Ok, I am going to ask this for Maureen. Hang in there Maureen! Big hugs for you and your family while you're cleaning up the mess!

Question: Who in your life was your inspiration for the love of things prim or country? Or maybe the one who got you started on collecting, antiquing, ts-ing, or garage sales?

I would say mine is a combination of my parents and my grandparents. My mom grew up a country girl on the farm. Dad was a city boy. When they married, they moved to town, but still loved antiques and the country. When I was younger, we used to go to my granparents house for holidays or special occasions. They lived about 2 hours away from us. I would get to help grandad feed the calves with a bottle, ride in his combine with him, walk down the old dirt road back through the cattle to the catfish pond. I loved it! I can still remember the feeling of getting out of the car after what seemed like a long drive and just breathing in that fresh country air! Mom always decorated in a country decor, so I fell in love with the hominess of it all. And dad is always looking for a bargain and can't stand to buy something new when he can find something used with a history and turn it into something wonderful.

How about you?

Debbie

http://s267.photobucket.com/home/saved5/allalbums

my mom....she decorated in american colonial which then turned into the primitive country that I like now.

A friend of mine stopped over to my apartment for the first time and called it "amish"....LOL>

Well, don't throw barn stars at me (please)--I love prim and Americana decor, but in other people's homes (I'm Victorian through and through!!  LOL)!!  I joined a version of this Forum in 1998--when CS Decorating Ideas Magazine was so popular.  It was an amazing magazine with tips and ideas for all sorts of decorating styles.  It's interesting how this forum has evolved over time (and I'm so glad you don't tell me to go somewhere else!!!!).  But, one thing has never changed--this Forum has been blessed with the nicest, most helpful people in the whole world!!  You all have saved me many times with my projects!!!  So, Thank YOU!!

Anyway, I've been a Victorian girl since I was about 5 years old and Mom read the Golden Book "The Night Before Christmas" to us as we waited for Santa to make his visit.  The family in the book lived in a beautiful Victorian house with the most beatuiful furniture--and they wore such pretty clothes!!  I was hooked!!  I love bold jewel colors, lace, velvet, satin, brocade, sparkles, blown glass, all things PINK.....ahhhhhh.  So, finally, after moving around for so many years as a Navy wife--I now have our adaptation of my vision of Victorian.  It's just right--and I'm so glad DH and the kids think so, too!!

PS  Great Question of the Week, Debbie!!

You know, evolved is a really great way to describe my decorating too come to think of it. My mom was also very Early American, Colonial, Country. I started that way, but soon became the lover of more primitive items too. When I posted on here about an opinion on my cabinet, Cindy I think it was, used the term purist. I never have heard that term used in prim decor before, but now I see that is not what I am. I still like some color and even some newer items in my home.Mom would have NEVER had a cabinet with chippy paint or a table with wear on it in her house and still wouldn't. It's funny though, she see's my items like that and loves the way they look.

Oh Punky! You silly chic! We would never even think of throwing our barn stars at you! LOL! Those things have some serious sharp points on them!! Really, I love the way we all have different ways of decorating, and we love having you here! It keeps these forums interesting to see all the different ways to decorate a home. I LOVE "The Night Before Christmas" Book. I always loved the way they looked too! Any you're a coffee drinker! We are like kindred spirits!!

 Oh Punky,  I love that book!  My DS would have me read it over and over and over every year.  I would love to get an old copy of it (but not too expensive), but haven't found one yet.  I love the way you have your home decorated.  It's goregeous!

Here's a link to the Little Golden Books--we had all of these pictured below--but the middle one on top is the one that got me going on Victorian things!

http://www.randomhouse.com/golden/lgb/timeline.html 

Do you remember "Doctor Dan: the Bandage Man"???  They had REAL band-aids inside the front cover!!  I loved that book!!

 No matter what our style, I think we all have the same goal:  to make our home and life a welcoming place that others want to be a part of.....I'm thankful for all of our different looks and ideas and love to see pictures of everyone's homes.

