Preparing your home for holiday hosting can be a joyful process. Breaking out the festive decor helps set the stage for cozy gatherings and memorable moments. And you don’t need to do anything major!
Discover how to create a welcoming environment with some simple décor tips. And if you’re not hosting this year, we also have a few thoughtful gift ideas for the host or hostess so you can show your appreciation for their efforts. Continue Reading
Christmas is a few short weeks away, and we love the high energy and excitement, as well as the warm, cozy feelings we get in the magical time before the miraculous day. We are really enjoying the trend in recent years of using lots of winter accents and greens, ensuring an easy and seamless transition when it’s time to take the tree down and pack up the holiday trimmings. Continue Reading
Both a timeless accessory and a Piper Classics favorite, the traditional glass Mason Jar is not only affordable and functional — it just so happens to also be the perfect accent to tie together almost any style of rustic vintage farmhouse decor.
The race to create this new method of food storage actually began in 1795, with a request by none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. But it wasn’t until 1858, when the Philadelphia tinsmith John Landis Mason invented and patented his namesake glass jar, that canning jars as we know and recognize them today entered the commercial landscape. Continue Reading
If you think the Christmas in July idea is a clever marketing tactic devised by retailers in recent years, you’d be 100% wrong!! Believe it or not, this concept has actually been around for 89 years!! Who knew?! It is true, of course, that it has become a much bigger phenomenon than it was in the early days, but it’s actually had a lot of years to grow.
” According to legend, Christmas in July was first celebrated at a summer camp in 1933, when Keystone Camp in Brevard, N.C. decided to dedicate two days (July 24 and 25) to the holiday—complete with fake cotton snow, a decked-out tree, a gift exchange, and, of course, Santa.” (See the full story in Southern Living’s How Christmas in July started.)
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By the time February rolls around, that cozy feeling we get when we snuggle up by the fire for a long winter’s night is wearing thin!! The long, ice-cold evenings and short, dismal days of this season are losing their appeal. Daylight is in short supply, the outside world is a slushy wasteland, and we’re inside feeling cooped up, irritable, lethargic and depressed.
Welcome to the world of cabin fever.
Cabin fever may not be a psychiatric diagnosis, but it is a real thing, clinical psychologist Joel Klapow told TIME magazine in 2014.
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For years now, people have been talking about the concept of “hygge” that is very central to the people in Denmark.
As the country’s official tourism website explains, the term hygge — pronounced “hue-ga” — roughly translates to “coziness,” but there’s so more to it than that: “Hygge means creating a warm atmosphere that promotes happiness and security; enjoying the good things in life with good people. The warm glow of candlelight is hygge. Friends and family – that’s hygge too.”
We think the Danes have the right idea. This can be a bleak time of year. The sun goes down while most of us are still at work, and the world outside can seem like a white and grey desert for weeks at a time. Continue Reading
