HOME!

Just two weeks before Christmas... I was trying to make sure that everything in my home was perfect before the kids came home to visit. It's just a Mother thing I think... I always want them to walk in my house and instantly have it feel, smell and look like HOME! A place they feel comfortable and where their friends feel welcome.

When I was young I wanted to work at Hallmark Stores. I always loved Hallmark Stores, I love the art work and things that they had in their stores. 

 
I also thought Anderson Newcomb Stores ( a home where my Mother would take us to shop some times )would be great to work at too.

 I always loved their window displays and thought that would be a great job to have. I could only find this photo above of the building. But years ago, it was beautiful and to a young child, those Christmas displays were the most beautiful ones I had ever seen!

I always wanted to have a home and family that were happy and safe. I feel like I been blessed beyond measure why?

Because I did get a incredible family and I have been blessed...

to have a wonderful Home that I can decorate and make safe!

Like my Grandmother always said...IF the furniture and things in her home could talk... each one of them would have their own story to tell. The same is true in ours. This corner cabinet Jeff made years ago when we had our business up and running. It was just a small business that he and I did in the evenings and on the weekends, to make extra money. With me being a Stay Home Mom and once we moved to Washington, it was so much more expensive than West Virginia...we had to do something. I had been selling my crafts that I painted or created, since I was 12 years old at Craft Shows. I continued to do them after we were married, and after we moved to Washington. Thankfully Jeff was willing to learn about woodworking and so was able to make whatever I needed him to make, he had a talent we didn't even know of!

He started with small things like the santa plaque at the top of this shelf and then he got into making small furniture pieces like this green shelf, with my blocks on them!

This table below is my Grandmother's Checkerboard table, that we used to plays checkers on, with white and black buttons. The red and white quilt in the back was a quilt that Jeff's Grandmother made...love it!

Then there is our hutch below which we loving call Sally ( not sure why except that we couldn't remember exactly if we should call it a hutch or a kitchen cabinet thingy.... so we just lovingly called it Sally, plus that was one of our daughter's good friend's name too).

Below is the shelf that Jeff made and the deacon's bench he made also that we have used in our kitchen for years.

Christmas pillowcases that I made for the kids!

Teddy Bears have always been something that I love to collect!

This cabinet/ Shelf Jeff also made for me so that I could display my Aunt and Grandmother's Quilt. 

Below that is my quilt that I made for Christmas!

This shelf he made too, the wooden house and heart he cut and I painted.

Pretend kitchen area for the kids.

The painting above the kitchen area is one that my dear friend painted!

This cabinet below was given to me from a dear friend, you can tell what an antique it is, and of course on it all many gifts that friends have given me through out the years!

Still at the end of my day, I realize that my dreams did come true, I got to create handmade things that makes my home beautiful to me and a safe place to those who enter. 

I truly am blessed!