Through the Keyhole

When I became a mom in 2017, I opened social media to find a culture shift had begun. Countless influencers who were suggesting that "less" was everything. The trends at the time told me to declutter, simplify, and strip my life of anything unnecessary. Nurseries were to be filled with wooden toys, that realistically, no child actually played with. Living rooms were swathed in sterile white and beige, with no pops of color and no personality. The goal was calm, minimalism, order... homes that looked more like hotels than havens of family life.  To be honest, I bought into some of it. It did look nice - clean, polished, serene. But the need to assimilate faded quickly. I believe it was because, a hotel is a nice place to visit but home is where you live. Our home is a picture of our life story, clues to our interests and life stages. Home is a place to make memories, to grow up, raise a family or grow old in. Home doesn't feel like home when it looks like a hotel. I no...

🎆 My Top 10 Favorite Nostalgic Things About the 4th of July A little love letter to simpler celebrations, gingham tables, and all the things that make Independence Day feel like home. There are so many things about the 4th of July that bring on a deep and vivid nostalgic euphoria—maybe even more than Christmastime. I think it’s because it comes on more suddenly, and once it’s here, we’re less distracted and there’s less pressure to make everything just perfect. It’s a holiday often spent kicking back and relaxing. But there’s just something about the 4th that feels like a sweet old memory. Maybe it’s the scent of barbecue smoke or the first taste of a bomb pop. Maybe it’s the way even a divided country seems to pause for a moment to stand together. Whatever it is, this day carries with it a kind of old-fashioned magic. And today, I’m celebrating that with my top ten favorite nostalgic things about the Fourth—those little details that feel stitched right into the American m...