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Right now I am not certain this post will ever live past my draft box, but right now when the world feels so uncertain I simply write. When I can no longer speak my fingers do the talking for me. Right now our world is hurting. The black community is aching and has been. We all are seeing how deep and that breaks my heart that so many missed it whether it was by intention or not. I see it and wish it could all be healed in an instant, but I know it won’t be that easy and for that matter shouldn’t be. If we were all able to flip a switch and truly see everyone as equal I am not certain that would true or be what our black community deserves. I want to listen, learn & dig deeper than ever before to be certain that no pre judgement is living within because of the color of someones skin. I want to be certain that when I say we are equal that all my actions, intended or not, reflect that. We can all shout from the roof tops that we are not racist, but has there ever been a time where I second guessed anything due to someones skin color? I am not talking about racial slurs or anything that is easily seen and called out to be blatantly racist. That would be too easy. I am talking about the subtle ways in which I may have failed our black community, my friends even. I am certain there has been times when I have failed even when it was unintentional. For this I am deeply sorry. If you did not know my papa is colombian and darker. My mama is the fairest of them all. I have seen and heard things directed at our family and yet never fully comprehended. I have been asking myself why am I just now seeing it for what it was? Was it my parents protection? Was it the multi-cultural area in which I was raised when I was small? I finally feel as if I came to a conclusion, it’s simply because I happened to get more of my mama’s skin color. Within this I was allowed be that and not be excluded or scorned. Yes, I still have been called so many things, but in the end I do not have to live with it every day. I don’t have to ever worry about walking down the street or when I get pulled over by the police. This has everything to do with my skin color and nothing to do with where I grew up or my parents protection. This is a hard pill to swallow. I want you to know that I am choosing to make an even more conscience effort to do more better. It’s simply not enough to have those around me know that they are loved. I must take that love and amplify it. I have been seeing that “love is not enough” going around, but for me it is the answer to it all. For me love is not a feeling it is an action that must be built upon daily. For example if I say I love my husband, but don’t put the effort in daily our love would be lost. It’s hard work, sometimes it’s beautiful and sometimes it’s tear stained, but it is ALWAYS worth it. So I am praying how to love better. Praying how to teach my children how to love better. Simply having a mix of different races in our circle isn’t enough. It never was and somehow I missed that. So now I am learning, reading, and listening to voices who need to be heard and the one of my heavenly Father. I must love others how Jesus loves us. He was a man of actions. He did not wait for the people to come, but He went to them. He met them where they were at and did not wait for everyone to figure it our first. He flipped tables when change was needed. He then died for us ALL. Now do I have it all figured out on how this will look in the next few weeks, months or years. No, I don’t. I do know what I can control is today and I pray that if we all choose to make a difference everyday then in the end we may be closer to having a world that does not judge others, but fights for others. I pray that this space becomes a place to speak truth, learn, conversate and especially where I can be taught. Not that I hold much weight, but I want you to hear me when I say YOU matter, black lives matter. Your children matter, your jobs matter, your faith matters, you matter no matter where you stand, YOU simply matter. You make this world a better place and am grateful we occupy this same earth. Thank you for being uniquely you in whatever capacity that is.

If I can keep this blog up, I will share more of the black community in this space. Over the past few weeks I have come across some pretty amazing souls and I have been hearing from those who I have known for some time. Artists, designers, faith builders, authors & more. There truly is space for us all. It’s time for us to be proactive in making it a reality.



Art

I think I got my love of art from my grandmother. She was a beautiful artist and I can remember days spent in her garden with a paint set trying to paint the world around us. Capturing the right shade of green for the trees and the way the sunlight would bounce through the woods. My parents even got me art lessons during a time I now know they really couldn’t afford. Sadly my need to be the best and never getting it quite right won out in the end. I’ve since grown out of that need to be perfect and get it done perfectly, but it did not come without massive amounts of praying and hard work. Fast forward to today and my love for art remains. Over the years I’ve been slowly growing our collection of art. Mostly from southern artists minus the family pieces that are from the north. So today I thought I would share some of my favorite pieces as they stand today.

