Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Inspired to make it HOME!

This post is dedicated to Edie - Happy Birthday!



Hi friends! For those you that know me, you know the past several years have been very trying on my family, and you know that the past year has been filled with medical drama in the family and big changes. During one of many trips to the hospital with family members this year - I discovered my love of a several blogs. This post is to thank...Edie...at Life In Grace.

Have you seen this bubbly, faithful, gracious, giving, fun, crafty lady's blog? She has inspired me to start loving my home again, along with another lovely blogger that reminded us all that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful". Wow...a perfect stranger...somewhere in East Tennessee, in my neck of the woods...that just inspires creativity and fun, wonderful recipes of food and love, crafty and artsy projects to make your house turn into your home. That's powerful!

She inspired me to paint my "Julia" inspired pegboards in my kitchen with the post about the retro turquoise style kitchen.

And my friends encouraged me...even gave me a shove towards starting a blog of my own. To journal my life, my family, my projects....my whole world. Me? A blogger? No one will read it, it would be a waste of time...  And my blog sat in park for months.

The week of Christmas was a blur - a trip to Nashville and back home to pack for our trek to Blue Ridge. We finally arrive and it's time to relax, have fun, catch up on some reading...and my reading pleasures come from blogs - love them. I am clicking through my favorites - and I come to Edie's blog. Heartbreak...and tears...  Days before Christmas, Edie's family suffered a tragic loss - her home - lost to a fire. You can read about it here.

And my thoughts began to run...  Bless her heart. I could not even begin to imagine what she is going through. Her words are so eloquent, so deep - she tells her story with such grace, with so much faith. And then my thoughts go back this post from the day before. It is the video from our blog friend The Nester. Edie had written about "going back there" and how she found it so hard, and Nester offered her hand and led the way. Such a wonderful post...a true testament to the power of friendship in blogland.

Wow...there are just no words...

Edie stayed on my mind through the weekend and into the final week of 2010.

And on New Year's Eve, the thoughts began to come to me. If it was all gone tomorrow - would I have anything but the memories in my mind? No. Would I remember the funny little things that happen in our day to day lives? No. Would I have something to take me back to "there"? No. Years ago - I used to scrapbook all of the little things, all of the things that make us who we are. Now, there is just no time - at least not to do it the way I used to. A blog - a scrapbook of our lives - is something that we share with others that may share some of our passions.

The first steps were easy - but to hit publish...that was difficult, I thought.. Those negative thoughts - no one will read this, no one will care, no one will know that it is here...suddenly, they were all gone. My blog is here for me - for my family. Our memories, our world - my thoughts, my crafts, my photographs - all gathered here. I have big dreams for my blog - dreams that it fills the void of my mind with the little things that I don't remember as well as I did when I wrote it down, when I scrapbooked it.

So - my blog - my scrapbook - my memories - they all start this year, 2011.

I aspire to blog as eloquently as Edie. And I aspire to have wonderful photographs that tell a story on their own like hers always have. But for now, I am inspired to make my house a HOME again - and have a place to tell my story.

Thank you Edie - you have truly been an inspiration to me over the past year.

4 comments:

  1. welcome to blogland. may God bless your space here with grace and goodness to share. you have inspired me today. I am not a scrapbooker, so maybe someday I will come back here and tell you I have started my own blog!!;0) ~Kristina Baldwin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Kristina! I look forward to hearing the good news that you have started a blog of your own. Have a blessed 2011!

    ReplyDelete
  3. May God bless your space!!

    http://first-day-of-the-rest-of-your-life.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear from you!