WIN ME! READ ON...
As the seasons change and the morning air shifts to brisk, I feel compelled yet again to nest. I get butterflies in my tummy just thinking about Autumn: dragging out the board games, swapping swimmies for sweaters, apple pie…red wine. It’s true, I love it. Somehow being able to cook for hours on end, hanging out inside with a fire and some jazz, gets me where I live.
Like my girl friend said the other day, “When it’s Fall, I never feel like I’m missing anything if I just want to do the cozy thing inside.” And it strikes me: the freedom that actually limiting possibilities creates! When the multi-task list is forced to be shorter, when I don’t feel the juxtaposition of being pulled simultaneously to windsurfing and baking bread! Sweet relief, the Autumn List (this I can tackle!): cook, read, eat, rake, play, craft, dance, sing. Sounds so do-able.
But, of course, the whole concept of home (and Autumn) varies like crazy across cultures, across time-zones, from family to family. Right now “house” for me is a pretty shabby apartment. When I was a kid it was in the projects of Washington, DC. A few years ago it was a hobby farm with a view and a few years from now it may be a shipping container. And no matter what, as long as I’m there usually with my kids, sometimes with my sweater and wine it always has been and always will be my home.
SHARE + WIN THIS DOLL HOUSE!
Natural Pod is giving away one of our newly launched, (first) FSC-certified Doll Houses. This beautifully designed, heirloom toy stands 2.5 feet tall when it’s set up, but then easily dismantles (no screws or glue) and stores flat when it needs to disappear. And to help make it a home, it comes with a single bed, double bed, 3-seat sofa, stove, dining table and bench! See what Green & Clean Mom and UpScale Baby had to say about the Doll House just this week.
What do I have to do?
- Tell us. Write it, video it, sing it, haiku it. But just tell us how it is you make your house a home either below or on our Facebook page. Do you cook more (like me)? Knit more? Craft more? Do you work more so your time at home is so minimal that baking and fires are just the stuff dreams are made of? Do you host a killer soiree? Do you work at a soup kitchen as more and more people are forced to adapt to the Autumn chill of their home-lessness?
- Nominate who gets it. That’s right, it’s not just anyone who’s getting this Doll House. It’s someone, some place, that opens its doors, that creates the concept of “home” for all who walk through its doors. It may be a non-profit center for families; it may be a Grandmother down the street who plays guitar for the neighborhood kids every Tuesday afternoon. You let us know…who do you know that opens their arms? (And please make sure that if they’re the winner, they’ll actually want to receive a big, beautiful doll house…)
- Encourage your friends to do the same. So here’s how it’ll get fun: when your friends “tell us” how they make their houses homes AND they nominate the same doll house recipient, the challenge will be on! The nominee with the highest number of unique, contributing supporters before October 31, 2009 will receive the Doll House (a $595 retail value) at no cost to them!
- Become a Natural Pod Facebook Fan. When you become a new fan of our Facebook page, we’ll give you an extra entry!
Is this going to be fun or what?
Every Monday (the 5th, 12th, 19th and 25th…mark your calendars) we will update our Natural Pod blog and Facebook Page with a running tally to see which nominee’s ahead and to share our favorite stories, videos, sonnets with you. On the 31st of October (a Saturday Hallow’s Eve itself!) Natural Pod’s very own Bridgitte and Dalit will tally up the results and figure out which nominee got the most votes and we’ll post the big results!
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home is a privilege and a gift. for some home is on the soles of their bare feet as the walk to refugee camps, for some home is the feeling of warm stone in a palatial existence where there is no want for material things. home is a place of joy, where babies are born, where festivites are shared… home is a place of grief, where people die, where people gather to grieve. home can be a place of terrible violence and silent shame. home can be a place of healing, recovery, and safety. we all idealise home, we all dream of the perfect home. be it a building, a hut, a cave, a castle, a field, a dream… we ultimately all find ourselves on this planet for a very short time where people lived and survived before us against incredible odds, and hopefully people will continue to live, to improve and to thrive, also against incredible odds. if anything the concept of home is one that needs to be cracked open in order to allow us all to take a moment and recognise that we all abide on this earth and no one person is more worthy of having a safe place to live than any other. so next time you see a homeless person on the street take a moment to reflect on what that means, and next time you are miserable in your multi million dollar mansion, take a moment to reflect on your definition of home and what it means to you. for me personally, home is with my new baby in my arms and that extraordinary opening in my heart that she has created. home is a sacred place inside me i protect and nurture so that I may be a shelter to her.
Our house becomes a home when: Something cooking on the stovetop and it wafts towards the front door. Toys and books are strewn about from a busy afternoon, hour, or let’s face it 5 minutes.. There’s music playing in the background and the kids are dancing across the floor or jumping on the couch. The house is still with darkness and the air ebbs and flows gently with the breath of sleeping children, and my light flickers slightly as I read a few chapters of my book in peace and quiet.
What makes our house a home is the little and big shoes that greet you at the door. I love things neat and tidy, clean and modern but there is something about the pile. Its the little baby shoes, a bit bigger pre-school shoes, loving parents shoes, good friends andloving grandparents, all jumbled together that says this is a home for me.
I nominate my kids’ daycare. Vicky has been sharing her home with little monkeys for 14 years. She is very resourceful, as we all know child care isn’t the big money maker it should be. Everything is reused, recycled and she grows all her own vegetables with the kids. I know she would love a new cool certified wood doll house. Cheers.
