by christina britt lewis photography by angela statzer myquillyn smith, of nesting place fame and all things #31Days, is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. one time she told me to never apologize for my home. she said when we do that we make the moment all about ourselves and we miss the chance we had to make someone feel welcome and comfortable...or something like that. i'm sure she said it better. i ignored this wisdom when angela came over to take photos of our home. i apologized all over the place. i made it all about me. she said something like if i thought my house was a mess she did not want me seeing her house. myquillyn is right. my apologizing only made angela feel uncomfortable about herself. she didn't like me more. she liked herself less. what a terrible thing to do to somebody. i apologize for apologizing about my home. my floors are immaculate and my oven is spotless. i read this and panic that i have ruined my kids. they seem really happy, but who knows? i repeat myquillyn's words "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" in my head as i compulsively windex the countertops all the live long day. even our laundry room looks staged. it's not... my neat freaky ocdness is not something to aspire to. it is something i work to overcome. don't look at the photos of our home and feel bad about yourself. the truth, which you can't really see in the photos, is this...
my problem looks pretty in pictures. but it's really ugly. tim helps me change the voices in my head and be at peace with good enough. cole and camden help me see the comfort and beauty of unmade beds. i get better and better at seeing the perfection of imperfection. if you are a person who is already at peace with imperfection, don't aspire to be more like me. may we all aspire to be more like you... this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home. click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george by christina britt lewis and timothy dean lewis photography by angela statzer once upon a time i decided i wanted to be an artist. the kind who paints. even bought a bunch of canvases. i have some very artsy friends and thought "art club" would be fun. like "book club" but we got together to paint. jane copeland is one of those artsy friends. she's gone on to become quite an accomplished artist. i have gone on to order a bunch of nautical charts. someday somebody will find some seriously sad sunsets behind those charts... invite people over. fill your home with the laughter of the ones you love. try something new. who cares if you suck at it? the connections we make with people along the way are what matter. we all got where we are thanks to people who believed in us before we believed in ourselves. so be people who believe. it's a peaceful home and a peaceful earth sort of thing. this little company went to market in high point last week. angela instagramed (follow us) a painting of a cow. within seconds somebody commented on her photo, "that looks like a jane copeland". now i know jane would have gone on to become an accomplished artist whether i invited her over for art club or not, but i wonder if i ever would have known that she was a sister status quo antagonist. i wonder of she would now be helping us make the world more beautiful, one home at a time. i wonder if i would have had the opportunity to hug her on the streets of high point and say "I TOTALLY KNEW YOU WHEN!" don't wait for your house to be perfect. it never will be. don’t wait for the perfect people to come along. they don’t exist. don’t wait to be invited. it just doesn’t work that way. don’t wait for people who think just like you. that would be boring. don’t wait for a saturday night. wednesday night will do just fine. don't wait till you can paint well or whatever. the connections we make with people along the way are what matter. and you can always wrap a map around a canvas... this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home.
click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george shoes go in the shoe bucket... keys go in the key basket... garagey things go in the garage closet... because there is nothing peaceful about lost shoes and lost keys and lost lawn mowers... this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home. click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george sometimes inside and sometimes outside. sometimes with friends and sometimes just us. sometimes grilled cheese and sometimes grilled salmon. always candle light and always great music. we eat dinner together most every night. my grandmother, gertrude christina britt, painted the paintings above with toothpicks, or so the legend goes. the photo and map below remind us who we are and where we are from. we sit here most every night and play "high/low". everyone takes a turn talking about their highest and lowest moments of the day. it's always hard for me to think of a higher moment of the day than when my people sit and talk and listen and laugh and eat at this table. these are the moments they will remember forever. these are the moments that matter. and they don't just happen. we have to fight for them. we have to fight the status quo that tells us that late meetings, soccer practice, drum lessons, book club, homework, or watching tv matter more. nobody breathing their last breath ever whispered "i wish i spent more time in meetings..." so start somewhere. one night a week is better than no nights a week. takeout will do just fine. it's not about the food. it's about the people. play high/low. turn the lights down low and light a candle. turn the tv off and play some avett brothers or whatever. all together now... this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home. click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george by christina britt lewis photography by angela statzer we purchased nothing for this redesign. everything you see they already had. this is my favorite thing to do in the whole wide world. these lovely people moved from a big golf course neighborhood to an older home closer to where they both work. it's got a great yard for the kids and the dog, big trees, and lots of charm. but good lord, it needed some work! we painted everything, added wood floors, and you can see a peek at the kitchen in the photo below. can't wait to show you how we painted old cabinets a smokey gray and affordably transformed the space. but today, the family room... before the redesign company... after the new paint and floors but before we came to do our thing... and after one day in their lovely new home... before we did our thing... doing our thing... our thing... we redesigned their previous home and found much of what you see for them...if you were wondering why it just so happened to feel all "love coming home". it was so much fun to make it all work in a new space. lots of times when people move they think they need new stuff. they usually don't. our client's kind words... I can not say enough great things about the redesign company! Love them! We recently moved to a new (older) house and were at a total loss with how to incorporate our things into warm, inviting spaces without spending a fortune. We have used the redesign company before at our previous house and were thrilled to again use their services. The redesign company suggested painting the cabinets and built-ins rather than replacing them. They also helped select our paint colors as well as floor color. Finally, they recently came to hang pictures, rearrange furniture, etc. and put on the finishing touches and we couldn't be happier. They used all of our own things (no new purchases) and I am honestly amazed at how great things look! We thought we needed to buy a whole lot of new stuff and the redesign company helped us see otherwise. The redesign company is wonderful to work with - always professional and upbeat. Can't say enough great things! to be continued... |