Southern Cottage Magazine Spread

Shameless bragging moment: Our house got an 8-page spread in the September 2018 issue of The Cottage Journal: Southern Cottage!

So many of y’all have sent me sweet messages about it, and yet we’ve been so tied up with finishing the nursery and tackling the last of fall projects on our list that I haven’t had any time to mention it.

(Oh, and prepping for Hurricane Florence… as you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance we are without power.  We are praying hard for so many of y’all on the east coast who are affected by this storm.)

What’s really cool (at least to me) is that the magazine used all my own photos that I shot myself.  If you read last week’s Photographing Interiors post, you probably know why I might geek out about that.

I would have never thought when I started this blog 4 years ago and first published those blurry, yellowy shots of our first house that my photos would one day end up in print in a national publication.

The issue is all about homes of the South, and Robert and I feel so honored to be among so many gorgeous ones.  If you’re Southern or just love Southern style, this issue really does have my heart.

All of the houses in it are breezy, timeless, and elegant yet still cozy and laid back with a modern take on the classics.

While I love the look of farmhouse style, it’s nice to see other decorating styles that lean away from that trend while still incorporating a slight nod to the primitive country life.

It’s just further proof to me that you don’t have to stick to only one style just because that’s what everyone else is doing.  And that every home is unique and should be celebrated in its own way to match the unique people in it.

When we moved into this house last year, I felt so overwhelmed with no clue what I was doing (to be honest, I’m still just wingin’ it most days since I don’t have an ounce of design training).  Our brick colonial didn’t fit “the mold” of the shiplapped farmhouse Fixer Upper, but our journey in this house so far has taught me so much about myself…

…to really listen to your heart (as cheesy as that may sound) and carve your own path.  To let your home speak to you, to embrace the beauty that is already there, and to make your home a reflection of your family.

Because at the end of the day, who cares if how you decorate your home isn’t “in style” or “on trend”?  So what if other people don’t like it.  If your home is your happy place, that’s what matters more than anything.

You do you.  Dig through those yard sales and thrift stores, ignore that voice in your head that makes you afraid to pick up that paint brush, and you jump in there and make magic happen if you just can’t stifle that passion for homemaking.

Because there really is no feeling like finishing a project, stepping back, and proudly saying to yourself, “I made that!” Because just for a split second, maybe we get a glimmer of what it felt like for the Creator himself.

Happy homemaking, y’all.  Be brave.  You never know where it might take you.

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