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Friday, February 24, 2017

Let's Get Cozy!

While I was on vacation I was inspired by Arhaus Furniture to do a blog post on how I transition from Holiday décor, to cozy winter décor.  There's so many warm and cozy ideas for the living room that can help us get through these last few months before spring arrives.  

Today I'm connecting with Amy's Five on Friday link party and sharing

Five Ways I cozy-up our living room for winter, after the Holiday season.

Living in Indiana, after the Holidays, we still have a couple of gray months of weather.  It still gets dark pretty early in the evening, we have very little sunshine, and it's cold outside.
So for me, cozy alludes to an atmosphere of warm and comfy,
and doing things I enjoy...inside!

I think of
fires in fireplaces,
or the glow of lamps or candles,
warm drinks,
or a glass of wine,
books,
magazines,
linens, yarn, blankets and afghans,
old movies,
snuggling  under cozy blankets....  

So, when I "cozy-up" a room I surround myself with those kinds of things. 
Things I enjoy,
things I love,
warm-comfy things.


ONE
Lighting
We have a fire in our fireplace nightly.   The fireplace is in our den,
but we open the French doors between the den and the living room, and you can see it from both rooms.
  Sconce lights add a cozy atmosphere to the rooms.
We have little battery operated candle lights that are on timers (they actually came that way) and we have them set to come on at dusk and turn off at dawn.
 And we have several small lamps scattered around our house that we turn on for atmosphere, and sometimes use as night lights.
I think lighting is important to obtain a cozy atmosphere, whether you use a fireplace, candles, or sconce lights. 

. TWO
Warm drinks and seasonal mugs!

I  put away the Christmas mugs,
and I set out the spring-like mugs.

I make rich vanilla latte's, dark hot chocolate, black silk coffee, or English black tea for a
warm cozy drink in an adorable seasonal mug.
How can you not feel cozy and comfy with a warm drink in your hand?

THREE
Books and Magazines

I never go anywhere without a book or a magazine or both, and I have them in every room in our home.  There is something about the covers of real books, with real pages, and pretty covers.
During the holidays I have a lot of Christmas cookbooks out, I read Christmas novels during November and December, and I look through a plethora of Christmas magazines for decorating ideas.

We have this bookshelf behind our sitting area, in the living room.

It is now holding summer beach reads,  crafty and garden books.   I use some of the books that  have nice covers for decorating.  A stack of beach reads or garden books make you feel like spring is right around the corner.
   
Our sitting area.
 

Besides the bookshelf behind the big green chair, I have a tray with magazines on it, and a basket with  magazines on the coffee table.

FOUR
Yarn, linens, blankets, afghans
(or fiber - not the edible kind)

I love to use linens, quilts and afghans to change the look and feel of a room.

Christmas season
Now

When I crochet for the holidays, I am usually making Christmas items out of red, green, or white  colored yarn.  After the holidays I pull out beachy, spring-like yarn for my projects. 

Beachy colors....
I have afghans and blankets in the same beachy springy colors, to freshen up the room, and lift my mood!
Bright colors 
Spring colors,

I've been buying linens at rummage sales for several years.
I think it's one of the quickest ways to change the looks of a room.

So here is our couch, which I love by the way.  It's so comfortable, it makes into a bed, and it matches just about anything. 
But if you want to do a quick change to the look of it...
(make the dog get in his bed and off the couch for starters!)
throw a bedspread or a quilt over it, linens over the coffee table, and you have a brighter room that will help get you through the gray dark days of winter!
This will also prolong the life of the couch, especially if you use it as often as we do.


I like to layer linens. 
And yes, you could buy a slipcover for the couch, but a bedspread bought from a garage sale works just as well, is inexpensive, and has dual purpose! 

 FIVE
Flowers and plants.
I love them...PERIOD
The flowers are are called "manager's special" at one of our local grocery stores.  They are usually anywhere from $1.99 to $5.99 and if you cut the stems and freshen the water daily, they will last a week or two.

So, when I take a warm drink in a seasonal mug, and snuggle up in a spring colored afghan, on my comfy couch, and take some time out for myself to read or crochet, then I'm cozy!
  And that's where all of my ideas come together, for the living room.

 Here are some cozy, warm and inviting pictures, all taken in our living room,
using the five things that I think help cozy up a room.  


  




















I hope you enjoyed this post.  I'm going to turn on the fireplace, snuggle up on the couch with my dog, a good book and some hot chocolate. It's getting cold here again.
Don't forget to say hi to other bloggers at Love Made my Home. 
Just click on Five on Friday and you will be taken to the list of bloggers who also joined the link party.

Have a great weekend, and if I may ask,
How do you cozy up your living room for the winter season?

