The New Series: Welcome To My Home

Grab a coffee and settle in to meet 

my first sweet blogging friend, in my new weekly series:

*Welcome to My Home*

Hello, Miss. Sew & So friends.  I am so excited to be posting here today.  Melissa has been a long time blog friend and such an inspiration to me.  Thanks so much for having me today! I'm honored to be talking about home to you all today.

Just a little about me...I'm Alicia and I blog at La Famille, where I write about all sorts of things from projects to our homeschool to parties.  I have two sons and two daughters and I share about them too.  I also share a lot from my heart there as well.  I guess you could call it a lifestyle blog...writing about our life.  Something that's been a hot topic in our house that I haven't shared a whole lot about on  my blog is our current "home" situation.  We moved across the country about 2.5 years ago into a "temporary" rental townhome and we're still in that temporary place...waiting to be in a less temporary space.  This has been a very difficult thing for me, as are a lot of things that don't go according to our plans.  

Living Room:

I'm sure many of you can relate the importance of having a space that's your own.  We all do it.  We rearrange, we fluff, we peruse Pinterest in search of inspiration for our spaces and then we search out the perfect pieces to make our space unique and comfortable.  Before we moved, we had a great house that we had loved and cared for.  You can see my old house tour here. Leaving that to come to a house where we share ceilings and walls has been difficult. I have had to work hard to retrain myself about my ideas of what "home" is.  For the longest time I hated everything about my current home.  Everything from the layout to the paint color, I couldn't stand.  I kept all my pretty things in boxes, telling myself that it was pointless to decorate a temporary living situation. 

It took a lot of time and a lot of change of heart to convince myself to peel back the tape of those boxes, unpack, and make this place my own...even if its just for a little while...because a little while has become 2.5 years and what a shame it would have been to leave things like vintage maps and old cloches in bubble wrap. 

A few things I love when it comes to homes and decorating:

-collections of old things

-searching junk stores for perfect pieces

-old homes with loads of character

-mixtures of wood and white

-bringing nature inside

-children's art

-lots of whites and linen

Even though my current home doesn't have a whole lot of natural character or a clawfoot tub, I've worked hard to put my stamp on it...make it my own...a comfortable, cozy place for my family...being content here while waiting for the next thing.

Last summer, I worked for a week straight and painted almost every square inch of our home.  I used a lot of Benjamin Moore's Ashwood because it has a grey feel to it but its still very light and airy.  I painted this grey dresser that used to be bright yellow because it suited me so much better as grey and I just recently added some of our nature books and finds so we have a place to keep our collection of things we find outside.  

I like everything in our home to feel loved and collected over time.  Most of the things in our home are from antique stores, garage sales, and 2nd hand shops.  But I also love Target and IKEA and we've got plenty of items from those stores too.  

Master Bedroom:

Over time and over each box that I unpacked, over each nail that I pounded to hang something else on the wall, I've learned to love the great things about this town house.  The balcony with the great morning light and the birds that come to visit in each morning.  The hardwood floors.  The convenience of a laundry room right off the kitchen instead of in the basement.  The spacious bedrooms.  The large closets.  The wide, white trim.  Its had a huge learning curve, but I've come a long way.

Dining Room:

Although there's been a lot of sadness for me about owning a home, I have learned a lot through it.  We have purchased and lost (for multiple reasons) three houses in these two short years.  Each one I thought was just what I wanted and then losing each one, each loss coming with a whole other set of lessons to learn.  I have realized now that not any of them was irreplaceable.  There are many many great houses and one has our name on it.

These photos are a few rooms from our home...I'm showing you the clean parts ;) I hope you've enjoyed peeking around with me and listening to my banter. Again, I'm so glad to be here....



I still have things in boxes that I probably will not unpack until we have a home of our very own again.  Its been hard to learn to love something that I wasn't expecting.  I have learned though, over these 2.5 years, that making your home is so important for creative souls like us, no matter how long we'll be there.  Had I kept all my things in boxes and never let myself be creative in this space, I would have been completely unhappy.  This space is still temporary.  We will not live here forever.  We will be homeowners again.  But for now, I am loving exactly where I am during the wait.  Come see me (and wait with me) over at La Famille.

Thank you sweetest Alicia for being here, sharing your home and thoughts on home...

If you needing some mothering inspiration- this is your girl!

Four babies loved and schooled at home...

a big life and a beautiful blog...

take a cup of tea and head on over...

ENJOY!

Melissa

xox