I don’t really care what’s trending in home design. I like what I like. While I can appreciate modern art, open concept living spaces, and state-of-the-art kitchens, give me an old farmhouse or a simple cottage filled with dusty things any time. I like tab curtains and band boxes. Embroidered samplers and stacks of my grandmother’s books. Dusty old dust collectors. I love ’em.

Years ago, my father gave me the coat rack that hung in the stairway of my childhood home. It’s a treasure. It reminds me of the slower, simpler days of my childhood. I don’t hang my coats on it. I use it to display the things I love, instead. My great grandfather’s baby shoes. Simple gifts that were made with love. A rag doll my mother made for me more years ago than I can count.

There’s just something about rag dolls… I don’t have the space or inclination to fill my home with them, but the few I have are special to me. I rescued Laura from a garage sale.

She was one of many rag dolls on a table. I loved her apron and her red-checkered dress. The garage sale woman actually cried when I handed her Laura’s two-dollar asking price. She wiped her tears, put the doll in a bag and said, “Goodbye, Laura.” I felt bad and immediately offered not to buy her. But she told me she had too much clutter. If Laura didn’t find a new home by the end of the day, she was off to the Goodwill. I didn’t consider Laura clutter. I took her home and gave her a job. These days, she waits on the table in my entryway, looking cute and guarding the little red lantern I use when the power goes out 🙂

My home is anything but fancy. If you drove past it, you wouldn’t look twice. But it’s my happy place, filled with plants and books and candles. The coffee’s always on, and there’s usually music playing in the background. And tucked in corners and on tabletops, there are dusty old things that make me smile.