I recently dug up some of my old drawings. By that I mean that when I was in junior high and even high school, and I would get bored in the summer, I drew. We went to my grandma's and grandpa's house every day in the summer, and there wasn't too much to do but watch TV, make crafts, draw, read, hang out in the yard, and look at magazines. So, I watched a lot of TV, looked at a lot of magazines, and drew pictures.
I drew people a lot. Random people that I made up the stories of and told them on paper. But I also drew a lot of houses.
Mostly they were houses that I created in my head - usually how I imagined my house would look like when I grew up. My dream house, if you will.
Sometimes I was inspired by houses in magazines, or even my neighbors' house across the street from ours like this one:
Looking back I remember I was obsessed with tall, Arched windows. You know the ones I'm talking about, right? If not, see the drawing below. Or all of these for that matter.
I even imagined little suburban neighborhoods with cute houses and people jogging or walking their dogs outside.
I wanted to live in a beautiful, new housing addition. But one where every house had their own unique style and personality. (And lots of windows everywhere.)
You can definitely tell which are my older drawings - they're a little less detailed, less realistic, and look a lot more "cartoon-like." --
I even drew my dream house layout. Complete with an indoor basketball court and in-ground pool. I'm guessing I was around 13 when I drew this. Yep, I was this kid:
A lot of the names and labels are hard to see in this picture, but I pretty much laid out a whole quiet little town here:
And this looks like a town straight out of the 1800's....I'm sure I was looking at pictures of those little miniature Christmas villages or something when I drew this:
All of those drawings are of house exteriors, but I definitely drew a lot of interiors too. I dreamed about being an interior designer in junior high and high school, and I used magazines for a lot of my inspiration. I constantly looked at my grandma's Good Housekeeping and Country Living magazines, and even the huge JC Penney catalogs, and drew rooms that looked like they came straight from their pages.
The funny thing is that I remember my grandma's
ginormous drawer full of scratch paper, which actually came from my aunt, who was a third grade teacher. The leftover sheets of paper from her classroom went straight here for scratch paper. I drew on the back of Multiplication worksheets, coloring pages...even when I was at home I would draw on the back of church bulletins. And if you look closely at this drawing below, you can see an outline of Barney in a top hat on the other side. Classic. :)
Again with the arched windows...obsessed, I tell you.
I was also very much obsessed with candles. I swore that when I "grew up," my house would be full of candles. And of course they would be lit at all times. :)
I very much dreamed about having a deck someday to watch the sunset from, too.
Finally, I drew pictures of what I wanted to be like when I grew up and had my own house. What my house would be like, what I would be doing....
It was apparent from the start that I WOULD have a dog. That dog in the drawing above resembles Saleen a little, don't you think? Ok, maybe not. :)
Of course I would be an interior designer, or fashion designer, or some kind of glamorous, creative job. Well, I wouldn't say I'm that far off but I think I have a ways to go yet.
It's fun to look back at when I imagined what my "grown up" life would be like. Now it's right here in front of me and my dreams have kind of been replaced by reality. I'm here trying to fix up a century-old house into the house of my dreams, which almost seems impossible most days. It is what it is, right?
