Home Sweet Home

During lockdown, I definitely did a lot more thinking about 'home'. Especially as I moved back to my parent's house and my childhood home to see it through, as opposed to staying in the flat I rent alone in a completely different city.

I wrote about the feeling of home in my blog, 'Stay at home. Where? Home.' And in my blog, 'How the woman who always has a holiday booked is coping' I mentioned how I've been thinking more about the permanent elements of my future now that I've had this forced stepping back from the hecticness of now.

My finances have been rejigged a fair bit and my goal of owning my own home by 30 is absolutely a-go. As a result that, my 'Home Sweet Home' Pinterest board has been added to in utter abundance! Because if you don't visualise it on Pinterest, it's never going to happen, right?! (that's my excuse for having boards focused on the house I don't yet home, and the relationship I'm not yet in...loool...)

ANYWHO

For a decent amount of time now, long enough that I think this might be what I run with when I actually own a house, my decorative goals have been to have a jewel tone for each room, accompanied by dark silver/chrome appliances and dark wood. A bit moody, but quite catching, with the potential to sound a lot like Cluedo as I describe it.

So far, I've decided on:

- Emerald for the living room

- Amber and amethyst in the kitchen

- Amethyst in the dining room (ideally, this will be next to the kitchen so it all ~flows~)

- Sapphire in the main bathroom

- Ruby in the master bedroom and en-suite

Being honest, I think my love for a red bedroom is all Peyton Sawyer's fault. That's what the One Tree Hill character painted her room in her teenhood, causing me to have a red wall, a black wall and two white walls in my teen room, and her record label was named 'Red Bedroom Records'.

Interestingly, in her memoir, Hilarie Burton Morgan, who played Peyton Sawyer, mentions that her now-husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, loves a red bedroom.

Her memoir is called, 'The Rural Diaries: Love, Livestock and Big Life Lessons down on Mischief Farm'. It is an absolute must read. I don't just say that as a fan, but as a book lover, and as someone for whom this was the first book they've read in one go in about 10 years.

I love the stories of people. Not necessarily real people, but those narratives that really lead with feelings, digging into the whys of things and letting you know what's going on deeper than the surface. That's truly what Hilarie's memoir is.

Reading it through about what she was going through over the past 10 years or so was really emotional. There were parts where she talks about how she and her family were suffering, but I can remember interviews at that time where she seemed so strong, you would never have guessed. It shows really clearly as well how little famous people owe us anything, we've all had days of feeling horrendous and yet we've still got our jobs done. That's what Hilarie was doing.

Her commentary on building her home and the importance of community at the most difficult times of her life is inspiring. It really confirmed a lot of things for me in terms of what I want out of life and what 'goals' looks and feels like to me.

Where you live and where you spend most of your time ought to be yours. I've always loved 'Homes Under the Hammer' and 'Grand Designs' because people are getting truly stuck in to creating their place. I'd love to buy somewhere that my dad can help me decorate/build. Walking around a house that is truly home because you can remember plastering that wall or hammering the nail into the wall to put that picture frame up or remembering sighing with relief when the sofa fit through the door - it sounds dreamy as hell.

A lot of that's indoor structural stuff though and Hilarie's memoir really got me thinking about the outdoors too. I've grown up in a house with a wonderful garden, parks nearby and now my dad's trying to grow whatever produce he can in it. I can't believe it's taken me this long to really think about the outdoors part!

But I have. I've been inspired by Hilarie's incredibly witchy ways with homegrown produce. I want my herbs to come from my garden, my sunflowers to greet, my apples to be cut up in the next sourdough starter I do.

I want one of these:

Ultimately, our planet is our home and I think I want the piece of it I own to reflect that. Reflect that our planet provides for us, that everything we could ever need is right here. Every single thing that is present now, was present with the big bang. We have made nothing completely brand new, we have only put elements that are billions of years old together, in a new way.

How humbling.