My Magnolia

Customers have been begging me to do a blog for some time now so here I am on this sunny southern morning doing exactly that. I hope I can do it justice and if nothing else at least keep you entertained for a few moments of your day.

If you are reading this......thank you. Thank you for supporting a small local business, thank you for purchasing outside of the box, and most of all, thank you for supporting me. I couldn't do what I do everyday without people like you. By supporting me and my business you are helping to take part in a movement to prevent the death of Main Street America. And for that I am forever grateful.

So the two biggest questions I get asked are, 1) What do you do and 2) How did you get here? I'll start with the last one first...how did I get here? Well, it wasn't an easy road that's for sure. All in all I'd say it took about 10 years to get to the point where I am today. I was a teacher that taught elementary school for many years. I loved my job but each summer I had to work to make sure the bills were paid. I was a divorced mom raising her son alone. If we wanted to eat, I had to work. I started working at a local craft store teaching kid's craft classes on the weekends. I had always had an obsession for arts and crafts since working in a hobby shop right out of high school. I'm pretty sure it's in my blood, that creative nature. My grandfather was a carpenter and my grandmother ran a floral shop but also did upholstery. It just comes natural I guess! This went on for a few years until I had saved up enough money to buy my very first house. Being a single mom meant that I invested everything in the purchase of the house. I had very little funds left over to start decorating it. The first few weeks I even slept on the floor because I didn't have a proper bed. However I didn't care about any of this because I had finally crossed one of the bigger goals off my bucket list (my biggest goal was to own my own business). Since I couldn't afford to just go out and buy furniture, I started picking up free pieces here and there and scoured local yard sales for anything cheap and functional. By the time I finished 3 months later, I had completely decorated my three bedroom ranch home for less than $100. Yes.... you read that right. I'm not even kidding. The most expensive piece I bought my my son's bed for $20. Almost everything else was free or given to me. Well, as you know...free furniture isn't always the prettiest. Or in the best shape. So I started asking friends for left over paint that they weren't using. I was also lucky enough to find an entire cabinet of unused paint in the garage of the new house I had just bought. I went to the library to check out books on furniture refinishing and even watched painting videos during my lunch period. Back then it was a whole lot of trial and error but I learned quickly that if you didn't like something you could just repaint it! As time went on, my technique improved. People visited my house and liked my furniture so much that they started asking me to rework some of their pieces as well. My garage become a makeshift workshop and I started painting furniture on the side to help save up for my summers not teaching. Pretty soon I was working on furniture every summer. When I wasn't working on customer pieces I was finding pieces to refinish and sell. Those first few years definitely kept me busy and I started wondering if this was something that I could pursue full time. As my son was getting older and doing more activities like band, I wanted to be able to participate more. My teaching schedule often prevented that. But for several years I tried hard to make all aspects of my life flow. And then a year ago that finally stopped. I left the public school system and began teaching at a private school in North Raleigh. The commute was just hell....over an hour one way, twice a day. I wasn't getting home until nearly 8 o'clock some nights. I never saw my son except on the weekends. I tried hard to finish out the school year with my kids but then suddenly I had a family member get sick. They required multiple doctor visits, most of which were in the middle of the day. I didn't really have any tenure yet at this new school and they did not have a long substitute list so getting any time off was nearly impossible. For six months I tried to find a balance to support my loved one and still be proficient at my job. Eventually I cracked. I knew that my time was needed more at home with my family so I had to make a hard decision. And that decision was to leave teaching all together so that I could be there to support my family in this time of need. To this day, I still don't regret it. I do miss teaching because I love working with kids. But my choice to support my family during a health crisis ended up being the best choice I have ever made. Out of that chaos, came Horse Hill. Horse Hill is my own Magnolia. You see, I was given a copy of Joanna Gaines' book to read amidst the family upheaval we were experiencing. I have always been a HUGE fan of them both and I was crushed when Fixer Upper wasn't renewed. Reading her book during such a desperate time gave me the courage to finally pursue what I love full time and open my own brick and mortar business. It is a decision I am thankful for every single day. Has it been easy? Nope. Has it been stressful? Sure has. Have there been many mornings working until after 1 am in tears trying to make a project perfect? More times than I can count. But when you love what you do it never feels like work. I am blessed enough to experience that each and every day that my shop key turns the lock and opens the door. Loving what you do not only makes a difference in yourself, but the other around you. It can truly change a life.

Now for the first question......what do you do? There are so many answers to this! I'm an artist, decorator, painter, carpenter, shop owner, the list just goes on and on! In a nutshell however... I'm trying to help create a movement in small town america to help people use the resources they already have to create a better living space for themselves and their families. Most of the major furniture companies on the market today use pressboard and engineered wood (wood pulp mixed with a toxic glue) to make their pieces. Almost all of these items are loaded with toxic chemicals and fumes. Horse Hill only sells, and works on, real wood pieces. A large majority of those pieces are antique and vintage. By giving existing older pieces new life, you are not only helping the environment but your pocketbook as well. Why pay thousands of dollars for a toxic glue wood by-product when you can have a real wood customized piece for a fraction of the cost??? To me it just makes good sense. It's better for the environment and better for you. Speaking of the environment.... did you know we use low odor primers when necessary, our chalk paint is mineral based which makes it safer for children and pets, and the sealing wax we use is a no-odor natural beeswax? Also that the bags and tissue paper we use are made from recycled paper and we recycle everything in the shop including refilling and recycling our ink cartridges? Even our printer paper is recycled! All of these small changes add up to a big difference the amount of waste a small business makes. I've always wanted to make a difference, a change in the world. That change is Horse Hill. I have always dreamed of owning my own business since I was a little girl. I wanted to put all of my big ideas into one little space. And that space is our Horse Hill design studio. Whether I am chalk painting a customer's piece, doing a design consult, or picking out in the country with my husband... I can honestly say I love what I do. And I hope you will too. That's the purpose of this blog. To give you a snapshot of how fun this business is and the crazy adventures it takes me on. I hope you'll come along and join me for the ride.

Here's to happiness and the thrill of adventure!

Cheers!!!!!