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This piece is my newest acquisition. It is by Emily Morgan Brown and a piece that will be passed down to Ellie one day. Emily’s process is one she learned from using ancient techniques. She takes the dried flower, grinds it down into a pigment which creates an egg tempura. This process is then used to paint on the linen. The detail is exquisite and one I always find myself staring closely at. When deciding what I wanted for this space Emily encouraged me to do find something that had meaning. For us the dogwood fit that bill. It is the state tree for Virginia which is my grandmothers name and who Ellie was named after. Also it has been told that the cross may have been made out of the dogwood. Of course we can’t know that for sure, but either way it reminds me of the beauty in which Christ is. I had a custom piece of acrylic cut locally and put on stand-off’s to protect the linen from accidental splashes.

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Mckenzie Dove is another local artist who uses color that feels from nature yet her pieces are more modern in feel. The juxtaposition really speaks to me. New and old working together. It is pretty much how I designed our whole home.

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The piece above was done by a dear family friend. She is a master at adding depth to her pieces. She is a grandmother who paints simply because it makes her happy. In return this piece makes me happy every time I look at it. It is one that I treasure dearly.

Below are two pieces that I got from Addie Chapin for a steal. She was having a instagram led studio sale and these two made their way into my home. She utilizes nontraditional media to create uncommon expressions of color, composition, and texture {her website said it best}. The pieces are dimensional and have layer upon layer adding to the textural feel.

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The piece on the bookshelf above is by local artist Cecily Lowe. I have quite a few of her pieces and am always tempted to get more every time she releases a new series. The movement and layering of color I find soothing and they can easily hold their own when among a rather busy vignette.

Beyond this piece, on the wall, you get a peek at a piece I did years ago, before we could afford to invest in art. This one has stuck with us in many moves and although it is not the finest it still reminds me of when the kids were small and I was trying my very best to create a well designed home on a shoe string budget. It was a sweet time in our lives and one I simply don’t want to forget. So it still hangs as a reminder of yesterday.

The photograph is one we took during a trip to New York when the kids were small. We had it blown up to a 60x48 and it helps draw your eye into the space. Seeing the street beyond only enhances the depth of our own space. We needed something in a large scale to help balance out the windows that dominate the room. Making the image black and white allows the greenery from outside to take center stage without making it feel busy. Our spaces lean towards a classic minimal feel.

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The utility spaces such as bathrooms and our laundry closet were areas that I wanted to be sure to inject some special pieces. The spaces themselves are rather simple and I knew the art would make for a good focal point and maybe even distract me a bit while cleaning and laundering.

This is the powder bath. We did simple updates to this space such as paint and changing out the countertops, mirror & lighting. This space can be seen from the kitchen area even though it is in the hall beyond. I am always on everyones case to keep the lid closed and finally the family does it to keep me quiet I am sure. We thought about rearranging the doorways, but it wouldn’t make sense in the end so here it stands. This little shelf area was here when we moved in and I never quite got it the way I like it until now. I used old items from around the house and added the footed stand more recently for toilet paper. It may be a bit odd, but with the amount of hosting we do we really need it in arms reach. Function will always trump in this household and I just try my best to make it look good. The art piece is by another local artist, Amy Stone. I love the way the tones all work together as a whole.

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The piece above lives in our laundry closet. We moved the laundry room out of the main kitchen area a little over a year ago. It really is my happy place as the hall {shown in the photo below} is open to a wall of windows that gives off great light. Often enough the doors are left open so I knew a piece of art would pop off the wallpaper. I added another McKenzie Dove piece as I knew it could hold its own and play nice with the dark vibe I have in here.

The piece in the kids bath is by Michelle Armas. She is in Georgia and we “met” blogging years ago. We have kept up on instagram and I knew I wanted a piece of hers to live in our home. Her pieces use more vibrant which I knew the kids would love and what this bathroom needed. One day, once funds allow, I plan on designing this bath around that very piece of art. For now it makes the space happy.

