I am so excited to share that my new book, Feels Like Home, launches in just four days! And this is the final giveaway to celebrate the book launch. This giveaway is appropriately named “The Feels Like Home Giveaway.” In this package of goodies are all things you can use to make your house feel a little more like home. They are all things that are comfortable, beautiful, and work together to create a homey ambiance. You’ll see what I mean as you look through this amazing collection of items…
Of course, for the Feels Like Home giveaway, I have to include a signed copy of Feels Like Home…
I’m also tucking in a couple of things I crocheted – a dishcloth and a little scrubby…
I haven’t made patterns for these specific pieces, but you can find other crochet patterns HERE.
A beautiful handmade quilt made from fabric I designed by Marilla Melcher of Hearthside Comforts…
Marilla used an antique quilt in my home as inspiration for the pattern and decided to name it the “Shoofly Star” quilt. Isn’t that so cool? I love antique quilts, so I like that she used this beautiful, simple pattern as a jumping-off point for this giveaway quilt. It definitely has an antique look to it!
This would make a wonderful lap quilt, but I also think it would be an amazing heirloom-quality gift for an expecting mom, baby’s first birthday, or for a toddler or child, or wedding gift. It’s a nice size to be a little play quilt or picnic quilt as well. Marilla is accepting custom orders if you’re interested in having her make a similar quilt for you. You can get the details HERE.
And I love it when artisans make custom tags for their quilts. They truly are heirloom pieces that will outlast us, so it’s nice to have information on when the quilt was made, where, and by who. Whoever wins this giveaway is getting a very special piece.
My sweet friend and enormous inspiration, Mary from Trout Lily Hill, sent me this turn-of-the-century Gilroy & Bach turkey platter. It is a huge, heavy piece with an absolutely stunning transfer color and design. This would be a great piece to use as seasonal decor on the wall or to serve a turkey during holidays. It’d even be a great platter for a charcuterie spread. It’s one of those pieces that has a million uses and, since it’s blue & white, it’s decidedly Miss Mustard Seed.
A set of luxury sheets (in queen or king depending on your request) from Paris Perfect…
I stayed in a Paris Perfect apartment during both of my trips to Paris in 2018 and 2019 and one thing I appreciated after being awake for over 24 hours was having a comfortable bed (with a view of the Eiffel Tower) to climb into! They understand that travel is about experiencing new things, but when it comes to going to sleep, you want the bed to feel like home. Or better than home if you don’t have nice sheets!
After getting so many compliments on their sheets, they decided to start offering them for sale.
So, if you can’t go to a Paris Perfect apartment, you can bring a little piece of one to your home. The winner can select the size they need for their bed.
A part of creating an inviting home is sound. For that reason, a Kove Commuter 2 Bluetooth Speaker is also included to fill your house with your favorite tunes…
This Bluetooth speaker is unique in that it can come apart for a true stereo sound experience from this small, but powerful speaker.
A collection of candles and matchboxes from Oldfield Society…
My very favorite candles are by Amy from Oldfield Society! She handmakes candles with amazing scents in quality containers (glass jars and wood trenchers.) She also carries the most adorable matchboxes that look like old houses! The winner will receive several full-sized candles, a whole village of matchboxes, and a sampling of smaller candles.
A few little “bits & pieces” from Julia of Ponder & Purchase…
She sent me a few extra antique English bits to include in this giveaway – a Sterling spoon, an antique blue & white plate, and a little blue glass bottle.
And that’s not all! We have gift cards, too, so you can select some things that will be perfect for fluffing up your nest…
A $50 gift card from Jenny Steffens Hobick/JSH Home Essentials…
Jenny curates an amazing collection of decor for the home and also designs and makes gorgeous textiles. I have several of her pillowcases and they are some of my favorites.
Another one of my favorite small online shops is Maple House Collective and they are also offering a $50 gift card!
Maple House Collective has beautiful home goods, antiques, and gifts. I think their selection of items is particularly well-suited to purchase as gifts for hostesses, as a cheering-up for someone who needs some pampering, and all of the usual gift-giving occasions, etc.
I’ll be doing a full spotlight of their shop, soon. Until then, you can follow them HERE on Instagram for their latest sales and products. (I know they have some great sales coming up through October.)
And a $100 gift card to Finding Home Farms! I’ve known Laura from Finding Home Farms from the early days of blogging (we’ve met a couple of times) and it’s been amazing to watch her journey of launching and growing a brand of her family’s own homemade certified organic maple syrup. She is such a powerhouse as a creative and entrepreneur and her family is the kind of family you want to support.
In addition to their flagship maple syrup, Finding Home Farms has expanded into other products including mixes, jams, mustards, home decor, ceramics, and more. You’ll have a fun time spending $100 in their online shop!
Such an amazing package of gifts to make your house feel even more like home, right?
To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this blog post letting me know your fondest memory of home. I hope some of these items and shops might be in line with some of those happy memories.
Because the boxes are big and heavy, this giveaway is only open to readers in the US. (Sorry, international readers!) The giveaway will close Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at midnight PST.
Good luck!
Here are the Instagram accounts for all of the people and businesses who are a part of this giveaway and celebrating Feels Like Home. Give them a follow!
The Maple House Collective – @themaplehouseco
Finding Home Farms – @findinghomefarms
Jenny Steffens Hobick – @jennysteffenshobick
Oldfield Society – @oldfieldsociety
Hearthside Comforts – @hearthsidecomforts
Paris Perfect – @parisperfectrentals
Ponder & Purchase – @ponderandpurchase
Trout Lily Hill – @troutlilyhill
Kove Audio – @koveaudio
You can preorder Feels Like Home from these retailers…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Worthy Publishing | Books-a-Million | Indie Bound
And claim your preorder bonuses HERE and find instructions on claiming your preorder bonuses HERE if you need some help. The preorder bonuses are an original art download, a bonus chapter (The Feels Like Home Renter’s Guide), and five videos including workshops on matching fabrics and enhanced tutorials from the book.
Ooooooooooh ! Such a lovely giveaway I can’t choose which item makes my heart beat the fastest but such a collection I’d be honored to have in my home ! Best wishes on your launch of Feels Like Home Marian !
My “home away from home ” has provided precious memories for over 30 years. We had the opportunity to purchase a family cottage in Northern Michigan. I loved taking all 5 little grandchildren to the lake with soap & shampoo for bath time since our cottage had one small bathroom with a small shower. It’s not big & fancy but oh…all the memories!
My Mother made everything from scratch so now I can really appreciate how much love she put into everything. Although I always want a Chips Ahoy and a Salisbury TV dinner every once in a while!
My favorite memory of home is of my mom making pot-au-fry. It would simmer in her huge cast iron stockpot all fast long. It made the most delicious broth ever with chicken, kielbasa and beef together. It was decadent feeling as our family of five sat around our dining table enjoying a more than one course meal.
I actually didnt have a very stable or safe home growing up but as an adult and a young mother I decided I wanted to create those for children.
I remember I was newly married with a 1 year old. We lived in this tiny apartment and didn’t have much but I decided to try and make it as lively as possibly. Itbwas a cold winter night and we didn’t have a car my husband had to take the light rail home. I wanted to surprise him. I put on some Christmas songs as i made dinner, cleaned our home and had my little one playing with her toys. The little bit of Christmas lights and decor we had was up and it felt so peaceful. My husband walked in and said that it was the first time he really felt at home. He mentiones it to me til this day how life giving it was to come home to a happy wife and baby, Christmas songs and yummy food. It was such a blessing to serve my family this way and share these memories with them.
Gosh just honored to be the first to comment ! I’m already a winner !
Please enter me in the giveaway! All these items just scream cozy to me and that is the feeling of home. Snuggling under my granny’s quilt on the porch listening to the rain or the birds is a fond memory. If only then I’d realized that I was destined to become the family historian, I would’ve listened closer to the stories! 🙂
Having a stuffed animal tea party with my grands around the table, lots of stuffies with hats, sandwiches shaped like animals and lots of giggles!
This is an amazing and generous giveaway! One of my fondest memories of home is returning home after being away. Vacations are always nice but the smell and feel of your own space and your own bed is the absolute best! Congratulations on your book!
My fondest memory of home was on Christmas morning, when we woke up, and our living room was absolutely transformed, my older sisters had made many handmade items for us, in addition to all the presents under the tree, such a special feeling that I will never forget!
One of my fondest memories is sitting around the fireplace with a fire lit, and snow on the ground outside. We lived pretty far out “in the country”, and it was always beautiful with the snow. Thank you for the opportunity to enter for this most generous prize!
Christmas was always a fond memory growing up. My parents couldn’t afford much but they always made Christmas special from the socks filled with nuts and oranges to the turkey dinner and pumpkin pie! Such a lovely giveaway!
My fondest memories are when my dad and mom would drive from an hour away to visit us after my mom was diagnosed with alzheimers. We would go out for dinner together until mom was no longer able. Our dog grew to love her visits and we took our dog to the nursing home to visit until mom died. You are so fortunate to have your mom to do things with you.
Wow!! What beautiful items!! I specifically remember my mom using those same blue and white platters every year for thanksgiving and every time I see one it reminds me of home!
Congratulations on your book! Can’t wait to cozy up with your book and a cup of tea! Happy to be included in any/all the drawings- everything sounds lovely. Home is being together with family and friends, listening to laughter and stories while delicious smells come from the kitchen.
Oh my gosh, pick me! Pick me! Love. It. All.
Growing up our mother made a wonderful home for our family. She made it look effortless. Of course it was not. She worked so very hard, sewing, crocheting, cooking, baking, preserving, and so much more. Wish I could do half of what she did. Home is so important!
My fondest memory of home is having my house filled with family, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
Your new book, Feels Like Home, is at the top of my Christmas wishlist. Yes, I am 64 and still believe in Santa! My fondest memories of home are the feelings of warmth, safety and love our parents created for us. We lived in a small town in an old 2-story home with large rooms, high ceilings and warm colors. I loved decorating and rearranging at an early age and love having an entire house to “play” with. I absolutely love the colors and style throughout your home, especially the blue and cream checked sectional ❤️
My fondest memory of home is that Santa used to put up our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after my sisters and I went to bed. Coming down on Christmas morning and seeing the tree for the very first time was staggeringly magical. I have old movies of us in our PJs with our hands covering our mouths in sheer wonder! (Also the time the tree fell on my father but that’s another story! The flocking made it worse!)
When I was young, my Mother would host our family Thanksgiving dinner every other year. Our 1,100 square foot house (with 5 kids and two parents) would hold al of us plus two cousins and three aunts and uncle for the day. Mama and I would go out and pick what was left of her perennials along with berries and colorful leaves for centerpieces. When I was about 10, Mama handed over this job to me and I was so thrilled! At 71, I still look forward to doing the Thanksgiving centerpieces for my family and remember Mama trusting me with such a big task (in the mind of a ten year old).
Growing up, most of our days were spent with Granny while our parents worked. My fondest memories are of time spent in the sewing room. There I spent many days counting the buttons in her button box, sorting the fabric in her cabinet, then learning to sew – even the skirt that won a ribbon at the fair. I’ve spent many days trying to create a home where my children and grandchildren can create wonderful memories and I’m sure I would find awesome hints in your book!
My mom and I would talk from our bedrooms after the lights were out. It was just the two of us in my teen years after my father passed away. We would talk about regular every day things but in the dark, I felt safe and loved. Unless you talk about the time I put a rubber snake in her bed …
I would love to win this beautiful giveaway! My favorite memory of home is the excitement and anticipation of Christmas, the meals, decorations, time spent with family, and all the traditions.
The unbearable excitement I felt as a child on Christmas morning. I still get super excited, but now it’s to see if my son likes his presents!
What a lovely giveaway. My favorite memories of home are the holidays when the whole family got together. We still do this tradition today but it’s moved to my house and I love it. Lots of love and food.
The fondest memories of my home was when babies were little and it was late Fall. I would have a fire in the fireplace. We didn’t have a lot of money so I would boil orange slices, cinnamon and cloves on the stove to make the house smell good and they would play in the den with their dollhouse and Andy Griffith playing on the TV in the background. It wasn’t a big event that I remember most, it was these moments of simplicity and specials smells that are my favorites.
Lovely. My fondest memories of home are my Granny’s quilts that were used everyday for ordinary living. Picnics, beach, bed and snuggling.
Memories of home follow us through our lives. I’ve learned I try to follow the same traditions of childhood to make each home I’ve lived in “feel like” home. I am drawn to your style of decorating/artwork/crafts/
recipes etc. because they feel like home. Feeling comfortable in your own home or welcome when you are visiting others is the best feeling.
Amazing giveaway!!!
My favorite memory of home is baking with my mom. She always baked from scratch, and with much love ❤️
My fondest memory from home is cozy evenings in the living room with my entire family.
What a gorgeous give away, have never seen one so beautifully curated. Home is where my husband is, my favorite part of the day is when we sit together and talk about our day. We don’t have kids and we just celebrated out 35th anniversary- so much has happened in the past 35 years, but home makes me happy and content. I am retired and don’t have lots to spend on fun things. I have followed you for a long time and you have managed to keep a home and teach the rest of us. Thank you.
My fondest memory of home is when my children were young and we’d pile on my bed and act silly and laugh. The sound of their laughter just makes me smile still! God gave all three of us a wonderful laugh and I love that!!
Please enter me in your beautiful and very generous giveaway! Thank you so much!
When we brought home our youngest girl from the hospital, our eldest daughter looked at her little brother and new baby sister and said, “We have the coziest home ever now that Paige is here”. I am a designer, and have spent countless hours on my own home, but this moment is my favourite memory of “home”. Congratulations on the beautiful book!
My fondest memories of home are the smell of fresh baked goods or supper in the oven, and holidays when the whole family is together and the dining room table all set
I have a fine childhood memory of sitting by our big stone fireplace snuggling up under blankets and my father reading to the family.
Also, my Nonna would make the most amazing Sunday meals and we would gather as a family every Sunday. The food was so comforting and amazing as a child.
Everything in this giveaway is amazing! I’m excited to read your book. My favorite memory of home is sitting at my Grandma’s beautifully set holiday table enjoying a meal with the whole family!
My fondest memory of home is being with family and fur babies by the fire keeping cozy when it’s snowing.
Wow! So many of my favorites in one place! One of my fondest memories of home is my mom hosting all the holidays and birthday parties. She had such a relaxed, festive way of inviting people into our home. So many good memories, especially at Christmas! Now I try to emulate her hosting style and create that cozy, welcoming vibe in my home that makes people want to stay.
Home is where my husband, pack of kids and even larger pack of farm animals are. As we move from house to house, renovating them for their next owners, I am always grateful that we can make the ramshackle, the undone, the mid remodel feel like home. A great place to be.
One of my fondest memories from home has to be Christmas morning and waiting for my grandparents to arrive at our house. The days festivities couldn’t begin until then and the rule was we kids had to stay in our rooms until Nana and grandpa got there. The bedroom I shared with my sister had a window overlooking the driveway and we’d sit side by side watching and waiting on pins and needles. Such delicious anticipation of my favorite day of the year!
I can’t narrow down a fondest memory- just the word HOME brings a constant flood of joyful memories. A safe and happy place for family and friends!
I have always have thought my fondest memory of home would be from childhood, but the one with the most comfort came many years later. My aging parents were in need of care, my father in the hospital, my mother at home alone. I had spent a long stressful day and evening with them. As I began my hour long trip home a midwest storm began raging with thunder, lightening, downpours and a tornado warning. I had to stop on my way and called my husband who urged me to turn around. I could not imagine not going home and continued on my journey. The absolute relief and peace I felt when I walked in my door was incredible and filled with tears. Tears of gratitude for everything in my life, family, love,memories,faith. I look forward to the book and the inspiration you always provide. Congratulations and thank you for the chance to win.
Such a lovely, celebratory giveaway! I have vivid memories of sitting beside my Granny as she sewed unending hours on her old Singer machine. She taught me how to sew. I wish I had learned more! ❤️
My favorite memory of home is bathing Saturday night and snuggling in under clean sheets and quilts! Ready for Sunday!
Home is comfy and having my grandson here curled on couch when school is out! Would LOVE blanket.
My fondest memories of home are those before my husband passed away and our children were small. The happy, loud, hustle & bustle of those ordinary, oh so chaotic days! What a fabulous giveaway!
My favorite memory of our home is of the dinner hour. Having our 6 children around the table talking, laughing, listening, sharing, and praying every night was a true gift. I am so thankful for my husband who made this time a priority and set the example for me and for our children.
One of my fondest childhood memories is lying in my bed under the opened window watching my blue gingham checked curtains billowing out from the breeze and feeling that same breeze wash over me before going to sleep.
Please, enter me in the giveaway! My fondest memories of home all involve holidays and cooking and baking with my daughter. ?
Lovely giveaway! Congrats on your book!
I have warm memories of spending Sundays at my grandmas with family. The kitchen was the gathering place for laughter, heated discussions(lol) and delicious food. And when we stayed late, I would crawl into grandmas bed until it was time to go home….ahhhhh?
My fondest memory of home is being at my Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. My uncle, aunt and 2 cousins joined us. My brother, parents and I were excited to see everyone. Gram’s special dishes were used. My uncle helped her make riced potatoes when it became too difficult for Gram to use the ricer. Her gravy was the best. My brother and I inherited the large dish set. Gram had tiny cornucopias placed at each setting. The best part was the love and laughter shared!
My Mom always had these Pilgrim man and woman, turkeys and Indian Thanksgiving candles on the table. I got them when I started hosting Thanksgiving at our home. Just a tradition I hope to pass on to my oldest daughter when they are able to get a home. Being thankful for all the Blessings God has sewn into my life. Home is being with those you love, no matter where that is. Making wherever you are cozy and comfortable with well loved and worn items that speak to your heart and make those who enter feel at home too.
What feels like home to me is the good, the bad and the ugly. The way our family of 5 can snuggle in for a movie on the couch. How we can all pitch in when the going gets tough. How tears are healed by a do-over! Home is a place, but it is so much more than that!
You know that feeling of peace and comfort as you walk in the door and the smell of fresh tortillas being made is in the air and the dog awaits for a crumb to fall to the floor as he quickly greets you and goes back to the kitchen?. That feeling of worries left behind and you not even realizing that love and laughter just gave you a hug. Oh, the feelings of home.
My Fondest memory of home is all about the people you share it with, my family. My people as I like to call them. You have very few of those in your life and they are my home! You book looks wonderful and I will have to preorder as my luck will have it I am usually not the one picked to win. Have a great holiday season at your home.
My fondest memories of home are generally found with us gathered around the table with family or friends. Sweet conversation, funny stories, good food all make such great memories!
My fondest memory of home actually happened after I was married and moved away.. there was something peaceful and comforting about coming back to my parents home. The feeling in that house was always of love and happiness. I realize now as an older adult that it was my parents ability to make us feel welcome and loved. My mom’s kitchen filled with the smells and tastes of my childhood.. my father’s warm smile and welcoming words… miss them both ❤️
My fondest memories are when all nine kids come home with their families.
The house feels so warm and cozy.
My fondest memories of home are my grandparents, coming over every weekend for dinner, listening to stories of past. Listening to them talk about past memories of my mother as a child, growing up. Things they did. I miss my grandparents more than life it’s self. They taught me many things, but most importantly they taught me family, traditions and together is where “ home” is.
What’s beautiful giveaway Marion! Can’t wait to get my book ! I live everything you create and put your hands on!!
My fondest memory of home is when my brother and I would go to visit my grandparents each summer and stay for the whole summer. Farm kids, we would get to experience treats like fresh corn on the cob, watermelon and homemade popsicles. Getting to empty the water from the genuine ice box which now sits in my kitchen–fetching something from the old pie safe now sitting in my dining room—all these things helped form me into the person I am today, respecting anything with age on it. Eating around the old square oak kitchen table brings back a multitude of memories that color the way my family lives today.
Thank you for this wonderful give away – each of the items trigger a memory for me so it’s tough to pick one. The recurring theme, however, is being part of a family with strong women who did/do things independently. Going to college, working, sewing, quilting, decorating, cooking, making life for their families good and wholesome and loving.
My fondest memory of “home” is hearing the screen door on my grandparents back door slam when we were visiting – especially early morning knowing that Grandpa was bringing in milk cans to be strained and that I could run across the bare wood floor and scoop the fresh cream off the top to go with my cereal and blackberries!
One of my favorite memories of home was eating together as a family. It didn’t matter what the meal was, it was always delicious because whatever our Mom made it was made with love and it tasted good.
While we ate we would share stories of how our day went and there was always lots of laughter and love for each other.
I miss those days!
My favorite memories of home is after a long rainy winter in Portland, Or to be able to leave the doors and windows open all day in the summer and enjoy my back yard garden.
There are many moments to choose from, lots are attached to cooking/meals/smells with grandparents, for me as a child. As an adult, though, bringing my baby’s home the first time, have to be the fondest. The smell, the feeling of walking in the door, with a new person, so many emotions attached to it. Just walking into your nested home with a new baby. Second to that, is during after the kids decorate there tree for Xmas. Always cooking baking, fireplace and music, and watching them grow, each year when they do it.
My favorite memories of home were hosting big family gatherings, especially Thanksgiving. Our tiny home was full of laughter. Even though my typical meal was homemade rolls and applesauce (as I was a picky eater)-I still loved the atmosphere of being surrounded by people I love. I live far away from home now, in the city were folks seldom stop by. I can look back at memories in my tiny home and smile, grateful for those times.
My fondest memories of home are always time spent with family.
One of my fondest memories of home was gathering around the table at Thanksgiving with our large family and going around the table to say what we are thankful for. Thanks for the opportunity for this great giveaway!
Another awesome giveaway. ♡
A lot of my childhood memories revolve around good food, my family loves food… and story telling, I loved to hear my mama and papaw talk about the good ol’ days.
Now that I have a family of my own, I love to try to make home cozy and inviting, my husband always lights up when he comes through the door to find I’ve baked a special treat or his favorite meal. “It’s the little things that make a house a home.” Like that John Denver song. ♡
What a generous giveaway! My fondest memories of home involve raising our two boys: rambunctious dinners when they would both try to out-do each other to make us laugh, giving them baths (and getting soaked in the process) and sitting on the couch with my husband after bedtime with the dog “guarding” their bedrooms.
I am amazed by this giveaway. All of these items would definitely add to that home feeling. Since dining around a table with family is something I love to do I think I need to checkout that Finding Home maple syrup. We love waffles for dinner.
My fondest memory is the way home felt after bringing my son home from the hospital. I can remember everything about our home that day…everything was clean except for a pile of paperwork on the table that blew over when we opened the window to let in a breeze. It was late March, so the weather was beautiful and the redbuds that lined our fence were all bloomed out to perfection. It’s the only year the redbuds were at their peak at the same time as the pear tree! Our home finally felt complete!
HOME – safe, comfy, the smell of roasting beef or turkey, setting the table, hugging your family, lots of chatter and laughing. Together with those who know you best (the good and the bad)
So excited to be getting your new book !
What a beautiful giveaway. Love all the blue and white. One of my fondest memories is of my Mom and I sitting on the pack porch with binoculars looking up at the stars at night (and other things we could find) and talking.
Home is where I exhale. I am not sure I have just one favorite memory of HOME. I will say I attempt to capture the home I grew up in. We currently are living in New Jersey. I have pictures of all of my family in frames or event captured in digital photo frames. I have the family quilts to pile under when it is cooler. I have a candle that’s grapefruit as it reminds me of our Michigan cabin. I have my grandmas coffee cups and I have the family Bible. I think HOME a for me is the essence of my family. Creating an environment so my son exhales when he walks through my door after school is my goal.
All of these products will help curate the intended need of a HOME.
My fondest memory of home is being welcomed home from school with the smell of my moms fresh baked bread. We always rushed home when we knew it was bread baking day. She always sliced us a piece from a still warm loaf with fresh butter. What could be better.
Ah memories of the way we were. We didn’t have much but we always had enough. The excitement of the little things as we might come home from school and Mom would have sewn a new dress and a matching dress for our dolls. But, the best thing is that it inspired our creativity, to make something out of nothing, to go to an auction with Dad and have 25 cents to buy a beautiful box of old glassware for our playhouse in the granary. Home was always and still is the place where love abides, memories are made, creativity abounds, gratefulness and thankfulness are relevant, comfortable, cozy and sometimes unexpected.
My fondest memories of home are actually more in the barn than the house. My family would work together on Saturdays to take care of the horses and then head down to the house for fried bologna sandwiches.
Home is my family’s farm in western New York, which has been home to four generations. My Mom is near 90 and living there still. I get there at least twice a year. The farm and she are so precious to me. ❤️
We lived in a very small house when I was growing up and my parents had very little money for ” nice things”. It wasn’t grand or fancy but it was cozy and full of love. That is my fondest memory… the memory of love. ❤️ Congratulations on the book!
Wow! Such an amazing giveaway!!! I always love to fill my home with all the “comfort” pieces! Candles, books, blankets, pillows. Always welcoming! A brewing pot of tea and a delicious baked dessert is always a treat! Growing up, my house was always full of books, open windows, and soft spaces to encourage reading!
My fondest memory of home is simply my mother. Through many hard times the best part of our humble homes was always my mom and all that she did for her family. Her upbeat nature and relentless work ethic made wherever we were living home and made everything better. God bless you, mom.
Oh my goodness, those little house matchboxes are so adorable!
We moved around quite a bit when I was younger, so the feeling of home for me was always tied to being around family. We spent summers at my grandparents home in New Mexico and some of my favorite childhood memories were made there. Spending cool mornings in the garden with my grandpa as he snuck me tomatoes to snack on, warm summer afternoons down at the lake playing in the sand and learning how to fish, and cool evenings in the backyard after a rainstorm soaking up the scent of rosemary from the bushes my grandma had planted. My grandparents passed away a few years ago, but in honor of them I planted rosemary around our home and started growing tomatoes in our backyard. It’s wonderful how a scent or taste can take you back to such a specific place in time, wrapping me up in the fondest memories of “home”.
My favorite memories of home was always about friends and family gatherings, especially at Christmas. My mother made it such a special time for the whole family. I was always so excited to decorate but my mother would say, “Not until after Thanksgiving”. So I would wait patiently, and the day after Thanksgiving, we didn’t go shopping but started our decorating for the holidays. It was almost as much fun to decorate as Christmas morning itself.
My favorite thing about home is being surrounded by sentimental items from family and different seasons of our life. I’m proud that we don’t have many store-bought shelf-fillers. I want my home to reflect the people and memories that are special to us!
A wonderful memory from my childhood was visiting my French grandmother and getting to sleep in her feather bed. I can still feel the “snuggle” as the mattress hugged me. Another memory was the oilcloth covering her kitchen table. After many “wiping off” the design would fade away and then off to the store to buy a new one. She didn’t speak English but we always understood each other.
My fondest memories of my childhood home were the daily dinnertime rituals. Mom would be in the kitchen finishing up dinner and Dad would sit in the chair reading the newspaper. When dinner was ready we would sit down as a family around the table. My mom put a lot of thought in to making those two spaces comfortable. I would have to say that it’s where most of the renovations were made in that home, and now I understand why she spent so much time in getting it just right, so that we would want to spend our time there. Thanks for offering the giveaway and having me revisit such fond memories today.
Swooning over all the pretty things! My fondest memory is gatherings with my sweet family. Although we still get together for everything, it’s just not the same as when I was a child. I always loved seeing all the women sitting around the table laughing and all the men playing guitars and singing. Now, us women still sit around laughing and talking but the men just sit around watching tv. Lol We’re getting old.
So many fond memories of large family gatherings for the usual holidays of Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Great food was the base but the company of all my cousins made the days special. Even our weekly Sunday dinner with a changing random assortment of relatives was special in a more low key way. Special memories of my Siamese cat, who hunted then brought home an occasional snake in the middle of Manhattan.
I have so many memories growing up that are wonderful! But, I loved hitching up the gentle giant draft horses to the sleigh and piling in for a ride through the snow! We would have hot cocoa or hot cider in a thermos……it was magical!
My fondest memories center around my grandparents’ farm… the smells, the food, the laughter, the hard work, the joys in simple things. My home reflects those precious memories. My breakfast room table is the table that sat on their porch and was painted each spring…. White, green, yellow, white, green, yellow…. Striping it uncovered years of layers and the most beautiful turned legs. Turns out, it is the first table with leaves that Sears sold. So precious to me. Turquoise canning jars line an overhead shelf and my grandmothers’ Ball canner sits amount them. Old photographs, vintage tablecloths, all echo the feelings of that farm. My grandmother was a force to be reckoned with… equally skilled with a cooking spoon and a gun! Her influence in faith,family, and food is still palatable in our family gatherings although my children and nieces never knew her. Our feeble attempts at her recipes are mainstays of our celebrations and I know she’d be so proud of the homes we’ve built and the family we are today.
My fondest memories are of the Christmas mornings spent together….my children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents all in one large room with 5 generations.
One of my fond memories when growing up-we lived in the teacherage right by the school that we went to and my Dad taught at. We ran home for lunch instead of eating at school. I remember watching the clock looking forward to going home for lunch. Usually it was just mac and cheese (we called them yellow noodles growing up) or pancakes but to me it was special and delicious, cozy and homey and hot food. It was always so comforting. My mom probably didn’t think much of it, but to me it was very special. I think I will tell her today about it!
Oh, so tricky to just pick one! There’s a memory my 5 year old son reminded me of recently. It was when my oldest two children were still home with me, young enough to not yet be enrolled in school, and I would have such cozy moments of calm during the Fall/Winter months – candles lit, soft music playing, tea – and the children would come downstairs after nap time to a warm lit afternoon. My son came up to me recently, candlestick in hand, requesting that I make it feel like it used to at the old house after his naps. Although those sacred nap times are a thing of the past, I’m still always looking for opportunities to embrace the cozy!
My mother would make a beautiful, but simple Thanksgiving dinner and we would all wait with anticipation for the turkey to come out of the oven and all the side dishes to be put on the table. I will always cherish these memories.
The best thing about a home is the feeling of family, love and memories that have been shared over the years.
You have a beautiful home and cozy Instagram. My favorite memory of my growing up home is late nights in the very small kitchen playing games with aunts and uncles and making fried egg sandwiches with Mayo for a midnight snack. Oh, so good.
My fondest memory of home is sitting together with my husband and sons on a cold winter night talking and playing games. There is just something so special about the simple moments.
A few months after my Mama died, I wrote this poem – a sweet memory of home:
I remember Mama…
pulling the clothes from the line
clothes that were stiff from starch in summer or ice in winter
brewing sassafras tea when any of the three of us —
and often, all three of us —
had measles, chicken pox, or any other ailment
that didn’t warrant a trip into town to see the doctor
staying up late and sewing us matching dresses,
or in one instance, a Revolutionary War Era doll dress for a school project
that I let her know about the night before I needed it
mixing up sherbet from grape Koolaid, sugar and canned milk
and freezing it in ice trays
scrubbing the unfinished floors in our rented house
with buckets of sand
baking sugar cookies that we cut out with King Arthur Flour cookie cutters –
Robin Hood, Maid Marian and a castle turret
while listening to Art Linkletter’s House Party on the radio
crunching on ice on a hot, humid day
spent ironing clothes
But most of all…
I remember Mama shaking out a cool, freshly washed and line-dried sheet
over my sisters and me lying in the same bed
and letting it float gently down over us
like love
that needed no words.
My favorite memory of home, oddly enough, is one from an Italian villa. Oddly enough because I am no world traveler and my stay in the beautiful historic villa although planned ended up so significant to our family. Three weeks before our planned trip to Italy my adult daughter became seriously ill. I flew to England on three hours notice to be with her after emergency surgery. Weeks of time spent in the hospital chapel praying, a difficult and bumpy recovery gratefully ended up with the family all reuniting in the that beautiful villa. My memory will always be of all the family hugs surrounding a very frail and weak daughter as she walked into our “borrowed” Italian home. Home is grace in a difficult world.
