Hidden Art of Homemaking | Chapter 5 | Laura Wilkie 

I like looking at how other people decorate, too. It's weird when you can see into people's homes at night because either they don't have curtains/blinds or they simply leave them open (it's just weird to me...idk why) but I like glancing inside to see how they decorate. Lots of family pictures, knickknacks, taxidermy, stark and barren, paintings/prints, decor overload, etc. My kitchen is apples and has been since I was 19. A few years ago, I seriously considered getting rid of it all to do something else for a change. After wrestling with it, I simply downsized what I didn't like (i.e. things I'd only collected because apples, not because I genuinely liked it) and kept the rest. I stuck with apples because 1) I couldn't choose a new direction...nothing felt right, 2) I'd spent all those years accumulating things from rummages or thrift stores and some had been gifts and couldn't bear to part with it all, and, most importantly, 3) I want my children and grandchildren to think back fondly on my apple kitchen. My mother didn't have a theme, not even a color scheme. My gramma didn't have one other than yellows, creams, and browns. It didn't bother me but growing up, I loved seeing kitchens that seemed intentional. My piano teacher, for example, had cows and watermelons. Odd combination, I know haha but it was her thing. I thought it was neat when people had themes. When we were homeless and staying at the shelter, I bought myself a coffee mug with a pretty pink flower on it that says, "It's so good to be home." I broke it on accident while washing it and bought a new one the next day (yay, dollar store!!) which I still have and use on a regular basis. I used pretty donated blankets as curtains for the window of our room. I picked a few donated decorative items to put on the shelf in our room. Also, while we were there, we went to WM and bought a small pre-lit tree, a mini tree skirt, and some mini ornaments. We set it up in the corner of our tiny 10x10 (if that) room. We didn't need to spend that hard-earned fifty bucks or so on it, especially when we had significantly more important priorities, but it was worth it to us. We wanted to make Christmas as close to normal as we could for our children, especially since my husband wasn't home (See? Home.) during that time as he's an OTR trucker. As I look around now at all the boxes we still have to unpack (so many boxes!) and lament over having nowhere to put it all (we sold off almost all of our furniture before the move...didn't think it'd be so hard to find new-to-us stuff...lesson learned), I'm reminded by you that it IS temporary. I've got some curtains up, a few decorations on the walls, and a couple rugs in the bathrooms (I know some people think it's gross but we like them and I clean them regularly). It's not much but it's a start. Slowly but surely, we'll get there. I know I said it already but thank you for going through this book. It had been on my want list but, thanks to you doing this series, I went ahead and just ordered myself a copy today. Thank you so much for this!! Edit: Yes to the continuity/having a constant in your life. For us, one of those constants is my apples. No matter where we lived or how many times we moved...apples. There was an apple kitchen towel that had been donated while we were at the shelter. I asked if I could have it and, after being told yes, I hung it in our little room. It wasn't much, but it was something. I will always have apples. My children and grandchildren will always remember the apples.

Hello 👋🏼 from Florida