Have you ever stopped and looked at the things that you surround yourself with? We had our insurance agent come over for an inspection for our home owner's insurance policy. He commented several times about how he liked our decoration ideas. I am not the type of person that picks a theme or style and actively decorates around it, rather I display things that have been given to me or that I have bought while traveling. After the agent left I walked around our home and objectively looked at the rooms. I realized that I had done a good job of grouping things together, but I thought I could use some new decoration ideas.

A friend of mine has a daughter that is going to school for interior design. She had mentioned that she is always moving things around the house and is trying to get her mother to try innovated decoration ideas. I called my friend to see if the two of them could come to lunch and give me some pointers.

My friend and her daughter had been to my home numerous times over the years. I was surprised when the daughter told me that it was partly due to our home that she went into interior design. She said that she always liked my decoration ideas and how I changed them with the seasons.

My mother had always changed the decorations in the house I grew up in based on the seasons and I had done the same thing. I thought everyone did this, but according to my friend and her daughter there are many people that only decorate for the Christmas holidays and leave the other decorations the same for the remainder of the year. I said that this would be boring to me. I do not switch out wall hangings, but I do have a variety of pillows that I put out for the different seasons. I also have fall decorations that I put out. In the summer I have shells that we have collected that I use in a large glass bowl as a center piece on the table.

I also change the colors of the candles that I have setting out. I told my friend and her daughter that my decoration ideas had come from my mother. I find that homes that have themes to them lack warmth. It makes me feel that I am in a department store looking at displays. My friend's daughter said that she would not change anything in our rooms and asked if she could use some of my decoration ideas for a class project. This was a great compliment; my rooms will stay as they are until the changing of the seasons.