Stepping Out Challenge - Day 28 - Memories of Home

Welcome to today's post, a few more days left, it has gone so fast! 

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Welcome, I hope that you are having a blessed day, and that you have been thinking about some of the areas of your life where you can set yourself a challenge.

The Memories of home challenge was a weekly series of art pieces and reflections and memories of what home means to me.  I created and shared a selection of mixed media 4x7 houses that I had made that captured different elements of home and growing up.

Home brings up a range of different memories, some of mine took me back in time to childhood and some memories more recent that reminds me that the home environment should be a nurturing one. 

Alongside creating the mini houses I also chose a selection of words that all bring back memories of home life, or how I wanted my environment to be ie 'nurturing, relaxing, a sanctuary' things that I want to experience at home and I am sure that others too want to have that place where they can be themselves and recharge their batteries.  These words were also ones that you could spend time reflecting on and thinking about what they meant for you and so creating an additional jump off point for creating a journal page

Some Earliest Memories

My earliest memory of home was when I was around 4 years old.  We lived in 2 rooms on the 2^nd floor of a house.  My mum, dad, me and my brother who was a baby occupied one room and my sister who was 10 years old occupied the other. A large fireplace dominated the room and at bath times we had a large tin bath which mum used to fill with jugs of water.  We had fun playing, splashing and laughing and the next minute you are being wrapped up in an oversize towel looking forward to the night time snack.

Family life has changed a great deal over the years.  Creating the challenge was a lovely way for me to take that trip down memory lane and preserve some of it for the next generation.  It is important that we continue to tell our stories and share our truths.  

As the families change/grow and relocate how do you stay connected and have those ‘do you remember when we used to’ conversations.  Our 'Trought' family gatherings used to invariably end up in the kitchen.  The kitchen seem to be the place that everyone gathered and the adults sat around the tables with the children trying to blend in as they listen to the laughter and stories, hearing the long kept secrets.  They would be ushered out when they tried to pip in with their comments and to go and play with the other kids, we were told the same things when we were kids.

There are so many parts of the story to tell, which will you share?

When you think of home what comes up for you?

What are the traditions that you have held on to as a family.

Join me tomorrow as I share more about the challenge and reflections.  Tomorrow I will share the second part from my Memories from Home series.  I hope during this month you find some time to challenge, be creative and stretch yourself.

Why not join me and do a challenge of your own.  Look at ways in which they can impact on your own life and get you out of your comfort zone.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, it is never too late to start! The main thing is to take one step at a time and do something that you find interesting.

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Gratitude's and Celebration Journal - Week 81 - Home

I am having to reassess my view of home.  Having been in my current one for the past 20 years we are in the process of moving and it has brought up a lot of emotions for me.  I have also been making changes to my mums home and the impact of that has also stirred up different emotions that I will share another time. 

They say one of the biggest stress factors to our lives is marriage, death, divorce and moving home.  Having to pack up my own home and my mothers has meant that I have at times had to go on automatic pilot to get through.  

I am not the first or last person to move home, I guess it's the feeling of familiarity that I will miss, as well as family and friends being so close - sometimes taken for granted that they will always be there.

Home is where the heart is....

and a new home calls..

Along with adventures anew we make ready, things packed waiting to be shipped, a thousand thoughts running through our minds, each of us with a different perspective.

I am grateful and celebrate the home that I am leaving and look forward to settling in and making the new home an environment that is full of Joy, Peace, Love and Creative outpouring....

I am on a creative journey in my journal and hope you come along and join me. Why not start your own journal, keep it as simple or complex as you wish, but do something!

Gratitude and Celebration Journal

Fresh Linen - Memories of Home

Welcome to Memories of Home, if you would like to find out more information about the series, Click here

Being in a supportive environment is important to our growth as individuals, not everyone has had that opportunity and as adults we try and create an environment that will nurture and bless our children and indeed ourselves.

When we were little we had what was known as an 'airing cupboard, which housed the hot water cylinder for the boiler.  It was quite a large cupboard and would warm up from the heat radiating from the padded cylinder.  My dad fitted three shelves in the cupboard and this was where clean bedding and towels were kept. When you opened it you would be met with the sweet aromas of the washing powder and the fabric conditioner which would caress your nostrils and make you think of tropical islands, .....ok, maybe not the islands but they always smelt great!

It was great to use a towel that had just come out of the cupboard after a bath as it was always warm and gave you a cozy comforting feeling.  With the bed sheets mum would always iron them before placing them in the cupboard and whilst it isn't a practice that I have continued I definitely feel the difference sleeping on ironed sheets!

Mixed media on wooden panel

What was your favorite memory as a child, take time out if only for 10 minutes to think about recreating those special moments this week. I hope you continue to join me on my journey over the weeks, as I share my mixed media houses and look back to the memories of home. I look forward to hearing about some some of your own memories. Blessings and peace to you!

Home - Memories of Home

Home - Memories of Home

Welcome to Memories of Home, if you would like to find out more information about the series, Click here

Being in a supportive environment is important to our growth as individuals, not everyone has had that opportunity and as adults we try and create an environment that will nurture and bless our children and indeed ourselves.

Home

Where do you feel at home?  For me it is not in the objects that we surround ourselves with, the ornaments, that rug or the china.  But it is an atmosphere, those familiar aromas, and scents that fill the air.  I remember my mothers perfume, or the bread that she baked, the ginger beer she had forming on the kitchen window ledge.  The feeling of home were all underpinned by a memory of something that we had been doing, sitting around the kitchen table comforted in the warm that our parents unknowingly created in the space that served as our home.

Memories of Home

In my own home I try and pull many things together, finding that balance that allows us all to flourish in the right conditions, giving us all a voice and a place to feel nurtured. 

In that place called home we can reconnect with who we truly are, explore and face new adventures.  Our prayers and thoughts go out to all those in the Philippines who have been affected by the The Typhoon.  If you want to give a donation click on the link here that will take you to the Oxfam site.

I would love to hear what creative ways you have made the space you call home, and I hope you continue to join me on my journey over the weeks, as I share my mixed media houses and look back to the memories of home. I look forward to hearing about some some of your own memories. Blessings and peace to you!