A Welcoming Home

When I was a new wife and mom one of my primary influences was author, Emilie Barnes.  She was to me, the epitome of a godly woman.  I devoured every book she wrote and even attended a couple of her conferences.  

Since both of us were Southern California girls, I even drove out to her Riverside "ranch" home and peeked through the bushes for a glimpse of her home.  (If you knew me in real life, this wouldn't surprise you.  Remind me to tell you about the time I hunted down a home from picture in a magazine and became life long friends with the owner...but I digress.) 

One of my favorite of her books was entitled, 'Welcome Home, Creating Your Own Place of Beauty and Love".  It's chapters are filled with ways to create beauty and a sense of comfort in every room of your house. It included pictures of her warm, charming and colorful home and I did my best to recreate her style within my newly married budget.

Flash forward to today, through the years of Southwest, mauve and sage green and the Joanna Gaines white farmhouse look and I find myself smack dab back where I started and always felt most at home, recreating that warm and colorful environment in our new home. 

"When you make yourself at home, you surround yourself with the people you love, the objects you cherish, the memories that warm you, and the ideas that motivate you.  You work to create a nest that helps you be happy and productive, an environment that rests you and renews you. You choose to invest your time, your care, your loving energy to keep your nest clean and warm and welcoming." Emilie Barnes

I recently purchased Welcome Home again (I gave my original copy away to a newlywed from church) and have spent hours reading and beginning the process of creating a home that says, you are welcome here. This time it won't be an imitation of Emilie's style but a home that reflects my heart and since we are well into the empty nest years, the comfort of my husband as well.

Looking back, what style of the decades most captured your heart? Does your home reflect that? If not, what's stopping you from creating it today? I say it's time to recapture the ambience that most says, "Welcome Home" to you.

Happy Welcome Home Day!

xo, Patty