My fondest memory is having all my family around enjoying life together. We are all grown and spread out with extended family’s of our own and sometimes find it hard to get together in one place. The past year certainly didn’t help will trying to enjoy each others company, but little by little its getting back to where it use to be! We have a family wedding next weekend and besides watching my daughter walk down the isle, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in one place once again.
My favorite memories of the home I grew up in were the times spent with family either in celebration or just hanging out in the backyard. My favorite memories of the home I raised my children in are the same except then it was my space and I created it with a vision of love. Now I just purchased a new home and am looking forward to doing the same things and surrounding myself with loved ones.
What a wonderful giveaway! The best thing about home is sharing time with our kids and their families. Hope is the best place to be?
It is hard for me to pick a fondest memory. Home to me is the sharing and feelings you have of memories of those regular days. Being in a place that has 4 seasons, each one has special memories …rainy and cool days when everyone is helping with the garden, breezy days of summer when family drops by, the coziness of fires outside and cider and coffee in the fall, putting up the Christmas tree with the house smelling of pine and everyone coming home in the winter. Those are my fondest memories. I’ve already preordered your book but have a few people I can share another with if I am lucky enough to win this lovely giveaway. Thank you!
What an incredible giveaway! You have been such an inspiration for helping me make my houses “homes” for over a decade! When we were first married and bought our first home, I used the extra curtains that were left in the house to make a ruffled Christmas tree skirt from your tutorial. I still love using it every year, and I love the reminder of a time when we didn’t have much but used what resources we did have to make a beautiful home!
Home for me is where my family is. As a child my mom made our home full of wonderful baking days as all us girls worked together. A beautiful garden, cleaning together on Saturday mornings and great 70s & 80s decor. I did the same with my own children. Home for us is where good things memories happen. So thankful for that. ?
What a lovely giveaway! I am working on renovating an 1890s schoolhouse that my dad and uncle attended. Can’t wait to read your book for some great decorating ideas and tips!
Hello!
My favorite memory after leaving home was coming back to visit. My mom would have the house spotless, yummy food ready and a warm glow all over the house. I cherish these time since my mother passed 30 years ago at 54.
There’s no place like home ?
I’m in love with the transfer ware turkey platter! My fondest memories of home are the sounds of my mother cutting fabric on the table to sew clothes for her four little girls! I’m the youngest. We also were allowed to have her fabric scraps to make Barbie clothes! And so all of my sisters and myself learned to sew and still sew to this day!!
One of my favorite moments of home is when I get a house full of nieces and nephews- spanning from age 18 down to 9 months. They scatter in the house and yard, playing with the old fisher price castle, feeding chickens and lambs, and enjoying each other’s company. Home to me is both the cozy and safe place for me, and a place to host the people I love best.
I moved back in with my parents, after my sad divorce. I remember sleeping like a baby, secure & peaceful night after a year of fear. I hope I never forget how I felt that morning. Safe.
When I got married, my husband was in the military and stationed 6000 miles from my childhood home in TN. I missed home and family so much that it hurt. When we moved back home it was October, and the leaves were at their peak. We drove around and oohed and aahed over every beautiful tree. We took video of it on an old fashioned video camera, and I still have that VHS tape. I still remember the feeling of belonging there. I was with “my people” (my family) again, and I was perfectly content.
That’s a typo! I was 4000 miles from home. haha
The fondest memories of our home is the 11 years my mom lived with us. She had dementia. We would have family over every weekend. She was so happy to be around all her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. Very happy memories! Miss those days.
We had just finished stuffing ourselves with the most random, yet decadent, spread. My abuelo sat at the south end of the table with a belly full of congrí, chorizo, paella, and aguacate while my father’s twin sat at the north, bursting from platefuls of scalloped potatoes, honey roasted ham, croissant, and asparagus.
“Who wants dessert!?” My mom yells over the moan of mumbling stomachs, and everyone waves their hands at her, laughing, “Oh goodness, don’t even say that.”
Jello-salad clumps, breadcrumbs, butter smears, grains of yellow rice, and salad dressing have transformed the tablecloth into a tie-dye masterpiece, and the children wash the dishes, assembly-line style, up to our arms in suds. Chattering, gossiping, and singing.
Later, we migrate into the living room, where we sit in a circle on velvet couches, forest green wooden chairs, Chippendale seats, and my abuela, like the Queen of Sheba, lands on the chocolate leather recliner. The grandfathers remain at the kitchen table to start a game of dominó. I am forbidden to play since I won last time. They weren’t too pleased.
Out of nowhere, a pint-sized cousin totters into the lively living room with a soup pot and a wooden spoon. This is the moment…
My aunts dash and dive into the kitchen, opening the cabinets; the ruckus breaks out as they dig for the loudest, biggest, shiniest pots and pans they can find. They hand them out furiously to grasping, eager hands and I sprint to turn on the stereo.
With Tito Puente blasting in the background, we cha-cha-cha to an insane steel drum solo. Those without spoons hit their pots with their hands, and those without pots hit tops like cymbals. The dominó team can’t resist the urge to join our party any longer, and they meet the dance, clanking dominoes together in their hands.
Someone begins a conga line around the house and we snake through the den, through my brother’s room, through the kitchen, through the family room. We go at it again and again, laughing and crashing into one another, like a school of fish changing shape in and out of currents.
My grandmother’s skin smells clean from her Maja soap, my Aunt’s damp with Cartier perfume, my mother’s soft from her daily Nivea treatment. My cousin’s dark, silky hair whizzes by me and I reach my arm out to stroke its brilliance, but she slips away from my fingers, falling into the center of the mass. I soon follow her, becoming lost in the essence.
Here, colliding with my relatives, I know who I am. As raw as potatoes before we boil them for fricase, my family allows me to be natural, pure. Returning to the palms of Cuba, the fig trees in Syria, the olive trees in Italy, I know where I am from, without boundaries or labels. I am these people, and I am their love. We are love.
Passing through the dining room, I see my neighbor’s window illuminated across the still street. The silhouette of a confused head is tilted in the pondering of the pandemonium.
Finally, out of breath and energy, we plop ourselves, one exhausted soul at a time, back into the circle of seats. Panting, we laugh with the rosiest of cheeks.
“Who wants to open presents!?” My mom yells over the moan of tired lungs, and everyone waves their hands at her with a light laugh coupled with an, “Oh yes, !sí!”
Sorry that was so long! This giveaway is incredible! I love everything you do. I’m making the soup you posted tonight! Thank you for all of the beautiful inspiration.
My favorite thought of home is just having all of my family together again. My favorite memory is silly but makes my heart happy. My 3 older brothers were both recently married and their new wives were family. We always put up the Christmas tree on my sisters birthday and eat a big pot of chili. That year I can remember us all laughing and my brothers dancing around putting lights on the tree and we were all so incredibly alive on that night. I’m smiling now as I recall that delicious feeling of home. Thanks for asking❤
Such a lovely giveaway! So many memories come to mind. A favorite is to think back to all of the ways my mom decorated to celebrate each new season and the cozy atmosphere she created. I also looked forward to walking home from elementary school with my siblings knowing that a snack was prepared and waiting for us when we got home. Sometimes she would make jello in fancy goblets and top with whipped cream, other times it might be apples cut with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Such a sweet way to be greeted after a long day at school.
What an awesome giveaway, Marian! I love it all! How wonderful to have supportive friends who come together to celebrate you! My home is a comfortable place to land. We have 4 children, 9 grands, and a host of extended family and friends who are welcome anytime!
What an incredible giveaway!!
I think one of my fondest memories is waking up on fall mornings when I kept the window open all night to let in that cool autumn air- I would wake up all snuggled under crisp sheets and blankets with the golden light caused by sunlight reflecting off the changing trees outside. I would just feel so peaceful and grateful for the seasons changing and for life, really.
My mother’s mom lived with us when I was growing up. My “Welita” would clean our house, leaving it smelling so fresh. Such a great memory!
What a wonderful giveaway. The turkey platter is awesome and it leads right in to one of my many favorite home memories. I love to decorate for the holidays and seasons.
Helloarian,
I am looking forward to receiving your book next week! I did pre-order and am anxiously to view the pictures of your room makeovers. You truly have made your house a Home.
My fondest memory of home is spending the holidays with my family. I now live the furthest away from my parents and siblings and with the pandemic, it has been challenging to get together again. However, I look forward to the days of gathering together again.
Growing up in a military family meant moving every few years. My mom sure was good at making our new house a home quick. And the more we moved the better she got at it. Now I am married and have a family of my own and between caring for everyone and homeschooling I long to make my home a cozy, lovely and peaceful place to be. We all still love to travel to my parents where they have settled down in New Hampshire and feel welcomed and at home in their most recent landing spot.
My mom making apple pie and also canning chokecherry jam. The jam was awesome on her homemade bread!!
My fondest memory of home is sitting down to a family holiday dinner with no less than 20 people at a very long dining room table with card tables attached to either end. The smells of delicious food, the sound of many conversations going on a once (as well as several “can you please pass the…”), the faces of the people I love. It was loud, cramped, and busy, but the look on my father’s face from the end of the table – just watching us enjoying the fruits of his and my mother’s labor, was priceless. There was contentment, love and happiness. It is my very favorite home memory, and is something that I strive to reproduce for anyone I share a meal with.
My favorite memory of home has to be decorating for Christmas!
Home to me touches all my senses. The smells of homemade soups and dinners cooking. The tastes of the slow cooked foods. The beautiful wall art that completes the cozy vibe. The sounds of family and friends laughing and saying I love you. Hugging family and petting your animals touches my heart. I look forward to your new book and reading it cover to cover.
My favorite memories of home involve the kitchen, food and comfort on a chilly day. Hot chocolate made from scratch, creamy potato soup and iron skillet cornbread. Drifting off to sleep under our grandmother’s quilts. No matter what was happening outside, we knew we were loved and safe.
My fondest memories are coming home from school, sitting at our “breakfast bar” eating a snack my mom made and listening to the radio that had actual stories read from books. My love of books started young – we did not have a TV, so listening to the radio was the closest we got. Every day was a new chapter. My Mom kept our house cozy and beautiful with her crafts, and decor and canning and furniture makeovers… All of those things stuck with me. I’m 50 now and my Mom has been gone for ten years. I don’t think I ever told her how much those snacks and peaceful afternoons mattered in my life. She just knew we loved her. I try to make my home cozy and peaceful and happy the same way. These giveaways are so fun and exciting. I just know whoever gets it will be so happy and in an otherwise stressful and sometimes sad year- it will make a difference. ♥
I have so many wonderful memories of home. My mom taught me to sew when I was old enough to sit at her sewing machine, and even now I still love going through her button box that I played with as a child. Family dinners on Sunday after church or on a holiday were always exciting and I loved being in the kitchen with my mom, aunts, and grandmas while they cooked, then playing with my cousins after we ate. I loved visiting my grandmas because when you crawled into bed, there were quilts and blankets piled on and as a little kid, it just made me feel so special and loved when they tucked me in at night. I miss my grandmas so much, but those are the kinds of memories that make me think of home.
My fondest memories of home were returning to my grandparents home with my young daughters and husband to celebrate Christmas with family. We always had traditional dishes followed by present opening and playing many games of cards around the card table!
My favorite memory from home is baking Christmas cookies in the kitchen with my mom snd sisters – all four of us at the same time crammed in mom’s small kitchen and each mixing up a different recipe.
This is an amazing giveaway!
One of many fond memories was at my Great Grandmother Vera’s home.
She had so many talents such as oil painting, knitting gifts for friends and family. I still have a baby sweater with my name embroidered on the collar and had my daughter wear it too. Grandma Vera would sew on her peddle Singer in a little nook in her kitchen, while my cousins and I ate lunch that she lovingly prepared. She made jams out of the pears and rhubarb that were in her backyard. She played the piano, and decorated with what she had and made it beautiful!
Her home always felt like a big hug! I miss her.
My fondest memory is when I remember the Christmas of my third year in college up at Penn State. My Mom had her sisters, who didn’t live close, make me a gorgeous patchwork quilt that I have to this day. Mom has been gone for 32 years now but her thoughtfulness still warms my heart ❤
My fondest memories of home are all before the age of ten when I lost my mom. I can still remember the smell of certain foods she cooked and when I smell something similar , the memories come flooding back. Also, the way she always made Christmas and Easter (all holidays) feel so special for me and my brother even though we didn’t have much money. Thankful for the memories!
Wow! This hits hard right now. My dad sold my childhood home of 35 years last month. There are so many memories. But the fondest one was 4 Christmases ago when my husband was at our Christmas brunch for the first time. I think there were 20 of us and it was a sit down meal made by my mom. The dining room was extended with two folding tables. My husband and I were sitting on the very end in the living room. The Christmas tree branches were poking us in the back. We all just barely fit. I’m so thankful my husband had that experience. It was the last Christmas brunch my mom hosted.
Wow! What a beautiful way to celebrate your new book! One thing that stood out to me was the beautiful quilt. I have one made from my great-grandmother’s clothing and it definitely feels like home to me.?. I think I need to start looking for beautiful small quilts to use around my home instead of the usual pretty throws. Thanks for the inspiration (as always!) and all the best for your success on your new book!
I love quilts so much because my Grandmother and Great-grandmother were quilters, and I have a couple of quilts made out of scraps left over from the dresses that my Mom and Grandmother made for me when I was young. I started making quilts because of how special those quilts are to me. I am so happy for you that you have such a special quilt from your Great-Grandmother’s clothing!
My fondest memory of home had to be the memories associated with the seasonal changes. The summers running barefoot through the yard catching fireflies. The fall leaf piles, raked with my mom, only to jump in them a mere few seconds later. The cozy family night we would have by a warm, winter, indoor fire. And finally, the dinners we shared looking out our screened-in porch as the spring rain would fall. Those cozy, childlike memories take me back to home, and I’ll never forget them!
I’ve always loved Christmas and the traditions surrounding it. The feeling the season invokes. One of my fondest memories of home is when me and my siblings went out in the woods to pick out our own tiny Christmas trees for our bedrooms. I made a tree skirt and decorated it then would sit and stare at it while listening to Christmas music with just the glow of Christmas lights. It’s a tradition I’ve continued with my own children even now that they are all older.
I have so many wonderful memories as a mom to my children, but I’m going back to my childhood days here. I loved making homemade biscuits with Dad on Saturday morning and all of us sitting down to breakfast. He would always say, “Now that…is a good biscuit!”, every time without fail. We would all laugh and agree. This is such a simple, ordinary memory, but very special to me.
We had a hidden “liquor cabinet” in the wall that you wouldn’t know was there unless someone showed you. You had to push on the door/wall and it would pop open 🙂 Our house was built in the 50s, and looking back on it now, it was actually a pretty neat home with some unique things that I didn’t appreciate at the time growing up.
My fondest memories of home are the many nights spent rocking my children to sleep when they were babies and later lying in bed reading with them. My children are both adults now and I’m just waiting for the day I get to do the same with their children. This is an amazing give-away and I can’t wait to receive my book next week!
gathering with all the family and having meals together! then playing games all evening.
My fondest memories of home are many. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and just regular days in our small town. Family was very important and I miss my Mom, Dad, and my sister.
Thanks for the great giveaway!
This is the Dreamiest giveaway! My fondest memory is visiting my family up north in the winter. My gram always had it warm in the kitchen regardless of how cold it was outside. The stove was on, laughter in the second room. Coffee or tea at your request. The house always smelled like apples. HMM i just remembered that. She must have had an apple scented candle that i never know about. I still visit her and she is in her 80s. It would be nice to share a few of these goodies and a cup of tea with her. Love my gram so much!!! <3
I spend summers with my cousins. That house contains most of the happiest memories of my childhood, not because it was such a special house (although it was), but because of its ability to seemingly endlessly expand to make room for whoever was there at the time. Always room for another kid in a bedroom, another adult on the couch, another chair or spot on the floor of the tiny TV room, another plate at the table. Home is certainly marked by the things we can buy or create or borrow to fill it, but more by the welcoming and holding and nurturing that makes room to encompass and grow all who shelter there.
I am 53, and my favorite feelings of home are still at my moms house at Christmas time. Mom has a way of decorating that make everyone comfortable the moment you walk in. And of course, the placement of every ornament on her tree is perfect.
i love remembering falling asleep in my childhood bedroom with the windows open and the metal box fan on the windowsill. it was so peaceful!
I just recently discovered your page and this giveaway looks amazing. All things I love about creating a cozy and welcoming place to call home.
My fondest home memories are pretty much everything. I love the shared family memories from when our kids were young to now that they are all grown up but still come to share family dinners at least once a week with now our 5 year old grandson.
I remember on cold days coming home from school and mom would be cooking chili – the smell was wonderful and inviting on a cold day!
My fondest memories of home were when my grandparents would come for a visit which was only about once a year. Grandpa would always make pancakes from scratch for us and we would sprinkle them with powdered sugar. He had a mustache that was very scratchy when he would kiss us but it was special to get “some sugar” from him every morning.
My favorite memory of home is making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning with my mom. My family is getting ready to move this fall, saying goodbye to a home and community that means so much to us. But I know we will create a new sense of home and make new memories. Starting with making delicious Christmas cinnamon rolls with my mom and daughters!!
It’s so hard to find a “favorite”, but after 81 years, I believe it’s cuddling on the bed with my four youngsters, reading books and stories to them at bedtime. !So many wonderful memories
P.S. You put your heart into everything you do and share with us, your readers. It “Feels Like Home” here. Eagerly waiting for your book.
Home. I’ve moved so many times that my “idea” of what home is has ever expanded. I used to think it was a perfectly curated home filled with lovely tchotchkes and antique furniture – then, divorced and had to make several spaces home with bits and pieces for my children and I.
I’ve since learned that home is when we all gather at the table – whatever that table may look like ; kids, dogs – and tag alongs – to talk and savor a meal together. I cherish the time spent with my adult children because I know time is not infinite and is a precious gift.
Thank you for this giveaway and your beautiful new book so I might glean some advice to once again begin to make THIS house a home.
One of my favorite memories is the morning after my parents hosted bridge club when we would be able to eat all the fun leftover snacks (like M and Ms), and drink the leftover pop. Those were luxuries for us :).
My favorite memory of home was my dad always making time to read me a bedtime story (complete with different voices for all of the characters) every night.
My favorite memory of home was when my grandmother would listen to music while making homemade tortillas.
My favorite memory was of my boys being young, just awakening in their “bunny suits,” (blanket sleepers) on Christmas morning, looking down the staircase, awaiting opening presents. As we’ve moved on, now it’s grand children on Christmas morning!
My mom always made our home a comfortable place to be and to grow up in. We did not have a lot of money, and we moved several times over the years, but our homes were always warm and inviting. And my mom was just the best cook.
Probably some of my favorite memories are wrapped around the Christmas season. My five siblings and I were always included in the plans for decorating and gifting, and especially baking. Our Scandinavian heritage could be seen in all of the decor, and in the cookie trays that were prepared for family and friends – often up to 15 kinds of cookies prepared each year.
We all have enjoyed making our own homes inviting and memorable for our own families because of our parents’ commitment to ‘making a house a home’.
Forever grateful❣
My favorite memory of home was my mom baking in the kitchen. She could make the best cakes and pies. At Christmas she would make cakes to give as Christmas presents to friends and family. On birthdays we children always got our favorite cake baked along with our favorite meal for supper.
My favorite memory of home is walking in the door from school on a winter day and smelling the freshly baked bread my Mom had made. Nothing like warm, fresh from the oven bread with butter!
My favorite memories of home are the family get togethers. Whether for a holiday or just to get together, I have so many wonderful memories of the different generations coming together for a meal. That is one reason I love to have them at my own home now. This is an amazing collection. Thank you!
You are absolutely so thoughtful. You always make people so welcomed. My favorite memory was having breakfast with my dad after church on Sundays. My father had a very rough childhood and he filled in all the blanks that I never knew. My home felt like his home he always loved coming here. I miss him so very much.
Thank you for offering such a lovely giveaway in celebration of your new book! My favorite memory of home is knowing my mom was always there waiting to hear about my day and the sense of presence connected to that constant in my days. She’d sit at the kitchen table in the center of the room while I perched on the counter snacking and talk for an hour or more.
Growing up in Alabama, we lived in what was called “little italy”, because of all the italian immigrants that lived there. I was adopted into an italian family (my mom was irish/indian and my birth father Scotish.)
My fondest memories were visiting my Italian grandmother on Sunday. The big pot of homemade spaghetti sauce sat on theback of the stove, meatballs and pasta , and loaves of crusty homemade italian bread- filling the house with this fantastic aroma! Kids everywhere, eating, running, playing. Aunts and Uncles talking and laughing around the table. Always a lap to sit on or a hug. I didn’t know I was different! I was just one of the family.
All your giveaways have been so generous. Lots of good memories of home. I remember hearing the rain hit our tin roof and how comforting that sound was. It still is.
Oh my goodness, what an amazing collection of unique pieces! I’m so excited to read your new book Marian! A favorite memory of home was one winter when I was about 6 and we were snowed in (I grew up in Alberta, Canada). Our family of 5, including my baby brother, wrapped up in warm clothes and blankets and piled onto my dad’s snowmobile to make the half mile journey to our neighbors home where we shared a meal of bowls of warm soup, crusty bread and then played games around the table.
So many beautiful things! I have so many fond memories of the home my mom and dad cultivated growing up that it’s hard to pick just one. One tradition that was making gingerbread cookies together the day before thanksgiving. We made pounds and pounds of cookies to last through the holiday season parties. But, not only were these practical for party-giving, they were also a full-on art project. As kids we’d spend hours treating our ginger dough like modeling clay—making hair for the ladies, putting hats, belts, boots, etc, on the gents. Painting all the girls’ dresses with specific tones of frosting (it probably took some good mom-planning to make sure we all got to choose the exact colors we needed to mix together to create to complete our desired cookie “looks”). So many fond memories spent each day-before-thanksgiving all around the dining room table making those boatloads of cookies.
One of my favorite memories is hot Texas summers under the shade of the back porch and a HUGE elm tree processing all of the fruits and vegetables from my grandparents’ garden. It was truly a family affair. Though it was my paternal grandparents’ home, my maternal grandparents and great-grandmother traveled to help out this time of year. I will never forget the feeling of security surrounded by all my family and I can still taste all the wonderful foods! I am trying to revive this with what’s remaining of our family. I spend weeks in the summer “putting up” all the produce I can get my hands on!
My favorite memories of home are usually tied to my mom’s love of holiday decorating. We kids were involved with making colorful construction paper chains at Christmas, baby food jars turned into santa faces with a little paint and some cotton balls, etc. I inherited the love of seasonal decorating from my mom who is now 92, and my daughter, who just bought her first home, is especially excited about decorating for the holidays.
My fondest memory of home continues to this day. As a child, I participated in my family’s Christmas cookie decorating day and, as a Mom, I continue it today. My daughters are long grown but they come and bring many of their friends to help decorate dozens of cookies. By the end of the day we have a huge dining room table full of beautiful cookies and a kitchen floor pretty much covered in colored sugars, sprinkles, blobs of icing and the like. The cookies are carefully covered in clean tea towels and sent to friends and relatives on pretty plates the next day. One of our fondest memories is of the time that the little kitten, Cujo, jumped quietly up on the table and licked the icing off of a fair number of cookies (which were, of course, thrown away). That was one sick little kitten, but he survived and so did the cookie day tradition.
Wow! What an awesome giveaway!! My favorite thing about home was cuddling with my kids and now cuddling with my Grandkids. Life is good and so is home!
My favorite memories of home are sitting at my grandmother’s big, round kitchen table. She was a wonderful cook, and made biscuits from scratch every single day. She was also famous for so many great things…chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, and so many others. But most importantly, you could feel her love for you in every bite, every hug, every laugh or smile that she gave you as you sat there and watched her cook. Even today it is still my favorite place in my heart!
Hello, Marian! Your selections for the giveaway are wonderful!
My fondest memories of home are of Thanksgiving dinner preparations. My mother made such wonderful cornbread dressing. She would bake large roasting-pan sized containers of cornbread and let them sit, cool, and ‘age’ on the counter to get a bit stale before assembling everything. I was just in awe of the aromas of sautéed onion, celery and sage that she put together. It seemed like such a mystery to me, when I was a young child, how she managed to create such a warm, beautiful aroma in the kitchen. It is still my favorite part of the Thanksgiving holiday meal prep…those aromas!
I think one of my fondest childhood memories is when it was back to school time. Of course it was still light out at “bedtime”. Between the sun still being up and the change of schedules, it took a bit to get to sleep. I remember laying there and listening to the cicadas through the open windows. To this day when I hear that sound it takes me back.
What an amazing giveaway and I NEED that turkey platter for Thanksgiving. The quilt is amazing and I love all the cool items you’ve assembled. Recent posts have been such a good resource and enlightening reading. Congratulations on your book release and all the best for the holiday season!
Perhaps since the holiday season is quickly approaching, my fondest memory tilts toward a past Christmas. Here in my part of Gerogia, white Christmases are few and far between. A sprinkling of snow might drift down to melt quickly on the warm ground from year to year, but more often, we struggle to find winter looking outfits that wont cause us to overheat in the temperate south for the holidays. About 10 years ago was our last exception to that rule.
On this occasion, the day before Christmas brought more than the usual sprinkle and we found ourselves with over 12 inches. Now people used to real winter weather will scoff at the fact we become imobilized in a mere foot of snow, but we simply do not drive in such conditions frequently, our power often goes out, and most towns do not have the road equipment to make things safe, so anyone without a 4 wheel drive stays home.
Usually Christams is a race to keep all the grandparents happy- 3 sets to be exact. We dart from home to home eating and visiting and eating some more. Always a good time, but hectic and distracted from the real meaning of the Holiday. That year, my husband, a first responder was off shift, so my small family of three was home together, we played in the snow, made hot chocolate, built the iconic snowman, hiked around a friends snowy pastures admiring the icy beauty, ate breakfast for Christmas dinner and cuddled up together. It was wonderful and my heart warms just thinking about it. The pristine landscape waking up to the snowy morning was beautiful, but the slowed down, intimate family Christmas it initiated will hold a special place in my heart forever.
My fondest memories of home, actually 2 homes my home and that of my grandmother. My mother was British, born and raised in India during the time of the Raj. She came to this country as A-war bride having been raised in an English boarding school, she didn’t have a lot of homemaking skills. However she did make wonderful curries and her own mango chutney from the trees in our backyard. Fond memories have hurt teaching me how to make the chutney and Nann in a large cast iron skillet. My 2nd home that of my grandparents,where I learned to bake from scratch, attend roses in her garden, to sew, and to knit. Both of these wonderful women taught me everything I needed to be a homemaker and to be creative.
My favorite home memory was actually not at home, but at our summer lake cottage where Thanksgiving was our last event before the cottage was closed up for the winter. Fire in the fireplace, the smell of turkey in the oven for what seemed like hours and hours, board games and laughter. For my entire childhood to a married adult, Thanksgiving was a magical event.
My fondest memory of home is the Thanksgiving dinner when I was ten. We had been building a beautiful new house for over a year, but we’d sold our old house and had to live in the basement for two months while the new one was finished. Our first meal upstairs was Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was fresh and new and we loved our new home so much. It was a time to be truly thankful for home.
One of many fond memories of home is watching my parents lovingly restore and update their Craftsman style home. They used 27 gallons of paint stripper to remove paint and reveal the beautiful oak woodwork throughout the house. They had a lovely split staircase; I loved the stairs going down to the kitchen! Your giveaway is so lovely, and whoever wins will be delighted!
My favorite memories were spent on Sunday’s at my Bussi’s house. We would always have a huge Polish dinner every Sunday. They would sit a speak Polish…I would catch a few words here and there. So much food, laughter and love! Then we would sit in a food coma until dessert. It was the best day of the week. Such a wonderful giveaway. Thank you Marian.
Some of my favorite memories of home revolve around holiday meals with delicious family recipes and generations of family and friends playing cards and Yahtzee and always laughing. And of course pie.
I absolutely love your posts. I’m excited to make your chicken and wild rice soup as soon as I can find the wild rice! Thank you!!!
My biggest and best memories from childhood involved going to Grandpa’s house in rural eastern North Carolina. I was the youngest of the 25 first cousins, although the oldest ones were my mom’s age. So there was always family around and many, many cousins. At that time, I didn’t know the difference between first cousins, first cousins once removed and all the other genealogical details of our relationships.
Grandpa lived in his original home with one of my aunts. She was the best cook ever and a meal was always in the making or already made, biscuits, corn, field peas, fried chicken and tea cakes. I can hardly mention them now without smelling the amazing creations!
It was a modest house but so many people could cram in there to celebrate everything from birthdays to holidays to the arrival of a sister visiting from Connecticut.
There was a jar of buttons that I dragged out to sort, stack, count and do whatever I could muster up for entertainment when Mom and I were the only ones visiting for the day. There was a treadle sewing machine at the side of the dining room table which fascinated me. My aunt and my mom could see everything…and they did, clothes, aprons, window treatments, quilts and always something for a doll.
I was terrified to visit the chicken coup but would go with the protection of Grandpa. I loved finding eggs and taking them back for kitchen use.
My apologies as I could go on and on. I have done collections of recipes from my mom’s generation, 20 years ago. And a more recent collection from January of this year in honor of all the first cousins. What a treat and what an undertaking for the family. Wishing everyone would gather photos, recollections and recipes to pass on to the next generations.
Hi Marian! My favorite memory of home is from when I was little, and it is of my grandma’s home. When I was little I would often go to my grandma’s house to spend the day with her. It always smelled like basil and grandpa-cookies. Her garden out back always had fresh basil growing, and we would always bake grandpa-cookies (ginger snaps) when I came over. I would help her make the cookies and then after we put them in the oven we would bring the bowl upstairs so my grandpa could eat the leftover cookie dough. Then we would paint or play out in my grandma’s garden until the cookies were ready. I am 20 now, but I still go over to my grandma’s home to bake with her. But now we have some tea together and catch-up and I show her my most recent artistic endeavors while we wait for out cookies to bake.
Any gathering is a great home memory for me – holidays, parties, friends over, gatherings are my fondest memories. There are too many to choose just one. I especially like the ones playing games and laughing about stupid, family jokes and memories.
I have so many good memories, but the one that has come to mind recently is the early fall feeling I had as a child in my room, with the smell of fresh air around me and a particular slant of golden light coming in the windows – what a gift!
I can’t wait to read everyone’s comments; thanks for inviting people to share these memories (and thanks for the giveaway) !
Oh Gosh. I have a few wonderful memories of home, but I think the most cherished is Thanksgiving, when all my family members are gathered and we reminisce. Thanks for such a wonderful giveaway. Ordering your book now for myself, and if chosen, I am gifting your book to my daughter who just bought a house. 🙂
This is such an amazing giveaway. I am looking forward to your book being published. It is hard to pick just one memory of home. We have recently retired and moved into a condo in Florida. I have recently started painting again and this condo has a den, that I have converted into a studio. So now I am making new memories!
It feels like home when my three teen boys and their friends are all spread out over my family room laughing, eating, playing guitar, and singing. I feel like the hostess with the mostest, when all I’ve done is provide a safe, comfortable place for them to be themselves.
My fondest memory of my childhood home is the smell of my mother baking every Friday. We always had some thing special and sweet to enjoy on the weekend. She taught me how to make pie crust at an early age. She died when I was ten. I miss her still after all these years. I’ve made hundreds of pies over the years and always get compliments on my crust.