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This is the hall I mentioned above, that houses the laundry closet. It is to the right of me. When we first moved in we painted the wall black to help distract from worn cork floors that used to dominate this space. Since then we added hardwoods, but we have yet to tire of the black. On the black wall is one of my favorite photos from our road trip down the west coast a few years ago. It was just an iphone photo showing that every piece does not have to cost a ton. Down the hall I have two more Cecily Lowe pieces that help draw the eye further down the hall.

To the right, is a piece by my grandmother. I can see it from the master bedroom bed when the door is open. I love the way the colors play off the outside beyond. It is one of the few pieces I would grab if the house was on fire. So grateful my mother passed this piece down to me.

Below in the master bedroom, I wanted something simple as this space is kept minimal and clean. I did the uncomplicated shapes on handmade paper that my papa brought back from Colombia when he visited his home country years ago. Adding the modern bold lines on top of such a old world textural paper continues my love of new and old. I tended them to be place holders till I found the perfect pieces, but these have grown on me so much I am not in a hurry to change them out anytime soon.

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Our Garden

This past year we have gone through some big changes in this house, but these last couple of months during our quarantine we tackled our yard in a big way. We started with just the typical moving and trimming, but then it shifted into something else. Not just a check off our box, but a family project that turned into a time of bonding. We realized that we have it better than many. We are able to go outside and still do all our work from home. I did a whole video tour on my instagram that goes into more depth, but overall we realized that before we were told to stay home and safe, we all sort of got used to doing our own things. With work, school & all the activities in between we simply were on auto pilot. We may have been on plane that was going faster than we liked. This project got us talking, laughing & reconnecting in a way words can not express. We took note of simple things and it gave us all a space to work out our feelings of this time that we are in. Now these aren’t styled or professional quality photos, but if I am going to do this blog then I need to get back to the basics of just enjoying the process of sharing. So iphone photos it is.

This area of our yard we never actually used. It sits up above our house {see last photo for reference} and we always new it could be great, but never quite had the vision for it. Well one day we were all just clearing out this little bit of land and happened upon a slew of rocks. They must have been from years past when they built all the rock walls that wrap our property and just dumped the extras. We started digging and came across hundreds, HUNDREDS. We then thought wouldn’t it be fun to have a place to hang up here as the view is nice. We then started dry stacking rocks and soon enough a platform was built for a flagstone patio. We did have to purchase more flagstone and the folk’s at Hanna’s could not have been more helpful. Little Kellen then took all the remaining rocks and built a wall that lines the edge of the property.

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Then lastly we bought some cedar beds for a cutting garden. I bought the seeds from Floret and direct sowed them. Can’t wait to see what all grows. They are starting to become seedlings and it has become my daily adventure to see what all is sprouting. There is plenty of room to add more beds or till beds directly into the soil if this first stage goes well. I’m already dreaming of a little fenced area that may protect it some from our plethora of roaming cats and other animals.

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Limelight hydrangeas have been a favorite of mine for decades. They are easy to care for and can tolerate this Alabama heat well. They also leave me with loads of flowers to cut. We ended up adding 10 around the front part of our yard in hopes that one day it will create a bit of a wall for summer hammock lounging. We use Eno hammocks which you can find at any local sporting goods store, but of course Amazon has them too. We then added a mix of different kinds of Rosemary along the whole perimeter of this section of our yard. The little garden lights are from Target and add a nice glow for night. I may even do a night tour for insta, because it really is so pretty. They are solar as we don’t have electricity out here. They work well thus far.

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Do you spy the old fish pond? We finally added some ornamental grasses and I can’t believe I have not done it sooner. It truly changed how that area looks. I love the way it sounds when the wind blows through and just adds a tactile element this area needed to help soften the sea of concrete and stone. The seating area with fire pit, made by a friend, has been here from year one. They have held up beautifully the last 4 years and haven’t aged a bit. We don’t use the trampoline often, but it makes a great space for littles when they are over and we just discovered it’s a safer place for little K to chuck his lacrosse ball without breaking another window. You can see a more full garden tour on my instagram and always excuse my ramblings.

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