Sometimes joy isn’t a feeling and sometimes home isn’t a place.

Joy to the world in a world that so desperately needs it. In a world full of hard days and hard seasons. I am fighting for joy n the exuberance and celebratory, and in the in the everyday, in the mundane. Maybe you have wasted so much money on home decor, clothes, vacations, whatever, thinking the next purchase could be the key-but somehow it never is. I have been there. I used to consume home inspiration, constantly scrolling through online shops for the next gorgeous outfit, taking all the right pictures of that dream vacation, but the elusive joy I was after couldn’t be found. Then I realized that a life of joy couldn’t be found out there-it began in places no one else would see. I have been ruthlessly scrubbing my life of the things that don’t bring me joy for the past few years now, and I want to share those lessons with you. Like most of you, I want my home and my life to radiate joy. I know if I dwell in faith, stillness, beauty, and love it radiates outward, but in a chaotic world, always vying for our attention, that can seem almost impossible. Here on these pages I invite you to join me on my journey to cultivate a life of joy and to create beautiful spaces both inside and out.

Here is what I am after: a return to simplicity. The kind of simplicity where our home is a center of community, where we are known and can know others. A place where God dwells in spirit and truth and hatred flees from the light. I am after evenings with an Elvis record playing, mornings with coffee in hand, a marriage that can outlast this crazy world, a relationship with God that permeates my very soul, a life where I can savor good food and good company, and a few fabulous throw pillows thrown in.

This is me.

I am first and foremost a hot mess, saved by grace.

I am also: a wife that is so in love with my husband (Darling Zachary), a human mom and a dog mom, a double Tar Heel where I studied Public Policy in undergrad and Folklore in graduate studies, a woman who needs books and good food as much as I need air. A person who spends her days dreaming up beautiful spaces, looking for clues in history to explain the present, and on the hunt for a good belly laugh.

Being a preacher’s daughter is as much a part of my identity as being a southerner and it is where I learned to sharpen my wit, listen between the lines, and ask hard questions in search for deep truth.

You can find me with a steaming cup of coffee at almost any time of the day. When I am not working my day job in the nonprofit world, you can find me dreaming up ways to meet Dolly Parton, trying to make my baby smile, with my nose buried in a book, roadtripping back to my hometown of Asheville, NC, or trying to make the perfect pie crust in my kitchen while also wondering how I got flour on the ceiling.