Domestic Dreams with Hold On, Love...

I'll be back tomorrow, but I have two special things to share with you today.
First of all, I'm featured on Diary of a Devil Dog Wife's Meet a Milspouse Monday-
so go check me out on her blog!


And now, 
my lovely guest blogger for the day!

Sky and I are at the Army Strong Bonds marriage retreat this weekend. That means mama gets a couple days off. It also means you get to meet Beka from 'Hold On, Love...'. I like to think of her as a younger, cooler version of me...except she can paint really well...and make good coffee...and is much smarter than me...hmm. We were both homeschooled- does that count? (Also, I consider myself a "coffee shop person.) Anyhow, visiting Beka's blog means lots of pretty photographs, meaningful quotes, delicious food, paintings and other crafts, and a lot of peace, really. I always feel refreshed after reading, and today, so can you...


i got pretty darn excited when erika asked about a guest post. it's an honor, because really? she's one of my favorite blogger ladies. truly.  

so, i'm finally going to buckle down and write. it's been a week or so since i've known i was guest posting, and since then i've flip-flopped on what to write about, how to say it, and even freaking out that i had no ideas.

it's a really awesome story of how this was inspired, brought to mind. hah hah.

i was trying to fall asleep, and it drifted into my mind, like a string attached to a kite. all those pretty bows one by one, one after another? i love it when things like that happen late at night. 

well, as late as anyone considers 12:30 a.m.
i love house stuff.
i love the idea of decorating my own house.
just not the part where you have to dish out all that money. ;)
i love colors and textures and European old-world style and clean, spartan lines and coffee shop quirkiness.
ah.
but the thing that really started me on this interest a few years ago? 

kristen heitzmann's books.

i love writing, i love reading, i love art.
this lady prettymuch has it all? yes. oh, and food. she writes so well. the details of i the kitchen are just....well, they astounded my 14-17 year old self, and i still enjoy her writing so much. 

this series, diamond of the rockies, inspired me to learn the arts found in the kitchen. i think it would be amazing if it did the same for someone else.

this series, the michelli family, inspired me to learn more about architecture and interior design.
needless to say, i didn't take to the architecture part; just wasn't quite my thing.
i'm just really glad that this isn't a guest vlog, because today is just not a good day at all to be in public. at any rate. i look horrible. honest.
anyhow, back to house stuff? in 2008 i put my halfway decent drawing skills to use and got my imagination on paper.

i even read and reread a few passages in the book secrets to get a visualization for my hand to sketch out.
it was an interesting practice.
and totally made me wish i was in the construction business for about 5 seconds.

until i realized i didn't know much about that sort of business, and who the hey knows, i'd probably be miserable there. i mean, really? i'm a coffee shop person. {though i'm starting to think about how many people actually claim that?} i'm not a super rough-tough work-with-wood and nails type. my older brother is. and a character in kristen's michelli books is, also.
it's fascinating.

so, from reading those books, dreams grew.
and those dreams have landed; been smoothed out, settled down, brought to earth from their lofty beginning.
things cost money.
and it all takes work.

but i guess my hope was and still is [in the decorating subject of life] that if i saturate myself with house beautiful and traditional and all these dreams and inspirations, i'll at least be able to transform the space i have in the future into something that reflects style, beauty, comfort, hospitality. . . just welcomeness. you know, those friend's houses where you walk in and you just feel their love and acceptance and their willingness and openness to just let you be you and them be them. i want to be that sort of person, and have an abode that lets you be comfortable, relax, and fellowship. 

that's what i really want and hope for, anyways.


All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
[T. E. Lawrence]


-Hold On, Love... for