About

Brad and I love helping you create the home of your dreams with budget-friendly decorating & DIY ideas. Our projects and decorating ideas have been featured in Farmhouse Style Magazine, American Farmhouse Magazine, and Real Simple. The blog was listed as #1 in the 10 Best DIY Home Blogs To Follow in 2024.

About Rachel & Brad

Hi, I’m Rachel, and I’m so glad you stopped by. I love sharing my passion for creative, budget-friendly, and a curated vintage decorating style. I share sustainable DIY and craft projects, thrifting, and entertaining ideas with you on a weekly basis.  If you like budget-friendly decorating ideas that look high-end, you’ll want to follow along on all of our adventures.

I am fortunate to have the help of my partner and husband, Brad. He does all the heavy lifting and is usually the voice of reason when I come up with another crazy idea.

Our Goal

We aim to share ideas that inspire you to reimagine your decor choices and encourage creativity. With my husband’s help, we have tackled projects from building a greenhouse from scratch to small craft projects.

Follow along as we challenge you to develop new skills you may not realize you are capable of. Regardless of age, it’s never too late to step out of your comfort zone and try new things.

It’s never too late!

This is my happy space where I get to share about downsizing and coming full circle – back to the country life at the end of the dirt road.

When my husband and I downsized to The Ponds, I was inspired to start my blog to share our adventures.  That includes decorating our home with a curated style, DIY, thrifting & vintage shopping adventures, and decorating & entertaining ideas.

Even a few “It’s so easy even I’ll make it recipes.”

Thankfully, my husband likes to cook, so I share many of his recipes.

As we enter a new season in our lives, we are constantly in project mode instead of slowing down. Since starting the blog, we have built a greenhouse without any outside help, transformed many thrift stores finds, renovated our guest cottage, and are currently renovating our beach cottage.

My Style

I enjoy an eclectic decorating style, mixing old and new, rustic and modern. I don’t want a showroom-style home. I’m more of a “found it on the side of the road but look at it now” style decorator. I love new decor but prefer a collected style of decorating. If this sounds good to you, you are in the right spot.

Our Story

I’m so excited to share our journey of downsizing, moving to the Ponds, living a simple lifestyle, being creative, and enjoying this season of our life.  When you visit my site and learn more about us, I hope you will be inspired to live your authentic life. 

I’ve always dreamed of renovating an old farmhouse. Unfortunately, The Ponds didn’t come with a house. So we built our dream modern, industrial-style farmhouse, never realizing it would become our business.

Although the farmhouse is a new build, we incorporated many vintage architectural details. This included old doors, vintage industrial light fixtures, and re-purposed materials.

Because this was our forever home, we paid close attention to detail and ensured we got the home of our dreams.

See 5 Steps to Plan Your Dream Home or Forever Home for more information.

Why we decided to move to The Ponds!

Just before my daughter married, I had an accident that made me realize life was too short. After the wedding, we decided to simplify our life and get out of debt.   We decided to sell our home in town and move to the country. 

You see, I have come full circle, back to my roots at the end of a dirt road!

I have been sewing and doing DIY Home Decor since I was 8 years old. My DIY journey began out of necessity. In order to have the clothes or curtains I wanted, I had to make them.

While recuperating from my injury, I began designing one-of-a-kind clothing by recycling existing pieces of clothing into one-of-a-kind wearable art. What started as home trunk shows led me to open a mini clothing shop within a larger shop.

I still offer unique clothing, accessories, and home decor items in my shop downtown, located inside By Minkology.

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Here are some of the things that make me happy!

• Re-purposing something that no one else would consider worthwhile. 
• Front porches
• I love entertaining, good friends, wine, and hanging out with my daughter and son-in-law. 
• Watching the sun go down while sitting on our pier with my husband.
• I want comfortable, unique, and fun clothing. I work from home, so I’m extremely casual, but when I go out, I want to feel that my clothing reflects my creative side.
• Reading
• Old Books, Dishes, vintage gardening tools
• Greenhouses and potting benches
• Family Heirlooms

We recently added to our little family and now have a mini Goldendoodle named Rudy. He has added a whole new dimension of joy to our lives. He loves playing with our grand fur babies, Jackson and Millie.

Why I Started My Blog!

This journey began with a desire to share how and why my life had come full circle. As I shared DIY projects and decorating tips, I realized that some of you like to learn how I accomplished the projects we undertake.

We aim to inspire you to think outside the box and let your creativity shine. To create a home that makes you happy. Because I get inspired by so many sources, I hope you will share your ideas with me.

Some of my favorite projects

• DIY Greenhouse
• DIY Kitchen Island
• Remodeling Beach Cottage

I’m now living in the country where I grew up. I’m doing all the things I hated doing as a child. Like having a garden, working in the yard, and even a little cooking? I still don’t love to cook but enjoy entertaining, so I’ll be sharing some tips about that as well.

Hint: It helps that my husband considers himself the grill master. LOL

The hanging baskets are a great alternative to a door wreath.

Contact Me

If you are interested in a collaboration or have a question, you can contact me here.

Featured:

We have been so fortunate to be featured in National Magazines. The first was a wonderful Christmas Issue by Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Magazine, which featured our house decorated for the season.

After this issue was released, a local magazine, Thrive, wrote an article about our farmhouse and the magazine feature.

We were so blessed to make the cover of both magazines.

Farmhouse Style Christmas also featured the Real Cedar Topiaries in 2022.

Also, in 2022 American Farmhouse Style Christmas issue featured our DIY Shiplap Christmas Tree.

In 2023, Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Spring Issue shared How We Built Our DIY Greenhouse.

Spring and Summer 2024

Fall of 2024 –

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So I hope you will follow along as I share our journey with you!

Contact me at: [email protected]