Home Sweet Home

Home sweet home….I don’t know about you, but I love my houses---all 5 of them we’ve owned in the past 10 years! We have bounced around here and there and I am always looking ahead to the next house. I’m sure most people find moving one time a daunting task, let alone 5 times -- and I’m not even counting the temporary places we’ve lived between moves or the apartments we’ve had.

I wish I could re-visit the all of the places we’ve lived so that I can snap photos of them. If I only knew then what I know now!! Now that I am a scrapbooker, I make a definite point to capture the elements of what makes our house a home. From breaking ground, to framing and roofing, to moving in and landscaping, to decorating, I capture it all on film. I want my children to be able to revisit their childhood homes even if we don’t live there any longer. I also like to see how my decorating style has evolved from a mishmash of hand-me-down stuff from relatives to my modern country, Pottery Barn style, but on a budget!

Think about the future generations. What would they like to learn about our homes? Wouldn’t it have been great to know the story as to why your mother actually picked orange countertops for the kitchen! How about that avocado green refrigerator? What was she thinking??? Wouldn’t you love to have photos of your bedroom as a child or a teenager? I’m sure my own children will wonder why all of my rooms were decorated in shades of burgundy and sage with neutral flooring (for re-sell, of course)! They may laugh at the wallpaper I’ve chosen or the appliances I used. And my children will get a chance to revisit our homes, whether we live there or not, because I captured it all in my home pages for my scrapbook.

It’s really not as overwhelming as you think to start an album like this. Begin with your favorite room and just do one at a time. Or maybe start with a room you’ve just redecorated or rearranged. Now, get your camera, snap a roll or two of your rooms and get started documenting your home to preserve your home sweet home!

If you are building or remodeling, take photos at all stages to document the progress and keep a calendar of what was done when. It’s fun to look back on all the progress that was made, even if it feels like the job is taking forever!

View layouts featuring homes in the Scrapjazz gallery!

Some titles, poems and lines to get you started:

North, south, east, west, home is best.

No place like home.

A house is built with boards and beams.
A home is built with love and dreams.

Home is where the heart is.

All roads lead to home.

Home is where your story begins

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.

Enter with a happy heart.

Love gathers here.

"Every house where love abides
and friendship is a guest is surely home, and
home, sweet home; for there the heart can rest."
--Henry Van Dyke

"Where we love is home.
Home is where our feet may leave
but not our hearts."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

“A comfortable house is a great source of happiness.”
--Sydney Smith

"Where there is room in the heart
there is always room in the house."
--Sir Thomas Moore

“A house with love in it is rich indeed
although there are a thousand things
that house may need
the carpet may be old
the room so plain and bare
and yet, it's beautiful somehow
when love is living there”
--The Four Lads

“A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.”
--Sir Joshua Reynolds

Bless this home as we come and go,
Bless this home as the children grow,
Bless this home as we enter in,
Bless this home with love and friends.

Give me a house
To call my own,
Family and friends
To call it a home.

And each heart is whispering, "Home, home at last!"
--Thomas Hood

Seek home for rest, for home is best.

Home is where friendships are formed
and families are grown;
where joy is shared
and true love is known;
where memories are made
and seeds of life are sown.
This is the place...
that people call HOME.
--unknown

“Home, the spot of earth supremely blest a dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.”
--Robert Montgomery

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24.15

The trouble with owning your own home is that,
no matter where you sit, it seems you're looking
at something you should be doing.
--Unknown

"Every house where love abides
and friendship is a guest is surely home, and
home, sweet home; for there the heart can rest."
--Henry Van Dyke

“A comfortable house is a great source of happiness.”
--Sydney Smith

“Home is a place where the small are great and the great are small.”
--Anonymous

“Stay, stay at home, my heart and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest.”
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Kitchen Prayer
God bless my little kitchen,
I love its every nook.
And bless me as I do my work,
Wash pots and pans and cook.

And may the meals that I prepare
Be seasoned from above,
With Thy great blessing
And Thy grace,
But most of all Thy Love.

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