Wednesday, December 17, 2008

alternative christmas

creating environments is at the core of my passion...so when it's time for christmas i feel excited and open for new, nontraditional ways of expressing the joy of the season. this year as i set out to create environments at home and ginghamsburg i hear these words: everything you need you already have.

since mid november i've been soaking in alternative christmas environments. natural, ordinary elements gathered in non-traditional ways with an aspect of surprise on the side. i visited anthropologie - always a favorite spot for collections of natural pieces integrated in totally alternative ways.


during the thanskgiving holiday i spent two hours at a new favorite haunt in the iowa countryside called "sisters." i was so inspired i took pics: cuttings from nature + repurposed discards + new cool pieces. a delicious combination.


fast forward to my own home for the holidays. my self-inflicted rules: no traditional tree + no new purchases (i'm a horrible consumer.) my goal: to reflect a more sudan-esque and a less "north pole" feel. bunches of twigs, bittersweet, grapevine, pine needles and landscape burlap later an alternative christmas theme emerged... and i discovered that everything i needed i already had.

3 comments:

  1. really inspiring. time to dig through the basement.

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  2. I love that you see what's beautiful in what others might consider trash. Not unlike the Father....Merry Christmas Kim.

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  3. thanks lisa - you are right about God's ability to see treasure amongst our trash. that concept is not only a life theme for my design work, it actually gets me excited like you can't believe. thanks for bringing it up!

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