what a fun project this was! my favorite homes are full of contrast and stories. i LOVE old and new, high end and low end, serious and whimsical, collected and acquired, shiny and matte...glass and pinecones...i LOVE glass and pinecones. this home is all that. the rugs are handed down, family heirlooms that you just can't fake. the home is modern and funky with ikea light fixtures. ohmyword it all makes me weak in the knees. see for yourself... "love coming home" the redesign company signature scent created by brown eyed girl. smells like fresh clean laundry dried on a line under a carolina blue sky... sectional by the comfortable couch company fabric looks and feels like linen, but you can literally take the cushions outside and hose off the peanut butter or red wine or whatever... almost everything you see already belonged to this family. these things tell their story, reflect who they are, and bring back happy memories. most people already have just about everything they need to make their house their home. the painting in the top left corner is a jane copeland original of a place this family loves to vacation. it's my favorite thing in the whole house. well, and the rugs. and the candle... west elm has beautiful blue things this season. pillows, bottles, vases, throws... glass and pinecones... all their things. all their stories. redesigned... found these fabulous old family photos in a cabinet, popped them in new target frames... jacqui found this gorgeous silver pitcher in a cabinet and filled it with leafy branches from the back yard... make your home tell your story. everything you need, you already have. check the cabinet...
things we believe...
ever dream about quitting your job, selling everything, buying a sailboat, and sailing away? our friends, dan and carla bedell, packed up their family and did just that. and then carla wrote a book about it. i was a little hesitant to read it because tim and i have already quit our jobs, sold everything, and headed down south to the land of the pines...what if carla opened my eyes to how much more free we could be? we'd have to go. we would totally go. but about half way through her adventures i started to see that these were the bedell family adventures. they were big and they were a bit scary to me. we have all been given our own dreams. i was overwhelmed with how strong and brave my friends are. you gotta be fierce and you gotta be bold to follow your dreams. but more than that, you have to be intuitive and you have to hear the voice inside of you. carla described that this way... Dan and I sat down on the bow of the boat. Neither of us said anything for a long while. We just sat there and watched the waves crash onto the beach. What were we going to do? More waves crashed on the shore. A few pelicans lazily circled above us. The day was moving on peacefully, oblivious to our situation. and then the answer came to them. as clear as a carolina blue sky. this is how tim and i make decisions. we sit and talk and listen and wait. some might call that prayer. what is best for us comes to us as we go about our lives. carla's story confirms again and again that everything we need we already have. whether we call that the universe, intuition, the voice inside of you, a gut feeling, or God, isn't really the point. we get so distracted by the noise of others and how they say we should live, act, talk, think, work, love, vote, dress, buy, eat, learn, be...only you know what is best for you. As I trudged along, ahead of everyone else, I thought back to our old life before the trip. I remembered...when Dan and I bought our first sailboat...Out on the lake one afternoon, my friend had asked me, "Do you feel rich?" while deeply aware that we have no idea what true poverty feels like, it is also true that for the first 8 or so years of following our dream, we had never been so poor and never felt so rich. our dream was to do what we love for a living. the bedell's dream was to sail away for a while. following our dreams is what opened our eyes to how free we could be. what is your dream? It's an amazing feeling to follow your dream, but it's just as amazing watching your dream influence someone else to follow theirs. - Carla Gray BeDell by Tim Lewis
This morning a couple sat across from me while I did my best to help with their struggling marriage and family. We were just like them fifteen or so years ago. Actually, Christina and I still work through some of the same things. Marriage is never something you check off your to do list. I was feeling completely inadequate to help them navigate their immediate future. Then I looked up at a photo of my family on the wall behind them. There are no diplomas on our walls. No certification from the State of North Carolina on our walls. No awards on our walls. No ordination plaque from some denomination on our walls. Some of that is in a drawer somewhere. Some of that doesn’t exist. None of that is important to us, a choice I sometimes question. The voice that will not shut up shouted loud and clear… You don’t know what you are doing. But then the still, small Voice whispered something like… Look at Me through your family. Where Love is, I am. You are qualified. You are competent. You are Loved and you have learned to Love. Their Peace and Contentment are real. Undeniable. You know them. You know this. Give the people I send to you Hope and teach them Love so they will also know Peace. I did not actually hear those words audibly, but I was overwhelmed with this awareness. Just a photo of my family. A family of Hope and Love and Peace. This is important to us, a choice I never question. I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and determination that could not be framed and hung on a wall. I said… Look at the photo of my family on the wall behind you. Love doesn’t just happen. Love is choice that you make. |