THE ENDORSEMENT
The wind chill may be hovering in the single digits, but there’s no reason it can’t be 70 and sunny inside.

By Scott Edwards

Repeat after us: March is a mindset. Start incorporating brighter colors and the warm thoughts will follow.

As I started in on the knee-high, hardened slush at the front of the driveway, and entered my third hour of shoveling, a neighbor walked by and said, “This is payback, right?” All I could do was grunt. Literally. The moment I stepped into the street, out of the protection of the hedges, I was blasted by the wind. Clamping my teeth together felt like the only thing keeping me grounded. Or maybe it was just the last part of me to seize up.

Tuesday’s sleet-storm was just the latest reason why March is my least favorite month. It arrives with all the promise of that first hit of unseasonable warmth, only to revert back to its insecure self, abuse every last ounce of its power and drag out its reign.

But, numb as I was, I realized something significant Tuesday afternoon: March is a mindset. It’s never a good time to lose three hours of your life to shoveling snow, but it’s especially demoralizing when you thought winter was behind you. And well it should be. So let’s jumpstart spring on our own. For the time being, we can’t do much about the black ice and the massive snow banks, but we can change the scenery inside.

A simple-but-effective move: Swap out your table linens. We’re partial to Izy and Oly, a vibrant, made-to-order line that Keri Bass launched a few years back in a small room in her Berwyn home. (As of this writing, she had just upgraded to a much larger room.)

Hone in on the reversible placemat, because a table where everything matches will only appeal to our mothers. For the upcoming holidays, pair a set of the muted-blue hexagon, medium-weight linen placemats with the floral cloth napkins. The colors are bright without being overbearing, the designs, clearly not mass-produced. And for all the hours in between meals, throw on a lime table runner and a simple glass vase filled with a handful of fresh-cut, red tulips. You’ll be surprised with how often you find yourself stopping to smell them. Which is kind of the point here.

Photos courtesy Izy and Oly

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