I was born and raised in the delightfully quirky college town of Athens, Georgia—home of the Mellow Mushroom, REM, and the B-52s—but I lived for twenty-plus years in Chicago so I consider myself a Chicagoan and stubbornly cling to my 312 area code to prove it.

I’m mom to two quirky and hilarious kids - a 17yo girl and a 10yo boy - and an equally hilarious and quirky beagle. My husband is the only normal, sane person in the family and a saint for putting up with the rest of us. We moved our family to Arlington from Chicago about nine years ago to be closer to the kids’ grandparents. I’ve lived all over, so I understand the unique challenges inherent in big cities and in suburbs, in owning and renting; I know high-rise living, townhomes, walkup brownstone condos, majestic courtyard buildings with scary basement laundry rooms, and single-family homes of many shapes and sizes.

I’m a former professional actor, writer, artist, theatrical costume designer, and all-around “creative spirit” who also happens to have nerdy, CEO-level executive functioning skills, a bevy of professional connections developed through decades of DIYing home renovations here in Arlington, some pretty sick carpentry and wallpapering skills for a self-taught gal, and a keen eye for design, mood, and color theory. If that’s not odd enough for you, my first summer job was cataloging a magician/mortician’s (yes, you read that right) personal ‘magic memorabilia’ collection in the basement of his family’s funeral home, with no company other than the corpses waiting to be embalmed.

Trust me, if having corpses for coworkers didn’t break me, your messy closet can’t scare me.

When I was a twenty-something actor studying at the Royal National Theatre in London, one of my professors (who happened to be on a break from filming his role as Gandalf in the first Lord of the Rings film…yes, him) laughingly asked me, “My, you’re an odd bird, aren’t you?” and it stuck (not just because it was HIM and if that absolute legend gives you a nickname you better damn well cherish it…but also because I take it as a badge of honor. Who wants to be normal?).

Ultimately, ‘odd bird’ speaks to my eclectic design style and my penchant for pushing the limits, injecting loads of personality into otherwise mundane tasks and environments.

In short, no one has ever called me boring…and with me by your side, no one will ever call your house boring, either.