The smell of my home is my favorite thing. When I return from work for the day and open the door I am so comforted by the lovely smell – lavender and roses in summer and spices and patchouli in winter.
What an amazing giveaway! I am the youngest of 9 children and although my parents are gone, our huge family strives hard to getnd together as often as possible, so my best thought of home is “getting to go home”(I live in FL, and am from TN. originally. ) Unfortunately Covid has messed that up, but look forward to when we can all get together again! Thank you for the giveaway and your blog! I look forward to it everyday!
Home for me is the holidays, especially Christmas, so many family gathered in one place.
Thank you for an exciting giveaway. Love that Finding Home is included, have used those products for years for Christmas gifts.
Wow, this giveaway is so exciting and inspiring. We haven’t had a large holiday family celebration since the pandemic, but we’ve discovered zooming with family and friends It has been fun, amazing, and meaningful (and different!). A new kind of happy holiday memory for me.
My fondest memories of home are gathering with our family for Sunday lunch. My sister and I are trying to continue this tradition with our Dad. Our Mom died two years ago but had Alzheimer’s for ten years before her death.
Home.
A place where the traveling scent of comfort slowly draws you in.
Where the broken-in comfy couch holds the ones you love, all wrapped in blankets and smiles.
Gatherings of noise, laughter, and celebration…. Woven Goodness held together by sacred shared memories.
Marian, congratulations on your new book! I can’t wait to read it! And what an amazing collaboration between you and your friends with this gracious giveaway! Crossing my fingers here in SC!
Christy
Marian, This is an amazing giveaway. Thank you, from all your readers! One of my favorite memories of home is walking home from church on Sunday, and the house smelling of the roast with carrots, potatoes and onions roasting in the oven all morning. Ahh, we were always starving! We grew up in a small town, and walking to a from church is such a small town activity. My second memory also revolves around food. 🙂 Sunday nights were popcorn and movie night. This is a tradition we carry on with our children to this day. And they are now in their late 20’s and early 30’s! But they come home every Sunday night. Who would want to miss it??
I grew up in rural central Virginia in a 1924 farm house. We were farmers and grew acres of tomatoes, as well as other vegetables. I have fond memories of late nights canning tomatoes and making juice in the kitchen with my mother. Yes, lots of hot squirting juice and no air conditioning in the late summer, but working side by side with my dear sweet mom is a memory I cherish!
My favorite memory is of my days at my Grandparent’s farm. Every morning I would help my Granny bake bread. She would have me make a small load as well. Then in the afternoon we would slice my mini loaf. I would serve it and my Granny would pour “Peter Rabbit” tea from a Beatrix Potter decorated tea pot.
My fondest memories of home are sitting around the dining table, enjoying a wonderful meal and great conversation with my family. This is such a great giveaway! Thanks for doing it!
Because I don’t have many fond childhood memories, I have had to be very intentional in creating a safe, loving environment for my family. I have always been inspired by design and strive to make our home cozy and beautiful. Your blog and books have always spoken to me. Making memories are in my present even when absent from my past. Thank you.
Too many joyful memories of home to write just one, but many of the occasions often include my gaggle of five sisters (we often refer to ourselves as the sorority- no brothers) and my sweet parents. My father is a talented pianist/organist and music was always part of the mix in our home. Hymns, carols, musicals and oldies around the baby grand are a favorite memory. We often sang together and always had a few friends chiming in. I in fact met my husband (of 47 years) at a Christmas choir practice. My mother was a constant supporter and always had enough Sunday dinner to accommodate extra friends. I found you blog a few years and have so enjoyed it. I’m a sewer- made my first garment at age 11 (with the help of my oldest sister) and have sewing ever since. Even making my own and a sister’s wedding dress. Quilting (hand not machine) has also become a passion. I just completed a quilt for our most recent grandson (#24) last month. I preordered “Feels like Home” as soon as I could, because it’s embodies so much of what my home experiences have. I’m looking forward to 10/12/21 and can’t wait to enjoy it. Thank you for sharing your sweet blog and life?
I have many fond memories of the almost fifty years of making our houses feel like home. The most recent is when my husband and I finished installing a beadboard ceiling on our screen porch this past spring. We had talked about this project ever since we bought our house seven years ago and knew it would really complete the room. It was quite the undertaking but we were both so happy with how it turned out, and really happy when we finally finished, lol.
My favorite memory was walking in the house after school and smelling what my mother had baked. We loved her strudel, pies, cakes and cookies. Something about mom and her kitchen I miss and didn’t appreciate when growing up.
My fondest memory of home is not one specific thing, but a gestalt of feelings, sensations, and experiences as part of a loving family with two parents who did their best at all times for the five of us kids. There was a peace in our home that was based on the knowledge that we all were loved and accepted as we were, not on some level of performance or conformity. I will always be grateful to my mom and dad for this, and I tried to create the same atmosphere as my husband and I raised our boys.
Every one of these things, except the Bluetooth speaker, reminds me of my grandmother. My mother and she made quilts. My grandmother had a cast iron wood-burning cook stove which was the center of her home. The coal oil lamps dimly lit the room and my grandfather “saucered and poured” his coffee into her blue and white dishes to cool it some.
My fondest memories are childhood memories. I had 3 sisters and 1 brother and we were just one year apart. We loved Christmas Eve when Santa would arrive. We had very little material wise and were thrilled with whatever we received. The evening ended by going to midnight mass – the only time all year that we were allowed to stay up late. Life was simple but so memorable.
My current home is my favorite of all the homes I’ve had. It’s not big or fancy, it’s cozy and wraps around me. The light filters in my bedroom window around the tree outside just perfectly. And probably my fondest memory will always be the way “my” blue room just envelops me and surrounds me with all my paintings, tchotchkes and books that I love. Thank you and your friends for this incredible giveaway!
My grandparents had a fishing cottage in northern Minnesota for a good part of my growing-up years. It was tiny, but some of my best memories are of cramming our family of seven along with the grandparents, and sometimes even a few cousins, into that cabin for a week every summer. Fresh-caught bluegills with cracker crumb breading for dinner followed by card games like “Hearts” or “Spoons” at the linoleum-topped drop-leaf kitchen table sent us to bed with full bellies and happy memories!
I have so many memories of the small farm I bought at age 40: walking out to the orchard to get a fresh peach for breakfast…homegrown apple cider in the fall…the sound of the wind in the pines I planted … redbuds in spring. Staring up at a million stars on a cold January night…25 years of memories
I’m a thousand miles further south now trying to make a new home but not much progress. Your words and photos make it seem a little more possible.
I moved into my grandparents’ home on the family farm after they passed. I have so many fond memories of time spent here with them as a child. I’m lucky to be able to live here now. Such a wonderful giveaway! And I can’t wait to get your book!
What a generous giveaway! Any one of these items would be awesome by itself, but all of them together is unbelievable! My favorite memory of home is watching my husband teach our little girls(now both in college) how to bread fish whenever we had a family fish fry. It was one girl’s job to be the “dipper” and one to be the “breader”. It was special bonding time cooking with their father when they were growing up. You can’t get those kind of memories at a restaurant!
So many fond memories. The most recent statement which came from my husband after being in the hospital for a week. He had open heart surgery for the second time in ten years. He got in the house and said…I really like our home, it’s so cozy and organized and decorated so nice! That statement is definitely going to be a fond memory. Love all you do!
We’ve just recently sold our late 1800’s farmhouse that we’ve called home for the past 42 years, I’m posting this comment with tears in my eyes. We tragically lost our 34 year old son this past December, needless to say the memories have been flooding through my heart and mind as we pack a lifetime of contents and prepare to leave it all behind. The first memory that came to mind was my 3 beautiful children riding their first bikes on our large wrap around porch with wooden floor boards and the sound that the tires made as they raced back and forth for hours on end! My husband built gates at the front and back steps, which made it a gigantic play pen for them as toddlers.
My childhood home was very small with no basement and since I am an only child it was just the 3 of us. My favorite memory is when my dad would put on his orange down coat, Chicago Bears knit hat and boots and head out in the snow to our shed to bring in the cardboard boxes of Christmas decorations! I can still remember the smell of those decorations, something like old plastic mixed with traditional Christmas smells that I sometimes still get a whiff of today when I open some of my bins now (which are stored in bins stacked in the finished basement – no trip out to the shed anymore!). But no matter how small our house was or how small of a family we were, that will always be my favorite feeling of home.
My fondest memories of home
are when the family all gathers . The holidays, the barbecues with the seasonal recipes handed down from Grandma to Mom and now to us always brings a tear of joy .We are very blessed with health and love
Thats the greatest comfort.
I have followed u
I have followed you from the beginning and meet you at Lucketts market You are incredibly genuine and kind
Thank you for this incredible offer
My favorite memories of home are the early days with my daughter. Those are LONG days (and nights!) but I mainly remember rocking in the nursery at night with only dappled moonlight coming in the windows. We had wind chimes hanging from a tree branch and the summer breeze would rustle the branches and we could hear soft sounds as we rocked. And rocked. And rocked. 🙂
Your book looks so lovely! Your home’s transformation over the past few years has been remarkable.
My childhood home was very small with no basement and since I am an only child it was just the 3 of us. My favorite memory is when my dad would put on his orange down coat, Chicago Bears knit hat and boots and head out in the snow to our shed to bring in the cardboard boxes of Christmas decorations! I can still remember the smell of those decorations, something like old plastic mixed with traditional Christmas smells that I sometimes still get a whiff of today when I open some of my bins now (which are stored in bins stacked in the finished basement – no trip out to the shed anymore!). But no matter how small our house was or how small of a family we were, that will always be my favorite feeling of home.
What a beautiful and generous giveaway – Thank you!! My feeling or take on home is one of comfort. It can be either when I am at my home, or a friend’s. The feeling that you are wholly accepted, loved, and supported is such a comfort. You can curl up on the sofa knowing that it’s OK to put your feet on it and just relax. Home = Comfort in my mind.
I was so blessed to grow up with a God loving Mama. All of my youth until I lost her at age 99, was filled with examples of love, grace, hard work and unlimited devotion to those she loved. Mama could cook like a chef, sew like a tailor, paint like an artist and garden with the best of them. She made all my prom dresses and most of my school clothes. She could throw a family dinner or party dressed in heels and a satin outfit and make the centerpiece from cedar branches from the yard, moistened and dipped in flour with candles placed in the center. Talk about making something from nothing! She was a great believer in service and volunteered at the Salvation Army one day a week until she turned 90. She was awarded a lovely plaque and told no one! We found it after she passed. As you can see, humility was another of her traits. Such an incredible Mama, teacher and believer who gave me so many wonderful memories, much like many of the things you share with us on your blog. It is simply impossible to choose one.
Another great giveaway! I love the green quilt, as green is my favorite color. It would look great in my newly painted living/dining room. There are so many great memories in my home. My grandfather built it, my mother was born and raised in the home, I was raised in the same house and my father died here. So it is filled with memories. It’s a family home that I never want to leave.
My best memory of home involves the holidays, and my mother’s efforts to make them special despite having little money to spend. She was an excellent cook and made sure to treat us to special holiday foods. At Christmas she baked her signature frosted brown sugar cookies that were delicious – soft and tender and so very good. One year she gave us things that had been hers. I received a gold cross with a tiny diamond in its center, my sister received a silk scarf with the Eiffel tower printed on it, and my brother had a book about a dog. She had a story for each item, so we felt very lucky to get such grown up gifts. My mother managed to make what could have been a sad Christmas into one that was very special.
Some of my best memories of home are working in the kitchen with my mother and also helping her decorate the house for the different seasons. Now, I am doing the same with my daughter and hope she has the same wonderful memories of home!
What fantastic giveaways! I have so many memories of being outside playing with my sister. In the Deep South, you can be outside almost 12 months of the year. Fruit trees and pecan trees decorating our back yard in Georgia.
One of my best childhood memories was of my Daddy cooking breakfast for all of us while my Mama got ready to go teach school. When he would call us to come downstairs, my oatmeal and toast were already sitting on the kitchen table. It’s taken a lot of years but my husband has finally figured out that he can start my day with a smile by doing breakfast for me like this on weekends.
Some of my fondest home memories take place around various tables…meals, games, laughter, story-telling, dessert, even learning to pay bills. All happened at the kitchen table. Thank God my parents insisted on having the evening meal together when we could! I’ve carried on the tradition with my children. Thx for the memory and the generous giveaway-I’m already half-way through the book and have completed two projects I’ve been putting off. Marion, you’re a wonder!
My favorite childhood memories are all home-made! Literally! I can still see our Mother in the kitchen cooking, baking, preserving, and our Dad, right beside her, helping as much as he could and enjoying every minute. Our home was unique because our Mom was endlessly creative and sewed everything; from window curtains to hand embroidered dresser runners. Our gardens were amazing too. Our Dad had the greenest thumb and our family enjoyed countless dinners together, under the grape arbor, in our Father’s garden. Dad and Mom worked together to decorate too! Our home was a feast for the eyes for Thanksgiving, Hallowe’en and Christmas. Sitting in my parents house, at any time of the year, felt warm and cozy and loved. If houses could hug, our home did. It was a very simple, but special life. Thank you for the opportunity to share memories of my childhood. And thank you for the giveaway.
What wonderful friends to help you celebrate your new book! In my mother’s home we all enjoyed having tea and my daughters still fondly remember tea parties at Grandma’s house.
Congratulations on your new book! What a wonderful giveaway! My best memory of home is rocking my baby son (40 years ago) and feeling so happy and safe in my little home.
the smell of sunday roast chicken
My fondest memory of home is my attic bedroom when I was a teenager. I loved being in my private space, away from my brothers and up in the treetops. Would love to win this incredible giveaway. I am a quilter myself so I understand what a beautiful gift just that item would be, not to mention all the other wonderful things you’ve included here.
It’s hard to narrow down just one moment as a favorite in a life time of favorite moments at home, but one re-occurring special moment is on Christmas Eve when my husband and our seven children gather together around the fireplace, enjoy our annual picnic style meal on a blanket on the floor with charcuterie, cocktail meatballs, fruit, and chocolate oranges. We then open themed pajamas (normally sweats bottoms with some kind of matching or themed tshirt, since when you are buying for 9, it has to be something that can be worn past Christmas Eve, haha). We read the Christmas story from Luke, favorite Christmas books—I always cry at the end of the Polar Express, and the kids act out the Night Before Christmas poem. It’s silly and fun. Three of our seven have launched from our home, but it’s “our year” this Christmas and two will be back with their new spouses, so it will be 11 pairs of pajamas this year!!!
Like Marion, I do a lot of work to my home myself and am proud of what I have accomplished. But at the end of the day, it’s all about those kids and my husband and the memories we make together.
This giveaway is fabulous. I have to say I swooned over your studio/office space. It spoke to me. I love old furniture repurposed to use in ways that fit our modern life. Antiques are so important to making a house feel homey to me! And they do not have to be “fine”!! Just have meaning and look loved. I adore a wonderful scented candle, a fire in the fireplace, cozy fall and winter evenings at home. Soup cooking and maybe some cornbread in the oven. That speaks of home to me.
My favorite memory of home is thinking of all the things that my mom did for me. She made a bunny cake, died food green for St. Patrick’s Day, and made me countless skirts and found different shirts and sweaters to match. She had beautiful antiques and I am happy to have inherited some of them.
I have so many wonderful memories from home but one of my very favorites was watching out the beautiful picture window in the front room, anxiously awaiting my grandparents arrival to celebrate the holidays. We would squeal in delight when their car came into sight, it meant the wait was over and it was time to celebrate for days with our favorite people.
Durning cold winter months in the Pacific Northwest my family would sit around the fireplace having chess tournaments. We would sip tea or coffee, my mom would often read aloud different books while my siblings and father would see who had the most cunning strategies. That is my fondest memory of home.
My husband and I live in the farmhouse where his mother was born and raised. When our own kids were little, my parents-in-law would come over to visit on the front porch. One summer, two of my mother-in-law’s sisters were visiting and we all sat on the porch enjoying the summer evening. I listened in fascination as they told stories of their childhoods during the Great Depression and described farm life during that era. Threshers would come cut the wheat (I live in Kansas – the wheat state) and the girls would help their mother prepare huge meals to feed all of the men. A rustic framed mirror hangs in my living room that they used to hang in a tree for the men to use while washing up for their meals. Those visits and stories are priceless to me!
Home is more than a place and smaller than the vast memories it produced.
I grew up in a tiny 1800s Kansas homestead house on a gravel road at the edge of town. My playhouse was an unused cowshed, my cupboards gutted oak cases of crank-style telephones Daddy brought home from work, my dishes empty walnut shells I rescued from the yard.
We had little in the way of material goods—but laughter and love overflowed.
Even now, I thrive on the recollections.
Thank you for providing an amazing giveaway—and the opportunity to reminisce.
One of the fondest memories of home is when my mother showed my sister and l how to make pecan brittle from the pecans we gathered in the backyard. To this day when l pass a pecan stand I think of my departed mother with such love for making my childhood special.
Really, again with excluding your Canadian and international friends and followers! So disappointing! You surely will have to do something to make it up to us non US residents, Marian!
I’m absolutely overwhelmed by all the incredible nostalgia unfolding at the launch of your newest book! And the wonderful gifts are just that–wonderful! I grew up in Virginia and loved the Fall when the leaves changed colors and we celebrated the Autumn holidays–Halloween and Thanksgiving. And so many of the items you’re giving away lend themselves to display during those very holidays. They make me feel warm and cozy, just like when I was growing up in Virginia.
My fond memories of home were during the holidays. My mom always made it special and magical. My father died when I was young and she was a single parent raising two children. My mother died 5 years ago and the holiday memories are still cherished.
What a beautiful array of items for the home! ❤️
I really enjoy having family over for holidays. The decorating and meal preparation all add to the ambiance of our time spent together.
My home is feels the visual equivalent of a song being out of tune. We’ve not prioritized making it visually pleasing. It is easy to get depressed about it, especially when it all had to be rearranged and repurposed to accommodate working from home during Covid. It didn’t feel like home, or anywhere I even wanted to be most of the time. As precautions have eased up, my now-9 year old granddaughter came to visit last weekend. She walked in for the first time in over a year and soon said “Oh, I love how your house smells. This is how I remember your house.” It’s not an aroma that is anything special, likely a mix of pine cleaner, dog fur, and food, but for her, it means she is loved and welcome and important.
Home to me is family noise and the smell of food cooking. My mom made the best family dinners. We would eat, drink sweet tea and talk. The first year we were married my hubby gained 30 pounds from eating at my moms. She loved cooking and watching him enjoy! He would be the clean up person, not the dishes but the food!
This giveaway speaks to my heart and memories of my mom and my home! So excited for your book and the friends that have given sweet treats!!
Some of my favorite memories of home are from the holidays…all of the family togetherness at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Thinking of the music, the scents and sweet ambiance that each holiday brings! Can’t wait for your new book, Marian!
When I think I have a “Fondest Memory”, another one show up!!!
Thank you very much for so many opportunities to win treasures.
What a fabulous giveaway… every single item has a story and feels like home! You have wonderful friends to be so caring and generous, you are a blessed woman!
Being a Minnesotan, my memories revolve around family, up-north on the lake most summer weekends and winter weekends on the ‘frozen lake’. One of our family favorites is the Wild Rice soup (chicken or turkey at Thanksgiving)… we are spread across the country now but when we do get together we always enjoy making the soup and reminiscing about ‘up-north’.
Looking thru your lovely gifts evoked a memory of a brown turkey platter that my mother used to serve our Thanksgiving turkey on. It was an inexpensive piece but I know my mother was proud to have this lovely piece in our home. Those days were way before Pinterest but I remember my mother setting a festive table for the holidays along with help from my father. Our house was always full of our very loving Italian family with many traditions that I
am still passing onto my family!
Gosh I so wish I had your talent. I want to elicit your home vibes here I know what I love but don’t know how to accomplish it. I am amazed at what you have created at your new home. After your last old home I was like this one is sooo different. But let me tell you, you’ve nailed it! I’ve been a long time follower and love seeing all your creative talents.
Minnesota gal here. I have tons of memories. Playing cards with Family is a huge one.
We were outside kids so spent a lot of time sliding, skating and skiing in the winter – swimming, biking, camping or neighborhood games in the Summer. A great childhood!
Thank you Marian & Friends for such a fabulous giveaway! That beautiful quilt reminds me of my favorite memories of home, although we didn’t quilt! Both of my great grandmothers did quilt (I am fortunate enough to have some remnants of their quilts!) & my maternal grandmother learned all forms of sewing crafts including quilting & did practice that art as a young girl & early adulthood. She taught my mother & me to crochet, embroidery, knitting & she also excelled in tatting, an art I wanted to learn but waited too late in her life to have her teach me. She taught us these skills in her cozy home, my mom’s home where I lived until I married & also several of our homes together after our marriage. My mother (& me too) taught our daughter sewing skills when she was young. One of favorite pictures is of my mom teaching our daughter to knit in our home! The colors in our home are blue, green, golden mustard, beige, &?coral so the gorgeous quilt would be a perfect addition to our home; only wish my mother & grandmother were still with us to have a chance to win also!
My parents moved to Minnesota when the got married. My mother grew up in NYC and my father in South Bend. They had no family nearby so I think my parents instilled in me that your friends are an extension of your family. My mother would invite anyone who didn’t have family in town for Christmas, Thanksgiving, really any occasion. You never knew who was going to be there. The table was always beautiful with lovely dishes and beautiful foods. My parents were doing “Friendsgiving” before it was even a thing. I never felt bad that I didn’t have family in Minnesota, I just felt lucky that we could share our traditions with others.
Thank you so much for the giveaway! This post has introduced me to some wonderful new resources and provided much inspiration.
Thinking about my fondest memory of home has certainly made me recall many, many precious memories. My daughter gifted me a wall hanging that says “home is where your mom is”. This is so very true! My memories include all the special things that mom did to show her love to all of us growing up. The meals she prepared, the homemaking she did to make us all so comfortable and well cared for. Holiday celebrations were especially a favorite time of the year.
Thank you for this post and the reminder of home and all of my blessings!
My best memories are all the good smells of great homemade recipes…. On the sofa or in my room deep into a good book with one of my grandmothers quilts wrapped around me…… Drawing and painting and crocheting.
As always, you out do on your giveaways. Happy launch!!!! ….I know it will be a BIG success.
My favorite memory of home includes warm towels from the dryer, the sound of rain on our window panes, and my mother’s cheddar dumplings and stewed tomatoes on the stove. As an adult, home has become more about the people that fill my life and less about objects, nonetheless these memories of my youth still comfort me.
I was an Air Force brat so we moved every few years, but home to me was the comfort of coming home on a chilly day to the smell of a delicious dinner, firewood smoke in the air, and a warm house. I am picturing a place we lived in Virginia. The woods were nearby, and in the spring, there were daffodils everywhere. I still love their smell. I guess smells really take me to places that I can’t go – I don’t have those childhood spots.
I live in the home my parents purchased for our family when I was 10 years old. My mother lived here continuously from that time until she passed away 4 years ago. Our cove has 10 houses, and two other current neighbors grew up here with me. My favorite memories are playing in the house and woodsy yard when we first moved to the house in the early fall. I built an oven in the backyard from leftover bricks and would pretend to cook and bake. I loved playing school in our den and spent hours organizing school supplies on my mother’s old metal tea cart. This time of year always takes me back to those fun and formative days.
Thank you for this amazing giveaway and thank you also for helping me stop and take time to think of wonderful memories of home! When my kids were really young, I have the best memories of sitting on the couch with them on my lap and cuddled around me, reading to them. I still have all of their favorites, even though they’re 17, 19, and 21, as I dream of having grandchildren someday.
What is home to me?? My mother and the many ways she made each holiday special through food, her established traditions—many that I carried to my home and passed on to my children—and her gift giving to anyone who visited in our home. No one left our home with empty hands. One of her gifts to me as a child at Thanksgiving each year was to involve me in the creation on her yummy dressing. It was made from leftover cornbread, bread and crackers, onions, celery, hot broth and sage—lots of sage! I was her taster, and she and I shared that moment discussing the high points of that year’s batch!! Even today, I love the pre baked version of dressing to the baked!! That experience epitomizes home for me!
Favorite memory of home was a neat, organized and beautifully decorated home. We didn’t have a lot of money, but my mom made our home a lovely place to live with family keepsakes, a few inherited antiques and garage sale furniture and Knick knacks
Some of my fondest memories of home are gathering together with family to celebrate the holidays. Eating together and spending time together are precious memories!
I remember when I was eleven, my father lost his job. My Mother told my sister, Barbara and I that it would be a lean Christmas. Barbara and I used our babysitting money to buy the tree that year. Although not expecting anything under the tree, somehow my Mother scraped together enough money to buy me the hand mirror, brush, and comb set I had fallen in love with at Woolworth’s. That Christmas is one I’ll never forget and there have been 77 of them.
I will always love the feeling of being outside in the cold and walking into a warm house. And if the smell of something yummy baking in the oven greets you with the warmth that’s just the cherry on top!
I love absolutely everything in this giveaway. Your blog feels like home. That sounds so corny I know, but your calm and gentle spirit and a shared affinity for places and people etc feels very familiar and comfortable to me. Congratulations on your new release!
Well, who wouldn’t want to share a favorite home memory? I’m a Southern Summer lover. I live in the Northwest now and still miss barefoot sleeveless evenings. As for my memory? I’d have to say walking down the hallway from my room to sounds and smell of my mom’s supper on the stove, then heading out to sit barefoot on the front steps and wait for my dad to come home from work. To just sit and soak in the shadows, the fireflies, the slowness of the day closing. And then watch my dad pull up in the drive. He’d gather his overcoat and briefcase and join me on the steps. We’d chat a bit about nothing and everything. Then I’d use two hands to carry his briefcase in while he went straight to the kitchen to kiss my mother. I still have that briefcase. It sits by my secretary and I cherish the memories – and the dreams – it will always hold.
My fondest memory of home was the smell of yeast bread rising every day in our kitchen. My mother would make a batch of yeast rolls for dinner every night to feed my 3 older brothers, my father, my sister, and myself. They never went to waste, as friends were always welcome at the dinner table. The yeasty smell of rising dough and then the baking pieces of bread were always something I associate with being in that well-worn, but well-loved, kitchen space.
Bringing home my baby girls for the first time. Our home was far from done with the first and not much further before the second?♀️, after 10 yrs there’re still projects to finish,lol. It doesn’t matter. We are a family in a home we are making together.??
When I was 8yo, my 6yo sister and I got some pink princess phones with a long cord that allowed us to talk to each other. That was a very long time ago , so it was super special and I have never forgotten that morning.
My fondest memories are the smells of bread and cinnamon buns baking! My mother made Betty Crocker look like she couldn’t find the kitchen! She was always having me trot things over to the neighbors so they got to enjoy them as well. She had the TINIEST kitchen, but it was always backed full with kids and a large dog. I can still remember it all so vividly!
One of my favorite memories of home and growing up was how my brothers and I got to spend our birthdays. On our special day we got to choose our birthday cake (mine was always chocolate cake with white gooey icing with coconut) and have a friend over for dinner. The present that was most special to me and still have was an aquamarine birthstone ring. It was wrapped up and placed in my cereal bowl at breakfast! Best birthday ever!
My favorite memory of home is the feeling I had getting off the school bus knowing my mom would be home. I ran all the way to the door and couldn’t wait to see her and listen to her tell me about her day and I shared the same with her.
Most of my fondest memories are of my mother being in the kitchen stirring up something good for our family. She was an amazing cook-especially when it came to making desserts. It seemed like our house smelled of something baking every day. I didn’t realize then just how important her doing that for our family was. To this day, certain smells take me back to my childhood. “Feels Like Home” would be the perfect title to my childhood memories. Looking forward to soaking up your book!
My fondest memory of home is my sweet Momma baking her yeast rolls almost daily. She would always get the first one right out of the oven and have her knife ready with some butter on it. The smell and taste were beyond amazing. Sadly I cannot replicate them. If only… There’s no place like home!
My mom would always make us treats most nights. Peanut butter fudge was my favorite but fried green tomatoes was a close second. She even tried to make potato chips and then never did that again lol.
Mostly I dreamed of playing house for real someday
And being with family..and catching fireflies
My best memory of home was at the Christmas holidays–my mother always baked cookies and gave each of us some dough to shape and decorate as we liked. We always had a real tree that we spent hours decorating; and one year, Santa Claus brought us all a bicycle–my poor father was up all night putting 4 bicycles together so that they were under the tree when we got up that morning–the whole living room was full–it was crowded but really wonderful and 50 years later I can still see that Christmas in my mind.
My fondest memories of home are the ones we have created for extended family ever since we moved in my husband’s grandparent’s house. This house is very old, but what makes the memories are the family reunions that have been held here every year but one (hello covid) for generations now. We have anywhere from 80 to 120 family members come each year for dinner on the grounds here on Saturday, then at the Church on Sunday. Over 2 days, we fry over 75 pounds of chicken, cook 3 hampers of fresh peas, pick and cut off and cream about 125 ears of fresh corn, 15 gallons of sweet tea, 5 of unsweet, and I cannot begin to list all the desserts. Lots of work but oh how it makes so many happy.
My fondest memory of home is time spent with family. So many special times I can’t pick just one!
Dear Marion,
When I preordered your book on April 13, I never dreamed I’d be nursing a broken ankle, stuck in a wheelchair! (I fell from the attic ladder trying to move a heavy box.) I’m doing everything I can to keep my mind busy. I’ve learned to even wash dishes by leaning against the cabinet. Needless to say, I can’t wait for your book to arrive, and I look so forward to your blog each day. I’m a boy mom too!
We live on a small ranch in Texas. When my husband retired, we left our beautiful old 1922 house that we had lovingly restored ourselves. Moving into a 1979 rancher wasn’t my dream, but the space and green pastures were a smart tradeoff with a teenage boy that loves the outdoors. Slowly but surely, the old rancher is coming around. My blue and white dishes, antiques and family treasures make it feel like home. It’s different from everyone else’s house, and folks LOVE to visit.
My son often brings home a pack of teenage boys to fish after school. One burly boy said, Ms. Katie, I wish I could live here.” Melted my heart of course.
It’s been a downer to lose October to a broken ankle, but I will heal. Thanks for being such a bright spot in my day. It’s like a girlfriend pops in to visit, share a recipe or idea every afternoon!
Congratulations on the new book. I’ll be ordering more I’m sure for Christmas gifts!! I can’t wait till Tuesday!
What an amazing give-a-way. Christmas morning with my kids is probably at the top of my list, especially this last year. We went through so many crises, so many hospital stays. We had a new baby in January 2020 last Christmas it felt like we’d reached a place of peace and stability. There isn’t anything too exceptional beyond what kids dream of, full stockings, presents under the tree, little kittens running around – a full house and moments of rest to savor it, that is the absolute best.
It sounds like we all have a special place called home.
One of my favorite home memories is of the short notice wedding reception in our front yard. It started as 25-30 people and grew to over 90. It was so nice and what our daughter always wanted.
We decided to have a “sequel “ party for more friends and relatives that didn’t make it to the first one.
Our home hugs us when we come home.
I have so many wonderful memories of home, having grown up in a very small town in SC. Sunday dinners were special, as was Mama’s layer cake with the old fashion boiled chocolate icing that I’ve never had much success duplicating. And any memory of home includes Mama always sewing our clothes, sometimes long into the night, because she had to work full time too. She was an extremely talented person and could find a good way to do almost anything – sorta like you. ?. Neither my sister nor I inherited her talents. Going to the family farm to cut a Christmas tree was a big deal too. All year until Christmas, Daddy would keep an eye out for well shaped trees on the farm for us and others in the family. Then the whole bunch of us would go and cut down our trees. They were always cedar trees, because that’s all we had besides straggly pines. Those cedars scratched up our hands so bad when we were decorating them! Wish I could have shared some of those memories with my boys, but times change, and different memories come about.
