“The front door has always been a place of great symbolic importance. Ever since men lived in caves, the front door – and its threshold – have demarcated the transition between inside and outside, between safety and danger, between the public and the private worlds. We angrily show people the door, or considerately we walk them to it; we knock on the door and wait to be invited in. It is the place for many everyday ceremonies of arrival and departure, for familial hugs and for furtive, adolescent goodnight kisses. It is the memory of these that gives front doors personality – that is why we adorn them with Christmas wreaths and Thanksgiving corn.”
Witold Rybczynski The Most Beautiful House in the World
And then there is the entry way.
her spirits rose... 
Oh yes – the shoes, boots, keys, purse(s), bags, etc. – but you have made the mess beautiful in a drawing.
Thank you Jane – yes and dog leashes and hats and gloves and coats, too! I was thinking as I came in the house just now that the elimination of little shoes and boots has made the mess stay beneath the bench – but barely!
Ha! The perennial shoe problem. I love this drawing of shoes and boots waiting to be used again. I’m always a little suspicious of houses where no one takes their shoes off when they come in the front door. It’s a habit that has been so thoroughly ingrained by living in Alaska and also by vacationing in Hawaii, where flip-flops can be seen waiting outside many a front door.
Great drawing Katy. You’ve truly captured a real entry way…I’m always suspicious of magazine photos with beautiful, shoe and bootless entries. Add in a couple of cat toys and backpacks of homework and it will be complete. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Carol and Michelle – that was a real and not uncommon and certainly not ‘styled’ still life set up!
I love the way that you’ve taken a familiar scene that in real life drives me nuts and turned it into something beautiful! Thanks, Katy!
Oh thanks Mera, you are in the thick of it! Changing seasons and footgear, little boots and big ones- everyday! Now, of course, since my entry could be tidier, I love it when those little shoes are included in a big clutter!