Sunday Afternoon Tea - Why I find decorating to be important to the soul

I never did make it here to write yesterday.  This record breaking (for how long it has lasted) September heat wave brought with it a return of pollen of the type that brings misery to my head.  My right eye is swollen and very sensitive to light and yes... the retinal specialist will receive a call in the morning.

I decided this past week that rather than get annoyed over the unseasonably hot weather, I would go ahead and decorate for Fall.  I no longer keep a lot of Fall decorations so what I have is what I really like.  I sent some to charity and gave decorations to friends that I thought they might like.  As I placed the items in various rooms and tweaked them over a couple of days, the enjoyment from their addition to my home was far beyond the small amount of work involved in the process.

The photo above shows the sideboard and the Autumnal assembling of items there.  I started it one day and added more layers the next day.  The sideboard is the one place in the house that gets changed quite often, especially as the seasons change. Although, I recently purchased a lamp at Goodwill that may reside there.  We will see... 

I borrowed the stoneware pitcher from the Family Room to hold the bouquet of Sweet Annie purchased on my Mental Health day a week ago.  Its' scent is one of my favorites and always reminds me of Fall.  Some people are allergic to the pollen in it but I never noticed it bothering me.  The stoneware pitcher will be returned to its' permanent location with the Sweet Annie in it eventually.

Tucked in various places in a few rooms now are the Fall accessories.  They are stored the rest of the year in a fairly small Rubbermaid style tub with a tight lid on the shelves next to the washing machine in the garage, where it is easy to place the small tub back on a shelf when removing the Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving.

Sometime this week, I will light a Fall scented candle and dust off one of the pretty candle warmers to enjoy the scent elsewhere.  I have dozens of Fall scent wax "cubes" and such purchased over time... mostly from Goodwill.  It seems they were very popular and then people stopped using them and gave both the "cubes" and the candle warmers to charity.

Favorite Autumnal food aromas will fill the house once it is cooler.  When the heat index is in the 90s, I prefer not to turn the oven on or simmer pots of soup on the stove.  Cooler weather will also bring out my favorite bread machine recipe and perhaps the index card that has the favorite family pumpkin pie recipe written on it.

This may seem like a lot of work but accomplished a little at a time, it really doesn't take much effort.  Starting many years ago, I downsized all seasonal decorations so that decorating the home was not a burden.  That would defeat the purpose since I want to create a peaceful and cozy atmosphere.

There was a time when I almost stopped doing any kind of seasonal decorating.  Why bother when we no longer have children living at home and the days of spending hours preparing a meal for a crowd are long gone.  Why decorate when it is just two of us and a cat most of the time?  Is it worth creating Beauty when our days are so far from perfect?

Then one day, I had a sort of epiphany that even if I were the only person enjoying it (and I'm not), it would be worth the continuation of creating Beauty in the home.  We who are molded in the image of a Creator need to be surrounded by Beauty.  I consider the art of homemaking the best kind of Art.

Whether it is creating a warm and cozy environment in our house or creating beautiful garden space outdoors... we were born to make the world around us more beautiful than when we found it.  That is the original gift of Eden.

What if we can no longer do everything we once enjoyed?  If we wait for perfect circumstances, they never arrive.  I can no longer garden but there was Beauty on and around the porch this year and it continues as I write.  Old and dying flowers were freshened with a couple pots of new flowers.  When it finally turns cool for good, I hope to add a couple copper and golden mum plants.

If I had waited for perfect circumstances, I would have missed the opportunity to read a book on the Kindle with a cup of seasonal tea, a candle lit providing the scent of pumpkins and apples, dulcimer music coming from the CD player, and the beauty of a few Fall decorations here and there all coming together to create an overall lovely affect of... home in the season of Fall.

Photo:  Instagram @coffeeteabooksandme