Home Sanctuary: Company Girls

I have fallen hopelessly behind in trying to maintain a blogroll. I still get confused about blogroll etiquette: do you ask to be on a blogroll? Do you get invited to be on one? I dunno.

So here's what I want to do.

I'm inviting you to be an official Company Girl!

Company Girls have a lot in common.
My Elle and Em.

Company Girls transcend Time.
My sister Katherine and me.

When I first started blogging, I envisioned finding a group of girls with a common heart for our homes and families. And what a treasure of friends I've found! Here's what I wrote back in August 2006:

"Will you be my company girl?" one of my little red-haired girls would ask the other, and the question usually came with an outstretched hand that would clasp the other's. It was their way of saying, "Keep me company!" It didn't seem to matter if it was a trip to the potty or a trip to the playroom, the girls had their own way of communicating that wherever they were going, whatever they were doing, it was going to be better with a "company girl."

Over the years, that phrase has become one of those family-speak things that is special to our little group of five. Yesterday, my husband asked me to be his company girl on a trip to Home Depot. Household chores always seem to go faster, a walk to the mailbox is more enjoyable, and even a run to the grocery store is much more adventuresome with a company girl! The invitation to be a company girl is an inside way of saying "I just enjoy your company and I want you to be with me."

It requires nothing of the invitee but to Be There.

Be along for the ride.

Sit in companionable silence.

Enjoy a laugh.

Share the experience.

Would you agree that most everything in life is made that much better when you have a friend to share it with? My purpose here is to provide an outstretched hand and an invitation to be "company girls" together through the mundane, the dramas, and the everyday stuff that makes life what it is.

The invitation still stands.

I'm asking you to email me, and then I'm going to update my Company Girl List based on your response. Even if you are already listed, please go ahead and let me know that you want to be included so I can update it.

And as if just being BFF's isn't enough, I'm going to throw in an added incentive.

Sometime after the first of the year, I plan to create some "Home Sanctuary-esque" artwork and make it available online. For anyone who is a Company Girl, I will offer significant discounts...JUST FOR YOU! I'm thinking of something like a canvas print that says "Sanctuary" on it that would be reasonably priced to begin with. Just like my tattered 3x5 card, it can remind us of our vision for what we want our homes to be. Hey, I even want one of those! I'll keep ya'll updated...and if you think of someone else who might be interested, send them on over. Link up, baby! Let's have fun!

For my email friends, please don't think you have to have a blog to be a Company Girl. I will simply put your name (or pseudo-name) on my list so we can be one big happy family.

C'Mon! Don't be shy. Be My Company Girl!