Hey all you Pillow Fluffers! If you are getting ready to fluff up your nest for the holidays (and who among us, may I ask, isn’t considering a little timely fluffing?), it is time to do a quick once-over on your home decor before you bring out the Christmas decorations! If you are like me, you work best on a deadline. Just knowing all the friends and relatives are heading over makes me jump into action. Somehow I can manage to finish a room in record time if guests are on their way. Decisions become much clearer when you don’t have all the time in the world to think about them. Corners become much easier to clean when I just have to grab and stash in a hurry. Yep, deadlines work wonders for my productivity.

I had to laugh about a fellow design blogger’s opportunity to be featured in a magazine with only a few days of warning. I wasn’t laughing about the opportunity, but about the few days warning. Joni from Cote de Texas and I suffer from the same disease I call Magazine Cover-itis, which basically means your artistic eye WISHES your house looked like the cover of a magazine, but you just can’t keep it looking that way in real life. No one can! It is unbelievable what you can do to get that magazine cover look if a cameraman is headed over, never mind the relatives!

Check out Cote de Texas Joni’s blog to see her beautiful home (I brought over a sneak peek photo, above, to whet your appetite! And look at those dogs! They are posing for sure!). Be sure to congratulate her on the magazine, and read her account of how it all went down! I was drooling, she has a wonderful home (and I know it was absolutely beautiful even before her mad dash to fluff it up)!

Well, the time has come for us procrastinators to start fluffing! We need to whip together our homes in a hurry. If you are wanting to give your room some quick updates, check out HGTV’s top 25 decorating mistakes. Most of them seem reasonable to me, what do you think? They may have missed a thing or two, but it is a helpful resource to apply to your own home, just to make sure you haven’t unknowingly committed any deadly decorating sins.

photo from HGTV online

The other thing I do right before holiday decorating is a take a box and go room by room to gather up excess stuff that I can put away until after the holidays. I don’t have a lot of knick knacks, but if I have random things smaller than an artichoke, or unnecessary clutter, I might stash them away in a box so my holiday decorations can take center stage. Then, let the holiday decorating begin!

I’ll give you my pared down holiday decorating ideas and what I do in a separate post. Meanwhile, start fluffing!

PS. The photo here from HGTV shows great ideas for updating your mantle. The website shows additional ideas, but I really like this one and have used it before for clients. Most people hang pictures or mirrors above the fireplace, but oftentimes simply setting your pictures on the shelf and leaning them back gives a much more updated and stylish look! Notice the layering going on there. Very chic!

Oh, and one last PS. I got a wonderful package from Pat at Back Porch Musings. I won her giveaway and everything is perfect for me! I am so excited! I have to tell you, the sachet she included is DIVINE! The company that makes it is called Hill House Naturals. I went to their website to find it for you and while I couldn’t find the exact item, I did find the scent (Fresh Pumpkin) in other products. Check it out! You can order online and I guarantee you the scent is scrumptious! I wish I had smell-a-blog so you could experience it! Thanks Pat, I love it all!