Awesome, Dana, thanks for nominating Vicky. She sounds like our kind of lady! Now, maybe you could pass on our Blog link to other parents at Vicky’s (and maybe even Vicky herself) and they can write in and vote for her too! Oh, and here’s to shoe piles of all shapes and sizes!
Before children I had a lovely and decorated home. Now with three children all of whom have shown a distinct ‘crafty bend’, our house is filled with piles of works in progress, finished art on the walls and playroom and lists of future craftiness. All wonderful and frustrating at the same time. Piles of homemade goodies defines our family (and leaves my in-laws shaking their heads
).
I would like to nominate Mrs. Payton, my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. Anyone who can make applesause and gingerbread men from sctratch with 22 kids deserves a homey dollhouse. Hopefully she will continue to encourage and inspire many more classes of children.
ps- Dana, after 6 years of infertility treaments, one day I looked down at the line of little shoes by my front door and cried. It was such a strong image of how our little family had grown. Thank you for the reminder – love them little shoes!
I have made homes in four different countries. I always reflect on how to make a place feel “homey” even without a lot of stuff. I make a home through observing traditions. Special foods that I cook that we can all look forward to in each new season. Family dinners around the table, with real cloth napkins and child-sized ceramic plates for the little ones. A meaningful, candle-lit gathering with friends and singing every Christmas Eve. Nightly bed time stories and tuck-ins; these are things that I can do no matter where we live.
I would like to nominate my mom, also known to some family members as “Nana”, to win the Natural Pod. She opened her home to me through both pregnancies so that I could deliver my babies in a clean hospital (we were living in Laos at the time). She supported me while I was in the US and my husband was overseas. She also cares for my niece every evening after a 10 hour day at work as a mammographer. She has volunteered as an English teacher for more than 15 years, teaching English at night, for free, to immigrants in our city. She went on a rebuilding trip to Banda Ache, Indonesia (an area very much affected by the Tsunami in 2004), with a group of go-getter women! I don’t know where she gets the energy!
Go Nana!
I am a Facebook fan to
I think it is so important to make my house a home. As a Mom to 5 kids, I try to make each child feel special and loved. I try to cook from scratch each day and we have never been to a fast food restaurant! I love that even after being away on vacation my children said, it is so nice to be home!! Makes me feel so good, and makes my job as Mom worthwhile!
I just became a facebook fan
There have been many times in my life that I have had to recreate my sense of home, because of moving and because as a young woman I chose to stay in a domestic violence shelter to protect myself and my infant daughter. I am now remarried and my daughter is 12 with 3 wonderful siblings. Our sense of home has always been important to us, and it is more than just a place. Home is in your heart and your family, and when they are close I know that I am home. Our home is filled with the things we love, from heirlooms, to handmade projects, and vintage treasures. I love the things in our home that promote creativity and shared times together. I am so grateful for the home we have to shelter us, and I am ever thankful for the home I have in the hearts of my children and loving husband.
That is a lovely dollhouse! I generally don’t like popular vote contests but I’ll go ahead and throw my vote in for Candice’s mom, too. I love that her parents help her test products for her blog. Super supportive woman!
Our home collects us.
We gather round the table together, huddle on the couch.
My daughters make their marks- on the table, on the walls, across the floor
and very often on paper products too, which are hung with pride, held up by magnets or tape
and have hopes to one day find that illusive frame.
A rainbow of garments become the wardrobe of princesses.The livingroom transforms into a palace for puppies. Appliance boxes that hold tools for being technically savvy are ripped apart
and become art sculptures.Blankets are nests; An old boogie board a sled.
You never know what will happen next. Children are creators, magicians. They turn my heart inside out.
They take ideas are run out the door, giggling, with strings kiting behind them.
And this house, this roof that covers us, that shelfters us from the outside world,is a humble one. Not much to look at, both strange and wonderful at the same time but the air in here
is charged: full of Love, wriggling with curiousity, streaked by popping young voices.
Within this space we work it out. We make something new. We keep the tarnished pieces
and see what we can make happen.
Our home is a creative one. We keep in cooking!
We are a part of a wonderful budding community. My daughters attend a hybrid program
for home learner’s in Vancouver.
Shannon Hobson is a teacher with a gracious heart. I would love to see
our classroom inherit such a wonderful dollhouse.
For me home is were you belong. It doesn´t have to be were you were born or were you grew up, is more about the relationships that you build in the place were you live. A place were you feel a part of, were you are a member of the community, were you cultivate friendships to share the everyday life as well as the special moments. Home is were you build it in terms of relationships.
Love and food..I try every day to make nice food so everyone looks forward to the dinner time when we are all together swapping stories of our day.And also, I work hard to keep the house clean.
Our house is a home when we fill it with handmade things, especially ones made from materials that come directly from the earth, like wooden cars, wool dolls, and clay cups. I love having a piece of each maker/artist around our house, as it feels like old friends sharing the space around our family.
I’d love to give this dollhouse to our local library, The Louisa Gonser community library. They’ve welcomed children of all ages, socio-economic incomes and backgrounds, and it’s really the hub of the families in our community. When moms and dads are looking to connect with each other, we head to the library where we can flop into a cozy chair to read to our kids chat or watch the kids play with the educational toys. I support the library so much that I even painted murals in the kids area when I was pregnant 2 years ago. I’d love to see such a lovely dollhouse being played with in front of those walls.
PS I’m also a facebook fan
I’d like to second Kathleen’s comment. I’ve seen her work at the library and think that that building is deserving of such a fine house for the kids to play with. It would go well with the rocking boat, which they actually have and our son really enjoys.
Continuing the Discussion