Hello dollies…welcome to this month’s Where Bloggers Live 02.2021: First Impressions. Today, the ladies and I are offering a peek into the entry into our humble abode. First impressions. The first things visitors encounter when coming to our home.
PC and I are pretty introverted when the world isn’t locked down by a pandemic. And the visitors to our home, with the exception of family, are few and far between, even in healthier times. If not for the locked gates on either side of the house, I am pretty certain family would come into our home through the back yard. But today we are looking at the front entrance into our home. The space where solicitors’ knocks fall on deaf ears. Where the pizza is delivered and the Amazon packages are dropped off.
Welcome…
WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE 02.2021
You may remember that this series is kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! I was fortunate to join this group of ladies mid-way through last year. And since then, my Where Bloggers Live posts have been among my most popular posts. Perhaps that’s little wonder as who doesn’t like to peek inside people’s homes and lives? For last month’s post, we shared from where we glean our inspiration. In the post before that, we opened up our guest bedrooms. Or the places where we ‘put up’ company when they visit. And before that, a look at our master bedrooms. This group has some fun things planned for this year. Hope you will come along for the ride!
S’il Vous Plaît Venez
Southwestern Style Porch
I grew up in southern style home in Memphis, Tennessee with a large, if not quite wrap-around porch on the front of the house. As few people used our front door in my childhood home as do my home in El Paso now. Southwestern style porches are simpler affairs. At least the ones in our subdivision. We have nothing more than this bit of tile covered by the balcony above.
I wanted a bench to help fill the space and make it look more inviting…for whom, I am not sure. The milkman? FedEx and UPS? And I like to decorate the bench with seasonal pillows and other things for various holidays.
PC laughs that no one ever sits on the bench. Now and then he will park there momentarily just to say it has been used.
Many of the houses in El Paso use wrought iron for security and decoration. Our door is combination of wrought iron and glass. Lots of home owners take the wrought iron further, and have their front porches caged in. Iron on all of the windows. We forget to lock our front door lots of times so I am thinking wrought iron on the windows isn’t going to protect us much.
Our weather has been so unseasonably warm that I have tied flip flops beside the ice skates on my winter wreath.
When we first moved in, we had a terrible time with solicitors. At one point they were more abundant than telemarketers. So, PC wanted a ‘no soliciting’ sign for the door. I ordered this pretty one from Etsy that the solicitors politely ignore.
Come on In
From the front door, guests…ha…step into a small entry way that leads to the living room and the stairs.
I am glad you can’t see much about the dining room table. It is laden with my mosaic and supplies. Work on it has gone so much better with the morning light streaming in the window beside the table.
To the left of the door as you enter, my husband has hung a plaque that his paternal grandfather made.
One of my Prince’s most prized possessions.
Baby Jesus
Many of the houses in the El Paso area feature built-in little alcoves just inside the front door. These spaces often become home altars that display figurines representing the Virgin Mary or Our Lady of Guadalupe. When PC and I were looking for a new home to have built, in every model we visited, we noticed these niches. And PC, being Baptist and not Catholic, called them Baby Jesuses. We started looking for Baby Jesuses in every house. The altar space in the house we decided on was taller than most and deeper, too, allowing for a larger statue to be housed there.
Or in our case, a wedding photograph, candle and some random but pretty geodes. As I was working on it, PC asked if I included a picture of the Baby Jesus in this post.
El Pasoans love their altars and Baby Jesuses. Check out this ‘sugar house’ or la casa de azucar located in northeast El Paso, just a few miles from my home.
Carry a Big Stick
Just inside the door to the right, in a corner, is one of PC’s baseball bats. At our house, we don’t have a big dog but we have a big stick for protection.
And you’ll also find a basketball. Which is not there to throw at intruders or uninvited guests. We take the basketball with us on a lot of our walks. Will toss it back and forth between us. And sometimes we even go down to the park to shoot baskets. On warmer days, you might find a soccer ball there as well.
There you have it. Where Bloggers Live 02.2021: First Impressions. Our entry way. So glad you came by!!
YOUR TURN
When we had our home built, there were a number of lovely floor plans we considered. Several of them had very dramatic entrances. Some with spiral staircases. Large chandeliers. One with a double staircase leading upstairs. But all of that seemed like a waste of space to me.
What does your entry way look like? Do you prefer something small and simple like ours? Or perhaps a grander first impression? I am anxious to check out the entries of my friends so please join me in visiting the blogs of the gals below.
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
It’s Fri-yay, friends. Hope you have something special planned for this Valentine weekend. We are hoping for snow. At which point, I will remove the flip flops from the front door!!
Whatever you do, stay healthy. And come back to see me again soon!!
Hugs and kisses,
What a lovely entryway!
Thank you! It is home.
Hi, Leslie – Your entranceway, bench and front door are beautiful. I love your decorating style. Thank you once again for openly sharing this with us.
Thank you, Donna. I have never thought of myself as having a fashion style or decorating style. You always say the sweetest things. Thank you so much.
I love that you guys have a baseball bat too….Rob has one in the coat closet (probably not the best place for it, LOL)
That bench on the front is a beautiful decor…no one has to sit on it.
OXOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Thank you!! Glad to know no one has to sit on the bench for it to be worthwhile. I do occasionally put my scarecrow there in the fall. That counts, right?
I think your entryway is lovely! I love the balcony being above it, too. We have a fairly small entryway, as well. The porch is kind of long and narrow. We have two chairs and a table out there that seldom get used, but like PC, when the weather is nice, I sit there sometimes just so they get used!
