Great New Design Books!

Need a gift idea or a great new addition to your design book library?  Go over to At Home Tennessee magazine and check out his months book review column, The Pick.  It is written by my daughter Shana, who is also my right hand in the family design business.  Shana knows a good design book when she sees one!

http://athometn.com/books/design-inspirations/

Home is Where the Heart Is: A Eulogy

image via marys-view.blogspot.com

I make a living decorating houses.  I live it and breathe it.  I attempt to write about it here and share my passion for it with you. 
But sometimes life reminds me that decorating and design is an underpinning to something bigger and more important. 
And that is Home. 

Home is where you came from.  It is the springboard for your life.  It is the place you will always remember all your days.  You will forever walk through its rooms, even if physically it is long gone.  You will remember its sights, sounds, and smells.  You will see it in your dreams always.

Last week my dear mother-in-law passed away.  She is at peace now I believe.  Now we have only memories of her and the home that she made for her family.  It was a place I became a part of when I was seventeen years old, before we were married.  My earliest memories are of the immediate sense of warmth and welcome I felt the first time I walked through the door.  Home-cooked Southern food was always on the stove and warm welcomes and hugs waited for me.  I knew I had found my second family for life. The sounds of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren rang through the rooms. 

Yes, beauty and order speak to me.  I have longed for them since I was a child.  But the thing that lives most in my heart and mind are memories of those intangible qualities that make a house a home. And those who make them happen.

In Memoriam

Joyce Jewell  Raley

July 19, 1930-March 31, 2011



Black-Eyed Peas and Love

Here in the South New Year's Day means black-eyed peas.  Even if you don't particularly care for them, you eat a few anyway, just for good measure.  Kind of like knocking on wood.  You know it's a silly superstition, but what if Mama was really right?  I have a little pot on the stove right now.  As I stood and stirred them, watching them gently roll around in their hot soup, I thought about all the New Years of my past eating black-eyed peas at the tables of the wonderful cooks in my life. 
Particularly I think of my mother-in-law, who always called on the morning of January 1st and said, "Come by when you can today.  I have a pot of black-eyed peas, a mess of greens, and some cornbread.  You need to eat a bite for good luck".  And we always stopped by. 
And you know what?  Some years were better than others, but we've always had pretty good luck.

Now she isn't able to cook the peas anymore, but I will take her some today and feel blessed and hopeful for the New Year.

Cover Girls!

A wonderful Mother's Day gift!  So proud to work with my sweet daughter, Shana.

My Pink Ribbon Post

In Honor of my Mom: A Breast Cancer Warrior

Mom and Me

As we enter Breast Cancer Awareness month, I just want to honor my mother, who has fought breast cancer into remission twice in the last thirteen years. I have watched her bravely face the traumatic diagnosis, a radical mastectomy, a stem cell transplant, radiation, chemotherapy, and all the other sickness and fatigue that comes with this horrible disease.

Because I know that cancer can wait in the wings for the rest of her life, I prefer to use the word warrior instead of survivor. It is a battle that she has fought alongside so many other brave, strong women. I hope everyone will support efforts to find new treatments and, quite possibly, a cure.

Monday Musings

My husband and I decided to take a drive up into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this weekend. Since we live within a half-hour's driving distance you might think we do this often. We don't. Because of the beauty and majesty of our mountains, it is one of the top vacation destinations in the country. We locals are proud of our mountain heritage and it is the rare East Tennessean who takes the privilege of living here for granted. That being said, most of us rarely visit our precious National Park because of the traffic and the tourist-trap kitsch.

But we decided to take advantage of a beautiful late summer afternoon and headed up with a small picnic. What a blessing! The cool air and curvy roads brought us back to why we are so proud of our mountain home. As we rode with the sunroof open and the wind in our hair, we laughed and talked and made plans for the future just like we did so many years ago. Life is far from perfect but it is still good.

photo credit: flickr/ben pierce