What a wonderful giveaway!
My fondest memory of home was the day I brought my son home from the hospital.
My fondest memories of home is sitting around the dinner table with my family as a child and also now …finding out how everyone’s day went while we all sit down to a meal as a family.
What wonderful gifts you have in your giveaway! Since I moved around a lot when I was growing up, traditional memories of home do not exist – especially fond ones. However, as I got older my friends families became second home to me. I learned to make Christmas cookies and paint them while listening to stories they shared about one another from earlier days. Woven into my life is sitting around a tablecloth covered wooden table in a cozy, organized kitchen painting cookies cut from cutters my friends mother had collected since she was first married. It was cold and snowing outside, but in that kitchen there was a glow and it permeated my very being. It has never left and I am so thankful for the kindness of my friend and her family for doing what a family does best – share love.
My fondest memories of home are my mother’s cooking and baking. She made great meals – some Italian (part of her heritage) and others from cook books or simple and nutritious meals her mother had made. They were always balanced. Sometimes, she would misjudge our hunger, and there wouldn’t be enough for seconds. So, out came the peanut butter and jelly, and we’d finish off the meal that way. Most of the time, our hunger was satisfied. She always had a Plan B, if not. I miss my mom. Her birthday was two days ago, and she would have been 85, but she died of Covid at the very beginning of the year. She’s on my mind frequently.
Oh, my goodness! This is my favorite giveway!! Such wonderful treasures.
I’m sharing a memory of my grandmother’s home. My family moved a lot, so I didn’t have a “childhood” home, but grandma’s house was always there. Every summer I stayed with her for a few weeks. “My” room had the pretty homemade dressing table, with pink organza and white tulle, covering the base of barrels and leftover boards from some unknown project. You would never know what was underneath – it was dreamy.
Memories of home for me are when we would gather at my grandmas every Sunday for treat time. My family, my aunt, uncle and cousins would gather and talk about our week and life in general. We crammed into her dining room and enjoyed tge stories and different treats she made each week.
I’m from New England and I had to be away from there for awhile to realize that a big part of home for me is the landscape of seasons, forests and ocean I grew up with. Playing in the woods in summer, making snowmen and sledding in winter. Raking leaves to jump in and watching for the first crocuses in spring.
My best memory from home is reading the Sunday paper. My dad would be in his recliner and I was stretched out on the couch. When he was done with a section I would go get it to read. I remember the house being so quiet and peaceful. There were six of us and now there is only me.
Like so many, my favorite memories involve my mother. There are so many but one in particular is how my mom made my birthday cake each year. She would make a “cut up cake” which meant that you made a regular sheet cake but then cut it into pieces to create a shape. As my birthday generally fell near Easter many times the shape would be a bunny. Then Mom would make the best homemade icing and edible decorations like gumdrops and jelly beans to create the bunny’s face and ears!
The book looks awesome. My fondest memory is having my boys and grandkids come for a visit, I don’t get to see them as often as I would like because I am in Texas and they are in California and Pennsylvania.
Thanks for all you do, I have followed your blog for years and am amazed by your talents.
My fondest memories of home are the family dinners we had at my mom and dad’s house when all the family were in town. We shared stories and memories, played games and laughed until we cried!!!
This is an amazing giveaway! Thanks for sharing the goodies!!
Marian, I cannot imagine a give away any more wonderful!! Each & every item brings up some kind of memory. I can hardly wait to receive your book.
My sister, cousin & I used to spend time at my grannie’s house in the mountains of Virginia. She lived in a tiny house & had very little materially but we couldn’t have been happier playing house in tents we made with sheets over the fence or playing in the corn shed with the cows outside watching us – collecting fresh eggs from the hen house – so many wonderful memories. As an adult I realize how hard a life she had, but we never felt that – only love from her.
My fondest memory of Home…is just that…Home. Home was the place where you learned how to cook from your Mum. Home was the place that you came to every day after school. Home was the place that you were safe. Home was the place that you grew with your brothers and sisters. Home was the place that when you woke up on Christmas morning with a ribbon tied around your ankle leading you to your biggest gift. Home was the place that you waited in for your mum to come home with your baby brother…and so many more Home memories that I will treasure. My Home today is still that…although now I am cooking my Mum’s recipes for me and my husband or for the holidays now that Mum can no longer do it. My Home is where I come to every day after work…greeted by my 5 furbabies. My Home today is where I feel safe with my husband. Home is a word that really needs no explanation…it just is.
Marian, what a thoughtful and beautiful collection of special items have been included in this giveaway! It was fun to think back on special memories of home and difficult to decide which one to share here! One of my favorite memories of home is each year, in early December, we would take our kids (adults now) to choose our family Christmas tree. We would go after dinner, when it was cold and dark outside, but the tree lot would be bright with lights and laughter. After much discussion. we would choose the “perfect tree”, then go home to a warm fire, hot chocolate, and decorate our tree! Remembering this and so many other sweet memories “feels like home” to me!!
Congratulations on your new book!! I’m looking forward to Tuesday when my copy should arrive!
Home memories bring to mind wonderful smells of cooking with lots of noise and laughter happening throughout the house! Home is like being wrapped in your favorite blanket!
I grew up on a farm where the lane was long and had cornfields on each side! The house had hardwood floors and a large farm kitchen. My favorite memory of home was that our farmhouse was often the place where Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were held with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
My goodness Marian! And it’s not even Christmas!!! What beautiful gifts!!!
One of my earliest memories of home was of warmth and comfort. We lived with my grandmother on the family farm as there weren’t many jobs when my dad returned from the Korean War. It was Saturday night and my single uncles were cleaning up for a night on the town. The cast iron tea kettle was steaming on the wood stove. A fresh pail of cold well water was next to heat. We had no indoor plumbing. A little more hot water was added to the galvanized tub by the wood stove, my bath was ready! I was maybe three at the time but the scents of ivory bar soap Vitalis hair oil and Old Spice shaving soap filled the farm kitchen. Just the thought of those aromas will carry me back over the six plus decades to a simpler time.
Most of my best memories of home involve learning to cook and bake from my mom, and then passing that love down to my kids. I especially remember baking Christmas cookies. It just isn’t Christmas without a platter of homemade cut out cookies and Mexican wedding cakes decorated with red and green sugar.
We lived out in the country, with an apple orchard between our house and that of our grandparents. My fondest memory is of Grandma Lila walking through the orchard, picking up apples and stowing them in her turned-up apron. She would then sit at our kitchen table and peel and slice the apples, preparing them for applesauce, or a crisp, or pie. This time of year, I make apple crisp or sauce or pie and breathe a ‘thank-you’ to Grandma Lila.
I remember my girlhood bedroom fondly. My Dad built custom bookshelves and I loved having a record player in my room. Would love to know if those bookshelves are still in my old home. Thank you for the wonderful giveaway!
My fondest memory is my Mother’s chocolate gravy. Playing with cousins till Mom’s made us come inside after catching fireflies. Sweet memories and you blog always make me think of those things. I love it.
My best memory is an old steamer trunk of my grandmothers, it still has a musty smell but I love it and now it sits in my home with all the cherished Memories of my own children.
I cherish fond memories of my grandma’s farmhouse kitchen with cookies baking, chicken and noodles bubbling on the stove, the old tea kettle whistling, cast iron cookware, her apron, quilts, embroidered tea towels, hot tea, laughs, singing, Grandma dancing the Charleston! Your style and esthetic bring those cherished memories flooding back.
I really enjoy everything you do!
My fondest memory of home is waking up late at night as a child and watching my parents slow dance by candlelight in our kitchen. My mother was an unapologetic homemaker and was dedicated to filling our house with wonderful smells, tastes, textures and, most of all, love.
We had a huge oval rag rug in our living room growing up. My brother and I loved putting a bagpipe record on the player, and racing around the rings of the rug, dancing like mad.
My fondest memory was the way my parents and grandparents combined love for me transformed my physical world growing up in rural Indiana in a town my Great-Great Grandpa named. I had arrived late in my parents’ lives and was their only child. We had the necessities and a little to spare, but my mother’s folks especially were not wealthy. I spent alot of time with them. They were born in the 1890’s and lived a Christian life in the same old house for over 50 years. Grandma had no modern conveniences, prepared meals out of a hoosier cabinet and old stove, sewed on a Singer treadle machine, and they even had an outhouse. I loved being around them, and appreciated things kids today would ridicule, or have never even seen. The clock hands moved slower and people were generally kinder to each other. I experienced many things that period of time required: cooking every meal at home with Grandma, learning specialized skills with your own hands, cool breezes through open summer windows, stoking the winter furnace with coal in the basement with Grandpa, a walk uptown to buy groceries in a store smaller than today’s master suites. It was an era where the world was a kinder place, which gave a child the solid security of Home. I could recognize God in everything around me. It really was like Mayberry. It made me truly grateful. And when I need to find peace in today’s chaotic and disturbing world, I close my eyes, return to my memories of that old house and the family who love me, and I am Home.
A favorite memory of home would be Thanksgiving day. Gathered with all my family, and many friends. All the yummy traditional foods and cozy cool weather. ?
Oh my gosh, that platter! Be still my heart.
Memories of home abound these days as my 96 year old mom passed away just last month. Most of my memories involve food and family, especially Sunday dinner when my maternal grandmother would join us. The food was never fancy, but always good. My dad would always have stories to share, and there was never a shortage of love. We were blessed.
My parents home was filled with the smell of homemade soup as we sat by a real coal fire in fall. Very cozy. We lived with my grandparents and I was an only child but had plenty of family surrounding me.
My favorite memory of home is my younger brother and me coming in from playing in the snow, taking our wet clothes off and sitting in front of the roaring fire that my mother had built for us. A mug of hot chocolate was waiting, too.
Thank you for the wonderful giveaway!
This is a crisp, sunshiny, perfect autumn day in my town—one of my happiest memories from home: when we’d walk home from school there were lots of leaves to shuffle through, chestnuts to pick up and put in our pockets, and when we arrived home our gram would just be taking cinnamon rolls from the oven—a home full of love, amazing aromas, and our gram offering a roll for a snack with a glass of cold milk!!!! My sister’s visiting, and we agree: one of the best memories, ever…………..
My fondest memory of home, among so many, is being allowed to decorate my bedroom myself. Although there wasn’t much money, my mother was very creative and with rit dye and dime store fabric I was allowed to follow my instincts and have a room with burgundy organza curtain cast offs from a friend and a burgundy chenille spread and burgundy, ivory and floral pillows. It cost little but gave me great confidence to later in life make bold choices of my own rather than following the ‘trends’ Marion, you encourage all your readers to do the same through your books, your tutorials, your recipes and your many talents. Thank you for being such a generous spirit to all of us!
Just way too many wonderful memories but one I loved was playing family bingo, each of us kids laying on the floor with our cards. If you won, you got a piece of butterscotch candy. To this day, butterscotch is still my very favorite.
Most of my favorite memories of home center around food and family dinners. My mom and dad made huge batches of the tastiest caramel popcorn for the six kids. Dad would turn the handle on an old fashioned popper on our stove while mom made the caramel topping.
We had a large dining room in our farmhouse and I can still picture us enjoying our mom’s oven baked beef roast complete with potatoes and carrots.
Thanks for the fabulous giveaway! I can hardly wait for your new book to show up in the mail!
My fondest memories are spending time with my grandmothers. One was a wonderful cook and we had many family meals around her table every Sunday after church. I was raised very close to my other grandmother. We lived on the same farm and she would take us fishing any time we asked. She also had many antiques and this is where I acquired my love for them. I inherited several quilts that were quilted by her mother and mother-in-law. The green quilt would look lovely in my one year old grandsons bedroom.
Hello Marian, I would have to say that my fondest memory of home were the large family holiday parties. The Fourth of July was my favorite, all the bbq, and cousins, and potato salad, cold, crispy watermelon, and the mid afternoon parade, followed by amazing fireworks and sparklers on the front yard. Small town celebrations are the best. Many thanks for your generous giveaway and your fellow business owners that share your generosity.
My fondest memory of home is from before we even had a house on our land. My dear husband was camping on our land, and when I drove up to see him, I found that he had cleared a lovely spot beside the brook for me to sit and enjoy. Some years later, we gave up the idea of building a home and bought the farm next door to our land. We now live in what my brother calls a “project house” and are enjoying the journey of making it ours.
Another fabulous giveaway!!
When I think of what home feels like, I always think of my grandparents home. They lived in a small house built in a stand of white birch trees. The house was surrounded with literally dozens of azalea and rhododendron as well as multiple beds of perennials. They had a U pick raspberry farm. As a teen, I’d go every morning, when they were in season, and pick raspberries, that my grandfather would take to the local markets to sell.
My grandmother was always baking, so their house smelled amazing. On any given day you’d find multiple kinds of cookies, pies and tarts to sample. As children we couldn’t wait to open the large, ceramic, red apple, cookie jar to discover what yummy treat we would find inside. My favorite was her molasses cookies. To me all of these things feel like home.
Family gatherings for special holidays! Coming together to cook, feast, to play games or even watch a great movie. My absolute favorite was when my mother visited a few years ago. My daughter was here with her family. It was a wonderful evening with food and a game of Monopoly with 8 players. The highlight of the evening was when I was released from jail only to be sent back immediately! I couldn’t tell anyone as I was laughing so hard I was crying!
My favorite memories were around Christmas. My mother was mainly Swedish and we always had Santa Lucia day on December13 with home baked saffron rolls for breakfast. Christmas Eve was always split pea soup, home made Limpa bread and ham and cheese. Christmas dinner was prime rib and fixings which was not Swedish but delicious. The house always smelled like pine and spices from baking. I keep most of the traditions still as does my younger sister. Tradition is wonderful.
I can’t decide on one favorite but eating dinner around the table with my 2 brothers and parents every night would have to be one. My Mama was an excellent cook. Even after working hard all day , she would come home and put a big dinner on the table for us. Playing in the pasture and down at the creek with my brothers would be another.
It has been fun reading the memories of home of these comments. My favorite memories are those from when our family of 12 gathered around the table. We always had good food and never, ever gathered in front of the TV. Other memories are singing with my sisters, such fun. Home is simple ordinary daily routines which add lasting memories. I will check more comments, this was a great way to enter such a well-rounded giveaway.
One of my most special memories of home was the freedom that my mom gave me to constantly “redecorate” my little bedroom. I was always moving my furniture around (although I think there was truly only about three ways that everything would fit). The room color must have changed fifty times. But always in the blue spectrum. My favorite of all the variations? Periwinkle walls with a white chenille bedspread. I can still remember how comforting and peaceful that room felt. Thank you, Mom. I will always miss you.
Two of my fondest memories are standing over the heat register in winter with warm air being captured by my skirt. It was the best way to get warm before running to the car for Sunday School and church. The other great memory is learning how to can jams and jellies with Mom in our galley kitchen.
Probably my favorite memory is family gathered around, Christmas Eve, while Mom read the second chapter of Luke, the story of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, to pay taxes and where Jesus would be born.
My favorite memory is receiving a Christmas gift from my Aunt two classic novels (The Count of Monte Christo and The House of the Seven Gables). I was 10 years old. My reaction was books, yucks. However this sparked my interest in reading. I still have the books 68 years later.
My favorite memory of my home is watching my baby’s first steps while listening to him babble.
Hi Miss. Your elegant, comfortable and classic style delights me. I am entering your give-a-way as a a formerly homeless first time homeowner. I was 1st homeless as a middle-schooler, and reading the evocative memories of your other entrants has given me a very familiar sense of joy and longing; forever and always for a nest to feather and share. Now owning my first home – a sturdy little house, 100 years old – I feel profound gratitude to the men who so thoughtfully built this little dwelling between wars. I also feel strongly the need to hold up my end, while I own this place: to care for it well, add details up to par – interior and exterior – and furnish it respectfully. Other than a chalk pastel my mother made for me before she passed, and the WW1 & WW2 archives of 2 families I do not know – I have no heirlooms to keep, care for, and pass along. (About the ephemera I’ve saved from the landfill – have you any suggestions on preserving/ displaying fragile photographs and love letters? Some of these photos are objectively art, and as small as the palm of my hand!)
Your Feels Like Home book giveaway is chock-a-block w beautiful and authentic items. Each would have a place, be of use, and help set the tone for my home. Whether I win or lose, I will remain a faithful fan and regular visitor. Thanks for the opportunity and for sharing your vision.
Wow this is a giveaway to swoon over! I am counting down the days until they mail my book. We purchased the home that we had been renting and it hasn’t been updated since it was built in the 70’s I’m hoping your book helps me find direction. We are starting by painting the outside this fall
Hi Elizabeth: Having read your comment, I salute you. Going from homelessness to home ownership is a truly wonderful accomplishment. It is also wonderful to see how Marion was able to turn a small painting business into something that gives so many of us joy every day. Thank you Marian and thank you Elizabeth for showing us what can be achieved even when we might start at a great disadvantage. God bless you both.
My fondest memories of home are tied to how home felt. My dad was in the Army and we called many different places home. While vastly different, each carried the same feelings because of the special things my mother made and collected over the years and the small close family with which I shared those homes. I’m so excited for your book!! You’ve almost convinced me to try Instagram with all of your recommendations.
Hi Elizabeth! (What are the odds?) Thanks very kindly for seeing my little testimony and taking your time to reply. The abstract plastic marketplace of the internet and what it has taken from tactile life (letters! photo albums! and more of course) has made many hungry for the aesthetic and actual-handmade-ality Miss Mustard Seed coins so well. It’s poetic you extended yourself to me because of her work. Thanks : )
Wow, another fantastic giveaway! My fondest memories are the summer’s spent with my grandparents in their beachfront summer cottage in Scituate MA. Endless days on the beach playing in the sand and sleeping with the windows open and listening to the waves of the ocean hit the beach. My precious grandmother set the bar for how I enjoy my own grands now. Forever grateful for such loving grandparents.
Marian so excited for you on your book, only a few more days to wait!
I love all my memories of time in my childhood home, 1924 farmhouse with a huge screened in front porch. My parents restored the home themselves (it took almost 3 years!) My fondest memory would be the many many holiday meals gathered around the big dinning room table, the same table my great-grandmother sat at to do her homework as a child. And listening to the stories my grandfather would tell time and time again.
Your decor style reminds me so much of my childhood home and the feeling of family time!
What a marvelous give-away! This is surely a time to celebrate!
My favorite memory of home is finally getting a room of my own. As the middle of three girls, I always had to share a room with my older or younger sister. When my dad built a new kitchen and bedroom onto our house, I was given the bedroom for my own. My mother made me curtains and a matching bedspread. I felt so lucky!
My fondest memory of home when my husband and I lived in a little duplex we rented. We were young and had just brought our brand new baby home. Family would drop by throughout the week and bring food. My husband took the week off and spoiled me. We all just enjoyed this beautiful new baby. To this day, I describe that as the best time/week of my life. That was almost 25 years ago. My husband has since passed away. My son is grown and working in another state. But that memory, of that special time in our little home, lives on in my heart.
My favorite memory of home are the holiday dinners for extended family and friends. After years of apartment living, i finally have a house with enough room.
Some of my fondest memories were at my Grandma Opal’s. We would sit out on her sunporch that was filled with all kinds of houseplants and we would rock and look out over her flower garden. I learned the names of different flowers from her when I was just a little girl,when we walked around her yard and she would point out different flowers and tell me the names. So my love of home….flowers and sun porches came from my visits to my Grandma Opal
It’s almost impossible to choose one, but my fondest memory of home is visiting my parents for Christmas once I was out on my own and had moved away. Seeing them at the front door, welcoming me back to everything familiar, with the house beautifully decorated for Christmas, the smell of the Christmas tree, and having my original family all in one place. There was so much love there.
My fondest memories of home are my mom and I as a teenager in the kitchen each evening after our supper/dinner. She would put the food away as I washed the dishes. Then she would dry and put them away. We talked about what was going on in my life, my brothers or whatever we wanted. It was a wonderful bonding time. Our kitchen was at the far end of the house where we could talk and my brothers and dad would be in the living room at the other end. Open homes don’t have places for private talks. I’ll keep my old fashioned multiple room home. Thank you.
Fondest memory of home…… Wow, so many. If I absolutely had to choose one, it would be a random day from my childhood in summertime. I was raised by my grandparents in a log home my grandfather built from the milled trees on the property. With a wallpapered kitchen, to a wagon-wheel chandelier in the dining room with French glass doors that lead to the full-length covered back porch. Having my MawMaw baking in the kitchen, to Papa working on his latest bulldozer overhaul in the barn, which was what felt like a day’s walk away from the house, to my mischievousness in the laundry room with the saloon doors a-clapping….. I just can’t nail down a single memory. They were all something that seems like a dream. Hoping I can curate a feeling like this for my family in the home we are building now. Something to the likeness of a family heirloom quilt with holes that are filled in with love and the smells of that log-home from my past.
Wow! What a beautiful collection…..I can feel how excited you are to be GIVING it. That is what makes you special, Marian, you exude joy!
My fondest memories of home are of both moving in and moving out. Having spent 30 years in the military we got used to making a house into a home, and leaving it. During those times when you just have the bare minimum, you realize that you don’t need all the stuff and also what a comfort it is when you receive it on the other end. Making a dinner table out of cardboard boxes that the kids had decorated and using packing paper for making game boards. Home, to me, is being with the people I love the most!
I think of a story I share about home and a defining time in my life that has forever changed my view of the world. It was around the kitchen table in a home I’d lived in for most of my life that I shared I wanted to live in Israel after returning from a quick holy land tour. Fast forward five years later, it was home where I shared it was a possibility for me to move overseas to Israel with my work. Fast forward three months later it was to home that I called to share I was moving to Israel. ? #dreamsfromhome
My mother was an excellent seamstress, and made almost all of our clothes. One of my fondest memories was waking up in the morning, and have the new dress hanging on the back of the door, which my mother had placed there while I was asleep. I know she sometimes stayed up until after midnight to get our dresses finished.
Growing up I had white chenille bedspreads on the twin beds in my room. I used to think they were old fashioned and wanted to be more like my friends. Looking back, they were just right. When I see them now, I think of home, my parents and all of the good times I had growing up. Times seemed so much easier then.
My most fondest memory of home is entering my grandma’s house when visiting her on the weekends and smelling her homemade gravy simmering on the stove. If you’re Italian you know that gravy is spaghetti sauce. And the smell, as amazing as it was, couldn’t compete with the taste. I have her “recipe” and make it whenever I can hoping it will instill fond memories for my children.
What wonderful items for a very lucky individual! Thank you to everyone that has contributed for this.
My fondest memories of home are of my Mother and Grandmother in the kitchen making pies, turkey in the oven, all those wonderful smells that come with the Holidays. My job was making the homemade dressing from a recipe handed down from my Great Grandmother, although there is no written recipe. There was always lots of giggles and stories to be told. I miss them so much, especially around the holidays. It is a tradition that I hope to pass on to my Granddaughters as they get older.
My fondest memory of home is dinner at my grandparents’ house…the family gathered around the dining room table, delicious food, and the warmth from the love we all shared.
My favorite memories of home as I was growing up were when we would tidy up the house for a big get together! It could be a house full of relatives or a house and yard full of people for a church picnic. The excitement of getting things ready, and then the fun of sharing our home and property with friends or family, kids running around everywhere, swimming in the pool, jumping on our trampoline, climbing trees (even the 70 foot palm tree in front of the house!), have left me with some great memories of home. ?
What an incredible giveaway. I have so many fond memories of home that it’s hard to choose. Home was where I found contentment and happiness.
My dad was a great story teller. Every Friday night he would hold us kids on his lap and tell tall tales. Mom always made our house a home. We weren’t rich in monetary wealth but we were rich in the things that mattered. My grandmother was a quilter. She made us quilts so we could wrap up on chilly nights. I still have my quilt that she made me along with treasured memories even though she has since passed.
Family, comfort, safety and unconditional love!
Gosh there are so many. But mostly everyday mundane things. Reading by candle light. Watching the kids try to play piano. Teaching our oldest (3) to bake and sew. Listening to giggles between brothers. Snuggling up during a snowstorm. Nothing grand but just happy memories.
How do you choose a fondest memory? I’m blessed that almost all of my memories of home are lovingly remembered! The first that comes to mind is when my parents would put on music, almost any kind but as kids we loved old time rock and roll and they would dance! They would at first dance together but with 5 little ones running around the room that didn’t last long. One by one they would choose one of us the dance with, oh my gosh standing on my dad’s feet he would sweep me around the dance floor actually the small living room linoleum floor while the others would dance around and clap saying choose me, choose me! They loved to dance but we grew up with limited funds and there typically wasn’t extra for going out or frivolous things! They are both gone now but I still love to dance!
There were eight in our household growing up. Money was definitely tight even with both parents working full time. My best memories are of my mom who worked all day in a glove factory, then came home and fixed an entire home made meal for all of us. We didn’t have a washer and dryer so, once a week, in the evening, Mom and I packed up all the laundry and headed to the laundromat. We would talk about all sorts of things, laugh and fold the laundry.
I didn’t realize we were almost poor because Mom did so much to make us feel special.
I miss her every day and realize now how rich we really were.
What an amazing giveaway, Marian! A favorite memory, that defines home to me, was moving out on my own many years ago. I was so excited to make that tiny house (450 sq. feet) a HOME! Making my own choices, as I discovered my style, and searching every yard sale and thrift store I could find. I still have MANY of those pieces today … almost 50 years later. I’m so excited about your book!
My favorite memory of home was turning off the overhead lighting during the holiday season, and turning on the Christmas tree lights and my Dad starting a fire in the fireplace. Bliss.
This is such a wonderful giveaway! Someone is going to be very happy to receive all this!
My fondest memories of home involve holidays and Sunday dinners at my grandparent’s house. I remember my mom taking me to their house the night before Thanksgiving each year and my grandfather gave me the job of tearing bread into pieces for the stuffing. It was his mother’s recipe. To this day, my Thanksgiving is not complete unless I have my grandfather’s stuffing — and my grandmother’s pumpkin pies. I’m so happy my adult children all feel the same way.
My favorite memory is when I was a little girl, being at our house on a rainy day. The cozy feeling created by lamplight on a gray day, the comforting sound of the clothes dryer and my apron-clad mother putting around the house.
Oh goodness! My fondest memory of home, where to even begin? I lost my mama 4 years ago and I miss her terribly. She always made our home so cozy. I loved waking up on the weekend mornings and smelling the freshly brewed coffee my parents had made. I could always find them sitting in their rocking chairs on the porch, enjoying the morning. I wish I could wake up and experience that one more time. Ah, it really is the simple things in life, isn’t it?
So excited for your book! Preordered over the summer and so happy it will be here soon. Fondest memories of home would probably be the holidays. My mom would be up early getting everything ready for our extended family who would be coming over. After the meal, my Aunt and Uncle would help her with cleanup and somehow they would make the dishes seem like fun. Now these are the traditions in mine and my husband’s home and it’s the best!
My fondest memory is hosting Thanksgiving in our new to us house 20 years ago. My Mom and all my children and grandchildren were here to celebrate.
My husband was in the military during the first 8 years of our marriage. Consequently, we lived in NC, Germany, and OK. Because we were always away from our extended families our little family of four made our own memories. It was frustrating at times to live in places where I could not indulge my desires to paint, hang art, and make it my own. When he retired we moved to the Northwest after he finished a law degree. Again we lived in rental homes and searched for 8 years to find that perfect place to call home. It came one day when he was out and turned up an almost hidden side street and proceeded up the hill to find a beautiful white brick “English Country Cottage” complete with slate roof and fabulous surroundings. Long story short, it became our home. It was the home I saw in all my young revelries as I grew up and imagined myself as the lady of the manor. I will never forget waking before everyone else after our first night there and creeping downstairs to enjoy my coffee in the quiet of this new, perfect for me place I could now call home. I loved that home for 23 years!
My fondest memory of home, is canning with both my parents. I am the youngest out of six. My parents would go to the farmers market, pick out the best vegetables and then we would go home, wash, and prepare the harvest. They taught me how to garden, can and preserve. I am entering your give-a-way because I love all that you show us how to make our homes comfortable and functional.
Your Feels Like Home book giveaway is so awesome for one lucky person., I am a total fan, love to see all your creativities. Thanks for sharing this generous gift.
My fondest memory of home is when my family (three daughters, son and husband) was all gathered around the fireplace on a snowy evening: two daughters and son playing a board game while the rest of us read, lost in our books. I looked up, and savored the moment silently before uttering, “This is just what I had imagined.” Truly, my dreams of a happy family came true — and that phrase (“This is just what I had imagined”) has become part of our lexicon for so many different circumstances. Blessed, indeed.
My fondest memory of home were times spent with family. My maternal great-grandmother was a quilter. I have inherited several of her quilts, including one of four identical quilts made with material from her four daughter’s dresses. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful cook and baker. That must be where I inherited my love of food. My mother neither sewed nor enjoyed cooking and baking, but she kept a loving and tidy home and worked alongside my father in their beauty supply business until their retirement.
I have followed in each of their footsteps as I have made a quilt, cross stitched, crocheted, knitted and sewed various home projects. Although I have always enjoyed baking, it took the Covid-19 shutdown to encourage and improve my enjoyment of cooking. I have held various jobs outside the home, but the antiquing business I began with my husband has brought me the most enjoyment.
My fondest memory of home is playing in our tree house with a sandbox below. We were pirates, Star Trek crew, Swiss Family Robinson & whatever else our minds called forth.
I forgot to mention one of my fondest memories was the year my mom bought a silver tree and set up a light to rotate thru different colors as the disk spiked infringe of the light. As a child I thought this was magical.
My fondest memories revolve around Christmas in our home. We had eight children and very little money so decorating the home beyond function was out of the question except at Christmas. My mom loved Christmas and always made it feel special although I was acutely aware of their financial atruugles. I am thankful to have more than they ever dreamed. They never owned a new car or their own home but we never felt deprived. We felt loved and had a lot of fun. That’s what making a home is really about.
What a marvelous giveaway! My fondest memory of home is a warm kitchen and baking cookies with my mom.
My fondest memories are being with my kids. Wether it’s cooking something low key, making crafts, or snuggling to read books. That is by far my favorite time even when our house is in a total state of mess and half of our appliances are broken:)
So many lovely things in your give away box! As I scrolled through I couldn’t help but think how this son, daughter in law or granddaughter would enjoy one or the other and would be so much fun to share.
I have so many memories of our two little boys growing into young men in our home. Traditions at holidays were so much important to us but I think my favorite is dinner each evening and hearing them tell of that day’s adventures!
I’m in the middle of making a new home and learning all about what that entails for me after the ending of an almost 38 year marriage. God is good, and with Him at the forefront this will be a home of love and joy and grace and I’m excited to see what He will do with it, so right now, home means Jesus 🙂
My favorite memory of home is building forts with my brothers in the woods nearby. We were always adventuring. <3 My mom would often play piano and that brings back so many memories too. Thank you for this stunning giveaway!
One of my fondest memories of home were the holiday dinners as I grew up. The special holidays we celebrated were Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Mom would have my sister and I set the table with a lace table cloth and a colored liner beneath it in colors like pink (Easter), rust (Thanksgiving) and white or red for Christmas. We would then use her china, special glasses and her silver-plated silverware to set the table. Mom was an excellent cook but for these occasions she worked on the preparation of the food throughout the week–pies, rolls, and usually a roasted turkey, chicken or ham with several side dishes. It was a feast but more important was the joy and laughter that we experienced as we came together. The warm feelings, the delicious smells and tastes, the colors and being with family made these times unforgettable.
Thanks for your wonderful give away! I so enjoy your blog.
