Garden gnomes and what they taught me about design

My garden gnome collection had originally started out as a joke. After hours of registering for tea towels and all of the other items that the bridal websites insisted we needed, my fiancé and I decided that we needed some comic relief. We agreed to register for the first nonsensical item we saw and bet on who would actually purchase it for us. It didn’t take more than a minute to find the perfect item. He was brightly colored, tacky, and in all regards the opposite of anything that looked like it belonged in our home. While we did count a few of our goofy relatives getting our odd sense of humor, we didn’t count on more of them not getting it and simply assuming that we just really liked garden gnomes. At my shower alone I received three. For the wedding, we received two, and with every year that passes we always seem to wind up with another one. At first, I cringed at the thought of actually having to house the gnomes in my yard. I wanted every part of my home to look like something out of a magazine. However, as the days went on I found myself not being able to hold back a smile as I spied them out the window. While they may not have been picture perfect they became another part of our home that told part of our story. It was at that moment that I learned to stop following the trends in design and simply follow my heart.