Cosy Cottage Christmas Reset - Easy Fireplace Makeover & Country Holiday Decorating Slow Living UK

The days feel different now, colder and darker. It's a sure sign that it's time to start getting my home ready for the Christmas season. Hello friends and welcome back to my home. Today I'm beginning my festive preparations. We're planning to put up the Christmas tree next week, so this feels like the perfect moment to reset the living room and prepare for this special time of the year. I'm overly excited for Christmas this year. I just want to make everything cozy, meaningful and focused on family. This is going to be our very first Christmas in our new home, in the little village in the English countryside we dreamed of. It feels special, almost magical, and I want to enjoy every moment of preparing for it. When it comes to cleaning and preparing our homes for Christmas, I think it's important to remember who we're doing it for. Ultimately it's for the people we love most and for ourselves. But it's so easy to forget that, especially when we spend too much time on social media, comparing our homes to perfectly staged spaces. I do love a clutter-free home, but over the years I've learned that it doesn't have to be perfectly clean. No one is going to check the dust on the top of the bookshelves. What they will notice is if you're tired, stressed or frustrated. A peaceful home always feels better than a perfect one. I kept saying all this time that I'd patiently wait for our real fireplace to be installed one day and that I wouldn't get anything in the meantime. But I caved completely and ended up bringing home this temporary fireplace and honestly it looks surprisingly lovely. I've shared my honest thoughts about it on the blog if anyone's interested. Yeah. Do you know what's for dinner today? Um, honestly I'm not sure. I think it might be chicken again. Okay. Yeah? Yeah. Jacob just came back from school and I was halfway through putting the garland on the mantel when it was time to go and pick up Rosa from her after-school club. We're having such a lovely, mild November so far. The seasons are shifting, many trees are already bare and you can smell the wood smoke from the chimneys. And even though the weather is pleasant, the wind is still chilly reminding us that we're heading towards winter. It always feels like winter arrives faster up here on the Quantock Hills. The landscape already looks so wintry, with bare trees and the fallen leaves turned brown. This ancient track is one of my most beloved places in the entire world and right now it has a special kind of calm. It's the perfect place to relax my nervous system as we head into the busiest time of the year in retail with our shop already gaining speed. Does putting up a garland even count if it doesn't fall at least once? I ended up sticking three mini hooks to secure it in place but honestly, next year I definitely need to get bigger hooks for this job. But even without it, my living room already feels festive. I have to admit I really love the fireplace. It adds so much warmth and brings that cozy cottage feel into my home. Thank you for watching and I hope to see you over on the blog.