Cathy. Nice to meet you. 🙂 It’s great to be in this space. It’s both a privilege and responsibility to be here. This is seriously the hardest post I have written so far. Where do I even begin or not begin? Haha! Being a typical 9 on the Enneagram, I self minimize. You can imagine how difficult writing about yourself can be for a self-minimizer! HA!

The purpose of this post? Just to simply share about who I am and how I hope to serve you. This community that I am building is incredibly dear to me. Your time is precious and I value it. I hope you come here for inspiration to live more beautifully and then you leave with the confidence to execute it.

FAMILY & PARENTING

So who am I? Well here are some basic stats… I grew up in Seattle, Washington my whole life and went to the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!) and Seattle University. My first real job was as a 3rd grade teacher and I taught for 10 years. Those were some sweet years as a young teacher. I met my husband Carey, who is an Enneagram 7, at church and we got married in 2002. Before we knew it, I became a soccer mom and was homeschooling 4 kids. In 2015, a new job opportunity brought our family to Hawaii. This was the start of new season. We were blessed with 2 more kids in Hawaii and now are living just day to day with our 6 amazing kids, 5 boys and 1 girl. I love finding ways to celebrate and live intentionally in this very busy and messy season. Navigating between the teenage years and the infant years and every stage in between have been my biggest challenge yet, but I’ve never been one to shy away from challenges. I am however, constantly looking and praying for wisdom because I know we are totally ill equipped to do this in our own strength.

INTERIORS AND HOMEMAKING

So in the midst of all this, I also have a deep passion for homemaking and I’m so thankful that I’m able to carve out time to do this, just for me in this season. I love interiors, I always have. I used to push it aside because I thought it was just superficial, but I’ve grown to understand that it’s part of who I am. It’s my vision and message to share. I’m only good at a few things, one of them is making a house feel like a home. True story… several years ago, we watched the Cirque du Soleil show O at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with several friends. Of course, everyone loved it, but who walked out in tears? Good tears. ME! I was so moved and I’m not an overly emotional person! Admittedly, it was odd, but it triggered something in me… it was almost spiritual. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the costumes, the stage, the choreography, the music, the story… It just made me burst with joy. 🙂 This is why I write so much about home making. It triggers something in me. Our spaces truly make a difference. They form the backdrop of our lives. When we invest in our homes, we invest in our story.

WELLNESS

Lastly, I share about our journey towards wellness here. This is a new adventure for our family and I’m excited that I get to share it and teach it. As I mentioned before, life moves at lightning speed at our house. This past year, when COVID began, I was looking for better and more efficient ways to maintain our home. It’s a fact of life… with 8 people, all at home… there is a lot of cleaning that needs to be done. Add on top of that it was such a hassle to go to the store. I needed something better. I follow some home bloggers that swear by Young Living, so I decided to try Young Living’s essential oils and Thieves cleaning line, again mostly because we could get everything delivered to our door! It has been such a blessing to us and has changed our lives for the better. It has simplified our cleaning routine, I feel better using less toxic chemicals and our whole family loves how diffusing oils makes the house feel and smell! I am constantly learning and love to pass on what has worked for us!

So add to all this, a sprinkling of fashion and adventure and you get

Picket Fence Design Co.!

Welcome.

Stay Awhile.

I’m So Glad You Are Here.