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My Grandpa Levi and Grandma Sallie's house was the most wonderful place to be in the world.  They just lived across the pasture from us so I wore a path to their house.  Coffee pot simmering on the cook stove with a pot of beans, dominoes were always laid out on the table, and a big fire in the huge fireplace in the living room.  Hardwood floors, wide trim around the doors and windows and a little bed for me next to theirs...

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Outsite we could spend hours in the barn, chicken house, creek, climbing trees, making mud pies...grandma's quilt under the tree to take a nap on...I can't imagine heaven being better than that.

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On Saturday friends and family would show up and maybe 20 people would stay the whole weekend.  Adults and kids played tag, hide and seek, annie annie over....Grandma would send Grandpa to the chicken house and he'd bring back fresh chicken for Grandma to fry.  Chicken, mounds of potato salad, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, green beans, coconut cream pie....oh my, how my mouth is watering just to think of it.

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Grandpa died when I was 10 and my world ended.  Grandma moved to town and someone bought the farm.  But Grandma was wise, she saved many of Grandpa's things for me, his pocket watch, handkerchiefs, hats and tools.  I would sit at her house and play with his things for hours.

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I was newly married when Grandma died.  Everyone else was "city folk" and didn't want "that old stuff."  So most of it went home with me and I have cherished it ever since.  And have spent my years trying to duplicate the feeling of their home. 

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I hope that some day my grandsons will have the same feeling about my home and cherish the memories.....

 I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts here! Thank you for sharing. I have goosebumps. Great question.

My mom is the fault of my primitive decorating. LOL She took me auctioning and garage sale'ing from the time I was in a stroller. I grew up surrounded by old stuff, though she never had a particular theme or style for the most part, just antiques and "country." I love that she did this to me. I can't imagine being any other way. She and her best friend also got me into "curbside shopping." Back then they called it "junk pickin' and my sister and the best friend's daughter always hid on the floor of the van when we'd all go out. They wanted to die. Not me, I was in the middle pickin' right along! LOL

As far as the REALLY primitive stuff I do now, it is beyond what my mom ever imagined doing. She loves what I do and I have done a few corners of her home...but a lot of what I collect, the kitchen stuff and the old bottles and packages, she laughs and tells me my grandmother (her mother) would roll over in her grave if she knew I was decorating my HOUSE with stuff that she had considered old junk and pitched. Oh to have the things out of my grandma's kitchen!! She wasn't this way at all. She wanted the modern things of the time. She wasn't a spender by any means and saved every bread tie and bread bag and disposable pie plates, etc. We always got cookies sent home on a tin pie plate stuck in a bread bag tied shut with an old bread tie! LOL OH to have that one more time. I miss her to pieces. She was a rock in our family for sure. Anyway, I remember when she got rid of her pale pink fridge to get a new white one....**sigh** I loved that old fridge!!

And, my mom let me decorate my room from the time I was little (I recently blogged about this)...didn't matter what my whim was, she let me dig through auction boxes in the basement and put all sorts of stuff in my room, which I was inspired to do from her old issues of Country Living magazine. Thanks, Mom! LOL

This is a great thread! I have enjoyed reading your stories. Punky~ we all love you here, and your style is your style! I can certainly appreciate others' taste in decor.

My style has certainly evolved over the years, I have always loved old things, but when I was first married, we had the mauves and baby blues still in check. Remember?

I think my love of old things comes from having grown up around it, but my style is all my own. I have never been one to be in the box. I am always trying to come up with unique ways to utilize things around here~ much to my DHs' chagrin! But with that being said, he is usually game to help me get my vision to reality.

I am definatley right brain dominant!

I am not a purist, I love primitive, colonial, farmhouse, and some cottage styles~this is just me. I want our home to be a comfortable place, not a museum. I do have some family pieces, and am grateful for that. My problem seems to be there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all these things!