From My Book Pile – Emilie Barnes Edition

If you are over a certain age, Emilie Barnes will be a familiar name to you and this post might be like a walk down memory lane that sends you scouring the bookshelves of your home for your own Emilie Barnes books. If you are younger, you might not be familiar with her at all. During the 1980s and 1990s she was a prolific and very popular Christian author who wrote lovely and encouraging books on making a home, family, home organization, saving time, etc. She interested me far more than someone like Martha Stewart because Emilie Barnes seemed like such a real and down-to-earth person that I could more easily relate to. Her ideas were attainable for regular Christian women.

She was the mega blogger before their were blogs. Actually, it’s a good thing she wrote before blogs because now we have all of her lovely works in actual books we can enjoy instead of losing them to the noise of the online world.

I thought of her today and decided to collect her books from around the house to gain some fresh inspiration this weekend. Here’s some that I have and then a sampling (and I do mean sampling) of what else she wrote in case you aren’t familiar with her works. This is her Amazon author page if you want to see more.

The Spirit of Loveliness: Bringing Beauty, Creativity, and Order to Your Life

This was the first Emilie Barnes book I purchased and I just loved it. I gave it as a gift more times than I can count. I have one with the older cover which I think evokes far more emotion than this one. The older one looks dated now, but it’s much richer and more in keeping with what the book inspired women to do in their homes. So don’t be put off by the plainness of this cover (which I think is a terrible mistake for her book). It’s really a lovely book content-wise.

Welcome Home: Creating Your Own Place of Beauty and Love

I haven’t looked at this book in some time, but when I pulled it off the shelf I could see how Emilie Barnes had influenced how I created and decorated my own home. The rooms in her book are far more full of things than mine are, but there is a cozy warmth in the book and in the photographs that speaks to me.

15 Minute Home and Family Organizer

This book is exactly what it says it is – full of practical organization ideas to implement in short amounts of time. It’s actually two books put into one. It contains both The 15 Minute Organizer and 15 Minute Family Traditions and Memories. Emilie Barnes really got her start helping women with time management and finding more hours in their day.

Creative Home Organizer

This is full of quick practical tips for virtually every aspect of the home.

15 Minutes of Peace with God

This is an encouraging devotional book with Scripture to read, personal reflections, etc.

Meet Me Where I Am, Lord

I received this as a gift from a relative. It’s a book of short, five minute readings to provide encouragement throughout the day.

Minute Meditations for Busy Moms

Short five minute devotionals to encourage moms in their important work. Emilie had a heart for moms and the work that they do.

Time Began in a Garden

A lovely large gift book with thoughts about gardens and life lessons from them in the midst of beautiful illustrations and layouts.

Emilie Barnes Books

What follows in the rest of this post is a sampling of the many books Emilie Barnes wrote. She generally wrote around themes and I’ve grouped them accordingly below.

Books for Children

These are sweet books for children.

Christmas Themed Books

Some lovely Christmas books for inspiration

Books with a Tea or Teacups Theme

Tea and teacups were a regular theme around which she wrote

Devotional and Quiet Time Books

Emilie Barnes wrote so many devotional and quiet time books. These are just a few.

Home Organization

Organizing and time management was a key part of her speaking ministry. Here are just a few of her books on this topic.

Pretty Books of Encouragement

Encouragement combined with popular artwork of the time

Manners

In addition to the children’s books above that deal with manners, Emilie wrote other ones for adults.

Do you have any Emilie Barnes books? Which ones are your favorites or influenced you in a significant way?

 Related Tags: Clutter• From My Book Pile• Home Organization• Living SimplyCategories: Books• Christian Faith• Homemaking