My fondest memory of home is when you open the door and that wonderful smell of home embraces you.
I was 1 of 9 children and we lived in the country in a farm house that had one bathroom and it was located on 40 acres. My parents were amazing parents and they taught us the value of hard work and pitching in and getting the work done that needed to be done. Our home was not fancy, but it was clean, warm and we loved living there. On both sides of the farm house we had a row of Lilac’s. When they were all in bloom the fragrance drifted into our house and up into the windows of our bedrooms up stairs and it was amazing. We grew crops on all 40 acres and my mother canned and made preserves to put up for the winters, enough to feed 9 children and them. The smells from her canning and the amazing dinners she made still remain engraved in my memories and my heart, always will be as long as I live I will not forget the feelings of the home I grew up in! There is no place like home.
Fondest memory of home? It was never the things in my home, for me was my Mother. We surly did not have a lot now that I look back, but I never ever felt we did without.
Our home was warm, comfortable always smelled good. She could make dinner out of nothing. All the rage for girls was French Provincial furniture. I went to stay a week in summer with my grandparents. When I came home, she and my dad painted my room lavender. Bought old 40’s furniture, high headboard, dresser with mirror and bench. Painted it all white, out line in gold.
My fondest memory was my Mother’s love.
Looking for a memory of home I got a nudge from the crocheted dishcloth and little scrubby you made. They sent me back to the crocheted white with a gold edge “fancy” pot holders that my Mother only used for holidays (they matched her dinner china!). I now have them, unfortunately put up. I am going to find them and use them for upcoming family holiday dinners.
I grew up in a big brick farmhouse on a century farm in the Iowa countryside. I dreamt of the glamorous Parisian life and couldn’t wait to study abroad. Who could have guessed a card from Mom with a stack of pictures of scenes around home taken on 110 film would both spike and soothe homesickness when the dream came true. Even now, at 53 – driving down that gravel road to glimpse at the house a different family now lives in grounds me during the craziest times.
My fondest memory of home is just being together. Whether it is sitting around talking, or cooking together in the kitchen. I just love the feel of home.
Growing up I loved going to my Grandparents. Everything felt safe at their house. It was clean and smelled so good. There were always Cookies in the cookie jar, which Grandpa shared ?, There were Sunday dinners of fried chicken, followed by a game of hide the thimble. When we walked in the door on holidays my Grandpa was always right there with a holiday greeting and a hug, Grandma at the stove in her apron yelling greetings as well. I loved spending the night because as I fell asleep I could hear the clock ticking and my Grandparents low voices, I felt safe and loved.
That feeling of love, safety and welcome is the feeling I try to have in abundance in my home. I want people to feel so comfortable and loved when they walk in the door. “Happy , Happy!! As my Grandma would say .. wiping her hands on her apron and coming in for a hug. I pray I leave those memories behind for my Grandchildren. ❤️❤️❤️
Your beautiful paintings remind me of my grandmother’s style of painting. I many happy memories of living on the farm and hanging out with her in the pasture where she painted life on the farm. I am blessed to have many of her paintings in my home. This beautiful giveaway includes many things that remind me of her and my mother and the talents they had. I have already ordered a copy of your book and look forward to reading all your tips. I love your posts! I mentioned to you once before that my family lives in McConnellsburg Pa, Fulton County where you once lived. A beautiful area!
Favorite home memory is my daughter walking down the stairs in her yellow prom gown. When I was picking names when we found out we were pregnant, her name had to match this girl I imagined who would walk down the staircase on prom night. MY dream come true! We lived in that home for 26 years and the staircase with all of the family photos staggered on the wall and the Christmas memories of the children running down the stairs and I’m yelling up the stairs that breakfast was ready you’ll always be my favorite memory. I miss my Staircase.
we lived on a farm with a long lane with tall sycamore trees on each side of the lane and 5 big ones surrounding the old big brick farmhouse.
My best memory of home is at my grandmothers and grandfathers camp on the lake. I went with my grandparents every weekend even in winter. The rest of the family did not go in the winter. In the morning I would get up real early in the morning with my grandma. In the room off the kitchen you could look out to the lake and you could see the steam off the water, the sun coming up, the still calm in the morning. Beautiful! , but more than that was when I looked down the hallway towards the family room, I saw that my grandma had lit the big gas heater. So cozy looking at that furnace, and the flames! Then after hearing that perculater coffee pot going, we poured our coffee and broke off some French bread, heavily buttered it and we just sat there together looking out to the lake, we didn’t say anything to each other, but just smiled. What a memory. I miss them so much.
My fondest memories are those involving my children. Reading books in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in blankets and drinking hot chocolate. Raking leaves and then jumping in the piles. Baking cookies. Taco Tuesdays. And on and on. My children are grown now so these fun memories help to fill my empty nester heart.
What a wonderful giveaway! My fondest memories revolve around cooking for my family and making their favorite things to eat! Food is love in my family and I so enjoy cooking with my husband and kids and making people feel special by making their favorite meals and baking together.
Best memories of home are just simple things like supper on the stove, candles burning a seasonal scent, screen door slamming, and kids running in and out.
My mother was truly ahead of her time. She didn’t have much money so she took chairs that didn’t match and painted them all the same color. She also made the best bread and cinnamon rolls. I would say my fondest memory’s were coming home from school with that delicious smell of freshly baked bread in the air. And of course getting a slice with her homemade jam on it.
Thanks so much for this awesome giveaway. I can’t wait to get my book. I have followed you almost from the beginning and you have truly inspired me.
One of my fondest feels like home memories is waking up as a child in the morning upstairs at my Austrian Grandma’s farmhouse. The smell of fresh baked apple strudel (served with fresh cream) and perking coffee wafting upstairs. Often for lunch we’d have homemade chicken and dumplings. Both dishes were served in thick green fire king bowls! A few years ago for Christmas my parents gifted me these very bowls and her big green fire king mixing bowl. Every time I use them I can almost smell her kitchen and feel the joy of family sitting around her kitchen table in her lavender kitchen with her crocheted potholders handing on the wall! (I had a lavender kitchen for many years in honor of her.)
One of my fondest memories of home was when I was growing up. After a stressful day at school, I knew I was home where I belonged when I smelled my Mama’s delicious salt rising bread being baked for her family and the wonderful scent of freshly cut grass on a crisp fall day as my Papa mowed the lawn. A senior citizen now, I am still pulled back to wonderful memories of my childhood home when I smell certain scents wafting by. Heavenly!
The fondest memories are those filled with the smell of seasonal scents through candles, flowers, and essential oils. Add the quilts and blankets along with a fluffy pillow, soup simmering, and apple crisp cooling…now that’s just perfection.
One of my favorite memories of home was my 5th birthday. I remember starting up the hill to home from the bust stop, and it was raining. I loved the rain but was getting wet! Then I saw our car coming down the hill, my dad coming to pick me up and bring me home nice and dry. We always had great home birthday parties, picking out what was for dinner. My Granny bringing her homemade chocolate cake. And presents. I remember the teddy bear my brother gave me that day. I still have it, a bit chewed by my childhood dog. That was one of the greatest days!
My fondest memory of home is returning after being away for several nights or more. It is such a revelation to return and find things just as they were, welcoming us back with open arms, a place to finally relax.
What an out-of-this-world amazing giveaway! So many wonderful gifts. One of my favorite memories of home was from when I was a young child, and it was my mom’s turn to host Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of her siblings and my cousins. A huge snowstorm hit the night before and morning of Thanksgiving (roads closed, deep drifts). She called everyone and said, “Well, we have the food, we’re going to cook it and eat it. If you can get here, you can eat too!” So my uncle and a couple of cousins got out their snowmobiles, and borrowed neighbors’ snowmobiles, and went and got everyone else from around our rural village and deposited them at our house! I’ll never forget how nervous everyone was that he would upset the snowmobile with my grandmother riding with him! We were all quite relieved when she got to our home (and back) safely.
My favorite memory of home is the century plus farmhouse I grew up in, it was comfortable, warm, inviting, and filled with cabinets and furniture my dad made (he was a cabinet maker) and the handmade quilts and other craft items, plants and all the homemade meals. My mother loved best through hosting family and friends around a large farmhouse table. And giving of herself through handmade gifts and helping where needed. It wasn’t fancy but a simple curated home of family heirlooms and love.
Thanks for the prompting to relive the love of our home!
I should start by saying I was raised by a single mom who was southern. We used to sit on the front porch and drink ice water from colored Tupperware tumblers. The pastel collection. I bought my own set three years ago. We sat there and watched the neighborhood go by or we played games in our yards or caught lightening bugs while my mom kept watch over me and the other kids in the neighborhood. When I got older, we retired to the back yard, which also had a fenced in patio, all the while still drinking ice water and having adult conversations. That is my fondest memory of home, my mother.
My favorite memory of home brings me back to a time when my Grandmother would prepare some delicious Italian food for our Sunday supper (the smells). We ate early afternoon. The table was set with her beautiful china (the sights). The relatives would arrive (the sounds). Grammy would be beaming as she watched us all enjoy the fruits of her labor (her smile).
what an incredibly generous giveaway – so many lovely treasures and gift cards to select even more wonderfulness! Curiously, I was thinking earlier today about raking leaves with my parents and sibs. A huge yard meant all 7 of us needed to pitch in to get all the leaves into giant piles. That also meant we all had to spend some time jumping into the piles and, of course, throwing handfuls of leaves at one another ! Cheeks red with more raking and then heading into the house for mugs of warm spiced cider and donuts. So much fun!
My parents made a cozy home for us. My dad gardened and my mom made EVERYTHING from scratch. I always had a small plot to plant however I wanted, and I always got to help knead the bread.
I recently lost my dear mamma-so when I think of home I definitely see her sweet face always teaching, caring, and nurturing us girls. She helped create my passion for homemade/antique. Something with character that means something. ?home!
A memory from my childhood that persists, is coming home from school on a cold day, the house fragrant with whatever my mom was making for dinner, knowing there was something lovely to eat right now, an after-school snack to welcome my brother, sister and me home from our school day, before we began doing the dreaded, ever present but necessary homework assignments! !
I love to bake and my fondest memories involved baking. My mom would let me make whatever I wanted. First, pudding, then as I got older banana bread and butterscotch brownies. I would read through cookbooks and the newspaper looking for new recipes to try. It is something I still do today.
My favorite memories of home are the ones I have of bringing my baby girl home to her specially decorated nursery. I had everything just so and even hand painted rabbits on the walls to go with the curtain fabric I picked. I can’t wait to have the actual copy of your new book to see what it inspires me to do next.
Omigosh, what a wonderful giveaway!
My fondest memories all involve my big, close-knit family. With lots of siblings, there was never a shortage of playmates. Big families are the best! So many different personalities and experiences.
My favorite memories of home are whenever our two daughters, their husbands and our three granddaughters are here. It might be special holiday or just whenever we are all here for a simple meal or dessert. It’s all special when family is here.
My fondest memories of home is being in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother’s. Thanksgiving was especially special. The conversations and laughter are the sweetest memories. How lucky I am to have experienced that.
I am afraid I have few good memories of my childhood home but I am trying to make my home better. Isn’t that how our lives should be? Each generation should be better so the next generation can be better. I want to thank you for helping me on my journey to having a happy home. You have helped me improve my god given talents and I thank you for that so much!
My fond memory is of reading each night to my 2 daughters, traveling in time to the Hundred Acre Wood, Hogwarts and many other places, all from a comfy chair. Now I am making similar memories as I read to my granddaughter before her nap time. Thank you for asking the question so I can appreciate what feels like home to me.
The giveaway is lovely and your style is very similar to mine, so I enjoy following you. Your picture painting tutorials last year were a bright spot during the long year of Covid. My favorite memory of home is when we are together as a family, being makers. Whether it is me and my daughter painting rocks to hide for others to find, or when I sat with my mom doing handwork, those are the best of times.
Memories of home include special times with my parents best friends. They were huge Anglophones. Is that the right word? Anyway, they loved all things English. I loved their antique filled home. And much of my love of home was seeing a modest house through their eyes.
A recent, fond memory was of the day of my mother’s funeral. My 93 year old father sat in my living room listening to his three grandsons laugh and tell stories about their Nana.
As I took Dad back to his home, he told me what a nice family I had. It was a sad day and a lovely day, all rolled into one!
Such lovely things in your giveaway! One of my favorite memories of home would be the day when I moved into our current home after living in a travel trailer for almost two years! I felt so blessed! And I don’t think 900 square ever felt so spacious!?
One of my favorite memories of home is my mom lying across the foot of my bed at night and reading aloud to my sister and me in our room with sloped ceilings. My sister always fell asleep almost immediately, but i stayed awake, and Mom would read, and read, and many of those books remain favorites that I read to my own daughter.
My favorite memory is a lifetime of always feeling loved by my parents no matter what. I knew that they sacrificed for me, always made me feel important and I knew no matter what they were there for me. It is and always has been a very comforting, warm feeling. Home was being with my parents.
My fondest memory of home would be durning the start of the global pandemic. I was scared and uncertain as I am sure most of you were as well. Being a teacher on top of that gave me even greater concerns. When we went to lock down I actually felt safe, comfortable, and cozy in my home. At a time where even leaving my driveway was a fright I felt so blessed to have a lovely home that “feels like home”. It was the only peace I felt durning a very scary time. I am so excited to finally get your book! You are such an inspiration to me!
My favorite childhood memory of home are the rare times my dad made his famous peanut butter fudge. He would put on an old album – usually Hank Williams or Jim Reeves – and sing along while he patiently beat the fudge, a hot pan on a folded dish towel on his knee. That fudge was so good! My favorite memory of home as an adult are of my daughter. I was a single mom and, every night at bedtime, she and I would snuggle in my bed and read. When she was very little, I would read to her. As she grew, we would read to each other. Like your son, she has type 1 diabetes. Some nights when her sugar was low, it felt safer to keep her with me and watch over her through the night. She’s grown now and married to a wonderful man. I wish I could still watch over her and take some of the burden of diabetes off her shoulders.
A fond memory I have is my kids hanging out on the front porch with their friends after school. Sometimes I’d make them brownies. I was happy to have a safe place for them to hang out. Some of the kids had a very dysfunctional home life.
What a beautiful giveaway! I think one of my fondest memories of home growing up would be the chance to decorate for Christmas. I have always loved interior design; I would look at Country Home magazine when it arrived in the mail from cover to cover. For Christmas, I loved getting out all the ornaments and recalling when and where we got them. I got excited pulling out various decorations. I try to create that same magical feeling for my son. He will hum a little tune while decorating the Christmas tree and it is such a special time.
One of my fondest memories, are coming home from college and my Mom in the kitchen making her vegetable beef soup. My Dad downstairs in his wood shop, building his birdhouses. I am so blessed to have had them as my parents, amazing people. Thank you Marian always, for your inspiration.
Wow, what an incredible giveaway! One of my favorite memories of home is family dinners with my husband and 3 daughters (two of them no longer live at home, and the last is set to move out in the spring). This weekend all 3 are at home and I plan to make a roast chicken dinner. Can’t wait! Love your style!
I have fond memories of our close knit neighborhood where I grew up, and my parents entertaining friends and neighbors casually on the porch. The quick ‘drop by’ was much more of a thing then. As a kid I assumed life would always be that. I’d like to say I practice being ready to entertain in an instant. Looking forward to more casual get-togethers in the future.
Best memory of home, the amazing quilts on my Gma’s beds. All handmade in bright colors! That and the smell of homemade spaghetti sauce.
Favorite memory of home. Very difficult There are so many to choose from. My Mom recently passed away at 81. And as we go through her things, and prepare to sell our home, memories of this place are like a tidal wave. One I can share is that every Christmas Eve we had a Christmas Eve Brunch for our entire family. Mom brought out her best China and crystal and decorated the tables. We had sausage casserole, baked French toast, fruit salad, mimosas and coffee. All the brothers and sisters, kids and grandkids always made time to be there. We laughed, we cried, and we loved-oh! How we loved! This Christmas it will be my turn to carry on the tradition. And when we serve the mimosas- we will toast a wonderful Mom who took the time to make memories
I ha e raised 6 kids and schooled them at home for 25 years. I have not had a pulled together home since I had children!! I want badly to have a warm cozy home – not just a house of stuff!!
Your book could get me moving down the road to being contented in my home! Cheers?
One of my favorite memories of home is coming back to my childhood home and smelling familiar aromas of peanut butter cookies fresh out of the oven. My mom was a great baker and while she is currently go through chemo she isn’t baking much, it’s always those memories that I hold in my memories that will last forever.
Home is the excitement you would feel coming down the stairs with your sister Christmas morning to see the gifts that Santa left.
Home is when your Mom makes your favorite birthday cake in the same pan she has used for everyone for years.
Home is watching a football or hockey game with your Dad and he says all of the players names wrong, but it doesn’t matter.
Home is Thanksgiving dinner, but really more about the leftovers the next day and spending time with your family without worrying about what gifts to buy.
Home is cleaning the house Saturday mornings, because that is when you do it.
Home is walking home from school and seeing your doggie waiting for you at the front door.
Home is coming home from work and putting on your comfy clothes & listening to your favorite Pandora station.
Home is cuddling with your cats.
Home is sleeping in your own bed.
I’m not sure how to “enter” but I’m all in! I’ve been a fan for a number of years and adore Marians relaxed, classic style and inspiration. As we’ve been settling into our “golden years” of retirement I’ve finally had time to think about Home and Comfort and Place – ideas that had been fleeting when working 7 to 6 and raising children. Treasures of the past, calming colors, layers of collected memories all become part of a visual and tactile Home in a new way. I know our children don’t want much of what we’ve inherited and collected – dishes, silver, furniture, textiles (at least this is what they say today) – so we will enjoy them all the more while we can. That these treasures will find new homes later only gives them life extended.
Home is a place to find your heart every time you return from the World; to wander Home for Peace and Family; to know a Place of safety and sleep.
What fabulous items in your giveaway! Your new book looks superb and the Turkey Platter is to die for… I lived at home with my parents for a few years after college. My favorite memories are of the closeness, love and mutual respect my parents had for each other. They did everything together. They were a perfect match. My mother has now been a widow for 25 years and she still thinks of him every day. We all miss him. Thanks for this opportunity to share and remember.
My fondest memory of home is when all my nine kids still lived at home and we celebrated Christmas or birthdays. Birthdays involved some themed cake. We never had much money, and this was a way to make each birthday special. One time the older girls and I made a swimming pool cake that took three days. We used blue jello for water, we used Fruit Stripe gum for pool floats and Teddy Grahams with bikinis piped on for the swimmers. I have 6 daughters and one time I made a sleepover cake (and we had a sleepover) with 6 twinkies for the bodies and vanilla wafers for faces. We always had a good time, whatever we did! The youngest is the only one home (she’s 19) but I enjoy 11 grandkids now and love having them at my house. I’m in the process of taking an under the stairs closet and turning it into a little play area for them in my new house. Thanks for the giveaway – you always inspire me with whatever you do!
Gracious! Christmas definitely will come early!! So many wonderful things. One of my favorite memories of home was going to my grandparents home every weekend from Friday night to Sunday evening. They had such a warm loving home. We learned to cook, sew, play and had adventures of hi king,fishing, and antiquing trips. Sadly they are both gone but the memories are forever with me.
What a wonderful giveaway! I’ve been following you for years and have felt your style has had a great influence on making our house feel like home. I loved your first book so I cannot wait for this second one. My fondest memories of home were spent going to my grandma’s. She always made everyone who walked through her door feel safe and welcomed. There was also always a bowl of nuts with a cracker year round. When I saw a post of your similar tradition it brought back so many memories.
My fondest memories of home are waking up in the dark December mornings buried in blankets, hearing my dad getting ready for work and seeing the lights from the Christmas tree gently flashing on the wall in the hall. All seemed right with the world and so cozy.
What a great collections of goodies to help make your home more homey. My fondest memories of home are of being well cared for by parents who loved me. Playing outside with friends in the neighborhood, As and only child, having lots of friends was special. We played paper dolls, dress up and all the fun things kids did back then. I would love to have your book.
Home IS such a wonderful feeling for me. Even though my mother was ill and passed when I was 19, she gave us innumerable memories of peace, comfort, and lots of visitors. My father was the one who was always inviting others over and my mother fretted just a bit, worrying whether the house was clean enough for guests. She and I had very different tastes but she provided an example of welcoming hospitality and that’s what the feeling of Home is for me.
Marian, you provide the inspiration to help me create in the home God has so graciously provided. I can’t wait for you book.
What an amazing give away! My fondest memories of home include my childhood of making roll out Christmas sugar cookies with my mom and siblings. A wonderful tradition that I have carried forward with my own children. Home is memories!
My fondest memories of home is just being together. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents when I was younger and always enjoyed looking at old photos and listening to my grandparents tell stories about when they grew up. Looking forward to getting your new book!
My fondest memory of home is decorating the Christmas tree with my family as a child with beautiful Christmas music playing. Each year we continue the tradition with my parents with the same music playing…Amy Grant’s Christmas album and a beautiful all finger style guitar album that we’ve had all these years!
For me my fondest memory of home is that my sweet grandmother lived next-door to us. Not only did my mother create a loving comfortable home, but I could always go next-door and be with my grandmother. She was in a wheelchair, but I still remember her making homemade biscuits and cooking at the stove from her chair. I look forward to your wonderful book and wish you much luck in the future. You deserve everything coming your way.
I am an old soul. I love everything with a history. I live in a 100+ yo home which is old for the Northwest. Currently traveling New England I dream of living in a real old home someday. You blog always gives me ideas and inspiration. Thanks for providing such beautiful vignettes and articles.
What an amazing giveaway! One of my fondest memories of home would be when my grown children were young and we’d get a snow day… everyone was so excited to just be home and together, plans for the day went out the window and we’d find the coziest blankets, good snacks, a movie, play games, maybe a fire and just… be. Often we’d bake something and make a dinner in the crockpot or something that took awhile to simmer and just enjoy the anticipation of a yummy meal. I miss those days.
What a great giveaway! I’m excited for your book coming out! My favorite memories of home are waking up and smelling cinnamon rolls baking or bread because my mom got up early to bake. Even when I came home from college she would have some delicious thing made in the morning. I miss that!
My fondest childhood memories are spending weekends at my Grandma’s house. She hand pieced quilts and always had colored fabric cut and ready … sitting in basket by her rocking chair. In the evenings, she would sit in her rocking chair and sew them into patterns. Much of her fabric came from our old clothes and feed sacks. When I was 9 she helped me select my fabric pieces to make a 9 patch doll quilt. Of all the quilts she made – my favorite was one that was all red and white. Some of the red fabric was stripped and reminded me of candy canes. The quilt Mariella has donated is beautiful and reminds of my days spent at Grandma’s!
My fondest memory of home is actually returning from a trip. We enjoy traveling and have been able to see some beautiful places, but we so love coming back to our little dot on the map. It is comforting, calming, and joy filled, and we are blessed to have it.
Happy October Marian aka Miss Mustard Seed – my fondest memories of home are spending time with my Nonna (grandmother in Italian). She was a excellent cook and a wonderful seamstress. The house was always filled with a wonderful aroma from making rabbit stew with polenta or making a pot of soup with all sorts of left over past there prime vegetables, nothing went to waste. I loved going to the fabric store to pick out patterns and fabric for Nonna to make me clothes which were impeccably made to fit . I still have the tweed suit she made me for my first interview. Nonna lived to be 98 years old and passed away 8 years ago but the memories will last a life time.
My fondest memory of home is fall and winter evenings with my family in my grandparents’ gameroom. All of my extended family would gather and visit, have dinner, the wood burning stove was warming the room and a pot of beans or chili on the stove. It was warm memories of my family all together and the smells of wood burning and beans cooking take me right back there to happy childhood memories every time.
My fondest memory always comes flooding in when i smell honeysuckle. I had just came home from work and my kids and picked every homeysuckle off the fence to surprise me with flowers. Their dad was just smiling and they were so excited and to this day they still bring me. Honeysuckle vines
Fondest memories of home? Hmmm…so many! I feel privileged to have great memories whereas some do not. I can think back to when I was a child growing up with a sister and 9 year younger brother. We had and still have a wonderful mother who made us feel we always had what we needed. She made our home very comfortable and homey. The old blankets and quilts, dishes and furniture we had was the best she could do but we were happy. People would love to have all that old stuff today and she still can’t understand why. You know, it just makes you feel good! You have wonderful give aways and mention places to shop and explore that I would never know about unless I looked at your blog. Can’t wait to see your book. I’m asking for it for Christmas.
Marian thank-you for forcing us all to consider these memories. I have a lot of hard things that fill my past but looking for the good is always helpful. My mother always gathered us for a monthly dinner to celebrate our birthdays. We’d all come home & gathered around. She always made too much food & that trait has passed down to some of us. She kept all 9 of us close & that still carries on.
What a wonderful giveaway!! Congratulations on your book-that’s a huge accomplishment! My favorite memories of home probably differ from most people’s because my father served in the Navy and “home”was different almost every year, but my mother decorated each of our houses the day we moved in. Pictures were hung and favorite collections displayed as soon as they were unpacked because she wanted our family to have something familiar in all the uprooting. She taught herself to create beauty and enjoy life no matter where we were. I treasure the things she left to me from our world travels and I have them out for others to enjoy, but the memories of her love are what I hold closest to my heart. She made each house a home.
I enjoy remembering the comfort of feeling safe at home. This is where I belonged.
The smells coming from the kitchen when I walked in the door to visit mom and dad made our house feel like home! My mom is a fabulous cook and would always have a home cooked meal and often a dessert when we would come home to visit. Weather I was coming home from college, a single working mom, with my fiancé, or later with children in stow the smells of a delicious meal always welcomed you home. I hope to win this prize to learn some new ideas of making my house a home and welcoming.
My favorite memories of home are when my family all gather together for any reason. It feels so right and perfect no matter how long it’s been. It doesn’t matter where we gather however I love for it to be in my home.
My tradition and fond memories started in the early 70’s. I would make Italian Beef and sides for Christmas Eve and my family would come and join us, eat and then open presents and talk! This continued until my children grew up and had children and it was still Italian Beef!!! One year I said I think I’ll make Bar-B-Que and my son had a fit said no mom I want the Italian Beef so Italian Beef it was!!!! I no longer do Christmas dinner but we still have Italian Beef and open presents on Christmas Eve!!!
“Home” has never been a specific place for me since I’m an Air Force brat… that also married in to the Air Force. But the people around me make wherever I’m at “home”. Holidays are the most homely times for me, where we break out all of the pie pans and get up early to make elaborate meals. It’s laughter and candles and a burning fireplace. And always having a dog underfoot. And quilts! We always cuddle under quilts and watch movies in the evenings.
Wow….the real gift here is reading all these heartfelt memories of home.
My favorite memory is ice skating on a neighbors backyard pond at night.
Frozen toes and mittens and dark starry night..what a beautiful experience it was. Anything snow gets me every time.
My favorite memory of home is snuggling under comfy blankets and watching Jane Austen movies with my mom and sister, usually with something yummy baking in the kitchen!
In the first tiny, one bedroom house I remember living in as a young child, I was moved to the front room couch to sleep when my younger brother was born. At Christmas time it was so magical to go to sleep staring at the lights on the Christmas tree. I think it’s one of the reasons I love Christmas so much!
My fondest memories of home was run up to the Christmas holidays. First the cookie and fruitcake making and baking. Then the buying of Christmas gifts and the wrapping of them. Then, picking out the Christmas ? tree…my mother would make sure that it was just right and my father cutting off the end so it would fit in the tree stand. Unpacking the ornaments and lights from their boxes brought down from the attic. The tree would get decorated and my mother would put the handfuls of tinsel just so on the branches because you couldn’t “throw” it on. Lastly, getting everything cooked for Christmas Eve meal of seven fishes. Yes, I have these memories of home forever in my heart and reproduce them every year…tradition, priceless
What a truly wonderful and exciting giveaway! One of my fondest memories is of our back porch during the summer. When the weather was warm we ate our meals at a big round table on that screened porch. I’ll always remember one summer when I was about ten I read many Nancy Drew mysteries on that porch. What a wonderful summer that was.
As I child, I remember waking up in my cozy bed under a pile of quilts. I could hear my mom banging pots in the kitchen downstairs. My favorite mornings were greeted by snow falling and the sound of the radio announcing school closures. It would be a pancakes, cookies, hot chocolate, good books and homemade bread and soup kind of day. You absolutely cannot beat that!
One of my fondest memories of my childhood home was our tradition of watching Sunday afternoon football games in the family room wrapped up in blankets, fire roaring in the fireplace and a tray of fruit, venison sausage, crackers and cheese. Quality time with my family in our comfy, cozy home!
I remember growing up and looking forward to Sundays because that was the day my Dad would cook breakfast. It was always special as he would surprise us with something new on the menu. Pancakes from scratch with a mystery flavor we had to guess and always warming up the syrup. These are memories I adore about my Dad because he always had a way of making you feel special. My Dad passed away 3 days before Christmas in 2004 and as difficult as the holiday is missing him I always make his mystery pancakes for my hubby to remember my Dad.
Wow, what a great giveaway! My fondest memory of home is probably my childhood New Year’s Eve celebrations when my two brothers and I were allowed to stay up until midnight. We would have fancy hors d’œuvres in the family room, play games, and write our resolutions until it was time to watch the ball drop. Very cosy memories of family and home!
Wow, what an amazing giveaway! I have been truly blessed with many fond memories growing up. My Grandmother took care of me while my parents worked.
She was a seamstress and a great cook. She made the most beautiful clothes for her grandchildren, some of which I still have today. There wasn’t anything that woman couldn’t do. Every holiday the entire family gathered at my grandparents home for several days to celebrate. The food was plentiful, as well as the fun and laughter.
In the summer, we were swimming, water skiing, tubing, sitting by the fire, you name it, we did it! In the winter, it was snowmobiling, sledding, skating, and much more. Grandpa had a bumper pool table and a fools ball table in the top of the barn, as well as a hang out for us kids when we got older. It was the ideal hangout growing up. My grandparents are no longer with us, but their memories will last forever ?
No matter what type of home or upbringing any of us have there is always an emotional connection and it is strong rather it is good or bad. My best memories are from the holidays, trimming the tree, and the wonderful smells of the turkey and all the trimmings. We were not a close family but when my mother died it was very difficult to realize that she and the family home were gone. I no longer had a home to go to; so sad.
I have two special memories of home . The first one being, running to the corner of our street to meet my dad after work. Sometimes he would surprise me with a treat hidden in his lunchbox. The other is when I would come home from school. My Mother and I would sit down and share a soda and watch a half hour of a favorite television show. After that it was time to do homework. I loved being home. It really is the little things.
I grew up in a small, cottage-style house and my room was right off the kitchen. Every morning, I would awaken to the sound of my parents sitting at the kitchen table discussing news events or plans for the day. All I could really hear was the clinking of spoons as they stirred their coffee. It comforted me, knowing my parents were right there on the other side of the wall. To this day, if I’m at a diner for breakfast or I stir my own coffee a bit loudly, I’m transported back to the safety of my childhood bedroom, warm and comforted and home.
Wow! What an amazing giveaway. My favorite cozy memory of growing up in our home were early mornings. My mom was always the first one to wake up each morning and start the coffee for her and my dad. They used a percolator coffee pot. I would love waking up early in my bed and just listening to the sounds of morning – the coffee percolating, my parents talking in hushed tones about the day, the smells of coffee wafting in my room. I felt so safe, secure and happy.
My children teenage children recently told me that their favorite home memories are chilly days playing outside and them coming inside to soup bubbling on the stove, ginger cookies baking and their favorite Yankee Harvest candle burning. (It’s become the iconic smell of home for them!) It made me cry. Those were and are ordinary days and yet they are the most dear to their hearts!! Right now we are living in a camper while building our home and we are all excited to get settled and make new sweet memories surrounding home.
