Think of the homey settings in the wonderful movies of the 1940's, like The Enchanted Cottage. "If you have it," the English playwright Sir James M. Barrie wrote about charm in 1907, "you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have."
Money can purchase beautiful furnishings and decorative accessories, but it cannot ensure that enchantment and charm lies within us. I believe this is because charm seems to be a quality of the soul that cannot be purchased. But charm can be channeled from the Creative Spirit. It is accessed through our authenticity, and expressed in our personal flair.
In these tough economic times, when considering carefully every large purchase for the home, it is a challenge to make our homes beautiful on a shoestring. "Beauty doesn't lie in the expenditure of much money, but in the artistic disposition of little," says an article entitled "The Charm of the Unexpected" published in the August 1917 issue of The Mother's Magazine during World War 1, when making do with less was a necessity.
Today, realize that the desire to make our homes warm and welcoming to those who live in it, is still the secret of filling our homes with enchantment and magic.
Brightest of Blessings,
Lory
