little things...

... make all the difference, especially when it comes to a living space.


Our house is finally starting to feel like a home, and it's in large part due to Jordan taking it upon himself to hang things on our walls.  When he first moved in to the house, it was definitely not his home.  He lived with 2 other roommates who did not do a very good job of being welcoming or making the common areas feel "shared" - it was definitely a "So you have your room, and we'll have everything else, since we were here first" kind of deal.  He stuck mostly to his room and never really branched out.


Over two years and a carousel ride of roommates later, the house has finally become a place where he feels comfortable decorating, making it his own (being clear that we - Jimmy and I - are welcome to do the same). 


I came home to one of his in-progress living room projects, dollar store picture frames and thumb tacks, which eventually became this:

It's my feisty kitten's namesake!  Pogo was a comic strip that ran from 1948 to 1975, and follows a group of  resident animals of the Okefenofee Swamp.  It was a very satirical, politically- and socially-driven comic strip, very smart in it's commentary despite being written in a very unique dialect and using very clever wordplay.  


From the Wikipedia article on the topic:  The strip was notable for its distinctive and whimsical use of language. Kelly, a native northeasterner, had a sharply perceptive ear for language and used it to great humorous effect. The predominant vernacular in Pogo, sometimes referred to as "swamp-speak," is essentially a rural southern U.S. dialect laced with nonstop malapropisms, fractured grammar, "creative" spelling and mangled polysyllables such as "incredibobble" and "hysteriwockle," plus invented words such as the exasperated exclamations "Bazz Fazz!," "Rowrbazzle!" and "Moomph!"

Jordan's father followed the comic strip, and with the somewhat recent release of collected strips, Jordan decided these should go on display.  I rather like it and it definitely brings the room together, as well as adding a level of coziness -- Jordan's dad's old comic books framed up on the walls gives me warm, home-y feelings.


What do you have on display that makes your house a home?