Sarah Richardson's Ideas for Celebrating Christmas in the City

I adore Sarah Richardson's decorating and have written about it frequently. I spent some time recently reading articles and watching interviews and holiday shows to find out how she decorates for Christmas.  I was curious to know what ideas the very stylish Sarah uses that might inspire us as well. 

Sarah and her husband and two daughters sometimes spend Christmas at their home in Toronto and sometimes at their farmhouse in the country.  Sarah is a firm believer in decorating to suit your location. Today we will look at her tips and tricks for Christmas in the city and in my next post (which you can read here) we look at Christmas in the country.

LESS IS MORE
Sarah definitely keeps it simple.  She decorates the tree, adds a few decorations to the mantel, puts fresh flowers on the table, and calls it done.  She does not decorate the entire house.

Hello! Canada, January 2008, via Sarah Richardson Design

The Globe and Mail 2011

Apart from the two silver conical Christmas trees on a chest in the back corner of the room, you almost wouldn't know her dining room was decorated for Christmas.

Hello! Canada, January 2008, via Sarah Richardson Design

ADD THE UNEXPECTED
The square wreaths on the front door add a modern touch to all the natural elements like the wood pile and evergreen boughs in the planters.

Canadian House and Home

ADD A LITTLE SPARKLE

Decorating in the city definitely lends itself to using a little more sparkle, reflective surfaces, and mirrors.  Some of Sarah's favourite ornaments are the clear glass ones with a bit of frosting that she purchased years ago from a discount store.  

HGTV

The Globe and Mail

PUT A BOA ON THAT

One of the more unusual items Sarah uses in decorating for Christmas are feather boas.  She used one wrapped around an LED wreath on the front of her house.

HGTV

And she used feather boas as a series of wreaths on the wall and as garlands on the stairs and the fireplace in this Design Inc Season 3 Holiday episode.

     

EMBRACE UNCONVENTIONAL COLOURS
Sarah doesn't like to decorate with the traditional Christmas colours of red or green.  Instead she selects colours that suit the location.  According to Sarah, decorating in the city calls for bold, vivid colours.  She embrace unconventional colours like hot pink, orange, turquoise, and apple green.

HGTV

HGTV

The Globe and Mail

SARAH'S THOUGHTS ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Sarah's Christmas tree of choice is a Fraser fir (similar to a Balsalm fir) which has short soft needles.  She always gets a real tree and one that is as big as possible.  She does not usually use a tree topper mostly because there isn't room for one, but also because she hasn't found one she loves. Sarah also believes in using tons of white lights on the tree.  She takes on the job of putting the lights on the tree and makes sure to put lights close to the trunk and around the back of the tree.  Sarah and her husband decorate the tree while drinking champagne and listening to the Messiah.

SARAH'S THOUGHTS ON ENTERTAINING

For Sarah, once the house is decorated it is time to open the doors and entertain family and friends.  Every year Sarah and her husband throw a Christmas party for over 200 people.  The key to entertaining, according to Sarah, is to create warmth - light up the tree, group candles together to set the mood, and turn on the music.

TABLESETTING TIPS
Sarah likes to look at each place setting as a party outfit for the table.  Try unusual pairings of colours like red and pink, instead of the usual red and green. Mix up the dinnerware by combining antique plates with modern Wedgewood plates.  Add personal touches to the table, such as using a name threaded on the stem of a flower as a place card.

Food and Drink Magazine, 2005 via Sarah Richardson Design

ENTERTAINING FOOD TIPS
Sarah likes to use white serving dishes as they are classic, inexpensive, go with everything, and make the food look great.  She believes that presentation of the food is important - don't forget colourful garnishes or serving veggies in glassware.  Also, make sure you have something for everyone to eat - from sweet treats to healthy fruit and veggies.

HGTV

And finally, here are two recipes that Sarah makes for her Christmas party - Pecan Puffs and Spiced Nuts.

