOT of snow globes.

The glittery village has continually occupied to top of the buffet lending to the general snow/winter theme in this room.

But this year, being our first as empty nesters, I decided not to unpack the snow globes or glitter houses.

Ordering a 100 foot roll of garland*, I decided to use the fresh cedar greens on the mantle. Over the summer we had the room painted a clean white and added 2 white upholstered chairs in attempts to lightened the impact of the dark dining room table (which I would love to change).

The expensive Oriental rug has been in our family for a very long time so I don’t see it being replaced anytime soon. With deep tones of cranberry and some pinks, it made sense to keep the decorations in that color category.

The blush bottle brush trees are from Pier 1 Imports. The selection of bottle brush trees at Michaels was pathetic so I was delighted to find these at Pier 1. The glittery gold trees are from Pottery Barn purchased last year.

The pink and white snow ornaments are from Michaels and are hung from the chandelier with fishing line.

I love our white chairs from Ballard Designs and added the boxwood wreaths (also from Ballard Designs) with a sheer green ribbon pinned to the top of the chair.

The buffet will be filled with food for the holidays so it was left undecorated this year. I will be adding some fresh cut flowers and greens for our holiday event tomorrow evening. My sweet husband polished all the silver which makes the room sparkle.

Overall, the decorations feel cleaner and lighter this year.

I hope you enjoyed the decorating changes made to the dining room. Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday and keep jolly!

*Greens purchased from Torchio Nursery at the San Francisco Flower Market.

I didn’t intend for the Thanksgiving centerpiece to match the artwork in the dining room but it happily does! Every few months I’ve been hanging different art, trying to find just the right piece.

It’s easy to decorate the same way year after year and there’s comfort in that. But how do I use what I have and put a different spin on it? The crosshatched mercury candleholders in a coppery tone from West Elm was the first step of the inspiration. They were on sale for $5.00 each.

A few years ago, I started using plants as the majority staple in my centerpieces, adding a small amount of cut flowers. Planting them in the yard later is a way of re-purposing and seemed more economical. We are so fortunate to have a fabulous nursery (Whitfill Nursery) right around the corner from our home.

Whitfill has the most beautiful Cinnamon Petunias with lovely rusty, coral flowers. Succulents are a mystery to me, but the green and bronze hues are so perfect with my candle holders. The plant list includes: White Ornamental cabbage, Red Bor Kale; the succulents are Graptoeria Fredives and Vera Higgins Graptosedum.

I am a bit of a garden geek and Whitfill Nursery is one of my happy places. Where else can you go look at a huge variety of plants, see peacocks and goats, interact with a welcoming and helpful staff on a gorgeous sunny day?

The cut flowers are alstroemeria and roses from Safeway.

I transplanted all the plants out of their plastic containers into plain white bowls (Emma pattern from Pottery Barn). Flowers are placed at various heights in small glass vases and tucked into the plants.

Again, my Windsor Ware plates are just perfect for this time of year. I chose to use a darker wood charger, softened with pale pink wine glasses. White and orange pumpkins were added to play down the white bowls.

I had some leftover seeded eucalyptus which I randomly stuffed into the edges.

It’s nice to have the table set and ready to go. Today we will do all the food shopping and pick up the turkey. I expect the stores to be a bit of a madhouse in the midst of the holiday rush. The next few days will include many hours in the kitchen~~a joyful time indeed!

Is your table set? Have you done all your shopping? Or better yet, are you going elsewhere for Thanksgiving dinner?

Happy Tuesday, my dear friends.

My son’s bedroom re-do has taken longer than I would have liked. Am I completely finished? No, but I am close. There are window treatments to complete and of course, sorting through years of his belongings. I want to accomplish that with him, because I would probably keep all the grammar and high school projects just for the glorious trip down memory lane.

Here is the bedroom before. The last time we did anything to his room was on his 14th birthday. It was time to get rid of the whimsical child’s room and do something more suitable for a teenager. His colors at the time were mostly red, blue and brown. Benjamin now lives in Washington, DC so his room hasn’t really been touched in quite a long time.

As you may recall, this was my inspiration for the remodel. You can read the entire blog post here.

Here is the bedroom after (and nearly done)! We moved the bed to the opposite wall to get the wonderful views out the 2 northern windows, and the view to the outside terrace.

Using leftover Blue Radish linen fabric, I slipcovered the bench under the black writing desk that I moved from the family room. The desk now gets such better light from the western window.

I kept the small dresser with the hand painted fish as our son LOVED having fish when he was younger. Plus the scale and color goes nicely with the rug and rest of the room.

A guest basket is filled with waters and snacks for his week long stay with us. In keeping with the blue/nautical theme, a limited edition print by Jan Balet from is hung above the dresser.

On the desk is an antique letter “from a Nobleman to a School Master” dated May 10, 1740 about a man sending his “Boy of Genius” off to get a liberal education. I love the lettering, the grace and tone ~~so civilized.

A fresh bouquet of flowers perks up the room.

I started a custom painting for the area above his bed, however, it’s not finished so we hung a limited edition nautical lithograph from the British maritime artist, John Stobart. If you want to read the blog post on the making of the pillow shams, click here.

We still need to go through items on his shelves, but I tried to organize it the best you can with items from a boy’s life.

Happy Saturday, my friends. The best part of this bedroom is that my son is home and filling the room with his presence. I hope you enjoyed the fresh and updated changes! Below is a list of resources.

This post shared with:

Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday #601

Silver Pennies Sunday #369

Eddie Bauer Blue Cotton Blanket on bed; $27. 19 ordered from Amazon

Sheets and Duvet Cover from The Company Store

Denim Rag Rug from Annie Selke by Dash and Albert

Blue/white chinoiserie lamp on desk from Overstock

Blue Radish fabric by Radish Moon

Radish Moon
648 Broadway suite 600
NY NY 10012
917.279.5465
www.radishmoon.com

All artwork is from our collection

Candlestick lamps from thrift store and repainted

Flowers from Trader Joe’s