Craft Day at the Guire Shire
In the middle of soaking bottles to remove sticky labels and putting down old sheets to catch paint drips and wood chips, Carly and I talked of our love for this book:
Design is not everyone’s forte, but everyone desires beauty in their innermost being. God created us this way. The beauty of a sunset leaves us breathless. A drive down a country road in autumn leaves us gasping “ooooos and ahhhs” (in the hills of WV).
We women like to capture the beauty of creation and drag it into our homes.
We create bouquets of wildflowers.
Some of us capture it on film and frame it.
Others have husbands chop logs to make ‘pumpkins’.
We cut Egyptian grass and put it in spray painted bottles.
“Aristotle defined art as the capacity to make. For the ancients, any exercise of human creativity-building ships, making shoes, healing the sick, governing the state-is described as art. In this sense whenever we exercise our minds or our hands to make something that was not there before, we are functioning as artists.”-Gene Edward Veith, Jr State of the Arts
If we desire beauty in our homes, why does it often get put on the back burner?
Do we feel guilty?
Inadequate?
Unsure?
I know.
Be a wife and mother is time consuming.
Being an adoptive mother to hurt children is stressful.
It can wreak havoc on our creative gene.
WE END UP JUST SURVIVING.
And that is no fun.
It’s like a great meal with no dessert.
Having a beautiful space is like having dessert in your home all the time.
It gives your eyes something to feast on.
I’m not talking about expensive furnishings or having a designer decorate your home.
Myquillin Smith, author of The Nesting Place asks the questions:
“How do you want people to feel when they come over? How do you want your family to feel about the home they live in?”
Maybe you haven’t thought about this before. Making your home feel like home is part of your ministry. It’s okay. You can decorate with wooden pumpkins or hang up a homemade banner. It’s not a waste of your time and energy even if your teenage son tells you so.
As we talked about our love of some of the concepts in The Nesting Place, I realized that her advice on the home was bleeding into other areas of my life.
When I move away from the traditional expectations of the home and implement my character then I am a better hostess. My home words? WELCOMING and COMFORTABLE. When I AIM for these as I make my home beautiful then others will feel those attributes.
When I do the same in my life, other will feel what I exude.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”- Myquillin Smith
What words would you like to describe your home?
What is stopping you from creating something beautiful where you are right now?