Candy and Cakes

SARAH'S PECAN PUFFS (source)
1 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbsp. brown sugar (like Demerara)
2 Cups pecans
2 Cups cake flour, sifted
icing sugar for dusting

1. Add pecans to food processor. Puree until well ground and fine, almost to the consistency of pecan butter.

2. Add butter and brown sugar to food processor and mix until mixture appears frothy.

3. Add vanilla and mix again.

4. Add flour a little at a time, pulsing food processor between additions. Resulting mixture should appear as a thick paste.

5. Chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes until firm, then scoop out small amounts of dough and roll into balls.

6. Place balls on a non-stick baking sheet (they can be close together as the dough does not expand much when cooking).

7. Bake at 300 degrees for about 35 - 45 minutes, depending on the size of balls. Remove from oven when slightly golden on the outside.

8. Transfer carefully to a cooling rack while still warm (best to use your fingers so you don’t crush the cookies with a spatula), then use a flour sifter to dust icing sugar over the top of the cookies while warm. Allow to cool completely, and dust again.

Canadian House and Home

SARAH'S SPICED NUTS (source)

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and 1/4 cup cane sugar (like Demerara) in a pan over low-medium heat.

3.  Sprinkle in 1 teaspoon each of cumin, paprika, cayenne, and salt.  Mix well.

4.  Add 1 cup each of almonds and pecans, stirring to coat.  Cook until mixture becomes sticky (at least 5 minutes).

5.  Turn nuts out onto a baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until crunchy.  Let cool and serve at room temperature.

Chatelaine Holiday 2008 via Sarah Richardson Design

I love the simplicity of Sarah's decorating for Christmas in the city - it is about the sparkle, the unexpected, bolder colours, the tree, and time with family and friends.  What a great combination!

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Today is Bouquet Day

So here's how arranging the bouquet went this week...

I bought some chrysanthemums at the grocery store because they are inexpensive and I wanted to offset the cost of buying a bigger bunch of flowers next week for my second annual Christmas craft party that I have for my art class.  I selected some pretty chrysanthemums that look like mini-sunflowers and then decided to pair them with my sunflower tablecloth from France.  Brilliant ... except the yellow of the flowers didn't match the yellow in the tablecloth.  Right, so I switched the sunflower tablecloth for a yellow and white striped placemat. That looked great.  I took some pictures and then looked at last week's bouquet - yep, yellow flowers with a yellow and white tablecloth.  Nope, that won't do.  I can't have those pictures side-by-side on my Pinterest Bouquet Board, which is pretty much my selection criterion when I buy the flowers.  Solving the problem involved an emergency trip to the grocery store while Jonathan was cooking the pizza to buy more chrysanthemums to mix things up a bit.  I selected some deep purpley-pink chrysanthemums this time.  I ironed another tablecloth and changed the vase and stood back to admire.  Ah Perfection!  

The tablecloth I used was bought at a thrift store.  I love the simple embroidery and the cheery flowers.  The thing that makes me smile is how many different shades of green and even brown they used on the stems and leaves. It's like they wanted to use up every scrap in their embroidery basket.

Chrysanthemums are such a versatile flower.  They come with little round heads or daisy shapes or layers of petals like the traditional blossoms or even weird spidery versions.  They are such a long lasting cut flower.  I remember when I was living in the Netherlands as an exchange student for a year when I was 17 we went down to see the flower auctions and they gave us each a bouquet of chrysanthemums to take home.  I gave the flowers to my host mother.  She changed the water and trimmed the stems and four weeks later the chrysanthemums were still going strong although the leaves were looking a little worse for wear by then so she asked if we could get rid of them.  Secretly I wanted to keep them and see how long the flowers would last, but it was her home so I gave her permission to dispose of them.  But really four weeks is phenomenal.

Chrysanthemums are a humble flower and not one of the popular ones like hydrangeas and roses, but they have their charms.  Do you like them?

Oh, and did you know that the Flower of the Month for November is chrysanthemums.  Perfect timing, no?

Easy Advent Calendar Roll

It's that time again - time to make advent calendars and get them in the mail so they can be enjoyed by the younguns off at university.  Given the age of our children I just go right for chocolate and don't bother with other little treats.  A daily dose of chocolate is just what the doctor ordered at this stressful time of the school year.

