"You've Come A Long Way, Baby"
Our house in Nome, Alaska
It's okay to come from humble beginnings, it makes any success found all that more sweet.
Somehow my mom made the inside pretty and cozy, though I'm having a hard time believing it myself looking at this old photo. (Which my brother dug up from somewhere and posted on Facebook...along with some other long forgotten photos of me during the awkward years. Note to self, don't trust brothers with old photos.)
But I digress. Back to Nome and rundown residences - an aunt of mine once said,
"I don't know where you got your sense of style from, but it certainly wasn't Nome."
18 comments:
What a great story - love your Aunt's line!!
Ashlyn
A picture is worth a thousand words! Creativity comes from inside not from what's around you! Thanks for sharing.
This is great and could have been just down the street from our home! I'm from Shania Twain's hometown of Timmins and if you've ever seen her biography shows, you can see that we both came from a town of very humble abodes!
It was a different time. People were satisfied with less. This house could have been in a million different neighborhoods as we grew up. Your success is that much sweeter.
Great story and picture...and funny bc I use the same words in my post today as your post title! (and more rub and buff goodness...what did I do before that stuff?)
Diane, isn't that true. We didn't have much but we had all we needed, and I dreamed of adventures and experiences, not stuff. I think about this now, with all my kids have and the pressure of having the latest gadget, etc...where does it stop? What is it teaching them? Okay, that is another post! Janell
A house is only a house until someone makes it a home. Obviously your mom made that humble house into a home. It's those values that she instilled in you that helped sculpt who you would become.
Love this story....something so real, humbling and endearing about it. I think its much more about the love and care you put into not only making a home but keeping it feeling like one, than it is the furnishings our fancy fixtures that may adorn it. Sure those things are fabulous to have but its much more than that, that makes a home one that people feel welcome and happy to be in. I know many who have fabulous homes filled with many beautiful things but you walk in, and its cold and sterile. The best compliment someone can give me is to say :"Tina when I walk into your home its so inviting, cozy and comfortable". Sounds like Nome was that way too:)
My mother was one of the most sophisticated women I knew, and she was raised on a farm in deep east Texas. She always told me that class had nothing to do with money! And she was right!
We recently went back to see the home I grew up in. I was shocked to see how small it was. One bathroom, 3 tiny bedrooms for 4 kids & my parents. But we were happy there.
I remember my mother always rearranging the living room furniture. Maybe that's what made me sensitive to my surroundings.
Your aunt's comment is priceless. My mom always had an amazing sense of style from her Danish Modern Teak table, that I own now, to her avocado green kitchen just kidding. Her style has evolved over time through the different eras of design. Now her home is, as always, comfortable and welcoming. She showcases her parents and ancestor's antiques mixed in with her Native American collections of Teapots and dolls. When she is dressed she wears long skirts and turquoise jewelry. Under the long skirts she wears B
irkenstocks because they are the only thing that is comfortable with her heavy duty support hose. She is still, at age 81, a beautiful stylish woman and I'm proud she's my mom.
As a 'humble beginnings' girl myself, I love this! I love the fact that your home was 'pretty on the inside' - there's a larger lesson in that.
Great picture! Humble beginnings help us to appreciate where we are going! Maybe you could post some fun pics. of the brother...I'm sure he had an awkward stage too!!! Thanks for sharing!
Perhaps it is the humble beginnings that inspire us all for something better or nicer or prettier in life. If we were all born with everything we would not appreciate those wonderful things we aspire to. Great Post
this made me smile.
creativity is, well, created, isn't it?
p.s. the truck is AWESOME. that color?!
That probably qualified as a mansion in Nome! From a fan in Anchorage, AK
Love this, because life was sure simpler back then. Trends lasted forever....you decorated your house and it stayed that way for 25 years. Now it is more like a month.
Strawberry note, yes! You are right, I recall some of my friends homes and mine was pretty fabulous in contrast. Then there was a friend of my brothers, he is now the Mayor of Nome, now HIS family had the "mansion" in town. The couple times I was inside the home my eyes just Popped with how fabulous it was...to my "Nome" eyes!
Janell
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