Power outage inspired decor

I knew it was coming.

I was driving home from a day of work yesterday, when the -17 windchill factor wind kicked into high gear. I cross through a flat lands area where the winds had picked up so much velocity, it was like a foggy dust storm with visibility pretty difficult.

It was one of those winds where you think your vehicle will be catapulted into the ditch, so I veered to the other side of the road in case I flipped.  :)

I picked up my son, then head home, eager to get in the warmth of the house. I had heard a lot of our city's power was already out and I winced as I drove home, hoping our lights would still be on. They were!

We knew the drill well. It was time to prepare. FAST.

First up was to locate the flashlight and candles and jack up the heat. My son lit the wood burning fireplace as I started up dinner in a real hurry. Meat defrosted in 7 minutes, the frying began.

And during one of my frenzied stirs,  the lights went out.

But it wasn't a complete blackout. All around me were lit candles my son had gone and lit beforehand, that accompanied stove flames dancing up around the base of the fry pan. Huh?!?

I had expected cooking on the stove top to come to a standstill. To my glee, I then remembered the wonders of a gas stove. It doesn't shut off until you shut it off! We may be cold in a few minutes, but by golly we'll have a warm meal! Giddy, we even heated up some water for my vanilla coffee and my son's hot chocolate. I felt so spoiled. :)

 picture source

And then we redecorated in the dark. The sofa was pushed right into the face of the fireplace, and along with plenty of blankets, we ate our piping hot dinner in the dark.  By roaring flame. :)

The cats found their way to our new sitting area and jumped up to join in the fun.  We enjoyed power going out kind of stories and shared what we did with our day. We simply had a fun yak fest all cozied up, with the howling wind and crackling fire as our background noise.

Bedtime came quickly for it was too dark to do much else. We piled on 5 quilts and my son had a sleepover so we could conserve the little heat we had to minimal rooms. To my surprise, it was honestly more toasty under the covers than in front of the fireplace! So bedtime became 9:00 pm for both of us.

And then the lights went on. My automated wall telephone told me so.

And yes. I got online to check on things and do some work and stayed up too late. Will I ever learn? :)

This AM, I shuffled through the living room upheaval. And that's when it hit me.

We had created a VERY cozy seating arrangement that I immediately fell in love with! All because the sofa was pushed in a different area.

So instead of the squishy messy wood chips galore scenario of power outage night, I cleaned up and slightly modified the look to create the cozy atmosphere we enjoyed last night.

The new arrangement does indeed restrict some things to be out of the picture, but for the short term, what a neat way to spend an evening of quiet chatter! Felt liners on the bottom of the sofa feet make scooting the sofa effortless. So... why not?

This is what's behind the couch for now. It was cleaned up to sell. But didn't sell today. Ah well. If any readers live in my area, it's for sale for a song. Email me! :) (signmakergirl@hotmail.com)

And then I took the opportunity to tweak a couple more areas.

 Lovin' the wide open clean spaces!

Now, in a perfect world, I would have liked to have been a tiny bit more prepared for the storm...

Power outage to-do list

• put your flashlights in a non-hunting spot... WITH working batteries. No hint there...
• keep the fire wood trunk FULL (that was a cccccold run!)
• stock up on tall fat candles (tea lights just don't cut it)
• get 2 extra fire starters (we went through two older ones and the matches got dumped in the sink water)

And just to show you how awfully spoiled we are, I gave my friend Gord my small generator awhile back but he didn't want to keep it just for himself. He tuned it up and told me to call if we landed a long spell of no power. He'd be right over and get our furnace going with it. How cool is that?!? ( you rock, Gord )

The power going out conjurers up some wonderful memories growing up as well. I lived on a 40 acre farm so when the lights went out, it was serious business. Dad needed the generator for the barn, so the house went without. And as a kid, I loved every second of it! While heavy ice storms had dangerous branches crashing down on the deep ice caked snow, we sat around the glowy candlelit kitchen table in our coats, playing family board games. How fun!

My son responded much the same way last night. "Mom, I've always wanted EVERY LIGHT out and we just sit like this!" Duly noted. We may have a self inflicted power outage on the weekend. It was downright fun. :)

The novelty of course wears off pretty quick when you get cold. However for the short term, it was a fun little adventure that gave you time for each other again.

And, I now have new ideas for how I'd like to arrange the living room too. If you look hard enough, there's always a DIY decorating reason for everything. :)

How do you hunker down when the power goes off?
Does it go off much for you?

Are you ready?