Cindy

By the way, I am not receiving a stipend from Arhaus, nor am I advertising for them, nor are they advertising for me!  These are my pictures, my furniture, and my living room! 
My dog isn't getting paid for posing for these pictures either!  He didn't actually pose.  He's spoilt and lazy and spends a lot of time laying around and happened to get in a few pics!

17 comments:

  1. I love how you enhance the season with your accessories.

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  2. Sure looks cozy - your dog is adorable

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  3. Great ideas here, Cindy, thank you. I love firelight and candlelight and use tealights in the evenings; we have one set of holders which we use just at Christmas, another for the rest of October-Easter and another for Easter-October. Blankets and shawls are out (and in use) through the cold months. And I'm totally with you on the hot drinks. Happy weekend. x

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  4. Great post, love how you've brightened everything up. Those afghans are just gorgeous. How nice to have that wall of windows. Our family room is bright, but our living room is so dark.

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  5. The vanilla lattes sound fantastic, just the thing to cozy up by the fire with :)

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  6. Cindy, you clearly have that whole winter cozy thing down! Your home looks so inviting, visitors probably never want to leave (a blessing and a curse?)! I saw from your comment at Sugar's blog that you're interested in making a homemade fruitcake, so I wanted to let you know I posted my own family recipe November 17.

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  7. It looks very cosy and warm. Flowers are a perfect antidote to the grey months and a good reminder of better months to come.

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  8. Looks wonderful Cindy! As always I love your home and decor! How can I sign back on my blog? Any ideas? I have not posted for so long it says I don't own it? But I still comment under it. Totally confused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is what came up when I googled it, but you're really asking the wrong person! I'm apparently a no-reply blogger and I never used to be. I went to fix it today, and it shows that I'm NOT a no-reply blogger! I don't get it. I just float through! Lol
      Ok so here's what I found....
      During routine maintenance, a number of users were signed-out from their Google accounts. If you were affected, please sign back in using your usual username and password at https://accounts.google.com. If you can’t remember your password or can’t sign in for another reason, recover your account password here.

      Delete
    2. Oh my goodness, I used to receive answers from comments by e-mail and did not received this. I just scrolled through remembering that I had asked you if you knew what I should do and found that you had answered. And guess what?!! I followed your instructions and I am indeed logged back on my blog. Maybe, just maybe I will get a post ups about something, what I don't know this weekend. Lol. Thanks so much! Your a peach!

      Delete
    3. Brenda, I can't believe it. I'm just now seeing this reply from you. Are you blogging again? I hope so!!!

      Delete
  9. I have so enjoyed seeing how you change your cozy wintery decorating into something colourful and cheery for Spring. Love your Spring mugs set out (esp that bunny one) and ready for all that seasonal reading material now on your shelves and table tops. A lovely visit -- thank you.

    Wishing you a beautiful week ahead...
    Brenda


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  10. I hope this finds you and yours doing well. May we display your linked header on our new site directory, SiteHoundSniffs.com? As it is now, the site title (linked back to its home page) is listed, and we think displaying the header will attract more attention.

    If you are concerned about us being up to no good, please do a Google search for SiteHoundSniffs (with or without the .com). The results should prove that this is meant to be a very good thing.

    Specifically, what we are wanting to do is take a screenshot of your header and display it (linked back to the homepage) in place of the text-link. If you will visit SiteHoundSniffs.com, it should be easy to see how having a displayed header makes an individual site more attractive to visitors and SiteHoundSniffs look better. You do not have to do a thing but grant permission. There is absolutely no charge, nor will there ever be.

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  11. Cindy, I love all your windows. No one should be cold at your house....all those pretty afghans. I love open windows and sunlight. You have a beautiful home. Blessings, xoxo, Susie

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  12. Hi Cindy, Loved the home tour, your mantel is amazing and all the windows . . . they bring in so much light and what a lovely view, too. That one photo of your dog stretched out in front of the fireplace is wonderful . . . it put a smile on my face. Enjoy our "cuppa" in that cute bunny mug . . . Happy Spring, almost, LOL.
    Connie :)

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  13. I am sorry to be late visiting, but I wanted to wait until the link had closed and I could write to everyone who had taken part. Thank you so much for your support of Five On Friday this week and in the weeks gone by. I do so appreciate it and have really enjoyed reading your posts. I hope that you will enjoy going to the new link up just as much and will continue to take part. I hope that I will still see you at my blog sometimes, I will of course still be visiting you sometimes too! Best wishes and many thanks.

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  14. Hello,Bee lady.
    You are making such a cozy room with your precious goods! Those white furniture and afghans are beautiful. The fireplace looks wonderful!I see your cat always know the best place to sit. That big fan must be helpful in summer time!Lets enjoy our new season. Happy spring!

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Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment on my blog. I enjoy reading them. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Cindy