My fondest memories of home is our house being filled with extended family and friends, lots of ethnic foods and laughter!
Also coming home in September, whether as a child or adult, our house would smell of dill, garlic & vinegar fromm my dad canning peppers and he always had a crock of pickles brining. So many f I ND memories, too numerous to mention!
Thx Marian for prompting us to pause & reflect . Also thank you for Iyour amazing generosity with these giveaways! I would love to win to cozy up our home with some new accents and decor.
When we first moved into our over a century old farmhouse my husband said ” our house reminds me of a sweet old grandma who knits, bakes cookies, and occasionally wets her pants (plumbing problems). Now, a few years later, we have been through a lot together including a fire. We waited eagerly for almost a year to get back home while repairs were being completed. Going through these challenges has made home even sweeter. Our house once again bakes cookies, knits, but no longer wets her pants.
My grandparents had a home on a lake in Michigan that we called “The Cottage” and it was my favorite place to visit. I remember waking up to Doves cooing outside our bedroom window every morning, grandpa cooling off his coffee in his saucer then drinking it from the saucer (much to my grandmother’s dismay), fishing with grandpa, swimming, lunch or dinner on the porch, and usually several guests for dinner where a long table was set to accommodate everyone. In the early summer, rhubarb sauce was a staple on the table, and we always had dessert! Today we call our home “The Cottage” and I named my blog to reflect that name.
P.S. This is an amazing giveaway!
My mom still lives in our 90+ year old house I grew up in. Whenever I’m there, the sound of the creaky stairs, the smells of all the wood floors and trim, and the sights through the original wavy glass windows make me happy.
Fondest memory of home: my fondest memories of home are the ones we made with our own family-Christmas traditions and recipes, Thanksgiving dinners and games, Easter egg hunts, birthday parties, reading books in bed, soccer games, crafts…
Growing up an Air Force brat “home” was never a place, it was a feeling. Every house was different but each one felt like home once my mom hung the pictures and made the beds. In my adult life I’ve only lived in 3 different towns but each time we’ve opened up the boxes my comfort and homey- ness is satisfied when I place my English transferware in my china cabinet or throw a blanket on the couch. Home to me is cozy, comfort, friendly-
Fondest memory of home for me was coming home with the smells of dinner cooking and mom singing as she cooked. Thought she was alone until my sisters and I walked in…. Loved it!
Fondest memory of home: All the relatives gathering together…& not just on holidays. Lots of food, games, laughter, stories. Many are now gone, but the memories live on.
My favorite memory of home would have to be whenever mum made us a living room picnic. She would lay a tablecloth on the floor and we would sit cross legged and eat our feast. She would allow my sister and I to drink a little blackberry nip to wash it all down with and then we’d all take (need) a nap ??
Anytime all of my family is together is my favorite time, especially when we play games and reminisce.
My fondest memory of home are the days that we select each December for the three of us to spend together in the middle of the holiday rush. We started this tradition 3 years ago. We pick one day and get it on the calendar to make sure we don’t schedule anything else. Then we talk about what each of us would like to do on that day… We usually get up and make breakfast together, play board games or work on a puzzle. No rush and don’t go anywhere types of days. Lounging in pj’s and enjoying each other’s company and building memories. One of my favorite pictures of the 3 of us (me, my husband, and our daughter) is of us cozied up on the couch laughing.
Thank you for putting together such a fabulous give-a-way and I have my fingers crossed 🙂
Wow, what a wonderful giveaway! My favorite memories always involve my mom, who was always busy with something as I was one of nine children. But even while she was peeling potatoes or cleaning vegetables from the garden, she had time to talk to me about anything that was important to me at the time. She must have been tired after her days of work but in the winter evenings she would read out loud to us for hours. She created a cozy, warm feeling for us all.
Memories of home always take me to my grandparents home, a foursquare farmhouse with bay windows. Grandma loved flowers and always had some violets blooming in that bay window where the wooden shelf was protected from leaking flowerpots with an old piece of linoleum. I loved staying overnight in the upstairs guest room, which we called the “big room”. The lined-dried cotton sheets were crisp and smelled wonderful. The pillowcases were embroidered, trimmed with crocheted edges, and freshly ironed. Grandma loved “crafting”and she taught me embroidery, crocheting, and needlepoint. I never was able to master tatting but we are fortunate to have my father’s beautiful baptismal dress with tatted and crocheted edges. It is nearly 100 years old and has been worn by many babies throughout the years. That memory is a tradition.
Fondest memory of home- hands down my mom making homemade doughnuts from her 1950’s Betty Crocker cookbook. I have it now in all its tattered form. The best page- you guessed it- the smudged up, sticky fingered doughnut recipe page.
Such a generous giveaway including your special friends too. ?????
My fondest memories of home are from when we bought our first home. We were young and poor. We’d spent all of our money on the house and had almost nothing left to spend on furnishings. I went to garage sales and thrift stores to find furniture that was usually beat up and filthy. I cleaned the peices up and taught myself to refinish them or paint them. I picked up little knick knacks that I loved, somehow thinking that If I couldn’t have new furniture, at least I could have that cute little porcelain cat for fifty cents.
It’s funny how things turn out. When I purchased things I liked and refinished them, or when I “splurged” on some little object I fell in love with, I was really defining and growing into my own my own personal style. Almost all of those things have stayed with me through the years and many of them are among my favorite things in my home.
Congratulations on the book, I can’t wait to read it!
Ahhhhh, home! The smell of my Mom’s apple pie baking. And the smell of my Dad barbecuing chicken out on the grill! So many happy memories of warmth, love and caring!
Hello Marian,
My fondest memories from home are cooking with my mother and her 2 sisters every Sunday afternoon while I was in my teens. There was a big Italian dinner with home made ravioli, roast, vegetable from the garden and if you weren’t full to bursting, either a slice of cheesecake or lemon Italian ricotta cake. Those smells! I have such fond memories of the loving bickering over the amount of salt on the roast, the cooking time and who did the clean up… They have all passed on now, but the memories remain and inspire me to make more memories with my family.
Hi Marian,
What a wonderful giveaway! I have many fond memories of home. Two of my favorite are of spending time with my hardworking, practical Dad. I can remember helping pick walnuts up from under our large tree and spreading them on the drying screens he made. They would always stain my hands. We would crack them with a hammer on a cutting board and pieces of shell would always end up flying all over the kitchen! I can also remember going out with Dad at night with a flashlight and picking up night crawlers which he would sell to a local fishing shop! How I miss him!
My favorite time of year has typically been Christmas. One of my first memories was getting up Christmas morning and finding a little girl’s dream under the decorated Cedar tree. There was a little red wooden table with two benches. On one side sat a dark headed rag doll, me, and on the other side a blond doll, my little sister! They seemed almost the same size as we were!! On the table was a set of dishes made out of tin, with a tea pot and cups of the same material. I found out years later that after we went to bed each night before Christmas, my mother and dad were extra busy. Dad was building and painting the little table and benches, and mother was making the rag dolls and clothes on the treadle sewing machine. The tin tea set had belonged to my mother and was a gift when she was little. She must have saved them in a good hiding place for just such an occasion. We had lots of tea parties and used the table and benches for a variety of activities until we were too big to squeeze our knees under the table.
One of my multitude of memories growing up in a loving home with many extended family members nearby is when we were little we celebrated our birthdays on a Sunday after church at my parent’s home with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for a big mid-day dinner. My dad’s mother, Grandma Kitty, made us a miniature layer cake with one candle in the middle. We had a big cake for the rest of the family, but the little cake was especially for the birthday child. My great-aunt Elsie and Uncle Joe would always mail a birthday card with a dollar inside. We felt so rich when it came!
Thank you for such a lovely giveaway.
A fond memory of home and childhood would be our family sitting down together in the winter on Sunday evening to watch the Walt Disney program. Because we had earlier dinner on Sundays Mom would make a big bowl of popcorn for us and would sit with a kitchen towel in her lap and cut up crispy apples for us to eat.
My Fondest Memory of Home… My dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around frequently. My mom used to tell us that our home was wherever we were together as a family. There were ways she made a new state feel more homey, however: My Memom’s quilts on our beds, an afghan made by Nanny draped over the couch, a piece of Blenko glass on the shelf, and a painting of the Appalachian Hills on the wall. Whether we were in the Florida panhandle, the plains of Nebraska, or the cold of Upstate New York, we always had pieces of my parents’ West Virginia memories to make any base housing unit feel like home.
My fondest memory of my home is the last big family/friends Christmas Eve gathering we had with my husband’s entire extended family, my entire extended family, our very dear next door neighbor, and close friends who all gathered around our table with barely enough room to fit in our kitchen. (Our dining table runs the entire length of the center of our kitchen, and the kitchen is a dual use kitchen/dining room.) The following year, our dear next door neighbor died unexpectedly, but I have the most beautiful memories and photos of that special holiday. We kept up the tradition until covid hit, hopefully soon will start it up again.
This is just a yummy selection of treasures in this giveaway! I would cherish the quilt, for sure, and it would be so special to have a signed copy of your book , Marian. I feel privileged to have traveled in Italy because of you.
I feel so fortunate to have been able to purchase my home 21 years ago and my life completely changed as a result. Coaxing my plain little square-box beige house (beige inside and out) into a sunny cottage has been my greatest pride. The transformation started with creamy yellow exterior paint and a French green trim and “shutters”, along with wrought iron window boxes. Voila ~ behold Stella’s Sunshine House! The inside also got the paint treatment with colors I cherish in each room. For me, color is probably the most important ingredient in creating spaces that feel like a warm hug. But right up there, too, is the art and assorted décor. I live in the west where wildfires can threaten and I’ve had to evacuate a couple of times. Each time there has been enough early warning that I was able to fill my car with some of my most treasured items, and my collection of nature paintings gets loaded up first. If, god forbid, I should ever lose my home and have to start from scratch, I know I would want the comfort of my art first and foremost. My furnishings all have interesting histories, whether they were family hand-me-downs that made their way here in my minivan from my home state of Minnesota, or picked up at the estate sales/ yard sales / consignment stores I’ve frequented, they are like domestic characters and I really enjoy their company. Many have been given the paint treatment, in fact, here I sit at my MMS Boxwood green desk!
What a great question, Marion! You’ve elicited marvelous reflections from your followers. This has been a meaningful way to spend part of my Saturday morning!
When thinking of childhood memories of home, I have great feelings of emotion. There is no other place for me that I experience unconditional love, security, acceptance, peace, tranquility as I do when i’m With my family at home. This is especially important to me in a world which is changing as it has in the last few years.
As a child, I love, love, loved Christmas. The day after Christmas each year was tough… it was gonna be forever until it came again… sigh… Christmas represented home and family to me. Still does. I remember my grandparents, parents, brothers, cousins, all coming in the backdoor of my grandparent’s cheerfully decorated home, yelling “Christmas gift!” The warm feelings, the laughter, the hugs, the games, the singing and, of course the wonderful aromas and flavors of our favorite holiday foods. Opening gifts was fun, too, but my favorite memories are of my family. My heart still smiles, remembering.
I loved walking home from elementary school and going to Mamu’s house until my parents got home. She would let me make as many cinnamon toast as I wanted, an unbelievable treat to my 9 year old self. I would sit and read cards from her Bread of Life scripture box.
My fondest memory of home might be Christmas Eve when my children were young. We would watch favorite Christmas movies, leave cookies out on a plate for Santa with a glass of milk, and our kids would be too excited to sleep. Every year, I would have to remind them that “Santa won’t come until you’re asleep!” Then, I would tuck them into their beds, and my husband and I would stay up until around midnight putting toys together, wrapping presents by twinkle light, and watching It’s A Wonderful Life on tv.
Sunday afternoons with the family around the fireplace with the Vikings game on.
‘Feels like Home’ to me is wrapped up in memories of family and friends in their Homes~ When I smell strong coffee it takes me back to my Grandparents Home. When my Sister makes my Grandmothers Pot Pie Recipe that always meant family has come home and will surround the table. When I see the leaves fall…reminds me of making nests and jumping in them with our Cousins…..Home is in my memories, as well as a place to dwell. Making our home pretty is for dwelling….living in my memories, brings me Home.
My fondest memories of home are the smells of food cooking. My mother is a fabulous cook. It always amazed me and still does, how she can mix up a batch of homemade buns, not using a recipe. And moms are always the better cook. Although, my soups run a close second place.
My fondest memories of home would be my mothers Sunday dinners. She was an amazing cook and seamstress. we always had good food & great clothes to wear.
Miss her so much.
Cannot wait for the book!
Thank you!
Home to me was always enjoying home cooked meals. I would like to get back in touch with that feeling. As life has gotten busier I have let that slip away.
Now I try to light a candle and take in the moments it takes to create the meals as well as who I get to eat them with.
My fondest memories of home are weekend afternoons during the fall and winter, curled up on the couch with my family, the fireplace going , hot cocoa in hand, watching football or movies.
Home, to me, evokes memories of wonderful home cooked meals, lively conversation and spending time with family and friends.
Thank your again for a wonderful giveaway!!!
What a fantastic giveaway! So many beautiful things!
I have many fond memories of home growing up. Being a child of a military parent, “home” changed a lot. My Mother always made sure we had our favorite things and our bedrooms were always the first thing to be done in any new home. At one base we discovered yard sales and that really expanded our decorating wants! It was so much fun repurposing new treasures. Something I still do today! I am eagerly awaiting your new book!
That beautiful quilt reminds me of my fondest memory of home—wrapping up in a hand sewn quilt that my blind great grandmother made. The patches were made from old jeans, work shirts, and simple fabric scraps in no real pattern. I loved each patch, but a large faded denim one was my favorite. The back was patched yellow and pink flannel, pilled and scratchy with age and use. She had accidentally sewed a safety pin inside and I can still remember feeling for that pin like a lucky charm. Thanks for bringing that quilt to mind!
I have many happy memories of home as a child. But the time my mind settles on now is always coming home to mother from elementary school. I would walk home a mile and a half through the wheat field. Halfway, there was a huge mulberry tree that I would climb with friends and we would eat all the mulberries we could hold. When I reached the front door of my home, mother would always be inside preparing dinner and finishing other chores, but she would always take time to hug me and visit about my time at school and times with friends. I have always been so grateful my mom was able to stay at home and create a peaceful place for my brother’s and me. Dad worked for Burlington Northern railroad and was on call 24/7. So he was leaving at all times of the day and night for work. My mother met Christ thru a random woman out witnessing. And over the next 5 years would love my dad and her three children to Christ also. Those are some of my most beautiful memories.
Home feels like my grandma! She never knew what she modeled to me heck, I didn’t even know til much later in life! Something special that I can’t ever quite explain but she was home…
My favorite memories are of time spend at grandma’s house with cousins while we made pies and used the extra dough to cut out shaped cookies, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. What fun we had! We couldn’t wait for them to bake so we could eat them. You are an inspiration to me and I thank you for sharing your time and talent as you decorate your home and inspire us!
Home was many places for me as a Navy dependent, bicoastal and overseas. My fondest memories of home are around food and family. The traditions of holiday meals and the delightfully mouth watering smells from my mother and grandmother’s kitchens. The table was always set with the ‘good’ china and crystal. Linen table cloth and napkins for every place setting. The table was always decorated according to the season. One Christmas there was a gold painted sleigh made from the carcass of Thanksgivings turkey. Grace was always said before eating and we all used your best manners. Conversations around the holiday table always included bits of family history and shared memories. With a house full of aunts, uncles and cousins every bed and floor space was assigned for sleeping. Quilts were used to pad the floor and to cover the sleeper. My grandmother was a fantastic seamstress. She made everyone’s clothes during the depression and all her sewing scraps would end up as a crazy quilt. Washed and worn after many years, they were the coziest blankets ever.
I am so looking forward to your new book. My home is comfortable but in need of an update. I am excited about implementing some of your ideas on my home. I love your style and the way you repurpose furniture!
My favorite memory of home are sweet times spent baking and sewing with my mom!
My fondest memory of home was a place of cozy security. It was a loving family, parents who worked hard to create a beautiful home, good food and fun!
One of my fondest memories of home is walking home from
School and upon reaching our house I would hear music. My mom always had a record playing from Elvis to Broadway show tunes and the smell of dinner in the oven. Miss my parents everyday.
Fave memory is coming home from big extended fam holiday parties. We had a very busy house, lots of kids, so there was always someone home. This was the one time we all came home together. That feeling, that glow of the house and the peacefulness while entering….if just for a moment.
I have fond memories of breaking green beans with my granny.
My fondest memory of the farm home I grew up in is sitting around the kitchen table with my older siblings and parents- the real wood paneling on the wall gave the room a warm and cozy feel, the delicious farm fresh beef and vegetables with homemade biscuits like only my Mama could makes, and nonstop stories being told that would make us laugh until we had to use our napkins to wipe away happy tears. In my adult home my fondest memories are of a warm and cozy environment decorated with items that tell our story, and rooms filled with longtime friends and their kids who have grown up with our daughter and now bring their husbands or boyfriends for us to get to know – and laughter shared – always laughter and stories from lives that are separate from ours yet connected by love and faith.
There are so many memories from growing up that I love, but there was something about Christmas evening. The day was busy with Christmas Mass, the whole family opening presents, and seeing my extended family, but that evening, I would sit in the living room with the Christmas tree lights illuminating the room, enjoying the calm after the hurry. My mom or Dad would join me, and we’d hang out. It was such a beautiful time. ❤
My family had an above ground pool surrounded by an amazing deck with a wisteria covered arbor that my Dad built. When my kids were little we spent every weekend there with my parents. We always had a glass if wine with cheese, then my Dad would grill and my Mom would make the best macaroni salad. I lost my Mom 6 years ago so these memories are treasures.
My fondest memory of home is when all our kids and grandkids are here; we sit outside on the lawn and watch the children ride dirt bikes. Or we all gather for a competitive game of croquet.
Probably my favorite memories of home include our days in student ministry and having students filling our living room and just sharing life with them!
My favorite memories of home are those with my mom. She passed away this year and there are smells, sounds and moments that take me back. My mom was the most special thing about home. ?
Home to me is gathering around the table for a meal. Growing up family meal times were a priority and now when my husband and kids gather around the kitchen island for meals, I get all the feels of home.
I loved getting together with our large extended family at Grandma’s – we’d play board games and lots of card games in the sunroom.
Home is where you share life with those you love….. a home is filled with books, art and laughter….. it has the favorite old sofa that everyone loves and most days it’s well lived in…..home is a reminder of an eternal home…..home sweet home….
My favorite family memories are of growing up with 7 siblings and parents in a big old white house with a porch around two sides in a small MN town. We enlarged the living and dining room into the porch to hold all of us. We are onto 3rd and 4th generations now but sadly the family house was bought and taken down. Memories can’t be erased even though the structures can.
Dear Marian,
Thank you for letting us be a part of your beautiful world.
My fondest memories of home surrounds my mom who is now in heaven. She might have had a shoestring budget at times, but she always made our home lovely for our family. She was the one who taught me that no matter the circumstances, you can always have a sweet and peaceful home.
I can’t wait to read your new book!
Best wishes, Kristin Fisher
Greetings! I’m new to your Instagram account and to your blog. I’m living in my first apartment…I’m 70 years old. I preordered your book, as I’m hoping it will give me some insight to making it feel more like home.
My fondest memories of home pretty much involves food..growing up, my family ate together every day. When my own daughters came along, we continued that tradition. Now, I’m alone, and I truly miss that feeling of home. I don’t even cook anymore because it just doesn’t feel worth the effort.
I look forward to studying your book. I will read it with an open mind so that I’m able to suck up some of your creativeness.
My fondest memories of home are learning to bake with my mom. We didn’t have much money. And there were 11 of us kids. My mom would make homemade bread from scratch. She would set the pans of it on the heat registers on the floor & cover with dish towels so it would rise. She would also make homemade donuts & cinnamon rolls occasionally as a special treat. She could take a few ingredients & make a meal outta them to feed us all. Brings back a lot of memories.
My fondest memory of home is the large tree in the backyard. Full of magic and so grounding, it really has the sweetest memories of all. Thank you for the giveaway!
Hello!
My fondest memory of home is spending time at my grandparents and pulling out the boxes of oranges and tangerines on a cold night close to Christmas!
My fondest memories of home were at my grandparents house. My parents both worked so growing up I spent 7 days a week and some nights with them. Their home was an old white farmhouse with a breezeway connecting two side enclosed porches. I remember running and playing on those porches. When it was winter she would let me ride my bike indoors on the breezeway and old side porches. The main home was in the center of the structure, so it definitely made a great bike path. There was a separate front porch the was the width of the house that had a white swing on it. I spent many spring, summers and fall lying there reading a book l, playing with Barbie dolls or just daydreaming. Mamaw always had food on the stove and sweet southern tea in the fridge. In the winter Papaw always killed a hog and cured the meat in the smoke house. There are so many sweet memories about my Mamaw and Papaws home that I could on and on, but these are my fondest memories I have of my home away from home 🙂
Congratulations on your new book. I can hardly wait to get my copy. My fondest memories of home is when my first husband and I (he has passed on) bought his parents old home. His parents left all of the furnishings including the pots and pans and dishes. I have no idea how old the house was, but you were cold all year long. In the yellow painted kitchen we had lots of friends and family enjoy meals in that old house. We played lots of games and cards. The kitchen was always the warmest room in the house because there was a little monkey stove.
My fondest memory of home is when we’d have our whole family over for dinner and cards. Some much love, laughs and great food
My fondest memories of home are the ones I am making right now. My family and I are finishing the home we built on 30 acres in the mountains. It has truly been a labor of love and one I am so glad to be living out with my husband and children. We are making memories they will keep close to their hearts when they are grown and I will always hold dear to me. From building the house, to painting the inside, to finding the perfect spot for all of our special things (many of them handed down from beloved relatives) to harvesting wood for the stove, working in the garden, cuddling on the sofa with a good book, cooking up a celebratory feast, to listening to the rain outside as we go to sleep – all of these and more feel like home to me in a home that fits us like a glove. Thank you for this opportunity! These things would have a treasured place in our home.
Love this post and this extremely generous and fantastic give away, MMS! Seeing your crocheted items always reminds me of my grandma. She passed away when I was only 9 years old, I wish I could have learned from her how to crochet! Beautifully done! Congrats on your newest book, I am ordering one for my sister’s birthday as she is a big fan, too!
Wonderful cool nights by the fireplace. Eating apples and cheese with my dad while we watched favorite shows. Playing cards with my mom. Waking up to bacon frying and the smell of coffee. Those were the days.
Wow!! This is amazing.
My favorite memory from home, is actually from my grandparents house. We spent Thanksgivings there and it was always crowded with family, the weather was PERFECTLY fall, the house smelled like great food and there was always peach Nehi in the harvest gold refrigerator on the back porch ❤️
My fondest memories are living with my Jannie ( grandmother). Helping her with all the daily chores, hanging clothes on the line, picking peas out of the garden together, then turning on the air
conditioner so it would be cool in the house while we sit and shelled the peas by hand. We would talk about everything!! She taught me so much. Then after I married , my husband and I moved back home and built our second home. That Christmas, the torch was passed to me and I was so excited to host the holidays for all our families, cooking, decorating…it was just wonderful!! I think Jannie was so proud of me , I will never forget her smile!! I miss her so much. She instilled in me the love of home, family, and making my home a haven.
Marion, you have that same beautiful home and wonderful talents that you so generously share with us all!!
One particular memory stands out. I was young – maybe middle school – I remember coming home from school on a crisp fall day. Those kind of days that are a bit dark, blustery, and yet colorful from the trees. I was tired from school and sports. But coming into our home, mom was making stuffed peppers and the whole house smelled amazing – warm and homey. The smells are what I remember most. The lights were all on inside with the early dark of winter approaching outside. She always has a way of making any space feel comfortable and cozy and homey. I want my kids to always feel this way about our home. ?
My favorite memory of home is spending time with my grandmother, having a cup of tea and plate of cookies. She would use her “good china” tea cups and saucers, even though I was quite young. She always made me feel special. She has been gone for a long time, but I think of her with every cup of tea, especially when I pull out her Old Country Roses tea cups!
Best memories of home are arriving there with my babies from the hospital.
My fondest memories of home are the dinnertime conversations that happen when all of our kids are home. I love the care, concern, laughter and silliness that happens as we catch-up on each others’ lives.
My fondest memories of home are ALWAYS tied to my maternal grandmother, who raised me until I was 7. She was like a fairy to me, I always felt the happiest and safest when with her. She loved to cook and I inherited her passion for cooking. Her house always smelled of good food and the holidays gatherings we had there are still the best memories for me. She past away 24 years ago but she will forever be in my heart, my treasure. Love you, Nata!
Wow! This is such a nice giveaway! So my favorite memories of home would be the times we went to the bus station to pick up my grandma! Is it any wonder that I love the smell of diesel exhaust. I know thats weird, but thats what the bus station smelled like. I remember her coming around thanksgiving and staying until after christmas. She lived in Erie PA and we were in Louisville KY. I still tear up thinking about her leaving and us not seeing her for at least another year. When she passed, I remember telling my parents how sad I was that I wouldn’t get to smell or eat anymore of her delicious buttered noodles (served at every dinner ) or homemade 5 cent fudge! (Thats right, when she made it the Hershey bars only cost 5 cents)!! She always did a funny thing with her triceps, she could flex them while her hands were on top of her head! I have never been able to do that! I’m hoping she can see what a good grandma I have become. Miss her so much
My fondest memory of home is having the privilege of meeting my husband of 55 years when he walked through the back door with my brother.They were in the navy together,and had come for visit before reporting to base.
How lucky was I?I still get that same feeling as we still live in that home today.
Little did I know I wouldn’t have my children, grandchildren, and now great grandchildren coming through the same back door.
I love everything in the give away,and if honored with winning, look forward to sharing with my family.
Fondest memory of home is actually at my grandparents house as we always went over every Sunday after church. I can still hear the whirl of the ice cream maker going. I can still taste the home made potato soup granny would make. My grandpa built us kids a playhouse by scratch. It had two rooms and a porch. We loved it! Every holiday was special there. Looking back as an adult it was all so very simple but it sure was magical as a child.
Home and memories—SO many! My best memories of home are always when me and my siblings were in eager anticipation of family dinners—the comforting, enticing smells, the easy, happy conversations and play, the feelings and attention from those that loved us.
My fondest memories of home center around Christmas. Setting up the nativity scene with its hand-made stable (courtesy of dad) and the partly-chewed baby Jesus (courtesy of baby me!), I can still hear the Christmas music and see the lights of the too-tall, top-chopped-out-of-it Christmas tree covered in tinsel and shiny bright ornaments. All these years later that nativity still goes up every Christmas in my home.
My fondest memories of home were from other people’s homes I spent time in as a child. My mom was chronically ill, and I stayed with friends and family frequently during her hospitalizations and recoveries. Going to Mass with Aunt Ann’s family, Nana washing my hair with her special lemon shampoo, the smell of Aunt Teen’s garlic and rosemary chicken, French bread and butter for lunch on the beach with Shirley – so many moments that made me feel special. I was very lucky to have had such wonderful support during those years.
Congrats on your book – what an accomplishment!
My favorite memories of home are staying with my grandparents. I got to sleep in a featherbed with several layers of my grandma’s handmade quilts keeping me warm long after the wood stove cooled. I remember my grandpa bringing baby piglets into the kitchen for me to play with.
One of me favorite memories of home is sitting in an open doorway, wrapped in a quilt, watching a summer evening thunderstorm.
Baking Christmas cookies with my Mom and Dad.
Congratulations on the release of your book! I’ve found great inspiration when visiting your blog and feel as if it flows like a conversation with a friend. One of my warmest memories was from time spent over the long fall weekends at our ‘up north’ second home in Wisconsin. There would be a fire crackling in the family room and the smell of homemade soup simmering on the stove and cookies baking in the oven. My children were still at home at that time (they are now grown) and we would explore through the woods and fields for natural elements to decorate with – dried flowers past their prime, colorful leaves, acorns and hazelnuts. Often a puzzle would be in progress and we would end the day with flickering candles, cozy throws and hot apple cider. Cheers!
My favorite part of home is my family. A home is a place where we can be together, to laugh, enjoy each other’s company, and create traditions and celebrate them each year. It is a place where we can feel the joy of music. I love the feeling your decoration and design inspires. I am excited for your book to arrive. Thank you for sharing.
To me, Home is a comfortable feeling of connection. My fondest memories of Home include all the family (extended relatives and sometimes friends) all gathered together for a Holiday meal, usually Thanksgiving or Christmas. There were certain things you could count on: Granny’s fried apples, my mom’s dressing (recipe from her grandmother), the same familiar decorations, the Candelight Service at my grandparents’ church followed by family dinners… so much more. Home is gathering with people and being together. The shelter provides the capsule fixed in time to build upon the traditions that give comfort, relationship, and meaningful memories for years to come. Home is transcendent over a lifetime of relationships.
My favorite memory of home is when my siblings all lived at home too. I think about the pictures my mother chose to decorate the walls our modest home. Some of those pictures hang in my house today and it totally takes me back to my childhood when I look at them. It reminds me of the love we were surrounded with as children.
My favorite memory of home is watching my grandmother sew quilts on an old red eye singer sewing machine while the breeze gently blew the curtains on hot summer days.
I love it when all of my children and grandchildren are here together. It’s busy but a wonderful time indeed.
Congratulations on the new book! My favorite memory of home was when we would decorate the Christmas tree & have homemade eggnog & squint our eyes to see if we put the tree lights on evenly.
My fondest memory of home is our dining table. This is where my family comes together for a meal to catch up on our lives, with memories told, jokes and so much laughter. So much happens at that table, like game night and family discussions. It’s so important with my daughter now in her own home with her family to be able to connect. I adore that blue turkey platter. So many wonderful items included here in the giveaway. I just pre ordered the book today, downloaded all my bonus content and can’t wait to receive Feels Like Home. Blue is my favorite decor color! I have been a following from the beginning. Thank you!
Coming from a large family, home was a place shared with 5 brothers and 5 sisters. Chores, toys and bedrooms were shared with other siblings. Our parents raised us to care and respect each other. Now as adults with our own children and grandchildren, we look forward to and enjoy the times when we can get together.
My fondest memories growing up always meant gathering with extended family. I only had one sister but my parents both came from families with 10 children. I was blessed by wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles, & cousins. Lots of people that loved me! No one had large or fancy homes but the kind of place you could just make your self at home & feel comfortable. Walking in the door you were hugged & greeted by delicious smells of food being prepared. My Grandma made everyone’s favorite pie, 6 or 8 pies! The women were all getting a meal ready for the table, men spilled out into the porch & yard, & kids everywhere! Lots of laughing & talking. Those days are long past with most of those dear ones no longer with us but I strive to have that kind of welcoming & fun home for our children & grandchildren now.
Congrats on “Feels Like Home”–this has to be one of your grandest moments, Marian! My favorite memory of home was actually going to my maternal grandparents’ farmhouse every year in Alabama. They were humble people who lived so simply, yet their home exuded so much love and goodness. Every once in awhile, I can actually catch a brief moment filled with the scent of their home and feel enveloped in all the good sensations again.
My fondest memories always involve food at home. Especially chocolate cake with marshmallow icing. We had it for every special event.
My favorite memories of home are of my two sons growing up together with our two pug puppies. Life could be chaotic but rarely a dull moment. I reveled in those times.
Received your book today. Can’t wait to dig in! Love your style!
I love my home because of all the family memories we have made here! It’s a place where all I have to do is close my eyes and see my children riding their bikes with neighborhood friends on a Saturday morning. Decorating the Christmas tree each year, Easter egg hunts, Thanksgiving dinners, and Halloween! Doing their homework at the dining room table. So, many memories!!! I love this old house!!!