Thank you!! Yes, it is kind of fun to sit on the bench or the patio furniture on the balcony above the entry, just because…
We sure did use our new patio furniture in the back yard last year. Money well spent!
Love that you started on the outside and worked your way in! I miss having a covered area at my front door. I like cuting that area up but am limited when it’s open the elements.
Whine whine whine.
Your entry – inside and out – is so welcoming.
Thanks for sharing!
Bettye
https:fashionschlub.com
Thank you, Bettye. I love this series and being part of this group so much.
Love it BFF! I’m not sure I ever went to your front door growing up but the back door was the best anyways! Closer to the kitchen and your mamas goid cooking! 🥰
Awww, thank you, BFF. I think we used your front door on your house on Galaxie. But we always used my back door.
Thanks for inviting us in! Your home looks so lovely and warm and such a great space! I love the little altar alcoves too & the wrought iron.
Thank you!! The wrought iron won me over on this builder. We first saw this floor plan as a model home decorated for Christmas. I loved the lights and garland twisted around the wrought iron banister. Was ready that minute to sign on the dotted line!!
So much fun Leslie! I enjoyed a visit to your place you call home and the little decorating ways you have. SO much fun!
I am so glad you stopped by. Thank you!!
Your house is huge isn’t it? I like to see how it looks sure the front! This is fijn to read, I’m a curious person lol.
Our house is probably too big for us now but was just right…like Goldilocks…when we moved in!! I shut the doors to the rooms we seldom use and forget they are there! Need to dust and vacuum them now and then.
How lovely to step inside your front door! Maybe I would have had a little sit down on that bench while I waited for you to answer the door. I like the way you decorate that area.
Thank you, Deb. That poor bench wouldn’t know what to do if someone actually sat on it!!
Your home is beautiful. That is so interesting about the alcove. My daughter just bought a house and she has one in her home. It’s hard to figure out how to decorate it.
Thank you so much. The houses here might have 2 or 3 alcoves like this. Seems some of them have an alcove in each hallway. I am glad we just have one!!
Your house looks lovely! We have a little alcove like that at the end of the hallway upstairs – we have just filled it with a big vase of pretty flowers! 🙂
Hope you had a good weekend and that your week is off to a nice start 🙂
Thank you!! Great idea to put flowers in your alcove. Ha! Hadn’t thought of that.
Another fun post, Leslie! Love seeing a piece of your home. I’m like you, more introverted and don’t have company to the house much. But, in your case, when you do, it looks very welcoming.
Thank you!! I find that a lot of us bloggers are really introverted. Kind of interesting since we are putting ourselves ‘out there’ with our blogs. But it feels safer online than in person. My readers can’t look for dust bunnies and kitty fur all over the house.
Leslie, your home is gorgeous! Just wow all over, so if first impressions matter, consider me wowed. I love how you make your front entrance so homey and welcoming. We are exactly like you, rarely have guests other than family or our kids’ friends. THEY had lots of parties, we only do holidays. (I think we may revisit the lack of visitors if “normal” ever returns.)
I like how you decorated your niche (and found a subtle way to add your baby Jesus). Niches are somewhat common around the builds here, but not generally as altars. I think they offer some nice decorating options, as you so proficiently demonstrated.
My husband, who does not play baseball, is also a fan of bats as protective equipment, haha. There is one under our bed (shhhh). We have a door-bar-jam-thing that is usually under the doorknobs to dissuade midnight attackers, and now there are also Blink cameras that alert us to solicitors, burglars and fluttering moths.
Thanks for sharing your lovely entrance and home!
Thank you so much for the kind words. So glad to know we are in good company with our choice of weapons. Paul has about 100 bats in the garage but we would have to tell the burglars to stay right there while we fetch them. And then there would probably be some hemming and hawing about which bat he wouldn’t mind using to crack over the burglar’s head.
I love the bench decorations! Your house looks very inviting to me.
Thank you. I love our house, our home.
I just said this over on Daenel’s post-I love this blog series! I love getting little glimpses of other people’s lives and find out interesting details about them. I love that you and PC throw the basketball back and forth on your walks. I find that romantic! xoxo
This is so much fun! Your entrance is so pretty and I love the curves edges…. such a southern, hispanic style.
I was born and raised in San Diego and one of the homes my parents bought had that same alcove in the entrance. It was on the backside of my bedroom and I used to daydream about opening that up and having my own arched entry into my room! 🙂
Thank you!! Oh, I love your idea for the Baby Jesus or alcove!! Enchanting.
Thank you so much. This series is one of my favorites to write.
I love all the decorations on the bench. We have a bench too that no one really sits on. 😉
I need to tell PC we aren’t the only ones with a bench that goes unused. High five!!
My parents also have a baseball bat by the door for protection! Hahaha!!! They don’t have a dog either 🙂
Ha!! Baseball bats for protection must be common to our generation. We could never get the gun safe open fast enough to do any good!!
Gorgeous house! Love the way you decorate the front area.
Thank you!! Gotta love El Paso’s affordable homes.
You are the funniest! I know many would love to visit through your welcoming front door (and adorable bench!) but, you know they always say that backdoor guests are the best guests!:)
Yes, yes!! Backdoor guests are best. I will leave the back door open for you!!
I just love your sense of humor! It always comes through in posts! That basketball comment is too funny! I think your porch is darling with the bench! Love how you decorate it!
Thank you, sweet Laura. I am pretty goofy!!