All About Me…Part III!

It’s a new year and a new installment of “All About Me”! It’s been a few months since I’ve posted one of these fun “get to know me” blog posts and so I thought it was time to do another one. It’s fun sharing a little bit about me so that all of you can get to know me and Eleanor Rose Home a little better. I recently asked my friends on Instagram to send me questions that they may be interested in knowing about me. I received some great, tough, thought provoking questions. I really had to think about some of my answers! This is the third “All About Me” blog post, if you want to read the first post click here and the second post is located here.

Who is your biggest design influence? Was it your mom or a friend?

I have always loved to decorate, even as a young child. I think I inherited that from my mom and maybe a little bit from my dad. Growing up, we always lived in fixer uppers. On the weekends, my mom and dad were always working on some project around the house. My mom would come up with a home project and my dad would execute it. My mom has always had an eye for what looks pretty and my dad has always been handy building and fixing whatever needed to be done around the house. My mom would always decorate our house beautifully each holiday and anyone who came over would always compliment what a beautiful home we had. So because I grew up with projects going on all the time, I think that is why we constantly have something going on in our home. It’s what I know, it’s what I grew up with, and boy am I lucky to have a found a man that can get things done like my dad!

What is your favorite movie?

I can’t think of one particular movie as my favorite; I have a few. I can watch movies that I love over and over again, on repeat every day. I grew up loving TV and the short escape from reality that TV & movies provided. We didn’t have cable in our house growing up, so my sister and I would always pop VHS tapes into the VCR on the weekends and watch movies. I still love to veg in front of the TV with one of my favorite movies on the tube. Here is a list of my favs. Some of these movies I can recite word for word!

Field of Dreams – Takes place in Iowa (where I am originally from) and summer in Iowa always makes me nostalgic.

The Shining – I have no idea why I like this movie, but I always like to watch it around Halloween or when we get a snow storm.

Titanic – When this first came out in the movies, my friends and I went to the movie theater to watch it about 10 times.

White Christmas – This is a movie my sister and I would watch over and over again growing up. I think this movie takes me back to my childhood, and so it is on all the time at Christmas.

While You Were Sleeping – This is such a cute movie with Sandra Bullock. I put it on when I want a movie that is funny and romantic!

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Need I say more!

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles – If you have not seen this movie please do so around Thanksgiving time! It’s such a funny movie that we just discovered a couple of years ago and we watch it every November.

What is your favorite item to decorate with?

Florals and greenery for sure! One of my favorite things to do when decorating our home is to add in elements of the outdoors. Bringing nature inside makes our home feel warm and cozy. I love clipping stems, florals, greenery, and even the occasional weed from our yard and displaying them in a vase. I also love to grab fresh cut flowers/greenery from the grocery store to create floral arrangements. Roses, Hydrangeas, Peonies, Ranunculus, Eucalyptus, and olive stems are some of my favorite cut stems to buy. I do not have a green thumb and cannot keep a house plant alive, so we have faux greenery in our home as well. Some of my other favorite things to decorate with are candles, books, and vintage prints.

How old is Eleanor and where did you find her?

For those of you that don’t know, Eleanor Roosevelt is our dog and is a mix of Dachshund and Yorkshire Terrier. Eleanor is 7.5 years old and is originally from Arkansas. We had put down our yellow lab, Scout about 6 months before and had said we would not get another dog. However, one Friday morning after cleaning the house, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw two pictures of sister puppies that were on their way up to Massachusetts from Arkansas. (Eleanor and her litter mates had been left on the side of the road in Arkansas, and luckily were rescued by a local animal rescue league.) As soon as I saw Eleanor’s face (she was named Fannie at the time) I knew I had to have her. The kids came home from school that afternoon and I showed them the pictures and asked which puppy they would like. Each one picked a different puppy, and I said, “Now we have to convince Daddy to let us get one of them.” Dave got home from work that day and was not convinced that we should adopt another dog. I told him the puppies might already be taken, and I would just reach out to see if either one was still available, and we would go from there. I messaged the woman and someone had already adopted Ellie’s sister, but Eleanor was still available. She asked if we would like to meet the puppy and we could see if we all were a good fit for each other, of course I said yes! We meet the woman at a park that Sunday and as soon as we meet Eleanor (she was so small and was wearing a little blue knit sweater, it was so cute!), we knew she was a part of our family. Eleanor has been the light of our lives ever since!

