Our homes are supposed to be our sanctuaries. I’ve seen that on plenty of wall art so it must be true. For me, most days that sentiment does ring true. The only time it might not work is when my home looks like it’s been invaded by a traveling band of slobs. Or maybe the days when our four children sound as if they are an unruly classroom of 40. With one of our daughters off at college and another daughter in high school and working, that doesn’t happen often. Actually, not often enough for mom. But our two youngest can still produce enough sound and chaos to resemble a half-full school bus of rowdies.

I digress.

I enjoy decorating my home. Interior and exterior design. Decorating on a budget. On my work-from-home salary I might have lost a few dollar signs. Not really true. Well, kinda. But I’ve always been a smart shopper. Even when I worked way too many hours a week outside of the home and had more expendable income in my home decor budget. Much more. Like I had a home decor budget. I still liked shopping the clearance sections, hitting the second-hand shops, gleaning the isles of Goodwill shops. Have you seen them lately? They’re not what they were when my grandma taught me to shop. Most Goodwill shops I’ve visited in the past few years are really nice, feature organized displays and best of all, offer half-off days. Check your local listings. Oh, and lest I forget one of my favorite shopping pleasures, garage and yard sales. My vehicle stops at all handmade yard signs. Again, I can thank my thrifty (and smart) grandmother. Meemaw is still going strong at 91, who would argue with her logic?

Back to the original theme of this post and the star of the headline.

I love my kitchen window. I’ve chosen to throw caution to the wind and *gasp!* not adorn it with a traditional curtains, shutters or blinds. Nope. Instead I’ve framed it with sun catchers. All carefully selected at said shopping destinations mentioned above.  My colorful window display allows me full access to our wonderful view of the Rocky Mountains. Who would want to hide that? Not me. The colorful trinkets catch our marvelous rays of Colorado sunshine and tosses them about our kitchen like a kaleidoscope of color. Looking at the photo of my kitchen window reminds me I neglected to mention I also love shopping art shows. That large cobalt blue disc on the far left was found at a traveling art show held in my neighborhood. I think I dropped about $30 on that blown glass. But I couldn’t resist. And I love to support the creativity and hard work of artists.

My window display also features interesting bottles, all shapes and mostly smaller in size. Again, I want to feature our view, not hide behind a curtain like the Wizard in the movie classic. Each month (or so) I take the bottles off my window sill and wash them so they look all shiny and new. I then refill them with water and add varying amounts of food coloring, which is another thing I love about my window art. It’s always changing, just slightly. It looks different during the day then it looks in the evening and the water hues are always changing. Add me standing there washing my dishes while wearing only my bra and the view changes still. I’m kidding. I don’t wash dishes. That’s why we have a dishwasher. And children.

I’m digressing again.

I also really enjoy my repurposed glass bottle that originally held olive oil. Now it holds my dish soap. It’s the little things that matter. I can change the look every time I buy new dish soap. I go all cRaZy with color. Who knew dish soap could come in rainbow of colors? 

So tell me, what about your home makes you happy?