My favorite memories of home were the winter evenings tucked in with my mom and I at either end of the couch talking the night away with all the familiar smells and sounds….hot chocolate, the furnace kicking on and off, and
watching the snow collect.
I created that in my own home with my 2 boys as we sat around the table and talked and ate our way through the night with all their favorites!
Congrats on the new book and thank you for the opportunity to win such a wonderful collection of prizes!
My favorite memory of home is a summer day and the sound of a screen door shutting and sun so bright outside you felt like the day would last forever!
My favorite memories of home are of my great Aunty Helen wandering around her kitchen always asking me if “I’m hungry, you need to eat more. I’ll cook for you” which is how she showed she loved you. My grandmother (her younger sister) was the same way, always making sure she could cook for you even if you weren’t hungry. Memories of decorating Christmas cookies with my younger cousin and her mom, laughing at some of the gingerbread men who had inadvertently become “anatomically correct”, hearing my 12 year old cousin (who is now 33) say she used the peanut butter baking chip because she wanted a “button for his pants” as her mom and I laughed. Learning to make biscuits by “feel” rather than measurements from my step mom. Learning to till the garden with my dad. Taking all these memories of cooking and baking and how I associate them with home and love and bringing them into my marriage with my husband of 8 years. Showing him how much I love him with homemade dinners, bread from scratch, too many sweets, and breakfasts on Sundays. Home is wherever I can cook and bake for my family (even if my first attempt at Thanksgiving turkey took 9 hours longer than planned and Thanksgiving dinner was at 10pm that night) and all of my best memories are associated with those family dinners and cooking for friends.
My favourite memories of my home now are those who come and go from my home; grandchildren, children, spouses, friends far and near and a couple of exchange students. So many good memories made and happening this very day when all 5 of my grands are outside on this glorious fall day making a movie they wrote, acted in, directed, and filmed on a cell phone. It will be fabulous as only a movie made by 5 year olds to 12 year olds can be.
My fondest memories of home are being in the kitchen with my children baking sugar cookies (my precious mother in law’s recipe) with friends and family, celebrating the holidays with family and hanging out on the front porch watching the children play.
There are many favorite memories from our farm in northern New Hampshire. Winter was always an exciting time for us as kids; my cousins and Aunts and Uncles would all come visit from Long Island and we would build the most fantastic ‘flying saucer’ tracks (those round saucer shaped sleds) all over the side of the large hill next to our house. Back then we got so much more snow. There were many twists and turns and jumps to fly over and we would all spend hours flying down the hill. Once our hands and feet were frozen we would go inside for hot chocolate and cookies and thaw out by the wood stove. Then we would put on dry clothes and head back out for more fun!! I’ll never forget those wonderful, simple days.
No one from our family lives at that farm anymore but last week my sister and I went back to look at the old place (and do a little leaf peeping). We just stood there for a long time looking at that hill and reminiscing about all the fun we had there so long ago (over 50 yrs ago). We were amazed at how little that hill looks now 🙂
Fondest memories of Home…there are so many. Remembering my grandparents home where my grandmother made homemade goodies every day. The aromas of her apple pies, kolachy, special Easter lamb pound cake, sweet cinnamon bread, rye bread, soft rolls that barely got out of the oven to be smothered with sweet cream butter. Her dinners were another homemade treat. All enjoyed over family get togethers.
Those were the days!!
Thank you Marian for offering these wonderful gifts.
I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, where we frequently enjoyed snowy Christmases. One of my favorite memories of that home, a century and a half old clapboarded beauty, is of my Grandfather’s arrival on Christmas day, waving a freshly made pan of chocolate fudge. His cheerful baritone resounded in the entryway, as he stamped the snow from his boots and removed his hat and overcoat. Gramp is long gone now, but i can still hear his Christmas greeting.
I am so excited for your book to arrive! This is such an awesome give-away! Many thanks to you and your many generous contributors.
The fragrance from a hedge of lilac bushes near our play area will always evoke memories of HOME for me. I cherish that special place where we gathered with family and friends for holidays and special meals. I have memories of stories with dad and working in the garden with mom, where I also played in the trees to watch bird nests with eggs that changed to tiny baby birds. We had many visits from our grandparents, where my grandma first introduced us to quilt making. She always had a square in her lap-she sewed each piece by hand! Our home was filled with sweet smells (especially cinnamon), beautiful treasures and decorated with love. I’ve tried to capture that feeling in our own cottage which we are slowly updating and decorating in blues, creating a place where beautiful memories are made for my children and grandchildren.
My favorite memory of home is listening to the peepers from the front porch on a Spring evening. When I stop and think about it, I can almost hear them!
Congrats on your book and thank you for offering such a wonderful prize package.
My favorite memory of home is being outside in the summer and running from one neighbors home to another, playing with our friends. Sampling different foods from the Mom’s in the neighborhood! We stayed out till the sun went down!
My favorite part of home was my mother. She made everything taste good, feel good, and safe. She passed away when I was 17, and I have missed the comfort of having her. But beyond that, I have favorite memories of my aunt and uncles old farmhouse, over 100 years old now, and I loved the comfort of staying with them. Lots of warm wood tones, and the most intricate gingerbread decoration in the archways between rooms and by the big bay window. I loved following my uncle around the dairy farm, watching him milk the cows, playing with the barn kittens, in the haymow, and in the old kitchen with 12 foot high ceilings but aunt made the most astonishing homemade bread. There were floor to ceiling cupboards between the kitchen and dining room that opened on both sides, and a table that seemed 15 feet long stretched the length of the room with windows all along the wall facing the apple orchard. It was simple, cozy, comforting, and heaven to a little girl.
Such an amazing giveaway! I can’t wait for your book- two more days! Home…it’s with my people- my husband and my kids. Growing up, home moved and changed a lot, and now with my own family I want it to be a place that is constant, safe, cozy and full of creativity and the sweet (or spicy) aroma of home cooked meals (or frozen pizza) and simplicity. At the age of 43, I’m finally starting to find my voice in my decorating style and how it merges with my husband’s (picture crazy artist meets solid organized manager- it’s quite the fun merger!) so our home can reflect one another and bring peace and joy to each one of us and our 6 kiddos. It’s a wild, lovely and beautiful ride.
My fondest memory of home is the smell that permeated the air from my mother’s baking. She baked for every occasion and for no occasion at all. And, of course, she used so many of her vintage serving pieces which made everything so elegant (no paper plates for her). She’s gone now and I didn’t continue with her baking tradition. Instead, I enjoy cooking savory meals.
One fond memory of home (and growing up with 6 brothers and 1 sister!) is having lived in an area of really beautiful historical homes. Very near to our little “downtown” and yet w/a huge yard that let me roam and explore. In many of those historical homes were older neighbors and I loved that, as well.
One of my fondest memories of home is a mom that sewed almost everything I wore. She made school clothes, coats, and even bathing suits. Everything I had was one of a kind. All we shopped for were a few shirts and tops. The first “store-bought” dress I had was my wedding dress. She also reupholstered furniture, canned and froze food from our big garden. Just like you, soup was one of her specialities, especially vegetable soup. My brother and I didn’t think we liked peppers and onions, so she put them in the blender before she put them in the soup. We were never the wiser until we were almost grown.
Congratulations on your book. It’s a great accomplishment.
My fondest memories of my home are celebrating holidays with family and friends. We have a large dining room with a 15 foot table and love to fill it up! Sharing wonderful meals with the people we love is something I hope our children remember and fingers crossed they want to come home to be with us when they are parents one day!
My fondest memories of home are celebrating Christmas from when our children were born to now. We are blessed with a little granddaughter this year and we can’t wait to celebrate with her. Thank you for your ideas and inspiration. I’m looking forward to my pre ordered copy of your book.
Home is such a powerful word! I remember the days I came home from school to fresh baked cookies, weekly visits with my grandparents (and their ‘goodie jars’), times on my aunt’s farm but my favorites are bringing my own babies homes, watching them grow, running next door to my mother in law or to the house behind us to my brother-in-law (especially when their math homework became out of my league), my daughter’s homecoming after a year in Iraq as a soldier, both my daughter’s weddings…. Family is home, more than a place or time. It’s the people. ?
My favorite memories of home is most definitely family. I enjoy the lazy quiet days were we are just together, the busy days were there is a lot going on , and days were you just need a shoulder. Being home is my favorite place. I love the comfort of home, the smells of a homey scented candle, the decorations that all tell a story, and the music. There is nothing more memorable then playing your favorite song and singing and dancing around the house. My home is a place of comfort and understanding, family is the most important thing so a welcoming and positive home is very important. A big hug everyday is so important and that hug can be from your family or your home.
One of my favorite memories of home is snowy winter evenings gathered around a crackling fire with my siblings as my mom read aloud to us and someone always saying “just one more page!” to see how far we could get in the story before mom made us go to bed.
My favorite memories of home are at the holidays – baking Christmas cut-outs, decorating the tree, and singing Christmas carols as a family with my mother playing the piano. I’m now a mother myself and still cherish these moments at home.
My fondest memories of home are our Christmas memories….In a family of six children, we didn’t always get a lot of gifts, but the gifts we got we knew were carefully chosen just for us, with our needs being the utmost concern (practicality over indulgence), but there was always 1 special gift that was a desire. Waking up at 5 am, and sitting on the stairs until 7am, waiting for our parents to get up and then we could start opening gifts….youngest to oldest, to open the presents
Being young and free!!
I can NOT wait to receive your book! I’ve been a huge fan of yours for years. Your blog is my first go to in the morning.
My favorite home memory is the whole family gathered in the kitchen cooking. We all enjoy food made with love and the togetherness it brings. We all love cooking and enjoying our time together, swapping stories and asking each other to taste this…
What a wonderful giveaway. My father passed away almost 9 years now. My best memories I have are with him having Sunday morning breakfast after church. I miss those mornings. My father grew up in an orphanage, I never knew much about his childhood there, put he let me in to those time during breakfast. I miss those and him dearly.
One of my fondest memories of home was getting my own bedroom after sharing with my little sister for forever. I was becoming a teenager and in our tiny home, with 3 siblings and one bathroom, I was given my own room. I found this out when my mother told me to go to my then shared room and not come out until she called me. I asked my little sister for hints about what was going on. She told me it was a surprise. I begged for hints. Being 4 years younger and wanting to please me, she said she’d only tell me it was as big as a bed. I was pretty excited as we waited for the furniture delivery guys to put the bed together. My mother noticed that I wasn’t as surprised and excited as she had expected and I had to admit that I was given a hint that gave away the whole surprise. It didn’t reduce my feeling like a queen for a day!
My favorite memories of home are the ones we’re making now. I have many nostalgic memories of our home growing up but the memories we’re making now with our 14-year-old daughter are the ones I value most. What memories are we making now for our family to look back upon in the future? Your giveaways are the best!
A favorite memory of home has to be about the food that is so special to my childhood, and then being able to pass on the recipes to my children. During last years’ pandemic lockdown when we couldn’t get together, my grandson made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner for his family. I had been teaching him for a few years. I couldn’t have been any more proud.
My fondest memories of home were when my son & daughter were little and we would have all the family over for celebrations and holidays. The kids would play and we would gather around our table and sit and talk about everything, old memories and new as we made more memories. The kids would come and share in the conversations then off to play again. Everyone had fun and went home full and happy! Most blessed!
Congratulations on the new book! I had many homes growing up–my childhood home, our family cabin, and my grandparents homes. I can’t visit any of those homes anymore, but I keep pieces of them in my own home to remind me of those past homes that I loved; the candle that my mom always burned during the holidays, the piano I learned to play on, a jar full of my grandfather’s paintbrushes, a pencil sketch my grandfather did of the Arc de Triomphe, a painting of my one of my other grandfather’s hunting dogs, my grandmother’s tea set, my great-grandmother’s music box….I love to surround myself with things that bring back treasured memories of people and places that I love and miss.
My favorite memory of home was coming home from school and finding cookies or goodies cooling in the kitchen. It was not the food but knowing someone knew I was coming and cared enough to prepare for me. Our homes today still show how we care for others by preparing for them in advance. We had family get togethers every holiday and loved the sharing of time, games, and food.
Now that I’m a grandmother, I realize that my fondest memories of home are centered on the people, not the house my parents owned for 45 years. My dad lived to be 96; my 94-year-old Mom is still living. I’m grateful for the secure home they made for their four kids.
My fondest memory of home is more of a feeling I get when I think of being at the house I grew up, where my mom still lives at 88, and where friends and relatives have come and gone for over 55 years. I don’t need to be physically there to know the warmth that those memories give to me. I can take them wherever I go and wherever I live. I feel so grateful for this!
Thank you for this extraordinary giveaway. My fondest childhood memories of home are the holidays- notably Thanksgiving -when relatives would come in from out of town. My parents had just restored a Victorian house with period antiques, wool carpets and intricate wallpapers. We would get dressed up so fancy in our Gunne Sax dresses and eat in the formal dining room on the china and crystal. I remember chaos, merriment and so many people! I’m glad I have those memories. Life is so informal these days, I do miss the feeling of a very special occasion!
There are so many beautiful memories of home, but the ones that stand out are meals around the dining table with my parents, brother & sisters, and spouses, whether it was for a birthday or holiday meal. We’d linger after the meal and talk and talk, and laugh and laugh. Precious.
My fondest memory of home is 3 generations of our family spending a holiday together…either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sharing a feast around the table, then gathering around the fireplace in the den with Grandpa and aunts and uncles telling family stories.
Some of my fondest memories are baking with my mom and grandmother. Especially during the holidays. I’ve passed this tradition on with my children and grandchildren.
My sisters and I would get together with nieces and nephews and bake the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They would have so much fun together playing and cutting out cookies and icing them.
When I was young my sister and I would fight over who got to enter the Shoofly pie in the local fair. It alway got a blue ribbon which at that time came with .50 to spend at the fair.
My granddaughter recently bake a cake for my 70th birthday. I guess the tradition will continue.?
Home is my mom and daddy’s old ranch house. Long days working cattle, doing all the upkeep that is required on a working ranch, feeding cattle, horses and us kids. My mom is the best cook. Good hearty meals that fill you up and keep you working all day. Now my oldest son is there with them and she still feeds him 3 home cooked meals every day.
In a family of four children, I have so many fond memories. One of the simplest was Sunday evenings. We had chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, then settled in to watch The Wonderful World of Disney. We were all so enthralled with the stories.
One of my fondest memories was actually at my Grandmother’s home. She had a set of green glasses with clear beaded bottoms that only the adults got to drink from. I remember when I was deemed old enought to have one at my place at the table. I felt so special that day and many years later as an adult, I was gifted that set as a Christman present. I have cherished them, and they have a special place
in my Dining Room hutch.
Wow Marian congrats on your book! So many memories of home.. your quilt is a reminder of my childhood, my mom made many quilts and taught me to sew also. A quilt is a perfect touch to making a room feel just right! My mother in law also made quilts for each of my babies.
Home is sitting at the kitchen table my grandma always used. It’s setting the table with my parents’s silver service every holiday. It’s seeing my family sitting around my other grandmother’s dining room table and arranging my dish display in her hutch. It’s watching my granddaughters sit on Grandpa’s lap while he plays his father’s baby grand piano in our living room. It’s using my mother in law’s Franciscan Apple pattern dishes every day. There are so many family members represented in my home through items they loved and cherished. Now, I am the privileged caretaker! I love the selection of items in this giveaway and will certainly be checking out the businesses! Can’t wait to get my book this week!!
My Mother hung a needlepoint in our kitchen that said “Home is Where the Heart Is.” So true, and such a wonderful memory.
Hi Marian,
Congratulations on your book. Amazon tells me it is on its way to my house.
My favorite memory of home is from my first childhood home. We moved when I was in college. We lived in a row house, oh sorry townhouse is what they call them now ?. We had a dog and she would run up and so did both neighbors. I would sit up in my bedroom window and watch her run up and down the fence line with the other dog. It took all my cares away, as well looking back wasted a lot of time. But, if you knew our family you would know it was a safe place to dream away. And boy what rut in the yard she made on both sides of the fence.
My childhood home is gone as are my parents but my favorite memory was buffing the old wood floors with my siblings. We would move all the furniture, put on three pairs of socks and skate around. Everyone was happy and laughing.
Congratulations on your book and thanks for the amazing giveaways!
Home has always meant cooking together, often old German (from Russia) food my dad grew up with. We have such a good time, Dad would regale us with stories of the farm in South Dakota, the hard winters, Grandma Oster and Aunt Eve Boss making quilts, cooking huge meals for the family of thirteen children. My mother would share stories of growing up a “town” girl in their tiny South Dakota town and we would make Lefsa and other Norwegian delights, I was truly blessed to have both strong cultures shared in our home. My Grandma (maternal) shared her stories of growing up in both Wisconsin and South Dakota and the Great Depression, she had been a suffragette and always reminded me what a great privilege we have in this country to vote – she spent countless hours teaching me to sew, embroider, tat, and tried to teach me to crochet (I seem to be impaired in that area). She shared the love of Jesus with me and would tell me many stories from the Bible. Blessed beyond measure.
My fondest memory of home is our dining table. This is where my family comes together for a meal to catch up on our lives, with memories told, jokes and so much laughter. So much happens at that table, like game night and family discussions. It’s so important with my daughter now in her own home with her family to be able to connect. I adore that blue turkey platter. So many wonderful items included here in the giveaway. I just pre ordered the book today, downloaded all my bonus content and can’t wait to receive Feels Like Home. Blue is my favorite decor color! I have been a following from the beginning. Thank you!
I have many fond memories of home. My mother made every room special on a limited budget. My bedroom was small but so special. An antique 3/4 bed, handmade quilts and lovely art work made my room seem like a retreat. Best wishes for you on your new book. I am sure it will be a hit with everyone that reads it. I can’t wait!!!!!
So many congrats and all the best wishes on your new book! Thank you for the giveaway opportunity–what a treat. My fondest memory of home…when my maternal grandmother would come by to visit our family. She lived close by, and sitting in our family’s kitchen and talking with her was always my favorite time of day. She made home FEEL like home!
Fondest memories of home would have to be at either of my grandparents houses as a child. Of course I have great memories at my own home, but there’s just something extra special about grandmas. There are certain smells that instantly take me back (coffee, sausage and eggs, onions in a cast iron skillet, sawdust in the wood shop, motor oil in the garage shop, on and on)! I was very blessed with my grandparents and even still blessed to have 2 of them as an adult. They feel like home no matter where we are, always made everything seem special from going on a walk, cooking dinner or telling us bed time stories.
My favorite memories of home had to do with the holidays. All the family would gather: adults would converse and drink while we kiddos would have a blast with our cousins. To this day, the cousins still get together and have a blast but this time we conversa and drink.
Thanks for this absolutely wonderful giveaway!!!
I have many wonderful memories of growing up. My mom always made sure our holidays and birthdays were extra special for us (there were four of us kids). But my favorite holiday memory was having all my mom’s family and their families for Thanksgiving. There was always 20-40 people at our gathering. Everyone was welcome. Fast forward through the years, and the same famiily members are still coming to my mom’s home for Thanksgiving. She always makes everyone feel welcome and loves each person that enters her home. I’ve always marveled that she was such a wonderful host and could cook some of the most delicious dishes!
My fondest memory of home is the stillness of the first snow of the year. I can’t wait to enjoy it this year cozied up to our new fireplace!
We’re moving into a new home this week! It’s bittersweet because my oldest is across the state enjoying his freshman year at college. My fondest memories of our first two homes are bringing our four babies home from the hospital for the first time, and all of the celebrations we’ve hosted in both homes. I love having friends and family close, and I can’t wait to do the same in our new home!
My fondest memories of home include my maternal grandparents and the anticipation as we drove the ninety minutes to their home on Thanksgiving and Christmas day. The smell of pies baking and the sound of familiar voices laughing and talking brought such joy into my young heart! Both of my grandparents are gone now but I can still see their smiles when I l close my eyes and listen to old Christmas carols.
My fondest memory of home is all the carefree days I had outside as a young girl-climbing trees, swinging in the swing, picking cherries and eating them right off the tree and then going inside to our screened in porch to play with Play-Doh and then finally crashing on the sofa in front of the air conditioner reading a book.
My dad was in the Air Force so “home” was a place that changed often. There were six of us kids and not much money. When we moved from furnished, on-base housing in Puerto Rico to unfurnished, off-base housing in California, our parents bought some secondhand furniture, including a long, light green camel back sofa and a wing chair upholstered in a brown floral print. The year we lived in CA our dad was TDY in Greenland and in his absence and when our mom was out, we took a few liberties with the household rules by playing baseball inside. We used the chair for home plate and it’s two throw pillows for the bat and ball. Not surprising, the poor chair’s arms became threadbare and you could see the wooden frame in some places. Mom had the furniture moved with us from CA to FL much to our dad’s surprise. They decided to have the sofa and chair reupholstered in Naugahyde: light green brocade for the sofa and a deep, forest green for the chair. Upon its return from being reupholstered, it became The Big Green Chair. It also became the best seat in the house and was forever the subject of someone “calling dibs.” I loved sitting in it with one leg swung over an arm, much to my mother’s chagrin. I have since acquired my own green chair but in sage and with a more modern silhouette. The spot on the side where the frame is peeking through (which is hidden by a strategically placed throw) is from a succession of kitties who mistook the chair for a scratching post. I still (at my age!) like to sit with one leg slung over an arm of the chair. My sons have never confessed to playing baseball in the house with throw pillows but if they did, I hope they cherish the memory.
QUILTS! Yes, quilts to me are the basis of what home is to me. It brings back memories of my great grandmother and my “Amazing Grace”grandmother and remembrances of being wrapped up lovingly in their homemade quilts. I even have fond memories of seeing the huge quilt frame hanging from Great Grandma’s ceiling in her small cottage. She also sewed them on her treadle sewing machine. I have one of the last quilts she made (at age 95). ? And it is now a tradition and a passion and a collection of mine. make me feel loved, makes my home feel homey, gives me a basis for offering gracious hospitality to my guests in my Romantic French Country home. ?
FYI: I’ve been following your blog for over 10 years and you helped me more clearly define my home style. And gave me so many wonderful wonderful ideas when we bought our dream home. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and creativity in your life that you so freely share with us. It has brought me so much joy.
Jeannette the JOYFUL DIVA ???
My favorite memory of home is cooking with my mom. She worked hard to support us and on Sundays we would make a big breakfast and then dinner. It was a time for us to connect and something we still do when we visit.
I have sweet memories of my mama rocking me on her lap on our screened porch while my daddy held my younger brother. It was not a fancy house or neighborhood, but the sense of love and safety are beyond price.
My memory of home is when I was living on a farm in Indiana. My bedroom was in the attic area and I love the fall. With the windows open and a cool breeze I would listen to the song birds singing their morning or evening praises.
My favorite memory of home is the house I grew up in, when my mom and dad were still alive. I lost my dad when I was only 15.
I love the “Shoofly Star” quilt shown in your Facebook post too. ❤
My fondest memory of home is coming *back* home. I’ve always been a homebody and I so loved the home I grew up in. My mom and dad bought this home when I was three, and we moved in the weekend before I turned four, so this has pretty much always been home. So many years of wonderful memories growing up here – immediate family celebrations with my mom, dad, and sister; huge extended family memories of so many wonderful holidays spent here; the year my parents gave my sister and I the ‘option’ – air conditioning? or a pooe were 16 and 12 at the time – what do you think we chose? Hundreds of pool parties later… About 15 years ago, my husband and I decided it might be a good time to buy a home of our own. My dad insisted that we should rent ‘just a few more years’ as he wanted us to have our family home when the time came. Sadly, just a few years later, both my mom and dad passed away within just three months of each other. And so, my husband and I moved *home*. The warm, comforting, familiar place that I’ve always known as home is now our home – the legacy continues. It’s such an honor and treasure to be able to live in this home. We still gather here for celebrations, still have pool parties (the air conditioning was installed *after* my sis and I moved out!), and still love our neighborhood. In fact, several of the kids I grew up with here on the block now own their parents and grandparents home, so we’re still the kids on the block!
Good luck with the book! I know it will be a great success.
When I think about my fondest memories of home my thoughts always turn to growing up in rural Maine on my grandparent’s dairy farm. My earliest memory is of walking hand in hand with my grandmother and grandfather across the pasture to pick wild strawberries for Gram to make into a delicious pie. There would always be a small portion of berries left over that she placed in a bowl for me to eat with fresh cream. My grandmother encouraged me to join her in the kitchen for canning and baking and when I was old enough, to help make quilts for the Ladies Aid Society in our small town, which was founded by my great grandmother. My grandfather taught me about the value of days work, and the native plants, berries and wildflowers that abundantly grew on our farm. The skills and knowledge I use today to keep a home, plant a garden and feed my family are because of my beloved grandparents and are my most treasured gifts. Bless you Marian, for all you share with your readers and followers for you too are a rare a gift.
Wow, this is awesome. The book, the products, and the style all remind me of home. My favorite was our dance parties while cleaning or hanging out. My mom would put on a record and it started. Who ever was in the house new to stop and come join in the dance party.
Some of the fondest ones involve my dad reading out loud – usually something long, like Robinson Crusoe, but sometimes shorter like the Little House books – on winter nights, fire in the wood stove, popcorn, playing legos on the floor with my siblings. Cozy, warm, safe. So good. <3
Sunday lunch at my Grandmother’s house and all of us around her large table. The afternoon always ended with tea and sandwiches before we would head for home, and in between there was always a game of Scrabble. I still play Scrabble today with that same game.
Love your blog, Marian! My fondest childhood memories of home revolve around our years living in Germany. Almost every weekend my mom and dad would get me up early to drive to the flea markets in France (we were stationed not far from the French border). We would come home at the end of the day with our little Audi station wagon full of “treasures” — antique tables, chairs, coffee mills, pitchers & wash basins, paintings, needlepoint frames, linens, light fixtures, clocks, the list was endless. Sometimes I could pick out something for my room — a porcelain figurine, a jewelry box, even my iron bed frame. Our home was full of these treasures. So when I read of your own treasure hunts, it reminds me of those days (1970’s). My home now has a few of those lucky finds from the “Marche aux Puces”. It makes me smile to think they were “antiques” when my mom bought them, and are even more so now almost 50 years later. Not sure our purchases from our local big box stores will weather the years quite like those! I love to think of the person who may have sat at that table, used that spoon, read that book, looked at that painting…. Thanks for reminding us to treasure even the smallest, most ordinary of things.
Home.
Home is where our family is.
Home is where we spend time together in comfort and security. Where we make childhood memories, and grow into adults. As a military family, We have learned to make each house that we have lived in our home by focusing on time spent together.
I am super excited to get your new book and enjoy the experience of reading it. Thank you for this awesome giveaway!
My birthday is October 13th and my husband preordered “Feels Like Home” as a gift for my birthday. I can’t wait till it arrives! Home to me is a cozy retreat from the often chaotic world; a place to unwind and be yourself; a welcoming space, when you return to it lovingly greeted by your fur baby; a blank canvas to decorate with cultivated pieces, handmade goods and finishing touches. Congratulations on the book, Marian. Thank you for celebrating its release with this amazing giveaway!
Especially after this last year +++ with Covid I treasure most getting together with family at any occasion, especially birthdays, thanksgiving, and soon Christmas. I know that being apart has made us all thankful for each other. We miss our daughter at these gatherings now because she died of Ovarian Cancer 3 years ago. She was the spark in our gatherings for 43 years and we all miss her so much. We know that she is in Heaven with Jesus and we know where she is has great comfort for all my family. Thanks for your wonderful blog. It is so encouraging and uplifting.
My mother knew how to make her tiny New England home hospitable, especially keeping her table neat and decorated with simple but beautiful round cloths. There were 5 of us, three girls, one bathroom, two bedrooms, and a fold-out couch in the living room for my parents until I was in “junior high” (dated myself there!). She always took care to dress neatly and use a little makeup, and to spruce herself up before my father came home from the fire station each day. She loved us and enjoyed teaching us how to knit, sew, bake, and then share good things (cookies!) and good times (popcorn back yard parties) with the small crowd of neighbors on our little “dead-end” street. Others were always welcome, especially the other children on our street. Trips to the library downtown (Weymouth) in our old VW bus were regular occurrences early Saturday morning, everyone welcome! She knew how to make a house a home, and welcomed aunts, uncles, and cousins often. We were blessed!
My fondest memories revolve around family meals, conversation and delicious food. My mom was a great cook and we always ate all together whenever it was humanely possible . Our family also loved playing games together, and our game collection was quite impressive.
Congratulations – waiting eagerly for my copy to be delivered today! My favorite memory of my childhood home is the smell of baked goods when I walked in the door after school. My mom baked every Friday, and it was always a treat, particularly her apple pie!
Your giveaway is absolutely wonderful !!!
I would be very appreciative of such treasures !!!
My fondest memory of home is the love and important teachings received from my grandparents. They raised my brother and I, and we were blessed with a fabulous childhood, and a wonderful foundation for our adult years. There are so many memories of home, and they are combined to make our childhood the fondest memory of home !!!!
A homemade hot breakfast, EVERY morning. Always included orange juice and homemade Ghirardelli hot chocolate !!! I can still hear grandma stirring the pot.
This is how we began each day that was filled with more than I could list in a short note. We were taught to care for and appreciate things from the past, love each other, show respect, be grateful for what we had and the most important thing in the home is the family. How you live, love, and give to every day makes the home special. God bless my grandparent’s souls.
One of my fondest memories of home isn’t of my home, but of arriving at my Grandparents’ house. They were aging and I was in my 40s. As I pulled up to their house in a rental car, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of being home, welcomed and loved. My grandma was a quilter. Handmade quilts remind me of her. I have always loved their texture and patterns.
Home, where everything that makes up me is. I can come home and relax knowing that all of my favorite people and things are! I love antique items and DIY as well! My home is a curated version of me. I love home decor and am studying to become an Interior designer. I can’t wait to get my hands on your new book and capture all the inspiration!
My favorite part of home is my family. Remembering back to when I was little was waking up early and going downstairs to find my mom in the kitchen getting ready for breakfast and the day. Just the two of us up early. Such a warm feeling
My fondest memory of home is building our house as a family including our children, then 4 and 3 years old. My father-in-law is a retired carpenter and was the brains of our project. We had so much help from family, friends, and our church family. It was really one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.
So I’ve written a comment in your comments so many times, and I’ll just try again. Would you believe me when I say that I have a piece of original art from you when you first moved to Rochester. We lived there between 2012-2015, and you captured the beauty of that rolling farmland that I needed to put on my wall as a reminder when God told me “trust me”, and I did.
My fondest memories of my home growing up was that my mom was always there, and we would cook together.
My favorite memory of home was my mother always being there. She passed away last August at the age of 96 and she lived at that home up until then. Always had the best meals and best smelling sheets from hanging them on the line❤️
I bought my grandparents’ home 4 years ago and it’s still definitely a work in progress. I’ve followed you for a while now – your first book is one of my “coffee table” books and every time I get stuck, I browse your site for inspiration. Blue and white is my “love language” so I especially love the things you’ve done with blue and white. Congrats on the new book – you’ve been a pleasure to follow!!
Looking forward to finally having this book in my hands. All the photos you keep teasing us with are beautiful!
One of my favorite memories of home is our summer garden harvest. My aunt and cousins would come over for a big day or two of canning and preserving. It definitely didn’t rank on my top things to do back then but I now cherish those memories of the time together a paring knife in one hand and green beans to string on my lap. Lots of love and laughter filled that kitchen and it tasted great too!
One of my many fond memories of home is my mother teaching me to crochet. Then, we worked together to crochet an afghan. Oh, there were so many granny squares in that afghan!