When did you discover you were passionate about interior décor?

I’ve always been passionate about home décor. However, I always thought of it as a hobby and not necessarily as a career. I never really had a desire to decorate or design someone else’s home, and so I thought there really was no avenue for me to pursue. After high school, I went right into the workforce and worked retail for a few years until becoming a stay at home mom, and then working in an office. But, once COVID hit I was spending a lot more time at home and it quickly reignited my love of home and home décor. I started doing more things around the house and completing home projects that we had been putting off. In addition to falling in love with home décor again, I discovered Instagram. I looked forward to the inspiration I found and seeing the stories of the influencers I followed every day. I soon started asking myself, why can’t I do this?! Within a couple of months, May 14, 2021 specifically, I decided to open a professional Instagram account and shared my very first post. I haven’t looked back since!

What is your favorite season?

Fall. The older I get the more I love fall. Over the past few years it has slowly become my favorite season. There are so many things to love about fall, especially living in New England. We typically have hot, humid summers so the cooler, drier weather that fall brings is such a respite. We have so many deciduous trees in New England that each fall when they change from bright green to a million shades of reds, oranges, and yellows that the woods look like a beautiful piece of art. Pumpkins, gourds, squashes, cranberries, and apples all come into season and are in abundance at local farm stands for us to eat and enjoy mother natures bounty. And how about fall scented candles…those are the best and my favorite scents! The best part of fall is that it leads to my favorite time of the year and holidays…Thanksgiving and Christmas!

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Homemade chocolate chip cookies. Need I say more! Notice how I added homemade to the front of chocolate chip cookies! The best cookies are homemade and cannot be bought in the store. What makes a great chocolate chip cookie? The crunchy outer layer, the salty and sweet flavor combination, sweet chocolate chips that melt in your mouth, and the warm gooey inside especially right when they come out of the oven. If a cookie has all of these things I could easily eat half a dozen in one sitting! My other favorite cookies include sugar, peanut butter blossoms, and monster.

Do you have any exciting plans for 2022?

I am excited to see where Eleanor Rose Home goes in 2022! This will be the first full year of Eleanor Rose and I can’t wait to see the possibilities and growth that will happen this year. We do not have any vacation plans this year. We do hope to start and complete the kitchen remodel, among other home projects. There are a few other exciting things happening, which I will share with all of you as soon as I can!

What is your design style?

I guess I’ve never really thought about my design style, so I am not 100% sure about this! I think my design style would fit into multiple categories and not just one. You could probably say my design style is a little bit traditional, vintage, Scandinavian, and farmhouse. Combine these styles and I think that describes our home. When it comes to our home, I always decorate with things I love and function for our family. Some of the things I use may not be on trend or a specific design style and that is ok! Our home reflects who we are as a family, and at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

What are some of your goals for 2022?

While I do not create new year’s resolutions, I do think about goals and things I want to accomplish in the new year. A few of my goals for 2002 are…Continuing to grow Eleanor Rose Home blog and brand by sharing on social media platforms, working with brands I am passionate about, and participating in workshops to help grow the brand. Renovating the kitchen (most excited about this one!). Reading more books, specifically self help books. Finding vintage Santa mugs, a collection I am hoping to start this year. Finally and most importantly, spending more quality time with my husband and children. I found myself doing too many things in 2021 and not spending enough quality time with my family. This lead to my 2022 word of the year, be present. You can read more about my word of the year choice, here.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about me! It’s fun sharing small tidbits about me with all of you. Is there something you would like to ask me or know more about me, my family, or our home? Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you!

I look forward to sharing more of me and my home with you and inspiring you to have a well loved home! Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LIKEtoKNOW.it.