well hello!

go on & make yourself at home here.

however you got here…welcome to our family’s daily life, honest words, & my cozy finds (that are probably beautiful, neutral & affordable).

I started this blog when I was 18 years old.

10 years ago i was a sophomore in college & i wanted a place to simply share what i was making, what i was loving & what i was learning. so i figured out how to make a website & started posting away about my DIY projects, fumbling words, food i was cooking & so on.

my blog has had a few different names since those humble beginnings but to this day, i love to share what i love because i really believe:

life is so much better when shared.

my favorite things to do as a kiddo were go garage sale hunting, redecorate my bedroom & write in my journals. now i get to do a different form of all 3 of those things right here in this space by showing you guys how we’re beautifying our house, links to comfy clothes + neutral home goods (my form of digital garage sale shopping) & telling our family’s story through sincere, scattered words.

i was doing this long before i made a dime off of it, but now it’s a dream come true to make a living off of it.

I think the kind of people we envy are the kind of people who sincerely like their lives & live with purpose pumping through their veins.

they like who they are & given the choice, they wouldn’t choose to be anyone else. we see the envy-worthy lives or relationships or jobs & we THINK that we think “i’d like to be like them” but the actual longing is...”i’d like to be more like myself. i want to like myself & my life more, just like they like theirs”. in today’s age, there’s a sea of content out there & amidst all the chatter & noise…

i want to sing a song that helps you foster an affection for our own story—

rather than envy for mine or anyone else’s. so as you scroll through my website or peak at my instagram, i hope you leave my (digital) space full of gratitude & inspiration to see the beauty & even CREATE more beauty in your own. no one can make the most of your story but YOU.

& on the topic of stories, here’s ours—

Our love-at-first-sight story began in a high school hallway.

i was walking to art class (late, as always) when i passed by a boy with strong arms & kind eyes. i kid you not…one glance & i knew “i’m gonna marry that boy.” i went on a man hunt to figure out what the cute kid’s name was & within a month, kyle green & i were dating. 6 years later we got married (when i was only 20!), & 6 more years later i was pregnant for the first time. in a heart-wrenching turn of events, i miscarried in my first trimester, but 4 months later…we conceived our precious daughter Foster Juno. I birthed her in our living room on a sunny February day…the hardest, best thing i’ve ever done.

we’re coming up on 8 years of marriage now but…there was a time i thought we wouldn’t make it.
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our love felt frozen—impossible to thaw. the stories our first house on Olive Street could tell... a lost boy & a sad girl & a good God who would see them through. the stories that house on Olive Street could tell...betrayal & confusion & defeat & Hope that was just around the corner. the stories that house on Olive Street could tell...our separate phone calls to friends saying “i don’t know how to keep doing this” & the silent war they were waging on our behalf—fighting & believing for our marriage when we couldn’t.
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there was a time i thought we wouldn’t make it. but we stayed.
we remained. equally bunkered down to weather the storm.
our stamina, our hope—differed & shifted depending on the day. but we stayed.
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& sometimes sticking around is the most courageous thing to be done.
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inch by inch, we grew back together. the chasm between us shrunk, our cold hearts defrosted, & day by day we blindly yet desperately found our way back to one another.
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two steps forward, one step back. we fought to understand the stranger in front of us until stranger turned into friend turned into companion turned into lover.
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long
tiring
unglamorous
& humbling.

because there is little room for pride between 2 hearts hell-bent on coming home to each other. God has seen us through & God has multiplied this love of ours.

we are so honored to have you along for the ride as we keep figuring out this beautiful life together.