For the love of homes...

I've been fascinated by homes since I was a little girl. When I got a Barbie, the first thing I did was design her apartment. A few years later, there was the little shed. Our grandparents' home backed onto a valley. Sometimes my grandad would take us down to the river to go fishing. And sometimes we would go for walks. If we went for a particularly long walk, we would come across this abandoned little shed. It was dilapitated and who knows what it was doing in the middle of the valley. Certainly it must have been put their to ignite children's imaginations. I would lie in bed dreaming of how I would fix up this little space and make it my own, what colours I would use, what I would hang on the walls.

Now I love to walk through neighbourhoods and look at houses and gardens. It gets in the way of going for a run or a brisk walk because I always want to check out the the neighbourhoods I pass through. I love seeing the trends and also what makes each home unique. I remember the year that everyone started painting their dining rooms red, and I'll always remember the mirrored sphere that our neighbours had on their lawn. One of my favourite parts of travelling to Holland was just looking at homes, especially the ones covered in wisteria.

And being invited into someone's home is such a blessing and honour. It's a new level of intimacy, a new perspective on the people we know. It's one of the reasons I enjoy Claudia's blog so much. When she shares pictures of her home and the colour and comfort she has created in there, my heart beams.

Now, I know not all of us have a home we feel reflects us. Goodness knows I don't! But I aspire to and every time one little thing improves I get excited about what's possible. Sometimes just a good clean can give me hope that one day I'll look around our home and say, "This is so us!"

In the meantime, I'll keep exploring and enjoying homes and neighbourhoods and meeting some of the local residents.