The Stuff of Life

The most memorable weddings are those that tell a story. The same is true of our homes. In her new book, The Stuff of Life, interiors stylist Hilary Robertson shares stunning images and thoughtful insights on our possessions, and what they reveal about our personalities. If you want to create a meaningful wedding celebration that truly reflects who you are as a couple, it’s as simple as looking around your living spaces and letting the colors, themes, and objects that you love serve as inspiration!

In The Stuff of Life, Hilary shares four methods for arranging the treasured objects and collections that we all seem to gather over time, and later in the book she discusses five categories of collectors and the various ways they approach styling the interiors of their homes. I find myself looking at this lovely book over and over, and I’m thrilled to offer a chance to win a copy to one of our readers! Just leave a comment on this post before midnight CST on Saturday, May 3rd, 2014. Best wishes to all the entrants!

I thought it would be fun to take some of my favorite images from the book and create inspiration boards based on them to inspire your handmade wedding celebrations. I loved the idea of the glass cloches above shown here with a seemingly random display of objects that in fact represent special memories and mementos.

The first board I created takes the concept of the glass jars and turns them into beautiful centerpieces. Gather items that have special meaning to the bride and groom, whether it be favorite books, flowers, childhood mementos, photos, or travel souvenirs, and display them singly or in groups. Click the links below for all the details on the centerpieces shown here.

Cedarwood Weddings

Collage Interiors

Remodelista

My So Called Crafty Life

Unruly Things

If you’re seeking a color palette, look no further than the colors you’ve chosen for your walls, furniture, and accessories! I love the monochromatic scheme of this still life created by landscape gardener and florist Lindsey Taylor, captured beautifully in the chapter “How to Arrange Your Stuff.”

I created a mood board based on the black furniture, neutral accessories, and the soft pink blooms in the photo that creates a marriage of sophisticated minimalism with a soft, romantic vibe. You can do the same for your wedding by taking the time to look at the colors of your home or wardrobe and incorporating those into your wedding decor!

Whether it’s a theme based on your travels or dream destinations,

the objects you gather while beachcombing or hiking,

or the vintage treasures you’ve collected along the way, look around at your home, your hobbies, and your interests for inspiration, and let your personality shine through in the way you style your wedding!

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?