How to Make Your Fall Home Cozy

Sunday, September 22nd was the first OFFICIAL day of fall. In the next few months the leaves start to fall from the trees, the evenings get darker earlier each day, and the temperatures drop significantly. With the changing weather and changing seasons, you probably are thinking about how you can get your home ready for fall and colder weather. We start to crave a snug, cozy spot for winter.

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Inexpensive Home Decor Ideas To Spruce Up Your Space

Decorating your home can be both thrilling and daunting. I recommend decorating your home in a way that makes you feel great. Today we’re discussing a few ideas that can be adapted for many styles and don’t break the bank. Don’t feel like you have to adopt these ideas if they don’t resonate with you or work with your home. Finding unique ideas that feel like home will allow your space to truly reflect who you are as an individual. This list of home decoration suggestions might help to jump-start your journey to sprucing up your space.

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Create a Home That Supports Wellness

We are approaching the end of the year, a perfect time to re-evaluate and renew our lives and homes. Today I want to talk about stress. The holiday season which brings great joy also can bring great stress.  Many of us have so much responsibility, and often we feel overburdened.  We want it all – great home, family time, work, and personal growth.  Of course we do, but can we have it all at once?

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Tropical Anthurium

Anthuriums are herbaceous epiphytes native to tropical America, a genus of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay. 

 

 

Spectacular red spathes make Anthurium andreanum a popular houseplant. Most winters I have one to bring a bright spot of tropical beauty to my home.  Today I’m sharing just a few photos of the pretty red spathes or “flowers”.  The spathes can last more than a month.

 

 

 

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New Pink Anthurium

Anthurium is a genus of about 1,000 species of flowering plants, the largest genus of the arum family, Araceae. General common names include anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf. It is a subtropical bulb that belongs to the Amaryllidaceae family and is native to South Africa. It is grown as a potted plant in most parts of the United States but can also be grown outdoors year round in warm areas like Florida. Anthuriums are herbaceous epiphytes native to tropical America, a genus of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay.

 

If you have visited before, you know I fell in love with potted anthuriums about 5 years ago.  These potted plants in the winter give me a living plant and lots of beautiful blooms. The anthuriums do not really have flowers, but spathes which are a type of leaf.  The red anthurium is most common, and all I have previously owned.  This year I finally found a pink baby anthurium.  It is almost half the size of previous plants.  I have bought most of my anthuriums at the Publix flower department close to my home.  The local Winn Dixie also has a flower department which is smaller and often looks sad.  I have a problem with stores that sell potted plants and do not water them.  Winn Dixie is one of the worst. All sorts of plants were for sale and all had never been watered since last week easily.  The potting soil is bone dry and the plants are dying.  They had stocked many plants for Christmas and now had them 1/2 off.  Today I took a chance and chose one that looked like it could be revived. Unlike the plants I bought at Publix these do not come with a pretty white pot but have gift paper around them.

 

 

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Create An Inviting & Welcoming Home

Your home is your refuge. It is the environment that allows you to “relax, regroup, and reinforce the best of who you are.”  Today let’s  discuss tricks to create an inviting, cozy, super welcoming home for your family and your guests.  How to create a space that no one wants to leave?  Let’s begin with a few ideas from old posts and around the internet. 

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Easy to Grow Hanging Plants

It’s the beginning of a new year, and we are in the cold heart of winter.  If you miss being outside surrounded by living green plants, you might want to consider adding house plants to your home. According to design experts, trends for 2021 include adding live plants to your home. Plants are in again. It makes me sad to think they were ever out of fashion.

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A Red Begonia & A Gnome

With 1,831 species, Begonia is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. The species are terrestrial (sometimes epiphytic) herbs or undershrubs, and occur in subtropical and tropical moist climates, in South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia.  Begonia x hiemalis is a tuberous type, sometimes called Rieger or winter-flowering begonia. As a houseplant, they prefer a bright area, which is necessary for continued flowering. Keep them near a sunny window, but avoid direct sunlight.  Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 to 11, Rieger begonias are usually grown as houseplants. Many people buy them in the fall to have flowers in the home all winter.

 

 

A friend who spends half a year in Florida and half in New York decided to fly back to Florida despite the pandemic. She self-quarantined for 2 weeks. I was so happy to get her phone call; I’d really missed her.  We talked occasionally on the phone during the last 8 months but it’s not the same. We decided to get together keeping masks on and distancing. I had more fun in those 2 hours than I can ever tell you.  She surprised me with a pot of red begonias.  She knows I love flowers and said ‘I know you’ll take photos on put it on your blog.’  That is just what I am doing.  I put the pot of begonias on my wooden slab on the dining table.  It’s next to sliding glass doors and get lots of light. I added my little red gnome beside it. Read More