I wanted to create an advent calendar that was both simple to make and easy to send in the mail.  I came up with a design that reminds me of little girl's smocked dresses and reminds my husband of intestines - so you take your pick.  Either way it fits the requirements and will be appreciated by the kids.

Each advent calendar required the following:
-- 4 sheets of tissue paper
-- 24 round-shaped candy or chocolates
-- string or ribbon cut into 9 or 10 inch lengths

Step 1:
Lay twelve of the chocolates across the middle lengthwise of the tissue paper.  I used a double thickness of tissue paper so it would withstand the rolling.

Step 2:
Fold in the sides of the tissue paper over the end chocolates.  Then fold the tissue paper roughly in half lengthwise over the chocolates

Step 3:
Roll the chocolates inside the tissue paper toward the open end.

Step 4:
Tie the middle and the ends of the roll.   You can feel the chocolates through the tissue paper which helps you find the middle of the roll.  You can also gently move the chocolates along if they are bunched up.

Step 5:
Tie string between each of the chocolates.

  
You can leave the rolls as they are or you can tie bows around the ends and hang them up. Since there are only twelve chocolates in a roll, each child gets two rolls.  I made them all different colours - purple, turquoise, red, and green.  

You can also check out my Advent Calendar Pinterest page or my advent calendars from previous years for inspiration:

Easy advent calendar

Advent calendar ball

Mailable advent calendar

Are you making an advent calendar this year?  I've seen so many cute ones around blogland this year.  I swear they are getting cuter every year.


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Today is Bouquet Day

It has finally happened!  There are no more flowers to be picked from the garden - the frost took the last of them a few days ago.  Which means I will have to rely on the grocery store from now until spring. 

the last flower from the garden on our sideboard

Yesterday I bought a bouquet of yellow freesia when I was getting some milk.  Don't you love freesia.  They have such pretty complex flowers arranged along their stem and they come in such a variety of gorgeous colours.  Fortunately the store only had a few colours or I might still be there trying to chose which ones to buy.

The bouquet came with lots of fern leaves, but I separated them and added the fern leaves to the blue salvia that we had on the table all last week and is still going strong.

I paired the freesia with one of my favourite thrift store tablecloths (do I say that every week?)  I have a collection of different gingham cloths - yellow, beige, brown, navy, red - and I love how they look on the table.  This one has been used a lot and has a few spots, but I still love it.

I'm not sure why, but looking at my Bouquet Day pictures side-by-side on my Pinterest Bouquet Day board makes me ridiculously happy.  I love seeing the progression of flowers that have bloomed in the garden and the pairing of the different colours of flowers with the tablecloths. Almost nobody visits this board so I feel like it is my secret place, just for my own enjoyment (which I'm sharing with all of you). 

Gallery Wall

I know, I know, I can't believe it either. I finally got the gallery wall done I've been yakking about for a couple of years now.   The family room looks much more complete with something on that wall.  I'm thinking we can add to the sides and keep taking over the whole wall with pictures (kind of like a fungus - only prettier).

Here's what we hung on the wall:

-- two photos I took, one of baskets of seeds and grains at a market in Bangladesh and the lower one of the interior of Rouen Cathedral in Normandy, France

-- a photo I took of the cliffs at Étretat in Normandy, France

-- a photo of a half-timbered house in Rouen, France

-- a painting of Ritchie Falls that I did this past summer.

-- an art print taken by my friend Kat Warren from Low Tide High Style (by the way, do you want to know the most recent photo of Kat's that I'm obsessed with - check out this blog post and go down to the last photo.  Gorgeous, right?)

-- and finally two paint-by-numbers I found at a thrift store last year.

There you have it - a tour of our gallery wall. I think I'm going to change the waterfall picture when I paint new ones that I like so we have a rotating display.  I just glued a hook on the back and hung the canvas up which will make it easy to change it with new paintings.

 And here is what that poor wall looked like in all its nakedness before the gallery wall.

Have you jumped on the gallery wall bandwagon?  


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