You have exquisite taste! I love everything you do!
One of my favorite memories of home was going to my grandparents on a hot summer day and churning peach ice cream! We would sit on the front porch, all my aunts, uncles and cousins would gather. We would talk, laugh and just spend time together. Filling up on that family support and love to face a new week. That time, reminded us of who we are and what was important to us. Faith and Family.
I love your site!! My fondest memories of home Is the Kitchen table that our family used to sit and have Dinner every day at 5pm. Now that my Dad and Brother have passed, what I would give for one more day like that.
So many lovely things. Very warm and inviting.
I just miss my mom dad and her cooking.
Congratulations on the publication of your book!
First congratulations! I’m looking forward to a great read! Secondly, fondest memories of home… probably snow days because we didn’t get them often, but when we did the snow was deep. We’d play till soaked through, go inside for hot chocolate and Mom would throw everything in the dryer. When everything, including us, was warm and dry we’d run back outside. I still love sitting at home with a book and a hot cup of tea watching big snowflakes falling.
My fondest memory of home always comes in the fall with harvest. I grew up on a big family farm and I would ride with my dad in the combine. Mom would bring us dinner. I would sing at the top of my lungs out there. I remember everything about the farm in the fall. The smells of fall. The crisp leaves. The sights: those beautiful trees. Every fall to this day I have to be home when the combine runs around my house. We call it “combine day!” Always reminds me of home!
My fondest memories of home are the things hand made by my Mom. Curtains, upholstery, cross-stitch. Later after I left home she made quilts, and now I have several of those that adorn my home and remind me of her.
It is so welcoming to move back into the home where I grew up on the coast of Maine. Using blues, greens and white from sea glass colors as my palette has been a joy for the past 8 years. I re-designed and remodeled the entire house as an aging-in-place, honesty-of-materials beach cottage (without all that kitschy beach-themed clutter sold in stores), and it has evolved to suit my seasonal and transitional needs. My “Feels Like Home” book arrived today, and I can’t wait to find even more inspiration to feather my nest! I love the quality of the cover, the pages, the binding, and I’m sure I will order more for all my allied design-professional associates, as I did with your “Inspired You” book. Congratulations on publishing a wonderful reference book once again. Blessings to you!
Congratulations! It’s so exciting to see how far you’ve come on your journey. Have followed you for years. You are so real and sincere Wishing many more blessings and continued success.
It’s remarkable how much your posts have inspired me. Congratulations on Feels like Home. Many Blessings to you and yours.
My happy place is home and I strive for that cozy feeling for my family to enjoy to visit!
My favorite about my home, my mother’s home, my grandmother’s home is the way they feel collected…over time. Each piece of furniture, each picture, each knick-knack adds to the overall feel of a life collected. Your blog and your style have validated the beauty of that collected style.
Thank you.
I move to WI 8 years ago and I found your blog on Instagram, and you been a truly inspiration when I’m in my antiquing hunt.
Thank you so much for all your post, your blog, and those amazing pictures.
You inspired me to fund my inner designer.
Congratulations on your book! I’m a newbie to your blog and have been going down the rabbit hole!
Being a military brat home was somewhere new every few years. But no matter where we were there were the little things my mom set out that let us know we were home. The familar made the unfamiliar home. Now that my parents are gone, some of those family treasures, along with my own, are ensuring my house is home.
What an awesome give away. Every item is well thought out and purrfect. My memory of home is the beautiful quilt in clear shades of green and white. My Mother was an excellent seamstress and could make anything out of nothing. I still have her quilts they are special. I would love to win this bundle of special things from the heart.
Thank you for your generous offer, Marian! I received your book and it is truly a feast for the eyes. I know it will be a source of inspiration for decades to come ( it’s right next to your others in my bookcase ). My fondest memory of home is a compilation of tiny moments: the way the sun plays through the trees casting shadows on the floor; the way the rain sounds on the roof when I’m snuggled in bed; the cozy, content feeling while reading under a quilt in front of a fire. All in all, it’s the deep feeling of gratitude.
I love for my children and their families to gather in my home and be comfortable. I love a collected look in my decor and many things I have are gifts from them along with things I’ve created, painted or collected. I love your style. You are an inspiration!
Learning so much from your blog and tutorials. Love your creative talent which shows in all you do!
My fondest memories is home at 350 Broadacre Small Town, USA. & being punky dumb & young with my older and very pretty sisters cleaning up after dinners and taking turns washing and drying the dishes. They were smooth, sexy sophisticated and liked to boss me around. My mother always preferred red kitchens. ♥️
They played their transistor radio and danced around the kitchen to Motown, Roy Orbison, The Letterman, The Beach Boys, The Righteous Brothers, Frankie Valley and many others.
My father would yell, turn that stuff down!
Home is where your memories lay.
I wish you much success, happiness and dancing around in your kitchen, with your book, that we have been anxiously waiting for.
My fondest memories of home are sitting around the table with grandparents and family telling stories and reading tea cups! We are a close family and being able to carry on family traditions is everything!
I’m saving every one of your contributors to shop.
I received my book today and two for my daughter and daughter in-law for Christmas gifts.
I’ve already flipped through my copy and cannot wait to sit down to really enjoy it.
My daughter turned me on to you by gifting me a book of yours years ago. You’re an inspiration!!!
One of my fondest memories of home would be the dishware. The platter above reminded me of this!
My early memories of home are sitting on the porch on rainy summer nights, feeling protected and listening to the wind in the trees. We had a grape arbor in the backyard. I could look out my bedroom window to see my mother hanging up her laundry in the early morning sun. Our home and our families were a safe haven
My favorite memory is seeing the old family heirlooms on the walls or in different rooms and knowing the stories behind them. And that is some thing I want to leave behind for my children
Coming home is always my favorite memory. I can feel the weight of the World lift from my shoulders just crossing the County Line.
My favorite memories of home always include my mother, most especially at the holidays. We never had a lot of money, but my mother worked to fill our home with a cozy feeling by sewing festive tablecloths, making homemade ornaments and stockings and our Christmas tree skirt. She always spent hours baking her delicious cookies and loads of food and seasonal snacks. I learned later that lots of people had more, but with my mum, we never felt that. She’s gone now, but remains a constant in my thoughts – and every time I plan a holiday with my own family, I strive to give them that same feeling I always had and loved.
I have always been home for Christmas. To me “home” is with my mom and dad. Family is the glue and as you grow older you begin to lose what makes Christmas so special….family. My sweet dad is gone and my mom has breast cancer and dementia. I know we will all leave, sometime, but for now, I will be “home” again. For my sons, I hope they will always have a home of their own and that I will always be their glue?
My fondest memories of home are twenty two plus years ago. When both of my daughters lived with my husband and myself. Our days were always crazy busy. Work, school and then transporting a daughter here and another daughter there. When we finally arrived home, we all enjoyed our dinner together. Each if us sharing our day and always lots of laughter. After homework and the dishes were done we would enjoy watching a TV show together. Then off to bed. First a bedtime story, then nightly prayers and finally tucking them into bed with multiple kisses and hugs.
Per Marion Parsons,
“Sometimes what feels like home to us isn’t easily explained. IT JUST DOES.”
This is so true Marion!
My Mom cooking in the kitchen. My Mom showed love and made guests feel at home through her cooking. She could whip up fried chicken, mashed potatoes and a home-made pie and make it look so simple.
My favorite memory of home was helping my mom decorate for Christmas. I would put up the Christmas tree and watch I’ll be home for Christmas.
My favorite memories of home involve porches, kitchens, and people. One particular porch led to the apartment at the front of our house where my grandparents lived. Grandpa made sure that I had to go outside “to go to Grandpa and Grandma’s” instead of just walking through an interior door. I loved running around the house to their back door to knock and to be let in to their small, cozy kitchen. If I was really lucky, Grandma had warm, fresh cookies or muffins. The three of us would all have to “make sure they were good” while we played several games of rummy. I learned many things at their house and always felt safe and loved.
Probably home made meals for dinner. We would come home from school and my mom would be cooking dinner. I loved my moms cooking. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes or beef stroganoff. Yummm. I also loved that we all sat at the table together and ate dinner. (4siblings and my mom and dad) Then you couldn’t get up until my dad was done. I was blessed growing up in a big family.
My mother kept a spotless home. Of course I didn’t appreciate that so much growing up. I still remember the smells of her cleaning products: Pledge furniture polish, Johnson’s paste wax, Windex and Ajax cleanser. She decorated with thrifted finds and was always changing things around. My dad remarked that he never knew where his bed was going to be.
How can I choose a “fondest memory of home” after an abusive childhood during which I never felt safe and couldn’t wait to leave “home” for college and would have been satisfied to never return to? I suppose it would be at age 19 returning from a trip to K-Mart for household staples and walking into a tiny married student housing apartment a few days after our wedding with the man with whom I’ve walked into 8 different residences over 55 years — years filled with hopes and dreams, some fulfilled and others disappointed. Years that saw infertility, a stillbirth, and a miscarriage but also the birth and rearing of 5 beautiful, brilliant, healthy babies. Years that saw joblessness and food stamps but finally a successful career and retirement. Years that saw me dealing with serious illness, sons with drug problems, daughters with mental health issues, but that also saw health improved, addictions overcome, successful careers achieved, marriages begun, and grandchildren born, and eventually the “empty nest” with a too often quiet house and now this long period of isolation due to covid. But always walking together “for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, through good times and bad” through 55 years of memories being built, not always good but always made bearable by their being shared. That night in Kmart we argued briefly –I picked up a sponge mop and saw that he had already put a string mop in the cart without consulting me. I snapped that I should choose because I’d be the one using it, and he retorted, “No wife of mine is ever going to mop the floor!” The argument ended abruptly, with me certain I was finally not only safe but cherished beyond measure. Of course, I periodically tease him about how he never once used that, or any other, mop; but we both laugh knowing he really did mean it at the time. And I walked into that apartment thinking, “Now at last I have a home. Who cares what kind of mop we have or who uses it?”
Edie, I am so sorry that your childhood was a traumatic one. I actually thought of that very scenario as I wrote the book and this post. I think for some, home was not a happy place, but there were perhaps people, friends, other family houses that offered comfort, encouragement, and times of joy. I hope that is the case and, as an adult, you have a home that is filled with happy memories.
My favorite “Feels Like Home” moment was a few weeks after we moved into this house. I finally took an afternoon to get the living room sorted out- furniture thoughtfully arranged, decor out, pictures hung up, quilts on the back of the couch. When my kids and husband got home that day, each of them said the new house felt like OUR house. That was a good day.
My fondest memory of home is Christmas at my Grandma’s. I now have her dining table and chairs and love that so many family meals were enjoyed around it!
Your book came to me early and I’ve been so enthralled, I’ve not had as much time to read the blog! I love it! And I look forward to checking into all the links above.
I have fond memories of when my children were young and we would snuggle by the wood stove in the winter. The snow would be coming down outside but we were all warm and cozy by the fire.
Fondest memory is Home & Hearts filled with Love.
Like a quilt made with too many stitches to count , fabric of patterns each unique , family and friends wrapped up yesterday’s , touched today , saved and bundled in warmth for many loved tomorrow’s This is Love for a life time til eternity’s heavenly reunion is seen
I loved crawling into bed underneath the weight of the handmade quilts that had been pieced by my grandmother and great-aunts. The history that was represented in those beautiful fabric mosaics cradled me in comfort and security.
Marion, It’s been such a joy to be able to go on this journey with you! Thank you so much for sharing with us! Congratulations!!!
I forgot to leave my memory…We grew up in an old apartment building that used to be a convent. It had the dreamiest wood work. Walls and ceilings were covered with beadboard and punched tin. The stairways had continuous banisters and ornate spindles. The grounds were lovely too with lilac bushes and Lilly of the valley. It sure helped make up for apartment living!
My fondest memory of home is my grandmother who always smelled like roses bringing me to her cookie jar and urging me to try one of her freshly baked chocolate cup oatmeal cookies. There was so much love in that one small gesture and I still have that very special cookie jar!
My fondest memories of home are the days I brought my babies home.
Recently my boyfriend of many years and I had a Wedding Ceremony at our Home & Garden. We were handfasted under a metal arbor adorned with vines and bouquets of peonies. We set up a bar and games under string lights in the back yard. We proudly welcomed our friends and family into the house we’ve been working on for the past 2 years. What a wonderful memory we will have.
My favorite memory of home is Christmas Eve, as a child. We did not have much in the way of material things and my Mom was a simple, wholesome cook. There was only our little family of four, because my parents had moved north to find work, before my brother and I were born. But on Christmas Eve, our simple existence was transformed. It was the only night my Mom would light candles. She would make her amazing homemade Christmas punch, and two different kinds of fancy cookies…Tea cookies with a piece of candied fruit in the center and raspberry jam sandwich cookies. I would get to choose between chips and dip or a cheese ball. Mom would bring out her vintage Christmas tablecloth, the tree was glowing with the big old-fashioned colorful Christmas bulbs, shiny brite ornaments and elves handed down from the grandparents. We wished we could go to Sears for new ornaments but that would cost too much. Now, I treasure those ornaments and elves and they grace my tree each year. The record player would play Christmas music late into the night. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was my favorite. I was usually the last one up. I would sit and gaze at the bright tree in our tiny living room, thankful for the magical night that was so different than the other 364 nights of the year, thankful for the true meaning of Christmas, and not wanting any of it to end.
My fondest memories of home are of my kids being small. I think of Christmases with footed pajamas and toys everywhere. I loved being at home with my kids and having the privilege to homeschool them. All of my fondest memories are of my children.
My parents just sold the home I grew up in and they have lived in for 42 years. That home will always represent my beautiful childhood! It was full of love and light and safety and peace. Home=family=love ?????❤️ I have been truly blessed!
So many memories. Which to choose from. The latest is a wonderful memory. Our boys are grown and have children of their own but still enjoy coming to ” Grandma and Papas Victorian house to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I go all out to decorate the entire house. Alas, that house is sold so this year we will be making new memories and decorating a newer home. Hopefully all the old decorations will make this house shine as well as the old one did. I love the quilt, green and cream is my favorite colors so that would be a great blessing to have in this newer home. God less each of you for putting this package together. It would be wonderful to win and have such beautiful items to display from so many great artists.
One of my fondest memories as a child is going to Grandmas house for Christmas….just a quarter mile down the road. She would spend all day cooking mouth watering soup. Our gifts were usually crocheted or knitted. I still cherish my knitted doll blanket and a pair of knitted slippers.
I have always felt that home is where your heart is. And bringing along a few cherished items make a short stay or an extended stay feel like home. My go to’s have always been a cozy sweater, thick socks, my sketch book and my knitting. As long as I have those and my wonderful dog Belle, I am at home.
My best memories of home is always around our kitchen tables! So many conversations, tears, laughter, crafts, games, lots of food, pumpkin carving! From my childhood home to my own family home wonderful memories around the kitchen table! My daddy’s health is declining and I’m so thankful I will have beautiful memories to hold on to! ❤️
My favorite memories of home are the simpler joys…an example is sitting in a comfy chair with a hot cup of coffee and a good book to read while rain falls on the roof.
Our Christmases were always special with family and baking and sharing what we had with others. Our time together will always be remembered.
I love baking in my home. It always makes me think of baking with my mom when I was younger. I just moved recently and I’m trying to give my new home that comfy warm feeling.
My favorite memories of home growing up were at my grandparents house. She was a simple yet hearty cook who lived on a beef cattle farm. I would stay the night there often and we would always have to watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune:) Sadly I am all grown up now but I try to make our house feel like a home to my 3 kids. We listen, we love, we forgive, and we laugh. Home time is precious time these days with our schedules and I love having us all together.
Looks like a fantastic book
My childhood home is now my home. My favorite memories are sleighriding at my Grandmother’s house which was just a block away. Being in the kitchen with mom. I think she would be happy with the way I have decorated her home.
Home…it’s what you make it and you have always shown an importance to make your home comfortable and livable for your family.
That turkey platter!
I grew up with a large family and 6 older brothers. My favorite childhood memories are a house full of family for the holidays or even Sunday dinner. All if us together talking, playing games, cooking in the kitchen with my mom.
My favorite times now are the same. My own children, spouses, and grandchildren gathered around the table together.
We are blessed!
Feels like home when the family is around the table enjoying a meal together!
Memories of home revolve around my mother, who we lost in 2020. She never wanted to be anything but a homemaker, and she was a good one! Every child knew they were her “favorite.” We grew up on fresh baked bread. Christmas was magical! Our home was welcoming to every visitor. Home = Mom to me!
Honoured to provide just a few goodies to be included in this giveaway. So many lovely items. I love Marilla’s from @hearthsidecomforts beautiful quilt, an heirloom for sure. Feels Like Home is a fantastic read and I’m sure will be my go to book for tips and styling. Thank you Marian.
Home is kicking off your shoes as you walk in the door and the house wraps its arms around you in a conforting hug. Home is looking over at your best friend, your husband of 56 years, and sharing a laugh at your four-legged child’s antics. Home is when your two-legged children bring your grandchildren for “PawPaw and Gramma” playtime. Home surrounds you with the memories that made it a “home.”
Home is where your heart is , cliche but true.. it’s family, it’s safe, and if so lucky it’s those timeless items that have been passed down from your loved ones , no matter how big or small. Mine are handwritten journals my mother in law kept and wrote that detailed her everyday events mostly just mundane but also that captured moments of our lives and her grandchildren’s lives in there too. When I read them I can feel her presence. That’s home to me.
Raking big piles of leaves with my siblings and jumping in to them!
My favorite memories of the home I grew up in are playing card games together-it wasn’t the winning or the losing just spending quality time with my mom and dad – priceless gifts.
This giveaway is beyond fabulous. I love a cozy home.
My fondest memories are newer ones as our childhood wasn’t the best. My fondest memories are the ones I now make with my 2 grandkids. I am a huge part of their lives and spend alot of time together baking, crafting, having dance parties, reading stories at bedtime ( one of my favorite things to do), hanging outside at our little country farm enjoying the simply things making cozy memories.
I grew up in a large extended family – grandparents, aunts and uncles, and dozens of cousins. The center for family gatherings was the home of my grandparents in a small town in Texas, then later, my parents house – now I’m the grandmother! What a joy that my home is now a center for gathering together those I love most. Eating around my table, talking and preparing meals in the kitchen, and children playing all over the house and yard. Home was and is where my people are.
I may be too late to enter (midnight deadlines always confuse me!), but what a wonderful giveaway.
One of my favorite memories of home were lazy Sunday afternoon naps, waking up as the sun was getting lower in the sky and seeing the way it danced on the hardwood. The kitchen would be starting to stir with the sounds of dinner, and a football game would be playing in the other room. It felt so cozy and safe and warm.
Congratulations on the new book!
Home is creating a space and feeling where friends and family want to gather and just “be”- sharing a meal or a memory and a laugh or two.
Congratulations on your book launch! I really enjoy your displays of antiques. I’m not an artist, but love your bits and bobs of art supplies.
My favorite memory of home is undoubtedly the memories from my childhood . I was raised on a small farm in Texas surrounded by acres of farmland with cattle, chickens and a bountiful crop of vegetables and sweet fresh berries made into delicious cobblers every summer . My mother’s kitchen was always filled with rows of canning jars and tables on the back porch filled with peas , beans , tomatoes , onions , squash and so much more . This feels like home to me ♥️. Your book is amazing – thank you Miss Mustard Seed .
I have many fond memories of my home , my parents home , grandparents homes . I’ve been blessed . The most exciting and warm times where when we went to my aunt &!uncles for Christmas Eve . We did it from as far back as I can remember and than into the years with my children . It made the holidays even more magic , the decorations, the food ,the laughter , the love . It will always hold a special place in my memories . Congratulations on your beautiful book . I can’t wait to get it
My favorite part of home is a yummy candle burning with a cozy couch and a feel good blanket. All but the candle reminds me of my grandmother’s home and sitting with her. I love old things and giving them a unique new purpose!
So excited for the new book. Can’t wait to pick up a copy.
Some of my fondest memories of home:. My bed made with fresh sheets brought in from the clothes line, roosters crowing, the sound of sprinklers going in the field, the sound of the first sound of the Killdeer in the spring, and especially the smell of mint from the mint fields nearby wafting through my open window in the evening. I grew up in a rural area on a small farm. Not so rural now with so many people moving in. I found it interesting that my favorite memories are mostly sounds and smells! My grandma was a master quilter so we always had lots of quilts and quilted pillows too. My parents still live in the same place and when my son goes to spend the night he has commented many time how he likes how quiet it is and likes the sound of the sprinklers.
I’m new here and so excited to get your book. Ive been so inspired by you and all I’ve seen. Can’t wait for my book to arrive tomorrow!! Thank you the the opportunity to win this giveaway. Amazing items!!
From the past, snuggling and reading with my children when they were little
and currently, our weekly time around the kitchen island topping individual homemade pizzas would be my top choice.
Can’t wait to get your book! And what an amazing giveaway!!
My favorite memories of growing up was decorating for Christmas. Looked like something out of a magazine. I enjoy doing that in my own home also.
My favorite memory of home is hearing the clock tic and the cozy feeling I would get when I would hear the heat come on at night, it sounds odd.. but it made me feel safe. I lost my Mom a year ago, so I guess its a sentimental thing.
Congratulations on your book.. cant wait to read!
I have many fond memories of home, but I think as I see a photo or an item from my childhood or teenage years (found my 1970’s retro light fixture I kept, in my attic over the weekend that I had completely forgotten was there) and remembering how life was so much slower paced then as compared to now. Time spent with family on Sunday afternoon outings and at large family gatherings are becoming increasingly less common now. I long for that on a daily basis. Thank you for your encouragement, thought provoking blogs, decorating tips and of course your amazing giveaways!!
Holidays with every single member of our big family inside our modest home busting at the seams❤️
I’ve followed your blog for many years and your book is just lovely as expected.
Marion, you never fail to inspire the best memories and hopes for the future.
All of the comments here have brought me smiles and tears. I am still at 77 trying to make memories for my husband, children and grandchildren. I want them to look back as I do with smiles and feel warm hugs in their hearts, and know without question how much they are loved.
My fondest memory of home has always been walking into my grandparents house. We moved A LOT when I was a kid, but the warmth and smell of my grandparents home always brought me comfort.
My fondest memories of home were where I grew up on Nantucket Island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Every time I am on the ferry rounding the Brant Point lighthouse, pulling into the harbor, I get all the feelings of coming home. It’s no wonder that I invite the island feels into my (mainland) home every chance I get. I love blues and whites, natural elements, landscape artwork, and comfy chairs.
It’s the places that shaped us that remind us of home, and in my case it’s a sandy shore, grey cedar shingles, bumpy cobblestones, and scrubby pine trees that remind me of home. But possibly the fondest memory of my home was snuggled up reading books with my mom. Those memories have shaped me and contribute to the mom I am today. I myself am currently raising four small children and our days also include those coveted snuggles and stories that just like I had with my mom, are the best part of our home.
These are the memories of home that fill me now and that I hope will one day be what my children love thinking back on. It is our relationship with the Lord and beauty in our home that bring our family the most joy. I’m incredibly blessed and thankful.❤️
Thank you for your inspiration Marian! and congratulations! ??? So excited to receive my copy!??
My mom always took time to celebrate each holiday with sewing ornaments and baking goodies to share with neighbors and dying eggs and planting in the springtime. She worked and I felt like we didn’t have as much time with mom as we would have liked but I have such fond memories of lots of her time during the days leading up to the holidays and I try to do the same with my children. Creating together in the kitchen or garden shed will always be fond memories of home as a child. We didn’t have a lot of money but we always created things together which made us feel like our lives were rich!
I have lived in my house for 9 years. My husband and I have slowly but surely worked and made every inch of this house and garden ours. My fondest moment in my home is the day he finished installing the pond in our back yard. We had dug, hauled dirt out and wheel barrowed rock in for a week during the middle of a hot, humid Kentucky summer. When he filled the pond with water and turned on the pump and water started flowing down the waterfall, his 62 year old face lit up like a 9 year old boy’s!!! It made my heart sing.
Congratulations!! How wonderful for you Marian!! Looks like a lovely book, may have to ask for it for Christmas!!
My fondest memories of house usually surround food since I’m Italian 😉 My dad taught me to make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays long before Martha Stewart ever thought of that, lol! Gathering for food has always been a happy experience of time together, sharing our day, and almost always laughter! Keeping an after church Sunday meal time tradition whenever it’s still possible is very important to me. With the kids grown and everyone going this way & that it’s challenging so I feel very blessed when it comes together!
Thank you for the chance to win fun prizes!!
So many fond memories of my childhood home and my grandmother’s home. Neither home had anything “fancy”, but there was always love in abundance. Eating off the good blue Willow plates or making hot chocolate and watching Lawrence Welk, listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford…so many memories?
We’ve lived in our soon-to-be 100 year old bungalow almost all of the 42 years we’ve been married. It holds so many memories; we’ve been fortunate that most of them are good! We began and raised our family and owned our own business here and seen multiple generations of family here at one time. We love our home and small yard. It is our sanctuary. It’s been through a lot and could use some refreshing. We want to take good care of it and live here in our retirement. There’s no place we’d rather be. Thank you Marian, for being inspirational and reassuring. The arrival of your book is very timely for us.
I look back on walking into our home for the first time three and a half years ago with such fondness. My husband and I had gone to see it on a whim and by the time we were done touring it, we knew we wanted to make it ours. We’re slowly fixing things, painting, gardening, planting trees, and so on, all while raising our four little ones. I have felt such a connection to my parents and grandparents as we turn this house into our forever home, as we carry on traditions and add new ones, and as I see my children doing things I loved as a kid like snacking on peas in the garden and going on adventures on the backyard and fields.
Among my blessed memories are those that include grandchildren running excitedly into the house. After enjoying a snack, they will pick out a book, wrap up in a cozy throw and settle in for a relaxing evening around the soft glow of lamplight. The younger ones usually snuggle on an adult’s lap to enjoy endless stories being read to them.
Congratulations to you, Marian, for creating such a beautiful book! I am in the middle of creating a home that “feels like home” as my husband and I have recently sold our family home and have moved into our retirement home. I want this new home to welcome my children, other family members and friends so they feel like they’re home. Thank you for inspiring me to make my new home “feel like home.” ?
Oh, Marian! Sharing in this excitement with you! The book is wonderful – from the feel of the cover to the beautiful photographs and practical tips and tricks. It’s further proof that you are the real deal! Thank you for the inspiration!!! Now off to leave a review?
My fondest memory of home is my Mom’s kitchen. It was so welcoming and something was always cooking on he stove – with 6 of us kids she always made sure our tummies were full. It’s been 13 years since she’s been gone and she is missed so much. But I strive to make my kitchen like hers – always welcoming and filled with love and food.
I had a happy childhood and have many good memories. One of the dearest is of the many Christmas Eve’s spent with extended family. Christmas presents were opened after supper, after the reading of the Christmas story and after the pageant. The pageant consisted of we 8 children (4 were cousins) acting out, in costume, the Christmas story. It was poorly done with towels making up a lot of the costumes and whatever doll was handy was used for baby Jesus. I remember most the look of delight and encouragement on the faces of my Grandparents.
As I think of how I want my home to be seen by others, the word hominess comes to mind. That atmosphere was always present in my home growing up, and though my taste is very different from my Mother’s, I hope my home projects an atmosphere of welcome to all visitors. Marion, I see that in the photos of your home and can’t wait to get your book. Congratulations!
Growing up my mother was very creative and also collected antiques and quilted also. I try to have my home reflect that same feel by doing arts and crafts and collecting nostalgia that reminds me of her and my childhood. Now my children do the same? So excited to receive your book and see even more creative ideas!
My favorite memories of home are from thousands of miles away , Bangladesh to be precise. I cherish the smell of night blooming jasmine, the sound of our pet ‘Mynah” bird calling my mom the moment I returned home from school, the aroma of the freshly made wheat bread and home made “ghee”(clarified butter) for evening snack, the soft touch of my mother combing my hair and intrigued by watching her beautiful fingers arranging the hair in two perfect braids , settling me down to bed , clad in the safety blanket of “nakshi kantha”( quilt) made out of her old sarees , intricately embroidered by my grandmother depicting stories of love, faith and hope.
One of my fondest memories of our home is coming down the stairs behind our 3-year-old son last Christmas morning and hearing him squeal “Santa came! He really came!” when he saw all the presents under the tree. We usually travel to my husband’s parents’ house or my parents’ house for Christmas. However, due to Covid, we stayed home and had a cozy, little Christmas, just the three of us (well, four, if you count our dog, which we do). We missed our extended family but I was surprised by how cozy and special it felt to celebrate the holiday in our own home.
I’m a new follower and can’t wait to read your book!
Home is my front porch, a cup of tea & the birds chirping. Even better if a friendly neighbor walks by with a cute pup ?.
My family moved a lot when we were younger, cramped apartments and past their prime houses owned by others. My mother lovingly worked her magic cleaning and painting, breathing new life into second hand furniture to create a warm and beautiful home for her family.
Thank you for letting me share!!
The book is beautiful!!! Wishing you continued success!!!
I love my home, love sharing my home with family and friends. The beautiful items in your post are all things that would add to the beauty and comfort of any home and I would love them for my home . Your posts are an inspiration. Thanks for this opportunity and good luck with your book!
The smell of beans cooking on a propane stove alongside a pot of coffee would be my most enduring memory of home.
My fondest memory of home is laying on the porch swing, swaying on a hot summer’s day listening to the crickets, frogs, and cicadas sing in the bayou.
I can’t wait to receive, see and read your book! Congratulations!!!
Congratulations Marian!!
My books arrived today and it’s so beautiful, can’t wait to dive in!
My fondest memories of home are all the times while growing up, following by Dad around being his little helper as he was doing renovation projects, and repairs on our 1928 Dutch colonial and he took the time to teach me all the “how’s & whys” along the way.
Congrats to you! You have taught me so much and have inspired me over the years. Thank you!
My fondest memories of home are the 3 times my parents brought home a new sister for me to cuddle with. I always felt I was the luckiest girl!
My fondest memory of home is my relationships. Building forts with my best friend, or watching a slide show of my dads time in the army in Europe. He was an artist and his photo skills were amazing!!!!
I received your book today and am so excited to dive in! We bought our home from my parents and after 26 years just finished a major update. It is a blank slate waiting for us to add our favorite things. We will be creating new memories gor our children and grandchildren.
My parents lived in my childhood home for nearly 40 years – and we are coming up on 20 years in our house! Home to me is a placed filled with things that remind me of all the people I love! Congrats on the beautiful book! Can’t wait to read it!
I have been following you for years. I saw you at the chapel hill market in Alabama. I bought something from you. It is such s pleasure to see all you growth!
Loving your book! My fondest memory of home is actually my auntie’s home with my cousins. I’ve always walked in the back door of her wonderful Victorian home in a small Minnesota town. Always egg coffee on the stove and goodies to eat around. My family is very Norwegian and so there’s always lots of bitter and dairy (the occasional Lutefisk) and Lefse! It’s always been the most welcoming place I’ve known. My auntie is now 91 and still has egg coffee on the stove!
Congratulations! ❤️
Congrats on the book!! I live in the home I grew up in. My life has come full circle and it Feels so good to be home !!
My fondest memory of home is evenings after the children’s baths. They’d either cuddle around hubby’s chair for a story or play legos quietly on the floor as a wind down to the day. Fireplace gently warming the room, lights dim, living room reasonably picked up. It was a reflecting and peaceful time after a busy country day.
My mothers quilts and books are my favorite memories of home. I lost my mother to breast cancer while in grade school , so a lot of memories in a short amount of time.
I purchased your book because I love your style and comfort of a home. Thank you