A Little About Me…

Welcome to my page and my home!! Thank you for spending a few minutes of your precious time getting to know me.

Southern Home and Hospitality is a creative outlet for my true love of all things “home”—decorating, party giving, cooking, bargain hunting, cleaning and organizing, and crafting. It’s a journal of the story of the ongoing transformation of our Southern Traditional style home in Texas. And it’s a place to share tips for simple, affordable ways to make a home warm, inviting, and full of character and charm.

How the blog was born.

I was still facing that age-old question—what do you want to do with your life? I was trying to find my purpose after life slowed down as a brand new empty nester.

One cold January day I was pondering what my passions were, and what skills I’d picked up on my way through life. And that list looked something like this:

• I had a degree in communications and PR.
• I like to write.
• I worked in advertising and marketing for years.
• The umpteenth volunteer positions I held while being a stay-at-home mom always seemed to involve some of that marketing and writing.
• Other than my favorite volunteer position—co-chairing a hospitality committee for 7 years that put on some of the most fun monthly themed teacher luncheons in the history of PTA’s (I might be biased).
• I had started staging houses for sale and never knew it could be so much fun. And so interesting. Because it involves decorating and cleaning.😁
• I sold home accessories in an antique mall space for 10 years. How I loved to shop for those pretty things, and then have to shop again after selling them.
• And I spent hours on the internet looking at photos of houses, real estate listings, and reading home décor blogs and design articles.

Decorating and giving parties had always brought me so much joy over the years. It’s what I loved to spend all my free time on.

But I’d never put together in my mind my passion for decorating and entertaining with all of those years of marketing and writing.

And that was the lightbulb moment.

What better way could I connect with other home decorators like myself and share our ideas than to start my own little corner of the internet where we could do just that?

A few random things to help you get to know me.

• I’ve always had this obsession with making the space around me “better”. With making sure our home is a comforting refuge for me and my family to “do” life in. And a place to create memories with the special people in our lives. Even at a young age, while most kids were playing sports or messing up their bedrooms, I was the nerd that rearranged, cleaned, and organized different rooms in our house for fun, and visualized what decorating improvements could be made if I was in charge!
• My overall decorating style (as the blog’s name implies) is what I would call Southern Traditional with a touch of modern to keep it fresh. Modern southern style decorating is casual, classic, and curated with a mix of family heirlooms and updated pieces. But I love and study all kinds of décor styles that we will also chat about here.
• It’s against my nature to get rid of everything as trends change. I love for my home to feel like it has a history and for it to reflect our personality. I repurpose and move around a lot of what I already have. You won’t find any start-from-scratch makeovers of my home on the blog or any rooms with all-new furniture and decor.
• My husband and I have been married for 35+ years, are both Louisiana natives, have two kids, and have lived in Texas for almost 30 years. I think growing up in Louisiana culture taught us to love a good party and to enjoy life. And getting married young trained us to use our money wisely—we still love to DIY today.
• I’m also dog mom to a four-pound Yorkie bundle of love named Bijoux.
• Oh, and scoring a good bargain makes me giddy!

Don’t lose touch.

Now that we know each other, make sure you subscribe so we can continue to share our interest in making the most of our homes!

To show my appreciation to my subscribers, I fill a subscriber-only library with extra goodies not found on the blog. You won’t miss any posts about our ever-evolving home makeover, loads of decorating inspiration and tips, party themes, tablescape ideas, easy crafts, some recipes my family loves, and who knows, maybe we’ll even share a few laughs!

I hope that you’ll come visit often and when you leave, you’ll feel like you’ve spent time with a kindred spirit and friend and be inspired to create a home that is unique to you, restorative to be in, and rich in charm, memories, and experiences.