We all love to feel special, cared for and fussed over. Every day we take great care of everyone else, but have we taken care of ourselves? We pack lunches with love, organize closets so the kids can find their clothes easily, clean and organize the house and decorate the home. Today it's your turn! Every day, begin to schedule a few activities that are designed to pamper and treat you like a queen. A few stylish gestures and stolen moments will help you create a more glamorous home and a more luxurious lifestyle - a home that has been designed to give you the royal treatment. Start by spicing up your lingerie.
Spray your favorite cologne onto a bookmark-size piece of fancy paper and place in your underwear drawer. You can also use perfume samples found in magazines or department stores, fancy soaps, herbal tea bags or little sash bags filled with fresh lavender from your garden. Every time you open the drawer you'll enjoy a little whiff of luxury. Paint the walls of your favorite room with a dark burgundy, rich red or handsome purple-coloured paint. Dark-coloured rooms envelope us with luxury and surround us with a sense of opulence. Go ahead - after all, it's only paint. Light a fire and curl up in front of it with a good book. But first, lay down a fur rug and a couple of down-filled floor pillows. If a real fur rug is not in the royal budget, pick up a few yards of faux mink or lynx from your local fabric store. Bind the edges and roll out the red carpet (or the black mink). Today, faux furs look and feel almost has good as the real thing. Design one room, or even a small corner of another room, just for you.
Take advantage of a great view or create a cozy corner where you can just sit and relax for a few savory moments or flip through the papers of a favorite fashion magazine. Lay the groundwork with an area carpet to help define your space, a comfy chair or chaise, an end table on which to keep a vase of fresh flowers or an orchid (orchids are very fragrant and remarkably easy to grow), a framed photo of a special moment or loved one and a glass of wine. On the arm of the chair lay a cashmere throw (treat yourself) and a down pillow for extra comfort. Now sit, close your eyes, keep the world at bay, and reminisce about yesterday and dream of tomorrow.
Being perfectly organized can make you feel like a princess. Treat yourself to some beautiful decorative boxes and organize one closet. Every time you open the closet doors you'll smile at how pretty it looks and at how regal one feels when one knows exactly where everything is. Keeping one's house in order is true luxury. Take a bubble bath. Fill a crystal decanter with your favorite bath oil or bubble bath and set it on a lacquer tray tub side. Add French milled soap, a couple of Egyptian cotton wash clothes, a champagne flute and vessels of essential oil (peppermint for invigoration, pine to lift your spirits or jasmine to calm and soothe). Fill the glass with some bubbly (champagne or ginger ale) and your tub with water. Soak your way to luxury. Add framed inspiration to your desktop.
Take a favorite quote or proverb handwritten with gold ink (metallic pens can be found at any card shop or office supply store) on high quality embossed paper and place it in a wonderful frame. I have framed "words of inspiration" throughout my house, from the office to the bath to the bar. You never know where you'll find one of my frames of inspiration. We all need to spend a little more time on ourselves. We deserve to be pampered and to be treated like princesses. It appears obvious, but most of my friends do not take the time to treat themselves special. We all dream of living the life of luxury but, in reality, it is not going to happen unless we make it happen. Take a few minutes a day and enjoy life and all its luxuries - indulge!
HEADING OUT OF TOWN
Don’t fret about having to find someone to come in and take care of your plants simply thread a needle with a thick piece of yarn and plunge it deep into the soil. Place the other end of the yarn in a bowl of water. The soil will draw in the water, which travels up the yarn; bring moisture to the plants roots.
THIS AND THAT
It’s time for the flannel sheets, but what exactly is flannel? Wool and cotton combine to make flannel, an ideal bedding material for these cold Canadian winter nights.
Cheryll Gillespie is a nationally syndicated Design and Décor columnist.
